Battle Earth IV (29 page)

“Why haven’t we met any resistance yet?” asked Chandra.

Taylor shrugged his shoulders. They all hoped there was a good reason for it, but it seemed too easy. She stood up and signalled for them to follow her. There were two exits from the room into the nearby corridors. She signalled for Jackson to take the far side, and she continued onwards with Taylor and Lieutenant Ota’s Company.

Mitch got ahead of Chandra and led from the front. He reached the doorway and peered through the Perspex plate in the centre and turned to shake his head, confirming there was no contact. He reached for the door switch, and to his surprise it opened. Chandra nodded to Jackson to give the go ahead. They all knew that from now on they only had one goal.

“Go!” she whispered.

Taylor leapt forward and charged through the doorway into the broad corridor. As he did so, he heard the clatter of feet moving quickly and approaching from the west side. He turned back and ushered through a dozen of the troops, ducked down into position, and signalled for Chandra to stop where she was. They waited anxiously as the sound grew louder, and it became quickly apparent it was a dozen Mechs rushing towards them. Mitch nodded and held up three fingers to count down as they approached.

Mitch quickly made the count, lifting himself up as the last finger dropped, and opened fire. He continued to shoot in rapid succession. The creatures seemed to be caught completely unawares by their presence. In just five seconds, they were cut to pieces and only managed to get off a few frantic shots against the hastily prepared ambush. Taylor got to his feet and wandered over to check the bodies. Jafar appeared next to him and carefully studied the fallen creatures.

Taylor had never assigned the two aliens to a platoon or company. He knew he could not trust his own people with them yet. As a result, they kept close to him and the Colonel at all times; a fact that made many uncomfortable.

“117
^th
, they were amongst the first to land on Earth. I believe they fought in Spain and were near Paris towards the end of the war.”

“End? This war never ended,” said Taylor.

“He’s right,” Chandra agreed. “It did end, the war for Earth ended. But we are in a new conflict now, and something humanity has never seen before.”

“These troops have little ammunition between them. They look malnourished, and many have wounds that are not fully healed,” continued Jafar.

“What are you suggesting?” she asked.

“That these are battle weary troops. Soldiers that are on the run from a war already lost,” replied Taylor.

Chandra looked quickly over to Jafar.

“Is that what you would draw from this?”

The alien nodded in agreement.

“The base ship is nowhere to be seen. The fact we managed to land without opposition tells me they are spread thin. The last I heard was that our leaders, our former leaders, were losing heart and looking to end this campaign.”

“Why did you not tell us this sooner?” asked Chandra.

“It is just rumour, Ma’am. We never knew much but what we were ordered.”

“Alright, well I hope you’re right. Jackson should hopefully be making good progress, so let’s be sure to keep up.”

They turned and continued on throughout the vast access tunnel. It was broad enough for them to walk twelve wide and with a sizeable space between each other. They made it a hundred metres without any contact of any kind when Chandra broke the silence.

“You really believe what he is saying?”

“I think there’s a damn good chance, yes. It’s not winning this battle that concerns me, for I know we can. It’s what we may have to face after it.”

They took a bend up ahead and the corridor lit up as five pulses rushed towards them. Taylor leapt aside, shoving Chandra out of harm’s way. They both tumbled aside and landed hard against the metal interior.

“Guess they aren’t quite finished yet!” she yelled.

The pulses died down after a moment, and the Colonel leant around just enough to get a view of what they faced.

“Fuck, I can see at least twenty Mechs dug in.”

“Then we take the tunnels.”

Chandra looked back at Taylor with her eyes wide open.

“I know you don’t like it, but Kelly and his people made good use of them.”

“Bullshit, we don’t have time.”

She looked back at the enemy defences that were a hundred metres around the corner. She turned back to the troops.

“Hall! Get me a runner! Tell Jackson to swing around our way and give us a hand!”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

They sent the runner and waited out for five minutes. Chandra grew impatient, and she stood up tall and bellowed her orders.

“Up! Now! We’ve got a job to do. Everyone is relying on us to get this done rapidly. Any delay and we risk the entire mission! Ready your weapons, and be ready on my go!”

“What are you doing?” Taylor demanded.

“We have superior numbers and firepower but limited time. We can take this position with a frontal assault.”

“Frontal assault?” he responded in shock.

“We have no choice. Let’s get in there and do our jobs!”

Taylor edged around to the corner and could see there was no cover down the long spartan corridor.

“God damn, we could have used the shields for this!”

“Well, when Reiter finishes his changes, and gets them back to us, you’ll be the first to have one,” replied Chandra.

She got up and beckoned for the troops near her to come in close.

“This plan relies on speed. We must overcome that position with all haste. We have enough numbers that a quick rush could overwhelm them with minimal casualties. Are you with me?”

She could see that none were keen, but they all nodded in agreement.

“Alright, ready yourselves, on three. We do not stop until this is over. Three, two, one!”

