Legions of Orion (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 1) (8 page)

“
Spartan, keep your
head down,” h
e said with a grim
smile.

He needed no further encouragement and
took cover in the corridor along with the armoured men. Almost
immediately a flurry of small calibre bullets hit near their
position.

“
What the hell is
going on down here? This is an industrial outpost, not a goddamned
warzone!”

Lovett took aim with his own sidearm
and fired one shot before looking back.

“
Spartan, best we
can tell there is a group in the refinery control room. They were
loading stolen ore from one of the refineries when one of my
patrols spotted them. They opened fire and then set the transport
on fire. In the confusion, they took maybe four or five hostages.
They want a fuelled freighter to take them away.”

Another shot ripped
towards them, and Spartan flinched, now acutely aware he was
wearing no armour other than the ballistic vest he always
wore.

“
What is this all
about
?”

“
Your boy, he got in
there and trouble started. Next thing we know, the hostages are
out, but Jack is still missing. We’ve had them pinned down here
since then. I think your boy is trying to take them apart one at a
time, and this is the only way out of the control room.”

Spartan ducked down lower and checked
his pistol. He’d been in a hundred similar situations and was
perfectly aware how a stray round could easily cripple or end his
life in an instant.

“
Okay, fall back and
give them an exit point. Let them use the emergency
stairs.”

“
What?” cried
Lovett, in surprise.

Spartan grabbed him by the
shoulder.

“
You know this.
Think.
If we corner them, they will have
no choice but to fight. Instead, we give them a way out and then
use that against them. Just make sure they think they’ve beaten
us.”

Lovett nodded,
understanding only too
well the military
need to always ensure your opponent had a potential escape route.
He almost kicked himself for going in so gung ho.

“
Security Team
Alpha, withdraw to point six and hold,” he called on the
intercom.

With precision, the
small security unit moved back, each firing the odd shot to cover
their retreat. Rather than use the elevator, they took the large
double doors that led to the emergency staircase. Like all
structures, it was imperative that there was an alternative to the
power elevator in times of crisis, and this was certainly one of
them. Once through the door, they moved up two levels and then
paused. The team fanned out and trained their weapons back down the
steps, while Lovett and Spartan planned their next move.

“Well?” asked Lovett.

“
Now we wait. As you
said, there is only one way out, and I’ve already disabled the
elevator. Either Jack will finish them all off, or he will fan them
this way.”

One of the guards, a
new man that Spartan didn’t recognise, looked
unimpressed.

“He’s just a kid, what if they kill
him?”

Spartan tried his
best not to laugh, and it was left to Lovett to explain.

“The kid is Jack, Spartan’s son. You
don’t need to worry about...”

The doors
kicked open, and a small group rushing in
interrupted them. As they moved inside, a volley of well-aimed
shots tore at them and forced them to cover. Spartan watched
carefully, checking on both their numbers and their disposition. He
wasn’t impressed. Although they appeared well armoured and equipped
with heavy weapons, it was clear that not a single one of them had
any kind of mask or helmet to protect them from shock or stun
weapons. He leaned back and looked to Lovett.

“
They’re amateurs.
Stun them and move in with batons. You shouldn’t need firearms for
this one,” he said seriously.

Lovett flicked a
button on the side of his weapon to deactivate it and slid the gun
to his side, removing a baton from his belt. It looked like an
ancient mace, but it actually stored a high-capacitance charge that
could knock out a man with one strike.

“
Hammand,”
w
hispered Lovett to one of the guards.
The man crept over and took a stun grenade from him.

“
On my signal, flash
the place, then we go in. Got it?”

One of the men
tossed a headset over to Spartan. It wasn’t just for the
communications, it was mainly the sound deadening and white noise
generator built into its electronics. He pulled it on and felt an
odd sensation as it activated, blocking out extraneous sounds like
enhanced noise-cancelling headphones.

The guards nodded in
agreement. Spartan knew it was risky, especially being as the men
at the bottom of the stairs were heavily armed and intent on
causing damage. The armour and stun gear used by his company was
the best, and they would be safe from most attacks, even at close
range. The man lifted the grenade and activated the charge. With
the nod from Lovett, he dropped it down the stairs. Its rubberised
outer coating deadened the sound unlike the metallic weapons
usually used. It seemed to take an age for it to reach the bottom.
Then it activated.

The flash lit up the
entire staircase and was followed by a howl of energy. Spartan knew
full well the cost and capabilities of the device. It had been
developed for ATU tactical units and was designed to incapacitate
groups of people much larger than the one waiting for them. The
security team were already halfway down the stairs before he chased
after them. Spartan may have been by far the most experienced, but
he knew what was sensible; charging into battle with almost no
armour was a big mistake. Only when they started swinging their
maces, did he finally jump into the fray. The numbers were equal,
and the security team had surprise on their side. Even so, Lovett
was knocked backwards by something, and as Spartan arrived, he
realised another two men had just come through the door and had
avoided the blast of the weapon.

“
Watch out!” he
yelled and leapt from halfway up the bottom level of the staircase
to crash into the two men. The pair fell to the floor before they
were able to fire with Spartan on top of them. One rolled out of
the way, but Spartan was able to twist the right arm of the second
all the way behind his back into a classic lock. With the smallest
amount of pressure, he could exert massive pain. The rest were
either cuffed or unconscious, apart from the final man who had
evaded Spartan’s grasp. The man stood up and pointed his weapon
directly at Spartan.

“
Let him go, or I’ll
blow a hole in your chest!” he barked.

Spartan wore a smart
suit, and there was little chance they would know he was wearing
ballistic armour beneath it. Even so, he didn’t want to chance the
penetration level in anything other than a controlled training
scenario. The door swung open, and the dark shapes of two more men
arrived, each pointing weapons at the man with the
shotgun.

