“You know how to use that thing?” she asked.
“We’ll see.”
He rushed forward, and two of the commandos quickly shifted out of his way to let him slam the vast weapon up onto the wall. The only time she had seen such weapons was mounted atop the enemy’s armoured vehicles.
I never thought I’d be pleased to see one again.
Tsengal lifted it up to sight in the enemy before firing. The corridor flashed so bright it almost blinded many of them, and massive pulses rushed down at the enemy positions. The first hit smashed into a Mech that disappeared in a huge flash that blasted three others out to the sidewalls.
“Jesus Christ!” yelled Warren.
He fired again and every few seconds. The cannon stopped the enemy advance in its tracks, but after twenty shots the barrel was red hot, and Tsengal threw it aside. That was clearly all they would get from it. The barrage of the weapon had brutalised the enemy advance, but still they came. From just twenty metres behind them, Chandra heard engines firing up. She turned to see one of the drop ships was preparing to take off.
“What the hell?”
She stared closer and zoomed in with the targeter on her helmet to see Suarez sat in the pilot’s seat.
“No!”
Before her cry had ended, the docking doors began to crank open. She rushed towards the small ship, waving her arms and screaming.
“Stop! You’ll kill us all!”
The Lieutenant turned and looked at her. He could not hear what she was saying, but they both knew he understood. He looked down on her with disgust and felt no shame for what he was about to do. She stopped and stared in astonishment. In that moment, she felt half of the life in her body drain. She stood beside an alien who was giving everything to fight for them, and now she was looking at one of her own that was going to throw it all away.
Chandra lifted her rifle to shoot the traitorous dog, but she could not do it, and it was too late anyway. She turned to see that the docking doors were already half open. The ship’s engines fired up, and it roared towards the doors. She lowered her rifle and watched in despair.
As the ship reached the doors, it burst into flames. A pulse from an enemy ship tore through the craft and burst out the body into the docking bay area, smashing it into the ground.
“Incoming!” she screamed desperately.
Before the wreck had even hit the floor, an enemy ship burst through the opening. She opened fire and was quickly joined by a hundred others. Fire ripped into the ship that was a whisker larger than the ship Suarez had tried to escape in. The frenzy of fire smashed into the nose of the small vessel, ripping it to pieces.
The enemy ship had got halfway between the dock doors and Chandra’s position when one of the engines burst into flames, and it spun out of control. Veering off course, it plummeted into the firewall of the docking bay, but it did not stop. The burning wreck smashed through the relatively thin wall and kept going. Chandra turned to Tsengal and Warren in surprise. None of them had any idea there were further rooms where it had vanished.
She rushed to the fallen wall at a sprinting pace and stopped to see that it was not a wall but in fact, a hidden entrance to a broad ramp fifty metres wide. The wreckage of the craft partially blocked the descent, and a survivor prized one of the doors off. She stood in astonishment.
The hatch burst off the ship, and a creature staggered out. Before it had gotten two steps clear, she riddled it with ten shots from her rifle. Warren arrived at her side with his rifle at the ready.
“Get everyone inside,” she whispered.
“We have no idea where it leads.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
She pointed to the open docking bay doors that were now forced open by the wreckage of Suarez’s ship.
“Any minute the whole God damn Krycenaean army is coming through there. If we stay here, we’re done for. Get them inside!”
He rushed back to his troops and sent runners to the other two Battalions. They’d made it halfway across the docking floor when a dozen enemy ships burst through the entrance with their guns blazing. Few stopped their dash for the ramp, and in the rush, hundreds were killed by the relentless enemy assault.
Chandra stopped inside the vast doorway and watched the retreat with her rifle at the ready to cover the remaining troops. Mechs poured over the defensive wall they had previously fought over. She took careful aim and killed one that toppled out over the wall.
The strafing runs of the enemy craft as they approached were devastating to the fleeing troops in the open. She watched wide-eyed as many more were killed instantly. Their armour was unable to stand up to the heavy weapons. Klimenko was the last man through into the ramp, having covered his troops as best he could.
“This is the end for us, isn’t it, Colonel?”
“If it is, then we’re going down fighting!”
“Is there any other way?”
They turned and rushed down the ramp after the last of the survivors. They could count their numbers in the hundreds. A bitter count after the thousands they had begun the defence with. They descended thirty metres before taking a full turn and continuing another thirty, and then the same again.
“Where the hell does this go?” she asked herself.
They eventually reached flat ground where the hall opened out into a vast room. Two hundred of the troops had taken up positions around crates, tables and wheeled vehicles. She stopped and stared out at the vast chasm. A chill ran down her spine as she recognised everything around her, thousands upon thousands of incubation chambers, just as they had seen during the first war. All were full of humans, as they had first seen them in Paris.
“My God!”
Most of the troops had been oblivious to the chambers as they had never seen them before, nor cared with the enemy hot on their heels.
