Battle Earth: 11 (9 page)

He turned around slowly and studied the hundreds of soldiers still at his command. None of them sat about skulking and waiting to die. They did not complain or show any inkling of wanting to give up. They all set about their jobs to ready themselves for the next fight. It took barely three minutes after the vehicles had come to a standstill, to having everyone prepared for the battle. Only Becker's tank crews looked lost now. They had rifles in hand but didn't seem to know what to do.

"Becker, your people are to guard this truck. Engel, you're staying close to those scanners at all times and relaying every piece of information you get to me."

Everyone had settled down into their positions and looked to him for something, but he wasn't sure he had anything to give them.

"All those alien bastards that enter this valley to get us must die. You will not show mercy. You will not let any escape. Our continued survival depends on us putting some distance on them! So when they come down into this valley, you wait until they're as close as they can be till you shoot. You do not risk a single one of them escaping, you hear me!"

There were groans and grunts of approval. He knew it was much to ask them to kill the enemy; only for them to hold their fire long enough to reel them in.

"Nobody fires until I give the command!"

They were silent now. Confident and ready to do what needed to be done.

"Should this fail. If the enemy overrun us, and you are forced to flee, then do so. Split up, and try and make it your own way. We don't set any rendezvous point. If you are divided, then I wish you luck; I wish us all luck!"

He couldn't think of anything else to say, so simply sat down on the rooftop by the turret and waited for some word from Engel. He took the time to carefully observe their location, phasing out all that was manmade that they had taken there. He took in the beauty of the location and the sweet clean air. He knew it wouldn't last for much longer, so he cherished it while he could. For all that he hated the Krys for forcing him off of his home colony, he truly appreciated moments like this. They were a natural bliss he never experienced in the environmentally controlled confinements of their accommodation on the Moon.

Finally, the word came in, "Sir, I've got three targets incoming!"

He sighed; knowing the beauty around him was about to be so rudely interrupted.

"Okay, people, remember what you have to do!"

He climbed into the turret on the rooftop and waited for the enemy to come into view.

Wait, wait! Come on, you bastards,
he told himself.

He was looking forward to seeing the enemy now. They had forced him from his home once again, and he wanted blood for it.

"They're almost on top of us, Sir!"

"Good, you keep that information coming," he replied.

Then he saw the first of them. It was nothing more than a silhouette at first. It came over the trees at the top of the valley and then dived in towards them. He waited and waited, resisting the urge to fire, despite tracking his target all the way. Another two small ships followed it. He took a deep breath and slowed his breathing to keep calm. He saw the flash of a gun on the lead ship, and the pulse struck the ground not far from his vehicle. But still he did not fire. A few more pulses struck the ground.

Finally, he saw the nose light on the lead craft as it slowed its descent to come to a hover position. He didn't have to give the command; his trigger finger did it for him. The two machine guns in front of him roared to life, and a burst of fire smashed into the nose of the aircraft before him. Just as the first impacts struck, he saw another five enemy aircraft enter the valley. The timing was perfect.

The closest ship he had hit was struck by a hail of fire from the rapid firing anti-aircraft platforms all around him. The two craft with it tried to bank and gain speed, but it was too late for them also. They burst into flames and dropped out of the sky. A few Mechs managed to jump from one, and Kelly's troops on the ground were quick to take aim and finish them as they landed.

Kelly turned his gun on the next targets. They had split on entering the valley and seen the incoming fire, to spread out. They were already raining in fire against the troops below. A pulse flattened one of the smaller trucks and its two crew sheltering beside it. Kelly squeezed the trigger once again and riddled one of the craft with fire. It began disembarking Mechs in an assisted fifty-metre drop with boosters. His machine gun followed them down and cut two of them apart before they'd even reached the canyon floor.

Anti-aircraft fire filled the sky, in what could almost be described as a fireworks display. The soldiers on the ground cheered as each of the craft was brought down with ruthless efficiency. They were all nothing more than light transports that didn't stand a chance against close range heavy weapons fire.

A number of the Mechs had managed to disembark from one of the craft before it was destroyed and had got under the anti-aircraft firing solutions. They were out from cover now and striding towards one of the AA trucks. Kelly rotated his gun around and took aim at the first. He opened fire and blew it apart, but he could see a pulse from one of the others coming right for the armoured canopy of his emplacement. He ducked down barely in time; the pulse impacted and blew the canopy, showering shards of reinforced Perspex down on him. Several of them burnt into the flesh on his face and neck, but a few seconds later, he was back up at the guns that were now open to the world.

Kelly fired once again, this time keeping his finger on the trigger as he strafed three of the Mechs. With the weight of fire from others, they were rapidly brought down. He quickly turned his attention back to the air. Another of the craft dropped from the sky and barrelled into nearby trees and burst into flames. But he turned his attention now to the final craft and could see it was banking and putting full power down to escape the valley.

"Bring it down!"

His voice echoed around the valley through the loudhailer on his vehicle for all to hear. He opened fire with his own guns but was out of ammo after the initial burst. He knew there was no chance of reloading in time now and simply watched, hoping his people could do it. Tracer fire lit up the sky as the alien craft tried evasive manoeuvres.
 
