"We keep going. There has to be more, and the crew will need our help."
The lights flashed overhead and flashed on.
"My word, they really did it," said Jones as he kept going.
He took a bend and found himself face-to-face with a Morohtan Prince. It looked a lot like Nergui, and he managed to fire two shots with his pistol before it struck him across the head with its open offhand. The blow was enough to throw him into the sidewall and smash his head against a girder. He was stunned, but still managed to stay on his feet as he saw Babacan rush past to engage the enemy. With one swift blow, the Morohtan champion cut down with the bayonet like blade on its gun arm. The blade smashed Babacan's shield down and drove deep into his collar.
The Morohtan threw him aside with its other hand and turned its attention to Jones. He lifted his weapon to fight, but the creature knocked it down, and then beat on his shield so that he crumpled down onto his knees. He looked up to see a blow coming for his face. He felt the impact and went out cold.
* * *
"Taylor, come in, Colonel Taylor."
"Taylor here," he said as he answered the call.
"Colonel, we have a confirmed sighting of Bolormaa aboard."
He felt his heart sink and his stomach turn.
"No, it can't be."
"We have multiple confirmed sightings, Colonel. I do not know what to tell you. It's chaos from what we can see, and this ship just does not have enough marines aboard to deal with this. We're spread too thin."
"It's no accident that she appeared now," replied Taylor.
Jafar appeared beside the Captain.
"Taylor, if Bolormaa is here, then we have no choice but to fight her, but we must do it together."
Taylor was still shaking his head in disbelief.
"Why? Why now?" he asked.
He didn't want to move.
"Bolormaa? She is here?" Biondi asked.
"Where? Where is that bitch?"
"Docking bay 4, where Irala's shuttle was last seen, and as far as we know, he never left," Fortier added.
"Taylor, we have to do this together. Where are you?"
"Just get your ass there now!"
He ended the call before Jafar could get another word in. He stood up to leave when Biondi called out, "Colonel, Colonel?" she asked in a panicked voice.
He stopped and considered ignoring her, but he couldn't. He went back and drew his pistol.
"I can't take you with me, but take this."
He handed the pistol to her, but she looked as scared of taking it, as when she’d heard Bolormaa's name.
"You know how to use this, don't you?"
She nodded in agreement, but tears began to stream down her face.
"If they find me, I have no chance, do I?"
"No, I’m sorry, but if I don't go a lot more lives are at risk. Seal the door, and don't open it until friendly units find you."
"And if they don't?"
"If no one comes, then it's all over, anyway."
It was a bleak prospect, but he couldn't bring himself to lie.
"You did some fine work, but now you have to leave it to me. There are people that need my help."
"Bolormaa. Is she as terrifying as the stories?"
He didn't even need to say a word. She could see it in his eyes.
"Can you beat her?"
"Not by myself, but with a little help. Maybe, just maybe."
"And if you can't?"
Taylor shrugged. He wished he had an answer for her. He primed his rifle and headed for the door again.
"Will this lock when I shut it?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Good, then get out of sight and wait for help. Thank you, Lieutenant."
"Good luck, Sir."
There was sorrow in her voice, and Taylor didn't blame her. He stepped outside and watched the door slide across. The keypad lit up as it sealed shut. He was confident she would be okay so long as the enemy didn't know where she was, but the door would be no obstacle if they wanted to get inside.
"Good luck," he said once he knew she couldn't hear him.
He turned and leapt into action with a new determination. The time had come.
Chapter 14
Taylor reached a crossroads and crashed into someone who towered over him. He had been running at such a pace he hadn't given any caution to his own safety. He recoiled back and lifted his rifle, but was relieved to see it was Jafar.
"Are you alone?" Taylor asked.
"Yes, I left the others to protect the bridge."
"You sure you want to do this? You know what our chances are against her?"
Jafar nodded. "This day has been coming for a long time. Where is the Tamir, the Pauri Tau?"
Taylor had completely forgotten about it, but his eyes lit up at the prospect.
"Come on. Follow me."
He quickly increased to a running pace.
"Does Zaya know Bolormaa is aboard?"
"We haven't been able to reach him, but if he is alive, he must know by now."
"Where is Irala?"
"Unknown. We have not had word from the Councillor since the enemy arrived."
"At first I thought it was all going to shit, but then I began to wonder. Bolormaa came here with just three ships, and saw fit to trick us with this virus."
"Yes," replied Jafar, as if he was waiting for some conclusion.
"You know what that tells me? She's weak. Okay maybe not weak, but far from as strong as we feared. If she'd had the ships to do so, why wouldn't she just destroy the fleet while she could?"
"I do not understand her motives."
"No, neither do I. But no matter what she says or tries to tell us, I am calling it bullshit. We hit her harder than we realised, and she's committed everything to taking Earth. Maybe she isn't as all powerful as we thought."
"We can only hope."
"We certainly can. Ah, here it is."
He tapped in a security code, applied his hand to the scanner, and looked into the retinal scanner, too. The half metre thick door slid open. It was like he was entering a bank vault. He leapt inside and snatched the spear up without hesitation.
"Is it really all they say?"