“What the hell is this?” asked Warren.
“Your guess is as good as mine, but I can tell you I have seen it before. The last time we found these chambers with bodies still inside, it cost us a city. Ramstein. The enemy bombed it into oblivion to hide whatever secrets lay within.”
She turned to Tsengal.
“Have you ever seen these before?”
“No, we have been asked several times, but never.”
The alien strolled up to the chambers and peered into them with curiosity and disbelief.
“They’ll be on us soon, Colonel. What are your orders?” Warren asked.
She looked around one last time and snapped out of her daydream.
“Keep moving! Whatever this place is, they clearly have worked hard to protect it. The further we get inside, the better protected we are from their fire. Who knows? We may even find a way out!”
“You heard the lady. Keep moving!” Warren shouted.
They beat a hasty retreat along the seemingly endless line of incubation chambers. Tsengal seemed to study everyone they passed. After five minutes at jogging speed, they came to a circular chamber that appeared to be the heart and core of the facility. Substantial dividers ran around the area. They could already tell they would make perfect defensive lines along the firing line they had just run.
“Take up positions here!” Chandra ordered.
She guessed their number at little more than three hundred now, and all huddling in tight behind the only cover they could get. They were only thankful the enemy would refrain from the use of heavier weapons, due to the value of everything around them. Chandra paced around the inner desks and consoles of their new position with Tsengal just as curiously striding beside her.
“We’ve never answered any questions about these things. Never have any survived long enough for our experts to analyse them. All they have ever had are first hand accounts by soldiers, and what good is that to a scientist?”
She could see that Tsengal was carefully studying much of the text and tapped several keys on a console.
“You understand what all this is?”
“No, not yet,
but I understand the language.”
She stood silently and patiently awaiting more information. Many of the troops were reloading magazines. Others watched the two of them intently. Tsengal didn’t speak. Finally, she could not take it any longer.
“Are they clones, or prisoners or what?”
“I can’t say. But they’re being programmed.”
“For what?”
“To live on Earth, but with programmed triggers and purposes.”
“What?”
Her face turned to fear when it was beginning to make sense.
“They’re infiltrating our society. Fighting us from within.”
“It would appear so. It has not been the Krycenaean way to my knowledge, but no race has presented such a threat in our history as the humans.”
“We need to get word to the fleet. They must know this information!”
Tsengal nodded. Warren had been listening in, just as almost all around had been. He stood up and paced towards them.
“How on Earth can we get a message out now?”
“We have to. The lives of all of us mean nothing compared to the value of this information.”
She looked past the Major to see the grim faces of those beyond. They all knew they were reaching their end.
“I agree, but how?”
She looked up to the roof in despair and then to all those around them. She stopped as her eyes met Tsengal. He stood out above them all.
“You could do it. You are the only one among us who has a chance of getting out of here. Leave behind all trace of your association with us and rejoin your people. Find a way to get this information to Taylor.”
“Colonel, I cannot leave you.”
“You can. I am ordering you. Your death here will mean nothing. Worse still, our deaths will mean nothing if you do not do this. Promise me you will reach Taylor with this information.”
She could see the loss in his eyes, and it warmed her heart to see such human emotion within him. He looked to the others he had fought so hard beside. Many nodded in agreement for him to do as she asked. It hurt him deeply to live on and leave them, but he could see they wanted nothing else.
“I promise you I will do so.”
Chapter 12
“We’ve got visual, Sir!”
Huber spun around.
“How many?”
There was a silence as they all waiting with baited breath. Taylor strode up to the console of the man who had notified them. He had not left the bridge of the Washington since returning from their successful but deeply saddening mission.
“I’ve got twelve confirmed, no, more, many more.”
The officer brought up a video feed display of the incoming forces. They were spreading out rapidly, and he could count fifty ships already and many more advancing.
“Christ!”
He turned back to Taylor.
“This is why we stayed at the damn gateway!”
It wasn’t much of a consolation to the Major, so he just nodded in agreement.
“How long until they are in range?” Huber asked.
“At their speed, ten minutes or less, Sir.”
“Ready all weapons! Launch fighters!”
“Here we go again,” muttered Taylor.
Huber stepped back and grabbed him by his breastplate and onto his feet.
“You better get your head in the game, Major. There’s a war to fight.”
Taylor took in a deep breath and regained his composure. Despite the vast enemy descending on them, he couldn’t help but think of Chandra. The enemy horde closed the distance quickly and was firing in no time at all. Taylor had become so desensitised to the brutal enemy assaults that he simply stood and watched, as if he were sat at the movies.
They’re never going to give up, are they? Taylor whispered to himself.
The Washington’s guns opened fire as their fighters soared towards the enemy fleet. The aliens were closing the distance as quickly as they could, as they had in every previous engagement. Only thing this time, the human fleet did not have the firepower to stop them in their tracks. One of the destroyers to their starboard side burst open as a heavy pulse smashed through its bow and down the length of the hull.
