Battle Earth: 11 (10 page)

Even as he finished the sentence, he regretted having said it. He opened his mouth to speak again but stopped, knowing anything he said would probably make things worse.

"You know we aren't the first people to fight out in this wilderness. These lands have a long history of harbouring armies that have beaten those of far greater odds, or at least provided the safety and security to those here to live long enough for others to come to their aid," said Engel.

"But there isn't anyone, is there?" asked Reynolds.

"Anyone where?" Engel asked.

 
"Coming to our aid. Nobody coming to break the siege or haul us out of here."

Kelly shook his head.

"You're as bad as Becker. He wants to think we're already finished, and you want to rule out all hope of there being other survivors."

"You think there are?"

"Of course," Kelly replied abruptly, "You think we're the only ones capable of holding out this long? What we have achieved is impressive, I would say, but don't underestimate the rest of the world."

"Pockets of survivors like us maybe, but not enough to ever come to our aid. Can you imagine us being able to ride to the aid of others?"

"Well, Becker, maybe we should. Maybe that would give us something to go on for, beyond just revenge.

"And survival," added Reynolds.

"I'd rather have died in the seat of my tank than live like a wild animal out here until I'm finally hunted down and put to death. I'm not sure this is survival but anymore than a prolonged agonising death."

Kelly looked at Becker in disgust. He pointed out towards the rest of their people camped all around. "You know they rely on us to keep it together. That means they depend on you, so start acting like the officer you are."

They all fell silent and thought on his words. Kelly knew they were heading for disaster. They needed either hope or a battle to fight. He prayed there was someone coming to their aid one day. It seemed a dream beyond any logic or sense, but he could still hope.

Taylor stood on top of the Diderot, watching the world go by. Ever since his time aboard the ship, he had felt an attachment to it. On an alien world where he had no home, and the Washington was long gone, it seemed the only place he had a connection with. In the distance was line after line of temporary structures, assembled to house the personnel without accommodation on the vessels that had either been destroyed or were being repaired and refitted. Jafar was standing just a few metres behind him and was, as he always preferred, glued to his side.

"You know it's a goddamn miracle they haven't tried to kill you yet," Taylor said to him.

"Not really," he replied casually.

Taylor turned, somewhat surprised.

"They gave you their word, and you gave them yours. I have nothing to fear."

 
"And you trust that whole heartedly?"

"I have no reason not to. They could have killed me any time they liked. Were they still intending to, there would be nothing to stop them."

"So don't worry about what you can't change?"

Jafar shrugged as if to agree in part.

"Look at these ships," said Taylor, "We're scraping bits together to try and get them operational. At least half of them should never be committed to space again. They'll be damn death traps. We need the tech they have."

"Who?"

"Irala's people, whoever they are. How do we not even know what they're called yet? You know we are goddamn allies, and I've not heard a word from them. Sure, they must be repairing and recovering themselves, but not a single bit of contact? Time we got some contact from them."

Jafar didn't respond, but Taylor knew his silence was a statement in itself.

"What, you don't agree?"

"If they have not come to you, they may not want to talk."

"And if we don't go to them, how will we ever know? I'm gonna go find that silent son of a bitch and get some answers."

Taylor intended to leave but was suddenly met with Irala standing in front of him. He jumped back a few paces in surprise.

"How the hell do you do that?"

"You have encountered Erdogan enough times now to know that he possesses hologram projection technology?"

"Yeah."

"He stole that from us. One of many devices he stole in the war we fought."

Taylor thought himself a fool for not reaching that conclusion, but he still found it hard to adjust to the ever-increasing amount of tech he encountered.

"That cloaking technology I have seen your ships use. I have seen it before."

"Yes, though his people were never able to make it work effectively for larger vessels, and only ever in a limited number of equipment taken from us."

"If you possessed such technology, how did you ever lose?" Taylor asked.

"We are few, we always have been. We live for hundreds; sometimes even thousands of your years, but we have few offspring and are a small people in population. Hence, we rely on our technology to make up for this."

"If you live that long, then dying must be a pretty big deal?"

"Individually, no more a loss than I should imagine you would feel, but as a species, yes."

"Well, we're starting to understand that. We aren't exactly a flourishing population. There are what, three million humans left? We've entered a new dark age."

Irala looked surprised by his comment.

"There are many more than three million of you left."

"What do you mean?"

"Those on Earth, of course, your homeworld."

"Earth is long lost, and Erdogan would not have let humanity survive in his paradise."

Irala shook his head. "Then you are misinformed. Pockets of resistance fight on in your world. Others have been enslaved and work for the Krys."

Taylor was shocked and speechless. He had never believed life could have gone on in any capacity after they left.

“How do you know this?”

“We have monitored the progression of the war on your planet.”

“So you have people there now?”

“No.”

“Do you know how many humans still live?”

“Our last figures suggest up to eighty or ninety million worldwide.”

Taylor was once again silenced and shocked.

“I need to pass this information on to our leaders. I don’t think you appreciate how significant this is.”

Irala didn’t respond physically; he only calmly responded, “You will in time tell them.”

“They’ll need to meet you. I do not command this fleet, far from it.”

“But we have dealt with you, we trust you. We do not know them, and we do not know whether we trust them yet.”

“Well, you won’t know till you meet them, will you?”

“For now, we will make all contact through you, Colonel. You have proven yourself to my people. Though we can still not approve of your association with that,” he said as he pointed to Jafar, “You should have killed it the first time you set eyes upon it. For that creature can bring you nothing but pain and destruction.”

