Taylor shook his head. "No, just lucky, son."
It was clear the Corporal didn't believe him.
"Come on, let's move."
They rushed down the northern side of the road as Wallis' platoon covered the south. They made the first half of the ground quickly. Still gunfire rang out where the enemy hunted down civilians, and the local forces did what they could to stem the tide. Finally, Taylor drew them to a halt. He had no idea what kind of impact it would have to try and destroy something so powerful. He pointed to the two men carrying the AT rifles, like the one he’d recently lost destroying the tank. They didn't need any orders. They knew what he wanted.
Two others knelt down to act as supports for the weapons. The gunners rested the barrels on the shoulders of the two men and took aim. Five hundred metres for such an accurate weapon and a massive target was an easy shot.
"Fire when ready."
The first pulled the trigger and the second soon after. Light lit up around the base and flashed as the shots ignited on impact, just as their missiles had against the dome.
Oh shit! Taylor thought.
"Guess we are gonna have to do this the old fashioned way!"
"What's that?" Deny asked.
"Up close and personal, Corporal."
He climbed to his feet and led the way towards the base of the structure. He had no idea what they would do now. He had no faith that the explosives they had brought would them would be able to penetrate the shield, where everything else had already failed. They were within two hundred metres when a dozen Morohtan warriors skittered out from cover. It was what they had all feared. Taylor activated his shield and dropped onto one knee to take cover, taking aim with his pistol. He fired two shots, but they glanced right off a creature’s thick armour. They were carrying large assault rifles and soon turned them towards Taylor's people. A few shots rang out, and they responded with the deafening automatic fire of one of the aircraft guns they had brought along. Taylor glanced over to Babacan who was firing from the hip. He looked back to the warriors. The bullets were punching through their armour with ease, and four were dead in an instant.
Taylor took a few more shots himself. He knew they had to cover Babacan and the others as long as they could. A thunderous shot from an AT rifle rang out and took the head of a Morohtan clean off. The survivors soon ran. It was the last thing Taylor was expecting.
"Well, what d'ya know?" he said in amazement.
"What?" Alita asked wearily.
"The sons of bitches ran."
"And?"
"The enemy never runs. The Krys never did. Well, almost never did."
"Guess we got 'em beat, then," said Alita.
Taylor hoped that was the case. They all did, but as he looked up at the dome, he wondered how that could be possible. He rushed on past the bodies and headed for the dome once again. As they drew near, it became apparent there was a deep recess in the ground all around the base. Taylor was moving so quickly he nearly fell over the edge. It was three metres deep and had a dozen Morothan workers scurrying about inside. They were four-legged like the warrior they had seen, but they lacked any form of body armour.
He raised his pistol and took a shot at the first. He half expected the shot to be stopped, but it hit the creature in the centre of his face and blew the back of his head out. A dozen others, including Alita reached the edge beside Taylor and opened up. It was a turkey shoot, an absolute slaughter. As Taylor dropped his magazine and reloaded, he looked over to see Alita had changed a lot since they arrived. Gone was the fear and panic, replaced by a blood lust and hatred. It wasn't the best of places to be, but it was a lot more helpful to him than the quivering wreck that she had been.
“All right, what are you waiting for? Let’s blow this shit up!”
He leapt into the deep recess around the device and landed on a dead warrior. In front of him was an open entrance to the dome source, and he stepped inside. It ran right the way through the twenty-metre wide cylindrical shaped structure. He carried on to the centre. The opening led out either side like a crossroads, and as he reached it, he caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye. He ducked back just in time to see a Morohtan lunge at him with some kind of gleaming dagger. Two gunshots rang out, and the creature dropped dead beside him.
Taylor turned back to see Deny had killed the creature.
“Not bad, Corporal,” he said.
