Taylor turned to Herbert in surprise, but the Sergeant showed nothing but pride for what his man had done.
Two against two, Taylor thought to himself, not bad odds.
The two Krys soldiers wore agile and close fitting armour, just as Jafar and Tsengal had. It was adorned with elaborate silver symbols and detailing. It reminded him of the last time he had seen Demiran; the day he had killed the alien Lord. But these symbols were different. He assumed they must serve a different Lord, and that was a terrifying prospect.
‘Think you can handle this?” he asked Herbert.
The Sergeant didn’t reply, but he looked confident enough it was an answer in itself. The two creatures were armed differently with what appeared to be their own unique weapons. He studied them, and they stepped out into the open room to face off against the two humans.
One carried a pole weapon two metres long, with what looked like an iron ball one end and a double headed axe the other. The other dropped a hollowed out sphere to the floor. It had spikes protruding from every angle and a chain running up to the creature's grip. In its other hand it carried a metre-long curved blade that was glowing from some energy source connected to the alien's suit.
“We get past these bastards, and we’ve got a free run at it. They are all that stands in our way; all that stands in the way of the success of this mission. One of us has to make it through.”
The two creatures simply stood their ground, blocking the path they had to take, and waiting for Taylor and Herbert to come to them. He couldn’t decide which he’d rather fight less because both looked ready to take his head clean off. He turned to Herbert and nodded. It was all that the Sergeant needed to see as confirmation to attack. He jumped towards the pole weapon-wielding alien, firing on full auto as he did.
The alien leapt aside to dodge the rounds and swung the massive weapon around towards Herbert’s legs. The Sergeant jumped at the last moment, but only one leg fully cleared the weapon. The shaft clipped his other leg and sent him into a tumble. His rifle was smashed as he crashed over it, but he landed back on one knee with his hand already on his Assegai.
It was Taylor’s turn now. He went forward but didn’t know quite what to expect from the beast. Then with lightning speed the Mech snapped the chain, and the ball of the weapon came flying directly for his head. He moved his shield over barely in time, and the ball struck the corner taking it clean off. The impact was just enough to divert the weapon over Taylor’s head. But as he continued on, the creature yanked the weapon back, and the ball smashed him in the back, almost taking him off balance.
In that moment, the alien swung the huge curved blade to his right side beyond the reach of his shield. He turned and quickly spun around in time to catch it with his shield and spin past the creature. Sparks flew from the shield, but the sword had cut halfway through his armour.
Shit!
He now stood three metres from the creature and knew he had to close the distance. He circled it, and trying to find some way past the chain weapon that wouldn’t see him cleaved in two by the sword. He heard beside him the clash of weapons as Herbert went forward. He had to rely on the Sergeant to take on the other; he was having a hard enough time against the one he was fighting.
Before he could think any longer, the ball came at him once again. He leapt aside and narrowly avoided it, but on the return it lashed around his shield, and the creature launched him through the air. He crashed into a wall and felt the wind knocked out of him.
That's it! I've had enough.
He got back up, holding the shield forward, and slipped his Assegai into his shield grip without the creature being able to see.
He circled the creature and waited for it to yank the chain back to throw at him once again. As it did, he moved his shield aside and drew his pistol like a gunslinger, firing three shots from the hip. Two of them struck the chain when it was at the moment of changing direction. It split apart and the bladed sphere was launched back across the room and embedded in the wall. Taylor smiled at his ingenuity and fine shooting, but the creature cried like a banshee, rushed at him and swung a quick and strong vertical strike. He dodged the blade that took a heavy slice into the floor, but a second later it was coming at him again.
He took the impact with his shield, and the blade carved in thirty centimetres, stopping just millimetres from his arm. This was his chance. With the blade embedded, he twisted the shield and levered it from the creature's grip. Simultaneously, he struck at the cable to the power source of the weapon with his Assegai and severed it from the creature's suit.
It worked, but the alien backhanded him a moment later. He was thrown to the ground, and the shield was tossed aside. The alien was unarmed now but came at him viciously. First it stamped down at him, but he rolled out of the way and back onto one knee, but a second kicked launched him through the air and against a wall. He was at least on his feet now.
“Come on, you ugly son of a bitch!” he shouted.
The alien did just that and rushed towards him, swinging a furious horizontal strike at him. The alien's anger was its undoing. He cool-headedly waited for the perfect moment, jumped over the attack, and took hold of the alien's neck. He rolled over and snapped the creature over onto its back. Instantly, and before it could recover, he drove his Assegai down into its chest. It let out a shriek in agony and punched him hard in the face. Taylor recoiled back and watched in amazement. The creature leapt back to its feet, pulled the weapon out, and tossed it aside.
“Die already,” he muttered.
He had nothing left now. The beast came for him with a hammer blow from above. He raised his arm to parry, but the weight of the blow shook his legs, fortunately not enough to make him fall. He punched with all his strength to the gushing open wound, and the beast fell back, cupping it in agony.
