Battle Earth VII

by Nick S. Thomas

  "We gotta get out of here!"

  He grabbed the President firmly and threw her rather unceremoniously onto his shoulder, hauling her back towards the hatch they had come from. The ship shook violently as the crew fought for control, but they were plummeting fast to the ground. Hughes was at the opening but frozen stiff. Taylor booted him out and leapt after him. He held on firm to Mertens as they fell. He could just about hear Hughes screaming and Waters alongside him.

  Taylor looked around the sky for the Deveron, and then from out of a cloud it burst and soared towards them, plunging deep below where they were falling.

  "Hit your boosters!"

  The ship's nose lifted and came to hover a hundred metres below them. They fired the boosters and descended onto the hull. Taylor landed hard, and his knee buckled out as he hit the deck, but he put all his effort into maintaining his grip on the President. They fought the wind to get back to the opening and leapt inside. The hatch shut behind them, and he took a deep breath in relief.

  "Get us the hell out of here, Captain!"

  "Give me a direction, and we're gone, Sir."

  "Paris!"

  The engines roared once again as he took a moment to reflect on what had just happened.

  "I underestimated Armand," he said.

  "But we survived," replied Jafar.

  "Just about."

  He turned his attention to Mertens who was only partly recovered from the shock of all she had been through.

  "Colonel, I thought you were for the other side."

  "So did I, but let's just say I was wrong."

  "Thank you. You've done me a great service, but I fear it will do little to keep my country free."

  "One step at a time."

  "You killed those men back there to save my life."

  "And if I could have avoided it in any way, I would have."

  "I know."

  It brought a sombre tone to them all, Taylor above all else. Those were soldiers he could well have been fighting alongside in the wars. He told himself it was necessary. He'd killed the Krys without quibble, but this was entirely different. Killing humans left him feeling sick to the stomach.

  He got up to his feet and helped the President up. "Come on, let's get to the bridge."

  As he said it, an explosion rang out, and the Deveron rocked.

  "We're hit," Ryan said over the comms.

  Another explosion ignited, and they began to drop from the sky.

  "We're going down! Get off the ship, Colonel!"

  Taylor punched the door release, and it slid open above them. They all knew what they had to do. He grabbed hold of the President and jumped, with the others close behind. Seconds later, the ship crashed to the ground below them. They had exited at a hundred metres above the ground, in time to save them.

  Debris and dirt erupted into the sky around them as they descended down on the crash site. The hull had buckled over a rocky riverbank edge, and Taylor could already see a gaping hole that had been torn in the starboard side.

  It had all happened so fast, and none of them could believe their eyes. A few bodies of the crew were strewn across the grassland beside the wreckage where they had been thrown out through the damaged hull. Dust filled their lungs, and a sickly electrical burning smell filled the air. Taylor looked around. He didn't recognise where they were at all, but it was nowhere near civilisation. They all looked to him for answers, and all he could think was,

  Oh, shit!

  Chapter 9

  Taylor had no words to soften the blow they had just taken. He rushed in through the hole that had been punched in the side of the ship and had to step over two bodies as he headed for the bridge. He got to the entrance and found the door was bent and jammed half shut. He got a hold of it and tried to pull, but even with his suit did not have enough strength. He turned to see Jafar had joined him.

  "Help me."

  The two of them got a firm grasp and managed to force the door apart barely enough for him to squeeze through. All power was down, and the blast shields meant there was no light at all. He flicked on the torch on his helmet and peered around. Bodies were scattered across the bridge, and he looked from one to another to find survivors. A few groaned in pain but were unable to move. The he spotted Ryan sprawled out on the deck. He rushed to his side.

  "What the hell hit us?"

  "I was hoping you could have answered that question."

  His voice was spluttered and weak, and it was clear he could not move his legs. It looked as if his spine had been severely damaged, but Taylor didn't want to say it.

  "There's nothing you can do for us. Get going.”

  Taylor wanted to argue, but he knew the Captain was right.

  "Good luck."

  He got to his feet and rushed out through the smashed door. They got out from the ship to be accosted by Waters.

  "Any survivors?"

  "None that we can help right now."

  "What happened to ‘leave no man behind’?"

  Taylor shook his head.

  "A nice ideal to live by, but you know how many soldiers have been left behind in war? Ryan understands and wants us to go on, and that's exactly what we have to do. He lifted his Mappad device to get an understanding of where they were, but it could not find signal. His comms were out also.

  "Impossible, someone must be jamming us. Where the hell are we?"

  "Which side of the border are we?" asked Hughes.

  "I'd say we're in the south of my country."

  "You're sure of that?" asked Taylor.

  "As sure as I can be, all things considered."

  "Malok must be around here somewhere."

  "Get real," replied Taylor. "He could be fifty klicks or more from our position, and with no way to communicate, he's on his own, same as we are."

  "You came after me, why?" asked the President.

  "Sides are being drawn up. I chose mine, as you chose yours."

  "Well, thank you, for trying at least."

