Machine Gods (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 2) (14 page)

“
I’m getting tired
of secrets, hidden enemies, and agents.”

He turned and looked to those watching and
listening.

“
Who the hell is
behind all of this, and what do they want?”

The hall fell
silent. It was a question so many of them had wanted to know, some
for years, others for decades. Teresa felt uncomfortable, but then
the mood seemed to change. At first it was the Marine Corps
officers, then almost to a man they started asking the same
questions.

General Rivers
nodded at their words and moved to a position directly next to
the
T’Kari leaders. The aliens, who until
now had seemed calm and confident, were starting to move about.
Flustered looking T’Kari guards fidgeted at the walls as if
expecting trouble.

“Quiet, please!” he called out with great authority
in his voice. He then looked over to Gun.

“
Commander Gun,
leader of the Jötnar, and a great friend to the Alliance. I know
you have questions, but this expedition must get moving and
quickly. Please, let them finish their briefing.”

Gun considered stepping back but then shook his
head.

“
No, General. Who is
this Enemy? Who was on Hades, and what do they want? Where do they
live, and when are we going to end this?”

The room was deadly
silent, with just the deep breaths of Gun punctuating the silence.
Ayndir lifted her hands and beckoned to one of her assistants. He
approached, and they spoke in agitated tones for a few seconds
before indicating for the General to approach. He spoke for almost
a minute and then moved off to the side to make contact with
somebody on his secpad. The T’Kari leaders stood silently, waiting
while the General spoke in hushed tones to an unseen figure. This
went on for several minutes before he moved back and simply nodded
to Ayndir. The leader of the T’Kari pressed a button. The image
changed to show a dark outline of what appeared to be some kind of
bipedal monster. It was tall, thin, and its multiple limbs hung
down low from its close fitting armor. There were only a handful of
people in that open space that recognized the figure for what it
was.

“
Echidna,”
Gun hissed, surprised and angry.

“
These are the foot
soldiers of the Enemy, and you discovered the remains of one of
them on Hades itself,” Ayndir explained.

Echidna had started off as a simple religious symbol
that had been adopted during the Uprising. Only in the last days of
the War did it become clear that the demon was something more.
Rumors from the marines that fought on Hyperion, suggested the
demon herself had led monsters and mechanical beasts in a violent
last stand. Only those that fought there ever truly knew, and no
video or still imagery of the event existed in the public domain in
the following months. Some of those veterans were driven mad by the
things they saw in that last battle, but as always, it was the
demon Echidna they spoke of.

Holy Icons

“
It was the image of
Echidna, the half snake, half woman that had been found in
iconography for decades now.
The sight of
the demonic looking monster kept everybody at the summit
enthralled. Khan and Spartan had seen the creature first hand
through the Rift on Hyperion. Teresa had seen the shape only
briefly, as it had entered the human worlds, just as it had been
destroyed by the implosion. At the sight of the beast, Gun became
almost excited. Teresa, on the other hand, felt very different
emotions while Gun’s blood pumped with excitement at the
opportunity to face a mighty foe. Teresa felt nothing but worry.
The creature she’d seen so briefly nearly two decades earlier sent
old memories stirring through her body.

“
Foot soldiers?” she
said, without thinking.

Gun looked over to
her with a grin.
His initial surprise at
being shown the image had quickly changed to excitement at the
sight of something so strong and powerful. She hadn’t seen him that
excited in a long time.

“Yeah, now that is an enemy worth fighting!”

The audience became
arous
ed as a dozen T’Kari entered the
room and formed up around a cloth-covered column. Teresa hadn’t
even noticed it before, due to the low-level lighting in this part
of the hall. Ayndir looked to them and nodded. Her people pulled on
cords, and the fabric fell away like silk. Beneath the covers
lurked the dark, twisted shape of some horrific monster. Many of
those present recoiled at the sight of the thing. It was nearly
twice the height of the Jötnar, standing almost six meters, and its
torso was a sickening fusion of woman and mechanical beast. It was
bipedal but a long serpentine tale coiled around it and along the
ground. It had the limbs of the machines they had fought on
Hyperion, but the body was closer to Gun and his Biomechs
followers.

“
This is the beast
you discovered, and we suspect it was this very machine that
controlled this sector before your people destroyed the Rift,”
explained the T’Kari.

All eyes were on the
great demon.

“
We recovered the
body a year after and placed it here. Look at it; this is the face
of the Enemy, one of their trueborn soldiers. In the past, it was
rare to see one. They are masters of deceit and manipulation and
use others to fight their battles for them. There are none better
at biological manipulation and fusion with machines.”

General Rivers
looked at the monster for some
time
before taking over the briefing. He was one of the few there that
had not been taken by surprise, and Teresa could only assume that
was because this had all been preplanned days, perhaps weeks
earlier.

“
This is all very
interesting
, and you can read the full
details upon your return. The President already has this data, and
it is the reason we are all here.”

He took in a deep breath.

“
Most of you have
already seen the reports from High Command
, and you’ve already been briefed on the basics on this
mission. The Alliance is stabilizing, and our new colonies out here
in New Charion, but also back in Alpha Centauri, are thriving. We
have a few minor problems, like the troubles on Carthago, but in
general, we are doing better than ever. We’ve made contact with the
T’Kari and even our battle-brothers, the Jötnar, are creating
successful colonies with or without our help. This is a golden age
for all of us and our citizens, and our politicians want it to stay
that way.”

