Star Crusades Nexus: Book 06 - Call to Arms (21 page)

“Bring them down, now!”

One opened fire, and in less than a second, all four were firing single shots at the machines. Their rate of fire was slow, no more than one shot per second, yet every single round tore a hole the size of a man’s head. The roar from the weapons was deafening, and the muzzle flashes from the hypersonic projectiles were like nothing Olik had ever seen. His smile widened with every single shot, even as two rounds struck his helm and visor. A large crack appeared and then spread, obscuring his vision. He was tempted to raise the shattered piece, but he knew the crashed Bioray had breached the air seals of the station. He would see, but not for long.

I can fight, even if I can only see their shapes.

It might have been as well he couldn’t see because a pair of Biorays now swept into the cavernous tunnel. They landed and deposited nearly two hundred more warriors. This time most of them consisted of the bipedal warriors with blades and forearms. One of the Biorays then took off to give space for a third that dropped a trio of the walkers. The massive armored monsters set up station at the rear and brought their guns to bear on the Jötnar line. Olik spotted their movement, but there was precious little time to do anything different. He glanced back into the massive passage leading back to the heart of the base and the central plaza defended by Colonel Morato.

We need that second line!

Olik activated the video communication, and the face of Osk appeared.

“Commander, our line is getting hit hard, and we’re down to less than twenty percent of our ammunition.”

“I know,” she replied calmly.

The camera only showed her face, but he could see the flashes of gunfire highlighting the details of her cheeks as she spoke.

“Colonel Morato is holding the plaza. I have marine reserves already in post a hundred meters behind your position. Give me three more minutes, and then fall back in good order.”

“The ammunition?”

“It’s on the way. Six Rams will be with you in less than a minute.”

“Understood.”

Olik needed nothing more from her and certainly no explanation. Osk had earned the respect of her comrades in over a dozen battles. Only a fool would consider arguing with the first of her kind, a female Jötnar that was treated almost as a divine being amongst their race.

“We hold!” he growled to the rest of the Red Watch.

They barely moved, each standing like an armored statue, but all of them pouring gunfire into the passageway. If it had been men in the assault, the fight would have already been over. The foot soldiers of the Biomechs knew no fear, and they were mindless synthetic beasts, controlled either by instinct or directly from the Biomech AI Cores.

If only we could control them, or make them stop like in the War.

If was a vain wish though, as it had never again been repeated. The last days of the Uprising had seen the AI Core on Terra Nova turn on the Great Enemy. Only the direct wishes of the Core would prove able to control the warriors on the ground, and even the most advanced technology and decryption hardware had proven incapable of intercepting and modifying the data from these command centers.

The wall of dead now reached almost a meter in height. Large numbers of the creatures were in shattered heaps around the legs of the Alliance soldiers. Yet from the darkness they came, and the attack seemed to increase in ferocity, not less. Olik brought down three more when his weapon ran dry.

Damn it!

More clambered over the bodies, and he saw one of his brothers dragged to the ground. The enemy warriors hacked and stabbed at him and managed to tear off several pieces of the Alpha Armor. Even as they embedded their blades into his torso, the Jötnar lifted himself to one knee and picked up one of them as a club. He swung the howling creature and slammed it into the face of the second. The third lifted its arm to stab again, but Olik was now there. With a quick twist, he threw his right shoulder into the attack and smashed his plated fist through its face. Gore splattered his comrade, but instead of complaining, he spat out the blood and roared with laughter.

“Can you fight?” he asked.

The Jötnar strained and lifted his battered and badly damaged frame back to his feet. Blood ran freely from a deep gash in his upper torso, but he simply shook his head and stretched his shoulders.

“Yeah, where’s my gun?”

Olik looked down and found the weapon, or what remained of it. There were four dead Jötnar on the ground, and Olik unceremoniously tore off one of the Bulldog weapons and dropped it into the hands of the warrior.

“Better?”

He smiled in reply.

“Much.”

Movement caught Olik’s eye, and he twisted his head about to spot some four-legged robotic mules running down the passageway like a small group of horses. They were the pack version, and each had been fitted out with the large box units containing addition ammunition. He indicated to the nearest, and it turned slightly to run up and stop next to Olik. Its legs folded in, and it lowered to the ground as a stationary ammunition store.

Good timing, my little friend.

The other Rams, as they were known, moved into a position behind the rest of the fighters. Olik turned to his left and deactivated the second feed unit on his armor. It disconnected the current ammunition bin with a clunk. The feed rail dropped down, and he grabbed and then pushed it into the hopper section on the Ram. He had no time to remove an ammunition box and so left it fitted to the Ram. He turned back around just in time to see the next wave of machines and inhuman warriors surging over the bodies.

“I’ve got something for you!” he yelled, much to the amusement of his kin.

The massive shapes of the six-legged walkers moved to give away their intentions to close the distance. Even more worrying for Olik was the Jötnar sized shapes moving alongside them. At first he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, but two of them came out of the shadows, and it looked as though he was looking at his own reflection. The creatures were the same massive height and shape as him, yet these were clad from head to toe in dull black iron, or something at least that resembled it. Each carried a different kind of weapon, with some holding large guns, others a bizarre shoulder mounted rocket unit, and the majority with cruel curved blades.