  "Oh, we aren't done yet. We have to get into France. As the legitimate leader of your country, you can be reinstated with a little help. If you die, it's all for nothing."

  This is just going from shit to worse, he thought.

  He was starting to realise it had all gone downhill since the moment he met Armand. The gladiatorial combat and puppet strings he had been pulled along by were bad, but nothing compared to what shit Armand had landed him in.

  He looked at his watch. It was a long time till sundown. He flipped open the top to reveal a compass, his only means of navigation now. He looked around. The countryside around them was predominantly thick woodland.

  "We'll have good visual cover, but that's not gonna save us from thermal imaging."

  "Then we should move quickly."

  "Southwest it is. Let's move."

  "So we just keep walking and hope to reach France?"

  "We'll reach it all right, Hughes. This ain't such a big country, no offence."

  "Why don't we look for help nearby? We have their President for God’s sakes. Surely the locals will help?"

  Taylor shook his head.

  "US forces and an alien roaming the lands with the nation’s President. Anyone we go to is just as likely to think we're the kidnappers and immediately report us to the authorities. We can't trust anyone this side of the border. It can't be more than fifty klicks to it."

  "Fifty klicks?" Waters shouted.

  Taylor grabbed the man by the frontal plate of his armour.

  "You get your shit together. Fifty klicks is a walk in the park, considering the alternative. With any luck, it's closer. I want to be there before the sun rises tomorrow."

  "We have no food, only the water in our suits," said Hughes.

  "You Navy boys have had it too easy for too long. Water is all we need. Let's get moving."

  Jafar led the way. Taylor knew he would terrify anyone they came across, but he was thankful to have someone dependable at the front. The two seamen with t
hem still looked terrified, but he didn't blame them. They'd just lost their ship and most of the crew with it. As they reached the edge of a thick forest, Taylor turned to look back at the Deveron one last time. The stricken ship had done him and many others years of loyal service.

  "Good luck, Ryan," he whispered as he turned and carried on.

  "You'd leave those crew to get me out?" asked Mertens.

  "Nothing more I can do for them. Had I the support I had in the war, I'd call in for assistance and get them out, but we did this of our own accord. My commanding officer will want my head for this."

  "Coming after me, or losing that ship?"

  "Both."

  "You really are that officer we have seen so much on TV recently, aren't you? The Gladiator some have called you."

  He didn't answer, as he wasn't proud of the fact.

  "So it is you. You're the last person I would have expected to come to my aid. Do you regret it yet?"

  "No room in a marine's mind for regret. We keep moving forward, improvise, and overcome."

  "But you're not a marine today, are you? Not here on their orders or interests."

  He was silent.

  "So you've decided to join the Alliance? Even though America wants nothing to do with this conflict?"

  She kept pushing until finally he knew he had to respond.

  "I didn't fight over these lands for nothing. Way I see it, this is as much my home as the States is now, and I won't stand by and watch half the World rip itself to pieces."

  "Even if that means fighting a human against human war?"

  "I can't see how that can be avoided, can you?”

  “One of the key reasons I did what I did is because we have irrefutable evidence that the UEN is freeing alien prisoners and recruiting them into their armies, and that they were being prepared for it months ago."

  "You can't be serious?"

  "I am. As a key representative of the UEN, I have been at the forefront of discussions. The UEN has been moving to find ways to integrate alien POWs into the World populace and find a way they can contribute to society. Maybe they weren't training them to use weapons, but the foundations were there before all this began."

  Taylor shook his head.

  "That figures."

  She seemed surprised.

  "How so?"

  "I just heard from a reliable source that humans working for the Krys, or what look to be human at least, have infiltrated various levels of government on Earth."

  "And you have proof of this?"

  "No," he sighed, "and nobody I have so far contacted is willing to entertain the idea."

  "But you know this for certain?"

  He nodded.

  "Yes, that would explain how all this escalated so quickly. But how can we tell who is working with them or not?"

  "No idea. I know of only one who is definitely with them, Councillor Armand."

  "Ah, yes, that little worm."

  They’d got half a kilometre and in the middle of an opening when a missile smashed into the ground beside them, showering them with dirt. A moment later they heard a copter buzz by.

  “Run!” he shouted.

  He didn’t know what they were running towards, but he couldn’t think of anything else to do. The copter was far out of reach of their weapons.

  “One copter? Why one?”

  “They must be worried about attracting too much attention, Hughes. We must be closer to the border than we thought!”

  They reached an embankment and before them was a road and sign reading ‘Welcome to Saint-Hubert’. The sign was brand new.

  “Saint-Hubert, this place was devastated in the war. It’s still only a small community,” said Mertens.

  “It’ll do!” he replied as they kept running.

  “How can they help us?”

  “That copter won’t keep firing once we’re in the cover of enough civilians.”

  “You’d risk that?”

  “If it means not dying, yeah!”

  The copter was coming back for another pass when they hit a stroke of luck, a school bus with fifteen children aboard. Taylor rushed out in front of the vehicle that brought the driver to a quick halt. He didn’t like doing it, but he knew it was the only thing that would save their lives.

