Star Crusades Nexus: Book 03 - Heroes of Helios (23 page)

“Yeah, more soldiers. These guys are different though, dark yellow uniforms, caps, and firearms; no armor, helmets, or cloaks. I’d say these are local soldiers. They look second-rate to me.”

The Lieutenant watched them spilling out from the vehicles. Where the previous warriors had moved silently and precisely, these soldiers were the exact opposite. They were noisy, and there was much chattering between them. One of them wore a darker uniform with a thick braided cloak and shouted at them as they moved into neat lines.

“Okay, that must be the leader.”

Hunn took aim with his carbine, but Thai Qiu-Li reached out and pushed the barrel upward.

“Are you mad? Look at them.”

He did, but he couldn’t see quite what she was referring to. Almost thirty of these poorly trained solders now stood in lines listening to the words of their leader. More wheeled transports moved at the end of the ruined street and deposited similar warriors at other key points. Now Hunn understood.

“Okay, I see. Either we stall them, and hope Jack can save the day…or…we rush that tower.”

Thai Qiu-Li pointed at the shrouded tower far away, “We don’t have a choice; it has to be the tower.”

Rossen and Hunn both agreed.

“Okay then, let’s do it!” said Lieutenant Rossen.

To their surprise, she rushed out through the door and vanished into the brownish fog. They both tensed, each expecting a terrible barrage of gunfire to cut her down, but the soldiers continued listening to orders from their officer.

“Hell, let’s go before they actually do something!” laughed Hunn, and then all three of them were in the street and running to the other side as fast as their legs could carry them. All three expected the sounds of Helion voices to blast out through the ruins of the district, but instead, they successfully crossed the street, directly into a deserted bazaar. The buildings were no more than two stories high there, and tables and goods were scattered in front of them. There were no bodies, not even injured Helions. Lieutenant Rossen spotted an animal about the size of a small dog picking its way through a broken case. It was the first alien creature she’d seen so far and almost stopped as Thai Qiu-Li crashed into her back and sent them both sprawling.

“Stay down!” barked Hunn, throwing himself against the doorway of the nearest abandoned shop.

One of the larger aircraft swooped low overhead and moved off toward the building they had just vacated. Yellow flames flickered from underneath as a dozen gun barrels targeted the structure, peppering it with heated thermal rounds.

“They’re busy. Let’s go!” shouted Rossen.

They needed no further encouragement and sprinted down the bazaar, slipping and leaping to avoid the myriad of objects lying in their path. Every few minutes another aircraft rushed overhead, depositing more soldiers or firing upon an unseen enemy. With each step, the three seemed to move further away from the sound of violence until after nearly thirty minutes of continuous movement, they reached the outer suburbs of a rundown shantytown. People of a dozen races occupied the buildings. They were badly dressed, and many looked at the three marines with suspicion. A burned out six-wheeled military vehicle lay on its side in the main street, and around it three Hellions had erected a store selling food.

“Slow down,” said Lieutenant Rossen, “We’re getting a little too much attention.”

It was easier said than done, however, as Hunn was taller and more massive than any creature or person they had seen on the entire world. Even so, the locals appeared less than angry toward them, and a number of the sellers even handed out food as they walked on past. Hunn cleared his throat, only now realizing how parched he was.

“Is it me, or is this place stranger than we were told?”

Thai Qiu-Li looked to the left at a female Helion, dressed in nothing but a single layer of dull gray cloth wrapped around her body. She was skinning some kind of small animal on a worktop. The citizen lowered her head in recognition and then carried on with her work.

“Yeah, they seem reluctant to speak with us. There’s no hostility though.”

“You were saying,” said the Lieutenant in a sarcastic tone.

They all stopped, looking ahead at a sight that shocked them all. Three Helion males, presumably warriors, stood blocking their path. They carried weapons on their shoulders they had just pulled down and placed so that one end touched the ground. They wore a dark, hand spun fabric that covered them from neck to knee. They carried bandoliers hung loosely across their bodies, and their feet were covered with rough leather boots with metallic plates facing the sides. But wasn’t them that surprised the marines. It was the large mechanical beast waiting behind them. The shape was like that of a beetle, but lifted up on its front legs to make it taller. The legs functioned as arms or legs, and where a hand should be was wicked looking spikes.

“Biomechs,” hissed Hunn, reaching for his carbine.

Lieutenant Rossen stepped sideways and dropped to one knee, simultaneously raising her carbine. Only Thai Qiu-Li remained as she was, and instead of lifting her weapon, she pointed at the machine.

“It’s safe,” she said, but her tone wasn’t convincing.

The three Helions laughed to each other but did nothing that might suggest violence. Even the machine stayed completely still. Hunn stepped closer and noticed the corrosions on its frame. One of the Helions moved aside so that he could approach the thing from just a meter away, which was when he spotted the holes burned in its tiny torso. The metal was old, much older than would be reasonable for a currently functioning machine.

“What is this?” she asked.

The Helion looked at her and then continued talking in their peculiar tongue.

“What is it doing here?” asked Thai Qiu-Li.

Hunn walked around, examining it from behind. He tapped it with his carbine as if half expecting the thing to come to life. Then he spotted the welding work on its feet that fused the machine to a large metal block in the ground.

“It’s a trophy of some kind.”

Thai Qiu-Li reached out and touched the metal. It was warmer than she expected, probably because of the higher temperature on this part of the planet than she was used to.

