Battle Earth VIII (Book 8) (20 page)

This is my natural habitat,
he told himself.
I am the hunter here.
He was trying to psych himself up to overcome the fear, and it was working.

A pulsating sound rang through the corridor around them. Full lighting came on, and a security turret on the ceiling ahead rotated around and took aim.

“Cover!” he shouted.

They scattered each side of the corridor as shots hit the ground.

“They’ve got full power back!”

He tried to get up to fire, but shots quickly smashed all around him with one glancing off the top of his helmet. He pushed his shield out from cover enough so he could use the transparent view port on it, and then put his rifle out on top and used his targeter. Three shots hit the shield, but he was not deterred. He took careful aim and then fired a three-shot burst into the security turret, and it blew apart.

“If they have power back, we’re in deep trouble,” stated Herbert.

“What do you mean?” Little asked.

“With the defence grid operational and under the control of the UEN, our fleet will have to break off its attack. Without the fleet, our forces aboard the Nassau are done for, and the UEN can use this thing to fire on whatever targets it wants."

“Should take some time for them to power up the big guns,” replied Herbert.

“Yeah, I figure we got about ten minutes until they’re ready to vaporise any city they want.”

“What do we do, Sir?” asked Ball.

“The only thing we can do, what we came here to do. We have to disable this system.”

“But with four of us, how?”

“We aren’t far now. We may not have much time to stop this, but neither do they have a lot of time to bring in reinforcements. Speed is the only thing we have on our side. Let’s take this fucker down now!”

They all agreed, and Taylor led them on. Up ahead was a broad domed intersection, exactly as he was expecting.

“Only half a klick from here now. We’re almost there!”

They reached the entrance to the intersection and turned to the left as they needed to but were halted by a shocking sight. The Mechs stood guarding the entrance. They each wore a modified form of Reitech weapons bolted to their arms and shields twice the size of that Taylor carried.

“Oh, shit…”

Jones regained consciousness to see lights flashing around him, but his hearing was a little more delayed while he came to his senses. He did not recognise where they were, and it certainly was not where he had been fighting the last he remembered. Parker appeared before him and slapped him in the face, which did at least something to wake him.

“Good, you’re back. We need you.”

He looked around at several dead and wounded. As his hearing returned, he could hear a furious gun battle going on.

“Where are we? Why aren’t we defending the target?”

“We couldn’t hold there. They sent Mechs in against us, and we couldn’t hold.”

“But Taylor, if we didn't keep their weapons from firing, he will never make it.”

“If he hasn’t made it by now, he never was gonna.”

He tried to take it all in for a moment, but he was still a little stunned.

“We have to take back our positions and stop their weapon systems, or King and the others won’t be able to reach us.”

“How? We’re being hammered,” she replied.

Jones could hear the desperation in her voice.

“Taylor is aboard the grid, and if he can’t stop it, then it’s all for nothing now anyway. We just have to survive!” she added.

“We have to get a message to Taylor,” said Jones.

“How? With the jamming in place here, we can’t even dream of it.”

“But if we can reach the Nassau’s own comms systems, we will be able to communicate with him directly, won’t we?”

“I guess so.”

“He has to know what has happened here and that nobody is coming to his aid!”

“Why?”

“He needs to know he’s our only hope now.”

She beckoned for Herrera to come over to her.

“We need a line of communications off this boat, and we need it now!”

He looked confused.

“We’ll need access to their systems for that.”

“Where can we get it?”

“I think I know where, but getting there is a different matter.”

“I’d rather die going forward than being cornered here,” stated Jones. “Set charges on that far wall. Leave the wounded with plenty of ammunition to keep up the fight while we go onwards.”

“Leave the wounded? Those Mechs won’t show mercy,” replied Herrera.

Jones grabbed him by the shoulder. “Does it look like they’re showing any mercy at the moment? Get to it!”

He did as ordered without any further questioning.

“You really believe he’s still alive, don’t you?”

