Battle Beyond Earth - Box Set (Books 1-5)

by Nick S. Thomas

  "Antos!"

  He yelled and gestured for him to do the same on the other side. The two of them formed up around the alien and stepped out of cover with the huge multi-barrelled cannon between the shields. The second he was free of cover, Babacan pulled the trigger, and the room lit up as if on fire.

  "Advance!" Taylor ordered.

  They continued forward, giving cover to Babacan as he smashed the Morohta position and forced them down into cover. He killed two with the opening salvo, and Taylor watched as the others advanced now and joined the fight. Finally, the Hydra stopped, and two of the warriors jumped up to engage them but were hit by a volley of fire. Taylor rushed forward and jumped over two of the bodies, firing several shots as he leapt towards the last one and landed on top of it, as he continued to fire.

  All went silent when a scream of his name rang out. He immediately recognised it as Rocha. He leapt up and turned just in time to see her fire several times at one of the hammer wielding Mechs that had come from a concealed entrance. Her shots did nothing. Taylor lifted his rifle, but there was no time. He could see almost in slow motion as the hammer swung towards Rocha. It smashed into her head and snapped her neck instantly. Her body was thrown like a ragdoll across the corridor and slumped lifelessly to the floor amongst the enemy dead.

  Babacan spun the Hydra around and pulled the trigger. The Mech was hit by hundreds of rounds. They smashed into its torso and cut deep until it was knocked down by the sheer weight of ammunition. Antos rushed to it and placed his barrel against the flowing heart plate and fired three times until it went limp, but Taylor went right for Rocha. He turned her over to see was gone. He put a finger to her pulse, and there was nothing. He wanted to tell himself that she wasn't dead.

  Now he felt sick to his stomach.

  "Taylor, we have to move!" Jones shouted.

  But Taylor didn't even hear him. He put his gloved hand onto her cheek and stroked it.

  "Why couldn't I save you?"

  Jones reached Taylor and shook him by his shoulder.

  "Colonel, we have to go now!"

  He slowly shook his head.

  "Let the drones take her."

  But Taylor ignored him, picked her up, and threw her body over his shoulder. He turned and watched Jones pick up the hammer from the fallen Mech and continue to lead the way.

  They rushed on room after room until they reached the access point where they had come through. The body of the fallen fighter had already been ferried inside the Sky King. Gunfire rang out at their backs and Jones turned to face it as Taylor carried on with Rocha's body. Babacan stopped at the entrance to the room with Jones and opened fire with the Hydra in one last salvo to buy them some time. The two of them rushed to the door and climbed aboard.

  Hariz was looking back to Taylor for an order, but she got nothing and could only just make out the body of Rocha resting in Taylor's arms.

  "Go!" Jones screamed.

  It was all the prompting she needed. She released the clamps from the enemy ship and put the power down so that they raced off from the surface, banking hard to come around on course to the Guam. Jones looked down at Taylor and came close to tears on seeing the toll it had taken on him. He could now see that the Colonel wasn't the heartless machine he presented himself as. In that one look Jones saw it all. Taylor felt everything, but he bottled it up for the benefit of all those he commanded.

  Taylor’s connection to this new world had finally felt real as the same heart wrenching tragedies struck at his core once again. Hariz looked over her shoulder at Taylor once more and felt her heart sink when she saw him holding the dead woman in his arms. She wanted nothing more than to go to him, but she had to return to her controls. Jones instead sat down beside Taylor and rested his hand on his shoulder.

  “There was nothing you could have done.”

  Taylor shook his head.

  “Don’t ever tell me that. Our fate is never sealed. Of course there was something I could have done. All she wanted was to follow me and be one of us. Why did I take her away from all that she had?"

  “You know that with this war there will be many more personnel and civilians called up to fight. You’ve seen that before. Rocha would likely have met her end in this war sometime or other.”

  Jones was shocked that this seemed to hit him so hard after all the death he had encountered and lived through. They felt the undercarriage hit the landing bad back aboard the Guam, but it was a bittersweet return. Jones hit the door switch, and the ramp lowered. Several corpsmen waiting for them, but it was pointless. Taylor got up with Rocha still held in his arms and stepped out with a war weary pace. His face was like stone, and everybody stayed clear until he reached one of the stretchers waiting on the deck. He gently placed her down.

  Taylor looked at the body for just a few moments before turning and heading for the bridge. Jones followed close behind but did not say a word. They got onto the bridge to find the fleet still hammering the battleship they had boarded. Doing enough damage to look like a determined attack, but not enough to stop her from jumping out.

  “Is it done?” Cohen asked, turning to face Taylor. She froze when she saw his stony face.

  “Yes,” replied Taylor firmly.

  “Losses?”

  “Two dead, five wounded.”

  Cohen could see he didn’t want to talk about it so turned back to the battle.

  “Their Primary systems just went back online,” said Nichols.

  “Come on, jump,” said Cohen.

  The ship began to shimmer and then finally vanished.

  “We got it. Prepare to jump. Get us the hell out of here, and inform Eme that we are good to go!”

  Cohen turned back to Taylor now.

