Legions of Orion (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 1) (37 page)

The crew of the
warship cheered at the sight of the enemy’s destruction, but the
Admiral, ever the worrier, thought of the reports he’d been seeing
over the last hours. He looked to the XO of the ship.

“Get the order out to our forces in
this sector. I want all bases, moons and landing sites to be
reinforced and secured as a matter of urgency. It’s time we took
control of this place.”

* * *

The last defenders of Hades waited as
the sound of footsteps increased. The acoustics were surprisingly
good there, and Teresa’s mind wandered as she considered the many
things that could be accomplished in this underground refuge, other
than combat and death, of course. She looked to Spartan and the
others, and her memory flashed back to the dozens of warzones they
had fought on together. She and Spartan had encountered their first
bloody battle on a captured Confederate moon base. It seemed
fitting that they were now about to face a final confrontation on
yet another. The difference of hundreds of light-years seemed
insignificant next to the violence of their situation. The sound
from the nearest opening became louder, and each of them carefully
trained their weapons, waiting for the moment.

“Steady!” Spartan called out, though it
wasn’t needed. His group were professional to the last. More noise
and then several bursts of gunfire. The sounds became louder, and
then came the lights at the entrance. They were close. Each of the
bloodied fighters trained their weapons on the numerous
breaches
. Hunn was completely out of ammunition
now, threw his carbine to the ground and pulled his razor sharp
glaive from his back. Gun and the other
Jötnar
watched him and then did the same. Even Spartan dropped his
weapon and picked up the blade he had only so recently
borrowed.

“
Here they come!”
shouted Teresa, and before the rest even blinked, she’d cut down
the first two to come through the gap.

Hunn burst out from cover and charged
across the open space towards them. Spartan and the others watched
in awe as he made the distance, even after being struck four times
in his chest. He arrived just as the rest of the enemy force rushed
out and disappeared into the middle.

“
Now!” roared Gun,
and with a great bellow, the small group charged across and jumped
into the furious melee started by Hunn. Limbs and heads were hack
off with every slash of their weapons while none but Hunn were
forced to their knees by injuries. The armoured butt of a rifle
struck Spartan in the belly, and just as quickly, it seemed as
though their desperate fight would be over. As he dropped to one
knee, he noticed the
T'Kari
doing their
best to emulate the
Jötnar
as they threw
themselves at the last wave of enemy attackers moving from multiple
access points.

Gun brought his
glaive down with such force that it crushed the helmet of the
soldier and cut down to the shoulder. The man dropped to his knees,
lifeless before his head even touched the
ground. Teresa sidestepped another and emptied the last of
her ammunition into two soldiers before being stabbed in the leg.
Spartan tried to reach her, but three more soldiers blocked his
path. With a supreme effort, he pushed himself upright, but two
figures passed by in front and leapt upon the soldiers. It
was
Ayndir and one of her warriors. They attacked with
little skill or grace, just the ferocity of anger, and a vain
attempt to emulate Spartan’s team.

“Spartan, down!” shouted Khan as he
limped about in the middle of the battle.

Spartan knew his
friend well and didn’t even hesitate at his cry. He dropped to the
floor to witness the sight of the soldiers being cut apart by
glaives. Even so, one of them managed to bring Khan down to one
knee, yet he refused to go down. Another figure blocked his view,
and Spartan immediately grabbed to pull them away from
Khan.

This
isn’t the way it should end
,
thought Spartan, as a hand
grabbed him and pulled him out of the way.

He looked up, ready
to grab at his foe to find a Vanguard Marine, the Alliance’s
equivalent to the strength and power of a
Jötnar
. The marine smashed his fist into the nearest enemy and
then stomped past to finish off the others. More Vanguards and
conventional marines surged in behind him, and as quickly as it had
started, the battle for Hades was over. Spartan tried to stand, but
a familiar face appeared from the middle of the battle. It was a
blood soaked marine in standard PDS body armour, but as he
approached, the man deactivated the visor to show his
face.

“General?” spluttered Spartan in
surprise.

General Rivers
smiled at him and reached down to help his friend to his feet. More
and more marines continued to enter, and he was sure Colonel
Daniels had moved off to assist in a short skirmish, but the
General caught his attention. He called out over his external
speakers.

“This is General Rivers, Alliance
Marine Corps. This battle is over!”

There was a short
pause as those still in the fight struggled to believe the words
they’d just heard.
Dozens of hands lifted
to the air, waving their bloodied weapons. Even the
T'Kari,
who seemed totally alien to the concept, raised
theirs and cheered in unison.

The newly arrived
m
arines helped the wounded to their feet
or moved them into a more comfortable position. Spartan, Teresa and
Gun moved towards the General, and Khan pulled himself over to
check the badly wounded Hunn.

“
What about our
people on the surface?” asked Teresa as she approached Spartan and
the General.
The marine commander smiled
at them, but her exertions were more pronounced than either of them
had seen in previous battles. He took a deep breath before
replying.

