Star Crusades Nexus: Book 03 - Heroes of Helios (22 page)

Keep going!

He broke out into an opening just as a pair of Animosh Riders whooshed overhead. The ducted fans sent dust and grit in all directions. The sound at that distance was of a loud roar, created by the powerful powerplant located immediately beneath the Riders. Jack ignored them and leapt ahead to make it to the next section of the site. A gantry hung down low and he ran for it. A hand reached out and pulled him into the shadows. He tried to cry out, but the cold hand covered his mouth. His automatic reaction was to grab for his bayonet but another figure held his hands firmly.

“Keep still!” said Salene from a short distance behind him.

Jack exhaled through his teeth in frustration. He could hear Wictred snarling, but Salene was whispering to him, her voice quiet enough that he couldn’t hear her. The Riders remained above the opening and hovering nearly thirty meters off the ground. A yellow beam of light extended from below and stabbed into the shadows, revealing the cowering forms of Helions. The beam darted about before finally switching off. The first Rider powered up his engine and the second followed suit. They lifted up and above the clearing, accelerating away and back toward the crashed Alliance ship.

“Let me go,” Jack snapped. With a push, he forced himself away from whoever was holding him. He was surprised to see the dirt-covered face of two female Helions, both wrapped in worn and roughly patched clothing. Salene spoke with them gently, and they answered with even quieter voices. Another person moved out of the darkness. This time it was definitely a man, and he wore a tattered tunic with a gray bandolier running across his chest. Jack spotted the weapon in his arms, immediately grabbed his carbine, and aimed it directly at his chest.

“Back off!”

Salene stepped between them, interrupting both their lines of sight.

“Out of the way!” he snarled, but she refused to move.

Now Wictred stepped out toward Jack, lifting his left hand with the palm facing him. It was a simple gesture and easily understood.

“Stand down,” he said calmly.

Jack didn’t like it and lowered his carbine’s sight slowly and carefully. He made sure the weapon was ready to be used in case his friend was wrong.

I don’t trust any of them,
he thought angrily.

Salene said a few more words and cast a knowing look at Jack.

“They are Zathee. News is spreading of our arrival.”

That caught him by surprise, and he finally lowered his weapon and stepped closer to the Helions.

“Our arrival? What do you mean?”

Salene pointed up to the sky.

“The state media has announced our deaths already. Zathee rebels killed us, and your people are helping hunt down those responsible. The Zathee resistance is going to ground.”

Wictred grabbed Jack’s arm.

“We have to get somewhere safe, or we’re dead.”

Salene nodded furiously.

“He’s right. The habitation block looks strong from here, and we might even be able to get a signal to command.”

The man with the weapon moved away from them and to the edge of the cover. He pulled out a device from his jacket, lifted it to his eyes, and scanned the horizon. It took nearly ten seconds before he stopped and called over to Salene. She spoke to Jack and Wictred.

“It’s clear. His name is Crussk, and he’ll take us to the block.”

Jack leaned back slightly.

“Who is he? Why do you think you can trust him?”

The Zathee obviously couldn’t understand what they were saying, but he did understand their concerns. He pulled his tunic down to show his neckline. There was a tattoo emblazoned on the side of his throat. Jack examined it and shrugged.

“So what?”

 
Salene spoke three words to him and then explained.

“This is the mark of the political prison deep under the capital buildings. No Helion should ever be seen outside of the prison with this mark. He is a rebel, and he can be trusted.”

Jack looked to Wictred who had nothing useful to add.

“Great,” said Jack.

He resigned himself to moving out of the shadows and looked in the direction they needed to go.

“Tell him to lead, and we’ll follow. If there’s any funny business…well.”

He lifted his carbine and tapped his left hand on the muzzle.

“You know what happens.”

* * *

Lieutenant Rossen slipped in another magazine and altered the shooting mode to full power. The vibration was slight but detectible through the polymer housing before it settled down. Now ready, she looked around their current position and for anything that could be used to their advantage. The ground floor of the building the marines had first entered was shattered in every conceivable way. Windows were gone and gashes visible on every wall. The open foyer led to a large hole where the entrance had once been. The staircase was the least damaged, but it still showed signs of the battle the marines had fought to reach this point. Bodies from two dozen Animosh lay broken about them, yet still they stood and controlled the lower levels.

“Right, that didn’t work now, did it?” said Lieutenant Rossen.

Thai Qiu-Li slipped in another magazine, checked her carbine, and moved to the wall on the right. She took aim with her weapon and waited patiently for the next phase of their fight. Hunn stood in the middle of the floor, just in front of the staircase where he had the best view of the entire level.

“Well, we’ve broken out of the building, but more of them will come. We can’t get out now,” he said with almost no emotion in his voice.

“Yes, I’m aware of that little revelation.”

Lieutenant Rossen kept low and moved to the hole where the entrance had once been. As soon as she reached the frame, a burst of thermal rounds slammed into the stone with a fearsome hissing sound. She jerked back to the safety inside.

“We need a new plan.”

“The General, we need to get a message to him somehow. We have to stop this fighting. The Helions can’t want a war with us? You’ve seen their warriors!” Thai Qiu-Li suggested, throwing a disparaging look at the fallen Animosh.

