Battle Earth V (29 page)

“Ready all weapons! Launch fighters!”

“Here we go again,” muttered Taylor.

Huber stepped back and grabbed him by his breastplate and onto his feet.

“You better get your head in the game, Major. There’s a war to fight.”

Taylor took in a deep breath and regained his composure. Despite the vast enemy descending on them, he couldn’t help but think of Chandra. The enemy horde closed the distance quickly and was firing in no time at all. Taylor had become so desensitised to the brutal enemy assaults that he simply stood and watched, as if he were sat at the movies.

They’re never going to give up, are they?
Taylor whispered to himself.

The Washington’s guns opened fire as their fighters soared towards the enemy fleet. The aliens were closing the distance as quickly as they could, as they had in every previous engagement. Only thing this time, the human fleet did not have the firepower to stop them in their tracks. One of the destroyers to their starboard side burst open as a heavy pulse smashed through its bow and down the length of the hull.

Six of the enemy ships were destroyed as they advanced and many more damaged, but it was not enough. Huber could see the enemy was about to burst through their frontline and cut in between the fleet.

“Major, prepare your marines to repel borders.”

They all knew that a boarding action was now inevitable.

“Sir, we can’t hold against these numbers,” Taylor whispered in response.

“We don’t know that, Major. Now man your stations and defend this ship!”

A few seconds later, their communication links with the rest of the fleet blacked out once again, in what was becoming an annoyingly familiar situation for the Navy crews. The bridge was reduced to fixed video feeds on the hull of the ship only. Huber watched in horror as several of the frigates ahead of them were smashed by continuous enemy fire and reduced to derelict hulks, with no life on board. Taylor rushed to the door where Eli’s platoon was waiting for him.

“Pass the word. We’ve got incoming.”

“We’ve got a breach!”

Taylor heard the cry from the bridge, and it was shortly followed by Huber’s booming voice.

“Major!”

He rushed back inside.

“Floor five, sector E, breach.”

“Any idea on their strength?”

Huber looked to his crew.

“All I can say is it’s twice the size of the ship that breached us at the gateway, Sir.”

“Christ,” replied Huber.

“Sir, this is only going to get worse. We can’t hold like this. We risk losing the entire fleet.”

“You just deal with the breach, Major, and make sure all your units stay near to comms stations. This is only the beginning.”

“Jackson’s Company is nearest, have him informed immediately!”

Taylor rushed out of the door, without a word to Jafar and Parker. The platoon rushed after him, Parker at their head.

“Shouldn’t you be staying on the bridge?” she asked.

“Probably, but we need to make sure this attack is stopped quickly before it has time to spread. Jackson will be heading from the stern. We’ll head them off from the other side and make sure they cannot spread through the ship.”

They rushed to the nearest elevators and poured in. Taylor already knew the battle was lost. They couldn’t withstand such a brutal and overwhelming assault. Eli looked to his face and could already read it in his eyes.

“What are we still doing here?” she asked him.

“What do you mean?”

“You know we’re fucked. Does the Admiral want to kill us all?”

“We came here to make a stand with the largest fleet in human history. Think what it would do to morale if we ran at first sight of an enemy fleet. We can’t leave unless it is clear we can’t win.”

“So we’ll throw lives away to prove a point?”

“That’s about the sum of it,” he replied.

“At least there is a point to these deaths. Krycenaean lords will throw you to your deaths without reason,” said Jafar.

“And that is why we will win in the end, because we value our people,” Taylor said quietly.

 
Jafar’s reminder of how despicable the enemy was brought him a new sense of purpose. If he could not save Chandra, he would at least make their foes pay a wicked price. The elevator doors opened, and they rushed out at a fast jogging pace. They didn’t have time to carefully check every corner. If they didn’t stem the flow of the enemy advance, the ship would be infested.

Within a few minutes, they heard gunfire raging as the sounds of war echoed down the long broad corridors of the ship.

“We’re close now,” whispered Taylor.

A crossroads lay up ahead, but Taylor didn’t slow down. He could hear the fighting long off down the right turn and rushed to it, taking the bend. He stopped dead as he came face to face with a column of Mechs who were advancing briskly towards him. They were just fifteen metres ahead. Parker took the bend soon after him and stopped with a gasp.

Taylor leapt back and threw Parker out of the corridor and himself the other way as the first pulses flashed ahead. He slammed back against the entrance to the hallway and took a deep breath to calm him, for his heart had almost stopped. He drew a grenade and tossed it down the corridor, without peering around the corner.

The blast rang out a few seconds later, and he was quick to bring his rifle to bear against the stunned and wounded creatures, but many more pushed forward. Parker joined him, firing from the other side of the archway. They both ducked back as a hail of pulses rushed towards them.

“Damn good timing!” Taylor grinned.

They both knew that if they’d been just a minute later, they’d likely not have contained the spread of the Mechs.

“Think this is the only breach?” Parker called out.

“I doubt it!”

* * *

The vast chasm of human incubators was eerily silent as they awaited the incoming hordes. The few hundred survivors had long accepted they were going to die. As they sat waiting for their time to come, all most could think was of their bitter hatred of the enemy.