  “I am so sorry for the loss of your people, Colonel. They will not be forgotten.”

  “That much I can guarantee,” he replied.

  “There will be many more losses in this war, but none of them will ever be easy,” said Cohen. But she quickly realised how petty she sounded as she remembered Taylor’s past, “I’m sorry, I know…”

  “It’s okay. Sometimes there just comes a point where enough is enough. We are going to win this war. I know because failure is not an option, but the price will be more than any of you could ever have imagined.”

  It was a grim outlook, but nobody doubted him.

  “So celebrate this small victory, as they are the few moments of pleasure you will get in life from now on.”

  “Ready to jump,” said Nichols.

  “Then take us home…jump.”

  Chapter 10

  The jump home should have been a triumphant one, but the first sight before them was the crippled Cholan fleet that had been the decoy. The Nakbe had made it but was badly damaged, and their fleet was half what it had been.

  “My word, they took a beating,” said Jones.

  “Of course, how else do you think we bought the time we needed?”

  Jones turned to Taylor.

  “You knew they were going to take a beating?”

  “And anyone who thought otherwise was deluding themselves.”

  “And you don’t think they deserved to know that?”

  “It’s a simple numbers game. We take small losses now, or we take greater losses later.”

  “And you can be that cold about it?”

  “Cold?” Taylor asked, “There is nothing cold about wanting to save as many as I can.”

  Jones stopped to think it over but decided to let it go. “So how sure are you that this worked?”

  “You can keep asking me, but I don’t know any more than you. They won’t put anything out across open channels. Only a handful of people in this fleet knew our real mission. We won’t know till we talk to Irala in person.”

  “So what now?”

  “Find out if it really did work, and see if the President’s promise of all the resources he could give is actually true. Let’s go.”

  They got back to the fighter bays and found R
ocha’s body still lay where Taylor had left it. He walked past and looked at her, but continued right on to the transport. Hariz was waiting at the entrance for him, and he could see the look of sadness on her face. But she was not sad for the losses of the two marines, but for how her heart ached for him.

  “Hariz, we need a ride, right now,” he said, as he and Jones stepped up to pass her on the ramp. She reached out and brushed her hand across his arm.

  “Alita,” she replied. He turned, and his eyes met with hers for just a split second.

  “Get us in the air, Lieutenant!” he ordered as he got inside.

  Taylor and Jones sat down opposite each other, and she stepped past to reach the controls.

  “The Lieutenant there has taken quite a liking to you.”

  Taylor shrugged.

  “What? You don’t like her?”

  “You don’t fraternise with colleagues.”

  “Maybe not in your day, but it is openly encouraged now. And anyway, I know plenty of your history. You were with an NCO in your very own Regiment, weren’t you? Got you into a little trouble, from what I remember,” he replied with a smile.

  But Taylor was not amused, and Jones understood how insensitive he was being as he realised how much Taylor had lost.

  They came aboard the Ares colony quickly and were escorted directly to the conference room where Taylor had devised the plan to begin with. They entered to find the discussions had broken down, and many of the representatives were shouting at each other so loudly it was hard to distinguish one argument from another.

  "What the hell are they doing?"

  "Turning on each other," replied Taylor.

  They watched and waited for a few moments, hoping for it to return to calm, but they had no such luck. The President was slumped in his seat silently as one of his aides argued with the Cholan Ambassador. Then Jafar stood up and entered the debate. His voice carried louder and farther than any other.

  "Enough!"

  The room fell silent as Jafar pointed for Taylor to come forward.

  "Please, Colonel Taylor, tell us the outcome of your mission."

  "It was successful," he replied abruptly, "And Irala's part?"

  "We are still waiting and praying for news from the Councillor," said Isaacs softly.

  "Praying?" Taylor spat out, "We send people out there to their deaths, and you're praying? Quit that bullshit!"

  Isaacs suddenly woke up and seemed to take Taylor's comments to heart, as did several others. Taylor looked to Jafar, but he only shrugged.

  "What else are we to do but pray for their souls?" Isaacs insisted.

  "What else? Help them in life, and save others."

  "Only God can do that. He is our only saviour now."

  Taylor looked at Jones in despair, as it was the first he had heard of such religious devotion in a long while. He could see Jones didn't agree, but neither was he surprised.

  "Has life really gone to shit that much since I've been away?"

  "Do you believe in nothing?"

  Taylor didn't much like the President’s tone, and he could not help but rise to the debate.

  "Nothing? I believe in my friends, and what I can do with my own hands. Where is your god now? Where is he in your greatest time of need? Because he sure never showed up in the last few thousand years to help anyone."

  "We cannot ever fully understand his plan."

  "Right now I'd say if he had a plan, it's to wipe out all civilised life in the universe."

  "If that is his will, then we must obey it."

  "Fuck that," replied Taylor rather abruptly.

  He could feel his blood boil now. He wanted nothing more than to run across the room and smack some sense into the man, but he restrained himself and continued on only with words.

  "Maybe it is the plan, but I can't be a part of it. I shouldn't even be in this time and place. But I sure intend to make a difference."

  "We should never have woken you up. All you have done is meddle in this Alliance, just as you did in your own time!" Isaacs shouted.

