Star Crusades Nexus: Book 03 - Heroes of Helios (8 page)

“It would appear the Helions are the de facto masters of Helios, and the stars and worlds within about ten light years. That is as far as we can tell. The Rift to T’Karan is one of the longer ones. Ayndir says their fastest ship can make it to Helios in just over three hundred years without the Rift. That would explain why the Biomechs have been trying so hard to get to Helios. Do you know how far away their worlds are without access to their own Rift?”

Teresa and Gun both shook their heads.

“Ayndir has shown me the last maps from their war with them. They say a ship would take even longer to travel to their world than to T’Karan.”

“So the Biomechs we’ve fought against are the ones that were left in T’Karan?” asked Gun.

“That would make sense. They had the skills and technology to fight a war but not to bring in reinforcements. That’s why they force us to fight amongst ourselves.”

“Indeed,” said Anderson with a slow nod. “Now, the question is, how many more Biomech ships and their allies are out there, and where are they? We have to stop them ever getting near Helios, even more importantly, stop any soul from trying to breach the Black Rift.”

He changed the image to show just Helios and its collection of Rifts. The Black Rift was marked by a different icon and color compared to the rest.

“You saw what the Helions had to offer when the Biomechs arrived. One Guardian ship was easily able to brush past their defenses. Do you think they could stop it getting through the Rift?”

Gun snorted while Teresa attempted to be a little more politic.

“It’s not surprising. They’ve been in a period of peace for a long time.”

“Peace, you can only have peace if you’re ready to defend it,” growled Gun.

Anderson nodded in agreement though to who wasn’t obvious.

“We have something that none of these people seem to have, military capacity. Since my team built the Rift out to this part of space, we’ve ramped our military production. The improvements in our ship designs and manufacturing capacity on five separate worlds means we are able to start expanding the fleet.”

He flicked the image off and sat down to face his two old comrades.

“The original plan two decades ago was for a fleet of about thirty capital ships, a much smaller force than was expected for our new Alliance, with the ability to travel further and faster that has changed. We’ve found new planets and other sentient race and that means we need to be ready.”

He slid his secpad across the table to the two of them. Teresa lifted it up and looked at the diagram showing a formation of ships.

“Have you seen this?”

They both shook their heads.

“This is the first of our Heavy Strike Groups, a twelve ship combined unit based around one of the new Conqueror class battlecruisers. The plan is to have the first three groups for use in Alliance territory, with another two for expeditionary purposes. They’ll be ready within six months, and another three groups starting construction after that.”

Gun raised his eyebrows at the news.

“Sixty ships in six months? Impressive. So what?”

Anderson smiled at his directness, but Teresa seemed to have already grasped the purpose of the discussion.

“We have the warships and the warriors while they have the information we want. Right?”

Anderson nodded twice and reached for the decanter of port. The pale brownish fluid ran out into the small glass. He passed it to them and said nothing more until the crystal unit was back in the middle of the table and sat upon its wooden cradle.

“We will offer a single Heavy Strike Group to work under the command of whoever they see fit in this sector. We will also offer the carcass of the Guardian ship and the Biomech prisoner for mutual study on our new station being constructed in T’Karan.”

Teresa wiped an imaginary hair from her face.

“Base? I thought it was a supply base for the fleet.”

“It was. I requested and have been granted the resources to upgrade the facility to a full Naval Station. Most of my research staff will be moving there over the year…”

He took a sip as though he had something important to announce.

“As will I.”

“You’re returning to the R&D division?” asked Gun in surprise.

“Yes and no. I will be returning to the Naval Station, and I will be responsible for security throughout T’Karan. I won’t be commanding any naval task forces in the short term, however. My work will keep me on Helios I suspect, perhaps more than I will be on my own station.”

Teresa looked to Gun who seemed to be more interested in the decanter of port than of the actual discussion. Anderson stood up and groaned slightly as he straightened his back. He walked to the side of the room and tapped a pad on the wall. The entire side of the room vanished and was replaced with a completely transparent window out onto the city. Teresa moved up to join him. Gun stayed in his chair and lifted the decanter to drink directly from its spout.

“Look at this place. This is unlike anything we’ve seen before. The information we could learn from these people. This could be the greatest leap for humanity since we left Earth.”

Gun coughed, and they both turned to see the fortified wine dripping down his front. Anderson didn’t seem amused at the sight, but as usual, Gun seemed unperturbed.

“Great. All we have to do is keep them from letting the Biomechs open the Black Rift. If they do let them, then this won’t be the greatest leap, it will be the greatest fall.”

Anderson nodded in agreement.

“Very true. That’s why we are offering such a carrot to them.”

“What do we get, other than a warm, fuzzy feeling inside?” asked Teresa.

Anderson looked back out to the great buildings, spires, and raised road systems that were visible in every direction.

“In exchange, we will get access to technical cooperation and full mapping to the Rift system. Once we have that, we will be sending long distance probes to scan the entire system. If our friends are in there, we’ll find them.”

