"Yes," replied Jafar, as if he was waiting for some conclusion.
"You know what that tells me? She's weak. Okay maybe not weak, but far from as strong as we feared. If she'd had the ships to do so, why wouldn't she just destroy the fleet while she could?"
"I do not understand her motives."
"No, neither do I. But no matter what she says or tries to tell us, I am calling it bullshit. We hit her harder than we realised, and she's committed everything to taking Earth. Maybe she isn't as all powerful as we thought."
"We can only hope."
"We certainly can. Ah, here it is."
He tapped in a security code, applied his hand to the scanner, and looked into the retinal scanner, too. The half metre thick door slid open. It was like he was entering a bank vault. He leapt inside and snatched the spear up without hesitation.
"Is it really all they say?"
"It's saved my life, Jafar, so I'd be willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, and more important. Bolormaa is terrified of it. Nothing else in the universe has driven her to such extremes as this small thing."
He took a deep breath before running on. Had he any inclination that Alita had confronted Bolormaa, he might have skipped it and run on with much more haste.
"Irala can't beat Bolormaa, can he?"
"Honestly, I don't know, but I doubt it. If he could, how did his people ever end up in the position they are today?"
That was answer enough as Taylor picked up the pace.
* * *
"Get my eyes in that docking bay, now!" Fortier ordered.
"I am trying, Sir, but we're still suffering technical difficulties. We may...oh..."
Fortier turned to see a flurry of movement on the screen in front of the man.
"What is it?" he snapped.
"Sir, you..."
"Well, put it on screen, damn you!"
The man hesitantly reached forward with shaky hands and did so. It revealed the horror show to everyone on the bridge. The docking bay had been smashed to pieces in an epic battle. Both Bolormaa and Irala were fighting now with their bare hands. Irala ducked under Bolormaa's punch and onto her back, but she pulled him off and threw him to the ground like a ragdoll. Bolormaa raised her right foot as if to stamp on his head, but Irala spun out and got to his feet.
The Queen merely picked up the broken undercarriage of a nearby shuttle that was as large as a man, tossing it towards Irala as if it weighed nothing at all. Irala jumped out of the way, and it crashed into an engineer's workshop station.
"This is over. You are finished!" she declared.
"What do we do?" asked the man next to Fortier.
"We can't do anything. Where is Taylor?"
The man shook his head.
"I cannot reach the Colonel. What can even he do about this? Can he beat that?"
"We can only hope."
Although from his tone and body language, he wasn't confident. They watched as the two aliens kept striking each other. The room was ripped apart until finally Irala was launched at the camera, and the feed went dead as he impacted against it.
"Get me another view," said Fortier.
"Sorry, Sir, that is all we have."
Fortier didn't know what to do. The screens of the space around them suddenly flashed to life, and he could see their fleet still floating without power. The enemy vessels were waiting for their prey to move.
"Have any of them got power back yet?"
"No, Sir."
"Good, because they moment they do, they'll be blown out of the sky. The only reason we are still here is because of who is aboard. Make sure our jump engines are active and ready. When the time comes, we may need to get out of here, and quickly."
"And leave them behind?"
"If it comes to it, yes."
"We have to find another way."
"That's right, and I am all ears. The honest truth is that Taylor has never been able to defeat Bolormaa before, not even with Zaya, and I don't see that anything has changed. Our best hope is that she withdraws."
* * *
"Come on, it'll be quicker to cut through the gallery," said Taylor, as he thought of the balcony ten metres above the docking bay.
"Is she all that her reputation suggests?"
"She's a killer, Jafar," replied Taylor in a sombre tone. They reached the balcony and slid to a halt, as they clapped eyes on the Morohtan Queen. Instantly, the old wound from the Ertnii blade began to emit pain. It tore through his body, but he shrugged it off on seeing Irala on his knees before Bolormaa. His old friend was saying something, but they couldn't hear it through the hardened glass. He looked exhausted and badly beaten. Bolormaa drew back her arm, and they could see the spear now.
"No!" he cried, as he banged on the window to try and get Bolormaa's attention. But the spear was thrust forward with immense speed and power; it burst through Irala's chest and out of his spine before being drawn back with as much speed and precision. She turned to face Taylor, as if to acknowledge that she had known of his presence before she had dealt the blow. Taylor couldn't even find the words to express how he felt. He felt lost, but Bolormaa's attention turned to something else below them at ground level. They followed her gaze to see Zaya step into view.
"Come on, we need to get down there!" Taylor yelled.
They hammered against the glass, but it was too strong.
"Damn it!"
He pulled out an explosive charge and placed it on the glass. They took a few paces back and turned away as it blew. The glass shattered out onto the docking bay floor below, and they rushed to the open balcony. Zaya was squaring off against Bolormaa. They were both backing off away from Irala’s body and further from the gallery.
“Hurry, he can’t take her alone,” said Taylor.
He put his hand on the ledge and leapt over it. The drop was large enough that his boosters aided his descent, but Jafar was not wearing any. He slammed into the ground beside him, and the steel floor buckled slightly on impact.
“Just like old times, ey?”
