"Kicking some fucking ass."
Taylor slammed into the side of the bunker and dropped his rifle to let it hang by his side. He drew out two grenades, primed them, and tossed them through the slit, ducking back for cover. A moment later an explosion rang out, and a metre-wide hole blasted out from the front of the bunker. Before the dust had settled, Taylor had put the muzzle of his rifle into the breach and opened up on full auto. He emptied an entire magazine before ducking back and reloading, and beckoning for the others to join him.
Without hesitation, the three platoons arose from cover and rushed out across the open ground. With shields held before them, they took pulse after pulse. The heavier pulse cannons cut two of them down, but the rest covered the ground quickly. Soon Silva and Morris were up against the wall of the bunker next to Taylor, just as they had been before.
"You're crazy, you know that? And we love you for it," Silva said with a smile, but Taylor still looked deadly serious. He looked at his watch and sighed.
"This is taking too long. Another ten minutes and they'll be on top of us, and then we're fucked."
Neither of them could disagree, but neither did it make it any less crazy. They watched the heavy weapons teams bring up the cumbersome machine guns that they’d need before an advance.
“Get those weapons firing!” Taylor ordered.
The crews were taking fire and struggling to get set up, but Taylor yelled at them once again.
“Move it, move it! We’re running out of time!”
He turned back. Silva was looking at him with an appalled expression on his face.
“You got a problem, Sergeant Major?”
“Pushing everyone a little hard, aren’t you, Sir? This lots luck can’t last forever.”
“Luck is for those who don’t have skill or a will to get the job done. I expect more.”
“More than what?”
“More than yesterday, more than they have done before, more…everything.”
Silva didn’t know how to respond, so he didn’t.
“I don’t see why we are still pushing this,” muttered Morris, “We’ve already smashed their air power here. Look at them,” he said, pointing at the craft the Guardians had torn apart and the dozens of bodies they had left in their wake.
“You know there’s plenty more below the surface,” said Silva.
“No, we think there are. We don’t know for sure either way. Has anyone seen them?”
“We’ll know soon enough.”
“Or we’ll die trying to find out.”
“Sir, you are out of line,” said Silva.
Morris was silenced for a moment but finally replied, “How dare you! I am an officer in this Regiment…” he went on, but was soon interrupted by Taylor.
“Shut the fuck up!”
Morris was so shocked and intimidated by Taylor that he did as he was told and waited for the Colonel to continue.
“You all know the deal. Intel says there’s at least double their number beneath our feet. I won’t go until we either destroy what they’ve got or confirm it ain’t there. Got it?”
Morris nodded in agreement. It was plain for all to see that Taylor was a changed man. He was as capable as ever, but so much of his humour and friendship qualities were gone. Silva could see he had turned into an efficient machine, and whilst that got the job done, it was disconcerting from the man he had known as a friend and leader for so many years.
Taylor looked over to the Guardians, and they too were waiting for his orders. He looked back at his watch once more and knew that time was against them.
“If we don’t move in the next thirty seconds, we might as well turn our backs and run. Run and leave a great opportunity. So we’ve taken out a couple of dozen Mech craft? What if we could destroy another hundred? We’re either in this to win or not. Are you with me?”
Silva nodded in agreement without hesitation, and Morris soon followed. Taylor quickly turned and simply yelled one word. “Charge!”
It was all he needed to say, as everybody knew their part. A dozen of the marines managed to get ahead before Taylor could get out from the cover of the rubble of the bunker. He held his shield out before him as pulses crashed over the defence it provided, and he went forward without any fear at all.
Taylor fired as he went, but he couldn’t find a target worth aiming at. He then found a wall for defence and pushed up against it. He was followed by many of his marines who waited for his next move. There was only one entrance leading through the two metre high walls.
“We aren’t going through there,” stated Silva.
Taylor agreed. “Only a fool would. We’ll go over.”
He went a few metres back, and then used the last of the power in his boosters to launch him up and over the wall. As he descended, he found he was coming back down on top of a dozen Mechs. Mitch put his shield under him and felt the impact of several pulses beneath him, finally landing on one of the enemy soldiers and crushing it to the ground.
He rolled off the Mech and raised his shield over him just in time to absorb a pulse that burst across the surface as he held it out. Gunfire rang out seconds later. The descending marines hit the Mechs around him by a hail of gunfire. A Mech standing over him spasmed, hit in the back by several shots from Reitech rifles. Taylor took his opportunity to rise up and draw his Assegai, driving it deep into the creature’s abdomen.
As the creature fell down dead, he could feel his blood lust grow, until Jafar dropped in next to him, and he realised the shots had come from his alien friend. He wanted to say thanks but couldn’t bring himself to do it, and Jafar never required it. Mitch was back on his feet now and rushing towards the next Mech. He shield barged the beast and then thrust his Assegai into its neck as it stumbled backwards.
