Battle Earth III (16 page)

Taylor smiled, but it wasn’t his concern at all. Confinement had made him a little crazy, and he could already see in himself a part of the emptiness he’d witnessed in Jones. He ridiculed himself in his mind for comparing his hardship with that of the Captain. He sat down on top of the torso of a fallen Mech. Gunfire continued to rage all around as the rest of the human armies drove the Mechs back. He watched in amazement as he could see the creatures in the distance turn tail and flee.

Captain Jones strolled up to the Major with his weapon slung on his back and not a care in the world. Blood still stained his clothes and skin. He looked out at the enemy with a frenzied look. Taylor felt like he should have a witty comment for Jones, but he knew it would be lost on the dire Captain. Chandra rushed back to them.

“Come on! What are you stopping for! Let’s drive these bastards back to hell!”

Jones wrenched his rifle from his back and eagerly stepped forward at the idea of further bloodshed. Taylor yawned as he stood up and wished for it all to be over. He turned to see Parker. He’d barely spoken a word to her since his rescue. Her face was filthy, but her teeth shone through with a dreamy smile. It was a vivid reminder of what he was fighting for.

“Come on, Major, we’ve got work to do,” she whispered.

He turned back and watched as Chandra and Jones led the Company into the flank of the enemy, firing as they ran. His fatigue suddenly seeped away as he got his second wind and leapt into action. For all the fear and dread the enemy caused, they were now being slaughtered in a turkey shoot like none of them had ever seen.

An hour later, they stood on the bloody plain with the enemy utterly vanquished. Taylor looked out towards the tree line and could see the rest of their forces had halted at the sight of the destruction. Chandra felt a warmth in her stomach that their foes were being made to suffer as they had.
Now they can know what it is like to live in fear,
she thought.

Taylor sat once again upon the battlefield surrounded by the dead of both sides
Have we broken them?
 
Soldiers passed him with smiles and patted each other on the back for a job well done. He felt a new kind of hope, like he’d not felt since the beginning. It was a hope so long forgotten that it felt entirely alien to him.

A column of vehicles approached from the east and he could already make out stars on the bonnet of one of the armoured cars.
General Schulz coming to claim his victory,
thought Taylor. Chandra paced up to him with a smile which quickly turned to scorn when she saw the incoming vehicles.

“Ahh shit,” she exclaimed.

“Yep, no peace,” he replied.

“You’re gonna have to take this lightly. Schulz has let you off the hook, but he will be quick to anger, so no macho bullshit, okay?”

“That an order?”

“You’re damn right it is. The last thing we need is to lose valuable members of this Company over some stupid pissing contest.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got you.”

Taylor watched nonchalantly as the impeccably clean vehicles rumbled into view, and General Schulz jumped triumphantly onto the battlefield. He spun around with a huge smile as he looked at the success they had won, and reached out to shake the hands of all the soldiers he passed. He stepped up towards Chandra and quickly noticed Taylor sat down beside her. At first his face turned to scorn, and he tried to ignore the American Major, but he knew it would be in vain.

“Major Chandra, what is this new equipment I see?”

“Doctor Reiter wished to field test new equipment, and we did it for him.”

“Fascinating.”

He turned to look down at Taylor and knew he must do something to smoothen over their hatred of each other. Chandra’s Company was invaluable to him, and Taylor was an important part of that.”

“Major Taylor, I see that you and this war are inseparable.”

Taylor looked up at the General with a tired and uninterested expression.

“That seems to be my curse.”

“You must understand that I never wanted to have to punish and detain you, but neither can I have my army running amok. The chain of command must be adhered to.”

Taylor nodded, as he had nothing left to say. He’d never stop hating the General for his spineless response to the captured soldiers, and his subsequent incarceration for doing the right thing.

“Damn good work here, Major Chandra. Get some rest. The first issue of Reitech equipment is going operational this evening. Tomorrow we push on into France!”

He waited for an enthusiastic response from the Major, but it never came. The thought of returning to the lands where they had been so badly mauled did not appeal one bit.

“We’ll be ready, Sir.”

“I am sure you will,” he said with a smile.

The General turned back and shouted out words of praise to the troops as he returned to his vehicle, to be spirited away to the life of comforts he rarely left. Taylor lay with his head in his hands. His return to the Company hadn’t been all that he’d envisaged. Friday was gone, and Jones seemed to be a different man altogether. Boots squelched in the mud, and he saw Parker looking down on him. Her smile was enough to make him forget it all. They had one night to spend together before the fighting continued.

* * *

“Major, Major!” shouted Blinker, rushing along the lines of popup tents where they had spent the night. Chandra stood beside a kettle awaiting her coffee while Taylor sat down next to her cleaning his rifle. She turned casually to see what the fuss was about, but showed little enthusiasm. The rain hadn’t let up overnight, and it was a soggy and bleak start to the day. The Private rushed up to Chandra and didn’t wait for her to answer before continuing.

“Major, the order has been sent out. We’re going forward across the border!”

She didn’t even look at the Private as he spouted out the news with such enthusiasm. She’d no stomach for returning to France; the land only conjured up memories of pain and suffering. The Major slowly stood up and stretched her legs, taking a sip from her mug as the Private watched in surprise at her lack of response.

