Battle Beyond Earth: Resurrection (19 page)

To his amazement it didn't smell half as disgusting as he was expecting. It was like a light scent of sulphur and salt combined.

"Lead the way," Taylor said to Jones who was carefully studying the map given to them by Irala.

"If his people haven't encountered the Morohta in however many thousands of years, why do we presume the ship will be unchanged? You know how much Human life and design has changed in a thousand years."

Taylor nodded. "All too much," he replied.

"When you reach an evolutionary peak, there is no need to change. Irala said the Morohta were undefeatable. They stopped waging war because they wanted to."

"Wanted to? I doubt that."

"Agreed, but until we have an answer on that, we're just gonna have to make some assumptions."

"Assumptions are a cluster fuck. Stick to facts," replied Taylor.

"Yeah? Would if we had any. Why would an enemy that enjoys genocide so much just stop?"

Taylor shook his head. "I don't know, but I'd sure like to find out."

He looked down at his watch. They were down to ten minutes on the estimate of how long before the Morohta vessel regained power. The room they were in had pods on all sides. They seemed to be the equivalent of bunks, but they could not tell for what, and there was no sign of life.

"Come on, let's get this done," said Taylor.

Then when they thought they were all alone, a light flashed in the distance, and a pulse of energy soared towards them.

"Incoming!" Taylor hollered.

"They leapt for cover as they activated their shields. The impact landed just a metre from Taylor and launched him a little further than he had intended to leap. He landed hard and looked back to see the lifeless body of one of theirs. Their armour was smouldering from the heat of the impact, and Taylor could already tell they were dead.

Many were returning fire now and could see what was coming at them. It looked much like a Stalker, but with a large cannon-like weapon fitted on the top of its body. Taylor got to one knee and took aim, but he heard Jones' voice shouting behind him.

"Get down!"

He immediately dropped down flat towards Jones and looked back to see the AT gun barrel mounted on the Lieutenant’s shoulder with the gunner standing behind him. They fired a single shot that rushed over Taylor's head and smashed into the creature. It hit at the torso near the base of its weapon, going a little higher than expected. The weapon system was blown off its back. Taylor jumped to his feet and let out a battle cry as he drew his Assegai and stormed towards the creature, which likewise did the same. As he closed the distance, one of the pincers thrust towards his face. He slid the shield under it, and that allowed him to smashed right into its body and drive the Assegai up to the hilt.

He drew the blade out and tried to stab again, but one of the other legs came for him. He cut at it with the Assegai, and the blade flashed with light as it shocked the leg and caused it to drop momentarily. He used the opportunity to drive the Assegai home once again, and finally the monster went limp and dropped before him.

He looked back to his team. Jones was sitting over the body of the one they had lost, and the others looked on with horror.

"Come on, let's move!" he called to them.

He didn't like it any more than the rest of them, but they had a job to do. He reached the end of the room and found a corridor that either carried around the perimeter of the vessel, or another that went deep into the belly of the structure. He quickly headed inside. Jones was close behind him.

"Think they know we're here yet?"

"Doubt it, or we'd have been hit by a lot more," replied Taylor.

"It's so empty, why?"

"Looks to me like this ship is the size it is purely to power the ridiculous weaponry it carries. I doubt it needs an awful lot to crew it. Particularly if much of it is living material."

"Or it's a transport craft for armies we just haven't seen yet."

Taylor nodded in agreement and upped his pace. He knew they needed to progress slow and steady to be safe, but there was no time. There was a doorway up ahead, and as they reached it, one of the two-legged Mechs stepped inside. It spotted them and instantly raised its guns, but Jones and Taylor had already got off two shots each, and it was smashed back by the impacts. The guns on both of its arms began to fire, but the shots smashed into the floor as it took the beating, until finally it was finished and fell down into the metal floor behind it.

"This way," said Jones.

They weaved from room to room and corridors. They had little understanding of much of what they were looking at, and nobody cared at this stage.

"Do you really believe this tracking thing will work?" Jones asked quietly.

"If Irala says it will, it will," Taylor answered confidently.

"We're almost there now."

The room opened out into a large dome. In the centre was what looked like the trunk of a tree. It was three metres wide and extended all the way to the ceiling, branching out to the corners of the room that was twenty metres wide.

"What on Earth is that?" Antos asked.

"It's what we're looking for." Jones showed a diagram to Taylor.

Taylor was relieved to have found it.

"All right, let's do this and get off this wretched monster."

Jones pulled the device from his back. It was nothing to look at, just a small box with nicely rounded corners. It appeared to be made from stainless steel, and yet was far lighter.

"What now?" Taylor asked.

"Irala said we just place it at the base of this thing."

"Then do it."

They were all sceptical, but Jones placed the box down at the base of the organic tree-like object and stood back up. For a moment nothing happened at all, and Taylor was about to curse his old friend when suddenly the box sprang into life. It seemed to prize apart in many different directions until forming into a corkscrew-like drill. It began to rotate and burrow into the base of the Morohta structure. In just five seconds it had entirely vanished inside, and the hole closed up around it.

"That what it was supposed to do, Jones?"

"That's pretty much what Irala said."

Taylor shrugged. It was bizarre, but he didn't care if it worked.

