Battle Earth X (9 page)

Taylor had no idea how to respond to that.

"I didn't say I had all the answers, but this isn't what we need right now."

"It wasn't of my choosing. If Huang wants to pick a fight, then that's his choice, but we'll be the ones to end it. Order all civilian craft to fall back twenty klicks to this point," said Huber as he pointed to the map.

"Anyone here know Huang? Anyone know what sort of man he is?"

"I do."

They looked around to see it was Cordero who had spoken.

"Will he fire on us? Is he that crazy?"

"He will do whatever is necessary to ensure the best course of action for this fleet."

"If he's as power hungry as he sounds, I have no doubt he will fire," Taylor added.

"Power hungry? That is rather rich coming from you all. You have seized power and have the audacity to call those who question it troublemakers. And you, Taylor, your loyalties turn like the wind. You are not a man to be trusted."

"Sir, I have Admiral Huang for you," said Capwell.

"Put him through!" Huber bawled.

"Admiral, stand down!" Huber pleaded with him.

"I am sorry but I cannot. If I allow you to continue on this path, it sets a dangerous precedent. If the fleet and her leaders agree to accept you as their leader, then I will stand by it, but they have not. You must stand down and bow to the will of your peers."

"I bow to nobody's will."

"Sir, Lo Yang fighters are in range of ours," Capwell interrupted.

"Don't be a fool, Huang. We cannot afford to lose lives over a petty dispute."

"There is nothing petty about this. We are fighting for the good of us all."

As he finished, Cordero quickly drew his sidearm and rushed towards Huber.

"Admiral Huber, I am placing you under arrest!"

Taylor had seen it happen out of the corner of his eye, and as the Spaniard approached the Admiral, he launched forward. With one hand he took hold of Cordero's pistol, and the other struck him full force with a straight punch to the head. Taylor forgot his strength afforded by the Reitech suit, and the impact snapped Cordero's neck. He became limp and collapsed onto the deck of the bridge. Taylor was appalled his own savagery and was speechless. He looked around to see that nobody made a single move, but Huang had seen it all on the video feed.

"Admiral Huber. Can you not see your failings? If this is how you run your ship, what hope is there for the fleet? I must insist you arrest Colonel Taylor immediately and stand down from your command."

Huber looked to Taylor and could see the sadness in his eyes, but he was appreciative, knowing what the Colonel had done for him. He looked back to Huang with disgust.

"You did this. You caused this young man, this young officer to die. His death is on your hands, as will many others today. I have never done anything to endanger the people under my command unnecessarily. I will not fire first, but know that if you do, you will be finished. I will ensure your death or imprisonment. This fleet will go on, and it will survive, but not while people like you meddle with power."

"Sir, I have B squadron commander asking for orders. They are closing fast with Lo Yang fighters," said Vega.

Huber looked back to Huang for an answer, but he said nothing.

"Order the Commander to not fire unless fired upon."

He had not taken his eyes off of Huang.

"I am sorry we could not resolve this peacefully, Admiral."

"Sir, I'm getting a massive energy signature five klicks off the port side," said Capwell.

"What the hell is it?" Huber asked.

He looked back to Huang.

"What have you done?"

Huang looked confused. "We are reading the same signature, but it is not of our doing."

"What the hell is going on?" Huber shouted.

He rushed over Capwell's console. The man seemed fixated on it. Taylor snapped out of his daze and raced to the Admiral's side.

"What is that?" the Admiral asked.

They were looking at what appeared to be some form of ship. It had a sleek slim profile and engines self-contained within the structure. The skin of the vessel partly mimicked the space around it and blended in well enough they had to look hard to identify it as a ship at all. It reminded Taylor of some of the stealth technology used by Karadag's forces in the first war.

"Huang, are you seeing this?" Huber shouted.

"Yes, whatever it is."

"Alert all fighters, redeploy to form a wall between us and this vessel, but do not approach behind two klicks of it."

He heard Huang issue similar orders.

"Jafar, get your ass over here!" Taylor called out.

The alien quickly came to their side and looked at the screen with the same puzzling expression as they had.

"What is it? Where did it come from?"

"Admiral, I have no idea," replied Capwell.

"Sir," added Vega, "unknown vessel is powering up."

"Weapons?"

"No idea."

"Get a firing solution on whatever it is and await my orders. And get that thing displayed on the ops table so we can get a better look!"

As the screen projected before them, lights began to glow on the craft and encased it in two bands of blue light.

"I don't like this," Taylor said.

"Prepare to fire," Huber ordered.

A dazzling flashed erupted around the unknown ship, forcing them all to look away for a second, and then look back to see it was gone.

"Where the hell is it?"