“Perhaps.”

Lieutenant Rossen looked past the machine and at the row after row of poorly made housing running into the distance. About half a kilometer away stood the tall obelisk, the largest building in sight.

“It must be a trophy or something. We need to get to that building and fast.”

Another of the aircraft hissed toward them, but then something unexpected happened. As it reached the poor suburbs of the Zathee, it lifted up, banked to the left, and then moved away. A number of those in the streets waved their arms at it, and several spat on the ground. A female wearing heavy cloth rushed out and lifted a large shoulder mounted device into position. She aimed it in the rough direction of the aircraft, but it was already well out of the way. The younger Zathee hooted with pleasure.

“Yeah, this place is definitely not what we were told,” she finally answered Hunn’s question.

“Keep moving. I want to be at that building within the hour. We have to let the fleet know what’s going on down here before we get stuck here…permanently.”

They followed a rough road that disappeared under a massive pipeline covered in thick scorch marks and corrosion. Once underneath the road, they continued on until vanishing somewhere near to their objective. More Zathee went about their business, as well as other people the marines didn’t recognize from the very basic intelligence reports they’d been briefed on prior to their arrival. Some of them looked like extreme examples of Helions, but others were certainly different races or some peculiar offshoot. The number of people increased, as did the amount of dilapidated looking vehicles on the poorly maintained roads. Then, as they emerged out of the underpass, they arrived at the base of the black tower. They stood in front of it and looked up at the gaunt open framework. From a distance, it had looked like an occupied building of some sort, but that was now clearly not the case.

“What now?” Hunn asked.

Lieutenant Rossen looked to her left and right until spotting an entry point. There were no Helions, or anybody else for that matter, near the tower, and large parts of the base were covered in unrecognizable graffiti.

“Look,” said Hunn.

They followed his stare and saw a number of corroded turrets halfway up the structure. Gantries ran about the place, but it had clearly not been used in a very long time.

“It must be an anti-aircraft tower,” said the Lieutenant.

“Maybe,” he replied.

The Lieutenant walked away toward the boarded up passageway on the left-hand side. She noticed the others weren’t following and pointed at it without stopping.

“It doesn’t matter what it’s for.”

She held up her secpad.

“I’m getting signal errors and a possible match in orbit already. We need to get higher.”

“Signal errors?” asked Thai Qiu-Li, “That means ships are detected, but there are too many parity errors for useful communication.”

Rossen tore away the loose panels of metal and stepped onto the creaking gantry running around the outside of the structure. It had a steep incline of nearly thirty degrees.

“Come on then. The quicker we get a signal, the quicker we can land some marines down here.”

* * *

The habitation block was unlike anything Jack had seen before. Apart from its colossal size, the exterior was built more like a fortress than somewhere to live. The Zathee that had helped them in their escape moved inside without a moment’s hesitation and then vanished into the darkness. Jack watched them go and tried to chase after them, but they were nowhere to be seen. A vast door, lifted in front of them, revealing a rectangular doorway wide enough to fly a marine troop transport inside.

“What is this place?” he asked.

Salene walked past him and to the open doorway.

“We are at Habitation Block 73. This is allocated housing for the Zathee.”

Jack looked inside, but it took a few seconds for his eyes to start to adjust. There were scores of people moving about, and no one showed them the single bit of interest. He walked after her but kept his hand low and near his carbine. Not even Wictred seemed to get their attention.

“Allocated?”

“Yes, the Zathee depend on the Helion state for housing and employment. These blocks are where they live. Each day transports take them to the labor sites.”

There was no sense of shame in her voice; in fact, Jack sensed she was actually quite proud of what they could see. She carried on, the other two moved right behind her, and into the entrance of the block. Inside they walked into what looked like a vast plaza. Unlike the opulence of the tall spires and towers in the ‘civilized’ parts of Helios, this place was barren, consisting of little more than bare walls and floors. Multiple elevators running up into higher levels serviced the corners of the block. Salene looked out to their right with barely concealed interest. Jack followed her eyes and then saw a pair of the Animosh. He grabbed her and spun her around.

“What are you doing? We need to avoid them!” he said quietly but edged with anger.

She looked at him nervously, nodding toward the elevator off to their left.

“We need to go up to the higher levels.”

She pulled away, but Jack held onto her.

“Why?”

She leaned in close to his face so that he could smell her skin and feel every imperfection on her face.

“Because that’s where it says to go.”

She held up the small device. The ring of lights had stopped, and on the flat underside a series of unfamiliar letters glowed in a faint bluish light.

“What is there?” asked Wictred.

Salene smiled with a grin that was unlike anything they had seen from her before.

“V'Caani.”

She moved away from them and to the elevator. Jack looked at Wictred, but he did nothing other than shrug. Jack could see the two Animosh moving in their direction and chased after Salene.

“Move it, Wictred. We’ve got company.”

Prometheus was a changed world following the establishment of the Interstellar Network. In the past, ships were forced to navigate the storms that would increase their journey time to months, sometimes even up to a year. With three more Rift generators operating by the time of the Orion Expedition, it was possible to travel to Prime, Hyperion, or Terra Nova in a matter of hours. The fiery industrial world became an even more important location for the Alliance, as it developed into the transport nexus of the Centauri Alliance’s holdings in Alpha and Proxima Centauri.