BATTLE BEYOND EARTH: DECEPTION
By Nick S. Thomas
Copyright © 2016 by Nick S. Thomas
Published by Swordworks Books
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Prologue
Taylor appeared to have lost everything, and that had driven him into a bloodthirsty rage that would see any common sense thrown to the wind. He was bitter, angry, and not himself. If he had just been able to calm down, he would see he was living the same pitfall that his old friend Charlie Jones had done all those years ago. A hollowed out man wrecked by what he had witnessed and experienced. Taylor was imprisoned in his own mind and unable to see a way out.
The hope of finding William and Alita was the last thread keeping him alive and functioning, even while the world around him appeared to be collapsing. Earth was at war on every continent, and it seemed like in almost every town and city. The planet was afire as though it had descended into hell.
Amidst the unrelenting war on Earth, Taylor once again found himself fighting in the rubble of his homeworld, and with ever fewer resources. When a chance arose to save William Jones, he jumped at it, and a daring rescue brought the Captain back to them, but as little more than a shell of the man he once was. It was the same horrific scenario Taylor had lived with William’s ancestor, Charlie Jones, and at the worst possible of times. Taylor had no choice but to go on without his best friend, who might as well have been dead.
Taylor was losing his will to keep going forward, as hope of finding Alita became weaker every day, and if she was anything like Jones, she may never truly come back at all. Bolormaa was not the only one after Taylor, and he was tricked by Cakir, the Krys rebel leader. Whisked away before any of his unit could help. Their unit was shattered, and their only hope was that Jones would come back to them in their greatest time of need.
Jones endured torture the likes of which would have broken almost any man, and yet somehow, he knew he still had something to live for. He soon rallied their comrades to rescue Taylor. It was just the motivation and turning point he needed to find his old self. A daring operation to get the Colonel almost ended in failure, but then the most unlikely of things happened. Bolormaa herself stepped in to save Mitch Taylor. Not through any love for the Colonel, only a selfish and sadistic desire to be the one that would defeat him, and on her terms. She would destroy her own allies to protect that perfect moment she had planned for Taylor.
It was a terrifying prospect, that Bolormaa could seemingly come and go as she pleased, that she was merely biding her time, and toying with her prey. But for now, Taylor was merely glad to be alive, and not only that, one friend had returned to him. He had William Jones back, and that was enough to see a path through the darkness. The threat of Bolormaa loomed over him, and yet all he could think of now was Alita, and how he was going to save her.
Chapter 1
“Come on! Come at me!” Taylor roared.
A partially wounded cut on his nose had reopened and was bleeding, and his left cheekbone was swelling. His left arm still in a sling from the horrific torture and beatings he had taken.
Two men and a woman closed cautiously. They were all nursing bruises. The first attacked with a strong thrust with his training Assegai. A less powerful stun version of what the security details carried. Taylor stepped aside and brought his own down on the man’s knuckles with as much power as he could. The man let out a cry in pain as the weapon fell from his hands, but Taylor did not let up. He snapped a second strike into the inside of the man’s right knee that caused him to buckle down to the floor. The wounded man looked up in surprise as if expecting mercy, but Taylor smashed the baton across his face. Blood spewed from his mouth as he collapsed to the mats, and Taylor moved on. The other man and woman looked terrified at facing him again.
“Is this all you have got? Is this all that you will give when your life is on the line?” Taylor demanded.
He looked furious as the wounded man crawled about the mats in agony.
“It all comes down to this. Your life is on the line. If you lose now, you die, and if I get past you, everyone you love will die,” spat Taylor.
He sounded like he really meant it, but the two standing opposite him looked no more confident than they did before.
“Do or die,” said Taylor.
They still looked nervous, and the man was shaking with fear.
“Do it!”
The man rushed forward as if he had been tipped over the edge, but he had no confidence. He swung his Assegai wildly as if to feign some aggression, when the Colonel could see there was none really there. There was no fire in his eyes, only desperation to be anywhere else. Taylor slipped his Assegai into his wounded offhand and stopped one of the man’s half-hearted blows with his hand. He locked it in his fist and pushed hard, driving both their hands and the weapon onto the man’s face. Taylor let go, the weapon fell from both their grasp, and he punched the man straight to the nose. The result was a devastating and punishing blow that threw him to the ground.
The woman now looked even more terrified and hesitant than the man who had gone before her. On any other day he might have felt some sympathy for her, but he couldn’t find any now. She looked hopelessly afraid.