Six of the enemy ships were destroyed as they advanced and many more damaged, but it was not enough. Huber could see the enemy was about to burst through their frontline and cut in between the fleet.
“Major, prepare your marines to repel borders.”
They all knew that a boarding action was now inevitable.
“Sir, we can’t hold against these numbers,” Taylor whispered in response.
“We don’t know that, Major. Now man your stations and defend this ship!”
A few seconds later, their communication links with the rest of the fleet blacked out once again, in what was becoming an annoyingly familiar situation for the Navy crews. The bridge was reduced to fixed video feeds on the hull of the ship only. Huber watched in horror as several of the frigates ahead of them were smashed by continuous enemy fire and reduced to derelict hulks, with no life on board. Taylor rushed to the door where Eli’s platoon was waiting for him.
“Pass the word. We’ve got incoming.”
“We’ve got a breach!”
Taylor heard the cry from the bridge, and it was shortly followed by Huber’s booming voice.
“Major!”
He rushed back inside.
“Floor five, sector E, breach.”
“Any idea on their strength?”
Huber looked to his crew.
“All I can say is it’s twice the size of the ship that breached us at the gateway, Sir.”
“Christ,” replied Huber.
“Sir, this is only going to get worse. We can’t hold like this. We risk losing the entire fleet.”
“You just deal with the breach, Major, and make sure all your units stay near to comms stations. This is only the beginning.”
“Jackson’s Company is nearest, have him informed immediately!”
Taylor rushed out of the door, without a word to Jafar and Parker. The platoon rushed after him, Parker at their head.
“Shouldn’t you be staying on the bridge?” she asked.
“Probably, but we need to make sure this attack is stopped quickly before it has time to spread. Jackson will be heading from the stern. We’ll head them off from the other side and make sure they cannot spread through the ship.”
They rushed to the nearest elevators and poured in. Taylor already knew the battle was lost. They couldn’t withstand such a brutal and overwhelming assault. Eli looked to his face and could already read it in his eyes.
“What are we still doing here?” she asked him.
“What do you mean?”
“You know we’re fucked. Does the Admiral want to kill us all?”
“We came here to make a stand with the largest fleet in human history. Think what it would do to morale if we ran at first sight of an enemy fleet. We can’t leave unless it is clear we can’t win.”
“So we’ll throw lives away to prove a point?”
“That’s about the sum of it,” he replied.
“At least there is a point to these deaths. Krycenaean lords will throw you to your deaths without reason,” said Jafar.
“And that is why we will win in the end, because we value our people,” Taylor said quietly.
Jafar’s reminder of how despicable the enemy was brought him a new sense of purpose. If he could not save Chandra, he would at least make their foes pay a wicked price. The elevator doors opened, and they rushed out at a fast jogging pace. They didn’t have time to carefully check every corner. If they didn’t stem the flow of the enemy advance, the ship would be infested.
Within a few minutes, they heard gunfire raging as the sounds of war echoed down the long broad corridors of the ship.
“We’re close now,” whispered Taylor.
A crossroads lay up ahead, but Taylor didn’t slow down. He could hear the
fighting long off down the right turn and rushed to it, taking the bend. He stopped dead as he came face to face with a column of Mechs who were advancing briskly towards him. They were just fifteen metres ahead. Parker took the bend soon after him and stopped with a gasp.
Taylor leapt back and threw Parker out of the corridor and himself the other way as the first pulses flashed ahead. He slammed back against the entrance to the hallway and took a deep breath to calm him, for his heart had almost stopped. He drew a grenade and tossed it down the corridor, without peering around the corner.
The blast rang out a few seconds later, and he was quick to bring his rifle to bear against the stunned and wounded creatures, but many more pushed forward. Parker joined him, firing from the other side of the archway. They both ducked back as a hail of pulses rushed towards them.
“Damn good timing!” Taylor grinned.
They both knew that if they’d been just a minute later, they’d likely not have contained the spread of the Mechs.
“Think this is the only breach?” Parker called out.
“I doubt it!”
The vast chasm of human incubators was eerily silent as they awaited the incoming hordes. The few hundred survivors had long accepted they were going to die. As they sat waiting for their time to come, all most could think was of their bitter hatred of the enemy.
Chandra sat with her back against one of the consoles, looking out to the defensive line of troops formed up at the outer circle. The wall they defended was just a metre high, and enough to provide a little cover at least. Major Warren sat next to her with his rifle propped beside him.
“You really think he’ll reach Taylor?” asked Warren.
“I can’t say I was fond of Taylor bringing those two into our ranks, but they have proven themselves more than capable of the task. I’d put my life in their hands. If anyone can do it, it’ll be him.”
“Humanity has held together throughout this and that has kept us strong. If they can eat away at us from the inside with these things, it could be the end for us all.”
Battle Earth V be-5 Page 19