Battle Earth X (24 page)

"The Admiral didn't say it. But I believe he is concerned a force is at work here that threatens our plans for colonisation."

"Force? What force? All I have seen is a few pissed off and bored marines. There's nothing new there."

They carried on across the open plain towards the remains of the city ahead. It was a bizarre experience. Taylor almost felt as if was in a dream. It was almost like Earth, but he knew it wasn't.

"Sir?"

"Go on, Watkins."

"Well, Sir, it's like this. The aliens came to Earth because they wanted our planet, right?"

"Yeah, so I'm told."

"But this one seems pretty good to me. Why did they fight us for ours when they could have had this one, no trouble?"

Taylor grimaced. It made him think of all kinds of possibilities in his head, and none of them were good.

"Jafar, you said your people call this death space, or whatever. You want to shed some light on that? It could well explain the Private’s concerns."

"All that I know have told you. The Krys know that those who venture here do not return."

"The implication that something dwells here that doesn't like you too much?"

"Yes."

"And you thought that being human we'd just be okay?" Watkins asked.

"It was a logical gamble, as you say."

Watkins suddenly tripped and stumbled, dropping the barrel of the pig as he tumbled rather ungraciously into the dirt.

 
"What the hell?" he asked.

He got up and went back to the gun. He noticed something metallic sticking out from the ground that he had kicked and scraped. Taylor had seen it, too, as the sun glinted off the surface it had revealed.

"Well that's not natural."

Watkins knelt down beside it and scraped away the sand and dirt off it as the others looked on. He stopped when he revealed the shape of a metallic hand and forearm.

"Krys..." said Taylor.

Several of them were spooked and looked around half expecting trouble to come their way, but nothing happened. Jafar knelt down, got a hold of the object, and pulled it out from the ground. It was just the gauntlet and forearm from Mech armour. There was no sign of living remains inside. Jafar looked at it curiously and with suspicion.

"What is it?" Taylor asked.

"This armour, it is Krys, but old, and maybe five hundred of your years. I have only seen such armours used for the guards of honour to the Lords of Worlds."

"How long do you think it's been here?"

"Some time at least."

"What does that mean?"

"Right now, Watkins, it means shit," replied Taylor.

He looked to Jafar.

"You've really told us everything you know of this place?"

"Until now I did not know of the existence of this planet."

That was enough for Taylor. He carried on and followed what loosely resembled a road into the city. The surface had long been covered over with sand and dirt and not a single wall over a metre tall still stood.

"What do you think happened here?"

"I'd say someone went all out and flattened it, Parker."

It made sense, but it was just a guess. They paced through the ruins, looking for a sign of anything. Something that might tell them who and what lived there, and what had caused their destruction. Taylor suddenly noticed a small buzzing noise behind him. He turned to see a tiny flying object, not more than a couple of centimetres wide floating before him. It glinted in the sun and appeared to be mechanical. There was distortion all around it by what appeared to be the motion of wings or fans.

"What the hell is that?" Parker asked, raising her rifle at the ready.

It floated right in front of Taylor as if it were studying him.

"Is that...a machine?"

"Looks like it, Parker. Nobody move. Whatever it is, we give it no reason to react."

"Come on, Colonel, it's a fucking insect!" Abbot laughed.

"We don't know what it is or isn't, but it is certainly curious about us. My guess is it's some kind of drone."

"So someone is controlling it?" Parker asked.

It turned away from Taylor and flew around the group, as if checking and logging every one of them.

"Maybe, or at least someone monitoring whatever it sees."

"What do we do?"

"Nothing until we have reason to do so, Parker."

Finally, the bug-like object reached Jafar and stopped dead. Something opened and rose from the centre of its body.

"Not good," said Taylor.

It flashed on top and something suddenly darted towards Jafar. He raised his shield just in time as the little dart of light struck and exploded in a flash. It took a chunk out of the metal.

"Bloody hell!" Abbot hollered.

Three more shots zoomed towards Jafar, and he held his shield up so they impacted on the surface. He rushed forwards and swung his Assegai to strike it, but the nimble little thing darted out of the way and fired two more shots. One struck his shield and the other the chest plate of his armour, burning a few millimetres in. It banked around trying to strike his back when Taylor slammed in a web round magazine and fired at it. The drone was engulfed by the web and dropped down to the ground. Jafar rushed up to it and raised his leg to stamp on it.

"No! Wait!" Taylor yelled.

It was too late. Jafar's foot landed square on and crushed the drone flat to the surface. He stepped back so that Taylor could take a closer look, but Taylor was more concerned with what was coming next.

"Spread out! Take up positions!"

They all looked confused but did as ordered.

"Whatever that was, your face pissed it off!" Taylor shouted at Jafar.

"You think there are more of them?"

Taylor looked at Parker. "I think that was just an observation drone, and whoever owns it ain't gonna be too happy we just crushed their toy!"

