Slaves of Hyperion (Star Crusades Uprising, Book 6) (16 page)

“All crew accounted for, Captain, looks like just the one shot against Thunderer,” explained the tactical officer.

The rumble of the engines increased as the Marine Transport pushed away from their current position with all the power that could be forced from the smaller engines. The large ship was equipped with powerful engines for long distance travel, but it took time to prepare and fire them up as well as a large number of internal procedures that must be carried out prior to them being activated.

“Is this what that bastard in the brig threatened?” he snapped, his rage almost uncontrollable.

“He didn’t give specifics,” said a resolute General Rivers who until now had kept quiet. His job was to command the overall operation and to plan the ground phase of any missions. The running of the ships was out of his jurisdiction and his knowledge.

“That was clearly a message, though. Can they hit us again?” he added.

The tactical officer already had three screens showing the weapon and pages of data from the attack. He looked over his shoulder for a brief moment.

“So far it seems to be a magnetically shielded fusion bomb. It must be controllable though and big, very big. At least the size of a shuttle and well armoured. Based on the rate of assent and its ability to track and hit a cruiser moving at speed, I suggest we need to leave orbit and fast. I cannot give you an accurate limit to its range.”

Two of the displays shut off, and the rumble from the engines stopped. Captain Cornwall looked over to the status indicators to his right. They showed that two of the powerplants had shutdown, and a large number of systems were following.

“What in damnation is happening to my ship?” he demanded.

General Rivers looked at the screen and to the Captain.

“I think it’s time we had a little chat with our guest, don’t you?”

As if to emphases his point, the mainscreen flickered and went black. The few computer systems remaining showed garbage or corrupted data and imagery. Even more worrying was the fact that remaining power system was starting to overheat due to the heavy requirements now being placed on it. The Captain starting issuing orders via the computer system while simultaneously calling over to General Rivers.

“General, we’ve got problems here. Can you get down to the brig and negotiate something, anything? We can’t afford to lose another ship out here.”

General Rivers was already on his feet and holding one of the many side rails to stop him from falling. He tapped his communications unit and reached Sergeant Morato.

“Get your entire troop down to the brig. We have things to discuss with Mr Pontus.”

He dragged himself to the door and looked back briefly at the confusion in the CIC. It reminded him of the worst moment in the middle of battles, especially some of the situations he and the Admiral had been involved in. The Captain was competent, but he was in no way a match for the old Admiral Jarvis. He sighed and dragged himself out into the corridor.

“Come with me, to the brig!” he said to his waiting guards.

The status of Earth reached its lowest point with the founding of the Centauri Alliance. With each colony now providing senators to the Terra Nova, the old worlds became less and less significant. With the first colonies established at Epsilon Eridani, Gliese 876 and Procyon the significance of Earth would not change until the great scouring, an event that made even the Great Uprising pale into insignificance.

The Decline of Earth

Pontus waited in his cell and listened with pleasure at the sound of the shouting and confusion aboard the Santa Maria. He’d expected no better than to be placed in the most secure part of the ship, and the shouting from some of the crew about the loss of a cruiser merely improved his mood. The cell itself was basic and protected by a strong, triple-bolted security system that was monitored by a central command station. The two marine guards stationed at his door wore their armoured suits and carried the by now well-known L48 rifles. He sneered at them as he remembered some of the more bloody encounters he faced in the last decade with men just like them.

Insects,
worthless non-believers with nothing to commend them other than blind obedience to their parasitic capitalism. They even refuse the salvation of our holy mother, Echidna, she that is many.

He lowered his head reverently at the mere thought of his God and master.

By the time General Rivers and his entourage arrived, he was thoroughly enjoying himself. The Marine officer evidently wasn’t wasting time as he ordered the door to be opened and marched right in to face him. Pontus was tempted to strike. It was probably the best opportunity he’d come across to remove this troublesome man, but he had his orders.

“General Rivers, how nice to see you. I trust you now understand the gravity of our meeting? I was not joking.”

He spotted the movement of the man’s arm, and his stomach muscles tenses up at the expected blow. He could have avoided it if he wanted, but it would have been futile. The General was surrounded by loyal guards, and all probably desperate to strike him down. No, he took the attack and dropped down to his knees and wheezed. They waited for him to recover and stand back up before any of them spoke. One marine leaned in and whispered into his ear. The General looked even angrier but resisted striking again.

“Ah, I see,” he said with obvious relish. One of the marines took a step closer, but his Lieutenant grabbed his shoulder and pulled him off. Pontus smiled as though thanking him before continuing.

“By now you will understand that I was being entirely truthful with you. I have no interest in seeing your people suffer. Be under no illusions though, Echidna will not let your ships leave this system, and any further attempts to circumvent her will, will have severe consequences for the rest of your little fleet.”

General Rivers shook his head angrily.

“Hyperion is an Alliance world and nothing to do with your group of terrorists. You will surrender your forces immediately, or we will be forced to direct tactical atomics onto the surface.”

