“The great Bolormaa, a god who cannot be killed by mere mortals. The same Bolormaa who cannot be defeated, and will face any enemy because she knows she is all-powerful. Will you prove it here and now?” Taylor demanded.
There was still no response as she tried to wrangle her way out.
“A fair fight; that is what I am offering! Nothing more, and nothing less! Are you willing to stand by your claims of greatness, or are you going to scurry off like the pathetic little creature you are?”
Bolormaa hissed as if becoming angry. He was getting somewhere now. The last thing he wanted was her running. This was his shot. He had finally positioned her in a fight that had everything in his favour, or as much as he could ever hope for.
“You always wanted this, didn’t you? It is what you came here for, and it’s what the Alliance and the whole universe want to see. But more than that, it’s what you wanted them to see, isn’t it? To see you assert your godly powers over me? The man who dared stand against you.”
Still nothing from her, but she at least stood her ground.
“All that power you say you have, and what proof is there of it? Sure, your armies and your fleets have given us hell, but we’ve given them hell right back. But what have you done while your armies fought the battles for you? What have you ever done? Your sons have contributed more to this war than you ever have, and now look where they are!”
“I always have more sons!” she snapped.
“Spoken like the selfish dictator that you are. You don’t give a shit about anything or anyone but what you want. You are a petulant little child who got given the keys to power. Well guess what? I’m here to end the good times you’ve been having. You are a cruel and sadistic leader who should have been deposed long ago, and I am here to make that a reality.”
She began to laugh slowly, and it became so loud that it echoed around the room. Taylor just waited. He had fed her enough rope; now it was time to let her hang herself with it.
“You think if you could even defeat me that you would defeat my armies, or that you could control them?”
The room fell silent as she waited for Taylor’s answer. There was a smile on her face as if she had nothing to fear.
“I don’t need to defeat them. You are the only thing that keeps them united through your web of fear. When you die, your empire dies with you. Your armies scattered to the wind. The races you have enslaved are just as likely to turn on one another than stay united to fight us. Hell, they might even return to the peace you tore them from, and I wish them every luck with that. You are a sick and twisted bitch that has forced what were probably good men and women into this war against us. Without you, there is no war.”
“Not one single subject would dare leave my service, and you cannot change that!”
“Why, because they are loyal to you?”
“No, because they will belong to me for an eternity. I own their worlds, just like I am going to own yours, and I look forward to putting humanity to work and to war.”
“If you think that is the way it would go down, then you know nothing about the human race. We abolished slavery over six hundred years ago, and we have been fighting to keep it that way ever since. You are no different to the rest. Just another arrogant and egotistical asshole who wants to play games with people’s lives, and that is why you will fail.”
She looked even angrier now, and yet curious all at the same time.
“And why is that?”
“Because I give people hope, and you give them fear. Your way works for as long as you never turn your back, but mine works no matter what, and that is what everyone watching this is thinking, even those people you have enslaved!”
He was getting to her now. She looked a little worried and also threatened.
“Let it be known! Any being that would turn against me will not just endure an eternity of suffering, but I will hunt down every generation of your families and ensure they suffer the same fate, and that your bloodlines die with you, slowly, and in agony!”
Taylor smiled back, and that made her angry as well.
“You still don’t get it, but you never will. I want to send a message to everyone watching, too, including those currently serving you…you don’t have to serve her anymore! When I win this battle, I will not take her throne. I will not demand your loyalty. I will make only one demand of you. Stop this aggression against the Alliance. That is all that I ask of you, and I wish you luck in returning to the lives Bolormaa so horrifically snatched you from. I’d bet good money that you weren’t like this once. I bet you weren’t so different to us. Go back to those days. Go back to your own lives. Live in peace. Live however you want. I will not come after you. I will ask nothing else of you. Stop fighting, and we may even one day call one another friends!”
“Rousing words, but it will do you no good. My subjects follow a god, and that is their duty until the day they die!”
Taylor looked at Rogers who was still standing over the body of the wounded Prince. He looked exhausted, but he nodded in agreement and gratitude for everything the Colonel had said.
“Your work is done here, Captain, and fine work it was, too.”
Rogers gave a casual salute and hobbled off towards the door Jones had left through. Taylor watched Bolormaa like a hawk, ready to pounce if she tried anything. But as Rogers reached the door, it slid open, and Jones and Turan rushed through. They helped him and sealed the door once more.
“It’s between you and me now Bolo. Just us, both fresh, and no tricks! Still think you have what it takes?”
“You promised that you would set my subjects free if you defeated me, well, here is my promise. When I defeat you, when I kill you, and I will, humanity will be destroyed. None shall be left alive. I would not suffer a human to serve under me. I will not leave a single one of you alive in the entire universe. I will make it my mission to hunt down every single last one of you. The Krys I will enslave. They understand the virtue of servitude, and they can be moulded into true warriors.”
“You know what this stinks of!”
She shook her head as if not understanding where he was going with this.
