Authors: Nick S. Thomas
To all of their amazement, the bullet passed right through Taylor with no resistance or effect at all.
"Nice to know we're still friends," replied Taylor with a smirk.
"What the hell are you?" Becker asked.
The group of survivors spread out in a circle around Taylor. They were curious but wary. All knew his face, but none believed it could really be him. Many looked around as if expecting to come under attack any moment.
"You aren't Taylor. You can't be," stated Kelly, "Taylor left Earth. If he is even alive, he sure wouldn't come back here."
Taylor was surprised by the hostility.
"I was a fool to think you wouldn't have found some way to survive, Kelly, but you'd be just as much a fool to think I'd never come back."
Kelly stepped up closer to him but still kept his weapon in hand. He reached out and touched Taylor. He found his hand went right through the projection, and that led to gasps by many who were watching.
"What is this? What cruel trick of Erdogan's is this?"
Taylor shook his head. "A trick certainly, but not by the enemy."
"You better start explaining yourself or..."
"Or what, you'll have Becker try and shoot me again?"
Kelly shrugged. He realised there was nothing he could do to silence the projection of Taylor.
"Why should we believe you are...well...Mitch Taylor?"
"You'll just have to trust me. If I told you what had happened to us after we left Earth, and how I am back here with you now, you'd never believe me."
"After all we've seen we'd be willing to give it a shot."
"Trust me, you wouldn't. All you need to know is we're still very much in this fight."
"Yeah? Well where are you?"
"I am told you and your people ambushed a group of Krys investigating a crash site not far from your current location, is that right?"
"Damn right. We watched that thing fall from the sky. By the time we got there, it wasn't much to look at."
"Well who do you think brought that down? That was a Krys defence grid platform. That was our work."
"You were right, Commander!" Engel screamed excitedly.
Kelly wanted to believe it himself, but it all seemed too good to be true.
"Why should we believe any of this? Why should we even believe you are who you say you are?"
"Because when I came for you in Ramstein, and you told me you were staying here, I said I'd back. I told you I didn't know how, and I didn't know when, but that I'd find a way."
Kelly suddenly thought of a way to test Taylor.
"When you left you took one of ours with you. Who was it?"
Taylor smiled in response. "Captain Morris. He was wounded during our last fight, but is in good health and a serving officer in the Inter-Allied until such time as he returns to you."
"Could it be true?" Kelly muttered quietly.
He wanted it to be true with all his heart, but it seemed impossible.
"I want to help you, I really do, and I intend to find a way to do so," added Taylor.
"Why come to us now?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why at this precise moment? We're taking a beating so bad we're almost finished. Had you shown up with a Marine division and ploughed into this fight, I'd be ecstatic to see you. But no, you come here to talk. If you really are you, you were always a man of action, not words, so where are you now?"
Taylor could hear the desperation in Kelly's voice.
"I'd thought if you were still alive, then things would be faring better."
"We are fighters, not miracle workers. There are less than a couple of hundred of us left. What can you expect us to do?"
"We are organising to retake Earth," stated Taylor.
"Fine words, but when?"
"As soon as we possibly can, Becker. I know we can do it."
"We won't last that long," added the Captain.
Taylor turned to Kelly, but the Commander only nodded in agreement with Becker.
"Then I will go to my superiors and our allies, and plead with them to help get you out sooner."
"I'll only leave Earth if we have your word that we'll be back here before my days are over."
"Hell, yes, we will be."
"Allies?" Becker asked.
"It's a long story; just know that the tide is turning, and we are very much back in this fight. You must hold on. I will come for you. I am Colonel Mitch Taylor, of Earth, and you have my word that I will come for you, and I will take back our world from the enemy."
With his final words, the hologram flickered and then vanished into the night. The group stood staring at Kelly. They were stunned and in disbelief, but he could see hope on their faces.
"What does it mean? Is that all true?" Becker whispered to him.
"Look at them all. They want it to be. They need it to be. If it had been any other person who turned up and wove a story like that before us, I'd call it bullshit. But Taylor, he's the one son of a bitch in this universe that could make it happen."
Becker smiled; the first time Kelly had seen him do so in some time.
"I've heard so much about Colonel Taylor and his Immortals, but I'd never seen him in the flesh."
"You still haven't, Engel," replied Kelly, "but you might just yet."
* * *
Taylor stepped down from the podium from where he had been projected. It was a bizarre experience. He stood atop a circular plate that shifted like a treadmill in all directions as he moved, while the place he was projected was displayed all around him. It was the feeling of being in a video game, and it was also the closest he had gotten to being on Earth since they evacuated.
