Taylor’s heart just sank once again, realising how difficult this was going to be.
“You aren’t yourself!”
“No, I am better. Better than I was when I was born. Free of the pain and suffering you endure!” she screamed.
Taylor shook his head. There was no way to get through to her.
“One way or another, you are coming with us, and we are gonna fix you, I promise.”
“You aren’t leaving this place alive. My Queen would have you for herself, but not if I get the chance first, Colonel Mitch Taylor!”
“What have they done to you?” Taylor was close to tears, “This isn’t you. You are Lieutenant Alita Hariz, a hero of the Alliance…and more than that, more than that to me,” he pleaded.
“I am a weapon of my Queen.”
Taylor wouldn’t accept it. He put his rifle down as if to not pose a threat.
“Come with us, please. We’ll help you, Alita.”
“No, you come to me, because this is where you meet your end!”
She screamed as she rushed at him with furious anger. He ducked aside, and she staggered past as she’d tried to swing. Her attacks were uncontrolled, as if she had forgotten all of her training. It was if she wasn’t the same person he had grown to know and love.
“Don’t make me do this. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You have no idea what it is like to really live, and to serve the Queen, the most powerful being in the universe.”
“Servitude? Is that what you really want?”
“How are you any different? I just follow a stronger master,” she snapped.
She came at him once again. He ducked and parried a few blows, but he couldn’t bring himself to strike her. That cost him dearly, as she caught him with a straight punch to the face that knocked him back. The blow was harder than he would have expected. She’d thrown everything into it. He staggered back and was more stunned than anything else. This was a situation that he never could have imagined happening in his lifetime. It was the stuff of nightmares.
“Taylor, we have to go, now!” Rogers yelled.
She came at him once again, and he knew now he had to do something about it. She was wild and aggressive, lacking any control or coordination. She punched and kicked wildly. He ducked and weaved before punching her to the face, but the moment the blow connected he felt awful. She staggered back and nursed her bloody mouth before smiling at him and coming right back.
“We don’t have time for this, Colonel! We have to get the hell out of here!”
All the Captain could do was watch the fight unfold as he kept track of time and felt his pulse race. The very real possibility of being left behind was sinking in.
“Come on, Colonel, get this over with! We can help her later!”
Taylor knew he was right, but it still felt unbearable to do what he needed to. She closed in on him with a wicked smile as if to do real harm. He punched towards her with power to deal a blow that would knock her out cold, but she ducked it and drew his Assegai. She thrust it towards him with murderous intent. That was the moment he realised he needed to get serious and do what had to be done. He voided the thrust and grabbed her hand. He locked her arm and drove his elbow full power into her forehead. She slumped down in his arms and let go of the weapon. As she went limp, he quickly took it from her and sheathed it.
“Come on, we don’t have long! Colonel!”
Taylor lifted her up onto his shoulder as Rogers looked for some other way out. He spotted another elevator beyond where they had beaten and killed the poor woman that they had been interrogating.
“Come on, let’s move!”
They rushed on, and Taylor felt some relief. He didn’t want to believe Alita had become the monster he had just seen, but still believed she could be saved if they could just get her out of there. They went onwards as quick as they could, but as they passed the bodies of her comrades they had shot, one of them grabbed Taylor’s ankle, and he stumbled. He fell, and Alita was thrown free.
He rolled to a halt. The man who had grabbed him was bleeding out but still reaching to cling on to him. He was near death. Taylor kicked him to the head with one vicious blow that ended him, but as he turned to get up, he noticed Alita was awake and up on her feet. Her boot was coming for his face like he had done to her fellow traitor. The boot landed hard, and one of his front teeth was knocked out. It flew from his mouth as he spun and struck the ground hard. The blow had snapped his neck hard, and he barely stayed conscious.
The next thing he knew was Rogers helping him to his feet, but he was stunned. He could just make out Alita running back into the fog and disappearing.
“Alita!” he called, but she didn’t stop.
“We have to go!” Rogers yelled.
“I won’t leave her. I can’t!” he cried.
His words were slurred, and he barely made sense. He moved to go after her, but Rogers chased after him and anchored him where he stood.
“We have to move, now!”
Taylor tried to fight, but Rogers wouldn’t let go, and no matter how hard he fought, he knew the Captain was right.
“If we don’t go now, we die down here, and you’ll never get her back.”
That was the final straw for Taylor. He let himself be pulled away by Rogers and followed him back to the elevator. In no time at all they were on their way back to the surface, and at a far faster rate than they had descended.
“I promise you that this isn’t the end for Lieutenant Hariz. I will not give up on her, and neither will the Alliance.”
Taylor nodded along in appreciation, but he didn’t really believe the Captain. It was the closest to getting Alita back that he had come, and yet he had never felt so far away from doing so. The elevator accelerated at a surprising rate, and they soon appeared at the surface of the colony. Fireballs were landing all around as barrages landed.
“What the hell are they doing?”
“Those aren’t our people!” Rogers replied as he hauled the Colonel out of the elevator. Gunfire ripped through the colony as the surviving enemy had rallied to the centre and attacked the invaders. Taylor looked down at his console and realised how far they were from their ship.
“We run, or we die,” said Rogers.
That was all that Taylor needed to hear. All he could think about was Alita, and if he didn’t make it off that planet, there was no chance of her ever getting back to the life that she knew.
