Battle Earth: 12

by Nick S. Thomas

  But Jafar appeared unaffected by his outburst.

  “What has changed?” he asked Taylor bluntly.

  If it had been anyone else, Taylor knew he would not have given the question a second thought or even considered answering, but this was different. He briefly thought for a moment, but he couldn’t think of a sensible answer.

  “I don’t know, maybe my motivation if different. Maybe our situation is more desperate? Maybe…”

  He stopped, realising he was grasping at straws.

  “I don’t have an answer, all right? Okay, Erdogan scares the shit out of me. He’s two or three times stronger than Demiran. He outclasses us in every way, and worse, he knows it. He doesn’t show the arrogance of those who came before him. I don’t know how to kill him, short of sticking a nuke down his throat.”

  “You know his location, yes? Then nuke it.”

  “I wish it were that simple.”

  “Why is it not?”

  “Physical confirmation by eye witnesses that Erdogan is dead is all that will suffice. We can never return to Earth for good unless we know he is dead and buried. And this intel we have is probably bullshit, anyway.”

  “And still we go?”

  Taylor nodded. “Yes, because there is still some chance it’s him, such a small chance, but one worth risking it for. We drop a nuke and assume he’s dead because of it, and he could just lure us into another trap. I want to see his body with my own eyes.”

  “And if this is a trap?”

  “I don’t see how.”

  “Like you didn’t see how Kelly and the clones were a trap?” asked Morris who had been lurking behind them.

  Taylor was silenced. It almost brought him to tears as he thought about what that had cost him. Finally, he shrugged it off and turned to face Morris.

  “Honestly I can’t say how I can beat Erdogan, or how any of us can. We’ve trained harder than ever since we last faced him. Maybe we’re up to the task. We’ll find a way because we always do. If you can’t have faith in that, then we have already lost. I believe we can beat Erdogan, and therefore we will.”

  It was wishful thinking, but he was starting to believe it. He began to imagine his Assegai plunging into the alien leader’s throat, and it brought a small smile to his face. Morris leaned in close.

  “You know that next time we see Erdogan, he’ll probably kill us all.”

  “He can try,” replied Taylor, “But he’s gonna have to be willing to die himself, and I’m not sure he’s likely to do that.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Morris.

  “To Erdogan, everything is about him. It’s about his rule, his time. But for me, and I hope the rest of you, it’s about more than that. I never thought I’d die through all this fighting, but finally I have accepted it if it is necessary. If Erdogan cannot risk the same, then he is finished.”

  Morris couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  “You’re not gonna die. You can’t.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’ve made it this far, why not to the end?”

  “My fate was always tied to this war. Maybe I was destined to live just long enough to bring an end to it.”

  “I don’t believe in destiny,” added Morris quickly.

  “No, and neither did I. But the pieces seem to be falling in to place.”

  “I think you overthinking this, Colonel.”

  Taylor could hear the concern in his voice.

  “Don’t you worry, Captain. I’ll be round for as long as you need me.”

  Twenty minutes later the Regiment was standing before the transports ready to take them back up to the jump gate enabled vessels in orbit. They all waited for Taylor to say some words of encouragement, and maybe reveal some information on their mission. They looked tired, and yet still keen to go on.

  “I know I’ve been pushing you all hard! That’s plain for all to see!” Taylor shouted, “A mission every single day was a lot to ask, and now a second before you’ve had time to rest. I’d not ask it of you if it weren’t absolutely essential! We just received an unconfirmed sighting of Erdogan. Drones in the area have been unable to clarify. Any chance, any fraction of a chance of pinning him down has to be worth a shot. This could be it, or it could be one of many attempts to find that bastard, but I want you to treat everyone like it is the real deal. Because when we finally back Erdogan into a corner, he’s gonna come out fighting like something none of you have ever seen before. This is the start of a hunt, are you up for it?”

  They cheered in response.

  “Load up. Let’s move out!”

  Chapter 3

  It's gonna be him. It's gonna be him. It has to be him, thought Taylor.

  He stood over Rains’ console aboard a copter and just stared at the display screens, waiting for them to be filled with the Solar System he knew and loved so much.

  "You won't make us go any faster," said Rains.

  But Taylor was oblivious to his comments before finally turning to him. He knew the Lieutenant had spoken but had no idea what he had said, so he simply started afresh.

  "This isn't your bird."

  "Come on, Colonel, you think we could have got her repaired that fast? She was beaten up after that last mission."

  "Oh, yeah, so she was."

  Rains looked concerned that Taylor seemed so out of it.

  "There something I should know?"

  "Like what?"

  "You seem...distracted."

  "Never more focused. You'll forgive me if my mind is on just one thing. We take Erdogan down, and we can end this. That's all that is important to me right now."

  "And getting us all back alive?"

  Taylor shrugged and slowly nodded in agreement, but it was hardly convincing.

  "That's reassuring."

  "How are you even still alive?"

  Rains was silent, despite rarely ever having been in his life.

  "How have you made it this far? All the crazy shit you have done, the suicidal missions. You've been shot down more times than I can count. So how are you still alive and untouched by it all?"