"It's saved my life, Jafar, so I'd be willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, and more important. Bolormaa is terrified of it. Nothing else in the universe has driven her to such extremes as this small thing."
He took a deep breath before running on. Had he any inclination that Alita had confronted Bolormaa, he might have skipped it and run on with much more haste.
"Irala can't beat Bolormaa, can he?"
"Honestly, I don't know, but I doubt it. If he could, how did his people ever end up in the position they are today?"
That was answer enough as Taylor picked up the pace.
* * *
"Get my eyes in that docking bay, now!" Fortier ordered.
"I am trying, Sir, but we're still suffering technical difficulties. We may...oh..."
Fortier turned to see a flurry of movement on the screen in front of the man.
"What is it?" he snapped.
"Sir, you..."
"Well, put it on screen, damn you!"
The man hesitantly reached forward with shaky hands and did so. It revealed the horror show to everyone on the bridge. The docking bay had been smashed to pieces in an epic battle. Both Bolormaa and Irala were fighting now with their bare hands. Irala ducked under Bolormaa's punch and onto her back, but she pulled him off and threw him to the ground like a ragdoll. Bolormaa raised her right foot as if to stamp on his head, but Irala spun out and got to his feet.
The Queen merely picked up the broken undercarriage of a nearby shuttle that was as large as a man, tossing it towards Irala as if it weighed nothing at all. Irala jumped out of the way, and it crashed into an engineer's workshop station.
"This is over. You are finished!" she declared.
"What do we do?" asked the man next to Fortier.
"W
e can't do anything. Where is Taylor?"
The man shook his head.
"I cannot reach the Colonel. What can even he do about this? Can he beat that?"
"We can only hope."
Although from his tone and body language, he wasn't confident. They watched as the two aliens kept striking each other. The room was ripped apart until finally Irala was launched at the camera, and the feed went dead as he impacted against it.
"Get me another view," said Fortier.
"Sorry, Sir, that is all we have."
Fortier didn't know what to do. The screens of the space around them suddenly flashed to life, and he could see their fleet still floating without power. The enemy vessels were waiting for their prey to move.
"Have any of them got power back yet?"
"No, Sir."
"Good, because they moment they do, they'll be blown out of the sky. The only reason we are still here is because of who is aboard. Make sure our jump engines are active and ready. When the time comes, we may need to get out of here, and quickly."
"And leave them behind?"
"If it comes to it, yes."
"We have to find another way."
"That's right, and I am all ears. The honest truth is that Taylor has never been able to defeat Bolormaa before, not even with Zaya, and I don't see that anything has changed. Our best hope is that she withdraws."
* * *
"Come on, it'll be quicker to cut through the gallery," said Taylor, as he thought of the balcony ten metres above the docking bay.
"Is she all that her reputation suggests?"
"She's a killer, Jafar," replied Taylor in a sombre tone. They reached the balcony and slid to a halt, as they clapped eyes on the Morohtan Queen. Instantly, the old wound from the Ertnii blade began to emit pain. It tore through his body, but he shrugged it off on seeing Irala on his knees before Bolormaa. His old friend was saying something, but they couldn't hear it through the hardened glass. He looked exhausted and badly beaten. Bolormaa drew back her arm, and they could see the spear now.
"No!" he cried, as he banged on the window to try and get Bolormaa's attention. But the spear was thrust forward with immense speed and power; it burst through Irala's chest and out of his spine before being drawn back with as much speed and precision. She turned to face Taylor, as if to acknowledge that she had known of his presence before she had dealt the blow. Taylor couldn't even find the words to express how he felt. He felt lost, but Bolormaa's attention turned to something else below them at ground level. They followed her gaze to see Zaya step into view.
"Come on, we need to get down there!" Taylor yelled.
They hammered against the glass, but it was too strong.
"Damn it!"
He pulled out an explosive charge and placed it on the glass. They took a few paces back and turned away as it blew. The glass shattered out onto the docking bay floor below, and they rushed to the open balcony. Zaya was squaring off against Bolormaa. They were both backing off away from Irala’s body and further from the gallery.
“Hurry, he can’t take her alone,” said Taylor.
He put his hand on the ledge and leapt over it. The drop was large enough that his boosters aided his descent, but Jafar was not wearing any. He slammed into the ground beside him, and the steel floor buckled slightly on impact.
“Just like old times, ey?”
Jafar said nothing as they rushed forward to help Zaya. They had closed half the distance when Bolormaa pulled out a small spherical object and rolled it towards them as if it were a grenade. They both leapt for the cover of a fighter that was on its side, having been tossed over during Irala’s fight. Light flashed but there was no explosion. Taylor peered out to see a wall of energy dividing the room in two. Just like they had seen used on Kapteyn. It completely divided them from the two Morohtans, but Irala lay on their side. Taylor rushed out to his friend’s side. He was still breathing, but he was fading fast.
“Taylor, I failed,” he said as he spluttered.
“No, you fought honourably, my friend.”
“No, I was going to leave. I was going to leave all of you, only…”
“Only what?”
“Alita, she would not run from the fight.”
“Alita? She was here?”