He reached down and pushed the body of the creature over. It was hard and scaly. He didn’t care to look much further, but he reached for the knife that had caught his attention and almost been the end of him. He prised it out of the creature’s grasp. It glistened down its fuller as though it was encrusted with diamonds, and yet the blade appeared to be blued. The blade was just twenty centimetres long, and the grip felt like some kind of polished bone.
It was seemingly attractive and bizarre all at the same time. He slipped it into his webbing and got back up to his feet.
“Let’s get these charges set! Two-minute timers. Let’s go, go, go!”
He pulled out the two charges he carried and primed them, sticking them to the walls. The rest of them were doing the same until finally they cleared out. Gunshots still rang out above them as Wallis’ platoon held the enemy off.
Taylor was the last one out and leapt back up to the surface. Alita was waiting for him there.
“Do you think it will be enough?”
“We can only hope, Alita.”
“Every one, clear the way. I want a thirty-metre perimeter on this thing now!”
They scattered either side of the structure. Taylor found a satisfactory piece of cover behind a police car that had been shot up and then crashed into a wall. Alita ducked down beside him as he watched the seconds count down on his watch.
“Everyone down!” he said when they reached the final fifteen seconds.
He kept watching the seconds tick down. His pulse was racing. There was excitement now, but also dread. If it didn’t work, he didn’t know what they’d do. He began to count the last few seconds in his head.
Five, four, three, two…
He fell silent, and just a few more seconds passed before an almighty eruption echoed around them. The ground shook violently under their feet, and sand and dirt burst out all around them, engulfing them in fog like conditions. Taylor stood up and looked around for some indication of what damage they had done, but it took a while for the smoke and debris to clear.
“Everyone okay?”
He heard some coughs and saw Alita rise up from the smoke nearby. He grabbed her and helped her to stand upright. As the debris began to settle, he looked up. The dome was gone. Cheers rang out from everyone around them as they realised they had succeeded in their mission. It was a relief to know that help was now coming.
“It worked!” Alita cried in amazement.
“You ever doubted it?” Taylor asked.
“Well, yeah, I did!”
Taylor smiled and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, throwing his other arm up in the air triumphantly. Finally, he turned around to look at the tower where they had set the charges. As the smoke cleared, it was still standing, but with two huge holes blown in its base. But just as he stood watching it, it began to topple, and he soon realised it was coming right at them.
“Cover, run!”
They sprinted for their lives as they heard the tower crashing down behind them, not daring to look back to see it.
Chapter 8
Taylor coughed and spluttered as he tried to clear his lungs. He hadn't even had time to activate the mask on his helmet. He pushed down and forced himself onto his knees.
"Hey!"
He looked up to see this time it was Alita offering to help him up. He smiled, took hold of her arm, and she hauled him to his feet.
"I'm making a habit of this," he said.
"What? Getting saved by a lady or suicidal acts?"
He laughed, but he looked around to see the tip of the Morohtan towe
r just a few metres from where they stood. There was almost complete silence as everyone watched the debris settle and wait for the inevitable approach from the skies. A minute had passed with just a few shots being fired when they spotted the first wing of Alliance aircraft. Missiles launched from them in a furious salvo, and as the explosions erupted across the colony, cheers rang out from the two platoons.
"We did it," said Alita, but as he turned to face her, a bullet clipped her neck, and she dropped down to the ground. He rushed to her side. Blood was dripping down her neck.
"I'm hit," she whispered.
"Medic!" he boomed, "I need a medic, now!"
He looked closely at the wound. It had taken a chunk out of her neck but seemed to have missed her windpipe. He couldn't believe how lucky they had been. A few millimetres further over and she'd have been killed outright. The medic, Lorenzo scrambled to their side.
"Give me some room."
Alita tried to hold on to Taylor, but he had to let her go. He stood up, watching over her as the medic got to work. She was still reaching out for his hand, but he had to stay back. Taylor was shaking.
"You're gonna be just fine," said Lorenzo.
Taylor knew the medic would always say that to keep his patients calm, but in this case he believed him, but that didn't take the shock away. He had come so close to losing her.