  Taylor could see the President was getting desperate now and just using him as the target of his angst. He opened his mouth to speak again but felt Jones' hand on his shoulder. The Lieutenant leaned in and whispered in his ear.

  "We don't need this kind of trouble in our lives. It can lead nowhere good."

  Taylor smiled; it sounded just like the sort of sense Charlie would have talked, and he nodded in agreement. As he looked back up, Irala's hologram appeared, and everyone's attention turned to the Aranui Councillor.

  "Councillor, do you have news?" Isaacs asked.

  "We have successfully tracked the navigation hub, or portal."

  Nobody spoke for a moment. Taylor couldn't tell if those around him were welcoming the news or not.

  "Is this not what you wanted to hear?" Irala asked, somewhat confused by their response.

  "They've lost their balls," replied Taylor, "A few losses and they're rattled."

  "A few losses?" Isaacs asked in amazement.

  "Don't patronise me. I was actually there. My people spilt blood for this, and I lost a friend to achieve what we needed to do. So don't even dare lecture me on loss."

  "Colonel, I must ask you to change your tone."

  "Yeah, good luck with that," Jones whispered to himself as Taylor went on.

  "You told me I would have every resource I needed to make this work. Was that promise a lie?"

  Isaacs sat back down and sighed, for he was already regretting having given such an assurance.

  "Don't tell me we sacrificed all that for nothing!"

  "Lord Jafar, what do you think?" Isaacs asked.

  "That our planned course of action was the only way. We must stay the course."

  Taylor could almost hear himself in his old friend.

  "Then you would have us throw everything into this operation? An operation that could leave us defenceless if it fails?"

  "If there was a perfect path, we would have tread it already," added Irala.

  "Let us do this," Taylor said, almost begging, "Give me what I need, and I will make this happen."

  Isaacs looked sick to his stomach.

  "I will join you," said Jafar, "I will command the Krys element of the fleet that takes on this task."

  "Lord Jafar, you are required here. You must send some other in your stead."

  But he ignored the comment.

  "Who else will join me?"

  "My people know that this must be done. We will give all that we can," Irala answered him.

  Admiral Eme finally spoke up. "If this is the only way I can help my people, then you will have the Nakbe and the remainder of the fleet under my command."

  Taylor looked to the President now and pleaded with him.

  "Please, give us the support we need, and let us stem the tide before it is too late."

  He nodded in agreement and appeared relieved to finally pass over the burden to others.

  "You will have it."

  "How long will it take to finish repairs on the Nakbe and assemble the rest of the fleet?" Taylor asked.

  "Forty-eight hours," Jafar answered.

  "Then that's when we go."

  * * *

  The Immortals were formed up before the coffins of their two fallen comrades awaiting their cremation and for Taylor to speak some words. He stood between the coffins. He paced along their length and ran his hands down both of them. He turned to address his comrades.

  "Rocha and Preito. They fought and fell honourably. Death will come to us all, so never fear it. Embrace it. The fighter who fears death will bring it upon themselves sooner than they deserve. Let yourselves dream of what life could be like without this, but never forget, this are your life now. Take everything you can from it - every shred of good, every laugh and joke, every drink with friends, and every triumphant kill. This is what you live for. Rocha and Preito are gone from this life, but they will remain Immortals forever."

 
; He took his position beside the others and Jones could see the pain and anguish was all but gone from his eyes. They watched the bodies move through a tunnel entrance, and the door closed down in front of them. They held their heads low and waited. Taylor then turned and left. He didn't even give the order for them to do so.

  "Detail fallout," Jones said quickly and hurried on after the Colonel.

  "Where are you going?"

  Taylor shrugged. "Nowhere very much. What is there to do now but wait?"

  "That kind of tension could break a man."

  Taylor nodded. "It can and it does."

  "Then follow me."

  Taylor looked at him in surprise but was curious enough to do so. Jones led him to Zenobia’s Garden. Taylor was initially weary and thought Jones was playing a joke on him.

  "What is this?" he asked suspiciously.

  "For all the time you have spent in space, I know your heart remains on Earth. So go inside, and remember what it is you have fought for."

  "But that isn't real."

  "It's as real as your mind wants it to be."

  He thought about turning and leaving, but somehow found himself stepping inside. The smells and sights he had always loved so much instantly hit him. It felt real in every way as his feet passed over soft grass and dirt, and he took in a deep breath of cool air, feeling the wind on his skin.

  "Impressive isn't it?"

  "Very."

  They walked on for twenty metres, and Taylor was amazed to feel so many of his worries and thoughts just vanish. They came to a bench that looked like it was cut from stone, but he knew it couldn't be. He took a seat, and Jones sat down beside him. It was both bizarre and fascinating all at once.

  "Reminds me of France."

  "Where you fought?"

  "That's not what I meant. Where Charlie Jones once lived between the wars."

  Jones was surprised. "What was he doing there? I was told he never left the Regiment from the day he signed up."

  Taylor shook his head.

  "He'd just seen and been through too much. After his capture, he was a wreck, and he never fully recovered from that. No one truly knows what really happened to him, what tortures he endured."