Battle Beyond Earth: Deception

by Thomas, Nick S.

  “What is it doing?” Pitt could barely breathe with the tension, and her heart was pounding.

  “Take it easy. There’s no reason for them to suspect anything here.”

  “This isn’t gonna end well, Colonel.”

  “Calm down. It’s all gonna be fine.”

  But unknown to her, he held the transponder in his left hand. His thumb was on the switch ready to call for CJ. He still couldn’t believe he was putting his life in the clone’s hands, and yet somehow he knew he had nothing to fear. CJ was too caught up in getting his own satisfaction to let Taylor die in some distant lands at another’s hands.

  The enemy warrior stepped aside to let Rogers pass, and Pitt let out a sigh of relief.

  “He’s done it, Colonel!”

  “Halt! Stop right there!” a voice cried out from behind the two of them, and Taylor felt his heart sink. He slowly looked around. A guard was holding a rifle and pointing it right at them.

  “Ah, shit,” said Taylor.

  “Now can we call CJ?”

  Taylor clicked the button gently with his thumb before slowly lowering his rifle. In that moment, the guard calmed a little. He reached for his Assegai and threw it towards the guard. The blade thrust deep into the man’s neck, but as he fell back, he let out a burst of fire from his rifle that rang out across the courtyards.

  Meanwhile, the Morohtan warrior spun around to accost Rogers, only to find the barrel of his rifle up against its head. He didn’t hesitate for even a second. Three shots rang out, and the creature slumped down before him. He looked up to see the horror on Pitt’s face as an alarm rang out, and shots landed all about him as the echo of the gunfire sounded.

  “Run!” Taylor yelled.

  The Colonel lifted his rifle onto the edge and opened fire on the nearest of Rogers’ attackers. The Captain scrambled back up the steps under a hail of gunfire. Pitt joined Taylor, but there were so many targets. Rogers jumped over the last few steps. A bullet pinged off his helmet and another from his back as he tumbled into safety. Taylor was down in cover and reloading as Pitt kept up the fire. Rogers looked short of breath and in shock from it all.

  “What the hell was that?” he demanded, as he got onto his knees and crawled over to them.

  “It was out of my control. They must have found a body!” Taylor shouted over the noise.

  He looked over the edge. Three Morohtan warriors were swarming towards the stairs. He pulled out one of the chrome coloured grenades and twisted it. He threw it over the edge and hauled Pitt back into cover. The grenade erupted seconds later. Taylor was quickly back on his feet and slamming in a new magazine. To his dismay, a whole platoon of human soldiers was advancing and laying down fire. They looked just like his own people, soldiers of the Alliance. It was a horror he’d had to live through before, but he never thought it would happen again. Rogers and Pitt couldn’t even bring themselves to return fire, and he pulled them back down as bullets smashed into the barrier and the wall behind them.

  They heard several shots from the direction where they had left Maloney. He came storming in and slid to a halt beside them.

  “What the hell is going on?” he asked.

  “It’s gone to shit. That’s what is going on,” replied Taylor.

  Two guards burst through the doorway after Maloney. Taylor and Rogers let out a burst of gunfire that cut them down. Before their bodies had even hit the ground, the doorway behind them gave way with a thunderous crash. Babacan burst through at a running pace. He took half the wall with him, but he didn’t stop. He hit the edge of the barrier and tumbled off the edge, somehow landing on his feet below as if he had intended it all along. Two of the humans were crushed beneath the weight of his suit, and a moment later, the courtyard erupted into a fierce gun battle. Babacan had opened up with the machine guns on his suit. It was all the distraction they needed. Taylor was back up on his feet in no time and picking his targets.

  “What happened to saving those that we could, Colonel!” Rogers yelled.

  “These ones are beyond saving! You can see that!”

  He slammed in a new magazine, but before he could ready his weapon, the elevator at the centre of the room rose up once again. A mass of Morohtan warriors poured out. There were more than a dozen of them. Taylor pulled out his last high explosive grenade, primed, and launched it. He watched it take flight and soar towards them. It ignited, killing three, but they had spread out enough that it was all he could get. Six were running towards Babacan, laying down fire as if they intended to engage him in hand-to-hand.

