Star Crusades by Michael Thomas (best ereader for pc txt) 📕

She grabbed her weapons and beganwalking away.

“Hell,yeah,” said Hawkins, “Now we’re cooking on gas.”

They were halfway along theplatform when a flash of light caughttheir attention, and they looked up to see a massive shipdescending into the Trench. Valentine instinctively raised herweapons to defend herself, but then she spotted the fighters movingaround it for cover.

“That’s a heavy lander. The marines are here,” she said happily, “Thefirst of more than a hundred thousand warriors. We’re gonna needthem. The deeper we dig, the harder this fight willget.”

The ship didn’t take long, andsoon it was sweeping in to land just ahundred metres away, and in the middle of the landing ground theNovas and IAB marines had fought so hard to clear. The fightersbuzzed overhead, turning away at the last minute.

“Here they come,”said Hawkins.

A handful of shotsfrom hidden positions inside the trenchwalls struck the spacecraft, and the fighters answered them.Gatling guns and missiles slammed into the diamond cliff, sendingshowers of diamond rock down to the landing grounds. Valentinelifted her shielded arm to protect her from the smallfragments.

“Bloody hell!” Kalliasgrumbled, “Give it a rest!”

The ship settledonto the platform quite slowly, and even then,its engines continued to roar. The jets from the thrusters burntinto the metalwork, leaving black marks, and then began to easeoff.

“They’re taking it easy because of the weight,” said Alexis, “I bet thecrew is petrified they’ll drop through the platforms and to thediamond rock deeper into the trench.”

“Canyou blame them?” Kallias asked.

The flames died down, butbefore the engines had time to fully slowdown, the massive side doors of the transport opened up. Unlike thelanding craft and Jackals, these doors were massive and slammeddown, creating ramps big enough for armoured vehicles. Valentineexpected to see marines, but the first out was a warrior evenbigger than Olik, and flanked by four similarly massive warriors.They were encased in assault armour and carried Thumpers in theirhands.

“General!” Valentine said insurprise. Her right hand moved up in a salute as he movedcloser.

“Novas.What are you doing outside?”

Alexis stepped next to Valentineas the General stopped in front of them.Normally, Valentine felt like a tank, but next to him she seemed sopuny.

“General Gun. Wewere ordered to guard the platform and toawait…”

He looked around and noted thevarious squads of IAB marines stillclearing a way for more craft to land.

“The IAB is more than capable. Let meguess, you stepped where you shouldn’t?”

Alexis gulped and then nodded.

“Yes,Sir. It was my…”

General Gun lifted a hand.

“I’m notinterested.”

He lifted hismassive arm and pointed towards thetrench wall. To Valentine’s surprise a unit of marines was alreadythere and had moved a wheeled Bulldog mobile gun armoured vehicleinto position. Its main cannon was pointing directly at the diamondwall. The vehicle paused, and then the main gun fired, blasting amassive hole into the structure. Valentine looked to the otherNovas and shrugged in surprise.

“As usual, Captain Olik has runinto a wall that he cannot breach,” said General Gun, “and needsrescuing. Care to join me?”

Another Bulldogwas now in position, and it joined in asthey blasted their way through like a pair of mining moles. Itdidn’t take long until part of the exterior structure collapsed andrevealed a large hexagonal structure behind it. Crossbeams helpedto support part of the passage, but most of it had been leftcompletely open. One part of the right cracked and split apart,sending shards crashing all around them.

“Our orders were tostay here, General. Lieutenant Fletcher wantsus…”

The General started to laugh.

“We didn’t spend a fortune onbuilding you to have you waiting around with your fingers up yourass guarding a landing strip now, did we? For the price of aplatoon of Novas, I could have a battalion of regulars.”

He pointed to the breach in thewall.

“I’m going inside with five companies of marines. Do you want to standhere, or do you want to come with me?”

Alexis opened her mouth to speak again.

“General. There’s more to this. We wereforced to stay here after refusing illegal orders.”

General Gun snorted.

“I’ll hear about it after the fighting is over. For now, I’ve gotthousands of marines in action, and any more delay will see manymore deaths. Novas, you will join my forces.”

Valentine looked to Alexis whogave her a quick nod.

“Good,” said Valentine,“Now we can do what we’re supposed todo.”

Alexis exhaled with reliefand stepped forward.

“You heard the General,let’s go.”

They chased after the troll like warrior and inside the breacheddiamond wall. From outside it had looked quite small, but now theywere inside, it was obvious that the shaft was massive. A badlydamaged rail ran along the ground in the middle and vanished offinto the distance. The Novas pushed past the marines who werealready moving at a slow jog. Numerous smaller shafts ran off fromthe sides, and some even dropped down lower into the planet. Eachtime they reached sections that split off, the marines would moveoff into them. In less than fifteen minutes dozens of squads wereworking their way through the labyrinthine structure.

“Not much further,” said Alexis, “We’re two hundred metres awayfrom the Captain’s position.”

Valentine checked her overlay andthe growing amount of data it contained. Every single man and womanunderground contributed to the three-dimensional model, with dataon the tunnels, rooms, structures, and ofcourse their own positions. The other Novas and IAB marines werepinned down three levels below and fighting in nearly a dozenseparate areas. Red markings showed the confirmed positions ofenemy soldiers, and as she watched, they multiplied innumber.

“Uh…Corporal,” said Hawkins,“Look how many there are of them.”

Valentine also checked, and then nodded while the red markersincreased second by second.

“That’s not good.”

“Keep moving,” saidAlexis, “This is lookingrough.”

They made it another fiftymetres when a section of the floor rippedopen, and a massive blast shook the tunnel. Two marines at thefront took the brunt of the blast and were half melted by thebrutal explosion. Valentine skidded to a halt and covered her face.Chunks of diamond rock fell all around her, and then came thecreatures. They were through the marines in seconds, and thenforced their way back into the passage, hacking and stabbing asthey went.

“Bring them down!”yelled a Jötnar as it stopped next to the Novas.The mighty warrior opened fire with its Thumper even as