Teresa watched his gaze as they both followed a massive ship moving down from low altitude. It followed a smaller craft as it angled down and approached a large landing platform. The entire procedure took less than a minute, and before the engines could have begun to cool, a whole array of machines and vehicles moved around it. Pipes connected to its flanks, and the great doors opened to allow its cargo to be unloaded. Anderson smiled inwardly, impressed by the sophistication and efficiency being demonstrated. He turned his head and looked at Teresa. They’d met two decades earlier in the War, but she still seemed as young and passionate as she always had. Modern science and diet could only get you so far, yet she looked like a woman in her early thirties.

“We can use this, all of it to our advantage. The advances in science, technology, and engineering will accelerate our progress.”

“We shall see,” she replied in a strangely ominous tone.

He looked back at the window and watched more vessels moving through the sky like ships sailing across a vast ocean. The planet seemed calm; something he’d not experienced for a long time. He thought of Spartan and that instantly reminded him.

“Your children, Teresa, how are they?”

She sighed at the question.

“Matius and Ingo are doing well. They are on their second posting now.”

“And Jack?”

She smiled at him.

“You know Jack. He’s a marine, and he is just like his father.”

Anderson said no more. He knew just what she meant; resourceful, strong willed, and as ever at the center of trouble. Even so, he hoped Jack would become even half the man Spartan was.

The Orion Nebula was so far from Alliance territory that none considered it remotely realistic for exploration. Only the Rift technology on Hyperion gave Alliance engineers and scientists the information needed to bridge the gap. Orion would come to mean many things to humanity. Some saw it as the future, others as a way of escaping the bloody past of the Alliance. A small group saw it as the greatest threat since the Biomechs, a region of space occupied by unfamiliar people that could turn upon humanity at any moment. As ties between the many factions strengthened, so did these feelings, and with them the seeds of sedition.

Orion – The future?

Spartan struck his aching fist to the wall once more. It was a half-hearted gesture and one born more from frustration than any attempt to try and break out. He leaned toward the wall and looked up at the ceiling, the low intensity lamps sending an eerie shimmer of light back into the cell. He wiped his brow and then limped back to Khan. Their cell hadn’t changed since their arrival, with the exception being the number of prisoners had reduced to almost half, and the increasingly bad smell. He slumped down on the floor and looked at his equally weary companion.

“So then Khan, what’s the plan?”

Khan shrugged with disinterest. Marks and scars marked his body, but how many were from the current crisis wasn’t clear. Spartan had fought alongside the warrior so many times and seen him cut and shot, he suspected there wasn’t a single part of his body that was unharmed from a battle at some point in his life.

“There is one door, and the machines come in groups to take us away. I don’t know. Hit them?”

Khan was one of the least subtle of the Jötnar. Even so, Spartan was seriously tempted to take the easy route and attack them once more. The only thing swaying his hand was the fact they’d already tried it three times before.

“Yeah, if only it was that easy.”

He looked to his sides, checking every possible weakness, but he knew it was pointless. They had both done this a hundred times and found nothing of use. The space was sealed and strongly guarded. He looked back at Khan.

“How long have we been here?”

Khan raised his shoulder.

“No idea. A month, it could be six though.”

Spartan breathed slowly, doing his best to get rid of the rank stench in the large cell area they’d all been forced to use. Around them the pitiful group of other prisoners simply waited for their fate. In the weeks or months they’d been captive, Spartan had tried to communicate with them over and over. So far, he’d heard nothing but moaning and sighing from them. They had been broken long ago, and yet the machines were letting them live; even the threats of physical violence eliciting nothing but cringing terror from each of them.

What do they want with such useless prisoners?

He thought of Prometheus and the terrible production lines that had created the mutated Biomechs used in the War. The early models had been created from salvaged human parts, including tissue, organs, and even complete nervous systems. He’d seen the body parts and smelt the blood; it had been horrific. The thought sent a chill through his body, and he turned his attention back to Khan. Like those dreadful creatures, he was also the product of the terrifying experiments. Where the first models were bloody monsters, his generation was purely synthetic though few people recognized the distinction.

He looked down at the clothes he wore. They weren’t his, just plain pieces of grey cloth thrown into the cells by their guards. Spartan had fashioned his into a rough tunic and pants while Khan simply tied his around his waist. Spartan’s legs had healed, but he still found it painful to walk. The bones had set, but without aid from their captors, his left arm had been crudely fused with heat and served as a constant reminder of their predicament.

“Khan, I’m not staying like this. I went through the same on Prometheus. We need to try again, and this time we need to use everything we have left.”

Khan clenched his fists, and a grim smile formed on his face. He was never one to back down. All Spartan needed to do was to find him something that he could do where their efforts might have some effect.

“Well, what do you think we should do?”

Spartan looked toward the entrance to their cells and nodded his head in the same direction. It was the only point of interest there, apart from the small lights far above them.

“The red machine. It keeps demanding the same thing over and over.”

“Helios?”

Spartan nodded.

“Yeah, that piece of metal garbage wants me to give the place up. You remember what the thing said to me last time.”