Star Crusades Nexus: Book 09 - The Black Rift Read Free Page A

board, or by God, I will open fire!"
    The officer lifted his hands in mock defense.
    “I…the station, Captain. It’s out of my control.”
    It was the face of the Colonel on the space station that seemed to be causing the most trouble for Captain Jerome. Even as he waited for a reply, he was sure he could see amusement in his opposite number’s expression. He walked toward the console in front of the ship’s tactical officer. The smaller screen showed a wide schematic of the space station as well as the small swarm of fighters.
    “Are our weapons ready?”
    The young man nodded nervously.
    “Yes, Sir. Main guns are charged, and our secondary weapons are tracking their fighters.”
    “Good. Load Sanlav rounds into the guns, just in case.”
    He then looked back to the mainscreen.
    “Captain Jerome, if that is your name, we have seen the imagery from Terra Nova. Alliance officers are being detained without charge throughout our military facilities and at training bases on a dozen colonies. We can only assume this is an ongoing coup by President Harrison and his allies, and until the situation is resolved on Terra Nova, we are declaring all orders from High Command as illegal. We will continue our actions to protect the Alliance until this crisis has been resolved.”
    “Captain!” said the tactical officer.
    Both of them looked at the magnified footage of the station. A pair of large-caliber guns had rotated about and was now facing them both. As they looked, the sound of the station commander’s voice continued.
      “Once again, I respectfully ask that you close your gun ports. We don’t want to see violence here today, but if you push me, you can expect a decisive response.”
    Captain Jerome was not a patient man. His orders had been clear. He was to visit Prometheus to ensure their loyalty to the regime. Even the slightest resistance to the leadership on Terra Nova would be classified as a treasonable offense, and he had seen the footage from Mars.
    These traitors are in league with the enemy. If we do not act, they will let us be defeated from within, just as the machines did in the Uprising.
    He looked to his nervous officers and nodded to himself. He didn’t need their agreement, but he did need to see the look on their faces. Unlike the rest of the fleet, the crew of these six ships was all from Terra Nova and had been carefully vetted for their loyalty to the regime.
    “Ready the boarding parties. We’re going in!”

    * * *

    Grand Palace, Terra Nova
    A squad of eighty heavily armored Colonial Guards marched in perfect synchronization across the great courtyard. They were preceded by a pair of soldiers wearing heavy armor that shared much in common with the Vanguards of the Marine Corps. These particular models carried no obvious firearms, and their armor was smooth and partially reflective. Bulges in the limbs betrayed their hidden weapons, yet they moved with the same poise and dexterity as the other soldiers.
    Hundreds, perhaps thousands of the most important and well-connected citizens of Terra Nova watched them with pride. They were a mixture of businessmen and women, politicians, and even a few celebrities. The one thing they had in common was their support of the Terra Novan regime. There were no children in sight, and the youngest there must have been at least twenty years of age. Flags and pennants flew at every point, with designs dating back to the founding of the first colonies nearly four hundred years earlier. Most were of the new Alliance design though, along with a smattering of plain red banners of the President’s ultra-socialist political party.
    “Terra, Terra, Terra!”
    The chant through the crowd was messy and sporadic, proving to be the exact opposite of the regimented perfection of the Terra Nova Colonial Guard. The location was the site of the Alliance Senate, Colonial Guard Barracks, and a dozen other vast structures, each built on a Neo-Classical style reminiscent of