“Monsters!” he hissed.

There was nothing that the Jötnar hated more than their kin that had been forced to serve the Biomechs. Olik and the others were free of the control of the Cores used by the Biomechs, yet their sympathy and hatred of their enthralled brothers was like no other feeling to them. Either they could be turned or they would die. For those that had been manufactured for war, it was almost always the latter of the two.

“No mercy!”

The sound of his gun was barely audible over the rest of the gunfire. It was the six-legged walkers that did the real damage in the end though. Unlike the weapons carried by the other warriors, the Biomechs had learned to fit larger systems to these machines. The great thump of large caliber automatic cannons filled the passageway. The first volley of their guns hit two of the Jötnar in the front rank and cut both of them down where that had been standing.

“Bastards!” Olik snapped.

He could only just make out their shapes far away, but he could see the streaks of gunfire and the status indicators that said two of his brothers were dead. He moved ahead as a score of the warriors ran in. Without giving them a moment’s thought, he grabbed one of the shattered arachnid machines and lifted it up in his armored left hand. The eight legs hung down lifelessly, but the shape itself covered over half of his body. Two of the creatures cut at his left, and he slammed his foot into the head of the nearest.

“Die, you filth!”

Another Jötnar hacked the second down. He did the same as Olik and picked up a turret section that had been blown off one of the walkers. In seconds, over half of the Jötnar had grabbed the fallen enemies’ remains and held them as a grisly shield to protect against incoming fire. One of them laughed, hurling a shattered warrior over his shoulder like a cloak and then grabbed another to push in front. More gunfire hammered into them, tearing holes deep into the flesh of the dead. Olik allowed himself a moment to smile as more blood splashed and splattered over him.

Yeah, that’s how we do it.

One of the other
Jötnar nodded in his direction before turning back to the fight.

“Commander Olik, you’re one of us now.”

He cut down two more enemies and looked down. Blood ran down his armor in such quantities the color of his armor had changed to a dull red. Even more blood ran down the cracked visor and thickened along the damaged section.

Red Watch indeed.

The smile on his face began to fade as watched the third of the massive walkers drop down over the bodies and landed just ten meters away. The multiple turrets fitted to its flanks swiveled about and pointed at his comrades. One in particular twisted back and forth before coming to a halt with the barrel pointing right at him. He pulled the trigger on his weapon, and to his bitter disappointment, the weapon jammed on a double feed.

“Typical!”

* * *

Teresa rolled to her side and immediately felt one of the articulated sections of her armor push against her flesh. Two hardened metal spikes slammed down a meter from her head, and a third made directly for her.

“Get down!” cried Captain Rivers.

The officer hurled himself at her, and they hit the ground in a mess on the floor. The metal spike struck the ground and embedded itself half a meter into the stone. The digging machine that had begun pushing its way through the ceiling had become stuck, and for whatever reason, the attack from that direction had floundered. Either because of their defensive fire, or some other fluke, the thing was immobile. The enemy had not stayed idle, however, and they had redoubled their efforts on three of the main arms. A second large group worked down from the upper levels over the base and tried to force their way through the winding passageways leading down to the plaza.

“How are we doing?” asked the Captain.

Teresa lifted herself up and opened up her visor to let in some air.

“We’re holding. One second, I need to speak with the Major.”

Captain Rivers nodded and moved off to the right to help those defending the barricades. With the attack above them rendered useless, only a trickle of the enemy warriors managed to find their way to the plaza. Even so, he would be damned if he’d let even one get too close. Teresa waited impatiently until the video of the Major appeared on her visor.

“Colonel,” he said smoothly.

“Major Terson. What is the status of the ship?”

“She’s ready, Colonel. All we need is the order.”

Teresa gulped in another mouthful of air and then reclosed her visor.

“Good, that’s what I wanted to hear. Standby and wait for the word.”

“Understood, good hunting, Colonel.”

Teresa didn’t really know the Major particularly well, but his reputation was outstanding in the Corps. More than that, of all her officers, he was the only one with a background in the Navy, having changed service halfway through his career to join the Marines. That knowledge and background was exactly what she thought she would need if the plan worked out as intended. Major Terson had come with the personal recommendation of General Rivers himself. He’d been working discreetly in the shadows with the other commanders to prepare her more secretive part of the operation ever since her talk with the Admiral. She’d also left Captain Tycho and Thompson with him to assist, and they had made rapid progress.

Good work, Major, damned good work.

If it hadn’t been for the violence in the plaza, she might have been able to calm down. The Biomechs had so far concentrated the bulk of their efforts on one of the legs of the base but still the odd straggler made it in from other parts. An emergency override kicked in from Admiral Churchill.

“Colonel Morato. Our surface guns forced back the next wave of landers. All we have to deal with it those that are already here.”

That was surprising news to her. At the last count, almost all of the surface guns had been eliminated. It hadn’t occurred to her that the commander of the outer defenses would have kept so many hidden. Her gut instinct would have been to use all of the defenses to stop the first wave. This was a cold, calculated plan, but it put a smile on her face.