Battle Beyond Earth: Revenge

by Thomas, Nick S.

  “You don’t know how much I needed this.”

  “Yes, I really do,” replied Jones.

  There was silence for a moment as they tried to get to sleep when Jones finally spoke up, “Do you think we can win this one?”

  His tone was serious and there was sadness in it, too.

  “Of course we can, and we’re going to.”

  “How can you be so certain?”

  Taylor had to think about it for a moment. He didn’t want to bullshit one of his closest friends. He wasn’t trying to rally support now, but give an honest response.

  “I have seen the dedication of you and the rest of the Regiment. There is nothing we cannot achieve so long as we stick together.”

  Jones knew that didn’t really give any answers, but it still brought him some comfort.

  “You know all I ever wanted was to serve and fight beside you.”

  Taylor only grunted, not knowing how to respond.

  “I always dreamed it would be a great adventure, like some exciting movie. I didn’t think it would be this hard. How do you keep going?”

  “You just have to know there is something worth fighting for, and someone to go back to when it’s all over.”

  “I think…” He looked at Taylor and realised he had fallen asleep.

  Taylor was exhausted, and Jones was feeling it, too. He rolled back over and shut his eyes, taking Taylor’s words to heart and thought of what he had to go back to when it was all over.

  * * *

  Alita powered the engines down. Lisa Caron and her Secret Service agents hadn’t even left their seats.

  “What are you all waiting for?”

  “This is your territory, Lieutenant. You lead the way,” said Caron.

  She went to the door as the ramp lowered and stepped out. Fortier and a few other officers were waiting to greet them, but their attention was entirely on Alita.

  “How’s it going down there?” Fortier asked.

  “It could be worse.”

  “Who is this?”

  Alita was surprised that he didn’t know, and it struck her then that he had no idea of the intention to establish her as their leader.

  “This is the new President of the Alliance, Lisa Caron. Or she will be as soon as she is sworn in.”

  “When did this happen?”

  “As far as we can tell, she is next line.”

  “Then welcome, Madam President,” said Fortier. He stepped forward to shake her hand.

  She still look stunned and in a bit of a daze.

  “I am sorry, Captain, but this has all happened so quickly. Is there somewhere I can get cleaned up before we go on?”

  “Of course, I will see that quarters are found for you as quickly as we can.”

  “She can have Taylor’s for now.”

  Fortier nodded in appreciation to Alita.

  “Thank you, Lieutenant. You already seem to have built a rapport with the future President. I am attaching you to her as a liaison officer.”

  “But, Captain…” she protested.

  “Lieutenant, that is an order. You are not fit to fly, but this will help a lot.”

  She scowled. Taylor must have passed on her medical state to him, but she knew she didn’t have a choice.

  “Please, follow me,” she said to Caron, “This is the Independence, bought and paid for by privately raised funds for the express use of Colonel Taylor and his newly formed Regiment, of which I am a pilot.”

  “And more, I think,” she said.

  Alita turned to see the smile on her face.

  “Yes, that, too.”

  “He’s right to protect you, you know?”

  “Maybe,” she grumbled.

  “I wish I had someone I could depend on like that, someone that wasn’t paid for out of public funding, I mean.”

  “You have no family?”

  “None at all. My career hasn’t left much room for starting a family or dating.”

  Alita looked surprised, as she’d clearly had several decades to do so.

  “You know how difficult it is to run for President as a woman?”

  Alita shrugged.

  “You know how many female Presidents there have been in the history of the United States?”

  Once again Alita shook her head.

  ‘Two.”

  Alita’s eyes widened in surprise at that.

  “That’s right. It’s true there aren’t many that want the job, but there have been enough. It’s just hard to be taken seriously.”

  “I don’t, Ma’am,” she replied, thinking of her treatment since Taylor had arrived, but then she thought back to the days before his arrival, “Well, maybe. Since working with Colonel Taylor things have been different. He doesn’t seem to care about gender, size, race, nothing.”

  “A renaissance man all those years ago, makes you wonder where we went wrong, don’t you think?”

  “No, Taylor is just special.”

  “The Colonel certainly is that.”

  “Are you familiar with his history?”

  “I can’t say I am. I know he was a war hero revived from the Krys wars. I voted against that decision, little good that it did.”

  “I’ll be sure to pass that on.”

  “Why on Earth would you think to do that?” she asked with worry in her voice.

  “Because he’d laugh,” she replied with a smile.

  “Laugh?”

  “Sure. He may be a hard fighter and taskmaster, but he’s actually sweet and soft when he doesn’t need to be the Colonel.”

  Caron looked surprised.

  “Here it is,” announced Alita as they reached Taylor’s quarters, and she opened the door.

  “If you will join me, please.”

  Caron ushered Alita inside, but the two agents didn’t look impressed and stepped in the way to stop her.

  “Ma’am, we haven’t even vetted the Lieutenant yet, nor cleared the room,” Johnson said.

  She scowled at the man, and Alita could tell she was fuming.

  “You are here to do my bidding, not the other way round. And don’t you ever forget that it was this plucky Lieutenant who saved all our asses. So don’t you dare call her loyalty into question! Now step aside.”

