Battle Earth: 12 (2 page)

Every one of them wondered if the craft had still been carrying its quota of marines, but they didn't want to imagine the worst-case scenario.

"Ours?" Morris asked.

Silva shook his head.

"That's one of Moye’s."

"Poor bastards."

Captain King finally came over on the comms.

"This is Taylor, where the hell are you?"

"Our bird took a hit. We made it to the ground, but we landed right in the shit. Looks like some kind of barracks, and we're up to our fucking necks in Mech soldiers."

"And the rest of your Company?"

"Down here with me trying to dig ourselves out of this mess. We ain't gonna be getting to you anytime soon, Colonel. I'm sorry."

Taylor shook his head and turned to see a number of the French copters turning back.

"Guess we're it?" Silva asked, "Some things never change."

Taylor surveyed the scene once again and could now see several other elevated positions beyond the first bunker that were starting to lay down fire. All around he could see his people dug in to any cover they could find. Even the three Guardians could not move for fear of being blasted by heavy pulse fire.

"We gotta take down those AA guns or we ain't getting any more help."

"Easier said than done," added Silva.

With that, Taylor rushed out from cover. He accelerated to a sprinting speed within a few short paces, and then leapt twenty metres into the air using his booster and above the line of fire that landed all around him. The rest of the unit could do nothing but watch in amazement as their commander soared through the air. The few enemy that could, returned fire but could not find their target due to the speed he travelled at. He landed down before the second bunker and hit the ground running.

"What on earth is he doing, Sergeant?" Morris asked.

"Kicking some fucking ass."

Taylor slammed into the side of the bunker and dropped his rifle to let it hang by his side. He drew out two grenades, primed them, and tossed them through the slit, ducking back for cover. A moment later an explosion rang out, and a metre-wide hole blasted out from the front of the bunker. Before the dust had settled, Taylor had put the muzzle of his rifle into the breach and opened up on full auto. He emptied an entire magazine before ducking back and reloading, and beckoning for the others to join him.

Without hesitation, the three platoons arose from cover and rushed out across the open ground. With shields held before them, they took pulse after pulse. The heavier pulse cannons cut two of them down, but the rest covered the ground quickly. Soon Silva and Morris were up against the wall of the bunker next to Taylor, just as they had been before.

"You're crazy, you know that? And we love you for it," Silva said with a smile, but Taylor still looked deadly serious. He looked at his watch and sighed.

"This is taking too long. Another ten minutes and they'll be on top of us, and then we're fucked."

Neither of them could disagree, but neither did it make it any less crazy. They watched the heavy weapons teams bring up the cumbersome machine guns that they’d need before an advance.

“Get those weapons firing!” Taylor ordered.

The crews were taking fire and struggling to get set up, but Taylor yelled at them once again.

“Move it, move it! We’re running out of time!”

He turned back. Silva was looking at him with an appalled expression on his face.

“You got a problem, Sergeant Major?”

“Pushing everyone a little hard, aren’t you, Sir? This lots luck can’t last forever.”

“Luck is for those who don’t have skill or a will to get the job done. I expect more.”

“More than what?”

“More than yesterday, more than they have done before, more…everything.”

Silva didn’t know how to respond, so he didn’t.

“I don’t see why we are still pushing this,” muttered Morris, “We’ve already smashed their air power here. Look at them,” he said, pointing at the craft the Guardians had torn apart and the dozens of bodies they had left in their wake.

“You know there’s plenty more below the surface,” said Silva.

“No, we think there are. We don’t know for sure either way. Has anyone seen them?”

“We’ll know soon enough.”

“Or we’ll die trying to find out.”

“Sir, you are out of line,” said Silva.

Morris was silenced for a moment but finally replied, “How dare you! I am an officer in this Regiment…” he went on, but was soon interrupted by Taylor.

“Shut the fuck up!”

Morris was so shocked and intimidated by Taylor that he did as he was told and waited for the Colonel to continue.

“You all know the deal. Intel says there’s at least double their number beneath our feet. I won’t go until we either destroy what they’ve got or confirm it ain’t there. Got it?”

Morris nodded in agreement. It was plain for all to see that Taylor was a changed man. He was as capable as ever, but so much of his humour and friendship qualities were gone. Silva could see he had turned into an efficient machine, and whilst that got the job done, it was disconcerting from the man he had known as a friend and leader for so many years.

Taylor looked over to the Guardians, and they too were waiting for his orders. He looked back at his watch once more and knew that time was against them.

“If we don’t move in the next thirty seconds, we might as well turn our backs and run. Run and leave a great opportunity. So we’ve taken out a couple of dozen Mech craft? What if we could destroy another hundred? We’re either in this to win or not. Are you with me?”

Silva nodded in agreement without hesitation, and Morris soon followed. Taylor quickly turned and simply yelled one word. “Charge!”

It was all he needed to say, as everybody knew their part. A dozen of the marines managed to get ahead before Taylor could get out from the cover of the rubble of the bunker. He held his shield out before him as pulses crashed over the defence it provided, and he went forward without any fear at all.

Taylor fired as he went, but he couldn’t find a target worth aiming at. He then found a wall for defence and pushed up against it. He was followed by many of his marines who waited for his next move. There was only one entrance leading through the two metre high walls.