“Of course he’s still alive, Eli. If the World was afire, and humanity facing extinction, Taylor would be the last bitter survivor unwilling to give in to death.”

Jones picked up his rifle, slammed in a new magazine, and got to his feet. His knees wobbled a little as he did so, and Parker grabbed onto him.

“You okay?”

He shook it off and nodded before kneeling down and pulling a shield from one of their dead. It was a grim thing to have to do, to salvage equipment from fallen comrades, but he had no choice.

“We should never have come here,” said Parker. “We’ve done some crazy things, but to think we could take on all this and win? Either we bit off more than we could chew, or someone wants to see an end to Taylor and the Inter-Allied.”

“Perhaps getting the reputation as miracle workers isn’t always a good thing,” Jones laughed.

A massive explosion tore through the room as Herrera ignited the charges without them hearing any warning. Dust and debris filled the room as Jones rushed to the hole in the wall. He stopped for just a split second to peer into where they were heading before taking the leap. They were in a storage facility stacked to the roof with crates.

“Lead the way!” Jones hollered to Herrera.

The two were side by side as they headed for the nearest entrance they could see. Jones looked back, and he had about twenty others with him at the most. As they reached the exit, a Mech stepped into view just a metre from them. Jones didn’t even break stride. He leapt up and threw his entire weight at the creature's torso, and it tumbled out of the room. As they rolled over one another, Jones gained his footing and put the barrel of his rifle into its face. He fired a five-shot burst, killing it instantly.

Blue blood spurted out from the gaping holes, and it felt good to see after having so much human blood spilt on both sides. He looked either side, but there were no other enemies in sight.

“Must have been a sentry. Let’s move!”

He followed Herrera on down into a corridor and a few other rooms without seeing any further contact.

“This is it!” Herrera called out.

It was a sealed security door to a communications room.

“Anyone got any explosives left?”

They all shook their heads, but Jafar came storming towards the door. He fired a burst of gunfire into one spot where the edge met the frame, and then pushed his fingers into the slot and yanked it from its hinges. The huge door sprung across the corridor, narrowly missing Jones and hit the wall with a resonating clatter before smashing to the ground.

Jones stepped inside to see two personnel sitting at their workstations. They were too scared to even reach for their weapons and merely sat with their mouths open as Jafar stepped into the room.

“Do as we ask, and no harm will come to you!” Jones said.

They nodded in agreement, but they still quivered in fear. Jones ripped his helmet off. He knew his identity no longer mattered, and he needed to feel something resembling fresh air. He took in a deep breath, wiped the sweat from his brow, and clipped the helmet onto his belt.

“You aren’t.... Colonel Taylor,” one of them insisted.

“Shut up and do as I ask of you,” he replied. “I want a direct communicate to a personal comms unit off ship.”

They did not answer.

“I know you can do it, so don’t make me ask again.”

Jafar stepped a little closer and stood intimidatingly over them.

“Okay, okay,” said one. She was a short petite woman and looked like a child compared to Jafar who loomed over her. Jones tapped a few keys on his Mappad and then walked over and held it in front of her.

“This is who I want to speak to.”

“No way this is gonna be a safe line,” said Parker.

“Nope, but it doesn’t matter anymore.”

The comms operator put in the details, and a moment later the call was accepted. A repeated heavy banging noise came over the speakers like metal beating on metal, until finally they heard Taylor’s voice.

“Who the hell is this?” he asked.

“This is Jones.”

“Yeah, right, you won’t fool me again, you assholes.”

Parker interrupted.

“Mitch, it’s Eli. This is legit.”

“Eli? How the hell did you get this message through?”

“Don’t have time to explain right now,” added Jones. “The Nassau is now fully operational, and there is nothing we can do about it. You’re on your own.”

The video screen flickered before them as Taylor activated his camera feed on his Mappad.

“What sort of shape are you in?”

“Still standing, Mitch,” though Taylor knew it wasn’t good.

