"You really think this can work?" she asked him.
"In all the crazy suicidal plans I have heard and participated in, this has to be the most ridiculous, but we haven't failed or died yet."
"I guess that's hopeless optimism."
"Not hopeless. This has to work, and I'll give it everything to make it happen."
"I wish there was more we could do. It's crazy that with all these ships and all this man power, it's going to come down to what, thirty marines?"
Jones could just hear what she was saying from his position behind Taylor and coughed deliberately at hearing his troops being called marines.
"Captain Jones, isn't it?" she asked.
"Yes, Ma'am."
She looked down at his uniform to see he still wore the Parachute Regiment patches and British Union Flag adorning his sleeves. It was clear the insignia was much older and more fatigued than the rest of his attire, and she could tell it had been carried over to every uniform he had worn since the fighting began."
"No, not marines. Does it matter anymore, Navy, Marines, Army, Paras? We're all in the same shit and fighting the same battle. On behalf of the Navy, I extend my gratitude for the sacrifices that you are about to make. Make it home or not, it will never be forgotten."
"Unless we fail, and there will be no one left to remember it," Jones jested.
Bailey could not refrain from smiling. It pleased her to see their spirits were high. Taylor looked around to see Rains and Perez were kitted up and ready to move. They were waiting at the door to their Stallion and overseeing the loading of the nukes.
"Ma'am, we have precious little time."
"Good luck," she said, as she reached out to shake Taylor's hand.
He looked around to the crew who were with her and mechanics to their sides. A sombre tone filled the room. Gone was the eager enthusiasm and momentum to fix the Stallion. The celebrations had already died down as they realised the real trial was about to begin.
"We're doing everything we can do get operational again. If we can assist before this is over, we will," Bailey added.
"Load up! Let's move!"
The platoon rushed to the door, but Taylor stopped as he heard his name screamed from down the corridor Bailey had so recently travelled. Personnel scattered as someone pushed their way through to reach him. His name was screamed once again, and he recognised it instantly. It was Parker. Before she was visible, he turned to Silva with a scornful look.
"I told you to make sure she didn't find out."
"And I did, but you know what she's like."
He shook his head, but he knew the Sergeant Major was right.
Eli broke through the ground and leapt onto him in front of the Admiral without a care for her presence. First she hugged him and then recoiled to confront him.
"What the hell are you doing?" she asked.
"Our jobs, and don't go thinking you're going to join us."
"It's suicide, Mitch!"
"Colonel!" Eddie called.
He turned around to see the last of the platoon were getting through the door, and they were ready to go. He looked back to Eli whose eyes could not hide how distraught she felt.
"No, suicide is doing nothing. We have to act and do it now. I'm sorry, but I can't waste another moment."
"No! Mitch!"
He turned and left. She tried to follow, but the Admiral's guards grabbed hold of her and held her back. She began to weep, but she quickly wiped the tears from her face and shrugged off the guards. She turned to make one last appeal to the Admiral.
"Why him? Haven't we given enough? Haven't we sacrificed enough?"
"Taylor is Earth's best hope. Would you rather leave it to a lesser officer?"
She shook her head and knew it was the right, or at least the best course of action, but it didn't make it any easier to accept. The Admiral continued.
"The best thing we can do for him is get this ship operational and stay safe. We still don't know what's out there, and without our comms, we are in serious danger if we are breached. You have a position to guard. I suggest you get back to it, and make sure Taylor has something to come home to."
Her shoulders relaxed as she accepted the situation and stood calmly to watch them leave.
"What chance do you think he has?" she asked Bailey.
The Admiral was accepting the Sergeant's over familiarity, as she knew it was a tough situation to digest.
"Of destroying the K'til or getting back alive?" she replied.
"I do not doubt he will succeed. Taylor is not one to fail. He wasn't born with the ability to fail. The only question is what is the cost of success?"
Bailey had no answer. She knew just as Parker did that Taylor would not hesitate to give up everything to get the job done.
"If anyone can make it back, Mitch can."
Taylor stepped aboard the Stallion and stopped in the doorway to look at her one last time. He then turned to step inside but stopped as he noticed a hastily applied lettering sprayed across the fuselage. It read 'Welcome to Earth you bastards'. It brought a smile to his face, and he knew that only Eddie could have done it. Mitch hit the door close switch and it did nothing. He smiled before cursing.
"Fuck this is gonna be a real barrel of laughs."
He turned around and grabbed the door of the ramp, hauling it shut by hand before clamping the mechanism shut.
"Back to basics, ey Colonel?" asked Blinker.
"Be thankful we have our personal gear. Think back to before the days of Reitech, and you'll appreciate what we do have."
"Yeah, I will when we're blasting back off that big mother fucking ship," he replied with a smirk.
Taylor couldn't doubt he felt any different. He knew the mission had to be done, and he knew he needed to be the one to do it, but now it was finally going ahead he could feel the sickness in his stomach return. The sickness that always came before such a vital mission. The engines roared, and they lifted off from the deck, soaring out towards the exit.