“Don’t even bother,” Taylor said wearily.
She suddenly lurched just a little as if she wanted to come at him, but it wasn’t enough.
“If this were for real, you’d be dead, and your friends would be dead. You’re no good to anyone. Pack your shit up, all of you, and get the hell out of here!”
None of them moved, other than the two already wincing in pain.
“Go back to your units, all of you. You are useless to me!”
The woman helped one of the wounded men to his feet, and they soon scurried out of there. He hadn’t even learnt their names, but he saw no point in it. He slumped down and sighed in despair. He hadn’t even broken into a sweat, and that was disappointing, too.
“Working them a little hard, don’t you think?”
His head shot up to the source of the voice as he thought he was alone. He was tense and ready for anything, but to his relief it was Jones.
“Not this again,” protested Taylor.
“I get it, I really do, but you don’t need to take it out on these recruits. How are they ever going to live up to your expectations, if you don’t give them a chance to get better? I didn’t stand a chance against you when we first trained
together.”
“And you do now?” Taylor smiled.
“Damn right I do.”
Taylor nodded in agreement.
“And it took a whole lot of time to get this good.”
Taylor was already shaking his head.
“That’s bullshit, and you know it. You were a hell of a fighter when we first clashed, and even if you hadn’t been, the point is that you tried. You gave it your all.”
“You were a whole lot more easy going back then.”
Taylor grunted.
“You need to give them a little bit of slack. You really do.”
“And what will that achieve? We need the best.”
“But we all have to start somewhere, you know that.”
“You talk like these are fresh recruits. These men and women that have been selected are supposed to be experienced. I don’t know what that experience supposedly is, but it’s a joke.”
“The truth is this war is costing us some of the best and most experienced men and women we have. There has been no let-up in a long time. If we had just a few months of peace, we might be able to make a difference, but I don’t know how the academies are even able to churn out recruits fast enough to replace our losses right now.”
“Clearly they aren’t. What we’re seeing are conscripts with little training and no stomach for combat. They don’t want to be here.”
“And who could blame them?”
“That doesn’t change the facts.”
They fell silent for a while as Taylor seemed deep in thought, and Jones looked awkward as though he was trying to find the words to say to him; some way to speak his mind without the Colonel wanting to take his head off for it. Finally, he blurted it out and hoped for the best.
“This isn’t about them, is it? It’s about Alita.”
Taylor’s eyes widened in anger, and his mouth opened, as if to punish Jones for his words, and yet he held his tongue, realising there was some truth to the statement.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he sighed.
“Well, what are you going to do about that?”
“Don’t you think I’d be doing it right now if anything could be done?”
“You found me, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, just about, and it almost cost me my life.”
“And you wouldn’t do the same for her?”
“Damn right I would. In a heartbeat, but we don’t have a single lead to go on. Bolormaa has her, and the only way we’ll ever see her again is the day that bitch dangles her before us as bait.”
“I don’t accept that. You have achieved the seemingly impossible before. Heck, we all have now. Why have you given up this time?”
He shook his head, and Jones could see some of it in his eyes. He was losing the will to keep going forward.
“Bolormaa, she is still getting to you, isn’t she?”
He didn’t want to admit it, but he had to agree with Jones.
“Why now? What has changed?”
“She made it quite clear when she rescued me from Cakir. I am a toy to her. She is picking and choosing my fate, and there is nothing I can do about it.”
“You talk like the end of your story is predetermined.”
“Isn’t it?”
Jones got up and faced Taylor as if expecting some answer, but then out of nowhere he slapped Taylor hard across the face.
Taylor’s head jerked to the side from the impact, and he looked appalled.
“What the hell was that?”
“It was exactly what you deserve for acting like this. This isn’t the Taylor I know. Not the myth, and not the man either.”
Taylor still looked lost. He knew Jones was right.
“But how?”
“By doing what you always do. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Keep going forward.”
“And when I can’t even tell which way is forward and which way is back?”
“Ask for help. You are never alone, and you never will be.”
He laughed cynically.
“What?”
“I sure felt alone facing Bolormaa.”
“Never again. I promise you that.”
“Don’t do that. Don’t make promises you cannot keep. They will haunt you for the rest of your life; trust me. The next time I face Bolormaa, it will be on her terms.”
“The last time wasn’t, and we came close to taking her down.”
