Battle Earth VII (29 page)

“Guess they weren’t ever expecting the kind of guests who don’t knock,” Riley grinned.

Taylor went in first. It was a narrow corridor, the width of two humans. It looked like an emergency escape or access tunnel to a much larger facility. A red emergency light was pulsating along its length, and they knew it was in response to their arrival.

“I don’t like this, Mitch.”

“You and me both, Eli, so let’s get it done quick.”

He rushed into the breach, knowing the others would soon follow. The corridor soon split into a wide fork.

“Which way?” she asked.

Before any of them could answer, they were welcomed by gunfire from the right fork. Taylor raised his rifle, quickly fired two shots in return. And shouted.

“Left!”

He rushed on. The rest fired and did the same.

“Silva, you stay put and hold this position.”

“You think we’re gonna get back out of here?”

“Didn’t come here to fail, Riley.”

Taylor carried on through a doorway. It was pitch black for a moment as they all came to a halt. The red pulsing lights from the corridor provided a small insight as to what was before them. They saw silhouettes that were too large to be human. A moment later the lights were turned on, and several of the marines gasped at the sight in front of them. They were in some kind of training hall, and twelve full armoured Mechs stood there. They were holding shields like the Reitech ones they were accustomed to, only larger.

It was a small relief to see they carried Assegai derived weapons and no firearms, but that relief soon wore off. The creatures leapt into action and rushed towards them like a herd of wild animals.

“Oh, shit,” muttered Taylor.

He lifted his rifle and fired a few shots, but the shields absorbed them all. There seemed no way to slow the charge down.

“Jump!” he cried in a panic.

He launched several metres off the ground and came close to the rooftop with the use of his boosters. Most of the marines jumped with him, but he could see Riley and a handful of them had stood their ground and continued to fire. As Taylor reached the apex of his jump, he fired down beneath his feet. Three shots went right down into the faceplate of the Mech he had targeted, and it collapsed to the floor, sliding up to Riley’s feet.

Several others followed suit, but it wasn’t enough to stop the charge. Three marines were struck full force and launched off their feet. Jafar had stood his ground with them and tackled one of their attackers head on, driving an Assegai right through one to deal a killing blow.

Taylor was back on his feet and had the enemy in his sight once again, but friendlies were now mixed in with the Mechs. He drew out his Assegai and rushed at them. One of the nearest creatures turned and thrust its shield out to strike him. He could only jump into a roll and hope to make it under. His shoulder armour brushed the lower edge as he just made it under, and sparks followed from the contact. He was back up on one knee with lighting speed and fired several shots before driving his Assegai up into the belly of the creature’s armour.

The warm blue blood he had come to know so well flowed out over his hand. Gone was the regret and doubt he had felt in the arena. He was no longer fighting for sport or entertainment. He was fighting for everything. He turned to take on the next creature, but Parker was already jumping into action at the nearest target. She drove her weapon into the exposed joint beneath one of the Mechs’ arms and followed the creature to the floor. She had a smile on her face as she turned to look at him. She was in her element, and so was he.

Taylor looked up. Riley was sitting against the wall, clearly unable to get up. Another marine lay dead beside him.

“You still able to fire that weapon, Riley?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Then you nail anything that comes through here that ain’t one of our own, you hear?”

“Aye, aye, Sir.”

Taylor got back on his feet. The marines had made light work of the rest of the enemy.

“Enough fun and games. We have a job to do!”

He looked down at his watch, only six minutes left on the timer he had set.

Cutting it awfully close.

They continued on through the room. It was clear to all of them from the equipment around that the Mechs they had fought had been in training.

God help us when they are fully trained,
thought Taylor.

“How many more obstacles are we gonna have to face to get this bastard?” asked Parker.

“He’s running scared. This welcome party wasn’t prepared for us. It was a last minute deal, so we must be getting close.”

They passed through into the next room that appeared to be empty, but a glimmer of movement in one corner caused Jafar to rush across to engage whatever danger was there. As he arrived ready to fire, a human leapt up with her hands in the air. It was a scientist in a lab coat. She was almost frozen in fear, and tears streamed from her eyes. She could not find the breath to speak.

“Jafar!” yelled Taylor.

The alien turned in surprise.

“She’s unarmed, a non-combatant.”

He looked back at her for a moment, finally accepting Taylor’s orders. He returned to the Colonel and spoke in no uncertain terms at a volume all could hear.

“Everyone in this building is a combatant.”

“Not for you to decide, buddy, nor me. While there are still human laws in the land, we’ll abide by them.”

“Like kidnapping a Councillor on his home soil?”

Taylor glared at Parker. He already realised he was being hypocritical, but he didn’t have time to rephrase his comment.

“All right, enough bullshit. Let’s get this son of a bitch before this little holiday is the end of us.”

Taylor led the way through another two rooms that were full of experimental equipment they didn’t have the time to investigate, finally reaching a control room. It was large and filled with screens monitoring the facility. At a distance, Taylor could still just about see a few of the screens and frantic movement on them, which he already suspected were other troops in the facility gearing up to fight them.