Chandra sat with her back against one of the consoles, looking out to the defensive line of troops formed up at the outer circle. The wall they defended was just a metre high, and enough to provide a little cover at least. Major Warren sat next to her with his rifle propped beside him.

“You really think he’ll reach Taylor?” asked Warren.

“I can’t say I was fond of Taylor bringing those two into our ranks, but they have proven themselves more than capable of the task. I’d put my life in their hands. If anyone can do it, it’ll be him.”

“Humanity has held together throughout this and that has kept us strong. If they can eat away at us from the inside with these things, it could be the end for us all.”

“Then pray Tsengal makes it through.”

A droning sound rang out of the continuous clatter of footsteps. She stood up to look out over their lines and could see columns of Mechs advancing towards them for as far as she could see. They would be in range within a minute. She looked down to see all the troops looking to her for a last few words before the end.

“Less than three thousand of us held this planet against a number many times that. They may finish us here, but not without paying a heavier price than us. We have single-handedly halted the advance of their troops. They’re going for Earth again. I have no doubt about that. What have we done here? We’ve given them a reason to fear us. The human race will not lie down and die. We’ll fight to the bitter end, and kill ten for every one of us that falls!”

She paced along the lines and could see little hope among the troops.

“When this war began, the enemy were a frightful sight to us all, but now we stand as Gods against them. Superior soldiers - superior people in every way. If this is our end, then I am proud to say I stand beside the best that ever was. Our deaths will not be in vain. We’ve bought valuable time for our people back home, and made these bastards pay dearly. Now let’s make them bleed a little more!”

A cheer rang out as she rushed up to the line and lifted her rifle, firing a well-aimed burst at the first Mech her sights found. It dropped dead and was trampled underfoot by the next rank.

“Come on, you bastards!” she shouted.

The rest of the troops opened up with a devastating volley that decimated two full ranks of the enemy soldiers. Blue blood spewed out of the metal floor and the incubation chambers beside them. Glass shattered as shrapnel ripped into the rows, and human blood seeped out from the chambers. The Mechs opened fire, and pulses smashed into their small defences and past them. Several of the humans were struck with their opening volley.

Chandra could not tell the three Battalions apart any longer, for the survivors fought side by side as one. She took careful aim with every shot and used just two or three shots per target. It was the minimum needed to bring down the heavily armoured enemy.

“Ammunition isn’t going well!” Warren called.

It doesn’t matter anymore,
whispered Chandra.

She didn’t mean for anyone else to hear her muttering, but Warren did and had to smile. He had accepted death was now the only path and could only laugh so as not to cry. The volleys from the troops ripped the incoming Mechs apart so that there was an almost continuous stream of bodies from where they had first come into range.

Chandra ducked down behind cover to change her magazine and could see more than fifty of their own were dead or dying. Several more who were wounded continued to fight on. She looked down to see she had just two magazines left. Chandra slammed in one of them and jumped up to continue firing.

Despite the number of Mechs that continued to fall, they were still gaining ground. Within just a minute, her magazine was empty. She looked around to see that many others were running dry. She fired off her last magazine quickly and threw her rifle down. She drew out her Assegai, and several others could already see what was coming and followed suit. She leapt onto the small wall they had defended and thrust it into the air.

“Come on!” she screamed.

She turned and jumped to the ground beyond and was immediately at a running pace. Their shields were long gone, but the rest of the troops were hot on her heels. Several fired the last of the ammunition as they charged before drawing the last weapons they had. Pulses cut thirty of the humans down as they closed the distance, but Chandra made it at the front by nothing more than luck.

The Colonel leapt a metre into the air as she reached the enemy frontline and on top of the first Mech. She thrust the Assegai like a lance into the faceplate of the creature, killing it instantly. It smashed down to the ground with her still on top of it. Warren and the others were into action well before the creatures could respond to the Colonel.

In less than a minute, the area turned into a mass melee where every man fought for himself. Humans and aliens were scattered, and all fought savagely. Chandra ducked under the clumsy swing of one Mech, thrusting up into the next she encountered. Even with nothing more than hand weapons, they were still giving more than they got. But their numbers were too few.

As Chandra spun out of the way from one of the enemy’s attack, she saw Warren shot point blank range with one of the pulse cannons. At the short range, the shot burst through his breastplate and killed him instantly. She was sad to see him fall. He had become a great friend. It only boiled her blood further, and she turned and screamed out as she jumped onto one of the Mechs, stabbing through its armour with three relentless thrusts.

Pulses continued to rip through their positions. Many of the oncoming Mechs fired into the melee, killing as many of their own as they did the humans. The bodies of both sides were amassing to the extent that Chandra now stood on a layer of bodies. She could no longer see or touch the floor. Soldiers from both sides dropped all around her. She thrust frantically at the nearest creature. As it dropped, all seemed to go silent.

She turned to the direction where the enemy had come from. The Mechs had come to a complete halt and were dividing to let someone through. She looked around in surprise as she stood in the line of fire of a hundred guns, and yet none fired. Only twenty-two of the humans still stood with her. Klimenko was close at her side. His helmet was smashed open, and his face covered in a mix of both his own and enemy blood.