Taylor looked around for a weapon and noticed the bladed ball in the wall with much of the chain still attached. He grabbed the chain and ripped it out. It was the closest he’d had to holding a football since college and gave him a great idea. He launched it up and over the beast as it came at him, and then yanked the chain back. The weapon smashed into the back of the alien’s head and dug in deep. It was dead at last and tumbled down to the floor.
With a sigh of relief, he looked over to Herbert. He was on one knee with his attacker standing over him. Both had a grip on the huge pole weapon the creature used.
“Right, you bastard,” Taylor said.
He picked up his blood soaked Assegai, rushed at the creature, and drove it deep up into its rib cage. It swung around to get a hold of him, but he ducked under and stabbed again and again until it slumped dead. He offered out his hand to the Sergeant who was battered and bloody but still breathing.
“Time to end this,” he stated.
The Sergeant gladly took his offer and was hauled to his feet. Taylor hit the button entry to the room they had fought so hard to reach, half expecting to find an army awaiting them, but there was no one.
“We’re in luck,” he said.
It was hard for either of them to believe, but they didn’t want to question it. There were screens all around the room, showing both the interior and exterior of the ship. The very middle screen had all the ground targets programmed in, including over a dozen capitol cities.”
“My God,” Herbert said, “they were really going to do it.”
“Colonel Taylor,” said a deep and booming voice behind them. They both spun around with their weapons raised as their pulses pounded. An alien Lord stood before them who looked not unlike Demiran. His armour glistened as if lights shining on diamonds. Spikes protruded from every joint, but he not carry a weapon.
Before another word could be said, Taylor threw his Assegai for the alien’s head. To his surprise it made no attempt to move. The blade passed through with no resistance or effect, striking a monitor behind the creature.
“It’s a hologram,” said Herbert.
Thank God, Taylor thought.
/> Neither of them had the strength to fight such an opponent.
“What do you want?”
“The question is what do you want?” he responded.
Great, an alien who speaks in fucking riddles. Now I get to be bored to death, too.
Taylor glanced at Herbert, knowing they must stay focused.
“You know what to do. Deactivate all weapon systems.”
The Sergeant quickly complied and went for the main console.
“You have a choice, Colonel. Save millions of people, or save your friends.”
Taylor didn’t want to hear anymore of it, but the subject matter was one he could not ignore.
“All right, you ugly bastard. Quit beating about the bush, and say your piece.”
In all honesty, he was terrified of the alien Lord's presence, as two had come close to killing him before, but he would not admit it or show fear in the face of another.
“I am Erdogan, and I have come to do what my counterparts could not.”
Taylor knew the name, and he knew what that meant. The most powerful of the Krys Lords was here.
This can’t be good. But he had no choice to play along.
“Go on…”
“In ten of your Earth minutes, the weapon systems of this device will destroy key cities of you and your allies. I have seen fit to isolate the key weapon systems from this grid so that they cannot be shut down remotely.”
Taylor looked back to Herbert. The Sergeant looked horrified, and that was all the confirmation Taylor needed.
“What the hell do you want?”
Erdogan ignored the question and continued.
“I have been studying you, Colonel, for a long time now, and I know how to hurt you. In ten minutes, you may get to the other weapon systems and deactivate them. Or in those precious few minutes, you may get aboard the Nassau and save your friends. Jones, Parker, I know them all.”
Taylor was frozen and began to shake and sweat with nervousness and anger. He rolled it over in his head and tried to find a way out.
“Your choice, Colonel, your friends or your planet. You have ten minutes.”
As he said it, the hologram ended, and a timer started on the main screen in the room. He rushed over to the Sergeant who was frantically flicking through keys on a touch pad.
“What’s our situation?”
“Silos 12 through 26 have been isolated from the system through two control points. If we go now, we may just reach them in time, but there is nothing we can do from here. Some of the nukes can be stopped by counter measures on the ground, but many are beam weapons that cannot be stopped.”
He looked up to one of the monitors which displayed the Nassau and thought of his friends aboard.
“We have to go now, Colonel. That is what they would want. If we don’t go now, millions will die!”
Taylor calmed his breathing and thought about it for a moment and then responded. “No, I won’t do it. I won’t let this bastard make me choose.”
“What would you have us do?”
He froze for ten seconds, and Herbert grew more impatient.
“Do you still have control of the other silos?”
He looked down at the screens.
“Yeah, about half of them, why?”
He took a deep breath and answered. “Target silos 12 through 26, and destroy them immediately.”
Herbert looked at him in disbelief.
“You want to destroy the defence grid? Those were not our orders.”
“Not then, but things have changed somewhat, wouldn’t you say?”
Herbert was silent.
“What will happen if we fire silo on silo?”
“I believe it will trigger automatic response systems. The silos would destroy one another.”
“Then fire all but two.”
Herbert looked confused.
“Just do it!”