It was almost out of view when a final burst struck the engines, and it lost altitude, clipping the trees at the top of the valley and crashing down the other side.

"Did they make it?" he asked Engel hastily.

"No...no, Sir."

He looked back. The smoke was rising from where the craft had gone down, and he sighed in relief.

"We did it," he told himself.

He looked all around them for some sign of remaining Mechs and heard a few shots as the last two were gunned down. As he climbed up onto the top of the vehicle, he could see four of their own vehicles had been destroyed by the blast, and he could see as many bodies or more. No losses were acceptable, but the result was the best they could hope for. He looked down the hatch of the turret towards the ladder leading into the vehicle and asked one last time.

"Any more contact?"

"No, Sir, the air is clear."

"Then we've done it."

He looked out to the rest of his people who waited their next orders.

"You make me proud!" he said sternly. A single tear dropped down his face and seeped into the burning wound on his cheek, "You've just won us another day, another week, another month. It doesn't matter how long. We're still alive. We're still fighting. We are the resistance!"

Cheers rang out, but he knew he couldn't revel in it for too long. He held up his hand to call for silence. Almost instantly the valley returned to the tranquillity he had enjoyed in the moments before the battle.

"We may be on the run, but we have achieved exactly what we set out to achieve!"

More cheers followed, and once again he had to call for silence.

"The fact remains that we are still here. We live on in defiance, and every single day that one of us still breathes and fights, is another day we have succeeded in our mission!"

There were nods and grunts of approval, but they stayed silent this time for him to continue.

"So we go on. We run when we have to and fight where we can. We've just bought ourselves the time we need to blend back into this vast forest, but we cannot linger any longer. Gather up the wounded. Leave the dead, or risk joining them. Let's move out!"

Nobody liked leaving their fallen friends where they fell, but nobody argued the point. They all knew they couldn't afford to. It took less than a minute for everyone to clamber into the vehicles. Kelly's was already rocking forward in less time than that. He climbed down into the comms cab and found Engel waiting for him. She was staring at him. He froze for a moment and tried to figure out what she wanted from him.

"You did well," he finally stated.

"All I did was sit here and tell you what I saw."

"We all have a job to do, none of them are glamorous, but all of them are necessary."

"I want to fight."

"Why?" he asked abruptly, "You weren't trained for it."

"I wasn't trained for anything that is required of any of us anymore. There are plenty of civilians around who weren't trained as soldiers either."

"If this is about doing your part, then trust me, you are already doing it."

She looked away and to her instruments, knowing she wasn't getting anywhere. He paced over to her and put his hand on her chin, turning her head around to face him.

"Trust me, your time to fight with a rifle in hand will come. It will come for all of us. That doesn't mean you'd wish it to come sooner rather than later."

"But...you like to fight," she pleaded.

He shook his head. "What gave you that impression?"

"All the speeches you give. It's like all you want in life is to kill the enemy."

"But not because I enjoy it. Anyone who ever tells you they do is either a fool or crazy. It brings me great satisfaction knowing we have deprived the enemy of something, but I get no pleasure from the killing."

He knew deep down that he was lying to some extent, but he wanted to believe he was better than that. He also knew he had to set an example.

What would Taylor do?
he asked himself.

He was certain his answer would be the same as his.

Try and set a higher standard than that which I live by.

Kelly turned his attention to Becker who also looked a little lost.

"You all right, Captain?"

He shrugged. "I'm still alive."

"Then what's the problem?"

"I'm a tanker with no tanks left. Leaves me, well, useless."

Kelly laughed.

"We win this victory, and in large part at your hands, and you sulk about it. Don't you worry, we'll find plenty for you to do."

With that, he climbed back up the ladder and into the damaged turret to use as an observation post. He watched the column fall into line, and they moved back under the canopy of the forest. He had no idea where they were heading, only that it was away from the enemy, and that was enough.

* * *

Just six days had passed, and Kelly sat around a campfire with Reynolds and Becker. He knew depression was setting in amongst the ranks. They still had food to last plenty of time, but the temporary shelters and lack of security of the bunker made them all uneasy. A canopy above them kept them dry as the rain poured onto the ground everywhere around them. He watched Engel climbed out of the command vehicle where she'd been sleeping in the back with several others. Few of them got more than an hour or two's sleep each night. They were being hunted, and they knew it. It was that feeling alone that kept them awake at night.

"Is this the glorious guerrilla warfare you had in mind?" Becker asked. He was wearing every item of clothing he owned to stay warm, "It'll be snowing any day now," he added.

"Well, you're a cheery one, aren't you?" Kelly answered him.

"Only saying what I see."

"You don't see snow though, do you? Why pre-empt problems?"

Becker shrugged his shoulders.

"If it snows, it snows. If it rains, it rains. And if a hundred Mechs turn up tonight to blow your head off, then so be it. Maybe that'll happen, but there's nothing you can do about that either," Kelly spat.