“We aren’t going through there,” stated Silva.

Taylor agreed. “Only a fool would. We’ll go over.”

He went a few metres back, and then used the last of the power in his boosters to launch him up and over the wall. As he descended, he found he was coming back down on top of a dozen Mechs. Mitch put his shield under him and felt the impact of several pulses beneath him, finally landing on one of the enemy soldiers and crushing it to the ground.

He rolled off the Mech and raised his shield over him just in time to absorb a pulse that burst across the surface as he held it out. Gunfire rang out seconds later. The descending marines hit the Mechs around him by a hail of gunfire. A Mech standing over him spasmed, hit in the back by several shots from Reitech rifles. Taylor took his opportunity to rise up and draw his Assegai, driving it deep into the creature’s abdomen.

As the creature fell down dead, he could feel his blood lust grow, until Jafar dropped in next to him, and he realised the shots had come from his alien friend. He wanted to say thanks but couldn’t bring himself to do it, and Jafar never required it. Mitch was back on his feet now and rushing towards the next Mech. He shield barged the beast and then thrust his Assegai into its neck as it stumbled backwards.

Taylor pushed ahead even as his comrades were still battling the creatures all around him. He could see the anti-aircraft emplacements now. Each of the four dome shaped towers had six barrels protruding from their thickly armoured roofs. At the base of the first were two guards already fixing their weapons on him, but Taylor fired first and Silva joined him. The two creatures were cut down before getting off a shot, and he could see another inside trying to shut the hinged blast door at the base of the tower. Taylor sped up and stormed towards the door.

Just as the door was about to connect with its frame, the edge of his shield connected with its centre. With his entire body weight behind him, he barrelled in through the entrance and landed on top of another creature. Silva was through the door a second later and fired a burst from his rifle into the one who had been attempting to shut them out. Taylor thrust his Assegai into the head of the one he was sprawled across.

"What now?" Silva asked.

Jafar rushed through the doorway behind them as Taylor got to his feet.

"You think you can control these guns?" Taylor asked him.

Jafar simply nodded and stepped into an open frame elevator as if intimately familiar with the construction. Taylor and Silva stepped in beside him and it was all the space there was. Jafar hit a button, and they rocketed up at a surprising rate until finally slowing. They found they had reached the gunnery deck. Three aliens sat at consoles and simply stared in shock at their presence. Nobody moved for a second. Taylor lifted his rifle and fired three shots into the chest of the middle one.

The other two aliens leapt out of their seats to reach for guns on a rack beside them, but it was too late. Silva and Jafar opened fire on both of them, and blood was splashed across the consoles as they dropped down dead.

"Well?" Taylor asked, "Can you bring these guns to bear on the other towers?"

Jafar pushed one of the bodies aside and took a seat. They watched the huge screen displaying the view from the gun ports. He took aim at the first tower and squeezed the triggers on the joysticks either side of him. Light flashed before their eyes, and the first tower was obliterated in a few short seconds. Jafar immediately brought the guns around to target the next tower and could see them both rotating to engage them.

"Oh, shit," Silva swore under his breadth.

"Get a shift on!" Taylor yelled.

He opened fire and strafed the first from top to bottom until it began to topple, finally collapsing into the last of the towers still opposing them. Silva gave out a sigh of relief as he realised they had been just seconds from certain death.

"Not bad," said Taylor, patting Jafar on the shoulder, "We can't leave this place standing," he added.

He drew out a grenade and set a ninety-second timer and placed it on the console beside Jafar. Silva placed two others, and they made their way quickly to the elevator and headed for the door. As they walked out into the light of day, Captain King and his Rangers met them, approaching from the north. They looked like they'd been through a hard fight, but King had a smile on his face, despite the blood trickling down his face.

"You made it at last, then?"

"Didn't exactly go to plan, Colonel, but we sure got a few bonus kills on the way."

As he finished, the grenades in the tower ignited. One of the gun barrels broke loose from the tower and smashed down to the ground a metre from Taylor's feet. He looked up with disgust to see the thickly armoured structure still stood in defiance.

"It'll have to do. At least we've rendered it useless," he stated to Silva.

He looked around to see that all eyes were on him now.

"Intel told us what's on the surface is just the very tip of the iceberg, so let's find out!"

As he said it, they heard the sound of engines roaring beneath them and looked back. A kilometre away the guns of the Diderot opened fire as two Mech fighters burst out from the mountainside a few hundred metres from her.

"Guess we just found the entrance to their landing strip," said King.

They watched as the Diderot first hammered the two craft with close range weaponry before the big guns finally opened up on the entrance to the underground hangar. The echoes of the guns sounded like a thunderstorm and brought a smile to Taylor's face.

"All right, the hole is plugged. Time to finish this."

He carried on to a large set of blast doors. They clearly led into the facility, and he pointed for the Guardians to get to work. They immediately hit the opening of the doors and began cutting through. Thirty seconds later they stopped firing, and one of them rushed at the damaged opening, smashing into it with all its force. The doorway partly buckled, and another then joined it and prised the doorway open. Half a metre was all they could get it apart.