Star Crusades Nexus: Book 03 - Heroes of Helios (31 page)

Well, here we go.

Jack clipped his bayonet to the muzzle of his carbine and took aim at the nearest Animosh. Again he scored a perfect shot to the head and then moved out from his cover. There were three more of them, plus the missing one that had gone into hiding. The machine instantly spotted him and swiveled about nosily to aim its weapon. Jack sprinted as fast as he could, sliding to a stop behind a column. The gun flashed, and a streak of blue energy pulsed out to strike the column, but not before vaporizing one of the other warriors that had managed to get in the way.

“Nice, two left plus that thing.”

He reached into his webbing gear but could find no grenades. It was an automatic reaction, but he’d completely forgotten how lightly equipped they all were. More rockets continued to strike the building, and large chunks of black masonry ripped off to fall onto the lower levels.

“Jack, we need that signal!”

He looked to the three targets, but the voice of the Lieutenant kept ringing in his ears. He inhaled a deep, long breath and ran from the cover and toward the edge of the building. All three of them opened fire, but only the machine was accurate to strike near enough. As he reached the railing, a round blew a hole the size of his head in the metal framing. Without hesitating, he jumped up, throwing himself off the edge and into open air. Shot after shot flashed past him as he fell an entire level, crashing halfway along the gantry. His carbine clattered away and tumbled from the edge, and he slipped from the rusted walkway.

You idiot, get to your feet.

He knew he didn’t have long, and so with all the strength he had left, yanked himself to the metal flooring and limped to the control box. It wasn’t particularly big and was surrounded on all sides by a thin acrylic type protective shell. Jack kicked at it twice, and it cracked and fell apart, revealing the unit. He expected it to be stiff, but the door opened to reveal a complex series of circuits and cylinders.

“Sir, I’m at the unit.”

He looked at each piece, finally reaching a sphere identical to the one he was currently holding. It took a firm tug to dislodge it, yet nothing happened.

Weird.

Jack had expected something to happen, even if just a noise. Somebody shouted from behind, and the two surviving Animosh on the floor above spotted him. One lifted his rifle, but Jack knew he couldn’t waste time. With a quick movement, he forced the breacher into the unit and slammed the door shut. The first shots from the Animosh struck the metal framing and another came even closer. More concerning was the head of the mechanical beast that was moving slowly to the edge.

Move it, now!

Ignoring the gunfire, he clambered back across the gantry and hurled himself to the safety of the floor. A powerful shot ripped apart a large chunk of the metal structure, and part of it fell away, including a section of the communication relay.

* * *

“Well?” demanded Commander Gun for the tenth time.

The three Hammerheads sat on the landing platform with their engines running and each packed with marines. Gun waited outside while a squad kept their carbines trained on a group of battered and bruised looking Helions. Gun looked out at the smoke almost two kilometres away, where the fourth of the Hammerheads had crashed with the loss of everybody on board. He wanted to hit something, and the longer he waited, the more likely it was that he would turn on their prisoners. Luckily for them, the young communications specialist in the lead craft leaned out from the side.

“Commander, the grid is down! They did it.”

Gun nodded grimly.

“Good, let’s go. You know the target!”

As soon as one of his feet touched the floor of his personal Hammerhead, it started to lift. In seconds, they were airborne and accelerating quickly over the heavily polluted surface of Helios. Gun tapped his communications unit to speak with all marine units within range.

“This is Commander Gun. Commence the attack. You’re are authorized to use lethal force.”

The words seemed to excite him more than anybody else in the craft. It had been sometime since he’d been able to flex his muscles, and as usual, it was being left to the last minute before he could help.

Looks like it’s Gun to the rescue,
he thought, and unsurprisingly it made him feel good.

* * *

Jack had managed to get the lower levels in less than a minute, but the gantry and the communications unit was completely destroyed. Even as he ran, the combat drone gave pursuit and was moving almost as fast as him. By the time he reached the others, it was only one floor above him. The sight that greeted him almost stopped him in his tracks. One of the synthetics lay dead on the steps, and Wictred was wrapping a thick bandage around his waist.

“My mother?” he asked.

Wictred nodded at the pillar to his left. Teresa lay at the base, as well as the shattered body of the Helion who had helped them. Jack ran to her and was relieved to find she was conscious, though incredibly weak. More rounds hit nearby, and Lieutenant Rossen popped her head from behind one of the improvised barricades to call to him.

“Get down, the next wave is coming.”

He knelt down beside his mother, and that was when he spotted the body of Hunn lying face down on the ground, a dark pool of blood around his head. Jack shook his head angrily and made to move to him, but Teresa grabbed his arm.

“No, take my weapon, stop them!”

She was weak, but he could see the fire in her eyes, the same fire he saw in his father when he was committed to action. Jack took the pistol from her and moved to the barricade alongside the Lieutenant and Wictred.

“Where is the other synthetic?”

Wictred angled his head to the other staircase.

“He’s held it for three minutes now, not bad for one of them.”

