Machine Gods (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 2) (11 page)

“
What happened?”
asked Khan.

Spartan looked
around the corridor and started to recall the gunfight and their
failed attempt to escape. They’d been staggering and falling as the
engines powered up before all had been thrown down. He could still
feel the gravitational pull as they had accelerated to wherever
they were going. Each of his operatives finally stood up, apart
from Porter who remained on the ground, grasping at his leg
wound.

“
Well, I think you
can assume they managed to get the engines going. What we need to
know is, where the hell are we?”

He checked once more
that his team was intact. Lovett and two of his own operatives were
all off to the right and getting up. Upon seeing his commander, the
former marine called out.

“Spartan, we’ve got a problem.”

“Really?” replied Khan in a deeply sarcastic
tone.

He walked over and
at seeing the Porter, indicated for his own people to tend to the
wounded man. He then quickly checked his carbine before reaching
Spartan and Khan. Like Spartan, he wore his rugged complexion well
for a man in his forties. Years of Marine Corps training had
indoctrinated him with a firm interest in keeping both mind and
body fit. He’d opened his own visor, and his face was visible to
all of them.

“
The last signal
from
ANS Serenity warned of a Spacebridge
activating.”

“You think we went through?” asked Spartan.

Lovett shrugged.

“Maybe, it would explain why we’re picking up no
signals of any kind on this ship.”

“
Yeah, I wondered
about that. Where’s the rest of the crew? Before the engines
powered up we were attacked by those creatures as well as the
T’Kari Raiders.”

“
No,”
Kahn said in a firm voice, “the T’Kari Raiders
only fired on us when we shot at them. They killed one of the
creatures that was heading for us.”

The other two
m
arines paused for a moment as they
considered this piece of information. Spartan was especially
surprised as he could only remember trying to shoot them, but he
had no doubt in his mind of what Khan had seen.

“Maybe they were aiming for us instead?”

Lovett moved his head back a few inches in
surprise.

“
T’Kari making
targeting errors, are you serious?”

They were
interrupted by the sound of gunfire somewhere off in the distance.
Shouting followed it, but the words were unintelligible. Spartan
looked at the ground, desperately looking for his
weapon.

“
Everyone, arm
yourselves. This doesn’t sound good!”

They spread out,
examining the damaged equipment and broken bodies of the Biomech
creatures to find their missing equipment. All but one of the
rifles were quickly uncovered, leaving just Porter unarmed. Spartan
unbuckled his pistol and tossed it to the injured man.

He caught the gun in
his left hand and
pulled out the
magazine, checked the ammunition, and then readied the weapon. It
made use of the same technology as the coilgun carbines used by the
rest of the team but slimmed down into a pistol-sized weapon. He’d
heard of the weapon, but as far as he was aware, they were only
just out of the testing phase and not even ready for Alliance
special forces.

“
Nice piece,”
h
e said quietly, while wondering how
Spartan had obtained it.

The sound from
inside the ship continued but maintained a similar level of volume.
Spartan looked to both Khan and Lovett. They looked equally
confused at the level of noise.

“Well, what do you think?” asked Spartan.

Khan stepped away from the wreckage of their
previous fight and looked further down the corridor in the
direction of the gunfight. He turned his head around and threw back
a smug grin.

“There’s only one way to find out.”

Spartan agreed and
bent down next to Porter, indicating for Lovett to move closer. The
man was evidently drugged and slightly confused. Spartan tapped the
panels on his left arm, and a hatch opened to reveal a status
indicator. It was designed for medical diagnosis and confirmed the
suit had pumped in the correct levels of painkillers.

“
Hey, Porter,
i
t doesn’t look so bad. I want you,
Lovett, and the other three to secure this area. Wait until we get
back, understood?”

Porter nodded weakly
to his commander, his eyelids fluttering as he did his very best to
stay awake. Lovett, on the other hand, looked frustrated at what he
had just heard.

“You want us to stay back and wait? What if you run
into trouble?”

Spartan smiled grimly.

“
If Khan and I can’t
handle it, then we have seriously big problems. I’ll take Isamu as
well. He’ll be handy if things need blowing up.”

The young operative
grinned at the comment but not sure if it was actually intended as
a complement. Spartan leaned in closer to Lovett so that only he
could hear his next words.

“
If something
happens to us, it will fall to you to get the rest out alive. I’m
counting on you.”

James Lovett, the
APS operative, friend, and former marine saluted back in style to
which the two of them were most familiar with. Spartan straightened
up and returned the salute. It was a simple gesture, but to the
other operatives it marked the distinction between those that
worked together and those that had served together in the past.
Only Khan, Lovett and Spartan could claim that bond at this time.
Spartan looked to the others and moved off into the corridor. Khan
stomped alongside him, his massive feet crunching on the ground,
and his weapon at his waist but ready for action. Isamu almost had
to jog to keep up. The corridor appeared to run the length of the
ship and included narrow doorways at fixed intervals on both sides
that led to a variety of different rooms. Isamu moved off to
examine the first pair of doors. There was a surgery on one side,
and on the right lay a small medical bay with a dozen beds. They
were both empty of either people or equipment. He looked over to
Spartan and Khan.

“Empty, nothing in either of them.”

They pushed on and
past a set of security rooms. These were of more interest and while
Isamu and Khan guarded the corridor, Spartan slipped inside one of
them. It was shaped almost like an upturned mushroom, with lockers
and cases fitted to the curved walls. There were empty weapon racks
and an observation station that appeared to be nonfunctional. One
light flickered on a console, but as he reached out to touch it,
the light flashed three times and went out.