Chandra leapt out into the corridor, and another dozen of their troops were in the corridor when she’d fired off her first round. Just as she pulled the trigger, the first two pulses rushed down the corridor, narrowly missing them all. They knew they would not be so lucky a second time. They flooded into the tunnel as ordered, and those at the front fired rapidly to try and give some cover.

Chandra gasped as the Mechs ahead lifted a heavy weapon up onto the barricade and were about to fire when their position was lit up by gunfire, and shots echoed out from the other side of their position. The heavy weapon team quickly abandoned their weapon and turned to take on a new threat.

“This is our chance!” she shouted.

They were already running, but she and Taylor increased to a sprint, and their suits allowed a rapid pace to cover the distance. They leapt up onto the defensive line to find only two Mechs still alive and fighting. They blasted them from their high position and looked up to see their saviours. Captain Jackson stood at the head of his Company with the barrel of his gun smoking violently.

“Hell of a good timing there, Captain,” Chandra said.

He didn’t respond but only marvelled at his work.

Taylor was relieved as he looked around to see only one of theirs had been clipped on the way in but was still breathing. He look to Chandra and shook his head in disbelief.

“Alright, let’s move on.”

They readied their weapons and continued on as intended. As they closed the distance to the Parliament buildings, they could hear the sound of gunfire. Its intensity rapidly increasing as they grew nearer.

“Kelly must have got there ahead of us, Mitch!” shouted Chandra.

“Then he can’t have met much opposition.”

Taylor recognised their location and knew they were coming up on the broad atrium that marked the entrance to the Parliament. Kelly had told him of the battle they had fought there when they tried to break out onto the surface months before, and he expected to find it littered with bodies and debris. The hall ahead was opening out to the atrium. They could already make out the shape of a strong defensive position, and dozens of Mechs firing from the top.

“Of all the places they could defend, they chose here?” asked Taylor.

Jafar stepped forward to answer.

“They knew it was strategically important to you. That’s makes it important to them.”

“Well it looks like Kelly has got stuck in already. If we can bring enough fire to bear on this flank, we should be able to end this.”

“There’s a balcony overlooking that position just above us.” Taylor pointed up.

“Good, take a platoon and get up there, and start laying down some fire ASAP!” Chandra shouted.

Taylor turned back, and the two aliens immediately followed him without hesitation.

“I need a platoon, Lieutenant,” he asked of Ota.

She signalled to one of her 2
^nd
Lieutenants.

“This is Sergeant Rios, formerly of the Rangers.”

A sergeant leading the platoon and a 2
^nd
Lieutenant in charge of a company, they have taken a beating
.

“Follow me,” said Taylor.

Mitch led them back to a corridor and then east to a stairway. The two aliens were at the front of the column and still glued to his side. The hulking armoured creatures gave him some comfort, to know that they were on his side. The way up the stairs was quiet.

“We’re in luck,” he whispered.

They continued quickly on at a quiet jogging pace and up to the next level. Taylor stopped them at the top of the stairs. He was still astonished they had made it without opposition.

“They must be running pretty thin on troops.”

“Yes, I’d have expected a much harder fight,” Tsengal answered.

“I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.”

They stepped out onto the empty balcony and crept to the far wall as the battle raged below. They could hear fire now from directly below their feet where Chandra had joined the fight. He pulled himself up just enough to peer over the edge of the small wall he was knelt beside. Mitch smiled as he saw an almost completely clear view of the creatures below. He turned and gestured for the rest of the platoon to join them.

The second the rest of the troop was in position, he shot up to a standing position and threw the barrel of his rifle over the wall.

“Fire!”

The opening volley was almost perfectly in sequence and killed six of the Mechs instantly. A few tried to lift their weapons to respond, but there was little they could do. The automatic fire tore apart the enemy’s position. He could hear a few of the Rangers shouting insults as they blazed away, but there was too much noise from the intense fire to understand what they said.

 
Muzzle flashes lit up below them as the troops on the level below rushed up to the enemy positions and jumped up onto the enemy wall to join in the slaughter. Even after all the Mechs were dead, they continued to fire into them, enjoying the utter destruction of their foes.

“Hold fire!” Taylor ordered.

A few moments later the Commander leapt into the middle of the bloodshed and looked up to where Taylor was still surveying the scene. He looked back down at the results of their work and then back up to Taylor with a smile.

“That’s some damn fine work, Major!”

Taylor leapt over the wall and used minimal boost to land down on the floor a few metres away from the Commander.

“Sir, I’d have expected a lot more opposition. How are the rest of our forces doing?”

“Last contact we had was from Chen, and it seems it’s like this all over.”

Taylor shook his head. “I don’t like it.”

“We are getting our homes back, Major. I’m not going to complain about it being too easy, and I’d like there to be something left by the time this war is over.”

Chandra arrived as Kelly finished his last words, and she was about to join the conversation when a call rang out.

“Colonel! Colonel!”

She snapped around at the distraught call. It was Captain Jackson, and he looked panicked.