“And if I had killed him all those years ago, I wouldn’t be here to talk to you this day. You expect a lot of trust from me, so I expect a little back. When we finally take Earth back, we’ll have a sizeable Krys population to deal with, and I won’t have them exterminated as one of their leaders once tried with us. Jafar shows there is a way we can live together.”

Taylor couldn’t believe he was saying it but realised it is what they needed.

Irala seemed wholly unconvinced, but he moved past the issue.

“You say you want to go back to your Earth and fight Erdogan there, but your ships look far from ready.”

Taylor smiled in response.

“If we were on our world, at our shipyards with our resources and workers, we might get these ships up and running and ready to go. But we’re not. We’re on a foreign world, with no shipyards, and nothing more than what we brought with us. We could sure do with the help of the locals.”

Irala was still silent.

“What’ll it be?” Taylor asked, ”We’re allies now. Will you help us be the best we can be so that together we stand a chance?”

“What you are asking us is to share our technology with you?”

Taylor nodded.

“We do not yet know whether you present a threat to us or not.”

“And yet you fight with us?”

“We have a shared enemy, that does not mean we present no threat to each other.”

Taylor sighed. “We have a chance together, but not if we stand as allies of convenience. We have to be more than that, or we don’t stand a chance at all. The fight we had with Erdogan, we fought to a stalemate with everything we had. If we are gonna take him on at Earth, well… that’s his home soil now. He’s got everything going for him. We couldn’t beat him when we had the world's armies at our disposal, so how can we have any hope of success now?”

“You wanted this,” replied Irala.

“Yes, I wanted to fight back the best way we can. With a little help from you, we could be stronger fighters. We could have better weapons, better ships. We could stand a real chance. Why will you not help us?”

“You ask a lot of us.”

“Yes I do, and I offer a lot more if we succeed together. You’ve seen our world. Tell me it isn’t an improvement over this piece of shit desert? Tell me it isn’t what your people deserve?”

“I will discuss it with my people. I will meet you here at noon tomorrow.”

“On whose clock?”

“According to what your watch is set to.”

Taylor looked at his watch and nodded in agreement. He looked back and opened his mouth to ask another question, but Irala was gone.

“Why does he always have to do that?”

He looked around to Jafar but got no response.

“He doesn’t like you, you realise that right?” Taylor asked him.

“Neither did you when we first met. You tried to kill me, too.”

“Fair point.”

The time until their meeting seemed to pass quickly as he watched Parker and the other NCOs continue training new recruits from the civilians who had volunteered. As noon approached on that second day, he waited aboard the roof of the Diderot with Admiral Huang and five other high-ranking officers. It was a bizarre location to have such an official and unprecedented gathering, but Taylor rather appreciated it. They could see for miles all around, and yet had relative privacy from those below. Jafar stood a few metres behind them, too, Captain King with him, as well as several marines working as a protection detail for Admiral Huang.

Taylor still wasn’t sure what he thought of the Chinaman, but at least he appeared a strong and decisive leader, and that meant a lot.

“Where are they, Colonel?” Huang asked.

Taylor looked down at his watch. It was one minute to noon, and he was counting the seconds down. He looked up as they hit the hour, and three of the aliens appeared before him.

“I am Admiral Huang of the human fleet.”

“Irala, of the Aranui.”

Taylor was surprised.

At last, now we know what to call them.

Huang was shocked at the sight of the Aranui and wasn’t sure how to proceed. Taylor stepped in and opened the conversation even though he knew it was far above his station.

“We’re here to discuss your assistance,” he stated, “We need materials, and we need your technologies and knowledge to make us the best we can be.”

Huang glanced at him, clearly irritated but finally nodded in agreement and looked back to Irala to await a response.

“We have considered your request,” replied Irala.

There was a long silence, and they waited for him to continue.

“We have misplaced our trust in other beings in the past and paid a dear price for it. Therefore, we will assist you, but only as far as we choose, and within strict parameters.”

“Anything you can do would be greatly appreciated,” Huang said quietly.

“The first requirement is that we deal with those we trust. At this time, that is only Colonel Taylor.”

“He is a fine marine, but he is not a representative of our fleet or our race.”

Irala went silent and stared Huang down until he changed his mind. It was clear he would accept nothing else.

“That is what we will do. What will you do, Colonel?”

“Seems to me we need to do two things. We need to organise an invasion force, and to begin smaller scale attacks that weaken Erdogan’s forces before we are ready for the former.”

Huang didn’t look impressed that Taylor was calling the shots, but he knew he was powerless to affect it. Taylor carried on.

“I believe if we can draw Erdogan out and kill him, the ground operation will be comparatively easy. When Demiran fell, his armies lay down arms for the most part. More than anything, I want to reach out and put some hurt on him, make him bleed. Make him and his armies know that we can make them bleed on what is now their home soil. Let them know how that feels.”

“If we are to carry out operations in your solar system, then there is an obstacle we must overcome. A new defence grid they have assembled stops us from carrying out many potential operations on the surface.”

“Perfect, then we hit that first,” said Taylor excitedly.

It was like a dream come true that he never could have imagined possible.

“Everything was going so quickly that Huang could not get a word in, and Taylor stepped past him now to bypass the Admiral entirely.

“Give us the means, and we’ll nail that fucking station,” said Taylor.

“You’ll need Jump technology to do it. We’ll install six of your vessels with such technology, but no more. With a combined fleet, we will strike the defence grid platform in seven days.”