Time War: Invasion (20 page)

It slid to a halt right beside the doorway, and the German soldiers hauled the door shut as the charge exploded. Corwin rushed forwards to discover the steel door barely damaged by the blast, and he could hear the locks being clamped shut the other side. He looked to Rane and he smiled, for he knew exactly what to do. He slipped the Vickers onto his back and rushed at the door, hitting it like a charging bull. The British soldiers once again could not believe their eyes as he struck and barrelled his way through. As he did so, he took hold of the doorway and rushed forwards, using it as a shield as the two soldiers fired. The shots ricocheted from the huge plate of steel, and there was no stopping him. He smashed into them like a freight train. The two soldiers were launched back several metres against the far side wall and crumbled down dead, their bodies broken from the massive trauma.

"You know we tend to use explosives for that, old boy," Burr said to Corwin.

Corwin smiled, for the young Lieutenant sounded like an old man to him. His Sten gun was back in hand. Blood was seeping from a wound on the Lieutenant's upper left arm, but he was ignoring it in a stiff upper lip sort of way.

"And plenty of times, brute strength really is the answer, Lieutenant."

Burr shook his head. "Hard to argue with that."

He carried on along the corridor, and they stopped at a doorway. It had warning signs all over it in German that the contents were highly explosive. They stepped inside to ammunition crates the size of a jeep and stacked to the ceiling. Corwin stepped up beside the nearest one. He drew out his knife and slipped it inside the lid to prise it open. Inside was a warhead that filled the entire container.

"This must be what we came for," said Burr.

Corwin looked up; the crates were stacked as far as the eye could see. Beyett was already studying what was before him.

"Can we set these off with the explosives we have?" Corwin asked.

"Definitely."

"Set three charges here," said Burr.

To their side were two large wheeled trolleys, supposedly designed to transport the warheads.

"Let's take a couple along with us."

Rane wrapped his arms around the first box and hauled it onto the trolley. Nylund and Porter loaded the next.

"Hell, yes," Porter said, marvelling at the huge ordnance he held in his hands, "What I wouldn't give to take a few of these babies home."

The charges were placed, and they were once again heading down the access tunnel they had first started on. It opened out into a vast open plan facility, with missile launch bays set up in rows fifty deep for as far as they could see.

"My god, they don't do anything by half measures, do they?" asked Burr.

Many of the warheads were already mounted in place aboard missiles inside the bays and stacked beside them.

"They must be days away from unleashing these," said Beyett, "Everything here is high explosive, so we cannot risk firing a single shot."

Corwin shook his head. That was not a nice thought.

"Fix bayonets! Nobody pulls the trigger, no matter what!" Burr gave the order.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," replied Nylund.

"This is gonna be a party," added Porter.

Corwin slipped his Bren gun onto his back and drew out his knife. It was a bizarre situation, for all the lights were on and there was perfect visibility.

"Come on, let's get these charges set," added Burr.

They moved up to the first metre thick support beam, stretched up to the ceiling, and began placing charges.

"You sure these warheads will blow up if we rig them to go?"

Corwin looked back to Beyett to answer the Lieutenant.

"Trust me, they'll go up more easily than you think they can. It'll be a miracle if we are able to get out of here alive."

They continued onwards along the silos placing all the charges they had, but Corwin raised his hand to bring them to a sudden halt. He’d heard footsteps in the distance. He began creeping forwards, leaving the others behind, and still carrying nothing in his hands but his combat knife. He reached the end of a row of missile bays when suddenly someone leapt around the corner and held him at gunpoint. But he sighed in relief on seeing it was one of their own, and Williams was standing just behind him.

Before either of them could say a word, they heard a single Sten gun open up on full auto. It was coming from Corwin's right side, and they knew it must be the Third Platoon at the entrance to the silo.

"What is it?" Williams saw the look of horror on Corwin’s face.

"Look around you. One stray bullet and we could all go up!"

Corwin then rushed towards the sound of gunfire. He took a bend and found the platoon at a broad entrance. It seemed they had been chased into the room and were firing out around a ninety-degree bend.

"Hold your fire!" Corwin hollered.

A few more shots rang out as he shouted it once again, finally grabbing hold of one of the shooters and pulling him back out of view of the enemy.

"Nobody, I mean nobody fires a shot!"

The man looked at him in surprise, but Williams soon appeared and confirmed the order.

"What are we supposed to fight with, Sir?" asked the soldier.

"Bayonets, your bare hands, anything you have to. Even a ricochet could end us all, and they know it. Or why else do you think they aren't firing back?" added Corwin.

The man nodded in agreement and drew out his bayonet.

"Hold this position," he said to the platoon leader and turned back to his people.

They heard a war cry from several soldiers rushing down the corridor with bayoneted rifles. Corwin jumped into the opening and beside one of the rifles and smashed the back of his fist into the man’s head. The force stopped his upper body dead, as his legs were thrown forwards, and he went crashing down to the ground. Before he had time to recover from the stunning strike, Corwin stamped on his neck and crushed his windpipe. He proceeded to throw his knife at another soldier, and it embedded in his collar just above the neckline of his body armour.