  He looked a little sheepish. Alita was surprised and impressed to see the strength and authority that she mustered just seconds after a casual conversation. Perhaps she was much more than she seemed at first. The two of them stepped into the quarters. Caron peeled off her jacket and went to the sink to wash her face.

  “They mean well,” she said.

  “Of course they do. They risked their lives to protect you, just as I did, and Taylor did.

  She looked back to see Alita stood rather formally.

  “Make yourself comfortable.”

  Alita pulled back a chair from the desk and took a seat. Even though she had spent so long sitting lately, it had been in a cockpit, and it was a relief to not have any worries or pressures on her as she went limp and relaxed.

  “You seem pretty confident that I am going to be President?”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Yeah, well until I am, you can call me Lisa. And you Lieutenant Hariz?” she asked as she looked at her nametag.

  “Alita.”

  Caron seemed appreciative of having her there. It was only just dawning on Alita that she had lost almost everything, certainly her way of life, and now was possibly the new leader of the Alliance. Alita was becoming accustomed to a life of war as Taylor had, and that frightened her. She didn’t want it to become the norm. She desperately wanted to find a way to feel normal again.

  “Did you know President Isaacs, Ma’am, er, Lisa?”

  “A little. We didn’t always see eye to eye, but I think he was mostly a good man and a good President.”

  “Is that what you would tell the press or your honest opinion?”

  Caron smiled. “I guess in my line of work it’s hard sometimes to tell the difference between the
lies you tell the world and the lies you tell yourself.”

  “So he wasn’t such a saint?”

  “I wouldn’t like to talk ill of the dead, and he did achieve plenty, but there were many men and women better suited to his job.”

  “You?”

  She took a deep breath and sighed. “Lord I hope so, I really do. I wanted to be President of the United States, not of the whole Alliance. In these times, the President of the Alliance is a military leader, what do I know about waging war?”

  “We all have to start somewhere. You were in line to the Presidency for a reason, I am sure.”

  “Yeah, bad luck.”

  Alita laughed, and she did so back, a relief to be able to laugh about something.

  “Surely there are people better suited to running the Alliance at a time like this? Someone with military experience?”

  “You will have plenty of military advisors and counsellors, and don’t forget Taylor. He is the pain in the ass that authority figures just cannot get rid of, but we have division of civil and military stations for a reason.”

  “Yes, that’s true. You seem to know more than a pilot might be expected to.”

  “Years of college, my parents never wanted me to join the military. They wanted me to be a lawyer, or a politician like you.”

  “But it wasn’t for you?”

  “No, not at all.”

  “Did they come around in the end?”

  Alita’s face suddenly turned stern and sad.

  “My parents were killed in a traffic accident before I qualified from the Academy.”

  “I am sure they would have been proud of you, Alita.”

  “Maybe, but they’d never have said it. I don’t know, perhaps it’s better they died together before all this began. They never had to live through what we have to now.”

  “And yet it brought you and the Colonel together?”

  “Yes,” she said, as a tear trickled down her face. She tried to wipe it quickly to hide the fact.

  “Then it is not all bad. Life has a funny way of bringing us the most surprising things at the most unexpected times. Yesterday, I was a long shot underdog to the US Presidency, destined to live out a failed political career, and tomorrow I will be the President of the Alliance.

  “I just wish it didn’t have to be so hard, you know?”

  “I do know, I know all too well.”

  Lisa took a seat on the bed and kicked off her shoes.

  “You know you could be more valuable to me than some of the best military analysts that I’ll have to deal with when I take on this new responsibility.”

  “I don’t see how.”

  “Because of all the things you have already told me. You don’t hide from the truth. You don’t tell me what you think I want to hear, and you don’t treat me like a fool. You are out there on the front line, and you’re also close to Taylor. You can provide some real vital insight that could help me a lot.”

  “But I am no expert. I fly and I fight. I can’t advise you on anything large scale, can I?”

  “You leave that to me. Will you advise me?”

  She didn’t really feel that she could say no.

  “I’ll do anything you ask. You will be our President soon.”

  “I am not asking you as your President. I am asking as a friend.”

  “Then, yes, I will do it.”

  “Thank you, you don’t know what that means to me, Alita. I don’t have a lot of people on my side right now, but I have you. I know I can trust you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “So tell me more about Taylor. Is he all his reputation would suggest?”

  “That and more. I have never met another like him. I don’t know how he does it. I don’t know how he keeps going, and is still alive after all the things he has done. The Krys and the Aranui believe he is some mythical saviour. They call him the Dusmus Kahraman.”

  “Really?”

  “He thinks it’s all bullshit, but I’m not so sure. It makes a lot of sense. There is no doubt that he has done more than any human could ever hope to. I want to believe that he is just special, but nobody is quite that special or that lucky.”

  “Lucky? One might think to have to live through all the horrors that he has, he is maybe the unluckiest man to have ever walked on our Earth. That might be called a curse. I can’t think of anything worse than to have seen and lived through what he has.”

