Battle Earth: 11 (24 page)

“Taylor, I must attend to my people. Congratulations.”

That was all he said as the hologram vanished.

“He a friend of yours?” Kelly asked.

“I am not sure if I’ll ever call him that, but he’s certainly an ally, and we wouldn’t have gotten your asses home safely without his help.”

“I must thank him later.”

They carried on down the ramp and were swamped by the crowds.

“Come on, the Admiral will want to meet you!”

The crowds dispersed a little to allow them through but followed on to the landing bay next to the HQ building. The bay was empty, and they were awaiting the arrival of Huang’s shuttle.

“Admiral Huber?”

“Huber went down with his ship, Kelly.”

“So a lot has changed?”

“And a lot has stayed the same. We still fight to get back to Earth.”

They could hear the engines in the sky, and the shuttle soared into view.

“Huang won’t want to talk for long. Then we’ll find you some food and more than a few beers.”

“Sounds good.”

He sounded distracted as he watched the descent of the shuttle before them. It finally put down, and they all waited in silence for the ramp to lower and the Admiral to step out to greet them. He came out in full dress uniform that sported more medals and braid than Taylor could imagine. It brought a smirk to Taylor’s face, but he refrained from laughing.

Six of his personal command staff and two of his marines accompanied Huang. Taylor didn’t call anyone to attention or even bother to salute. They were too caught up in the moment of celebrating their victory.

“Congratulations and welcome!” Huang shouted and strode forward with his arm outstretched towards Kelly.

* * *

Captain Reynolds finally found the Hornet. It was an older model frigate. Crosses had been painted on the side to identify it as a hospital ship, and yet many of the gun turrets and missile platforms remained. He stepped aboard to find it was quiet and calm, not like the rush he would have expected after a battle.

“I’m looking for Major Bryan Weller,” he asked a passing nurse.

“Follow this corridor as far as it will go, and you’ll find him at the very last door on the left. But, Captain, you’ll have to get cleaned up. You can’t be in here like that. And you can stow your rifle and other weapons at the armoury.

Reynolds carried on without any concern for the nurse's words. He passed many rooms where he could see personnel resting and recovering from injuries that would soon have them back on duty. He reached the end of the corridor and found a door marked up with Weller’s name. He pressed the buzzer and had to wait a few seconds for the door to slide open. The Major sat at a desk at the far end of the small office.

“Captain Reynolds, formerly of the MDF reporting.”

“One of Commander Kelly’s?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Weller smiled. “Then you must be relieved to be back among the fleet. Come on in.”

Reynolds took a step into the office. As he passed through the doorframe, it immediately went red and a siren began. Weller froze, knowing what he was looking at.

“A clone,” he whispered to himself.

Reynolds realised he had been discovered and reached for the rifle slung at his side. Weller too went for the pistol on his belt, and both men pulled the triggers at the same time. Weller took a hit through the left shoulder, but he kept firing repeatedly until the clone of Reynolds was hit six times and launched back out into the corridor. He looked at the body in horror for just a second and then to his wound. He had no feeling in his left arm at all, and he didn’t know much longer he could stay conscious. He laid the pistol down on the desk and hit the comms channel button.

“Put me through to Colonel Taylor, now!” he screamed.

A moment later the sound of chatter and cheering came over the comms channel and Taylor asking, “What is it? I’m a little busy.”

“They’re clones, clones!” he shouted back with all the strength he could muster.

Taylor looked back to Kelly in horror and could see he had heard the warning, too. Something seemed to click in Kelly’s eyes, and he became an entirely different person. He raised his rifle and fired a burst into Huang’s chest. The shots went right through the Admiral and struck one of his officers behind. A second later, gunfire erupted as the rest of the clones opened fire on the command staff and the crowd.

Taylor reached for his pistol, but the Becker clone already had him in sight. As Becker pulled the trigger, Parker leapt in front of Taylor and fired with her pistol. One of the shots skimmed Becker’s left ear, but five of his shots struck Parker. Three glanced off her armour. But one went through her arm and the other her neck. She dropped lifelessly to the ground. Taylor immediately fired a single shot into Becker’s head, and he was killed instantly.

Without any concern for what was going on around him, Taylor dropped down to Parker’s side. He turned her over and could see she was fighting to breathe. He tried to say something to her but couldn’t find the words. A few seconds later, she stopped breathing, and her blood poured out over the sand and onto Taylor’s hands. For a moment, he was frozen in horror at what he had seen, but it was soon replaced by bitterness and anger. He switched his pistol to his left hand and drew out his Assegai before standing up to join the fight.

Bodies lay scattered all around as both sides opened up with automatic weapons, and nobody carried shields. It was butchery on both sides as there was so little cover to be had. A dozen of the Inter-Allied lay dead around him and dozens more of the crowds that had gathered. Jafar was weighing in against the clones and striking them with a bare hand and his own Assegai as he moved from one to another.

Shots flew all around Taylor, but he didn’t care. He stood tall and looked for Kelly’s clone. As soon as he identified him, he strode right for him with raw determination and hatred. One of the clones stood in his way and tried to fire, but he spun out and past the barrel, and drove his assegai into their flank before firing a shot into the back of its head.