“She fought Bolormaa when I would not…that is why I stayed.”
“Where is she?” he asked in desperation.
Irala struggled to lift one arm as he became increasingly weaker. He pointed inside the shielded area, but his arm dropped, and he was gone.
“Goodbye, old friend.”
Taylor stood up and went towards the shield barrier with Jafar by his side. Neither Bolormaa nor Zaya was talking. They were staring at one another.
“Come on, Bolormaa. I’m right here! Come and get me!”
She had heard him and turned to acknowledge him, but shook her head and turned her attention back to Zaya.
“Zaya, my son. We have had our differences, and I was wrong to cast you out, but this is not the way. Think what we could achieve together? The two most powerful beings in the universe united once again?”
“He’s with us now, you bitch!” Taylor screamed. Even as he said it, he could see Zaya looking at him as if weighing up his options.
No, surely not, he thought as Bolormaa went on.
“You can join me and live like a god, or you can die with them. You were destined for great things, my son. Come back to me now.”
Zaya kept looking back and forth, as if conflicted. Taylor drew out his Assegai and thrust it into the shield in some attempt to break it and go to his aid, but it just pushed in a few centimetres and bounced back out.
“He cannot beat her alone, can he?” Jafar whispered.
"No, he can’t."
Taylor knew how powerful she was. They all did.
“Zaya, will you take up your rightful place by my side? All you have to do is sheath your blade and come back to me. All will be forgiven. You have suffered enough.”
Taylor couldn’t believe he was even considering it. Zaya turned to him and looked him in the eye.
“I am sorry,” he said as he sheathed his blade.
Taylor couldn’t believe it. He felt that all hope was lost. Zaya strode onwards past Bolormaa and stepped up the ramp into her ship.
“You cannot have him. He is my son, and he will never fight with an insignificant creature such as yourself, a mere mortal, Colonel Mitch Taylor!”
“We are all mortal. So your sons have found out, and so will you one day,” said Taylor.
Bolormaa only smiled in response, but it was the movement behind her that caught his attention. A dozen Morohtan warriors and two champions, one of them carried Jones, and another had Alita.
“No!” Taylor gasped.
“You made me suffer, and now you will get a taste for how that feels. You have taken from me. Taken sons, my own blood. Now I will take from you.”
“Leave them out of this. It’s me you want!”
“Yes, and I want to see you suffer for as long as you may live. It will be a pleasure to see that.”
Taylor watched Alita and Jones, desperately trying to get one last glimpse of them, as they were loaded aboard the enemy ship.
“What are you doing here? What do you even want? Is it Earth? Tell me!” Taylor begged.
She grinned further, revelling in his misery and self-doubt.
“Tear down this barrier, and let’s settle this here and now!”
Bolormaa looked calm.
“No, if you can one day prove worthy of fighting me, I may humour you, but only so that you may reach the end of your life, and I do not wish to see that soon. You will be tormented until that day comes.”
“Why are you doing this!” he screamed.
“When you are worthy, Colonel Taylor.”
She strode over the ramp of her ship, and as she stepped onto it, her open hand reached out. The wall came down, and the device flew into her hand. Taylor reached for the h
ammer on his back and tried to go forward, but Jafar grabbed his shoulder and held him firmly in place.
“Let me go!”
Jafar would not, and he could not get free himself from his friend’s strong hold. He tried to fight it.
“Let go of me. You have no right to stop me!”
Bolormaa looked back at him one last time, gloating at her victory, and then she was gone. The ramp closed, and the ship lifted off. He looked around for anything that could still fly so that he could pursue them, but every craft on the hangar deck was smashed.
He turned back in distress as he looked to Jafar for help.
“I could not let you die, too,” said Jafar.
“I know, but what are we going to do?”
His tone was desperate, and Jafar had no answers. The he spotted it, Irala’s shuttle. It was still in once piece behind the wreckage of a fighter. He pushed Jafar away and ran towards it.
“Taylor, no!”
He didn’t need to take another step further, for just as quickly as Bolormaa’s ship left, another entered the hangar bay, another of hers. Guns on the bow opened fire, and Irala’s ship was blown apart, and it landed soon after, exactly where Bolormaa’s vessel had taken off.
“What is this? I thought she wanted me to live?”
“And to suffer,” replied Jafar.
The ramp dropped down. A Juggernaut raced out with two-dozen Morohtan warriors and as many drones. One of the champions led them. Just like Nergui had. Taylor had never had to fight one, and he hoped they were not as formidable as a Prince.
“I am Orda. Bolormaa sends her best wishes,” he said as he lifted his arms and opened fire.
Taylor and Jafar leapt for cover as a hail of gunfire rang out. Dozens of shots struck the craft they sheltered behind, and more ricocheted off the wall behind them.
“This day doesn’t get any better, does it?”
He looked back to the gallery and then through the main door of the hangar. Both were empty, aside from the trail of bodies leading to the exit. There was a lot of open space between them and that way out.
“We could run?” Jafar asked.
“If they start to spread out, this ship is finished anyway…nobody is coming, are they?”
Battle Beyond Earth Box Set Page 101