Taylor pushed ahead even as his comrades were still battling the creatures all around him. He could see the anti-aircraft emplacements now. Each of the four dome shaped towers had six barrels protruding from their thickly armoured roofs. At the base of the first were two guards already fixing their weapons on him, but Taylor fired first and Silva joined him. The two creatures were cut down before getting off a shot, and he could see another inside trying to shut the hinged blast door at the base of the tower. Taylor sped up and stormed towards the door.
Just as the door was about to connect with its frame, the edge of his shield connected with its centre. With his entire body weight behind him, he barrelled in through the entrance and landed on top of another creature. Silva was through the door a second later and fired a burst from his rifle into the one who had been attempting to shut them out. Taylor thrust his Assegai into the head of the one he was sprawled across.
"What now?" Silva asked.
Jafar rushed through the doorway behind them as Taylor got to his feet.
"You think you can control these guns?" Taylor asked him.
Jafar simply nodded and stepped into an open frame elevator as if intimately familiar with the construction. Taylor and Silva stepped in beside him and it was all the space there was. Jafar hit a button, and they rocketed up at a surprising rate until finally slowing. They found they had reached the gunnery deck. Three aliens sat at consoles and simply stared in shock at their presence. Nobody moved for a second. Taylor lifted his rifle and fired three shots into the chest of the middle one.
The other two aliens leapt out of their seats to reach for guns on a rack beside them, but it was too late. Silva and Jafar opened fire on both of them, and blood was splashed across the consoles as they dropped down dead.
"Well?" Taylor asked, "Can you bring these guns to bear on the other towers?"
Jafar pushed one of the bodies aside and took a seat. They watched the huge screen displaying the view from the gun ports. He took aim at the first tower and squeezed the triggers on the joysticks either side of him. Light flashed before their eyes, and the first tower was obliterated in a few short seconds. Jafar immediately brought the guns around to target the next tower and could
see them both rotating to engage them.
"Oh, shit," Silva swore under his breadth.
"Get a shift on!" Taylor yelled.
He opened fire and strafed the first from top to bottom until it began to topple, finally collapsing into the last of the towers still opposing them. Silva gave out a sigh of relief as he realised they had been just seconds from certain death.
"Not bad," said Taylor, patting Jafar on the shoulder, "We can't leave this place standing," he added.
He drew out a grenade and set a ninety-second timer and placed it on the console beside Jafar. Silva placed two others, and they made their way quickly to the elevator and headed for the door. As they walked out into the light of day, Captain King and his Rangers met them, approaching from the north. They looked like they'd been through a hard fight, but King had a smile on his face, despite the blood trickling down his face.
"You made it at last, then?"
"Didn't exactly go to plan, Colonel, but we sure got a few bonus kills on the way."
As he finished, the grenades in the tower ignited. One of the gun barrels broke loose from the tower and smashed down to the ground a metre from Taylor's feet. He looked up with disgust to see the thickly armoured structure still stood in defiance.
"It'll have to do. At least we've rendered it useless," he stated to Silva.
He looked around to see that all eyes were on him now.
"Intel told us what's on the surface is just the very tip of the iceberg, so let's find out!"
As he said it, they heard the sound of engines roaring beneath them and looked back. A kilometre away the guns of the Diderot opened fire as two Mech fighters burst out from the mountainside a few hundred metres from her.
"Guess we just found the entrance to their landing strip," said King.
They watched as the Diderot first hammered the two craft with close range weaponry before the big guns finally opened up on the entrance to the underground hangar. The echoes of the guns sounded like a thunderstorm and brought a smile to Taylor's face.
"All right, the hole is plugged. Time to finish this."
He carried on to a large set of blast doors. They clearly led into the facility, and he pointed for the Guardians to get to work. They immediately hit the opening of the doors and began cutting through. Thirty seconds later they stopped firing, and one of them rushed at the damaged opening, smashing into it with all its force. The doorway partly buckled, and another then joined it and prised the doorway open. Half a metre was all they could get it apart.
"It'll do!" Taylor said.
He held his shield before him as if expecting to be shot at any second, but as he continued to advance, there was nothing. He stood next to the two Guardians who were too large to fit through the breach. He looked at his watch again, noting just how short on time they were.
"Bring up the nuke!" he barked.
He pointed for Sergeant Lang to go through with him, and a second later he darted forward and went through the breach. To their surprise, they found no sign of the enemy at all. All that was there was a large elevator like you'd find on an aircraft carrier.
"We don't have time to go down there," said Silva.
"We don't need to. Bring up that nuke!"
One of the marines strode in with a large steel box on the back of his Reitech suit.
"Right there," said Taylor, pointing to the centre of the elevator.
Two others came up beside him and unclipped the device from his suit and lowered it carefully to the deck.
"Arm it, five minute timer."
"Five minutes?" asked Silva. He sounded shocked, "Cutting it a little fine, don't you think?"
"Do it," he said and opened a comms channel.
"Rains, get your ass down here. I want pickup at our primary extractions in two minutes!"
"You got it, Colonel," Rains answered calmly.
