Battle Earth VII Page 19
He ran, using the power of his suit go forwards into the wide doorway of the ship and landed rather ungraciously. He tumbled over into a roll, coming to a rest on one knee.
“Come on!”
“Oh, what the hell,” muttered Riley. He took a running jump and launched out into the sky. He had underestimated the distance slightly and struck the lower edge of the entrance to the hatch. Taylor jumped forward, sliding across the deck on his front. He came out slightly over the edge and took a firm hold of one of Riley’s arms. He looked down just for a moment at the rocky crag below and realised how close they had come to death, but it was too late to go back now.
Taylor hauled Riley on board. The others were already leaping in, having learnt from his experience. Taylor yelled into his comms.
“All aboard, after that bastard!”
Chapter 12
“Chase him down!”
“I’m trying!” Rains shouted.
Taylor could just about see Armand’s ship in the distance. They weren’t losing them, but neither did they appear to be making any progress.
“Eddie, we don’t get him, and this was all for nothing.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Colonel, not like we have any weapon systems to slow them down any further.”
“This thing going all out?”
“Bet your ass. It’s a goddamn miracle she keeps going.”
“My shot did some damage to one of their engines. How come we aren’t gaining on them?”
“Well you did some damage sure, but she’s a high speed transport, and we’re in the equivalent of the old school bus.”
Taylor sighed and drooped his head. It felt like it was all over.
“Wait, that turbine you hit, it’s just lost all power. We’re gaining on them!”
Cheers rang out from the marines behind.
“Wait, they’re banking. Where the hell are they going?”
“They know they can’t outrun us, so they’re going for a place of safety. Local forces will already be scrambling. I’d say we got about fifteen minutes max until we’re swamped.”
“All right, so where are they heading?” asked Rains.
“Somewhere as secret as Mittenwald, somewhere with allied Mechs, somewhere with troops who would have no trouble gunning us down, not even if they knew who I was.”
“Great, where is that?”
“We’ll have to wait and see.”
“In fifteen minutes? Cutting it a little fine, aren’t we?”
“Love to say I had a better option.”
“They’re levelling off…and starting a descent.”
“Stay with them. Follow them down and get on the ground ASAP.”
Rains nodded in agreement.
“What is that place, Eddie?”
No idea, Colonel, just looks like another mountain to me.”
“That ain’t no mountain!” Riley screamed.
Lights pulsed below and anti aircraft flak burst around them.
“No missiles?” asked Taylor.
“This ain’t enough for you?” asked Eddie, as the craft shook from the impacts.
“Just makes me suspicious, is all.”
“They aren’t trying to shoot us down. They’re trying to force us to turn back.”
“Why?” he asked, but he already knew the answer.
“So they really don’t want to kill us.”
“Not that I don’t want to believe that, but why?”
“A platoon of US Marines going down on UEN soil when war is about to break out. Armand will do anything to avoid bringing the US into this war.”
“Yeah, well good luck with that.”
“Don’t knock it. That fact might just keep us alive to get this job done.”
Taylor watched intently on the view screen as the shuttle landed roughly on a ledge of the mountain. As they ground to a halt, a number of figures rushed to their aid.
“Guess that’s our target?” asked Eddie.
Taylor grunted in approval.
“They may not want to shoot us down now, but you know once we have the Councillor all bets are off, you know that right?”
“You just worry about flying this hulk, Eddie, and leave the fighting to us.”
“Not much of a relief after there’s another missile coming for my ass.”
Taylor didn’t know how to answer that as he knew it was an almost certainty. He turned to the others.
“They may not want to shoot us out of the sky, but once we’re on the ground, armed foreign operatives, they will not hesitate to start shooting again!”
“Making a lot of assumptions aren’t you?” whispered Parker.
“Only going on what we have seen so far. All I do know is we have to be fast about this.”
“No shit.”
Eddie brought them in as fast as he could and came close to overdoing it. The landing gear hit the ground hard, and they could feel it buckle a little as they slid a few metres to a halt.
“Goddamn miracle we weren’t shot out the air.”
“We’re made of miracles, Eddie. We’re the Immortals!”
He leapt out the side door of the ship without a word to the others. He knew they’d be close behind him. He wished he had a plan beyond jumping into the unknown, but there was no time. He hit the ground running despite the imminent danger, but was surprised to see not a single enemy in sight.
Taylor rushed first to the shuttle that had come to an even rougher landing than they had. He looked through the door that had been left open and found nothing. He looked out and around the site. They were on a small hidden landing zone on the side of a mountain in a seemingly tranquil hiking spot.
“Where the hell are they?” asked Riley.
“Must be somewhere more important than the Mittenwald. Armand would never risk revealing this place unless he had absolutely no choice.”
“All right, but where?” asked Silva, “Nothing here but nature and us.”
He looked down to the footsteps coming from the shuttle.
“Sergeant, time to go back to basics.”
Silva looked down at the tracks and looked sheepish for not having gone to them sooner.