The Lieutenant sighed with frustration.

“If I could, I would.”

She threw the device over to Thai Qiu-Li. She only just caught if before it might have struck the far wall. The display showed a dozen objects in the sky that represented the Alliance dispositions prior to them dropping out of orbit. The small icon for each shipped showed up as a red error circle.

“See,” Lieutenant Rossen continued, “My signal has been completely jammed. All we have left is the line-of-sight laser system for reaching them in orbit. That will only work if we know exactly where our ships are, and I don’t. Hell, the Helions might have driven them all away by now, not that we can tell from down here.”

She pointed out to the brown colored haze covering the site.

“We can’t even see the sky from here.”

The three stayed silent, but Hunn spoke up.

“What about General Rivers, isn’t he on the surface with the commanders of the 17
^th
for military demonstrations?”

Lieutenant Rossen smiled grimly.

“Yes, I know. The local and wide-band transceiver is completely blocked. All I can tell is that there is one hell of a major power source where those Animosh aircraft and vehicles are positioned.”

Thai Qiu-Li thought about it but only for a few seconds.

“So they brought jamming equipment here specifically to keep this area blocked off. You know what that means?”

Hunn laughed, “That we’re screwed?”

“Well, that,” replied Thai Qiu-Li, “Plus, don’t forget that even the Helions can’t block out all our communications. I bet General Rivers and the others are in contact with our ships. If we can reach them, they could contact our forces down here and do something to help. Maybe get them to pull back?”

Hunn actually seemed interested in this last part.

“Commander Gun is with him. When he learns of what’s going on, he’ll sack the entire city to find us. You haven’t seen him when he’s angry. Trust me, they will back down if they piss him off, unless they want to see Helios burn.”

Lieutenant Rossen seemed less than enthralled at the prospect of some kind of total war, however. Though far less experienced in violent situations than Hunn, she knew well what the implications would be between Helios and the Alliance. They’d only just met, and it was the possibility of a resurgent Biomech enemy that was forcing them to create a rushed military pact of sorts.

Risk of violence!
What exactly have we been doing for the last fifteen minutes?
she
laughed inwardly.

Thai Qiu-Li tossed the secpad back to the Lieutenant and checked outside from her position for signs of the enemy. With just three of them in there, it would be relatively easy to be surprised or overwhelmed if they were not completely ready for what was to come. As she looked out, she spotted something she hadn’t noticed before.

“LT, do you remember seeing those lights?”

Hunn moved ever so slowly from his position, leaned around the side of the wall and out of the shattered entrance towards the lights.

“Could be ships coming down low.”

Thai Qiu-Li shook her head.

“No, I don’t think so. Look at them.”

She was right. The red lights were completely stationary and only flickered and disappeared when sufficient dust, smoke, cloud, or fog got in the way. They continued watching until finally a dark shape could just about be made out. It was a tall structure, perhaps thirty or more stories high, and certainly the tallest building around them.

“Okay, it’s a building,” said Lieutenant Rossen.

“Yes, but not just a building. It’s the tallest thing around here, and look how close it is to the clouds. I bet if we could reach it and move to the higher levels above the cloud, we could get a burst transmission to the fleet.”

Lieutenant Rossen put her forehead into the palm of her right hand and closed her eyes. The stress and confusion of their situation was starting to wear her down. Hunn could see that and decided to continue on Thai Qiu-Li’s line of thought.

“Okay. How do we do that? More importantly, what if there are no ships in orbit?”

Thai Qiu-Li smiled. It was of course very true that without knowing if or where the ships were, they would have no chance of reaching a ship. But Thai Qiu-Li was no ordinary marine. Like Jack, she was experienced in electronics, as well as computer communication and cryptology.

“Just get me high enough, and if there is a ship up, there I’ll be able to contact them.”

Hunn had already moved close to his own wall and was looking outside at the various buildings. He could see the shape of the one she’d mentioned and waited for a few seconds until the fog drifted away. It certainly seemed the tallest for hundreds of meters and at least thirty or more stories.

All the buildings are short around here, yeah, right!
He thought, remembering the words from the Ambassador when they had been planning their crash landing. It made him think.

Thai Qiu-Li and the Lieutenant moved over to his position and looked at the tower. It lacked the refinement and beauty of the buildings elsewhere on the planet, yet it was tall and looked sturdy, a long black needle pointing up into the clouds. Rossen turned back around.

 
“Does this supposedly flat Zathee district seem much taller and heavily inhabited than the Ambassador was letting on?” asked Hunn.

Thai Qiu-Li and Lieutenant Rossen looked at each other. Both considered what had happened, but it was Thai Qiu-Li who spoke first.

“The Ambassador’s part in this is suspicious to say the least. Nothing he said has made much sense, not least the fact that the Helion security forces supposedly killed him. What about these rebels?”

Lieutenant Rossen pointed at the bodies around them.

“Well, at least they aren’t actively trying to kills us, like these ones.”

A squeal came from outside at a distance of about fifty meters away. A skidding sound and then large numbers of boots followed it. Thai Qiu-Li looked out through the breaches on the wall and watched the arrival.