“Can you still disable the defence grid?” Jones asked.

Taylor had the look of defeat on his face, and they could all tell from the background on the video he was hold up somewhere and with few people left.

“I can try.”

Parker began to speak, but gunfire lit up the room, and Taylor lost the feed.

“Eli? Jones!” There was nothing. He looked around to the other three who were with him. They looked as lost as he did. They were locked in a large empty storage facility. Mechs were banging on the door, trying to get through and kill them.

“If we stay here, we die. If we open that door, we may well die,” he stated.

“I’m not dying up here,” said Herbert.

“If we don’t get past these bastards, it was all for nothing. We might as well have put our feet up in France and watched the whole World go to hell. I don’t know about you, but the idea we did all this for nothing sure pisses me off.”

They all nodded in agreement.

"We’re gonna open this door, and we’re gonna take these bastards down anyway we can, you got it?”

“Hell, yes,” Little replied.

“Sergeant, be ready on that door.”

They each took up positions and held up their shields ready for the onslaught.

“On my go… now!”

The thick steel doors slid apart, revealing nine creatures that did not hesitate to charge at them. Shots were fired from arm mounted weapon systems. Taylor leapt into the air over the first and spun in the air firing a burst in the head of his attacker before descending on the next one. As he landed on the Mech’s shoulders, it threw its shield up at him.

Taylor was thrown off the creature, and his rifle snapped in half by the impact. He rolled across the floor and back up onto one knee, just in time to see two of the Mechs rushing towards him. From his flank, Herbert crashed into one of the Mechs and sent it tumbling into the other. Taylor seized the moment and rushed forward, frantically stabbing the nearest one several times before it could get to its feet. Herbert did the same.

They looked up to see Private Ball being pushed back and fending off strong thrusts from two of the Mechs. They were using a version of the Assegai twice the length of their own. Little was nowhere to be seen, but another three Mechs were rushing at him. Taylor passed off a thrust from one of them with his shield, but as he attempted to counter, the creature tried to crush him with its vast shield.

Taylor was knocked down onto one knee, barely managing with both hands to hold up his shield from the crushing blow. All he could see now were the Mechs' feet. He thrust his Assegai into the nearest and then drove up and stabbed again into the upper thigh area, pushing forwards with his shield until the creature was knocked onto its back and unable to support its own weight.

Mitch landed on the beast, but it had its shield dividing them just as he had done. Before he could strike again, the Mech pushed its shield up and launched him up like he’d come off a springboard. As he flew up, the Mech staggered to get to his feet, and he could see he was going come back down on the creature; it was waiting to stab him with its weapon. He gave his boosters a little kick to alter course, turned to land behind the Mech, and with all the strength he could muster, thrust his Assegai into its back.

He could tell it was dead because he felt the weight begin to fall back against him. In disgust, he pushed forward which threw the body down onto the floor face down. Mitch turned back and saw Herbert was repeatedly stabbing his opponent where it still stood. Taylor spun around and found Ball backed against a wall by the last remaining Mech. He could see one he had already killed on the floor a few metres from him.

Taylor threw his Assegai across the room, hitting Ball’s attacker between the shoulder blades. The creature recoiled for a moment and then staggered until it toppled to the floor. But as it unblocked his view of Ball, he could see the Private was pinned against the wall by the creature's Assegai. The weapon was driven through his thick armour at the abdomen.

“No,” whispered Taylor.

He and Herbert rushed to the Private and removed his helmet. Blood was gushing from his mouth. The weapon that had gone through him was thicker than a scaffold pole, and they both knew there was no hope.

“Sorry, Sir,” he muttered, as even more blood spat out from his mouth.

Taylor could see the Private had killed one of his attackers and wounded the other before being struck.

“No, I am sorry. Don’t you apologise for anything. You fought hard and you fought well.”

It left a bitter taste in Taylor’s mouth that he had only gotten to know the dying man that day, despite having served together for so long.