The Sergeant punched in the targets and then held his hand over the authorisation switch to open fire. Taylor couldn’t wait any longer and turned it himself. The two of them stepped back and watched as gun ports opened along the massive defence grid. Missiles flew across space and were soon met with beams smashing into parts of the station.
It was utter chaos and destruction; huge segments were blown apart and pulled into the Earth’s atmosphere.
“We’re in deep shit for this,” stated Herbert.
“Only if we live through it,” he replied.
Taylor looked at his watch. Three minutes had passed and their work on the defence grid was all but done.
“What now?” Herbert asked.
“With whatever we got left, target the power generators of the Nassau and take them out, along with any other nearby vessels.”
Herbert opened his mouth to question it, but Taylor only stared back. He obliged and punched in the codes, and a salvo of fire erupted from what was left of the defence grid.
“You know how many trillions of dollars of stuff you just destroyed?” asked Herbert.
“Me? You pushed all the buttons.”
Herbert looked a little pale.
“Our work here is done. Let’s go and save the Regiment.”
Herbert looked around as if to ask ‘with what army?’, but Taylor headed for the door anyway. He stopped on hearing gunfire, and out from another corridor in the intersection came Captain Grey. He was covered in blue blood and carrying a shield that had been carved in two, yet he still held it.
“Nice of you to finally join the party.”
Lieutenant Spears strode out with him. They were little more than thirty in total.
“This is everyone?” asked Taylor.
Grey nodded grimly, and he could see they had suffered greatly fighting their way there. He understood now why they had met comparatively little resistance; Grey had taken the hits for them.
“Did you deactivate the weapons? Did you get it done?” asked Grey.
“In a fashion,” muttered Herbert.
“It’s a long story. Right now we need off this heap. We need to get aboard the Nassau. Know a way of making that happen?”
“There’s a shuttle a little way back, nothing great but it should fly,” stated Spears.
“Then lead the way. We’re riding to the rescue of Jones, so buckle up because it’s gonna be a rough ride!”
They rushed at speed behind Spears who was covering ground quickly and moving with real purpose. They reached the shuttle and found it was of civilian nature; shiny and new, but without any weapons or armour to speak of.
“How the hell are we going make it through an enemy fleet in this?” asked Grey.
“You’ll see,” replied Taylor with a smirk.
They were airborne in less than two minutes, but as they got out into space, the faces of the troops were of shock. They looked out at the debris of countless ships, and parts of the station they had been aboard burning.
“What the hell did you do?” Grey asked.
“What I had to, trust me.”
Herbert was still shaking his head in astonishment.
“He put the lives of our Regiment before all others.”
“What do you mean?”
“We probably could have shut down those weapons in the time we had, but we never could have saved Jones and the others. Taylor took out the weapons and gave us a clear path to the Nassau.”
Grey shook his head in disbelief.
“What is it, Captain?” asked Taylor.
“This is gonna come back to bite us in the arse.”
“Yeah, well, pretty much everything seems to. Let’s just get our people out of there, and I’ll call it a victory.”
Chapter 12
They were coming in for their final run to the Nassau, and Herbert still stared at Taylor. He knew what the glare was for. Erdogan. Taylor hadn’t told the others, and they both knew it was a big deal. Taylor told himself it was a problem for another day and did his best to believe it.
“We’re gonna have to head for o
ne of the landing bays, no other way in!”
Taylor shrugged. “Whatever you gotta do, do it, Spears. It’s as good a place to put down as any!”
“Going in hot without any fire support or armour, Colonel?”
“Got a better idea, Captain Grey?”
They both knew he was making it up as he went along, but neither could see any other options. They were down to improvising and overcoming all that was presented to them.
“This isn’t going to be pretty,” Spears whispered quietly.
They took a sharp turn into one of the open landing bays. There was only emergency lighting on and it cast long shadows. They could see glimmers of movement below, but nobody fired. It was clear no one had yet identified them as friend or foe, but Mitch couldn’t bear being stuck in the metal coffin any longer.
“Put us down!”
Spears obliged, and they descended quickly to a bumpy ride and slid to a halt.
“Nice…” stated Grey.
“Hey, you want to fly next time, be my guest,” cracked Spears.
Herbert was first at the door and punched the release switch. His face was still covered in his own blood, but he didn’t seem to notice or care. He was eager and raring to go. He leapt out first and Taylor was close behind.
“What are we looking for?” asked Grey.
“Wherever all hell is breaking lose. That’s where we’ll find Jones.”
That wasn’t much to go on, but he got the idea. Taylor was still surprised nobody had started shooting at them. There was still a little movement further on down the bay, but the lighting was too low for them to be made out.
“We’re in luck.”
Grey shook his head. “You call us lucky, Colonel? I call us mugs.”
Taylor got going, hoping in desperation that some of his marines were still alive. Although he was with comrades there and then, the closest of all his friends were somewhere deep inside the vessel and in God knows what state.
“You think they’re still alive?”
Battle Earth VIII (Book 8) Page 18