  “I never really thought about it like that.”

  She began to understand how tormented his mind must be, and how much of that he had to hide.

  Caron stretched out her feet, slipped back into her shoes, and pulled on her jacket. She composed herself.

  “Right, time to get to work.”

  “Are you not going to rest?”

  “There is too much to do. Will you join me, Lieutenant?”

  Alita was too curious not to do. “Yes, Madam President.”

  “Come on, then, it’s time to face the music.”

  Chapter 9

  Taylor awoke feeling surprisingly fresh and turned over expecting to see Alita beside him. He smiled, remembering whom he had shared the room with. The tap in the bathroom was running for a moment, and Jones stepped out with a towel in his hands, drying his face. He had taken a shave and would have looked parade ready were it not for his dirty uniform.

  “A night in a good hotel and a bathroom like that, that’s something I could get used to. It sure beats our digs on the Indy.”

  Taylor couldn’t argue with that. He stretched, got up, and walked to the balcony. Even through the thick glass and shutters, they could hear the sound of gunfire in the distance. He opened the shutters and stepped out onto balcony. The sun was up, and the skies were clear. He could see for twenty kilometres in every direction. Jones strolled up beside him.

  “They’ve pushed the enemy back a few blocks in the night. That’s some good progress.”

  “Yes, it is,” replied Taylor as he further surveyed the scene, “So Bolormaa wants Earth for herself, and she wants to ensure none of us escape to come back and try and retake it again down the line. Do you think that’s what it all boils down to?”

  “I guess it makes sense. If war isn’t over money, land, or power, what is it about?”

  “Who knows? With this crazy bitch queen, I’m still not even sure, but I’m certain there can be more motives that that. I think it’s all a game to her, and she’s enjoying every minute of it.”

  “I’d prefer to think this was about land. That she just gets a kick out of this amount of death and misery is a depressing thought.”

  “Agreed. I just can’t figure her out. That’s what makes it all the more frustrating. In most battles it is clear what’s being fought for and what the goals of each side really is, but not this one. I don’t think anyone really understands it. In fact, were Bolormaa not so intelligent, I would go as far as to say she doesn’t know either.”

  “But she is that intelligent.”

  “Exactly.”

  “So we have to face the prospect that she doesn’t want us to know what she really wants. Or maybe she gets a kick out of tormenting us as we try and figure it out?”

  “Yep, what a bitch.”

  They looked out at the scene for a moment. They could hear troop and vehicle movements down below, and aircraft still came and went overhead, but far less than the day before.

  “She is starting to weaken,” announced Taylor.

  “Why would you say that?”

  “All of the armies she has thrown at us to try and whittle us down, yet she might just have started to realise that she doesn’t have the resources she thought she did. Perhaps that is why she was so desperate to get the Cholans on side. It always struck me as odd that she made a deal with them rather than just destroy their homeworld. She needed their numbers.”

  “God, I hope so. I hope you’re right.”

  “Look at what she has struck us with here.”

  “Massive numbers,” a
dded Jones.

  “Seemingly yes, but what if this isn’t just the first stage? What if this is it, the one big call up? One big push to try and break us.”

  “Like the Germans in the Ardennes in World War Two?”

  Taylor smiled as he remembered what a curious historian the Captain was.

  “Yes, exactly like that.”

  “Except for the fact that they attacked one point, and threw everything in. This is far more widespread.”

  “Not if you scale it up. What if she rallied everything she could on an assault on this world only in an attempt to break the Alliance, and take what she ultimately wanted all in one?”

  “I can see that, and you come out with some great ideas, but I have to wonder what facts they are based on.”

  “That’s just it. They aren’t based on any. If anyone actually had any facts on what motivated Bolormaa, and what made her tick, I would be first on the list to hear them. I...”

  He cut off abruptly as an enemy craft soared towards them with guns blazing. He didn’t need to say a word as they both rushed inside the room. Jones ran into the bathroom, and Taylor leapt behind the bed. A hail of gunfire ripped into the room, and it was lit up from energy pulses smashing the décor all around them. The heavy bed was struck and shunted towards the wall, pinning Taylor to it in the process, but it was soon over as the craft went by.

  He pushed the bed back off him and stood up. Jones was just as annoyed as he was.

  “I guess that’s our cue to get back to work,” said Taylor. They quickly pulled on their armour, “Do you think they knew we were here?”

  Jones shrugged.

  “Bloody uncivilised, though, and before morning tea.”

  Taylor laughed. The Captain was playing to a stereotype that he knew so well. As they stepped out into the hallway, another strafing run rocked the building.

  “I guess it’s too much to ask for a morning of peace?” asked Nile.

  “What would you even do with it?”

  “I’d sleep, Sir.”

  “We’ve slept enough. There is work to be done.”

  He led them out of the hotel and into the street as he headed for Greer. He wanted to see her in person to get a full understanding of the situation. Troops still rushed back forth, and the line of wounded seemed to be never-ending. As they passed many who lined the street, they heard some whisper Taylor’s name. They thought of him as some kind of saviour, and that never made him comfortable.