The ground around them began groaning as if they were about to experience an earthquake, but to their surprise the ground twenty metres away began to open. But it did not split as if being torn apart. It opened in a clean fashion similar to a door.

"What have you done?" Taylor asked.

From the hole a huge metal robotic looking monster arose on an escalator until it was level with the surface. It stood three metres tall and glistened in the sun. And yet it looked nothing like Krys technology. There were few harsh lines to the armour or crude components. It looked as though crafted by an aerospace engineer. It was humanoid in shape, but with a head recessed and small in scale compared to the body.

"What on earth is that?"

"I don't know, Eli, but I'm guessing it's not friendly," said Taylor.

Lights on its head and at several points in its body lit up, and it panned around as if scanning the area. It stopped when it pinpointed Jafar, just as the little drone had. It raised its right arm and what looked like an underslung weapon built into its arm flashed. Jafar leapt quickly out of the way as the impact landed where he had stood, blowing a metre-wide crater in the ground.

"Open fire!" Taylor ordered.

He took aim and held the trigger down. His shots strafed the body of the robot but barely scratched the surface. He looked back to Jafar who was doing the same.

"Run!"

Jafar leapt into a full sprint as another explosion burst out behind him. Taylor looked to Abbot and shouted, "Get that gun firing!"

But he could see they were already rushing to get it mounted on the tripod.

As Jafar ran, the robot raised the other arm and fired with both weapons. Explosions ignited all around him, one finally striking his shield, and Jafar disappeared into a ball of light and dust. His shield had disintegrated but managed to save him. He was flat on the ground and clearly stunned. Taylor could see he was struggling to get up. He took his shield off his arm and launched it with both his hands. It flew through the air with immense speed and struck the head of the robot so hard, it caused it to stumble back a step and its shot missed Jafar by several metres.

Taylor immediately leapt into a sprint towards the robot, and it now fired on him. The shots missed him by a fraction. He jumped and used his boosters to launch himself up into the air and land atop the huge metal beast. He got a good hold onto the side of its shoulder armour and drew out his Assegai, plunging it down into the head. He stabbed it three times, but it reached up and grabbed him with an iron grip and threw him off.

He flew through the air, and his boosters had no time to break his fall. He landed hard and tumbled over several times before coming to a stop. He got up in time to see the robot take aim at Jafar once again as he was trying to get to his feet.

"Hey!" Taylor shouted.

The creature turned its face enough to look at him without moving its guns.

"Fire!" Taylor ordered.

The two 50CMGs opened fire on full auto, and the heavy rounds smashed into the creature, knocking it back as if it were being punched by something its own size. Holes were ripped into its armour, and then a single shot went right through the head. It went limp, collapsing to the ground.

Nobody said a word for a moment as they tried to take it all in. It was Abbot who finally spoke.

"Got you, you mother fucker! Woohoo!"

But as he said it, the ground rumbled, and two more hatches opened. Robots like the first one rose up from the ground. Taylor staggered over to Jafar and helped him to his feet before standing ready with their Assegais.

"Well, this isn't good."

They waited for the robots to make the first move, but they did nothing. It was a standoff for ten seconds, and Parker whispered, "What are they waiting for?" They felt a smaller rumble in the ground that they could only imagine were more of the same giant robots coming to kill them. Instead, the ground a few metres from Taylor seemed to collapse in an organised manner and formed a stairway down beneath the surface.

"This city isn't dead," Taylor said, "Only question is, what the hell lives here?"

They waited anxiously, but did not take their hands off their weapons.

"We can't survive against many more of those things, Mitch," Parker said quietly.

"I know."

Three figures appeared from the stairway. They were as tall as Jafar but slighter built. They wore body-hugging clothing like the Mechs did beneath their armour. But this clothing seemed to be augmented with ultrafine plating and appeared as if armour that was skin fitting. Their heads were uncovered, their skin black as coal. Despite this, their facial characteristics had more in common with humans than Krys, except for flatter skulls and a much more defined and strong jawline. They seemed both terrifying, and highly intelligent and advanced at the same time.

"Who the fuck are you?" Abbot asked.

"Shhh," said Taylor, as Parker shook her head at him.

The creature at the centre finally spoke.

"This world is ours, and no other may lay claim to it. You may leave unharmed, but not that," the creature said, pointing at Jafar.

"We don't mean you any harm!" Taylor shouted.

"Then leave peacefully."

"I won't leave without my friend."

"Friend?" the creature asked in an inquisitive voice.

It seemed more surprised than anything else. It went silent as it looked at the two of them and thought.

"You stand beside them? Then you are our enemy, and you must suffer the same fate for stepping foot on this world!"

The robots’ weapon systems began to power up, and visors arose out of the aliens’ armours that encapsulated their faces so that they were now fully contained. Lights flashed on their forearms, and semi-translucent shields projected from a device on each of their left arms. Gun systems much like the robots used unfolded from their armour, and they took aim.