“
They are all safe.
We found just one enemy ship in low orbit during our approach. Not
that it was much of a problem, it was trying to get
away.”

He leaned against one of the broken
pillars and pulled off his thickly armoured helmet.

“
This was a pretty
close run thing. It looks like Admiral Anderson and his friends
turned up at just the right time. We’ve been hiding in the debris
field for hours, waiting for a chance to come and help. Any vessels
that were caught out on their own were destroyed in a matter of
minutes.”

“Anderson?” asked Spartan.

Ayndir
and a small
group of the other
T'Kari
approached as
he continued his explanation.

“
Yes, he brought in
reinforcements and forc
ed them to
withdraw into the rift. One ship, ANS Devastation, commanded by
Captain Lewis, managed to hold them back long enough for Anderson
to mobilise a reserve.”

He then nodded towards Ayndir.

“
Our friends here
fired something into the rift as they tried to escape, and it
collapsed, destroying their ship in the process. This battle is
over, my friend,” he said with genuine warmth.

Khan and the other
wounded
Jötnar
staggered over to Spartan,
eager not to miss out on the end of the battle. Instead, they found
themselves stood next to
Ayndir
and three
of her people. Spartan beckoned towards them.

“
This is
Ayndir
, of the
T'Kari
.”

She bowed slightly in an overly
flamboyant gesture and then spoke quietly.

“
We thank you for
your help, General. There are few of the
T'Kari
remaining here now. I have received word from our scout
ships, and they confirm the distortion has been disrupted. It can
no longer be used for travel. The Great Enemy cannot come back this
way for some time. They will have to create a new tunnel from
another system in the meantime.”

General Rivers nodded.

“Excellent, how long will it last?”

Ayndir shrugged.

“Every distortion is different.”

“
I don’t
understand,” said Spartan, “Why not stop their distortions and keep
your worlds safe?”

Ayndir smiled at him.

“
Using this weapon
has told the Enemy we are still here. We, and the rebels, have been
fighting them for centuries. They send agents to our systems and
start civil wars. They rarely fight their own battles.”

General Rivers spoke
briefly to one of his marines and turned back to Ayndir.

“
This has happened
in our own system. We have just come out of our own Civil War with
the machines and their servants.”

Ayndir looked surprised at this.

“
Your people
survived a war, one started by the enemy’s agents?”

He nodded in reply.

“
Yes, it was hard,
but we fought them to their last world. We found a rift, distortion
as you call it, directly to this moon.”

Ayndir waited for a few seconds.

“
Then our people are
brothers. We are
linked by this
distortion and by our experience with the Great Enemy.” She then
looked back at her own people.

“
Each of these moons
has a small colony of T’Kari, and we have a small number of
remaining scout ships to patrol these planets. Our two peoples will
be stronger together than apart. I have been authorised by our
Council to offer our technology and support to your people, in
exchange for your protection.”

General Rivers looked at Gun, Teresa
and Spartan before returning to Ayndir.

“You wish to live under the protection
of our people? The Centauri Alliance?”

Ayndir looked back
at the small number of surviving civilians and spoke quickly. A
short discussion took place, and she looked back to the General and
the Spartan.

“
My people have seen
your honour and your military skills, especially those of Spartan
and his giants. We have neither the strength nor violence of your
people. We only survive because our last citizens have been in
hiding. You have already seen our graves and the battlefield on the
surface. They were once our great cities. The T’Kari were once a
people of twenty billion. Now we are less than fifty thousand. If
you will protect this system, then we will ally with your
Alliance.”

General Rivers
looked at Gun and Spartan, both of them nodded slowly at the
pro
posal. Gun lifted his arm.

“
What about our
people already here? My people have started building on the
high-gravity world.”

Ayndir smiled.

“
We do not own these
worlds. All are welcome to live here, in peace. Go back and tell
your leaders that the Centauri and the T’Kari are
friends.”

Gun grabbed Khan and
Hunn’s arms and lifted them up high into the air. All three roared
as loudly as they could manage, much to the dismay and annoyance of
the General. He moved one step closer to Spartan, Teresa and Khan
but was forced to shout over the noise of the
Jötnar
.

“
Your sons, Wictred
and Jack. I have news.”

The group of three
all shared the same look of weariness and concern, but of them all,
Khan did his utmost to appear stoic.

“
They escaped the
destruction of one of our medical frigates and are being treated
aboard ANS Beagle. They are both up for a commendation in the
battle.”

Teresa grabbed
Spartan and pulled him close, even though the movement brought
groans of pain from them both. She embraced him firmly and listened
to the rest of the General’s news.

“
Those two did well,
very well. Between them they destroyed an entire
warship.”

Ayndir heard his
words and shook her head in amazement. The General then
looked directly at Spartan.

“I think you might have competition in
the destruction stakes, old friend!”

THE END