Weird,
he thought,
surprised.

Spartan moved back
into the corridor and was immediately taken aback by the sounds
coming from no more than fifty meters away. It was the unmistakable
howl of Biomechs as they stabbed and thrashed at an unseen foe.
Lovett and Isamu were already tucked behind the nearest bulkhead,
with their carbines trained in the direction of the sound. Spartan
kept low, checked his weapon, and then looked in the same
direction. About three more doors along the lights were all out,
but there were black shapes moving.

Your
visor
, you fool!

He activated the
setting
, and the visor dropped back down,
along with its plethora of readings from the suit’s inbuilt
sensors. Just a quick selection with the retina-based scanner tool
allowed him to select the different imaging modes. Thermal quickly
picked up body shapes, but when he overlaid infrared, he could see
a confused but terrifying image. A group of the Biomech creatures
was busy thrashing away at the shapes of four humanoid
warriors.

“
Uh, Spartan, are
you seeing this?” Lovett asked.

He must have been
using the same vision modes as he quickly spotted the shapes out
into the distance. He pointed with one hand, and Spartan
concentrated his vision on the four humanoids. At first he had as
hard time identifying them, due to their thermal signature being
effectively camouflaged, presumably with technology of some
kind.

Who the hell has that kind of equipment?

As soon as he
thought it
, he knew the
answer.

“
It’s got to be the
T’Kari, maybe the ones we saw earlier?”

Khan took aim with
his weapon but didn’t fire. Spartan watched for only a few more
seconds before satisfying him that the T’Kari were truly in combat
and that it wasn’t some sort of ruse.

“
Okay, we move in
fast and clear the area. Do not engage the T’Kari unless fired
upon. Understood?”

The two nodded in
agreement and as one, the three of them covered the short distance
toward the battle. As they moved nearer, it became obvious that the
humanoids were fighting a losing battle. One was either dead or
badly wounded; the others were falling back and firing short bursts
to keep the creatures back. They moved so fast that by the time
Spartan had opened fire, they were almost back to where he was
standing. The gunfire from Spartan and Isamu took chunks out of the
first Biomech and sent it crashing to the ground just as it was
lunging for one of the alien humanoids. The other three jumped to
the sides and accelerated toward Spartan.

“I have this!” shouted Khan.

He emerged from the
cover and with his right arm lifted, aimed directly for the
creatures. Unlike the carbines used by the other operatives, his
was attached directly to him armor and benefitted from both the
stability the suit offered, as well as the larger capacity magazine
that fed from inside the armor. With a bright flash, he filled the
corridor with mag rounds, aiming directly for the creatures’
torsos. Although the others carried on shooting, it was the
continuous and accurate fire from his gun that brought down two of
the beasts. The third managed to get close enough to leap at
them.

“
Get down!” cried
Spartan, and both he and Isamu rolled to the side to avoid the
monstrous thing. It lashed out but only Khan remained, and he
refused to give ground. It landed directly on top of him and
twisted his arm to the side to avoid the gunfire. He staggered back
but incredibly managed to stay upright.

“
Burn, you bastard!”
he called out, dropping down on his left leg to move his center of
gravity. The two pushed against each other, but Khan was by far the
most skilled. He finally managed to upright the creature so that it
lost its balance and collapsed onto its side. Khan ripped out a
savage weapon that looked more like a medieval mace than anything
more complex and brought it down hard against the thing. With a
splatter of blood and gore, he killed it but continued striking;
making absolutely certain it was dead. He stood up to check on his
comrades.

“Spartan, you alive?” he called out, with barely a
breath out of place.

The other two APS
operatives emerged from the dark sides of the
corridor
, both covered in blood from
Khan’s savage and violent assault. They kept their weapons raised
though, aiming them directly at the three standing T’Kari Raiders.
Spartan moved in front of them and lowered his weapon, lifting his
left hand in a submissive gesture. The Raiders looked at each other
and spoke several words before also lowering their
firearms.

“Well, this is interesting, don’t you think?” he
asked sarcastically.

The six stood in
silence, each looking at their opposite numbers and probably
thinking exactly the same thing. Isamu had never seen their kind up
close before, but both Khan and Spartan had on several occasions,
not least when they’d fought alongside them on Hades nearly two
years earlier. Though identical in build to their kinsmen
throughout New Charon, there was something very different about
them. It took a few seconds before Spartan realized their armor was
scored and marked from attacks. At first, he assumed it had been
from the battle, but the more he looked, it was clear the damage
had been caused over time. Their armor was dark grey or black, and
none of them carried T’Kari issue weapons.

“What do we do?” asked Isamu.

Khan stood out in
the open, his mace in his hand still dripping blood onto the floor.
The Raiders looked at each other once more. One lifted his hand and
beckoned for them to follow. He turned and walked away with the
other two directly behind him.

“Well?” asked Isamu.

Khan looked to Spartan with bemusement.

“
Follow them, but
don’t get too close. They may not be great in hand-to-hand, but
they are damned fast, and they might have friends down
there.”

They followed at a
safe distance, keeping their weapons low but doing their best to
not look too threatening. They moved past a number of doorways
until finally reaching a set of three wide airlock seals. The
leader of the group said something to Spartan, and then did
something with his hand on the door. It hissed and all three
hatches unscrewed to reveal the lavish interior of a starship.
Dozens of screens, computers, and equipment filled the interior but
appeared to be completely empty of people. The Raiders moved inside
and made directly to the front where the curved black wall showed
line after line of green text. Spartan stopped and examined it
carefully. He’d seen the T’Kari writing before, but none of this
made much sense to him.