Star Crusades Nexus: Book 09 - The Black Rift (36 page)

“Gun!” yelled his guards.

All of them opened fired, and the shaft filled with muzzle flashes and bullets. Thegns squeezed through and began to overwhelm the rearguard. Gun became enraged and swung and smashed his legs and fists into anything he could find. Blood, metal, and flesh filled the tunnel. One Thegn stopped as it emerged from the hole and then a blade pushed out through its mouth. A marine pulled himself past the body and then looked back to help pull Teresa through.

“Good, follow me.”

Gun turned around and moved back nearly ten meters. Another massed bombardment shook the tunnel, and a piece of masonry dropped down and struck his neck. He stumbled and fell to one knee. He looked back and saw dozens of Thegns swarming in after him. One hacked and stabbed at Sergeant Stone, but he struck back with his bayoneted carbine. Something grabbed at Gun, and he looked up. A Decurion had worked its way along the ceiling and then dropped down onto a bodyguard’s torso. It punched blades into his armor before moving to the marines. More of them swarmed in from a dozen breaches, and Gun and his escort were quickly surrounded.

“Kill them all!” he yelled, and in a berserk fury he struck at all and any that dared to come close. After the third kill, he could just make out the hole where Teresa and the Sergeant had been. There were dozens of Thegns there now, and he could only imagine what horrors lay on the other side. Then he spotted an arm, then a face.

“Teresa!”

The battered marine pulled herself through the hole and dropped down alongside Sergeant Stone. Her armor had been penetrated in a dozen places, and her helmet ripped off. Even as she lay there, a Decurion advanced and threw itself at the two marines. Sergeant Stone forced himself to his feet and lifted his carbine. He was still firing as the thing hit him and pinned his body against the Colonel’s. More of them rushed in to block the tunnel, and that was when Gun spotted Teresa’s hand. She clenched her fist tight around a thermite detonation charge. Gun swung his fists again and crunched a Thegn against the wall. Another Decurion punched a limb through his shoulder, and then the end of the tunnel vanished in a bright flash that collapsed the entire section furthest from Gun. Whole chunks of stone dropped down around him, but as the dust cleared, he could see nothing of the two marines, or even the foes that had assaulted them.

“General, can you move?” asked a voice from behind.

With great effort, he twisted around and looked at the faces of three young marines. He pushed hard, but his legs were trapped.

“Kind of, give me a moment.”

With all of his strength, he pushed the ground hard and forced his battered body from the rubble. Pain seared through his shoulder, as half of the broken Decurion slid off to leave two deep puncture wounds in his torso. His left leg was still trapped, and he was tempted to tear the limb off to escape.

“Captain Tycho sent us and the rest of the 35
^th
to secure the breaches.”

The man turned around and waved to a distant shape. It stomped closer until Gun could see it was a bullet ridden CES engineer.

“Hold on, Sir. I’ll get you out of there in a second,” said the operator.

The CES unit smashed and dug away to clear the debris. As it worked, Gun looked back at where he’d last seen Teresa and the Sergeant, and sighed.

It was a good death.

Hyperion was a thriving world, filled with vegetation and wildlife. The colonization by the Jötnar might have been the end for this way of life, but unlike most Alliance worlds, Hyperion flourished. Wildlife continued to thrive, and the Jötnar took to the lush planet with relish. Even when captured Biomech creatures were released, they turned large swathes of forest into great hunting reserves. Over time, the Jötnar would prove some of the least destructive custodians in the history of man.

The Downfall of Hyperion

ANS Hyperion, The Black Rift, Helios Sector

Khan growled as a burst of gunfire raked his Mauler and tore off one of its engines. The Alliance Navy pilot pulled off an impressive spin to avoid further shots and then fell in alongside the scores of other similar craft.

“How much longer?” Khan asked.

“Sixty seconds,” replied the pilot over the intercom.

The craft shuddered again with such large numbers of Maulers and fighters streaming in to the battleship. Capital ships moved in with them so that the distance between the vessels of both sides dropped down to just a few kilometers. Explosions followed one another, as ships and fighters were ripped apart in a vicious maelstrom. One Liberty destroyer was cut clean in half from a Ravager ramming it at high speed.

“Thirty seconds.”

They were past the escort now, and Khan could see the forward view from the Mauler directly inside his visor. The battleship completely filled the view, and the levels of gunfire were like nothing he’d ever seen. As they swept down to the shattered hangar on the port bow, he found himself shaking his head in amazement.

“How the hell did we survive that?”

Olik laughed.

