Battle Earth X (4 page)

“So what, you want command?” Vega sneered.

Taylor sighed and yet was as calm as he could be, as all around him were on edge and with fingers on the triggers. He simply shook his head.

“Is this how it will all end? Will humanity not be taken out by an apocalypse or invasion by an alien race? Will we destroy ourselves? Have you not listened to a single word I have said, Captain?”

Vega looked confused and bent down to help the Admiral up when he realised Taylor meant him no harm, or at least appeared to.

“Time to man up, Captain, and that goes for you, too, Sir.”

The Admiral looked up at him and into his eyes. Huber’s face had no anger in it, only shame. He had already made some bad calls and appeared weak before the crew. Now he had done it all over again.

“I’m sorry.”

Taylor looked surprised. He got up and stepped a little closer to the Admiral, and that made Vega nervous.

“I don’t want an apology. I don’t want you to say sorry. I don’t want you to accept my insubordination. We need you to be the kind of man who doesn’t accept weakness, doesn’t accept defeat. The kind of Admiral that would be so single minded and focussed that I would be in the brig by now for everything I have just done. It isn’t a problem I struck you, Sir, only that you accepted it and have not acted. Get up, and be the man you were always meant to be. Be the Admiral of the fleet.”

Huber straightened his uniform and stood up a bit straighter. He began to open his mouth to apologise once again but stopped himself. He smiled and then began to laugh. It broke the ice, and Taylor started laughing with him; many of the troops began to lower their weapons. Finally, Huber raised his right hand to bring silence, and he got it.

“Taylor, you are a son of a bitch, but you are my son of a bitch. You strike me again, and next time you’ll not walk.”

Taylor grinned at his response, nodding in appreciation as he watched Huber pace confidently across the bridge. He finally stopped and looked back to Vega.

“Put you weapon down, Captain.”

“But, Sir…” he protested.

“Put it down,” the Admiral said in a sterner tone but without shouting, “and that goes for the rest of you,” he added.

Everyone complied with some relief.

“Let’s focus on the task at hand, and that will be our job for every moment of every day we are awake. There is a lot to be done, so let’s do it. The space gateway, I want info, now!”

Nobody moved. The Admiral looked around and finally added, “Get to work.”

He sounded confident and that confidence projected throughout all of them. Huber and Taylor stared at a projection of the suspected space gateway on the table before them, but it wasn't long before they felt Jafar's presence looming over them. Taylor looked back and could see the same puzzling expression on his friend’s face.

"What is it?"

Jafar shook his head.

"This looks somewhat like a jump gate, but not like any I have ever seen."

"Maybe an older pattern?" Taylor asked.

Jafar shook his head. "I do not know."

Well that's fucking great,
Taylor thought.

"First thing we need to know is where are we and what are we dealing with? What planets, moons, and threats do we face? These are the questions we need answers to," added Huber. "Taylor, I'll find bunks for you and your people aboard this ship. It won't be pretty, but this is where you need to be right now."

Taylor nodded in agreement. It hadn't even occurred to him that they had no space of their own at all. All they had was what they were wearing. It was a gruelling thought to realise they had quite literally left everything behind.

"I want you to assemble a team to investigate that gateway or whatever the hell it is."

"I'll take two platoons, and I’ll need two ships. The Mastiffs we came in on have taken a beating and aren't exactly too flexible."

"You got it, you will be escorted by the Frigate Warrior. She'll keep you safe."

"Thank you, Sir."

"And Taylor," whispered Huber.

"If that gateway shows any sign of opening. Any enemy presence at all, or anything you don't like the look of, you blow it to high hell, you hear?"

"Bet your ass, Sir."

"Take Jafar with you. He's clearly got a better eye than we have for this."

"Aye, aye, Sir."

Taylor could feel exhaustion kicking in, but he knew it was no time to slacken off.

"Lieutenant Anders, Captain Morris. Gather your platoons and come with me. Where the hell is King?"

"He's en route, Sir," replied Parker.

"Tell him to get half our people into bunks and to get their heads down and rest up. I want the rest cycled through protection details and regular sweeps of the ship."

Parker looked at him in surprise as if to ask why she was being asked to relay a message when their comms were back online.

"Just do it," he repeated.

He carried on past her with Jafar beside him. He realised he was already expecting Morris to fall into line as his right hand man. The Captain was a good man and a solid officer, but he was no replacement for Jones. The loss of his best friend had only gone from his mind in the heat of battle, but now the thoughts of loss flooded back into his head.

"Aysen really owed you so much that he would sacrifice himself like that?" he asked Jafar.

"Is it so hard to believe after what Captain Jones did for us?"

Taylor shook his head.

"That is three of you now, three that have opposed your leaders. It gives me hope."

When Jafar did not respond, Taylor looked around and stared at him to prompt an answer, but one did not come.

"Three of you came over to us, why not more?"