  “Put them down!” Taylor ordered.

  He lifted his rifle and opened up on the first, but they were covering ground fast. He cut one down, and Babacan’s fire took another two, but they were soon on him. One cut down with a blade onto one of the weapons mounted to his right arm, and it was knocked out of commission. Babacan responded with furious anger, smashing his arm down on the creature and breaking its neck. He stamped on another so that it was pinned to the ground, before he turned his remaining gun on it and opened fire. Blood spurted out across the floor as another warrior leapt onto him in some kind of suicidal charge.

  Babacan reached to try and grab hold of the creature, but it drew out a blade as it hung onto his back and was thrusting down into his suit. Taylor couldn’t fire. He looked back to the body with his Assegai embedded in its back, wrenched it out, and rushed to the edge.

  “Wait!” Rogers called out to him.

  But it was too late. Taylor had already taken the leap. He flew across the open ground as he kicked off with all his energy. He flew past the creature as he extended his Assegai and embedded it deep in the creature’s skull. The warrior fell from Babacan, who quickly turned and kicked another so hard that its spine was broken as it hit a support pillar for the walkway.

  Taylor landed on his feet but found himself empty-handed in front of one of the last Morohtan warriors. It lifted up its weapon to fire, but before it could pull the trigger, Babacan picked up one of the bodies of those he had killed, and launched it at Taylor’s assailant. The corpse smashed into the creature and knocked it down. Taylor was on it in no time with his knife drawn and embedded it into the beast’s neck. He looked across to see his spear sticking out from the corpse of the one he had impaled. He drew it out and stepped over the dead to join Babacan.

  “Nice of you to join us,” he joked.

  Babacan didn’t say a word as they looked up. Scores of humans were now closing in on them. Some had weapons of their own. Others were picking up those from the dead, but more were merely empty-handed, and yet ready to use their bare hands.

  “Taylor!”

  Pitt threw his rifle towards him. He caught it and readied himself for whatever came next. But the crowd stopped, and they could hear the thunderous echo of what seemed like hundreds of footsteps coming from a large opening on the far side of the complex.

  “Does it never end?” Pitt asked.

  A swarm of Morohtan warriors poured out from what looked like a ramp descending below ground. There were dozens of them.

  “Well, shit,” Taylor said.

  He and Babacan then squared off against them. He looked back to the walkway. Rogers, Pitt, and Maloney were spreading out and readying themselves to give cover, but it seemed like nothing at all against the odds facing them. Taylor activated his shield in readiness, and he began to doubt if CJ was ever going to come.

  “Come on, you son of a bitch,” he whispered to himself.

  They heard more movement as even more creatures poured into the courtyard. The odds seemed insurmountable. He closed his eyes and just prayed for a moment, but he didn’t know why. It had never gotten him anywhere in the past. He looked up to the beautiful bright blue sky.

  “Come on, you bastard! Where are you?” he screamed.

  Before the last word had even left his lungs, the sunlight was blotted out as a jump gate opened, and in a flash of light the Phoenix appeared above the dome. The shockwave of the gateway
shattered the glass dome, and he leapt into the cover of the walkway, just in time to shelter from the glass crashing all around them.

  “You marvellous son of a bitch,” said Taylor.

  He smiled as he realised he’d never admit it to CJ himself. Gunfire rained down from above as hundreds of troops descended into the open arena, and the ice-cold winds swept in with them. Taylor took cover at a nearby pillar, aimed at the nearest creature, and opened fire. As he turned to the next enemy, he realised it was human. He hesitated for a moment, but in that time the woman was struck by a burst of gunfire, and CJ landed nearby seconds later.

  Taylor watched in amazement as CJ and his team gunned down all who were in sight. Only King hesitated and paced over to Taylor to be away from it all.

  “This, this is what you wanted?”