Pontus merely chortled at the suggestion. The General recognised the self-importance he had seen on other members of the cult and knew the man could not be reasoned with. He decided to try and learn as much as he could.

“Who are you, Pontus? What are you doing out here?”

Pontus nodded and scratched his cheek as he considered the questions.

“I am one of the Children of Echidna, like my brother Typhon. We serve her and await her coming.”

He grinned at the obvious confusion in the face of the General.

“She needs workers to finish our great temple, and your war has provided workers in the thousands for us.”

Alarms triggered inside the ship, and a marine ran inside the brig section with obvious terror on his face. A crewman carrying a mobile engineer’s datapad, a large device that allowed remote access to certain management parts of the ship, followed him. The sound of what appeared to be gunfire came from a long distance inside the hull of the ship.

“Sir! We need to move you, now!” he said, grabbing the General. The General easily brushed the man’s arm aside and looked back to the sneering face of Pontus. He stepped closer and pointed his right hand at his face.

“What do you want from us?”

Before he could speak, the marine tried to grab him again, but this time was stopped by a marine guard. The two started a rowdy disagreement while the General concentrated on the prisoner.

“Echidna needs labour, and the people on your remaining ships will be a useful asset. Stay in orbit, and wait for our transports to arrive to take you to the surface. My guards are coming for me. Refusal to let me leave, or any attempt to leave your current position, and your ships will meet the same as your first cruiser.”

General Rivers’ guard moved closer, but the Sergeant of his guard unit leaned in and whispered.

“Sir, we have a major situation here. Machines in the secondary landing bay, looks like a boarding party of some kind. We need to get you out of here.”

General Rivers looked to Pontus, but the Sergeant looked adamant.

“Sir, now!” he said as firmly as he dared.

The General stepped back and towards the door. A group of marines, all in their PDS armour and carrying carbines ran past him and took up positions at the end of the corridor. He was convinced he could hear the metallic clunk of machines moving, but it could easily have been his imagination. The engineer turned his device around to show him.

“Sir, look. They are remotely shutting down our systems, one by one. Weapons and propulsion are down. Life support and gravity will be next.”

He looked back to the guards in the brig and nodded to the man at the security station.

“Release him,” he ordered, turning to the other guards.

“You will put him in irons. He’s coming with us to the secondary landing bay.”

The marines and crew went about their business to release and shackle Pontus while General Rivers assessed the situation. He looked carefully at the systems failure on the engineer’s equipment.

“I don’t understand. Most of these systems are hardwired. How are they gaining access and controlling them?”

The engineer shrugged.

“The only option is that they have something or someone on the inside. I have been locking down the subsystems one at a time and posting crew to manage them at each station. It takes time, but so far I’ve completely isolated the last remaining powerplant.”

Pontus was now out of his cell, fitted with restraints and a locked collar attached to a metal rod.

“How long until you can lock down the entire ship?” he asked.

At least three hours, and that’s assuming I can reach the main conduit here,” he explained while pointing to the section of the ship.

Captain Carlos, commander of the First Company and four more of his marines arrived and ran to the doorway. He was a decorated veteran of Euryale and as loyal and experienced an officer as existed in the Corps.

“Sir, the Captain sent me to retrieve you and bring you back to the CIC before we lose control of the ship.”

General Rivers shook his head and pointed to the map. It showed a bright green schematic of the ship and its primary systems. He tapped the primary conduit.

“No, either we regain control of our systems or we start falling into the atmosphere. This conduit is on the other side of the secondary landing bay, right?”

The engineer nodded.

“I thought so. Right, you all come with me, and get Pontus out at the front. If they want something to shoot at, they can have him.”

He looked back to the engineer.

“Can you reach the CIC on that thing?”

The man shook his head furiously.

“No, Sir. After they breached the habitation seals, we lost all internal communications, and that includes data access to all networked and connected systems. That’s why the Captain sent out engineering teams like us to restore and protect what’s left.”

“I see,” he replied slowly.

He looked back at his men as he formulated a quick plan in his head. It seemed simple to him. Either they ejected the boarding party and restored their systems, or they let Pontus and his people leave to achieve the same. Either way, he was going to be there and if possible, he would make the man pay.

“Right, to the secondary landing bay, now!” he growled.

With that order, the first small group of marines pushed off ahead. They took the shackled Pontus with them and pushed him out to the front like a mine detector. About ten metres further back was the General and his personal guard unit. They made quick progress as they worked their way there. Unlike the main bays, this one was actually located in the retaining habitation ring. It was very difficult to actually land inside but perfect for the launch of small lifeboats. General Rivers assumed the only possible way of landing there successfully would be a forced entry with drones of some kind. The only surprising thing was that none of the compartments had explosively decompressed. They moved passed two crew, one was bleeding was a gash on the shoulder.

“What’s happening back there?” asked one of his marines.

“Machines, in the habitation ring, and they’re killing anybody they find. They...they are coming this way!” said the young woman, her voice trembling.