“Close? Even with Zaya that was all we managed.”
“You are too hard on yourself. Bolormaa may act like she is all that, but we hurt her. You hurt her, and as much as she will pretend that means nothing to her, it changes everything.”
Taylor still looked sceptical.
“It will. She won’t ever be the same again. All these games she is playing with you, it is just an attempt to get back what she had. To prove to the universe that she is the ultimate bad arse she wants people to think she is.”
“Isn’t she?”
“She’s tough, sure, but there is more to life than that.”
“Really?”
“Erdogan, was he stronger than you?”
“Sure.”
“Stronger and faster, a seemingly unbeatable enemy, and still he fell like all the others.”
“And it cost my life to accomplish that, and I didn’t do it alone.”
“And you aren’t alone here either. I don’t care what nefarious plans that bitch has in mind for you, we have plans of our own.”
Taylor finally smiled as the concept amused him.
“Plans?” he asked.
“You think we have been idle all this time?”
Taylor shrugged.
“The day will come when you have to face Bolormaa again. Maybe for me, too, and you aren’t going to do it alone, nor without every fighting chance that we can give you.”
“What has changed?”
“We know what Bolormaa is now, or as best as we can. We know how she fights, and that she is obsessed with you.”
“How does that help?”
“It gives us focus. It’s time to make you the ultimate fighting machine, and make sure you pack more than a few surprises for that bitch.”
“You want me to use cheap tricks?”
“I want us all to use whatever means necessary to bring this insanity to an end.”
Taylor began to laugh.
“What? Why aren’t you taking this seriously?”
“Sorry, it’s just a little hard to. The most powerful living thing in the universe wants me dead, and you think a few party tricks are going to make the difference?”
“It’s negativity like that which gets a man killed. You were the first one to always tell me to never let those emotions take over.”
“Well, maybe I was wrong. You ever think about that? People want to take everything I say as gospel, but I am no prophet. I am just another guy trying to make the best of a shit situation.”
“Sorry, but that’s crap. You were never just another guy. You have always been something more. I don’t know what, if any higher powers exist, but they wanted you right here. You were born for it. You were created for it.”
“To fight forever?”
“It would seem so.”
He sighed.
“It’s gets you old, you know. Faster than you probably realise.”
“I don’t think any of us will ever know what it is like to have lived your life, but don’t think I don’t get how much this sucks. I’ve lived through much the same. You’ve just been doing it longer.”
“That is true, Jones, very true.”
“And remember this, the day Mitch Taylor throws in the towel, that will be the day nobody can be expected to keep on going. That is what it has come down to. You are more than a marine, an officer, or a leader. You are a symbol, a figurehead, and as long as you keep fighting, so does everyone else.”
“Yeah? Maybe if we didn’t have such a fight in us, Bolormaa wouldn’t be so interested?”
“Maybe, and maybe she’d have wiped us out if we hadn’t proven ourselves worthy.”
But his words were lost on Taylor as the Colonel continued to ponder his own premise for Bolormaa.
“What is it?”
Still nothing.
“Come on, you’re killing me here.”
“This has all happened before. Bolormaa has cut her way through the advanced civilisations of the universe, of which we were not one back then, and she just stopped. And yet nobody knows why? Irala never knew why, and the Krys records are too far gone to know for sure.”
“What are you getting at?”
“That maybe this is all a game to her. That she lays dormant awaiting a challenge before taking her turn.”
“She’s a pretty sick and twisted individual, no doubt, but that seems a little farfetched.”
“Yeah, what isn’t farfetched in this life? When I first joined the Corps we had barely made it into space, and look where we are today.”
“You were gone a long time.”
“Yes, and so has she. This has been my idea of hell, but what if this is what she lives for?”
“We’ve asked it before, but it just doesn’t make any sense.”
“Yeah, well plenty of things don’t make sense in this life.”
A light flashed on Jones’ arm console.
“Captain, please report for duty immediately.”
Taylor leapt up to follow him.
“They called for me. You aren’t even cleared for duty yet.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
Jones sighed, but he could see there would be no reasoning with him. Taylor merely threw his training weapon to the floor, wiped his brow with a towel, and followed on after the Captain.
“Good or bad news, do you think?” Jones asked.
“When do we ever get good news?”
Jones smiled at least. They soon strode onto the bridge of the station.
“What is his name again?” Taylor whispered as they looked in on the Admiral standing in the centre of the room.
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