"Colonel, we’ve got trouble!"
He could hear the sound of the alert and troops amassing on the main road in the direction they had come from.
"They know we're here, and they're coming for us," said Wallis.
"Jones, come in. This is Taylor."
"I’m kinda busy here," the response came. Gunfire was raging in the background.
Thank God, we have comms back, thought Taylor.
"Mission successful, but we have incoming enemy forces in significant strength."
"We have plenty of trouble of our own."
"Captain, I've got just two platoons here and a world of trouble coming our way."
"Two platoons?"
"That's all that got through."
"All right, head our way. We'll get to you. Jones out."
Taylor nodded in appreciation.
You never know. We may make it out yet.
"Right then, we have done what we needed to do here. Withdraw back to Jones' position."
He reached down, picked up Alita's rifle from the ground, and went back to her to gather her ammo. She looked relaxed and calm. The medic had sedated her somehow.
"We're moving out," he said, "Can she walk?"
"Damn right, I can," she replied as the Medic helped her to her feet. She looked a little weak, but she drew her pistol and nodded to say she was ready. Bursts of gunfire rang out, and a few shots landed randomly amongst them. Taylor turned back to the road. A hundred Gurvs were now running towards them. Some of them fired wildly, but they were a few hundred metres out yet, near the wreckage of the tank. It was an angry mob, and increasing in number as he watched.
"Come on, let's move out!"
He led them around the fallen tower and was thankful it would cover their retreat for a time. He looked down at his pad; the enemy troop movements had been added now. They were closing towards them on all sides.
"Colonel Taylor, stay on the main road. I repeat, stay on the main road, and we will cover you," a voice came over the comms.
It must have been one of the pilots, but he didn't recognise the voice. Moments later, they heard the roar of engines, and two ground attack fighters tore overhead. They ran in parallel down the road and dropped a continuous stream of small canisters for half a kilometre. They then pulled up and out of the colony in a steep climb. Twenty seconds later the canisters ignited in perfect sequence. It was as if they were running through a valley of fire.
"Oh...fireworks," said Alita.
She looked and sounded high as a kite.
"Jesus, what hell did you give her?" he asked the Medic. He was supporting one of her arms and helping her to walk.
"You know how painful it is to be shot?"
Taylor only smiled but didn’t answer him. He knew all too well. He activated his shield as they ran, and within seconds took a burst of gunfire from a road off to his left. He stopped and gave cover to Alita and Lorenzo, but before he could return fire, he heard the clatter of Babacan's heavy machine gun. Further down the road it cut six Gurvs cut down. Two had limbs taken clean off by the huge rounds. Taylor took aim and managed to get one with a single shot before Babacan could finish the work.
"Keep moving!" he yelled.
They kept running. All the time they could hear aircraft swooping past them and explosions ringing out through the colony. Taylor didn't want to imagine what the collateral damage would be, but there was no choice anymore. Much longer without air support and they would all be finished. They made it another hundred metres when a Gurv leapt out from the wreck of a truck and landed on Taylor, knocking him to the ground. Alita's rifle flew out of his hands as he tumbled. He twisted and rolled so that the Gurv landed on the ground with him on top as he held it by the throat.
"Keep going!" he shouted to the others as they stopped to help. They hesitated.
"Go! That’s an order!"
They finally moved off. Alita was too sedated to protest and stay with him. He turned his attention back to the Gurv who was thrashing about with his arms but unable to get free of Taylor's grip. He drew out his pistol and placed it to the creature’s head, but as he was about to pull the trigger, he was tackled by another Gurv and thrown off the first. He tumbled over and fired two shots at the creature so that it was dead when they came to a standstill.
He leapt quickly back onto his feet because he knew the first one would be coming for him, but it was worse than he feared. Another three had joined him. He lifted his pistol and shot the first two down, but the magazine was empty, and the other two came at him. One carried a crude looking sabre and the other a double bladed axe.
