Machine Gods (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 2) (8 page)

“Cover!” he cried

With great
effort
, they dragged themselves to safety
as quickly as they could. A burst of fire struck about them,
rupturing the leg armor of Porter’s suit. He cried out in pain as
blobs of blood squirted out from the damage.

“
Spartan!” called
out the Captain of the Alliance vessel, “The T’Kari ship is making
for the Spacebridge. Get out now or disable her engines. You have
ninety seconds before you reach the point of no return.”

Khan emptied
a long burst of gunfire toward the T’Kari, but
unlike the Biomechs, they were agile and pulled themselves behind
the machinery to avoid the weapons fire. One also lifted up and
shot back at Spartan. The dull rumble inside the ship increased, as
did the gunfire from the T’Kari. Then one of the creatures appeared
and pushed away from the wall. To Spartan and his comrades’
surprise, the T’Kari Raiders opened fire on it and managed to kill
it before it crashed nearby. More creatures appeared, but one of
the T’Kari grabbed a control unit and pushed hard. The creature
landed on top of him, tearing off his right arm with brutality that
shocked them all. At the same time, they were all thrown back
against the back walls. Spartan was pinned to the wall before
realizing it had now become the floor. He picked himself up and
looked to the others lying prostrate or crumpled along the wall
before looking to the T’Kari. They stared right back but didn’t
fire.

Great,
w
e’re going through a
Spacebridge on a ship filled with pods, Biomechs, machines, and
whatever these T’Kari Raiders are.

* * *

Captain Alyani
Tinychai
watched the shape of the T’Kari
warship on the mainscreen, deep inside the armored hull of ANS
Serenity. No sooner had the T’Kari ship entered the breach before
the Spacebridge shuddered and deactivated, leaving nothing but
empty space around it.

“
Get me Admiral
Anderson on the horn. Something is going on out here, and I don’t
like it!”

Her communications
officer replied smartly and went about getting a connection to the
main command center in the System. Captain Tinychai, in the
meantime, turned her attention back to the area of space where the
Spacebridge had been. The remains of the crippled Alliance ship
were still out there, as well as a hidden civilian transport and
shuttles. She sighed before turning to her XO.

“This isn’t good. I need drones out there to check
the ship.”

She
turned and pointed to the transport.

“
As for her, get a
boarding party on board. I want her Captain brought aboard for
questioning.”

Her XO saluted and
turned
to his console.

“
Captain, Admiral
Anderson is on the line,” her communications officer called
out.

She nodded and
pressed the button, activating the audio and video connection at
her end. The face of the aged but experienced Admiral
appeared.

“
What is it
Captain?” he asked, almost in a bored tone.

“
Admiral,
we’v
e just located the remains of a
derelict ship, as well as a T’Kari Raiding ship. We assume it is
one of those that have been attacking T’Kari colonies in the
area.”

“And?”

“
Well, Sir, Spartan
from the APS Corporation was also here. He was on board the Raider
vessel when they entered an uncharted Spacebridge. It has now
closed, and there is no sign of the ship, or of Spartan and his
operatives.”

This news seemed to get the Admiral’s attention. He
paused as he considered the news he’d just received.

“
Secure the area and
lay out surveillance probes. I will be in
touch shortly.”

The screen
went blank, and she was left to consider her
options. She was a young Captain, perhaps the youngest in the
fleet, but she was also known for playing by the rules and taking
no chances. If what Spartan had said was true, then something
suspicious was going on, right under their noses.

Whatever
is happening out here, I’m going to figur
e it out,
she thought
seriously before turning to her navigator.

“
Bring up all the
charts for this region of space and overlay functioning,
collapsed
, and potential Spacebridge
sites. Things are not as they seem.”

New Charon was the first Star System to be colonized
in the rich cluster known as the Orion Nebula. Just months after
the arrival of ANS Beagle, great fleets of military and civilian
ships spread through its moons and planets. New Spacebridges would
eventually be constructed and the great Network expanded to include
dozens and finally hundreds of stars. Few realized how New Charon
would become the Nexus of a myriad of peoples, our own
included.

A Concise Guide to Interstellar Travel

Teresa entered the
conference room aboard ANS Beagle with some feeling of trepidation
in her heart. Alongside her walked the great bulk of Gun, the
leader of the Jötnar, and right now, the only person she could
honestly trust. As she moved inside, she thought back to the
message she’d just received from the APS Corporation’s head office.
A number of the senior executives had sold off their stock, and she
half expected a hostile move to occur at any moment. Teresa really
wished for it to just be over so she could get out of the business.
Inside the room, she spotted the figure of Admiral Anderson, as
well as several Alliance and T’Kari officials, and her attention
immediately turned to them. The door shut behind them and Gun
looked to her, a suspicious look on his face.

Okay, what the hell has Spartan done now?

The Admiral beckoned
for her to sit down
, and she calmly
complied. If it had been anybody else, she would have remained
upright, but Anderson was a man with which both she and Spartan had
a long history. They’d met during the operation to rescue Spartan
at Prometheus and had worked together ever since on a great variety
of operations. Admiral Anderson had been the commander of the
Prometheus Research facility on the other side of the bridge, but
in recent months had transferred permanently to this new sector of
space where he was responsible for all Alliance activities. She
made herself comfortable and then looked directly across the table
toward the seated Admiral.

“
Ms Morato, thank
you for coming to see me,” he started.