“
Do that, and I’ll
spread your brain across the wall!” said the shorter of the
two.

The man looked about
nervously and back to Spartan. Something in his face told him this
man was trouble. The lines about his cheeks tensed, and Spartan
knew exactly what was coming. A loud roar ripped through the room,
and the man snapped back, a bullet hole directly into his forehead.
He smashed into the wall and dropped to the floor.

“
Spartan?” asked the
new arrival as he held his smoking firearm.

Spartan’s heart was
pounding as the form of a young man, and at what looked like a
thick set and well-built ogre, entered the room. The form of a
Jötnar was unmistakable, but it was the young man that surprised
him. He moved closer and stood in front of Spartan. He wore
close-fitting armour of a type he was unfamiliar with and carried a
modified Jötnar weapon that had much in common with the prototype
coilguns he had seen on Terra Nova. Professional interest almost
took him to the gun first, but it was his son Jack after all.
Spartan lowered his weapon and exhaled slowly, glad the ordeal was
over.

“What the hell are you doing here,
Jack?”

His son looked back
at him with a grim expression. Though barely eighteen, his aged
face gave him the look of somebody almost ten year older. He was
almost two metres tall, black haired and sported a rough looking
scar that ran from his neck up to his ear. He moved ahead and
examined each of the men before returning to Spartan, evidently
more concerned with his job than speaking with Spartan.

“
These aren’t the
ones we need. T
his is just an
intelligence cell.”

Spartan reached out and grabbed
him.

“Jack, what is going on?”

His looked up.

“
There’s a plan to
bring down the Network by the anti-Biomech groups, and these guys
are part of it.”

The Jötnar rolled over the body of the
fallen man and then joined Jack and Spartan. He reached inside his
armoured chest protector and brought out a leather package. It
looked about the size and shape of an old book. He extended his
hand to Spartan and gave him the object.

“
I am Wictred. This
is from my father, Khan of the Jötnar. He said you would
understand.”

Spartan took it and
looked at the worn and marked leather before moving closer so that
nobody else could hear. He spoke directly into Jack’s
ear.

“Director Johnson is here from Alliance
Intelligence. He wants to speak to you about this.”

The Jötnar smiled at the news and even
Jack seemed to grin. Their attitude took Spartan completely by
surprise. Jack finally spoke, breaking their confused silence.

“
Good, he said he’d
find a way to meet face to face, so this must be it.”

Jack and Wictred
then walked to the staircase and started to move up. As they
reached the next level, Jack turned back to look at his
father.

“Well, are you coming?”

The ground combat that took place
at the battle of New Ca
rlos in the later
years of the War saw some of the largest battles of the War. Both
the Marine Corps and the Army fought a series of desperate last
stands until aided by the improvised engineers from the Marine
Corps. The heavy armour and weapons proved vital in stemming the
tide against the Biomech attacks and established the reputation of
the Corps on a dozen worlds. This reputation continued on to the
newly formed Alliance Marine Corp that was formed following the
victory at Terra Nova.

Great Battles of the Confederate Marine
Corps

ANS Beagle drifted a short distance from
its arrival point as the crew and engineers worked against time to
get the system ready. Captain Raikes supervised the myriad of
tasks, but ultimately, it was down to the volunteer crew to return
all the systems back to full capacity. He looked at his management
console and noted that over seventy percent of systems were now
operational. It was an improvement, but he was still unsure they
would actually be ready in time for the reconnection to the bridge.
There was a fixed time slot that had been pre-arranged with the
engineers back at the Prometheus Seven Trading Post. When the Rift
reappeared, they would have the time and power to do one of two
things. Either they created their own spherical shell of energy at
Orion to balance the bridge, or they would have to travel back
through before the link became untenable and collapsed. He wiped
his brow and looked over to the clock.

Fifty-one minutes left, this is going
to be close.

“
Captain, I’m
detecting several fluctuations in the power levels of the
habitation a
ssembly,” said one of the
technicians just a short distance from him.

Captain Raikes had
only a limited number of crew on the ship, and it was essential
that he prioritised them for the connection.

“Is it serious?” he asked
impatiently.

“
It is within
tolerable limits but will have to be resolved in the next
forty-eight hours.”

The Captain nodded
quickly and moved back to his display.

“
Understood, it can
join the list of a hundred other things to do when this is sorted
out. Let me know if it changes in the meantime.”

On his main screen
the percentage of active systems increased yet again, and for the
briefest of moments, he thought it might actually work. They had
less than an hour to go before the designated time. A beeping sound
caught his attention. It was coming from the desk where the Chief
Engineer sat. The man turned to look at him.

“
Good news, Sir.
I’ve stopped work on all non-essential systems, and the rift
generator gear is now ready to start activation,” he explained, his
face slightly red from the stresses of getting the system
ready.

Captain Raikes
glanced at his display and noted the system status of all the major
components of the station. Every single one showed up in green, and
even he found it difficult to disguise the look of surprise on his
face.

“Excellent work, I didn’t doubt you for
a second!”

The Chief Engineer
did his best to smile but was well aware the doubts the Captain had
about getting the damaged system up and running. More importantly,
he was surprised they’d got so far. Captain Raikes checked the
diagnostic summaries himself before speaking again. He was normally
a calm and collected individual, but the worries of this mission
had revealed his deeply hidden insecurities of failure. In the
past, he had managed an almost completely perfect career with just
a single black mark on his file. It was his rush to create the
first one-way rift over a decade ago that had left a crippled
station and a lost ship. Only the data from Hyperion had put his
career back on track. Even so, the loss of so many people, and his
fly by the seat of his pants nature, had won him both friends and
enemies in the scientific and naval community. He lifted his eyes
from the system and back to the Chief Engineer.