“Tracking not something we’ve had to do in years, not like finding the enemy was ever much of a difficulty.”
“Say that again.”
They followed four sets of tracks between some rocks until they finally found something else manmade, a thick steel double doorway, hidden by nature of its remote location and inability to see from the air.
“Explosives now, everything we have!” Taylor hollered.
A few of the marines passed magnetic charges forward, but it was all they had.
Five? That’s it? Taylor thought.
He didn’t let his doubt spread by voicing his mind and placed the charges quickly, with just a ten second delay to start simultaneously.
“Cover!”
He ducked behind a nearby boulder and prayed. The explosion erupted and rocked the ground beneath them. Taylor had become accustomed to constant ear splitting noise during the war, but he had always hoped in those moments for the survival of him and his comrades. But now all that was gone. Their lives were of no concern to him in that moment. He knew all that mattered was getting Armand.
He got up. The doors had completely vanished from sight. It was a welcome surprise to them all.
“Guess they weren’t ever expecting the kind of guests who don’t knock,” Riley grinned.
Taylor went in first. It was a narrow corridor, the width of two humans. It looked like an emergency escape or access tunnel to a much larger facility. A red emergency light was pulsating along its length, and they knew it was in response to their arrival.
“I don’t like this, Mitch.”
“You and me both, Eli, so let’s get it done quick.”
He rushed into the breach, knowing the others would soon follow. The corridor soon split into a wide fork.
“Which way?” she asked.
“Left!”
He rushed on. The rest fired and did the same.
“Silva, you stay put and hold this position.”
“You think we’re gonna get back out of here?”
“Didn’t come here to fail, Riley.”
Taylor carried on through a doorway. It was pitch black for a moment as they all came to a halt. The red pulsing lights from the corridor provided a small insight as to what was before them. They saw silhouettes that were too large to be human. A moment later the lights were turned on, and several of the marines gasped at the sight in front of them. They were in some kind of training hall, and twelve full armoured Mechs stood there. They were holding shields like the Reitech ones they were accustomed to, only larger.
It was a small relief to see they carried Assegai derived weapons and no firearms, but that relief soon wore off. The creatures leapt into action and rushed towards them like a herd of wild animals.
“Oh, shit,” muttered Taylor.
He lifted his rifle and fired a few shots, but the shields absorbed them all. There seemed no way to slow the charge down.
“Jump!” he cried in a panic.
He launched several metres off the ground and came close to the rooftop with the use of his boosters. Most of the marines jumped with him, but he could see Riley and a handful of them had stood their ground and continued to fire. As Taylor reached the apex of his jump, he fired down beneath his feet. Three shots went right down into the faceplate of the Mech he had targeted, and it collapsed to the floor, sliding up to Riley’s feet.
Several others followed suit, but it wasn’t enough to stop the charge. Three marines were struck full force and launched off their feet. Jafar had stood his ground with them and tackled one of their attackers head on, driving an Assegai right through one to deal a killing blow.
Taylor was back on his feet and had the enemy in his sight once again, but friendlies were now mixed in with the Mechs. He drew out his Assegai and rushed at them. One of the nearest creatures turned and thrust its shield out to strike him. He could only jump into a roll and hope to make it under. His shoulder armour brushed the lower edge as he just made it under, and sparks followed from the contact. He was back up on one knee with lighting speed and fired several shots before driving his Assegai up into the belly of the creature’s armour.
The warm blue blood he had come to know so well flowed out over his hand. Gone was the regret and doubt he had felt in the arena. He was no longer fighting for sport or entertainment. He was fighting for everything. He turned to take on the next creature, but Parker was already jumping into action at the nearest target. She drove her weapon into the exposed joint beneath one of the Mechs’ arms and followed the creature to the floor. She had a smile on her face as she turned to look at him. She was in her element, and so was he.
Taylor looked up. Riley was sitting against the wall, clearly unable to get up. Another marine lay dead beside him.
“You still able to fire that weapon, Riley?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Then you nail anything that comes through here that ain’t one of our own, you hear?”
“Aye, aye, Sir.”
Taylor got back on his feet. The marines had made light work of the rest of the enemy.
“Enough fun and games. We have a job to do!”
He looked down at his watch, only six minutes left on the timer he had set.
Cutting it awfully close.
They continued on through the room. It was clear to all of them from the equipment around that the Mechs they had fought had been in training.
God help us when they are fully trained, thought Taylor.
“How many more obstacles are we gonna have to face to get this bastard?” asked Parker.
“He’s running scared. This welcome party wasn’t prepared for us. It was a last minute deal, so we must be getting close.”
They passed through into the next room that appeared to be empty, but a glimmer of movement in one corner caused Jafar to rush across to engage whatever danger was there. As he arrived ready to fire, a human leapt up with her hands in the air. It was a scientist in a lab coat. She was almost frozen in fear, and tears streamed from her eyes. She could not find the breath to speak.
“Jafar!” yelled Taylor.