"Did you find what you were looking for?"
"Kind of, Irala. I found friends that are still alive, but they won't be for much longer without our help."
"You knew Commander Kelly was down there when you saw him on the screen."
"Yes, and now I have seen him with my own eyes, or kind of, whatever! I spoke to him, and he told me how things are down there."
"And could you have expected them to be any better?"
"I guess not."
He rushed out, heading to the exit of the room but stopped at the doorway.
"You know we call our world Earth. What do you call this place?"
"Onesaka."
He nodded and carried on out to the surface of the planet once again.
Onesaka? What in the hell does that mean?
The question soon left his mind. He was going to the headquarters that had been established on the ground, not far from where many of their ships were still undergoing work. It was clear that many of them would never leave the surface again, and were now nothing more than accommodation for their crews. As he headed for the HQ, he found Silva walking towards him. He continued on by his side.
"Been looking all over for you, Colonel."
"I've been a little busy."
"Admiral Huang has been asking all sorts of questions."
"What did you tell him?"
"The truth. I don't have a clue what's going on."
"What's going on is we have people still alive and fighting on Earth, and I intend to find a way to keep some of them alive."
"What? But how?"
"I don't know. I guess it isn't so easy chasing down guerrilla forces as it is taking armies on."
"What are you gonna do?"
"I'm gonna press Huang for some help."
"Well, good luck, Sir. He is never in the best of moods in the times I have seen him, and he's gunning for you."
He passed through into the headquarters and went right up to Huang's office where he was shown through immediately.
"Colonel Taylor. I am told you have been meeting with the Aranui alone. Is this correct?"
"Yes, and..."
"And nothing!" screamed Huang, "You are a Colonel in my fleet, and you will show respect to your superiors!"
Taylor shook his head and wished that Huber could still be with them. Huang was fuming, and yet he knew there was nothing he could do to Taylor; he needed him too much.
"From now on, any contact you have with the Aranui will be made with two of my representatives present, and must be organised and authorised by me, personally."
"Admiral, we're living on the planet beside them. This isn't some nation the other side of the world. They walk among us and talk to us. I cannot choose when and where they come to me."
"But you will contact my liaison officer before discussing any matters involving the war effort, and must be escorted when travelling off base."
Taylor shook his head.
"You don't agree?"
"It's not for me to agree. Irala and his people still don't trust us. It has taken this long for him to allow me into their lives."
"So you are refusing my order?"
"I'm saying it's not my choice to make. This is Irala's world, and it's awfully good of him to let us stay here and to fight beside us. We can't start telling him what he can and can't do in his own home. Would you be happy if he came here or aboard your vessel and began telling you how things are gonna happen?"
Huang was silenced.
"We live in strange days, Admiral. Things can't always run by the book because our methods of conduct were written before we even knew another race existed, let alone a second one. There is no protocol for this. I will do all I can to include your people with any contact I have, but ultimately, it isn't my choice to make."
Huang seemed to accept the situation now it had been explained to him. It was clear none of his own people were willing to do so.
"Now, I am here to speak with you, Admiral. I came to share information I learnt from our allies, information that is important to us all."
Huang was fixated on Taylor and hanging on his every word.
"Irala's people put surveillance devices into the orbit of Earth last time we were there. The information they can collect is only limited, for risk of being detected, but the important thing is, there are people still alive down there. Not only that, some of them are still fighting."
"That was inevitable. We knew the Earth would fall. It would not happen overnight. It would take weeks, months, or maybe even a year. I should imagine they aren't far from finished now."
There was no empathy in Huang's voice at all, and Taylor could see he had accepted the deaths of all who had stayed behind.
"I know some of the survivors, Sir, and I went down there and spoke to them."
"What? How?"
"That doesn't matter, right now. What matters, is there are groups of resistance that are still fighting, but they haven't got long now. Some of them are my friends."
"And what would you have us do about it? We left Earth to save as many as we could."
"Yes, and now we have allies and the technology and ability to fight back."
"We are not ready to start the fight back for Earth, Colonel, far from it."
"That's why I want to go in, Sir, and rescue those we can. They could be valuable fighters that we could make good use of. Leave them down there, and it guarantees their deaths.
"I am sorry, Colonel, but we cannot risk an operation this early. We cannot take the losses that would likely result in any kind of rescue attempt."
"I can't leave them down there to die. I won't."
"That is precisely what you will do, Colonel. You knew their fates were sealed when they stayed behind."
Taylor shook his head in disgust and stormed out towards the door.
"You won't go after them, Colonel. That's an order!" Huang shouted.