"It was exceptional circumstances which drew us together."

"And that cannot happen again?"

Jafar shrugged.

"One day this war will be over. If we lose, we will likely go to extinction. But if Erdogan loses, we would never wish such an end on his people."

"You would leave them alive, and risk it all happening again?"

"I'm a fighter, like you, not an executioner. If we win this, when we win it, we are gonna have to learn to live with one another. I'd hope some more of your race sees that sooner than later. We are gonna need all the help we can get to return from this."

Taylor could see Jafar was not at all convinced, but he wasn't sure if that was in relation to the Krys living alongside them or the chance of victory. He didn't want to ask. They reached the hangar bay and found Lieutenant Eddie Rains awaiting them.

"So here we are, Colonel. On the raggedy edge of, well, God knows where. But all that matters is..." he turned and pointed, "I got myself a new ride, and she's a sweet one. Mercury T151 combat transport, twice the armour of a copter, pilot controlled weapon systems, and auto targeting turrets top and bottom. She ain't the fastest or the smoothest looking bird out there, but she sure is a bruiser."

Taylor could not help but smile.

"The World may have come to an end, and this is all it takes to perk you up?" he asked Rains.

"Well, hell yeah. I'll take what I can get."

The pilot seemed to genuinely believe his words. Taylor wondered how much of it was a coping mechanism for dealing with all they had endured, and yet, it was working, so he could not criticise it.

"You know our mission?"

"Investigate that gateway, got it."

"We have no idea if that thing is operational or not, or even who it was built by or when, so keep your wits about you. This could be a fact-finding mission, or it could be a trap. Who knows? So you keep alert at all times."

"I always see you home safe, don't I, Colonel?" Rains grinned.

Taylor grimaced. He could think of too many times they had taken a beating and forced to bail or make crash landings.

"All I can say, Lieutenant, is that flying with you if never boring."

Rains laughed.

"Well, I wouldn't want to bore you," he replied, stretching out his hands to invite them aboard, "Step aboard, Gentlemen."

As Taylor paced up the ramp, he saw Rains had painted the name Gerty beside the cockpit. It was hand-painted and still shining a little as it hadn't fully dried. It brought a smile to his face once again.

The interior was cramped, due to the thickness of the bulkheads and support beams inside, which meant they had to duck under as they got to their seats.

"Not exactly travelling in style, are we?" Taylor asked. Rains was squeezing past them to reach the cockpit.

"Hey, you've got air and a place to park your ass, what more can you ask for?"

"Quite a bit," he replied sarcastically.

A few minutes later they were lifting off from the Washington, and Taylor could just about see out through one of the cockpit windows to the vast fleet before them.

"A lot made it," Rains said.

"A lot didn't."

It was hard to disagree.

"There she is. The Warrior, and what a fine ship she is. Ever thought you'd have a frigate flying in support?"

"No, but then I'd rather like to think we didn't need it."

He turned to Jafar, hoping the alien would share some further knowledge with him.

"So what else do you know about this thing?"

"Nothing," he promptly replied.

"Nothing? I find that hard to believe."

"As I have told you. All I know is what I have experienced and been told by my own people. This I have never seen."

"All right, so these space gateways. Did your people invent the technology?"

He shook his head. "I do not know."

"Well, are there any other races out there you know of who use them?"

"I have heard of such in our history, but they are long forgotten. Defeated by the Krys."

"Defeated? You mean they were made extinct?"

He nodded.

"I just don't get it. Why hunt down a species or people to their very extinction? Why not assimilate them, even use them in some secondary roles, and put them to work or something?"

Jafar shrugged. "I cannot explain it."

"Well, that's a conversation killer," muttered Taylor.

They waited in silence while Rains flew them to the gateway. After an hour, Taylor fell into a daydream, thinking of his time back home between the wars. He remembered the moments he had gotten alone with Eli Parker and then to the seemingly never ending parading around the globe. His staged fights to the cameras didn't seem so bad anymore.

What I'd give to have it all back
.

He looked around at the faces of those around them. He didn't have to say a word. Their expressions said all he needed to know. It was the same despair and depression he felt inside. He tried his best to hide it, but it was hard to be convincing.

"How much longer, Eddie?"

"Oh, about two hours."

"Fuck me," he whispered to himself.

Several overheard and nodded in agreement.

Taylor once again fell into a dream, and the time passed quickly now as he visualised Parker’s face. Before he knew it, he was being ripped from his pleasant abyss by Rains’ voice.

“There she is!”

Taylor looked around in surprise, wondering if those were the first words spoken in the last couple of hours that had gone by, or if he had just tuned everything else out. He stretched to the edge of the small seat and strained his neck to get a better view past the pilot.

“Sure is a big mother,” he added.

“What do you make of this?” Taylor asked Jafar, leaning back to let him see.

He took a quick look and then responded, “Nothing more than last time you asked.”