They set up the timer on the nuke and waited for Taylor to activate it. He stepped up and quickly punched in the eight-digit code onto the keypad without any hesitation at all. He looked over to Jafar and nodded for him to activate the huge elevator as they all stepped off. It jolted into action at a slow pace but began to accelerate quickly. Taylor leaned out of the exposed edge to see it drop about thirty metres below the surface and finally come to a halt. He took a step back, targeted a control box and cabling on the far side, and opened fire.
"Rip it apart!" he yelled.
A dozen of the marines around him fired, and Jafar blew out the control module he had used to lower the elevator down.
"Right, let's get the hell out of here!"
He rushed to the smashed doorway and waited for the last of them to go before stepping back out into the light himself.
"It’s done?" King asked.
Taylor didn't break stride as he rushed past the Captain.
"Yeah, we've got four minutes till she blows.
"Four minutes? Are you fucking kidding me?"
"You better believe it," added Silva as he ran past him.
"Let's go, go, go!" yelled King to his Company.
The two Companies rushed back over the ground they had fought hard to secure and could see the copters coming in to land nearby.
"Could have given us a little more leeway, Colonel!" Silva shouted breathlessly.
"Just keep moving!"
They jumped aboard the copters and were in the air with just two minutes to spare.
"We've got incoming!" Rains shouted.
Taylor rushed to the cockpit and could see enemy craft approaching on the scanners.
"Can you make it to the Diderot?"
"Probably, but it's gonna be awfully tight."
"The craft soared towards the French Heavy Cruiser that was engaging several of the enemy ships a few kilometres out and couldn't have been more than a couple of thousand feet above the surface.
Then the docking bays were in sight, and Rains barely seemed to slow down as they came crashing into land. The undercarriage hit hard, and they felt part of it buckle as they listed over and ground to a halt. Sparks flew up around them and caused the copter to make a one hundred and eighty degree turn. Its tail struck one of the other copters that had landed moments before. As the loading bay ramps began to close, they could see enemy craft on the horizon.
Taylor looked down to his watch and could see the countdown was on just five seconds. He hit the comms channel and yelled, "All aboard, go!"
The engines were already spooled up and ready to go. They caught a glimpse of light as the nuke went off, and they vanished into the self-generated space gateway a split second later. Nobody said a word for a moment until Rains started to laugh. It was incongruous, but so many of the others couldn't help but join in.
Chapter 2
Only a few hours had passed since their assault on a military installation on Earth, and Taylor was once again descending to the surface of Onekaka, or as it was now affectionately known as 'Ony'.
"Bet Rains will be coddling that copter for hours, trying to iron out all the damage," said Silva humorously, but that was lost on Taylor who simply replied, "Good, we need it operational again ASAP."
The shuttle carrying them was one that used to do runs between the Lunar colony and Earth and had a capacity of one hundred. Windows allowed everyone aboard to see out, and it had no weapons or armour to speak of at all.
"You must have travelled in this girl more than a few times?" Silva asked Morris.
He shook his head.
"I rarely ever had a reason to go to Earth before the wars."
Silva shook his head.
"What is it?" Morris asked.
"Well, I am with the Colonel on this. I can't see why any human would want to spend their lives entirely in environmentally controlled confines with such a harsh environment outside. Wouldn't you be climbing the walls to get to some real air? Didn't you ever want to just walk on grass and rocks and enjoy all that nature has to offer?"
Morris smiled.
"You were born on E
arth, so I guess it's natural you like it. To me it's just an area with too many uncertainties and variables, the weather and temperatures and constantly changing. It's hard work getting anything done when you’re contending with all that."
"So you'd go right back to the Moon if you could?"
Morris nodded slowly and let his mind slip back into a time when he still lived there. They were entering the atmosphere of Ony now with several other transports and two of the Aranui vessels who had gone in support of them. The second they had put down on the surface, Taylor was already at the door and storming out as quickly as he could, but he was soon stopped in his tracks by Major Moye.
"Glad to see you made it, Colonel. Got an official casualty list yet?"
Taylor shook his head. It was clear to them all he hadn't given their losses a second thought, and yet he didn’t regret it.
“You must have done okay,” he replied, “We didn’t see any ground reinforcements beyond the shit King landed in the middle of.”
“We paid a heavy price protecting your asses,” Moye replied sternly.
“Yeah, price ain’t all paid yet,” said Taylor, seemingly without any sympathy at all as he carried on walking past the Major. Moye turned and walked with him.
"I hate to bring this up, Colonel, but we need more recruits. We're not getting volunteers in numbers fast enough right now."
"What do you want me to do about it?"
"Admiral Lasure is in charge of the fleet now, but you put him there. You have a lot of say in how things go on around here."
"Talk bluntly, Major, what do you want me to do?"
"Get the Admiral to begin conscription."
Taylor stopped dead in his tracks.
"You know how long it's been since any civilised country on Earth has done that?"
"But we aren't on Earth, and neither are we a country. We're an army and a navy with a lot of civilians hanging on."
Taylor sighed and thought about it for a moment.
"You know the dangers of lowering the quality of the average fighting man when you bring that to the table?"
"I didn't say I wanted to do it, Colonel. I say we have to do it. If we don't win this, then they're dead anyway."
Battle Earth: 12 Page 2