Lieutenant Rossen checked her carbine and lifted it to place the barrel on the top of the cover. She aimed carefully and waited for the next wave. Instead of Animosh, a small object flew through the air and landed amongst them. Jack dived to the side, but the young officer threw herself onto the weapon moments before it exploded with a flash. It wasn’t a powerful weapon, but it killed her instantly, and the blast sent Jack and Wictred tumbling to the floor. Jack’s vision blurred, but his first thought was to get up. It was hard, almost impossible, but with great effort he sat up and aimed his pistol at the staircase. Two Animosh appeared, but both were cut down by gunfire from behind him. He turned around to see two Hammerheads, hovering and blazing away with their gun turrets. One shattered the attack of the Animosh, and the second tore the combat drone apart as though it had been constructed from rotten wooden timbers. Another moved closer, and marines jumped down and spread out to secure the level.

We did it
, he thought, though the victory felt hollow.

He looked back at the bloodbath around them and shook his head angrily. Hunn was gone; Thai Qiu-Li had been cut down by the Animosh, and now so to was the Lieutenant. He forced himself up and staggered over to Teresa, dropping down to his knees next to her. She smiled at him as he appeared.

“You reenlisted for this?” he said, shaking his head.

Teresa smiled back.

“The Marine Corps? The best days of my life.”

Jack laughed, and the two of them sat there, watching the smoke rising in the distance as the revolution began.

* * *

Over thirty bodies lay strewn about the chamber, and the cries of the wounded became louder than the fighting. T’Kron had managed to pull Ayndir to the safety of a shattered Helion sculpture, but bullets continued to pass by overhead. Harlan and his guards, however, had secured the main doorway area and looked like they were trying to get out. Anderson stood up to take a shot, but the return fire from the Helion guards forced him down. Their accuracy surprised even him.

“Who the hell are they?”

T’Kron nodded in their direction.

“More Animosh, the internal security forces. They are the Helions’ best. Indoctrinated from birth to…”

Anderson turned away, shaking his head for T’Kron to stop. General Rivers heard the description of the enemy and crawled over to the sculpture.

“Animosh you said? Like the suicide attackers in here? Those are the same forces that are attacking Lieutenant Rossen and the others. She said they’d murdered our crew and were hunting them down.”

He shook his head angrily.

“If they get out, they’ll burn this place down and then blame the Zathee, and nobody will ever know of this betrayal. We’ll be sucked into a decade long war here.”

The main door opened and revealed a great yellow gleam of light. From the dark interior of the chamber, it looked like the sun itself was burning down through the entrance.

“Come on!” snapped the General, lifting himself to his feet.

Anderson was with him, along with T’Kron and two other T’Kari that had managed to avoid gunfire until now. Rivers looked at their little band, and deep down, he knew they had no chance. They were exposed and now facing off against the dozen Animosh that were standing as Harlan’s rearguard. The first of the group were already out.

This is it. We have to stop them.

He lifted his pistol, aimed, and squeezed the trigger. The blast at the doorway knocked them all to the ground and filled the place with dust. The bright yellow opening turned brown and then black, as the Animosh were blown apart by the impact. Body parts flew back into the chamber, and Rivers spotted the shattered remains of an Animosh guard crash to the ground in a bloody pile. Two of the other Animosh ran for cover, but Anderson and General Rivers shot them down before they could reach the nearest safety.

“What the hell?” said Admiral Anderson in a dumbfounded tone.

Both of the senior officers aimed their pistols at the breach, but the shape that emerged transformed their expression to that of pleasure, mixed with relief. Like a massive metal beast, the form of Commander Gun entered. He didn’t stop until he was deep inside, and a full platoon of Alliance marines had fanned out in the chamber. In his left hand, he held the shaking form of Harlan.

“Gun!” called out a relieved General Rivers.

With a quick push, he cast the man across the floor where he landed just a meter in front of T’Kron. The normally placid T’Kari leader kicked the Helion as he lay writhing on the ground, shouting at him in one of their languages. Gun stomped forward and stopped in front of General Rivers. He delivered a mock salute and then lifted his left boot to rest it on the chest of the terrified Harlan.

“General, Admiral, good to see you both.”

He turned and started to move back as more marines streamed inside. Right behind them came Alliance medical teams moving to the many wounded littering the chamber.

“You need to see this.”

He was at the door and outside before any of them could speak. General Rivers helped Anderson, who seemed to be having difficulty with his left leg. They staggered to the door past the bodies and blood. Gun seemed completely unaware as to what had happened, and simply waited a few meters outside for them to reach him. Once there, they could look out at the great expanse of the city. Gun’s arm extended out, and he pointed off toward a series of massive towers and spires to the south. Great columns of black smoke rose up into the sky, and vapor trails indicated the location of a myriad of tiny aerial battles.

“What’s happened?” asked Anderson.

“Teresa and her marines, they did something to bring down the military network. That’s how we were able to bring reinforcements from the fleet.”

“Is she safe?” asked the General.

Gun nodded, trying to hide his excessively wide smile.

“Oh, yes. Hammerheads secured the site, and she’s on her way here now, along with the survivors.”

Anderson nodded but concentrated his focus on the black columns of smoke coming form the city.

“What about those?”

Gun grinned at that last part.

“Ah, that’s the rebels. Teresa said the Zathee and the synthetics were coming this way. Looks like her people started a revolution.”

Anderson and Rivers looked at each other, but neither seemed particularly surprised.