  "I wouldn't say I'm untouched, but I'm still going, same as you. I could ask you the same questions."

  Taylor nodded. "So how have we made it when others die on their first mission along the way?"

  "You're not trying to tell me fate is involved?"

  Taylor shrugged. "I have no idea, but it would certainly seem we are alive to achieve one last thing before it all ends, or we end it."

  "Hey, I want to win this same as you, but I want to live to celebrate the experience, too."

  "You always land on your feet, Rains, from no matter how high you fall. I’m sure you'll be fine."

  "Coming from you that means almost nothing."

  Taylor smiled a little before turning his attention back to the scanners. He saw new information flash up on screen. Rains checked the instruments briefly.

  "That's it. We're here."

  A moment later the loading bay doors opened, and light flooded into the cockpit.

  "Who'd know, travelling light years from one planet to another twice in one day? It's technology even a year ago that we could never have dreamed of. Makes you wonder what other surprises there are in store for us in the future."

  "I've had enough surprises for a life time, Eddie."

  They saw pulses flash ahead as the ship came under fire.

  "Guess they're getting a little tired of us gate crashing their party!" Rains grinned.

  He raised the power, and they soared out from the flank of the Diderot. On the scanners Taylor could make out the dozen friendly vessels and a similar number of enemy on their flank. They had jumped almost into orbit, and as the copter surged forward, they were entering Earth's atmosphere in under two minutes. Rains looked at his scanners every two seconds.

  "Don't follow us. We don't need that kind of attention right now. Almost made it," he whispered.

  Then a blip appeared on the scanner,
and Rains brought up a rear display screen to show a single enemy heavy fighter closing on their tail.

  "That's not good," he said.

  Lights flashed from its pulse cannons opening fire, and Rains took evasive action. Four of the pulses raced past them, but the first skimmed their fuselage, and the copter rocked violently.

  "Shit, we can't take many more like that!"

  Taylor looked back at the video feed and watched the fighter get them in its sights, but as it was about to fire, a missile trail from the Diderot soared out and struck its engines. It was blown apart, and Eddie let out a sigh of relief, shaking his head in amazement.

  "Nice to see somebody has our back."

  They got into the Earth's atmosphere and through light cloud cover, half expecting to find a wall of enemy craft awaiting them, but there was nothing. Rains began to level out, and several other craft came up alongside them as they soared up the Adriatic, running in parallel with the coasts of Italy and Croatia.

  "Beautiful," said Rains, "Sure wouldn't mind coming back here some day. Some day when I haven't got fighters on my tail and ground interceptors trying to knock me out of the sky."

  Taylor said nothing.

  "Or maybe it wouldn't be half as much fun."

  Still Taylor said nothing. He was watching the terrain pass beneath them.

  "So you really think it's him?"

  "No idea, Eddie, but it's worth a shot, no matter how small a chance."

  "You know all these raids we keep making, or you keep making. All well and good, but what about the vast armies still on Earth?"

  "We avoid them. Keep hitting their infrastructure, and keep hunting for Erdogan."

  "And if you never find him?"

  "Trust me, we'll meet again. Whether I find him or he finds me."

  "Sounds like a reckoning."

  "It will be."

  "Not far out now. We'll be over Padua in two minutes."

  "Once we hit the ground, we have a maximum of ten minutes, whether we complete the operation or not. If we haven't called you in sooner, you be at Extraction Point A at the ten-minute marker. Whoever is there at that time, whether it's all of us or none of us, you get going. Reinforcements will be on us like a tonne of bricks after that time. You don't wait around, you hear?"

  “Got it!”

  “On your feet!” Taylor ordered, heading for one of the side doors.

  “We do this and you gotta take some rest, Colonel,” Silva said, leaning in.

  “That an order?”

  “We need you at your best, Colonel, and we need to be at our best to get the job done.”

  “We go where the fight is.”

  “There’ll always be a fight to join. Doesn’t mean it always has to be you fighting it, Sir.”

  Taylor shook his head. He knew it was logical, but it he didn’t want to hear it.

  They felt the forward thrusters kick in, and they held on tight as they were brought to an abrupt hover.

  “Go, go, go!” Rains shouted.

  Taylor hit the door release, and once again was out the door in a fearless fashion. Silva shook his head before jumping quickly after him. He hit the ground just beside the Colonel and was surprised to find him standing still but looking cautiously ahead, and then to either side. Silva could see his concern. There was nothing there. They were on the southwest outskirts of the city, and yet there was no sign of life, human or alien. It was as if they’d landed in a ghost town.

  “Looks all too familiar,” whispered Silva.

  “When our people were evacuating, yeah,” replied Taylor, “but not anymore. If Erdogan were here, then it would have been with more than a few thousand of his soldiers.”

  “So they just picked up and left? You think it’s a trap?”

  “I’d expect to have been hit by now if that were the case. No, I don’t see how they could have any inkling of our arrival.”

  Suddenly, Taylor caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye and panned quickly to see a single Mech warrior strolling towards them as if taking a walk in the park. It was a bizarre scene that caused Taylor and his platoon to simply stand and stare for a moment as others descended into position behind them.