"This isn't the first time Earth has faced an apocalyptic weapon, or the first time I have led the operation to destroy it. We've done it before, and we'll do it again. Let's remind these bastards what happens when you mess with our planet!"
Cheers rang out. It was the first time he had gone into an operation with an almost entirely British force, but there seemed little difference between any of the personnel of Inter-Allied any longer. Silva had a broad grin on his face, the only one of them who did.
"What are you so pleased about?" asked Taylor.
"Honestly, it's hard to say. We're going all in here, no time to regret it any longer."
Taylor still didn't get it, but it was better than the sombre tone that they had left at the dock.
Chapter 5
Rains’ Stallion soared out of the Neptune's docking doors just a few metres from the crew who had to open the doors manually. The whole operation felt like a hash job, but it was the best they could muster. Taylor made his way to the cockpit through the cramped cabin. He wished he could have taken the whole Battalion, but with the nukes loaded as well, there was no space left.
"Look at it," said Eddie. "They may have launched that EMP in desperation, but we weren't doing a whole lot better."
Mitch reached the pilot and could now see what he meant. The wreckage of many ships from both sides floated through space, and Eddie had to navigate his way carefully through the debris. Fortunately, it covered their approach to the K'til. It was hard to tell if some ships were still crewed by survivors or not, as both fleets were without power.
"You better hope they still have no power, or this is gonna be one short mission."
"If they knew we were coming, you'd not even have got those words off, Eddie."
"Hope so."
It took just a few minutes for them to reach the Gezgen K'til. Rains cut the engines a long way out, letting them drift and appear as incapacitated as the rest. In the distance, a few ships and fighters still slugged it out
on the very edge of the battle beyond the range of the EMP. The K'til was badly damaged from the impact and looked almost as if a huge bite had been taken from it, but one that didn't penetrate more than ten percent into the diameter of the hulking beast.
"I thought sure we'd have done more damage than that, hoped at least," said Taylor.
Nobody responded, so he continued.
"If the Purge ships and their nukes couldn't finish this thing, how'd you know these three nukes will do it?"
"I don't," replied Jafar.
"Well that's bloody great," Jones said, smiling.
Taylor was starting to understand why Silva had been so jovial as they set off. Like Jones, he had reverted to light heartedness in order to save himself fromthe soul destroying fear any sane person would feel if confronted with their mission. Yet he was the only one who volunteered to go, and that pleased Taylor greatly. Several of them were looking to Jafar after his rather ambiguous and vague answer to the most important question of their lives. He could see they were awaiting an answer.
"Do you think I have ever destroyed something like the K'til before? Just because I have stepped foot aboard it, does not mean I can guarantee a way to destroy it."
"He's right," insisted Taylor. "This isn't just our best chance. It's our only chance."
"Pretty close now. I'm gonna have to use some power to slow us down, or we'll wipe out," said Eddie.
"Then we have to assume any enemy with visual contact will know immediately that something is going on," replied Taylor.
"I'll do my best, but someone's gonna see it."
They continued to drift into the hole that had been blasted in the great enemy ship. It was like travelling along a vast canyon but with twisted and wrecked metalwork all around. They were closing quickly now on the furthest point to where the damage penetrated into the K'til.
"What's that there?" Taylor asked Eddie.
There was a glimmer of movement up ahead and sparks of light on a large exposed room where one wall and the roof had been blasted away. The floors above and below were also exposed as if looking in at a cutaway diagram of the vessel.
"If I had to guess, I'd say a repair crew."
"All right, head right for 'em. Use as little power as you can."
"What have you got in mind?"
"If we put down anywhere round here, there's a good chance they'll see us anyway. I want to hit them first, and try and minimise any chance of them passing on our arrival."
"Okay, so how'd you want to play this?"
Put down just enough power to save any damage, and let us drift into the floor above them. Make it look like this is another wreck of space debris."
"Hell there's enough of it around. This might just work."
"When we hit the deck, you must both stick with us. Leave the doors to the Stallion open, and make it look like it really is an empty wreck. I don't want any Mechs stumbling upon two pilots waiting with the engines running."
"You really think we're gonna make it back off this thing?"
"Hell, yeah, I'm too young to die," Taylor replied lightly.
Rains could not help but laugh.
"Well, all right. I can bring our speed down with bow thrusters alone. That shouldn't draw any more attention than us barrelling in like a piece of junk."
Eddie turned off the last console lights. They were in complete blackout now as they floated into the mouth of the enemy vessel.
"You know if this thing hadn't come to destroy our planet, I might actually be genuinely impressed," whispered Eddie.
"Yeah, well save your genuinely impressed expression for when we blow it sky high," replied Taylor.
"So you expecting us to fight too?" asked Perez.
"If you have to, yes. Rains here proved himself more than capable last time the shit hit the fan and he was left with a gun in his hands. We're few, and they are many, so I need every fighter I can get."
"Been a long time since I had to shoot anything."
"Not for long it won't be, Eddie."
"This is it, no turning back now."