Jafar said nothing as they rushed forward to help Zaya. They had closed half the distance when Bolormaa pulled out a small spherical object and rolled it towards them as if it were a grenade. They both leapt for the cover of a fighter that was on its side, having been tossed over during Irala’s fight. Light flashed but there was no explosion. Taylor peered out to see a wall of energy dividing the room in two. Just like they had seen used on Kapteyn. It completely divided them from the two Morohtans, but Irala lay on their side. Taylor rushed out to his friend’s side. He was still breathing, but he was fading fast.
“Taylor, I failed,” he said as he spluttered.
“No, you fought honourably, my friend.”
“No, I was going to leave. I was going to leave all of you, only…”
“Only what?”
“Alita, she would not run from the fight.”
“Alita? She was here?”
“She fought Bolormaa when I would not…that is why I stayed.”
“Where is she?” he asked in desperation.
Irala struggled to lift one arm as he became increasingly weaker. He pointed inside the shielded area, but his arm dropped, and he was gone.
“Goodbye, old friend.”
Taylor stood up and went towards the shield barrier with Jafar by his side. Neither Bolormaa nor Zaya was talking. They were staring at one another.
“Come on, Bolormaa. I’m right here! Come and get me!”
She had heard him and turned to acknowledge him, but shook her head and turned her attention back to Zaya.
“Zaya, my son. We have had our differences, and I was wrong to cast you out, but this is not the way. Think what we could achieve together? The two most powerful beings in the universe united once again?”
“He’s with us now, you bitch!” Taylor screamed. Even as he said it, he could see Zaya looking at him as if weighing up his options.
No, surely not, he thought as Bolormaa went on
.
“You can join me and live like a god, or you can die with them. You were destined for great things, my son. Come back to me now.”
Zaya kept looking back and forth, as if conflicted. Taylor drew out his Assegai and thrust it into the shield in some attempt to break it and go to his aid, but it just pushed in a few centimetres and bounced back out.
“He cannot beat her alone, can he?” Jafar whispered.
"No, he can’t."
Taylor knew how powerful she was. They all did.
“Zaya, will you take up your rightful place by my side? All you have to do is sheath your blade and come back to me. All will be forgiven. You have suffered enough.”
Taylor couldn’t believe he was even considering it. Zaya turned to him and looked him in the eye.
“I am sorry,” he said as he sheathed his blade.
Taylor couldn’t believe it. He felt that all hope was lost. Zaya strode onwards past Bolormaa and stepped up the ramp into her ship.
“You cannot have him. He is my son, and he will never fight with an insignificant creature such as yourself, a mere mortal, Colonel Mitch Taylor!”
“We are all mortal. So your sons have found out, and so will you one day,” said Taylor.
Bolormaa only smiled in response, but it was the movement behind her that caught his attention. A dozen Morohtan warriors and two champions, one of them carried Jones, and another had Alita.
“No!” Taylor gasped.
“You made me suffer, and now you will get a taste for how that feels. You have taken from me. Taken sons, my own blood. Now I will take from you.”
“Leave them out of this. It’s me you want!”
“Yes, and I want to see you suffer for as long as you may live. It will be a pleasure to see that.”
Taylor watched Alita and Jones, desperately trying to get one last glimpse of them, as they were loaded aboard the enemy ship.
“What are you doing here? What do you even want? Is it Earth? Tell me!” Taylor begged.
She grinned further, revelling in his misery and self-doubt.
“Tear down this barrier, and let’s settle this here and now!”
Bolormaa looked calm.
“No, if you can one day prove worthy of fighting me, I may humour you, but only so that you may reach the end of your life, and I do not wish to see that soon. You will be tormented until that day comes.”
“Why are you doing this!” he screamed.
“When you are worthy, Colonel Taylor.”
She strode over the ramp of her ship, and as she stepped onto it, her open hand reached out. The wall came down, and the device flew into her hand. Taylor reached for the hammer on his back and tried to go forward, but Jafar grabbed his shoulder and held him firmly in place.
“Let me go!”
Jafar would not, and he could not get free himself from his friend’s strong hold. He tried to fight it.
“Let go of me. You have no right to stop me!”
Bolormaa looked back at him one last time, gloating at her victory, and then she was gone. The ramp closed, and the ship lifted off. He looked around for anything that could still fly so that he could pursue them, but every craft on the hangar deck was smashed.
He turned back in distress as he looked to Jafar for help.
“I could not let you die, too,” said Jafar.
“I know, but what are we going to do?”
His tone was desperate, and Jafar had no answers. The he spotted it, Irala’s shuttle. It was still in once piece behind the wreckage of a fighter. He pushed Jafar away and ran towards it.
“Taylor, no!”
He didn’t need to take another step further, for just as quickly as Bolormaa’s ship left, another entered the hangar bay, another of hers. Guns on the bow opened fire, and Irala’s ship was blown apart, and it landed soon after, exactly where Bolormaa’s vessel had taken off.
“What is this? I thought she wanted me to live?”
“And to suffer,” replied Jafar.