"Okay, then let's go. Last thing we want to do is give away the fact that we were in here."

Taylor rushed onwards to lead the way.

"That was anti-climactic," said Jones.

They reached the next corridor and stopped dead on finding six Morohta warriors blocking their path.

"You spoke too soon!"

Both sides opened fire simultaneously as they scattered to the walls for cover. The warriors were no match for the Immortals in their new found equipment, but Taylor couldn't help but wish for greater numbers. He leaned out from one of the organic support beams and took careful aim at a warrior. With a single shot, he hit the neck and blew the head off, killing it outright. He ducked back to cover and looked down at his watch.

"Fuck," he said to himself, realising they couldn't afford to get bogged down.

He could see Babacan stuck in cover and unable to get the Hydra to bear. Taylor held out his shield and rushed back to the Krys soldier’s position. He held out his shield to cover Babacan's right flank.

"Antos!"

He yelled and gestured for him to do the same on the other side. The two of them formed up around the alien and stepped out of cover with the huge multi-barrelled cannon between the shields. The second he was free of cover, Babacan pulled the trigger, and the room lit up as if on fire.

"Advance!" Taylor ordered.

They continued forward, giving cover to Babacan as he smashed the Morohta position and forced them down into cover. He killed two with the opening salvo, and Taylor watched as the others advanced now and joined the fight. Finally, the Hydra stopped, and two of the warriors jumped up to engage them but were hit by a volley of fire. Taylor rushed forward and jumped over two of the bodies, firing several shots as he leapt towards the last one and landed on top of it, as he continued to fire.

All went silent when a scream of his name rang out. He immediately recognised it as Rocha. He leapt up and turned just in time to see her fire several times at one of the hammer wielding Mechs that had come from a concealed entrance. Her shots did nothing. Taylor lifted his rifle, but there was no time. He could see almost in slow motion as the hammer swung towards Rocha. It smashed into her head and snapped her neck instantly. Her body was thrown like a ragdoll across the corridor and slumped lifelessly to the floor amongst the enemy dead.

Babacan spun the Hydra around and pulled the trigger. The Mech was hit by hundreds of rounds. They smashed into its torso and cut deep until it was knocked down by the sheer weight of ammunition. Antos rushed to it and placed his barrel against the flowing heart plate and fired three times until it went limp, but Taylor went right for Rocha. He turned her over to see was gone. He put a finger to her pulse, and there was nothing. He wanted to tell himself that she wasn't dead.

Now he felt sick to his stomach.

"Taylor, we have to move!" Jones shouted.

But Taylor didn't even hear him. He put his gloved hand onto her cheek and stroked it.

"Why couldn't I save you?"

Jones reached Taylor and shook him by his shoulder.

"Colonel, we have to go now!"

He slowly shook his head.

"Let the drones take her."

But Taylor ignored him, picked her up, and threw her body over his shoulder. He turned and watched Jones pick up the hammer from the fallen Mech and continue to lead the way.

 
They rushed on room after room until they reached the access point where they had come through. The body of the fallen fighter had already been ferried inside the Sky King. Gunfire rang out at their backs and Jones turned to face it as Taylor carried on with Rocha's body. Babacan stopped at the entrance to the room with Jones and opened fire with the Hydra in one last salvo to buy them some time. The two of them rushed to the door and climbed aboard.

Hariz was looking back to Taylor for an order, but she got nothing and could only just make out the body of Rocha resting in Taylor's arms.

"Go!" Jones screamed.

It was all the prompting she needed. She released the clamps from the enemy ship and put the power down so that they raced off from the surface, banking hard to come around on course to the Guam. Jones looked down at Taylor and came close to tears on seeing the toll it had taken on him. He could now see that the Colonel wasn't the heartless machine he presented himself as. In that one look Jones saw it all. Taylor felt everything, but he bottled it up for the benefit of all those he commanded.

Taylor’s connection to this new world had finally felt real as the same heart wrenching tragedies struck at his core once again. Hariz looked over her shoulder at Taylor once more and felt her heart sink when she saw him holding the dead woman in his arms. She wanted nothing more than to go to him, but she had to return to her controls. Jones instead sat down beside Taylor and rested his hand on his shoulder.

“There was nothing you could have done.”

Taylor shook his head.

“Don’t ever tell me that. Our fate is never sealed. Of course there was something I could have done. All she wanted was to follow me and be one of us. Why did I take her away from all that she had?"

“You know that with this war there will be many more personnel and civilians called up to fight. You’ve seen that before. Rocha would likely have met her end in this war sometime or other.”

Jones was shocked that this seemed to hit him so hard after all the death he had encountered and lived through. They felt the undercarriage hit the landing bad back aboard the Guam, but it was a bittersweet return. Jones hit the door switch, and the ramp lowered. Several corpsmen waiting for them, but it was pointless. Taylor got up with Rocha still held in his arms and stepped out with a war weary pace. His face was like stone, and everybody stayed clear until he reached one of the stretchers waiting on the deck. He gently placed her down.

Taylor looked at the body for just a few moments before turning and heading for the bridge. Jones followed close behind but did not say a word. They got onto the bridge to find the fleet still hammering the battleship they had boarded. Doing enough damage to look like a determined attack, but not enough to stop her from jumping out.