Read Star Crusades Nexus: Book 09 - The Black Rift for Free Online

that world filled her subconscious with images of the siege. Though both Helios Prime and Spascia were the scenes of major land battles, they couldn’t have been more different. Spascia was a long, drawn out siege, with both sides lacking enough ships to prove decisive. The fight had devolved into a perpetual battle for the few cities on the planet. It had earned a nickname, one she tried not to think of.
    Spascia, the Seventh Circle of Hell.
    It was a story she was all too familiar from her religious schooling. Dante had been a strange companion as a teenager, yet the idea of the area of hell reserved for the violent sent a shiver through her body. It was a thought she really wanted to avoid. While Spascia was bogged down, the fighting on Helios Prime had taken a completely different turn. Both sides had spread across the surface, and though the Helion and Alliance forces had now joined in, the fight was a long way from over. Both sides had chosen their ground well, and there were heavily fortified and defended zones in every direction.
    Two of her captains moved their hands around the tactical projector to direct combat units while Teresa leaned back against the recently destroyed Eques walker. A lieutenant approached and handed her a metal cylinder. She nodded her thanks, opened up her visor, and took a quick swig of hot coffee. The liquid slid down her throat and instantly put a feeling of fire back into her blood. She twisted slightly and felt her body trying to resist. The aches and pains of years of service had taken their toll, yet as she observed their current position, she felt more alive than she had done in years. It was what she needed to dull the pain of what had happened in the last six weeks since she’d entered the Helios System.
    “Colonel, seismic sensors are picking up movement in sector six.”
    Teresa took a short breath and then pointed to one of the unattached icons.
    “Send in the Khreenk. They had two squads out on patrol two klicks west. They can deploy sentry units and a robotic control unit.”
    She looked away and then again at the display.
    “Make sure they get out of the area. The Biomechs could be planting mines.”
    The two men and a newly arrived third were more than capable of running this part of the fight. She walked through the base and checked on the engineers and officers running the place. As she walked past, they stopped and nodded, nothing more before returning to their duties. One of Teresa’s first orders had been to abandon saluting in the combat zone. It was a dangerous indication and had already cost them several officers. She made it halfway to the reinforced entrance where she was expecting her junior commanders when the warning came.
    “Ten seconds!” announced the stronghold’s officer of the watch.
    Teresa moved her eyes a little to track the movement of four guns. These were large caliber low-velocity weapon systems that were mounted onto the wheeled chassis of special Bulldog vehicles. They fired rocket-assisted shells that once at their peak altitude would deploy small wings and loiter for up to four minutes. Ground troops could then call in the shells exactly where they were needed over the entire frontline. Each gun had been moved into position inside a special dugout and then surrounded in sandbags for extra protection. All four guns lifted up another twenty degrees and then stopped.
    Somebody is about to have one hell of a bad day.
    “Fire!”
    They all blasted away in a violent ripple. Teresa imagined what it would be like when the shells landed and hoped the forward observers would make the most of them. There were another dozen emplacements with similar guns all around the Bastion. What had been a forward base had now become an artillery position and command center for the frontline. The Alliance forces were as well equipped as they could ever expect to be, and with each extra day their long-range firepower and knowledge of the area grew.
    Teresa moved