  “This…this is what we needed, no matter how much it sickens me,” he replied.

  Grenades ignited all around them, and the gunfire was constant, but King would not be a part to any of it.

  “You know he will try and kill you, don’t you, Colonel?”

  “That is a risk I am willing to take.”

  “It is not a risk, it is a certainty. We made many changes to CJ before reviving him, but there were a few things ingrained at such a deep level that we couldn’t begin to try and change them, and above all else is you. He may be your ally today or tomorrow, or for the next year, but there is a burning desire in him to finish the job that Erdogan sent him to do.”

  Taylor shook his head in disbelief as he watched the carnage unfold before his eyes. CJ went from alien to human as though it were nothing at all, and no one in his unit seemed to have any scruples about what they were doing.

  “You worry about winning this war, Lieutenant, and I’ll worry about dealing with him.”

  The gunfire was dying down now, but Taylor was all too aware that their work had only just begun. They needed to head underground, and he wondered whether he could trust CJ long enough to not take a shot at him before they could complete their mission. The Captain was strolling confidently towards him now. There was arrogance in his pace that annoyed Taylor, and he knew it wasn’t any coincidence. He wanted to draw weapons and put it all to rest now, and yet he couldn’t. He needed CJ.

  “You turned up, then.”

  “I showed up because I said I would. I keep my word, and you better remember that!”

  Chapter 13

  Gunfire still rang out around them, but what appalled them more than anything was that the humans who had been training were charging in waves. Some had picked up weapons from the dead, and others were empty-handed.

  “Why don’t they give up?” asked Pitt in horror.

  “Because that is not in their programming,” replied Rogers.

  CJ’s people had no qualms about putting them down and fired relentlessly until the ground was streaming with blood and littered with bodies. Several hundred humans and many dozens of Morohtans lay before them. Taylor couldn’t bring himself to join in when one woman managed to break through CJ’s troops and made a rush for him. She was carrying a Morohtan blade and screaming in a frenzy. For a moment he was powerless to act. Too horrified by the prospect that it could just as easily have been Alita.

  A gunshot rang out beside him, and the woman was hit in the chest. Another shot soon followed it as Rogers did what he needed to. The woman slumped to the ground and tumbled to his feet. She didn’t even seem to notice the pain and was reaching for the blade she had dropped to come at him once more, but she had lost much of the control and strength in her body. Rogers kicked her away from Taylor and quickly put a bullet in her head. Pitt and Maloney were mortified. Rogers seemed to show no remorse at all.

  “Whatever that woman used to be, she isn’t one of us anymore.”

  “Would you be so quick to give up on one of us?” Pitt asked.

  “If you had descended into that, yes, and I would expect you to do the same for me.”

  “I’m sorry, I thought we came here to rescue people.”

  “We did.” Taylor had finally started to compose himself.

  “Not everyone can be rescued,” said Rogers.

  Pitt appealed to Taylor, but he just shook his head as if to shrug her off.

  “Is this what it has come to, killing our own? Giving up on them like this?”

  “We do whatever is required to survive.”

  “Then how are we any better than Bolormaa, Captain?”

  Taylor still said nothing. He was stunned.

  “Really, tell me, Colonel, how are we any different?”

  “Sometimes it’s hard to tell, but why should it matter?” Taylor asked wearily.

  “Matter? What are we even doing trying to survive, if this is what we have to become?”

  “Living and surviving aren’t always pretty, but we aren’t going to give up because it’s gotten tough,” replied Rogers.

  Pitt could see that Taylor was almost as disillusioned as she was.

  “Hey, Taylor, we doing this or what?” CJ strode towards them with a grin on his face as though he had enjoyed every minute of it. He probably had.

  “Colonel, please, can’t you see what’s happening? We’re letting monsters kill our own people, and for what?” Pitt begged Taylor.

  “There may be hope for whoever is underground. Those that haven’t been twisted to the enemy’s ways,” said Rogers.

  “Come on, what are you waiting for?” CJ cajoled them all.

