Battle Earth X (26 page)

He prayed his pleading would have some result. He didn’t care for the future. All he cared about was then and there. Another fifteen minutes and they’d all be dead. One of the Mechs stormed towards him as he spoke. He ducked under as it thrust at him with its spear-like weapon and drove his Assegai deep before moving on to its comrade that followed soon after. He leapt over and turned until he landed on its back. Taylor drove his Assegai down into its collarbone, and it dropped dead beneath him.

“Please! Help us!” he shouted.

He saw a blade coming out of the corner of his eye and turned just in time for the impact to only brush his armour. Still it cut through and sliced deep into his arm. As he reeled from the pain, Jafar summoned all the strength he could and charged at the Mech and smashed it down. He punched at its faceplate until it shattered, and he struck through to its head; blood spewed out over his hands.

Taylor was on his knees, looking up at the projections of the creatures and held out his empty bloody hands.

“I beg you. Fight with us. Fight these invaders of your lands. We had no idea there were living creatures on this planet. But they did, and you know it. Help us, and we will leave here and never return. Help us to fight them!”

They looked at each other as if they were making their decision. Suddenly their projections vanished into thin air.

“No, no, no!’ Taylor howled.

He got to his feet and picked up his Assegai. He tried to lift a shield with his left arm, but it had no strength left at all. He staggered over to Jafar, and wrapped his good arm around him, and helped him up to his feet.

“If we’re gonna die, then we’re gonna do it on our feet!”

Jafar nodded in agreement.

They turned to face two-dozen Mechs standing before them. Taylor was aching so much, he couldn’t move without pain soaring through his body. It felt like the end. He wondered if this was how Chandra’s life ended. He hoped it had been as honourable. But it all seemed so pointless when there would be nobody left to remember it, and nobody left to benefit from it.

Taylor looked back. Ten of their own were dead now, and several others were wounded but still on their feet. Parker’s helmet was gone, and her face dripped with blood from a gushing head wound, and yet she smiled at him. She didn’t say a word, and she didn’t need to. He looked back at the enemy and felt the anger and adrenaline build until he felt a new power within himself.

Enough to make it a good end,
he thought.

“Immortals!” he yelled, thrusting his Assegai in the air to spur them on.

He was just about to move when the two robots around them suddenly sprung into life and turned on the Mech horde. Flashes of light impacted among them as they were cut down in their droves. Three more of the robots arose to the surface and joined the fray, and then one of the black skinned aliens appeared before him. He recognised it as the one he had appealed to. This time he somehow knew it was real and not a hologram.

It said nothing but simply stared into his eyes as if studying his every emotion. It looked back to the enemy and then leapt into action. It moved like the wind and almost floated across the ground with no resistance at all. It fired as it approached. Every single shot met its target. Every shot killed one of the enemy, and in a flash, it was in amongst their ranks. A few seconds later, it was joined by the other two who had appeared with it moments before.

“Charge!” Taylor screamed.

He rushed forward at the head of his troops. The adrenaline pumping through his veins made him forget all the pain he felt, and hope returned to his thoughts. He no longer strove for a good end, but to end every enemy daring to stand before them. Jafar carried a shield before the two of them as they advanced. The first Mech they reached turned its pulse cannon towards them, but Jafar struck it down with his shield. Taylor went past, stabbed it through the chest, and carried on without a second thought.

Taylor turned to face another opponent when he found himself looking down the barrel of a Mech pulse cannon. As the charge lit up in the barrel, he knew he had no time to move. Morris leapt in front with his shield and glanced the strike. Taylor couldn’t believe his timing. It was stunning to watch as the Captain rolled forward and drove his Assegai up to its hilt. The Mech collapsed, and Morris turned to see if he was okay.

“This fight isn’t over, Colonel. Come on!”

He looked around at the robots running amok through the Mechs. They stamped on some and blasted others with their arm-mounted weapons. Then he saw a flash of light, and the Atlantis aliens cutting a path through the creatures, as if they were gods fighting mere mortals. He could not help but stop and watch, as one of them darted in and out of the Mechs with such precision he had never seen. And yet it never touched the Krys with its own close quarter weapons like they did. It ducked and weaved, firing from its arm-mounted weapon, and they could seemingly never catch it.

Taylor looked back to Parker and those of his own people who were not actively fighting, as they stood over the vanquished enemies at their feet. Not one of them had a rifle in hand any longer or any ammunition left to load one. They carried their Assegais and shields only and were coated in the blood of their enemies.

“We don’t die here today. They do!” he screamed, “Let’s finish this!”

He rushed forward with a dozen at his side and collided with the ranks of the Mechs. Taylor thrust his Assegai from one to another. Jafar used all the strength he had left to protect him from every strike that came his way. He stabbed from left to right in a frenzy that he couldn’t even control. Soon they were stepping over bodies to reach the their next victims. It was the kind of blood bath he welcomed with open arms.

Just ten minutes later they stood along the top of a mass of bodies. Forty-one of the two platoons still stood, and the three aliens who had fought them and the towering machines they controlled. They looked up at the vessel in the atmosphere above. It was being hit by shards of light that were weapons on the ground none of them could even see.