Corwin leapt forward and drew out the blade, thrusting it back into the windpipe as the man staggered back, and finally slumping down dead. It was all the display of close quarters the British soldiers needed to get the idea. The one he had grabbed placed his Sten gun over his shoulder and drew out a slender stiletto bladed knife from a concealed pocket at his right knee.

"Two minutes to finish setting charges, and then we're out of here," said Williams.

They split up and began planting all the explosives they were carrying. But as Corwin placed his last one, he heard a crashing sound, as if some part of the room was collapsing. He looked around just in time to see a British para fly through the air from behind, and one of the silos then disappeared from view. He could only have been struck by something of superhuman strength.

Another crashing sound rang out as he heard a deep roar. He rushed to the end of one of the silos and looked on in horror to see the last thing he expected or wanted to see there.

“Robak,” he whispered to himself.

The giant genetically enhanced monster was in amongst several of the troops and fighting with nothing more than his bare hands. He grabbed one of the men’s helmets and twisted to snap his neck. A straight punch to another sent the poor fellow flying through the air and crashing into a support beam of one of the missile supports. His back broke on impact, and he slumped down to the floor.

Williams went at the towering Robak with a bayoneted Sten gun. He ducked under a punch from the creature and thrust the tiny blade into his stomach. But Robak simply placed his hand on the Colonel’s chest and shoved him. He couldn’t hold onto the weapon and was thrown back onto his back and slid across the floor. Robak pulled out the Sten and tossed it aside as the stunned Colonel drew out his last defence, the same stiletto bladed Fairbairn Sykes knife that they all carried. It seemed to be of little hope against the unstoppable power of Robak.

He stormed towards the Colonel just as he got back to his feet. Williams thrust forward with his knife, but was parried with ease. Robak was just about to deliver a skull crushing punch to Williams’ face when Corwin flew at Robak seemingly out of nowhere. He tackled Robak at the waist and struck at a sprint that was enough to knock him aside. It smashed him against the frame of one of the missile bays, and he lost his grip on Williams as he did so.

Corwin stepped back and squared off against Villiers’ henchman who looked in utter shock and surprise to seem him. It was obvious that he recognised Corwin, and Rane and Porter appeared at his side a second later. Robak was shaking his head in disbelief, and that made Corwin smile. He now knew that Villiers had no idea of their existence in this time zone.

“Didn’t think we’d let you off that easily, did you, Robak?”

He looked to Williams who had gotten the wind knocked out of him and was still staggered by the power and ferocity of Villiers’ creation.

“Get your people out of here, Colonel. We’ll handle this.”

Williams nodded gratefully, slowly got up, and limped off in agony. He headed back to the others and met Burr heading towards him and right to where he had just come from.

“Time to get the hell out of here, Lieutenant.”

“Sir, you go on. Captain Corwin and his squad are part of my platoon, and we don’t leave them behind.”

Williams could see there would be no convincing him otherwise and nodded in appreciation for his efforts.

“Good luck to you, Lieutenant, and God’s speed may I see you back in England.”

Burr rushed onwards with the eight men of one section he had brought him with. They took the bend and found a monumental battle ensuing.

Robak punched Porter in the face and split his lip. Blood burst out, but Porter quickly returned with a hard strike of his own. Corwin leapt in with a knee into the creature’s flank with such immense power that he buckled slightly. Harland was next with a swift forward kicked that knocked the creature back, and Rane rushed at him, as usual like a raging bull.

Rane was only a little smaller than the freakish stature of Robak, and he struck him off his feet and toward a large pane of reinforced glass. The two barrelled through the pane and dropped through the other side. Glass burst out of the floor as they vanished from view. Corwin rushed to the opening; horrified to see it opened out into some type of small underground hangar.

Rane lay flat on the ground fifteen metres below. He was moving, but only barely, and there was no sign of Robak. Without another thought, Corwin, Harland, and Porter jumped from the opening, landing smoothly on the ground beside their wounded friend. Burr rushed to the broken window and looked down at the distance with trepidation.

“Sod that,” he said to himself.

He looked to one side and saw a doorway to some stairs.

“Follow me!” he shouted to his own section. Meanwhile, the rest of Corwin’s team leapt through to join him.

Corwin was immediately at Rane’s side and hauling him onto his feet. He looked stunned and sore.

“Not quite what you were expecting?”

Rane shook his head and winced in pain. Corwin looked up; there were several bizarre looking aircraft beside them, including a giant flying wing aircraft with six jet engines. It looked way ahead of its day.

They suddenly heard the whirl of engines, but it wasn’t the prop planes they had encountered so far. This sounded powerful like the jet engines they could see on the flying wing. Then from behind the cover of another aircraft a small twin jet engine fighter appeared.

Corwin reached for his Bren gun because he could see Robak crammed into the cockpit. But the aircraft accelerated at such speed it rocketed past them and out towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Before they knew it, he was gone, and none of them could do anything about it.

“What on Earth was that?” Burr asked, arriving out of breath at Corwin’s side.

“Doesn’t matter right now, Lieutenant.”

“No. We’ve got four minutes until the first charges go up. We’ve got no wings and probably no time to get out.”

Corwin looked to the opening at the end of the underground landing strip and then back to the huge flying wing that was almost the wingspan of the tunnel.