  “He’s right. We shouldn’t linger,” added Rogers.

  Taylor nodded in agreement as he went forward towards the escalator at the centre of the room.

  “Mirov, on me!” CJ ordered.

  They stepped into the elevator with a single squad of CJ’s people. Rogers flicked a switch, and they began their descent. Taylor activated his shield, and the others did the same. He was expecting trouble, and he was right to. It wasn’t long before they rocked to a halt. The doors slid open, and a hail of gunfire burst through the opening, but Taylor didn’t hesitate. He ran forward as shots struck his shield, and he fired from beside it. They were in a high ceilinged intersection with several spurs, the only cover from a few dividing walls and crates of supplies. He leapt into the nearest cover. Automatic gunfire was traded from both sides, and he could see one of CJ’s squad had fallen before he’d gotten out of the elevator. Rogers smashed into the wall beside him. It was a metre high and barely enough to give them cover. He drew out a grenade and primed it, tossing it over the top, but even before the charge had blown he had pulled a flash grenade.

  “It sure would be nice to have the AR2s right now, wouldn’t it!” he shouted.

  Taylor couldn’t argue with that. The grenade blew ahead of them. Rogers immediately followed it with the flash grenade that sprung wings and flew off towards the enemy as the last one had.

  “Flash!” he screamed.

  The dark corridor erupted into bright white light, and even though they had been prepared for it and looked away, they still took a little of the shock from it. Taylor felt his ears pop, and he lost almost all his hearing, but he was on his feet and hauled Rogers up with him as they charged forward. Three Morohtan warriors staggered about in agony, and they were quickly cut down by a burst of fire. Another two came out from cover, but suppressing fire from behind Taylor forced them back. Taylor reached their position and opened up on full auto as he took the bend, cutting both of them down. He dropped his magazine and reached for another, but something latched onto his right leg and yanked him so hard he was thrown onto his back. Both his rifle and the new magazine fell from his grasp as a wounded enemy soldier jumped on top of him, but Rogers put the muzzle of his rifle to the creature’s head and squeezed the trigger.

  Blood sprayed out across them both, and it slumped dead over Taylor. He pushed it off and scrambled to his feet.

  “Thanks.”

  Taylor was a little shocked and painfully aware that he was distracted and far from the top of his game.

 
“Come on, let’s keep moving,” declared CJ.

  “You scared, Captain?” Rogers asked.

  “I just don’t want to be around when whoever you have pissed off comes calling to take their pound of flesh. I agreed to help you on this, not deal with the shitty aftermath. That is your problem.”

  “Hey, we are in this together,” replied Maloney.

  “Keep dreaming. Let’s just get this done.”

  “All right, enough, now which way?” Rogers intervened.

  “I guess we split up.”

  There were two major spurs that looked like the primary walkways.

  “We’ll take this one,” said Taylor.

  CJ didn’t say a word as he led his people down the other.

  “What the hell is going on around here? How are they turning our people against us?” Pitt asked.

  “You’d be amazed what can be done with the right time and methods,” replied Rogers.

  “But not this. I can’t imagine ever fighting for the enemy.”

  Taylor led the way. The room was eerily quiet, but that silence was soon filled with the sound of footsteps approaching from a side room up ahead. They stopped and waited as the footsteps drew nearer. A human stepped through the doorway, but none of them could bring themselves to fire, as the woman was carrying nothing but a stun baton. Upon the sight of Taylor she let out a scream and ran at him, her baton raised to strike him. Taylor let go of his rifle and leapt forward. He grabbed her weapon arm and her throat with his other hand, pinning her to the wall beside him. She was wriggling to try and get free, but she couldn’t escape his grasp.

  “There are prisoners down here, people who won’t follow you and your masters, where are they?” he demanded.

  She didn’t answer and kept fighting back with everything she had.

  “Where are they!” he yelled.

  But there was no response. He ripped the baton out of her grasp and smashed it across her head with enough force no knock her out without electrification. He dropped the baton and drew his Assegai as if to finish her off.