It was formal, and
in her experience that wasn’t a good thing.

“Gun, you are always welcome here.”

Gun nodded but said
nothing. W
ords meant little to him, only
action, and he had yet to hear anything from the assembled group.
Unlike the others, he remained standing, mainly because none of the
chairs were suitable for his great bulk.

“
You’ve heard the
news with regards to the bill that has just been pushed through by
the Senate? All private security companies have been blocked from
working on board Alliance funded facilities. This includes
stations, ships, and bases such as this one. I know this is a blow
to you and Spartan. You built this company up with hard graft after
leaving the Corps. I understand that investors from the Carthago
Trade Consortium are in the process of initiating a hostile
takeover of APS Corp. That’s got to be hard for you?”

Teresa inhaled and
did her best to suppress feelings of anger. She’d only just heard
the news herself and was livid. The Consortium
was an entity built from a number of traders, mining
companies, and speculators. They’d become rich in the last year,
while APS had been hit as public support faded for the private
security companies. But what worried her most was the anti-Biomech
language being used by their executives.

“
Yes, Spartan would
be furious if he was here. If they succeed, their first order of
business is to cancel all contracts with Biomech operatives. We
have over three hundred on our books, half being
Jötnar.”

“
Your people are the
finest warriors we have met. You will always find work alongside
out people,” said one of the T’Kari while gazing upon
Gun.

The alien’s voice
was
synthesized, as with all of their
species, due to their reliance upon their suits’ inbuilt translator
system. Gun’s great size and strength had been a source of great
wonder to the T’Kari. His people had been treated as honored guests
ever since, much to the surprise of Alliance High Command. Admiral
Anderson looked taken back by the announcement from the
aliens.

“
Ms Morato.” He
was
formal for the benefit of the others
present. “Things are changing fast in this sector. We are having a
hard time keeping up with what is happening.”

He nodded to the
three T’Kari representatives who waited patiently.

“
Since meeting our
friends here, we have started to learn a great deal about the many
worlds outside of our own systems. There are stars, planets, and
races we never knew existed before. The T’Kari are the first, and
we hope to meet others, if any of them still exist. There are many
questions coming from our politicians, generals, and the public at
large. Who are we? Where do we come from, and are we related in
some way to the T’Kari?”

The three aliens sat
motionless in their civilian body armor, listening patiently as the
suit translators altered the sounds into their own tongue. The
suits were very much like those worm by their warriors but missing
most of the armored plates and extra equipment. Their resulting
figures were similar but far more slender than that of humans and
their skin pale like glossy alabaster.

“
Nonetheless, this
isn’t important right now. As of today, we have some rather more
important issues to contend with. As you know the Alliance has
established a number of bases through T’Karan, at the invitation of
the T’Kari.”

Teresa nodded
but
still found it odd that the region of
space so recently called New Charon had changed name. She recalled
hearing something about the T’Kari calling the star T’Karan, and
that their name derived from the star itself. It had been a
political decision, but she suspected many in the Alliance would
continue to use its given name. The Admiral continued explaining,
this time in a slightly quieter voice.

“
M
any T’Kari have visited our own worlds to share knowledge,
technology, and resources. In many ways this is our Golden Era, and
our citizens have embraced them with surprising
courtesy.”

He stood up and walked around the room to
Teresa.

“Plans have been in motion for over a year now to
send an expedition with T’Kari guides to visit ancient worlds that
we have never even heard of. The opportunities in the worlds of
science and economics are staggering. All of this has been
accelerated because of a new development that involves your
husband.”

He looked at Teresa.
She could see his expression already changing.

“
As you might
expect, Spartan has managed to get himself into another situation,
and one that has now altered the direction and timeframe of this
operation. He’s got himself into trouble,” he then looked over to
Gun, “and so has Khan.”

This part grabbed
the attention of the weary looking Gun. As the unelected leader of
his own people, he was well used to responsibility, but Khan was
something else. They were like brothers, and the group of four had
witnessed some of the greatest and most violent events in the
history of the Alliance together.

“
He’s managed to get
himself into major trouble again, this time with a group of T’Kari
Raiders in the asteroid belt. It’s about two astronomical units
from the red subgiant star here in T’Karan.”

Gun looked down to
Teresa, who was by now looking very worried.

“
What exactly was he
doing there that caused this situation?” asked the
Admiral.

Before Teresa could
answer, one of the T’Kari lifted her hand. She started to speak;
there was a short delay before the suit converted the voice to
something more familiar.

“
Spartan and the APS
Corp were carrying out security work on behalf of our mining
outposts in the asteroid belt. Raiders have been appearing and
attacking our transports. We arranged a contract with APS to assist
us with the capture of them.”

Teresa looked at
the
T’Kari and wondered why they were
unconcerned at giving up private information so freely, and for no
obvious benefit to themselves. She looked to Anderson and noticed
he didn’t seem suspicious of the information; it looked more like
he was worried about something.

“
Admiral Anderson,”
s
he started, “the T’Kari Raiders are a
small group of perhaps five or six ships and several hundred exiled
T’Kari that have been preying on their brethren for years. If you
recall, last year when the T’Kari co-signed the Hades Accord, they
provided us with a detailed history of their people, and we did the
same for them.”

Admiral Anderson nodded in agreement.

“
Yes, I am well
aware of the information the T’Kari shared, as well as the
information that is only now coming to light since your last
little, well, assignment?”