“It’s over, Colonel!” Armand shouted.

Taylor laughed. He noted the Councillor was now wearing a Reitech suit he had clearly hastily pulled on since their arrival. His suit was crumpled up beneath it, and the helmet was ill fitting and almost dropping over his eyes.

“You’re coming with us, Councillor. Alive is preferable, but we’ll take what we can get.”

There were only three guards standing beside him, and one of those was clearly the pilot who had flown them there. Taylor turned his focus to address them.

“You can walk away from this. No need to die.”

“These are soldiers loyal to me, Colonel.”

He knew that meant they were either Krys agents, or deeply loyal to those who were. It was all the evidence he needed to condemn them. He lifted his rifle and fired two shots at the first, and his comrades quickly did the same. They hadn’t even got their muzzles up before they were hit and had certainly never expected such violence.

“You forget who you are dealing with, Councillor.”

“Evidently. Then let’s do this man-to-man, the honourable way.”

Taylor smiled as Armand picked up a shield and Assegai.

“We don’t have time for this,” muttered Parker.

“We can give the man his chance. It won’t take long.”

Taylor drew out his Assegai and approached. Against any one of his own marines, he would fear opposing them without a shield when they were equipped with one. But against Armand, he didn’t give it a moment’s consideration. At first, the Councillor stepped forward uneasily, as if he were the kind of rookie who had never used the equipment before. It amused Taylor and caused him to approach without caution, but as he did so, Armand leapt into action like a different man altogether, like a trained soldier.

Taylor managed to jump aside in time to avoid a thrust that was coming to his face, but he was off balance. As a result, Armand struck him with the shield, and he stumbled across the room.

“Mitch!” cried Eli.

He regained his balance, cursed himself for being so foolish. He’d seen enough surprises in his life now to never throw caution to the wind, and yet he still did.

“Right, let’s do this.”

He rushed forward as if in a wild charge, stopping abruptly as Armand held his shield out to stop him, spun off to the side and smashed the weapon down on the inside of the man’s knee. It buckled. The Councillor dropped down onto one knee and let out a scream of pain. The strike had been like nothing more than that of a baton as Taylor knew the edge did no more, but it provided immense satisfaction to see the pain in Armand’s face.

“You’re a traitor to your people, Councillor.”

“You think you’re my people just because we look alike!” he yelled, as he got back up and raced forward once more. He attacked quickly with repeated short stabs that were difficult to counter. They forced Taylor to give ground across the room. He was backed against a worktop and had to spin out from the attack.

“Why do you fight? You know you cannot win.”

“But you always did. You and your Immortals went into many a fight you should never have been able to win, and yet here you are today. Standing before me and ruining things once more.”

“Your monologuing bores me,” replied Taylor.

Armand jumped forward once more as if to continue with his quick thrusts but used it only as a feint and drove his shield forward as a barge once again, but Taylor would not be caught off guard a second time. He caught the rim of the shield with his offhand and forced it forward, pulling Armand off his feet and launching him across the room. Taylor held a firm grip on the shield, wrenching it from the Councillor’s grasp.

“You’re coming with us, whether you like it or not.”

Armand let out a roar of a battle cry and rushed at Taylor, launching a clumsy long lunge. Taylor stepped aside and took a hold of his arm. He drove a knee below the torso armour into Armand’s abdomen. He keeled over. The weapon dropped from his grasp, and he was done for. Taylor wanted to feel some respect for the man having tried, but then he remembered all that he had done against his own people, against his own race.

“Your ass is mine now, Councillor.”

“Mitch, we got incoming!” Parker shouted.

He looked over to the screens. Mechs and human soldiers were flooding towards them from other parts of the facility. He looked down at his watch, three minutes.

“Let’s go, go, go!”

He smacked Armand in the face, knocking him unconscious, threw him over his shoulder, and took off back the way they came. As they burst out into the room where they had fought the line of Mechs, they found Riley still firmly planted against the wall with his rifle held ready to fire. Taylor didn’t have to say another word. Jafar grabbed him, and another took the body of the fallen marine.

As they rushed into the corridor, they could hear a tonne of gunfire where Silva was clearly meeting some resistance where he had taken up position. Taylor didn’t slow one bit, nor have a weapon to hand. He held onto Armand firmly with both hands and darted for the exit.

“Where the hell have you been?” Silva shouted. He slammed in a new magazine, and the rest of his squad kept up the fire.

“Getting the job done! Lay down fire till the last have gone by, and then get your ass out of here!”

“Hell, yeah!”

He turned the corner and kept firing. Taylor continued on and broke out into the daylight. It was the best sight he had seen all day and gave him a real sense that they could succeed in their mission. He didn’t have to tell Rains anything, for the engines of the Adrienne were already running.

“All squads back to the boat. We are leaving!” he called down the comms.

The scene on the mountainside was eerily quiet and peaceful like when they had arrived, but they all knew it wouldn’t last. Taylor was the first to reach the ship and jumped aboard to be sure Armand was secure. He kept a hand firmly locked on him.

“We got incoming, fast!” said Rains.