Battle Earth X (12 page)

The eyes of the woman nearest to him suddenly lit up at his last comment.

"You saw humans working with them?"

She nodded in response.

"And their numbers? Any idea how many are aboard?"

The man finally spoke up.

"Last report I heard was more than a hundred had been sighted."

Taylor continued to present a calm image, but he was already getting a picture of how bad things were.

"You knew there were human-looking things out there, and yet you opened the door for us?" he asked.

They looked shocked and shaken.

"We just wanted to get help. This is my sister, and she's dying."

"She isn't dying. Lock this door, and don't open it again."

"Until when?"

"Just don't. I'll send one of my people for you when this is done."

Taylor turned to try and leave, but the woman asked, "How will we know it's one of you?"

"Rainfall," he replied, "You hear that word, and you know it's us. Now shut that door, and make sure it's locked."

She did as ordered, and Taylor carried on up the corridor.

"Rainfall?" Parker asked, "Why?"

"Because it's something no one else aboard would say, and it's something I'm sure we'd all like to feel. It just came into my head. Is that a problem?"

She shook her head. "What are you thinking?"

"That the Goeben wasn't taken over. It was theirs from the start. The human crew could have been Krys agents. God knows there were enough of them in Germany. They came through with us to cause as much trouble as possible. They just made their move too soon."

"Too soon, Mitch? There are twenty thousand people on this ship."

"Yeah, and they haven't managed to take her out yet."

He stopped, realising what he was saying.

"What is it?"

"They must know by now they are done for, so they are going for maximum destruction."

"I thought that was obvious?"

"And how would they do that?" he asked.

She was speechless.

"Destroy the ship," Morris joined in.

"Yes, they cannot kill these civilians fast enough," Jafar agreed.

It was a cold and calculating assessment, but they knew he was right.

"All right, so they don't have any nukes or similar, or they'd have used them by now. How else can they blow this thing to hell?"

"Overload the engine capacitors," said Morris.

"They have measures in place to stop that from happening, surely?" Parker asked.

"Yes, but if the control systems are damaged or destroyed, they could overload without restriction."

"And then what would happen?"

"With enough of a surge, and the engines on these barges are big enough for it, they'd rip a hole right through the hull. Do enough damage, and they'd vent everything to space."

"How'd you know all this?"

"You were born in Earth's atmosphere, Sergeant, and I wasn't."

"Okay, I get it. How can we stop it?"

"At either end. Reach the engine bays and ensure they cannot access them, or stop them getting aboard the bridge and destroying the safety measures."

"Fuck," Taylor muttered, "we have no way of contacting the rest of the Regiment. We'll have to do this ourselves. I'll take Parker, Jafar, and three volunteers to the bridge. Morris, you take the rest for engine bay."

Morris thought the numbers odd, but he didn't question them. He pointed to three of the platoon and sent them forward to Taylor before carrying on and taking a fork ahead. Watkins, Abbot and May joined the three of them.

"You know the way to the bridge?" Parker asked.

"I do," replied Jafar, "Did none of you study the layout of the vessel?"

He appeared surprised.

“Yeah, I studied it,” she replied, “but it all looks the damn same now we’re here.”

Jafar looked to Taylor.

“Hey, lead the way, big fella,” he said as he shrugged.

He stepped over the body of the Juggernaut and picked up his shield. It was buckled in the centre so that as he pulled it onto his arm, the lower half curled away from him.

“Those things hit like a wrecking ball,” he said.

“Yeah, well next time, don’t get so close.”

He turned to Eli with a smile, but she could see the concern in his face.

“I’ll do what I can.”

They passed through into a narrower corridor where the lights were flickering from gunshots that had struck them, and panels swung loose from the ceiling. Gunshots rang out in the distance, sustained fire from Reitech weapons. It brought a smile to Taylor’s face. He knew it could only be their people dishing out hell.

Parker stopped at a crossroads and looked towards the direction of the fire. Taylor could see she wanted to head for it and help.

“No time. We don’t get this done, and everyone could be done for.”

They knew their own suits would protect them, but that was just a few hundred lives, compared to the thousands who would be lost. Jafar had only stopped after seeing them do so and waited for them to continue on after him.

“How much further?” Taylor asked.

Before Jafar could answer, two shots struck the wall beside him, and he ducked back for cover.

“Those are ours,” Parker said.

“Friendlies!” Taylor shouted, “Coming out!”

He took the bend to show a recognisable shape, of which Jafar certainly wasn’t. A figure approached down the corridor; tall and confident and with a determined stride. As he passed into the light, Taylor recognised him as Major Moye. The tall black officer of the French paras was coated in blue blood and had a stream of his own dripping down the side of his face. He had just two others with him, one man and one woman. They were equally as filthy and blood soaked. They looked like they had been through a week’s worth of fighting. All three had soulless expressions that were so empty Taylor could see they had witnessed the kind of thing he would not wish on anyone.