“Desperation, petty threats from a has-been, desperately trying to cling onto what she has left, and lashing out with threats when it’s all crumbling away around her. There is nowhere to hide anymore, no army to protect you, no bullshit to protect you. You are going to die here today, Bolormaa.”
“And you think you are going to live?” she snarled.
“I accepted death a long time ago. By all accounts, I was dead. I am happy to pay that price. I made my peace with it, and if it meant ending you, I would pay with my life in a heartbeat.”
“And so you shall.”
Taylor jumped forward and cleared the railings of the balcony, landing smoothly on the arena floor a few metres from the line of dead Rogers had left behind.
“You see this?” Taylor asked, “This is a sign of the times. Where are your armies now? Where are your sons? You are defeated.”
She laughed at him in response, but from her tone he thought she wasn’t quite as confident as before. Taylor went on.
“Let’s play, you and I. This is what we have been dancing around all this time. It’s time to find out if you really have what it takes. If you really are as good as you say.”
“I’m the best you’ll ever see,” she replied arrogantly.
She drew out her blade, the same khopesh-shaped one as before. Taylor drew his Assegai and extended it, taking it in both hands, knowing he would need the speed that such leverage would give. He was under no illusions about what he was about to face. For all his tough talk, and playing to the crowd, he knew precisely how dangerous she was. The only thing he didn’t know was whether the AR2 suit was really good enough to even up the odds with her. It had allowed Rogers to defeat two of her sons, but she was in a different league to them.
As he was standing there waiting for the fight to begin, he felt the tension engulf
him. He thought back to when he faced a Prince with Alita, and how she had used the Pauri Tao to defeat the monster. He remembered her face as clear as day, so much so that he could almost reach out and touch her. Bolormaa saw he was lost in a daydream, and she knew why, and just how to get to him.
“Alita Hariz, a fine subject she has made,” said Bolormaa.
Taylor’s vision turned to the last time he had seen her, and the man she had killed in cold blood. It made him feel sick, and angry, and more than anything it made his anger towards Bolormaa boil over. He’d tried to remain calm, and that had worked up until now, but he couldn’t take it any longer. She had pushed him over the edge. He knew exactly what she was doing but was powerless to stop it. He didn’t feel bad for submitting to his anger. It was what made him human in this case.
“You will never speak her name again!’ he snapped.
That was it. He couldn’t hold off any longer, sprinting forward as if intending to end her there and then in one single stroke. He was lightning fast, and it took the enemy Queen by surprise. He thrust towards her chest, and she only narrowly avoided it with a step to the side. It was clear that she had never had to face anyone so fast before. He soared past her, as he could not stop in time. She swung for him, but he was gone before her blade could find its target. He spun around and was breathing heavily. Not from exertion, but from furious and uncontrollable anger. He would not put his visor down. He wanted to see what was going on with his own eyes, and everyone watching the live feed to know for certain that it was actually him.
No more tricks now!
He wanted her dead so badly, and he knew he was letting anger get the better of him.
I can’t stop it. I’m only human, and my way has kept me alive all these years, so it can’t be so bad.
“Your fondness for those who serve you is your weakness,” spat Bolormaa.
“No, your disdain for those you enslave is yours.”
He rushed at her once more. She was better prepared this time, but he didn’t go so fast as to pass her again. His thrust past her, but his body did not, and he cut across a flat cut with the blade of extended Assegai. To his amazement she stopped it dead with the blade of her khopesh. It sizzled and sparked like the weapons of her sons did, and now he was starting to understand why. That power wasn’t necessarily to do damage to what was struck, but to stop the powered blades they used. Her sword held his spear firm, without taking any damage at all.
Taylor hadn’t expected to meet any resistance, and that worried him. His Assegai had got him through some tough times, and this changed everything. He drew back and thrust again, but once again she passed it off. He turned and spun off to her right side. He traversed and rotated the blade around, bringing it down with a quick and powerful cut to her head. She beat the attack aside with the back of her blade, rotating it around as she passed towards him with a cut powerful enough that it would have cut his head clean from his shoulders. But he wasn’t there when the cut landed at the point she had intended.
It was clear to him now that the AR2 suit was a close match for her speed, but nothing beyond that; which was both a relief and terrifying all at the same time. A relief because he could finally match her, terrifying because he had no edge over his opponent. She was still far bigger than he was, and he was yet to test her strength. He cut in once more, and she closed as if to grapple. He felt the ground to resist her, but when they connected, the charge caused his feet to slide across the floor as he was driven back. With a violent scream, she tossed him back two metres, and he landed back first on the hard arena floor in a pool of the Princes’ blood.
It stank. It stank so bad he wanted to vomit, but he had no time to think about it anymore. She brought down a ruthless and powerful cut with both hands on the hilt. He rolled over and kept rolling. Repeated cuts came in and struck the ground beside him. The blows were so close that he felt the sparks shower over him. A few hit his face and burnt into his skin. He rolled again, and then kicked out to launch into the air, landing on his feet. She came to a stop, as he once again came on guard with his spear before him.