He waited, watching them all carefully.

“
But...there is an
evil out here, an evil that turns brother against brother, and as
we have seen from the images of the T’Kari, they will stop at
nothing until entire societies are reduced to ash.”

His face altered
slightly as he spoke and described the devastation wrought by their
enemies; he almost seemed to snarl.

“
Our policy until
now has been one of enlightened self-interest. We will get involved
when, and if, it is to our mutual advantage.”

He continued speaking while Teresa whispered quietly
to Gun.

“Mutual advantage?”

Gun sniggered and
then spotted a marine officer glare at him. He looked directly back
at the short man and raised a questioning eyebrow. The man looked
away. Gun turned back to see Teresa shaking her head at him and
indicating at the General who continued to speak.

“
The discovery of
these new Spacebridges in the Orion Nebula, change the strategic
situation drastically. This means the enemy could have the capacity
to strike at any point, and that leaves us vulnerable and at a
disadvantage. Ayndir assures me this secondary level of short-range
Rifts would take months, perhaps even years for ships to navigate.
She also says they would not allow a ship to reach Helios or any of
the old empires. Only the long-range Rifts they, and the other
races, built have the power and positioning to allow that kind of
travel.”

He looked out to the
group of assembled officers, recognizing some of their faces, some
by reputation and others personally.

“
Even so, what if
any of the enemy’s ships from this sector were able to appear
outside of Kerberos, or Terra Nova? The T’Kari assure us this could
not happen, but can we take that chance? In hours they could be
landing legions of troops, dropping bombs, or destroying shipyards.
We have neither the manpower nor the technology to repel attacks
like these.”

A
marine officer approached his side, spoke briefly, and
walked away. The General continued.

“
Some want us to
withdraw from this part of space, to leave the Orion Nebula, and
concentrate on our old colonies. The referendum taken last month
says otherwise. Our citizens want our new territories to be
protected and more importantly, they want this enemy that has
started so many wars to be hunted down and destroyed. Based on this
information, the President, with the full approval of the Senate,
has issued orders for the military to secure our colonies, at any
price!”

This news sent a
chill through the room as each of the military officers digested
his words. Already it was starting to sound like a call to
war.

“
Both I and Admiral
Anderson have advised the President that we need information, and
we need it as quickly as possible. We fought the last war blind and
with few friends. This time we need to know as much as possible,
and perhaps pick up a few allies on the way. We have been given an
important mission, no, a critical mission to the survival of our
species, and together with the T’Kari, we will succeed.”

He looked back to the creature.

“
We encountered this
thing two decades ago. I was there and witnessed the fanaticism of
their warriors. If these beasts are merely the foot soldiers of
this enemy, then we definitely need to know more. Just one of them
is a horrific opponent. An entire army could lay waste to cities.
As Commander Gun has already asked, where do they come from? Who
are they, and what do they want? Helios is the first-stage in
answering these questions, and with that knowledge, we can put a
plan into action to safeguard the Alliance. Helios is the central
hub in this collection of ancient races. Even more important
though, it is how the enemy can send troops to us, or to any of the
other six empires, assuming they even still exist.”

Ayndir nodded calmly
and then started to speak in her
high-pitched voice. As before, there was a momentary delay
before the translator kicked in. Teresa looked to Gun who was now
mesmerized by the demon.

“What do you think?” she asked quietly.

“
I think we’re going
to be heading somewhere dangerous. The creatures are massive!” he
replied happily.

They both turned to
listen to the T’Kari leader.

“
W
e have kept the T’Kari Rift, as you call them, secret. This
strategically critical region of space is our greatest secret and
known to our people as the Helios Gateway. It will take us directly
to Helios. The capital world is much like Terra Nova and controls
Rifts that connect to dozens of star systems. Helios is at the
center of this great web. From this one key point, every one of the
empires can be reached. Even the lands of the Enemy can be accessed
from Helios through the Dead Rift. Whoever controls Helios, will
control the Network and access to the Dead Rift.”

These few words captivated the audience, especially
the menacing Dead Rift.

“
The Helions are
directly related to my own people. There are some that say they are
our brothers, but we are different as we are similar. They are
obsessed with science and technology, to a level that greatly
surpassed our own, and use this power to control access to most of
the Rifts. If they still live, they could prove a powerful ally. We
will travel with your expedition to act as an intermediary, and
also to take you through the Helios Gateway. I will now leave you
in the capable hands of your military commanders. I will make our
facilities available to you, if any require them.”

She then
turned and walked away from the hall along with
the rest of the T’Kari. General Rivers and the others waited until
every single one of them had left before banging his hands
together.

“
Right. Officially,
we are on an intelligence-gathering mission, but I think you can
all see where this is going. New Charon is our beachhead into this
part of space, and it now looks like the whole area is about to get
much more complicated. I’ve looked at the data, and it is clear
that this Network of Rifts is both a major weakness and a strategic
asset that we have to control. Helios maintains the Network, as
well as access to each of these old empires. Once we have take over
of the Network, we can monitor traffic to all of these worlds.
Ayndir suspects there will be a Rift entrance back to Alpha
Centauri. We can’t take the chance that the enemy could get hold of
this strategic backdoor. If we control this region, it means ships
could travel from Terra Nova directly to Helios, and then on to any
of these old empires, assuming any remain.”

Several of the naval commanders started speaking in
excited tones to each other.