“Plenty didn’t. What about the Black Ships? They are still closing, and we’re running low on Maulers.”

“Ten seconds.”

Khan felt his muscles tense up.

“Ram her. They can disembark through the breaches.”

Olik and Knaprig were amazed at what they heard, but neither made a protest. Khan sent the orders, and then the Mauler shook violently. The display went dark, and Khan was forced to revert to his own eyes and sensor.

“To me, my brothers.”

The doors hissed open on both sides, and the ramps dropped down. To Khan’s surprise there was normal, if slightly heavier gravity than was standard on Alliance ships. He took three steps and leapt out to land hard onto the hangar floor. The other two followed right behind him, along with a dozen marines. The Mauler groaned and then lifted itself up and twisted around. With a short burst from its engines, it pushed away, and its place was taken by the next. Khan watched it move back into space and then shook his head.

Weird
.

He looked back deep inside the enemy warship. It was a large, but poorly lit space. He'd counted multiple similar entrances on the way in, and each of them joined two passageways through doors at the far end. The walls curved up to meet above them in what looked like a long, spinal central section. Khan turned his eyes a little to the right and checked on the arrival patterns of his forces. They were taking lots of fire coming in, but already he could see he had troops at three more hangars just a few hundred meters away.

"Secure the hangars, establish a perimeter."

His orders were simple and direct. More marines were already in his hangar, and they rushed ahead in a loose skirmish line. Two SAAR robots trundled after them, continually scanning left and right with their built-in turrets. Khan followed ten meters behind them. They traveled at a fast walk, all checking the shadows for signs of the enemy. There were no spacecraft in the open space but plenty of racks for machine parts, as well as two dismantled transports that filled the right-hand side. The doorways at the far end were big and shaped in much the same way as the walls and ceilings. Each was sealed with a thick metallic like blast door.

Keep moving,
Khan told himself.

He looked up and only now noticed the single gantry running directly under the spine on the ceiling. He tracked along it and found it vanished into a hole near the back wall. An alert sounded, and he turned his head to watch a fourth Mauler unload its precious cargo. This time is was Major Terson and his entourage of marines and Thegns. They stormed out in equal numbers and made for the sidewalls. The Major, however, just marched in a direct line toward Khan. Behind him came three CES engineers and a handful of Vanguards. They moved with little grace as they stomped through the cavernous ship.

"That man is either brave or stupid as hell."

Olik laughed.

"Like he's doing anything different to us."

"Major Terson. There's another way in to the ship, along the ceiling gantry up there," he said over the internal network.

The Major was a hundred meters away and stopped to check the structure.

"I see it, sending scouts in now."

The officer gave several hand gestures, and then two-dozen Thegns armed with Marine Corps carbines split off and began climbing the walls. They were quick and reached the gantry in less than a minute. Major Terson reached Khan, and both watched the rest of the Thegns pour inside from newly arrived Maulers.

"We're ready, Khan. What's the plan?"

The huge warrior extended his right arm to the doorways ahead.

"We breach the doors and then swarm the place. The layout is new to us, so we sweep the entire ship."

"Spartan?"

Khan nodded grimly. "Anderson wants his head. Dead or alive."

"Fair enough," said the Marine, with a little too much relish for Khan's liking.

"Let's do this," Khan gave the signal, and the engineers moved forward. The three of them advanced past the lines of warriors and right up to the massive reinforced doorway.

"Will they get through?" Olik asked.

Major Terson looked up to him. Next to each other the marine looked puny, with the Jötnar well over two and half meters tall and encased in armor. Like all of those that had left Prometheus, he now wore the crimson of the Red Watch. It was an honorific gift from Osk to all of those that took part on the battle for Prometheus. She was the Jötnar garrison's commander of the Alliance outpost.

"They are Alliance engineers. There's nothing they can't build or pull down. Just watch."

Khan did, but he also sent the same orders to all Alliance forces landing on the battleship. As sparks began to fly, he checked the status of the space battle and felt his heart lurch. A crusader had just been destroyed, and lifeboats were swarming around it.

Time is not with us. When that comes down, we're
going to have to hurry.

He looked to the Major.

"The SAAR robots go in first, then the reconnaissance drones. We need to find the CIC or throne room. Whatever it is they have, we need to be in there in minutes."

"Agreed."

More flashes came from the great doorway, and then came bright white blasts. An urgent fleet-wide flashcom scrolled along the bottom of the visor. It was short and simple.

‘One Planetary defense
system is
active. Impact due
to arrive in ten minutes.’

 
"Not much longer," said the Major.