"Sir, it looks like it created its own space gateway and jumped out."

Taylor shook his head. "We are not alone. This will not end well."

"I want to know what that ship is, where it came from, and where it's gone!" yelled Huber.

"Sir, Squadron Commander Hunter is requesting orders."

"He turned around to see Huang was still displayed before him and waiting to see his response.

"Admiral, can we at least agree to cease all hostilities while potentially greater threats remain?"

"Agreed, but this is not over."

The transmission cut off.

"Call our fighters back, and get the civilian fleet back here under our protection."

He looked to all the officers and experts around him. Finally, he glared at Jafar.

"It's about time you came clean about all this. What the hell was that ship? Start talking!"

"I have never seen it before," he replied calmly.

"Never seen it before? Christ! You took us to this place, and you had no idea what it was and what was here?"

"It was the only place I knew there would not be a Krys colony or outpost."

"So what the hell was that ship we just saw?"

"Not Krys."

Huber shook his head. He wanted to carry on but knew he wasn't getting anywhere.

"Does anybody have any goddamn answers for me?"

"Sir, I'm getting an emergency distress signal from the Goeben."

"Put it through."

"It's an automated signal, Sir."

"Hail her Captain, and find out what the hell is going on."

"I'm trying, Sir, but they are not responding."

"What is their current location?"

A second later a live map projected onto Huber's operations table. The Goeben was moving at full speed towards the civilian fleet.

"What the hell are they doing?" Huber asked, "Try them again!"

Vega tried to hail them, and this time they could all hear the tension rise as his voice became louder and more concerned.

"Sir, they're not slowing down," said Capwell.

"Launch fighters and bring us within firing range."

Capwell looked surprised. "Sir, she's one of ours?"

"We don't know that for certain."

"Sir, I've got a signal coming through. It's faint and on a personal channel."

"Put it through."

"This is flight ...enant Chapman. We have been overrun by .... Goeben is compromised...peat...Goeben compromised..."

"This is Admiral Huber speaking. Who is in control of the Goeben?"

"The...troops, Mechs...ones...they're everywhere."

"Hold on, Lieutenant. We are coming for you."

"They're...find me...coming."

The bridge was silent as they heard Mech weapons fire, and the Lieutenant screamed in pain before he was finally silenced, and the comms channel ended.

"Lieutenant Chapman, come in? Lieutenant..." Capwell repeated.

"He's gone," said Huber solemnly, "Are we in weapons range yet?"

"No, Sir, at the rate she's moving, we won't catch her before she reaches the fleet."

"How long have we got?"

"She'll be on top of them in less than a minute."

"Give orders to our fighters. Take down the Goeben."

Vega relayed the commands quickly, and they could see on their displays as light flashed in the distance, and the fighters strafed the ship.

"Sir, Goeben weapon systems are going live," said Vega.

"Tell Hunter to do whatever he has to do destroy that ship!"

"They can barely scratch it," Taylor muttered.

The weapon batteries on the Goeben opened fire, and two of their fighters were blown apart in the opening salvo as the others banked hard to avoid the incoming fire.

"Washington, we cannot penetrate the armour. We haven't got anything that'll even scratch the surface."

"Take out her engines, anything you can do!" Vega replied.

Huber turned to Capwell.

"Order the civilian fleet to scatter. I want at least two klicks between every vessel!"

They knew it was all too late, but they had to try. Gunfire struck across the engines but seemed to do little. A moment later one of the fighters put soared towards one of the engines in a suicidal attempt to ram them. The ship ignited on impact and seemingly caused one of the engines to falter for just a moment, but it was soon firing bright once more.

A moment later their weapon systems turned on the fleet, and the crew of the Washington watched helplessly as one of the barges was bombarded with shot after shot.

"How long until we have a firing solution?" Huber asked.

"Two minutes, Sir."

"Is there no one closer?"

"Sir, the Lo Yang is closing on the Goeben and going weapons hot."

"Huang, you son of a bitch, you got there," said Huber.

The Chinese warship’s bombardment was fierce, and they watched as the hull of the Goeben was smashed with everything they had.

"They're not responding to the fire. They just keep hitting the barge," Capwell said in disbelief.

"They're hitting where they know they can do the most damage," said Taylor.

Huber nodded in agreement.

Thirty seconds of continuous barrage finally brought an end to the Goeben's weapon systems, but the Lo Yang didn't let up.

Huber took a deep breath and sighed in relief as he thought they were over the worst of it. He looked to the barge and could see holes over several levels of the hull and debris where people and equipment had been sucked out.

"They're still heading for the barge, Sir."