The alien turned in surprise.
“She’s unarmed, a non-combatant.”
He looked back at her for a moment, finally accepting Taylor’s orders. He returned to the Colonel and spoke in no uncertain terms at a volume all could hear.
“Everyone in this building is a combatant.”
“Not for you to decide, buddy, nor me. While there are still human laws in the land, we’ll abide by them.”
“Like kidnapping a Councillor on his home soil?”
Taylor glared at Parker. He already realised he was being hypocritical, but he didn’t have time to rephrase his comment.
“All right, enough bullshit. Let’s get this son of a bitch before this little holiday is the end of us.”
Taylor led the way through another two rooms that were full of experimental equipment they didn’t have the time to investigate, finally reaching a control room. It was large and filled with screens monitoring the facility. At a distance, Taylor could still just about see a few of the screens and frantic movement on them, which he already suspected were other troops in the facility gearing up to fight them.
“It’s over, Colonel!” Armand shouted.
Taylor laughed. He noted the Councillor was now wearing a Reitech suit he had clearly hastily pulled on since their arrival. His suit was crumpled up beneath it, and the helmet was ill fitting and almost dropping over his eyes.
“You’re coming with us, Councillor. Alive is preferable, but we’ll take what we can get.”
There were only three guards standing beside him, and one of those was clearly the pilot who had flown them there. Taylor turned his focus to address them.
“You can walk away from this. No need to die.”
“These are soldiers loyal to me, Colonel.”
He knew that meant they were either Krys agents, or deeply loyal to those who were. It was all the evidence he needed to condemn them. He lifted his rifle and fired two shots at the first, and his comrades quickly did the same. They hadn’t even got their muzzles up before they were hit and had certainly never expected such violence.
“You forget who you are dealing with, Councillor.”
“Evidently. Then let’s do this man-to-man, the honourable way.”
Taylor smiled as Armand picked up a shield and Assegai.
“We don’t have time for this,” muttered Parker.
“We can give the man his chance. It won’t take long.”
Taylor drew out his Assegai and approached. Against any one of his own marines, he would fear opposing them without a shield when they were equipped with one. But against Armand, he didn’t give it a moment’s consideration. At first, the Councillor stepped forward uneasily, as if he were the kind of rookie who had never used the equipment before. It amused Taylor and caused him to approach without caution, but as he did so, Armand leapt into action like a different man altogether, like a trained soldier.
Taylor managed to jump aside in time to avoid a thrust that was coming to his face, but he was off balance. As a result, Armand struck him with the shield, and he stumbled across the room.
“Mitch!” cried Eli.
He regained his balance, cursed himself for being so foolish. He’d seen enough surprises in his life now to never throw caution to the wind, and yet he still did.
“Right, let’s do this.”
He rushed forward as if in a wild charge, stopping abruptly as Armand held his shield out to stop him, spun off to the side and smashed the weapon down on the inside of the man’s knee. It buckled. The Councillor drop
ped down onto one knee and let out a scream of pain. The strike had been like nothing more than that of a baton as Taylor knew the edge did no more, but it provided immense satisfaction to see the pain in Armand’s face.
“You’re a traitor to your people, Councillor.”
“You think you’re my people just because we look alike!” he yelled, as he got back up and raced forward once more. He attacked quickly with repeated short stabs that were difficult to counter. They forced Taylor to give ground across the room. He was backed against a worktop and had to spin out from the attack.
“Why do you fight? You know you cannot win.”
“But you always did. You and your Immortals went into many a fight you should never have been able to win, and yet here you are today. Standing before me and ruining things once more.”
“Your monologuing bores me,” replied Taylor.
Armand jumped forward once more as if to continue with his quick thrusts but used it only as a feint and drove his shield forward as a barge once again, but Taylor would not be caught off guard a second time. He caught the rim of the shield with his offhand and forced it forward, pulling Armand off his feet and launching him across the room. Taylor held a firm grip on the shield, wrenching it from the Councillor’s grasp.
“You’re coming with us, whether you like it or not.”
Armand let out a roar of a battle cry and rushed at Taylor, launching a clumsy long lunge. Taylor stepped aside and took a hold of his arm. He drove a knee below the torso armour into Armand’s abdomen. He keeled over. The weapon dropped from his grasp, and he was done for. Taylor wanted to feel some respect for the man having tried, but then he remembered all that he had done against his own people, against his own race.
“Your ass is mine now, Councillor.”
“Mitch, we got incoming!” Parker shouted.
He looked over to the screens. Mechs and human soldiers were flooding towards them from other parts of the facility. He looked down at his watch, three minutes.
“Let’s go, go, go!”
He smacked Armand in the face, knocking him unconscious, threw him over his shoulder, and took off back the way they came. As they burst out into the room where they had fought the line of Mechs, they found Riley still firmly planted against the wall with his rifle held ready to fire. Taylor didn’t have to say another word. Jafar grabbed him, and another took the body of the fallen marine.