Moye had always despised Taylor, and yet all that hatred he was used to seeing in the man’s eyes was gone.

“Where is your Company, Major?”

He shook his head. “Gone, all of them, gone.”

Parker gasped, as she knew how many he commanded.

“What happened to you, Major?”

“We…we were first aboard. We fought hard, but there were so many of them.”

He was distraught, and yet still held his rifle at the ready.

“So what is it you do now, fight or run?” Taylor asked quietly.

He struck a chord with the towering Frenchman who at first took insult, and then appreciated what Taylor was doing. He seemed to snap out of his weary daze.

“What is your plan?”

“To save all those aboard from being vented into space. Are you with us?”

Moye didn’t need to hear anymore.

“Lead the way.”

We are nine,
Taylor thought,
a distinct improvement.

They carried on until they could hear cries of pain and suffering. They first reached a single wounded woman lying against a wall, with a young child in her arms. She was covered in blood. Her nose was broken, and a deep cut ran around her forehead. Several other dead lay around her.

“Help me,” she pleaded.

None of them stopped.

“We’ll be back for you,” Eli said.

They all knew they could not stop and help, but as they passed her, the room opened out into a large communal room of some kind. Taylor was stopped dead and looked upon more than a hundred bodies scattered about the room where the Mechs had come through. Only a handful of survivors moved a little here and there. Taylor knew it shouldn’t be any surprise to him, but he could not help but feel shocked.

Never had he seen such masses of massacred civilians, since he had rescued Jones from the alien camp. It shocked him for a few seconds, before he was reminded of their mission and knew they could not afford another interruption. He looked away from the dead and dying, and onwards to their path through. He stepped over bodies and put it out of his thoughts. He forced himself to think of the living. None of the nine questioned his determination to keep going.

“How far now, Jafar?” he asked.

“Not far.”

Taylor shook his head, but as he opened his mouth to prompt his alien friend further on the matter, a pulse flashed into view and glanced off the rim of his shield. He ducked down into the cover of piled crates, and a number of other shots flew overhead.

“Is this it?” Taylor shouted over to Jafar.

“It is.”

“How long do we have?”

“I do not know the operations of this vessel. If they have reached the central controls, then we do not have long.”

“How long?” Taylor almost screamed.

“Minutes,” Jafar replied calmly.

Eli looked to Taylor for answers. He knew they had no time for a firefight.

“We have to go forward. No matter what it costs, and no matter what it takes. Any moment now, this could be over, and it was all for nothing. We have to go forward, all or nothing.”

As he said it, the two French soldiers with Moye nodded to each other and rushed out towards the enemy. They screamed some battle cry as they did, but it meant nothing to Taylor.

“Go!” he yelled.

The seven of them rushed out from cover and charged after the two who had led the way. The woman was hit by more than a dozen shots. The first two broke her damaged shield in two, and her armour took several more. Despite the injuries, she kept going and kept pushing to put one foot in front of the other. She took another eight pulses before finally falling, and her comrade fell soon after.

Taylor felt a bitter sadness inside for seeing their loss. He had never known their names, but felt the losses as if they were his own. It was enough to get them on the enemy’s doorstep, and Taylor leapt towards the nearest Mech as a shot burst over his shield. He did not stop and struck the first creature dead on.

Taylor felt the power once again that he had grown used to as the creature stumbled back and landed flat. He fired several shots until it was dead before him and then continued on. He could see the bridge ahead and two Mechs working at one of the main consoles. He fired as he ran, striking both of them in the back. He knew he risked damaging the ship’s systems, but the risk of not firing was far worse.

He drew out his Assegai and leapt forward against his next target; and carried on relentlessly when he saw one of the Mechs firing at Parker. She was pinned behind a console and taking fire from two directions. He raised his shield just a little, so that the bent lower half came in line with his head, and smashed it forward. The impact was enough to knock the Mech off balance, and it stumbled a few paces to the side before swinging its pulse cannon around for him.

Taylor jumped to the side of weapon and grasped it inside his shield, stabbing forward with his Assegai. It drove into the head and killed in a single blow. He let go, and the Mech dropped down dead. He turned just in time to see Jafar breaking another one’s spine over his knee and then punching through the faceplate to finish it off. All was quiet now. He looked around for Moye and found him standing beside them with blue blood dripping from his own Assegai. He pointed ahead, and Taylor turned to look to the rear of the bridge where a man stood frozen and terrified.

"Captain Dokgo?" Taylor asked.

The man nodded, but he was shaking and rigid as if unable to move. Another person behind him stepped into view, and Taylor could see a gun in their hand pointed at the back of Dokgo's head. Taylor didn't even respond. He knew there was little he could do with his Assegai in hand at such a distance.

"Whoever you are, this will not end well for you," he said.