“Don’t think, Colonel, run!”
Taylor was in a daze. It was a nightmare that he had lived so many times and never imagined could be real. Rogers shouted in his face once more, and the realisation that it was happening there and then was starting to kick in. But that wasn’t soon enough. Rogers grabbed him and dragged him along. They made their way through the colony as explosions rang out. Somebody was shelling the place, and it wasn’t their people.
“Why are they hitting their own people?” Rogers asked.
“Don’t you get it? These people are disposable to Bolormaa, and they mean nothing to her. They’d kill any number to see us dead.”
“That isn’t our problem right now. We have to get the hell out of here. Your cover is well and truly blown.”
“And Alita? What about her?”
Rogers wished he knew how to respond, but it was a horrific situation that he didn’t ever imagine he would have to live through. They were nearing the perimeter of the colony when they spotted three humans who were working for the enemy, and Taylor didn’t even raise his rifle. Rogers fired on them and killed two before bundling Taylor into cover.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
Taylor couldn’t even find the words to explain it, but Rogers didn’t need him to.
“A woman, all of this over a woman? What do you want, for us to lose this war over one woman?” he said as he reloaded.
Taylor could only shrug. It didn’t make sense to him either, but he couldn’t imagine a life without Alita. He had fought
too hard, and lost too much to go on without her. Rogers rose up and kept firing. He grabbed him, hauling him to his feet, but he resisted and was met with a slap across the face soon after.
“What has happened to you?”
Taylor was too traumatised by what he had seen. It should have been like any other day to him, but the loss of Alita had been a hit he wasn’t ready to take. Rogers dragged him along as he kept firing, and soon enough the muscle memory kicked in. Taylor lifted his rifle and engaged those trying to stop them from escaping.
They both laid down fire as they advanced and pressed through the complex before finally reaching the perimeter. They encountered another two human guards as they tried to break out. Taylor couldn’t bring himself to fight them. Rogers shot one and struck the other with his rifle, firing a burst into the man as he fell with no remorse at all.
“They could be our friends,” Taylor said in despair.
Rogers felt his pain and didn’t know quite what to do.
“We’ll get Alita back, I promise you.”
He grabbed Taylor, and they went onwards. They found a pile of debris in the snow. It was Babacan buried in his suit. He was at the edge of a shell crater where it looked like an artillery shell had been targeted at him.
“Come on, help me!” Rogers hollered.
Taylor knew what to do and leapt into action as if it were programmed in him. He hit the release switches, and the armour prised open. Babacan was barely alive. They hauled him out, but he wasn’t even able to walk, and that was enough to snap Taylor back into action and do what he needed to do. He threw Babacan onto his shoulder and ran, though the alien’s feet still dragged behind.
“This is Fubar, isn’t it?” Taylor asked.
Rogers had never heard the term outside of his study of history, but he knew exactly what it meant, and neither needed to say anything to confirm the fact. They pulled him through the snow for what felt like an age, but they soon heard the engines of aircraft above and looked up the see enemy ships enter the atmosphere. There were flashes in the distance as the transport vessels jumped out, and that was a relief, but it didn’t make them safe. They rushed on with all the energy they had left, and at last Dart’s craft was in sight. He was just where they had landed.
“You stayed, are you crazy?” Taylor rushed up the ramp and punched the door switch to seal it.
“I don’t go until you do. I thought you got that, Colonel.”
“Pitt and Maloney?” Rogers asked.
“They made it out on one of the transports.”
“CJ, he really did it,” Taylor said quietly.
“Don’t put it on him. This was us, and you. You did this. CJ only helped because of you.”
Taylor ignored him as if it didn’t matter. His mind had turned to Alita.
“You know it wasn’t your fault, right?” Rogers asked.
Their craft lifted off, and Dart brought them up to speed quickly, but neither of them really even noticed. They soared into the atmosphere. Taylor and Rogers lay back stunned, and Babacan was barely even conscious.
“Hold on to your asses!” Dart yelled.
None of them heard that either, and soon enough they had jumped. The flash of light through the cockpit was enough for them to take notice, but they were still too shocked to respond for a full minute. Taylor leaned forward and dropped his head into his hands. Rogers was too busy studying the information on his Mappad, as if it would save the whole situation.
“Don’t tell me.”
Taylor knew what was coming, but Rogers was not willing to let it go.
“Do you know how many we saved?”
Taylor shook his head and sighed. He didn’t care anymore. He looked completely lost, and Rogers felt he had let him down. He had to do something about it.
“She isn’t dead,” he declared.
That got Taylor’s attention.
“We are getting her back, and not just in body, but in soul. I promise you that, Colonel.”
Taylor’s eyes lit up for the first time in a long time.
“You promise me that?”
“I do.”
“Really?”
Rogers leaned in closely with a sincere look on his face.
“You’re damn right I do. I promise you we will get Lieutenant Hariz back, and I promise you we will turn this war around.”
Rogers held out his hand to seal the deal.
Taylor looked wary of taking it, but he’d seen enough misery and loss to take anymore, and the Captain was offering him what seemed the only way forward.
“We go forward together, we get Alita back, and we end this Queen?”
“Damn right we do, and we do it together.”
Battle Beyond Earth: Deception Page 22