They awaited the vessel to be blown apart when a light flashed above, and it entered its own jump gate. It was still burning from the vicious hull damage. Taylor looked back across the open plain of the old city on the surface. It was scattered with bodies now, and far more of the enemy than theirs. Just one of the robots had fallen to the Krys to join the one they had felled earlier.

Taylor paced over to Jafar. He was once again down on the ground. He could barely stand, but he tried to get up as Taylor approached.

“You risked everything for me?” he asked.

“No, I did not risk it for you. You are one of the Regiment. I protect the Regiment, and to do so is to stand beside every man and woman who fights for it.”

“So you would consider me one of your own? After all you have been through?”

“I will take each man and woman on their own merit. The day a horde of those Mechs turn up and offer their services, I will accept them with open arms,” he jested.

Although he joked, he knew deep down he would certainly consider it if they turned up and offered as such. Taylor slumped down and sat on the body of one of the fallen Mechs, realising how little he had left in him. He had to put effort into breathing. Morris approached and looked remarkably full of energy.

“You’re getting old,” he joked.

“Yes I am,” replied Taylor, “but not too old to see this through.”

He knew he wasn’t that old yet, but he felt it. So many years of brutal combat had destroyed his body, and he was starting to feel the effects of the brutal treatment. Parker stepped towards him. The blood on her head was starting to congeal, but she appeared to have no other injury. She dropped her Assegai and fell down to wrap her arms around him.

“I thought we were dead for sure,” she wept.

“We may be yet.”

She pulled away from him so that she could look at his face and saw that he pointed with his eyes to the aliens they recently met on Atlantis. She had completely forgotten about the fight with their robots. It was all coming back to her now. She looked back to Taylor and shook her head.

‘We can’t fight them.”

He nodded.

“We have enough trouble and enough enemies to fight. We cannot manage any others,” she added.

‘Then let’s not make enemies of them.”

“If it isn’t too late,” said Morris.

Taylor looked to his side. The Captain had been standing beside them the whole time.

“You did well today,” said Taylor, “Worthy of a Captain in the Immortals.”

“Just worthy?” he said with a smile.

“More than worthy. You fought like a lion. You reminded me of a friend, a brother. A brother I lost to this war.”

“I am not that man.”

“No, you never can be, but you can be another brother to me. There is no limit.”

Morris nodded in appreciation. He knew in that moment he had finally been accepted as one of their own, in not just rank but ability also. He sat down on another of the bodies, as if it were some great relief lifted off his shoulders. Taylor reached over and touched his shoulder.

“You are as a brother to us, as Commander Kelly is a brother to me.”

“If he still lives.”

“Whether he lives or not, does not matter. He is a brother of mine. Though between us, if any man on Earth can survive the invasion of Erdogan, it is Kelly.”

“You really believe that?”

“I do, don’t you?” replied Taylor, “Honestly tell me he would just give up or walk into his own death? No. Kelly is a resourceful man. If we ever get back to Earth, I’d bet good money he’ll be the one, still there and standing on the smouldering ashes of his enemies.”

“If we ever do,” Parker sighed.

“We thought this could ever replace Earth?” Taylor asked, “Who were we kidding? We were born to live on Earth. For whatever reason, we were born there, and it is ours. It always will be. And I intend to find a way to get back there and reclaim my home.”

“How?” Parker asked.

“It’s nothing more than a pipe dream,” replied Morris.

Taylor looked over to the three aliens stood awaiting him. The Immortals had formed around him in a standoff against them and their robots. But they all knew they could not stand against the power of what they had seen.

“You saw how they looked at Jafar,” Taylor added.

“And yet they sat by and watched as we fought and took their merry time before joining in?” asked Morris.

“I don’t trust them.”

“They were judging us, Parker. Waiting to see our response to the Krys. And Jafar here probably threw a spanner in the works. No wonder it took them time to come over. Wouldn’t you? Most of our own race don’t trust Jafar, so why would they?”

He turned to Jafar. He was starting to regain his breath but was still at only half his strength.

“They hate your kind, much like our people do. Is that a problem for you?”

Jafar shook his head.

“If they’ll fight with us, I do not care.”

“And if they don’t want to fight with us, and they want to kill and remove us from this world?” Morris asked.

“Then we’re probably fucked, Captain,” replied Taylor.

He turned and looked at the three who seemed to be waiting for him to approach them. He didn’t want to step any nearer than he already was, as he respected and feared their power.

“So here we are. Another alien race to come between us and the enemy we have fought all these years? We cannot afford another enemy. We can only hope they will either let us leave, or they join us.”

Taylor stood up and took a deep breath, realising once again he had become a politician while in the service as a fighter. He was the only one among them willing to go forward, and it was his command anyway.

“We don’t know anything about these…things.”

“No, Eli, and they probably know nothing of us. Perhaps they are as wary as us, as we are of them?” Morris asked.

Parker looked to the robots standing beside them and shook her head.

“Don’t think so.”

“Only one question remains,” Taylor said, “This fighting here today, us and them. We fought together. But were we merely allies of convenience, or are they willing to go further?”