The ramp dropped down. A Juggernaut raced out with two-dozen Morohtan warriors and as many drones. One of the champions led them. Just like Nergui had. Taylor had never had to fight one, and he hoped they were not as formidable as a Prince.
“I am Orda. Bolormaa sends her best wishes,” he said as he lifted his arms and opened fire.
Taylor and Jafar leapt for cover as a hail of gunfire rang out. Dozens of shots struck the craft they sheltered behind, and more ricocheted off the wall behind them.
“This day doesn’t get any better, does it?”
He looked back to the gallery and then through the main door of the hangar. Both were empty, aside from the trail of bodies leading to the exit. There was a lot of open space between them and that way out.
“We could run?” Jafar asked.
“If they start to spread out, this ship is finished anyway…nobody is coming, are they?”
He thought about all of the friends and comrades who might come to their aid, but they were all either dead, gone, or fighting on Earth.
“If Bolormaa wants me to live long enough for an agonising life, she sure is trying hard to kill me!”
“Or she knows you can handle this. You have overcome great odds so many times. This is a test.”
“That’s not helping. Is there nobody you can call to help?”
Jafar looked uncomfortable, as if Taylor was putting him in a tight spot.
“You do?”
“Sort of.”
“Whatever, just do it, before we run out of time.”
Jafar still looked uncomfortable, but he called in a message through his own comms system and in his own language. It meant nothing to Taylor.
“How long?” he asked.
“Soon.”
The aircraft that was providing their cover was suddenly jolted heavily and slid two metres back. They were thrown forward and out into the open. Gunfire landed all around them as both got to their feet and ran either way. Taylor activated his shield just in time as several shots struck it and others landed all around his feet. He slid into cover only to find two drones taking the bend ahead. He fired on both with two short bursts and knocked them out instantly, but they were followed by two more as he closed the distance.
He struck one with his shield, kicked the weapon away from the other, and fired point black range. He then spun around and knocked the other out. He saw Jafar rip an arm off a Morohtan warrior, beat another over the head with it, and then shoot the armless one dead with a large pistol he carried in his other hand. It was a real treat to see his old friend in action once more. Anything he had lost in speed as he aged, he had made up for with strength.
Taylor heard the sound of footsteps. Orda rushed into view. He raised his rifle to fire, but the creature cut down on the receiver with a blade and cut it in half. He made no attempt to shoot him, as though if wanting to fight him in personal combat. He raised a weapon, pointed it at him, and came forward to back him out into open ground.
None of the enemy took a shot at him. It was obvious what they all wanted, but more of them were pouring down the ramp to join the fight. There seemed no chance for the two of them. Even if he could kill Orda, they could not hope to defeat the army that had boarded them.
“Bolormaa believes you might be something special, but I am not convinced,” said Orda.
There was disdain in his voice as though he held Taylor in no regard at all. He carried with him a weapon that looked half sword, half polearm. The broad, curved blade was as long as the haft that he swung it by, and it was ornately detailed and decorated as any that a Prince would carry. He held himself with a cocky arrogance, but didn’t look as comfortable and skilled as the former.
I have to do anything possible to try and stall. If I do, maybe, just maybe help will come.
“Fancy yourself as one of Bolormaa’s sons, don’t you?” he asked with a smirk.
There was silence, and he immediately knew he had hit a nerve.
“But y
ou’re not, and never will be. Not by birth, not by stature, and certainly not by skill.”
He realised he had pressed too far when Orda lifted his blade and rushed towards him. He was fast, but it was a relief that he was not as lightning quick as a Prince. As the blade came down, Taylor pushed it aside and punched the creature in the side of the head with the hand he wielded the Assegai. He could have finished it there and then, but the sooner he did, the sooner he would have to deal with the army that lay in wait watching. He had to give them a show.
Taylor could at any moment draw out the hammer on his back and fell his opponent in one. It went against all of his training and instinct to try and keep a creature alive that was trying to kill him. He could tell the champion was good, but not a match for him. Not after all he had learned and survived, but the longer he toyed with it, the more likely it was that he would get hurt.
Orda swung for him, and he parried, but the blade pulled around and struck his other side. He had his Assegai up in time, but the force of the impact smashed it into his arm, throwing him a metre to the side. He went into a roll but managed to land on one knee as the blade came for his head with a powerful vertical strike.
He lifted his shield and thrust under into Orda’s left arm. He needed to slow the creature down before it did some real damage, or he was forced to kill it. Orda let out a scream in agony as the Assegai pierced his arm and thrust out the other side. Taylor drew out the blade and knocked the creature back with his shield to put some distance between them.
Orda clearly had no words, and from the look on his face, he had underestimated Taylor’s strength and skill, and yet he couldn’t admit that to those who fought for him.
“There is no place for weakness in the service for Bolormaa, is there?” Taylor taunted him.
Orda looked even angrier now and rushed at him. He parried off the first strike with his shield, but another came in quickly after it. It passed inside his shield and struck the generator. It died completely. Another cut sliced into his arm below his left shoulder. He knew he couldn’t mess around any longer.
Battle Beyond Earth: Revenge Page 21