Finally, he had a clear view of Kelly and sprinted towards him. The Commander’s clone noticed his charge and got two shots off. One glanced off his breastplate; the other struck the edge of his arm and opened up a small wound. He dropped the pistol, but it wasn’t enough to stop him.

Taylor got past the barrel of the gun and punched the clone in the face with the fist that clenched his Assegai. As he did so, he ripped the rifle out of Kelly’s arms and threw it to the ground. The clone drew out its Assegai and readied itself. It felt utterly bizarre to square off against what looked like a close friend, but he wasn’t going to let that get in the way of what had to be done.

Kelly’s clone lunged forward, and Taylor dodged it. He grabbed hold of his weapon arm at the wrist and drove his Assegai into the gap in the armour by the armpit. The clone straightened up as the pain surged through its body before Taylor finally drove it home and up to the hilt. The thrust went right through the chest and pierced the heart. Kelly’s body went limp, and Taylor let go his grip as it dropped to the floor before him.

He looked down at the red blood that dripped from his Assegai, and it made him feel sick. He knew it was just a clone, but the sight of human blood spilled at his own hands was revolting to him after so many years of fighting the Krys.

He thought killing the clone would bring some satisfaction, but it brought none. He just felt empty now. He knew that defeating the clone meant nothing at all.

Screams of pain filled the air, and Taylor turned to look at the damage. The battle had lasted just a few short minutes, and their weapons caused horrific devastation. The clones lay dead or dying, with just a handful detained. He watched Silva put his rifle to the head of one of the prisoners and pull the trigger before moving to the next. Taylor made no attempt to stop him. Hundreds of bodies lay before him. Huang and all of his staff were dead.

Jafar was limping where he had been shot multiple times but still stepped up beside him.

“How did we not see it?” Taylor cried out.

Irala suddenly appeared beside him and looked in horror at what lay before them.

“Where the hell were you?”

“The signal jammer that we sent to protect you in Paris.”

“What of it?”

“It was returned to your vessel, the Diderot. We had no idea what was going on until it was too late.”

“So he knew,” Taylor muttered.

Irala looked confused.

“Erdogan,” Taylor said with a growly bitter voice, “He knew what would happen. He knew your tactics, and he used it all against us. Not only have we not succeeded in rescuing our own people, we’ve just lost more, more than we can afford,” he said, looking down at his Eli who lay among the hundreds of dead.

Captain Lasure rushed into view with several of his crew armed and ready for a fight. He stopped at the sight of the bloody scene.

“What? What happened here?”

“Clones. They set a trap, and we played right into it.”

Lasure looked over to the body of Huang and gasped again.

“What do we do now?”

Taylor shrugged, unable to speak.

“Bury the dead and keep moving forward!” Silva shouted as he approached.

Taylor nodded in appreciation for the Sergeant Major’s help. He always was the man to rely on in the Regiment. Captain Morris was with him. He appeared to be covered in as much of his own blood as others. He couldn’t speak a single word as he was still in shock.

“The Admiral is dead. We need to appoint a head of the fleet, even a temporary one, or there will be chaos.”

“Then it’s you,” said Taylor quietly.

“I…I can’t. There are many more men and women more suited and better qualified.”

“More than anything right now, we need people we can rely on. I am declaring you the head of the fleet, and giving you a field commission to Admiral.”

“You cannot do that, Colonel. You know you can’t.”

“Can’t?” he asked, “Anyone who has a problem with this decision can come to me. You are the Admiral now. I hope you live longer than your predecessor,” he said bitterly.

Lasure couldn’t believe the turn of events, and it was clear he didn’t want it, but he had no choice.

* * *

Two days later.

Taylor stood before the graves of all those they were burying, and two thousand or more personnel and civilians stood before him, waiting for him to make some address. He wore a fresh uniform now and had his left arm cradled in a brace. He stood on top of a podium that had been hastily put together from Navy scaffolding. He looked at the lines of graves and openly wept. Irala and fifteen of his own kind were amongst the crowd. It was the most of his people any of them had ever seen in one place, and went a long way to showing respect for their allies.

Taylor looked out to his own Regiment who were present. Many were missing, buried instead of out there where they should be. Large numbers of the crowd were wounded, and many more couldn’t make it out of their hospital beds.

Most of all, he thought about Eli Parker. Just one life out of many, but he couldn’t help but think of her.

I never believed I would have to bury Eli. I always assumed she would outlive me. Fuck, we were the Immortals!

Despite all the losses they had endured, he could see on the faces of those before him that these were the ones that hit the hardest. They hit when they least expected.

Admiral Lasure stepped up to onto the podium beside him to begin, as he could see Taylor was struggling.

“What you all suffered here was a great loss on both an individual level, and to the fleet at large. Let us ensure that this never happens again. I didn’t want this responsibility of being Admiral. You never wanted to lose your friends, and or to be driven from our world. But none of these things can be undone now. We can only look forward.”

He looked to Taylor who nodded in appreciation for his efforts. Taylor wiped the tears from his eyes and finally the words came out.

“We lost dearly, friends, comrades, partners, and allies; losses that cannot be replaced with numbers alone, and losses that will never be forgotten. We set out in this war to kill Erdogan and bring an end to it all. But we got distracted. We let our feelings overcome us. I let my feelings lead me. This is a bitter reminder that we lost our way. But now we know it; kill Erdogan. End him in any way we can.