They rushed at him, and he didn’t have time to reach for his Assegai. He backed off from the first cut of the sabre, rushing at the Gurv as the blade passed by with such a heavy swing. He grabbed his head and snapped his neck. He turned around just in time to see the axe coming for his head. He stretched out his hand and grabbed the shaft so as to stop it dead.
The Gurv let go with one hand and punched to the armour plate where blood was still flowing from his wound. The plate of armour compressed against the wound, and he let out a cry of pain. The agony soared through his arm and up to his shoulder. The pain was so much that he let go off the axe, and the Gurv lifted it up to strike him a second time, but he let out a war cry and charged forward. Taylor tackled the Gurv and knocked him flat on his back, landing on top of him.
Nothing would stop him now. He beat down on the creature’s face with one punch after another. The second caused his face to cave in, but Taylor kept striking him with another three. He staggered back up to his feet and looked around. The horde was closing in the distance. They still fired wildly, but their accuracy was so poor the shots barely came close.
Taylor looked around for his pistol and finally spotted it. He picked it up and got up to a jogging pace as he changed the magazine. Fatigue was setting in from his wound and other aches and pains. He could see the platoons ahead of him stop and engage the enemy. They were firing so rapidly he knew there must be a strong enemy presence beyond. They scattered either side of the street into the cover of the buildings, and that cleared Taylor’s view down the street.
Two armoured vehicles were approaching slowly towards them. They were not of Morohtan construction, but more like the primitive works of the Gurvs. They looked ramshackle, and yet covered in weapons and rolled on solid wheels. Heavy automatic gunfire struck all around them, and two shots went right though a man’s shield, striking him in the chest. The impact threw him onto his back, and he looked to be in immense pain.
Taylor reached them and hauled the man into the cover of a doorway. The enemy wa
s closing in on both sides now. They couldn’t veer too far from the main road, but neither could they travel in either direction.
“We can’t stay here, Colonel!” Deny yelled.
Taylor looked at the door behind him. The building itself was sturdy, but he shot through the locking mechanism and prised the doors open.
“Everyone inside! Hurry!”
They started pouring in as shots landed all around them. He looked over; Wallis was doing the same in the building opposite. Fire landed all around, and he finally turned and leapt inside, rolling until he crashed into a counter top. He stood back up to find they were in a grocery store. He looked over the counter to see two young women cowering behind it.
"It's okay. We're here to help," he stated.
He didn't sound all that confident.
Or I hope we are.
Lorenzo had placed Alita up against another counter further into the shop and gone to help the other wounded among them. One lay lifeless in the doorway. Lorenzo checked him very briefly before moving on. It was a calculated and cold move, but he knew he couldn't be saved. Many were grabbing whatever they could and barricading up the doorway. Like the other buildings, it was well built with only the smallest of porthole windows.
Taylor grabbed an AT rifle and went over to the nearest of the windows.
"There are only two rounds left, Colonel," said the man he took it from.
"Taylor lifted the weapon and lunged the muzzle forward so that it crashed through the window, laying as a rest. He got behind the stock and took aim at one of the approaching vehicles. A machine gun opened fire on his position, and the impacts landed all around the small porthole, but they didn't get through the outer skin of the building.
"Right, you son of a bitch," he said.
He took aim behind the machine gun where he knew the gunner would be sitting and pulled the trigger. The echo in the room was deafening, but a huge hole had been punched through the vehicle. The gun had fallen silent, but the vehicle still rolled forward. He noticed the driver’s screen now. He took aim and fired. The shot burst through, and the vehicle instantly veered off to one side, slamming into the other and coming to a dead stop. They hoped it had stopped the second vehicle, but the impact had been so slow that they had no such luck. It pushed on and smashed the stricken vehicle aside and kept coming. It was larger and more thickly armoured than the first.
Battle Beyond Earth Box Set Page 71