Khan cracked his joints and activated his arm blades. Short but cruel looking weapons slid out to the sides of his arms. The shoulder-mounted Gatling gun spun three revolutions and then stopped. Then the engineers tore the doorway apart, and a great gust of cool air washed out into the hangar.

"Attack!" was the only word Khan needed to say.

The SAAR robots went through, and the rest of the warriors surged in behind. Khan spotted the shapes of his own Thegns on the gantries above them. He held his breath, leapt through the breached doorway, and emerged into a massive facility that must have run almost half the entire length of the ship. There were shielded compartments in all directions, and multi-level gantries disappeared up high into the vessel’s superstructure. Right in front of the door there were at least a dozen curved ramps that led up into the ship.

"Incoming!" yelled a marine.

Unlike the hangars, this large section of the ship was a hive of activity. Flickers of light rippled off into the distance and up the ramps, gantries, and platforms. A dozen marines were cut down where they stood before the Vanguards, Jötnar, and CES engineers could push past. With their thick armor, they deflected most of the fire and pushed ahead into a wide crescent. Khan took the center and did his best to ignore the warnings from the computer as dozens of projectiles struck him.

"Send in the Thegns. Spread out and attack. Swarm them!"

It was a cruel tactic, but Khan saw the Thegns as expendable meat shields, and they did their job well. More than a hundred rushed out in front of the line of armor, while a similar number pulled their bodies on top of the metal walkways and moved like spiders up through the compartments. Marines followed them, but they were more cautious.

"Advance."

The line of armored warriors took a step at a time behind the skirmishing Thegns. Gunfire flashed down to meet them, but the return fire had now increased. Additional SAAR robots had rushed in and were sending long bursts high up into the superstructure. Every few seconds, the body of an armored Thegn would tumble down and crash to the ground.

“Keep going. Get close and past their guns.”

Khan would have ideally kept them back so they could take their time to work through the vessel. Time was a luxury he lacked, and there was a good chance that if they were slow, the enemy would simply abandon the ship. On they moved and did their best to ignore the fire. Blue pulses crashed down at them from hidden Biomech soldiers, but each shot was responded to by a flurry of gunfire.

“Sir, look,” said a marine.

Khan glanced to the right and tried to forget about the bullet that had just managed to pierce his thigh armor. To the right he could see a ramp running down a level and leading to a wide-open space. The doorway was tall, and inside were lines of suits of armor.

“Looks like an armory. Well found, Marine.”

A quick check on his visor showed him where the squad commanders were. He tagged the nearest.

“Lieutenant, take a demolition team into these locations and destroy anything you find.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Khan couldn’t even see the man from where he was, but that didn’t matter right now. He took another four steps and passed under a low-hanging bridge. The section connected the sides of the hull together and also doubled as a point to reach the next two levels up.

“Time for the machines.”

Major Terson was a short distance behind him and sheltered behind Khan’s leg. A rocket whistled down and was destroyed by the built-in interceptors on Khan’s armor.

“Decurions?” asked the Major.

Khan nodded.

“They can easily take these levels. Bring the Eques walkers to this point and establish a bridgehead. They might try to work around our flanks.”

Major Terson looked confused.

“A bridgehead. You planning on staying here for long?”

Khan laughed.

“If Spartan is here, you know what the fight is going to be like. We can take no chances. If this thing falls apart, then the machines will have to be our rearguard while we get everybody else out.”

“Understood.”

* * *

Battleship Retribution, Black Rift, Helios Sector

The rotating holographic model was a complete mess. Biomech ships and their foes intermingled in a vast battle that now covered thousands of kilometers in every direction. Fighter squadrons fought continuous battles against each other while capital ships lined up to exchange broadsides. The modified Biomantas operated in hunting packs to pick off damaged or stray ships while avoiding the box formations of Liberty ships.

"This is a bloodbath," he agreed, more to himself than anybody else.

One-Zero-One kept looking down from their high position deep inside the warship. The machine gave the impression it was fearful, always on the lookout for something dangerous. It looked back to Spartan.

"Why have you let them board us?"

Spartan sighed.

"Have you not listened to a word I have said? They are throwing their best at us. When their commanders and elite troops are gone, who will remain?"

Thayara approached from the darkness and to alongside Spartan. There were marks on her armor and fresh cuts to her right leg.

"The weak will remain. Spartan is right. They have sent their best. The only question is can they be beaten?"

All three machines turned to face each other, an unholy triumvirate of metal and flesh.

"How many?" One-Zero-One asked.

Thayara laughed.

"Thousands. They have warriors, machines, and even your own Thegns."