Huber looked back to his operations table and could see the Goeben approaching the barge at great speed. The Lo Yang's weapons continued to pour fire into the vessel, but its thick hull seemed to hold, despite chunks of metal being ripped off and leaving a trail of debris.

"It's too late," said Jafar.

Huber turned around, surprised that the alien had finally offered some information without prompting.

"What do you mean?"

"They are doing the only thing they can do. They will destroy the barge and all inside in any way they can."

"They're going to ram the barge," Taylor added.

Huber snapped back around.

"Tell them to put all power to engines, and get the hell out of there now!"

"They're already at full power, Sir."

"Shit, get me Admiral Huang, now!"

"He was projected before them within seconds.

"Admiral, the Goeben intends to ram the barge."

"The Goeben has now passed beyond the safe distance we can fire at, but I am already deploying marine forces to board the vessel and protect the civilians."

"But, Admiral..."

"Huang out," he cut in.

They all watched in horror as the Goeben crashed into the hull of the barge, but to their amazement it did not penetrate fully. A hole was torn several metres wide before the nose of the Goeben began to slide down the length of the massive vessel and crash in beside it, so that the two vessels now lay in parallel and were wedged together.

The Goeben was a quarter the size of the barge, but they all knew too well that only civilian authorities and police protected the space within the barges.

"Get me the Captain of that vessel!"

"Captain Dokgo, most of the people aboard are Korean," said Vega.

A moment later a frantic Korean man, who appeared to be in his fifties, appeared before him.

“Admiral, I have reports that alien robots have boarded this ship. What is going on?”

“Captain, you are under attack by hidden enemy elements within this fleet that have captured one of our vessels and boarded yours. We are doing everything in our power to protect you.”

Screams could be heard over the comms channel.

“They’re here. They’re killing everyone. There are dozens of them, maybe hundreds… Admiral, please don’t leave us!”

“I won’t leave you, Captain. We already have marines en route to help. Are you in a safe area?”

“The bridge is safe, yes.”

“If you have blast doors, seal them.”

“But all those people?”

“Captain, just listen to me. Close your blast doors. Lock down the bridge.”

“Yes, yes, okay.”

Now, do you still have power to your engines?”

“Yes…yes we do.”

“We are sending you coordinates now, reposition and await assistance.”

“But, Admiral, I am watching people die now. They’re being slaughtered. How…”

“Captain Dokgo, listen to me. Redirect the coordinates we are sending you. We are doing everything we can to help you. Now I have to get to work. Stay on this line. I am passing you onto my number two…”

Vega took over the conversation on his own handset.

“Huang’s marines, what chance do they have?”

“We have no idea of the enemy strength or firepower.”

“What are their chances?”

“It’s a big ship and a lot of civilians to get in the way.”

“What are their chances?” Huber yelled.

Taylor shook his head. “If his marines are equipped and experienced anything like the marines you had aboard the Washington when I got here, not great.”

Huber shook his head and began to pace up and down the ship.

“We’ve got twenty thousand people on that ship. God knows how many are already dead. And now you’re telling me the rescue operation is destined to fail? I will not lose those people. We can’t afford such losses! Taylor, how quickly can you get your people together for a full breach of the barge?”

“Admiral. Our Mastiffs are beaten to hell. We have one fully operational at best. You haven’t got enough transports to get us over there in any great number, and we haven’t got enough in my unit alone to get this done right.”

“You? You of all people can’t get this done?”

“Right now it’s about saving as many lives as possible. I can go in there, and sure we’ll kill every last one of those bastards in time, but not quick enough. We need a rapid response, and we need it now. We need the weight of numbers now. In short, we gotta get there firstest with the mostest, and we’re already failing on one of those things.”

‘Time is short Taylor. Tell me what you need, and I’ll do it.”

“Crank this boat up, get us over there, and dock with that barge. Arm everyone you can with a weapon and send us aboard en masse.”

Huber was shocked.

“Dock? When Mechs run amok?”

“It’s all or nothing, Admiral. We can go in with maybe sixty marines now, and everyone aboard that ship could be dead before we have the job done, or we can go in en mass. I have close to three hundred marines at my disposal, and you yourself can spare a couple of hundred. Find Major Moye and have him deploy anything he can at the same time. Admiral, we can be hitting back within ten minutes, or we can piss about and lose a shitload of lives.”

Huber did not reply. He was stunned by the situation.

“Don’t risk it, Sir!” Vega pleaded, “We cannot risk the ship for the lives of a few civilians!”

“A few civilians!” Huber repeated in desperation.

He turned back to Taylor.

“Get your people ready and make sure this works,” He looked back to Vega, “Do it.”

Vega shook his head at the order, but he did not dare defy it. Taylor raised his arm and opened a channel on his comms unit.