“We’re going back, Major, taking back what we lost!”

She nodded slowly in response and finally replied.

“Relay the orders to Sergeant Silva, and have him form up the Company in fifteen.”

The Private turned to Taylor to look for any spark of joy at finally being on the winning side, but he found none. He sighed and rushed off to relay the orders in some hope of a response more pleasing. Chandra turned to Taylor who was waiting for her to speak.

“They have driven us back this far, you really think they’re going to give up France this easily?” she asked.

“Not a chance. I think we have hit them hard, and more than they could ever have expected. But to underestimate this enemy now would be a grave mistake. We stopped them before, at Paris, and Ramstein. Maybe this time is different, but it sure doesn’t feel like it yet.”

Within the hour, they were geared up and moving forwards across the war-torn lands still littered with the bodies of their enemies. They paced cautiously towards the forest edge where just the day before they had seen the enemy forces amassing. It was suspiciously quiet, but an hour later they had passed well into the undergrowth and found no sign of the Krycenaeans.

“You really think they are on the run?” whispered Parker.

“We’ve certainly bloodied their noses a little, who knows?” replied Taylor.

“Well that’s reassuring,” she snapped.

It wasn’t long before they reached the far side of the forest, and once again looked on at the Ramstein base. It seemed abandoned and peaceful. Chandra lifted her hand to stop the Company, beckoning for Taylor to come forward to her side.

“You think they’d leave a strategic point like this for us to just walk back and take?” she asked.

“No fucking way. No, I wouldn’t.”

“That’s what I thought.”

The two of them lifted their binoculars out and zoomed in to look at the positions ahead of them. Taylor was drawn to a small flicker of movement and a reflection as the sunrays bounced from a metal plate, but it was soon gone again.

“You see that?” he asked.

“Yeah, nothing human could have survived there.”

“It came from one of the eastern trenches.”

“Shit, you think they’re digging in?”

Taylor carefully studied the terrain once again.

“Would make sense. I think we’ve presented a tougher challenge than they thought possible. We starting to knock the bastards down in open ground, and it would only be logical for them to dig in.”

Chandra sighed.

“As much as it is good to know they are feeling the pressure, them digging in is the last thing we need.”

“Yeah, gonna be a real bitch.”

She turned to Silva.

“Sergeant, get me a line to HQ.”

Silva relayed the commands down the line. They still had to carry wired spindles as they advanced in order to remain in communication. They were a cumbersome and difficult means of contact, but they were already starting to get used to it. Before the radio had reached Chandra, she heard tank tracks rolling to the north. She turned to see a tank regiment advancing quickly in column towards the base without any regard for what may be within.

“God damn it, get me that radio now!”

“Fools, they’re gonna get themselves killed.”

Blinker rushed forward to the Major’s position with the portable radio and wires trailing behind him. She ripped the handset from the box and yelled her warning to the operator at the other end of the line, but it was already too late. A volley of light lashed out in the distance and tore through the first two tanks, destroying them instantly. They watched helplessly as the column spread out and tried to engage the enemy to little avail.

Half a dozen vehicles were reduced to burning hulks, and the others beat a hasty retreat. Taylor could see through his binoculars that they had little to show for their losses.

“God damn, they’re dug in hard!”

“Just like we were,” replied Chandra.

A call came down the handset for the Major.

“We’ve got enemy entrenched along the eastern perimeter of Ramstein, requesting immediate artillery support, over.”

“Roger that, fire support en route. Hold position until further notice, over.”

The Company lay quietly amongst the scrub just forward of the forest they had so recently departed. The foul lung-filling smoke from the friendly vehicles was quickly reaching them. They all could smell burning flesh in the thick smoke, and it was enough to make them want to vomit.

“We’re in for the long haul,” whispered Chandra.

The light on the field phone flashed, signalling an incoming call. She ripped the handset up to here ear.

“Major Chandra here.”

“Major, your company is ordered to dig in. You will have the appropriate equipment within the hour. Until that time, stay put.”

She signed in relief. As much as she didn’t like sitting around with nothing to do, facing the entrenched enemy was a frightening proposition. She found a fallen tree and sat down on it without a care in the world. She was confident they were out of the enemy’s range, but to the rest of the troops it looked like a defiant statement.

“Dig in? I thought this was our big push?”yelled Taylor.

“We can’t run onto their guns,” she replied.

Taylor sighed and spat into the mud beside them.

“After all this, we’re being stopped by our own tactics?”

“Adapt to the enemy, isn’t that what we have been doing?”

Taylor strutted back and forth with frustration until he stopped at the sight of Jones. The Captain stood out in front of them all. He stood tall and also without a care in the world. He was fixated by the glimmer of enemy movement in the trenches far off into the distance. It was as if he longed to engage them in battle. Mitch turned back to Chandra, who had noticed the Captain but chosen to ignore it.

“He isn’t right... Jones,” stated Taylor.

Chandra ignored the comment and stared ahead.

“He isn’t the same man we used to know. I am not even sure he should be in combat.”

She finally turned and looked with scorn at Taylor.