“You are going to die here, Taylor, you know that!”
“Maybe, but not before you.”
“I am not Erdogan. I am not a pathetic Krys warlord who you can push around. Were he alive today, he would be nothing more than a captain in my army, at best.”
“Bullshit.”
Taylor smiled. He couldn’t help it; her taunts were pathetic and desperate.
“Erdogan was a worthy enemy, and a damn sight better person than you. And what great achievements have you got under your belt? You have subjugated worlds that could never stand a chance of standing up to you. Well, boo hoo, wouldn’t your mother be proud?”
“Don’t talk about by mother!”
Taylor was taken aback. He’d never seen her more furious, far more than he was when she had dared utter Alita’s name. She ran at him and swung cut after cut in a desperate attempt to end him. There was no toying anymore.
Fuck me!
Taylor realised he had struck a nerve, and even as the strikes were laying in, he was smiling at the fact that he had gotten to her. He had poured salt into some old wound, and he was hoping to work out why before this was over.
Right then he had to live through the next few seconds and minutes. She was still cutting furiously from one side to another. It was powerful and fast, but controlled and fast enough he could do nothing but parry as each one came in. He ducked out of one enormous horizontal cut and sidestepped another. Once again she came at him with huge cuts and drove him all the way back to the far side wall. As his back hit the wall, he stumbled slightly, unable to move off to the side quickly enough to avoid the vertical cut coming for his head. She was too close to use the extended blade of his Assegai. He lifted the weapon and parried between his hands at the centre of the shaft.
It was not enough. The blade cut straight through the shaft and only slowed slightly. Her sword edge connected with his helmet and sliced down his check and torso before passing off. He let out a cry of pain. The cut ran deep and was so hot that it cauterized the wound as it passed through, leaving his flesh blackened from the burn. She put her hand onto the top of his helmet and hurtled him back into the arena. He crashed and rolled to a halt beside the body of an enemy soldier. It was undignified, and he knew just as well as everyone watching that this wasn’t going well.
The AR2 did wonders. It allowed him to put up a fight like he had never before, but her strength seemed insurmountable. As he lay there in the dirt and blood, he wondered what he was doing there, and most of all, where his friends were. He had always imagined this day when he finally had to face Bolormaa, had envisaged Irala and Jafar being by his side, along with so many others. Now he was all alone. It was of his making, and he was beginning to wonder if he had made a mistake.
* * *
“She’s killing him. We have to do something,” said Jones.
He turned to head for the door, but Turan once again blocked his path.
“There is nothing you can do!” Sommer yelled.
She was collapsed on the floor, sitting back against the wall to prop herself up. Her wounds had been bandaged, and she had removed her armour. All she had on her now was her pistol, and everyone knew that would do her no good if she had to fight, not against anything in Bolormaa’s army.
“I won’t leave him to die!”
He looked down at the video feed again. Taylor was lying on the deck, and he saw the look on his face. It was the look of a man who had lost, and was merely playing at his ending.
“He is right, Captain,” said Rogers.
“How, how would you know that? You know how many times I have fought beside Taylor. I know him better than any man alive, and I am telling you, he needs us, right now!”
But Rogers just slumped back and dropped down beside Sommer. He knew he had done all that he could do.
“That is it? You are going to sit there and let this happen?
”
“This was Taylor’s choice. I might have helped make it happen, but this is on him.”
“Yeah? And sometimes he is wrong, and he would be the first to admit it.”
He tried to push against Turan again, but there was no budging him.
“For pity’s sake, let me through. Will none of you do anything?”
“We are doing what we can,” replied Turan.
“So nothing? You will do nothing?”
“And what would you do?” Rogers asked, “Against her, what do you possibly think you could achieve?”
“By myself, nothing, but alongside Taylor, more than he can do alone.”
“Wrong, you’ll just get yourself killed. You have seen what she is capable of. She’d kill you first because it would be easy, and it would eat at Taylor in a way that nothing else could. The last thing he needs right now is a distraction.”
“A distraction? He’s getting killed out there. I’d say dying is a pretty big damn distraction!”
He pushed again, but Rogers got to his feet and put a hand on Jones’ shoulder. He snapped around in response and struck him. Rogers was frail and exhausted, and he fell back against the wall. Jones looked horrified. He turned away from Turan to help Rogers back upright.
“I am sorry. I am so sorry…”
“You have to understand, this is not a fight you can win. If you go out there, not only will you die, but you will be doing the Colonel a great disservice. Has he not lost enough already? He needs to know there is something left that is worth fighting for. I don’t know if we will ever get Alita back, or at least the Alita we remember, but he has us, and it is important that he knows that. You more than anyone are the most important friend in his life now.”
Jones looked surprised to hear it, as if he thought Rogers had long supplanted him. Although deep down he knew it to be true.
Battle Beyond Earth - Box Set (Books 6-9) Page 60