  “Get up beside the bus!”

  He looked up to see the copter pass without firing, and he could see the German markings clearly now. He’d prayed they wouldn’t open fire, with the potential for collateral damage, but it was as much a gamble as anything else. He rushed to the door of the bus and ripped it open. It tore from the hinges, and he threw it aside into the grass.

  “Inside now!”

  The children aboard screamed in fear as they stepped inside, but it reached its peak at Jafar climbing in.

  “Everyone be quiet!” shouted Taylor.

  It did nothing, but he repeated the order and expected it to be followed. Mertens got to her feet and spoke to them, but Taylor didn’t understand a word of it. She finally turned to him.

  “Okay?” he asked her.

  She nodded in response.

  Taylor put his rifle over the driver’s arm. The women looked in an utter panic.

  “Keep moving into the town.”

  “Please, Sir, we don’t want any trouble.”

  Taylor put his hand around her head and turned it, despite her trying to resist.

  “You see who that is? That is your President. We’re trying to save her life. Do you want to help, or do you want to be responsible for her death?”

  The driver was terrified, but her expression turned to confusion on recognising the President.

  “Drive!”

  How did it come to this? Hijacking a school bus and on the run from UEN forces? Has the whole World gone mad?

  “Where are you taking us?” pleaded the woman.

  She was shaking and crying, and that made Taylor feel even crappier than he already did. Mertens stepped up beside her.

  “It’ll be fine, but I need you to do this, okay?”

  It was the first time he had heard her speak to her compatriots in English, and he knew it was as much for his benefit as for theirs. She turned back to him.

  “We can’t keep this up. I will not endanger these children, not for anything.”

  “But you would risk our lives? The lives of US personnel who don’t owe you anything? Who have no reason to be here, besides what they think is the right thing to do. Look at us. We owe you nothing, and we have lost many friends today. That was to protect you.”

  “I am very thankful for your efforts, Colonel, but don’t expect me to believe you did this out of pure selflessness. You chose the wrong side, and you are looking for a way to redeem yourself, so I tick more boxes than simply making you feel good about yourself.”

  Great, another politician with no care in the World for those who serve to protect her!

  He knew he shouldn’t be surprised. Although her argument made some sense, he didn’t like hearing it.

  “You were a hero to this world, Colonel, and rightly so. But in these past years you have been a shadow of your former self. You have let yourself be paraded around for the entertainment of the lowest common filth in society, but you can be the man you used to be. Be the soldier you used to be.”

  “I don’t need any lectures from a politician,” he snapped back, “Where were you when the World needed you?”

  Yet again she made some sense, but he’d never admit it to her.

  “Do the right thing, Colonel. If we don’t protect the next generation, what was it all ever for?”

  “Right, stop the bus!”

  The driver slammed the brakes on and froze where she sat. Taylor knelt in close to talk with her.

  “Get the kids off the bus and take them back to town. Don’t cover for us. Don’t lie to anyone. We don’t need your protection. We just need the vehicle. Got it?”

  She nodded her head in agreement.

  “Do it.”

&nb
sp; She carefully and slowly got to her feet as if she was suspicious he was actually going to let her leave. He hated having made her feel that way, but there was no time to apologise over it.

  “What are you doing?” asked Mertens.

  “Okay, we won’t put these kids in any more danger, but we need this bus.”

  He pulled open the door and let the driver do the rest before turning back to the few companions he had.

  “Hughes, think you can drive this thing?”

  “It looks older than my Pop’s, but yeah.”

  “Get on it and get us moving.”

  He looked around, the sailor was right. It was a rickety old transport that looked as if it had been brought out of military service.

  “Come on, Hughes, minute they realise we have ditched the kids, we are fair game.”

  “Then why did we ditch ‘em?”

  “God knows,” he said, sighing.

  Hughes leapt into the driver’s seat and got them moving quickly.

  “I can drive this, but I got no idea where we’re going.”

  Taylor looked over to the navigation, but like his Mappad, it wasn’t working.

  “Take the road to Gedinne. We can cross the border near there,” Mertens said.

  “You sure about that?”

  “That I know my own country? Yes, I’m sure, Colonel.”

  “Do as the President says.”

  They could see the signs in front of them and did as she said. Taylor took a seat, relieved that they finally seemed to be on the home run. He sat next to the driver and facing backwards to the rest of the seating. Mertens was sitting nearest him and seemed surprisingly calm with all they had been through.

  “What else do you know about all this?” he asked her.

  “I’m afraid to say everything else is public information. The last communication I had with anyone was your President. I pleaded with him for the United States to intervene at the prison camps to aid in a peaceful solution.”

  “And?”

  “And it failed…”

  Taylor looked out of the window for some sight of the craft that had stalked them, but it was gone.

  “Think they’ve had enough?”

  “Not likely, Waters, but we can hope.”

  Twenty minutes later Hughes let out a cry of excitement, and Taylor turned to see it was a sign pointing to the border crossing.