“I’d have Jones beside us if he was just half the man he used to be. None of us are the people we used to be, and never will be again,” she whispered.

Thirty minutes later their trench diggers arrived, and as the sun faded on the horizon, they sat quietly on the firing shelves. They had quickly become accustomed to long waits and cold wet nights spent below ground. Taylor and Chandra sat either side of the base of their trench with their rifles propped up and out of the way. They both knew they were far from any combat.

“Is there no way this war can end without the total destruction of one side?” asked Chandra.

“I don’t believe so. We have seen the evil inside those creatures and their disregard for life. I...I have looked into their eyes and tried to reason.”

Taylor went silent.

“Karadag... you told me about him after Poitiers. You saw him again, didn’t you?”

Taylor looked at her with a fiery hatred and fear in his eyes.

“How did he survive the nuke?” she asked.

Taylor shook his head in disbelief.

 “I just don’t know, but I pray none of us have to face him again.”

Taylor couldn’t speak anymore of the enemy leader. He had filled his thoughts since the night he was nearly beaten to death by the sadistic alien. He wanted payback, but the thought of encountering the beast again made him doubt he would survive the experience. He looked up to see Parker sitting on the ledge of the trench a few metres away.

He had given little thought to Eli over the course of the recent fighting. All his attentions had fallen on the war that faced them. Their relationship appeared to rapidly be returning to that of Officer and NCO, which it always had been, although she still looked at him with a yearning when he wasn’t aware of being watched.

The last of the light faded away, and the temperatures quickly plummeted. The exoskeleton suits regulated their temperature and kept them comfortable through the night. They could only imagine the freezing conditions the other troops had to endure. They had long been well equipped with the most advanced of cold weather equipment, but they knew it was high unlikely that any of it had reached the front line.

“I bet Schulz is sitting comfortably in the warm with his feet up,” snarled Taylor.

 Chandra smiled at Mitch’s condemnation of their superior. She knew he had every right to be bitter. As they began to finally enjoy the peacefulness of the night, the sky erupted with a flash of light that was quickly followed by the far off thundering of artillery. Shells whistled overhead towards Ramstein.

The two officers leapt to their feet to look over the trench shelf and watch as the shells smashed into the enemy positions. They were too far to see what effect it was having, but they could make out the trenches bursting into flames. None of the troops cheered or jumped for joy, they were too numbed from the previous action. They thought of the brutal pounding they had taken from the enemy guns in the last months and wondered how much good it would do.

At midnight, the guns went silent to let the troops get what little rest they could, and deserved. Taylor sat cleaning his sidearm. Despite the little light they had, he knew it so intimately, he only looked at what he was doing out of the cathartic experience it gave. He could hear footsteps approach and snapped out of the daze he was in and quickly reached towards his rifle out of instinct.

Taylor paused as he recognised Eli and had a welcoming smile on his face. He felt his muscles relax and pulse slow as he moved his rifle aside to make space for her to sit with him. She relaxed down beside his shoulder so that he could feel her warmth, even through their clothing. It was a vivid reminder of the fun times they had shared back before the war.

For a moment, she didn’t say a word as he reassembled the weapon. In the dead of night each component put back in place was audible through the trench. Parker watched his hands move with such precision and disciplined muscle memory. She was fixated on it until he finally locked the slide shut and holstered it on his side. He turned to Eli and gazed at her smile.

Mitch lifted his arm and wrapped it around her. She rested her head down on his shoulder. He knew it couldn’t be comfortable resting on the straps of his body armour, but he appreciated the sentiment. Taylor looked up at the stars. It was a luxury that had been long forgotten, and the cloud cover the previous day had given him little opportunity to enjoy the night sky.

Chandra watched as Taylor and Parker fell asleep against each other in the trench, looking at them with a warm heart. It pleased her that in the middle of such bloodshed and near apocalyptic disaster, there was still time and room for love. She thought back to Friday, and the spark of feelings she had begun to feel for him; and the sorrow his death had brought.

For two days the Company held put in the tree line. They were well supplied, but it was a painstaking waiting game. The artillery roared throughout most of the daylight hours, and the infantry sat uneasily awaiting combat. They watched as the base, they’d recently known as home, was flattened by their own forces.

On the morning of the third day, Chandra awoke to Blinker tapping her on the shoulder with the field phone in his hand. She rubbed her eyes as she yawned and took it from him. Taylor woke and stood up, waiting to hear their orders. She listened carefully for a few moments and put the phone down, looking up with a sigh.

“It’s time. We’re going over the top.”

Taylor smiled at her reference to the First World War. The fact they were only a few kilometres away from the bloody battlegrounds was a vicious reminder of how brutal a war could be. Taylor remembered documentaries which had calculated death tolls in their tens and hundreds of thousands, but it was never something he could ever fully comprehend. Now those horrendous numbers had meaning to him. Every single digit of those vast numbers now meant something to Mitch. He realised that each one was someone like himself, Eli, Chandra and the rest.

“Form up! Form up!” she yelled.

The Company hadn’t removed their equipment since setting up in the trenches, and their bodies were sore and creaky. They began to stretch and groan as they readied themselves to begin the assault.