Taylor turned back to Jones' and his platoon and whispered.
"We're faking a crash landing and coming down right over what looks like a repair crew. I want us out the door and taking them down immediately."
He turned back just in time to see them pass over the enemy position and smash down onto the floor of the next level. They slid along the metal floor, causing sparks to spray up either side of them before grinding to a halt. It was just enough to make it look like their craft was a wreck, but controlled enough to cause no more than superficial damage.
"Let's go," whispered Taylor.
Jones was first to the door and heaved the large slider aside but forgot the lack of power. The ramp dropped like a brick and smashed down onto the floor. He cringed but relaxed as he realised it was probably no louder than the bull in a china shop landing that Eddie had just strived for. The platoon was frozen and waiting for a response to the noise, but it did not come. Jones turned, pointing for them to move. He was the first one down the ramp and rushed to the ragged edge of the floor that was exposed to space itself.
As they reached the edge, they ground to a halt and looked down realising the drop onto the other decks and space itself. The low gravity of the space before them would present no danger should they fall, but it did not stop Jones' from feeling unsettled. It was like looking over the edge of a skyscraper. Despite being a Parachute regiment officer, he had still never fully gotten over his discomfort with heights.
Taylor reached the edge beside him and looked down to see one of the Mech workers lifting a weapon to the slightly mesmerised Captain. Taylor quickly fired two carefully aimed shots, hitting the creature square in the chest. It wore an armoured suit that the Reitech rounds punctured through and exited out the other side of the alien's body. The creature fell back and floated off the ship into space. Any other time, Taylor would fear the body being discovered, but this day it would be just another corpse among the thousands of others in space.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something move, but before he could respond, Jones' weapon fired, and two others joined him. Two more of the creatures were instantly killed without getting a shot off. Jafar reached them and looked at the repair work being undertaken.
"Those crews work in threes, so there should be no others in sight."
"Good, then let's move. You lead the way."
He turned to see the three nukes were already in tow. With the low gravity and power of the Reitech suitsjust two men could carry each. Jafar led the way forward, but Taylor turned back to Jones and could see he was every bit as concerned for the operation as he was.
"Only way is forward, old chap."
"Yeah, Jones, that's what I'm afraid of. Come on, let's see this through."
The two of them led the platoon on with Jafar on point. He led them back past Rains’ Stallion and through the blast damaged room until they were into the core of the ship. On their route, they past several dead aliens, but there was little sign of any other movement.
"Where is everyone, Jafar?" whispered Taylor.
"There will be roving patrols, but the impact must have killed many. Most of those aboard will be busy fixing the breaches.”
"So they're forming a perimeter all around this blast site. How are we supposed to get in?" asked Jones.
"Through one of Demiran's many access tunnels. There are secret passageways throughout all of his personal ships that only he and his personal guard know how to recognise."
"Sounds like he doesn't have a whole lot of trust for his own people?" replied Jones.
"No, there are many who would not hesitate to kill the Lord if they were ever given the opportunity. Surely this is not an unfamiliar concept to humans?"
Taylor could not help but smile.
"It isn't those under my command I fear. It's those above it."
"Lions led by sheep," Jones added.
Jafar seemed co
nfused by the expression, and it was clear he wasn't sure what either of the animals was.
"You can speak our language, but you don't know what a lion is?"
"Our translation chips allow us to converse, but for some things there are no translations. There are creatures on my homeworld which I could not begin to explain to you in any language you would understand."
"Fair enough," replied Jones.
"Come on, let's focus on the task at hand," said Taylor. How confident are you that our presence has gone unnoticed?"
"Absolute. They would be hunting us right now if they knew we were aboard. The last thing Demiran would ever expect is for the humans to try and board the Gezgen K'til."
"Why?"
"Just look at it, Captain," replied Taylor.
"Yes, it has become the thing of nightmares. To go near it would be to invite death to all around you."
"Good to know, Jafar," said Jones.
Up ahead they could see an open doorway.
"Come."
They paced quickly but cautiously down the corridor to the broad doorway which was three metres wide by two high. One of the two doors look at if it had tried to shut but was jammed against the floor which had buckled up and blocked its path.
"They'll be along to fix this before long."
As soon as they had all got through, Jafar heard movement and signalled for them to shift over into the side of the corridor. Taylor ducked down into the alcove, realising how vulnerable he felt not having his shield. They had rushed so quickly into the mission, and they had to be as light and subtle as possible, that it would not have been practical to take them. But he sure wished for it now. Jafar leaned in close.
“Two sentries.”
Taylor lifted his hand and signalled the news to the others as he drew his Assegai, lifting it for all to see. It was all the message they needed.
"Let's do this quietly."
Jafar's rifle was already slung down. He had known it was the way to do it.
I wonder if my alien friend has always been so adept at fighting in a dirty and clandestine way rather than the stand up fight the Mechs seem to use. He’s so different from the regular alien soldiers that I have to assume he’s been something special from the beginning.
Battle Earth VI (Book 6) Page 8