  Finally, the creature raised its rifle. It fired and began falling back to the corner of building it had come from. It got off two shots and disappeared behind the structure. A dozen shots landed where it had been and knocked chunks of concrete from the corner, and yet it had escaped them.

  “Move, move, move!” Taylor ordered and rushed forward towards the cover of a low building ahead of them. As he hit it, he edged to the corner and looked around for some sign of the enemy.

  “This is no trap. They had no idea we were coming,” said Silva as he hit the wall beside Taylor, “Think Erdogan is still here, after all?”

  Taylor shook his head. “No idea at all, but I intend to find out.”

  As he finished speaking, he ran out from cover and made a sprint for the building where the creature had come from. As he got halfway, several pulses struck the ground around him from weapons fired from windows of the buildings up ahead. Silva and several others tried to lay down covering fire and spot for targets, but he couldn’t make out much for certain. A few more shots struck the wall and made him duck back for cover.

  A pulse skimmed the edge of Taylor’s shield. Two more landed close by his feet, but he managed to reach the position where they had first encountered enemy contact. Silva peered around the corner to see Taylor was already looking for targets. He appeared to show no fear at all, but more than that, he seemed to have no regard for his own life. Silva shook his head, knowing there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

  “Oh…what the hell!” He rushed out from cover and sprinted towards Taylor’s position.

  Pulses struck the ground all around him, but he kept going and hoped for the best. Just as he was about to reach cover, his shield took multiple pulse impacts. It fell from his arm, and the handle broke free, so he let it slide before it hindered his movement. He reached the building beside Taylor and let out a sigh of relief, looking back at his shield. It lay shattered on the ground and smouldered from the heat of the impacts.

  “Nice day for a run?” Taylor asked.

  “Goddamn it, Colonel, you’re going to get us all killed some day.”

  “We’re all gonna die eventually,” he said calmly.

  Taylor raised his hand and spoke into his comms unit.

  “King, come in, you on course this time?”

  “Affirmative. Approaching from the north. We have met minimal resistance and are five hundred metres from you.”

  “Keep moving!” yelled Taylor. “Anders, maintain this position, Matthews take the right flank. Keep going forward!”

  Jafar and several others made it to their position and awaited his orders.

  “You think Erdogan was here? Or still is?”

  Jafar shook his head.

  “You’re a big help.”

  “He’s right, Colonel,” added Silva, “We’ve not seen a single bit of evidence that he was ever here.”

  Taylor looked at his watch and sighed.

  “We’ve got a few minutes left. Let’s use them.”

  As he finished, he took the bend where they had seen the first Mech and rushed out without even checking what was around the corner. The others followed suit and found themselves in a street between tall buildings that sheltered them from the firing arc of the Mechs who had been firing on them. They could still hear Anders’ platoon exchanging fire with them at their original position.

  Up ahead, they could see a small alien transport on the road outside a museum. As they approached, the craft began to lift off. Taylor raised his rifle and began firing, but none of the shots penetrated the thick hull. Several others joined in, but it was quickly gaining altitude quickly and passed out of view over the top of one of the buildings.

  “Shit!” Taylor hollered.

  His voice was loud and drawn out, to t
he level that it was clear to all he was irate.

  “That can’t have been him,” said Silva.

  “You don’t know that!”

  “We know the way he travels. You think he’d be travelling in one little ship with no escorts? You know him. He’s all about show,” replied Silva.

  “But we don’t know it!”

  “It wasn’t Erdogan,” said Jafar.

  They all turned in surprise to look at him and waited for him to go on.

  “He was here, but not in that vessel.”

  “How do you know?” Silva asked.

  Jafar pointed to a deep blue shimmer coming from the steps of the museum. It was the kind of cover laid as if for a VIP, and the light was glinting off of it.

  “He was here recently.”

  Taylor looked at his watch.

  “All right, sixty seconds, let’s find out what the hell he was up to.”

  Taylor rushed ahead, reaching the stairs to find the cover was so fine in texture it was like silk, though far stronger. He rushed up the steps and through the main door with his rifle held high, expecting to find a target in any moment, but there was nothing. The museum was untouched, with artefacts on show as you’d expect, but without any staff or patrons.

  “What on Earth was he doing here?”

  “He was studying us,” replied Morris.

  Taylor hadn’t even noticed the Captain was with them until that moment. He shrugged as if asking for Morris to continue.

  “I was here before all this kicked off. This museum was untouched by all of the wars and took on thousands of pieces that were rescued from other cities. It’s now one of the finest collections in the world and had to be expanded. It’s a remarkable museum.”

  “And yet nobody tried to protect all this?” asked Lang.

  “They wouldn’t have had time,” replied Taylor, “Last war was over before it had really got started. We ran for our lives, took only what we could. So you think he came here as a tourist?”

  Morris nodded. “You’ve told me many times he studies and understands us better than those who came before him. If you had free run of the world, wouldn’t you visit a place like this? Lots to learn about the human psyche.”

  “We almost had him,” muttered Taylor, “We came so close. Must have missed him by what, a few minutes?”