Battle Earth: 12 (24 page)

Taylor shook his head and smiled again. He still couldn’t accept than anything was predetermined, but there was no denying that he should have been killed many times over.

“Think they’ll come back?” Taylor asked to shift the subject matter.

“Sarik?”

Taylor nodded.

“Oh, they’ll come back all right. Only question is do they come alone or with a whole fucking army to run us into the ground?”

“Guess we’ll just have to wait and see, then, Captain.”

He already doubted his decisions and their new allies, but was well aware he could not show it.

“Get some rest,” he added, “One way or another, we’re gonna need it for tomorrow.”

Taylor took on his own advice and bed down for the night. He had a restless hour as thoughts rolled around his head, but finally his exhaustion overcame his worry. He snapped out of his sleep when he found someone shaking him and awoke to find that it was Corporal Herrera.

“Sorry, Sir, but Sarik has returned.”

“With what?”

Herrera look confused.

“What he left with, Sir.”

Taylor leapt up and grabbed his rifle. He had fallen asleep in full combat gear, having only removed his helmet that he picked up from the floor nearby. He rushed out of the building and found Sarik awaiting him with two-dozen of his own troops.

“Have you found him?” Taylor asked breathlessly upon spotting the alien.

“Yes.”

Taylor stopped and froze. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Where is he?” King asked. He’d rushed up beside them.

“Brest.”

“Shit, that’s not far from here,” replied King.

“Does he have any inclination that you are fighting for us?” Taylor asked.

Sarik shook his head.

“I would not have returned if that were the case,” he replied.

“All right, options. Can you nuke it from orbit?”

Sarik shook his head.

“Brest is one of the greatest fortresses I have ever seen. Aerial defence platforms would destroy anything from the air, and even your nuclear weapons would have little effect against its surface.”

“Ground attack?” King asked.

“In time it could succeed, with enough resources, but Erdogan would escape long before that could happen.”

“How?”

“Erdogan is a wise leader. He has secret exists constructed into every one of his fortresses. With any warning, he can escape before they can be overcome.”

“So what are we left with?” Morris joined in with the questions.

King looked to Taylor, and they both knew what had to be done.

“If we cannot corner Erdogan with force, then we will have to do it with cunning,” said Taylor.

He caught a glimpse of movement. Kelly and Becker were approaching, and with several of their Company at their backs.

“I thought it was bullshit when I heard you’d sided with them,” said Kelly, “Now I see it’s true, and I wonder if the world hasn’t turned upside down, Colonel.”

“Easy now, Kelly. These guys are with us,” said Taylor.

Kelly looked at the aliens from head to toe and then back to Taylor for confirmation.

“You trust them?” he asked.

Taylor nodded.

“Then so do I, until they give me reason to think otherwise.”

Taylor nodded once again in appreciation of his understanding, although he also accepted how bizarre a situation it was.

“Sarik, can you get close to Erdogan?”

“I believe so.”

“And can you kill him?”

Sarik shook his head.

“No.”

“Why the hell not?” King shouted.

“Not through choice,” added Sarik, “Erdogan is the greatest of us all. None have ever defeated him, even in friendly contest and sport.”

“And I can’t beat him either,” Taylor said, “I faced him once, and he is a formidable foe, but I don’t intend to fight him alone!”

“If you wish to defeat Erdogan, and take his position, he must be beaten in single combat for you to gain the respect and power of his armies,” Sarik said.

“What happens and what we report don’t have to be the same thing, though, do they? Let’s worry about killing the bastard first.”

Many shook their heads in disbelief and astonishment.

“I know this is crazy!” Taylor said, “but this whole damn war is crazy!”

He paced up and down as he thought it over, and finally turned to Sarik.

“You can definitely get close to Erdogan?”

The alien nodded.

“How many of your own Sampions can you get there to support you?”

“Not many, maybe one or two.”

“Not enough,” muttered Taylor, “How many of us could you get in the same room as him, as your prisoners?”

“Maybe ten, if they were your finest, and he believed they could be valuable trophies.”

Taylor paced up and down, trying to piece together a plan of action. When he stopped, almost a hundred of those under his command were now waiting for his response.

“Then this is what we will do. We will give Erdogan exactly what he wants. Myself, and my best fighters and closest friends.”

It was a terrifying notion that no one was able to respond to.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures!” he shouted and strode up to Sarik.

“Will you take us as your prisoners, and will you support us when the time comes?”

“Yes.”

“I will not ask any one of you to come along with me on this, and I can almost guarantee that those who go will not survive! Erdogan has to believe this is real, my closest friends and comrades. Which of you will follow me and see this through?”

Kelly stepped forward immediately and without hesitation.

“I will!” he said proudly.

Taylor was surprised, but he could not turn away his friend. He looked to King who nodded back, looking into his eyes. Silva stepped forward a second later and raised his artificial hand in a fist.

“With you to the end, Colonel,” he stated.

The offers continued to flood in thick and fast, and he soon realised he would have to pick and choose, as ten times the number he needed volunteered. He paced up and down again and finally stopped to make his decision.

“Kelly, King, Silva, Herrera, Lang, Matthews, Williams, Ryan, Pitt!” he called.

He knew there was still one to be called. He looked around the group that had amassed around him. Becker stood behind Kelly, but looked down and away, he was glad of it. The German tank commander had seen enough bloodshed, and he was not the man for the job. Morris did not volunteer, and he thought no lesser of him for it, but then he noticed Captain Reynolds nudging Kelly.

“May I suggest Captain Reynolds,” stated Kelly.

Taylor knew little of the man and wasn’t sure, but Kelly’s recommendation sealed the deal.

“Reynolds it is!” replied Taylor as he turned back to Sarik.

“I assume you can get Jafar in disguised as one of your own?”

“Yes, that is possible,” said Sarik.

“Then it is decided. When can we go?”

“As soon as you are ready.”

“No time like the now,” said Taylor, “How do we do this?”

“Come with us, and we will take you to Erdogan.”

The proposal sent a chill down Taylor’s spine, but he knew it had to be done. He looked over to his volunteers. They all looked just as ready and terrified in equal measure as he felt deep down. Irala appeared beside him.

“Colonel Taylor, I cannot recommend this course of action, and neither can I assist you with it.”

Taylor slowly nodded to him.

“You’ve done more for us that we could ever have dreamed possible,” he replied.

“Colonel Taylor,” a voice over his comms.

“This is Taylor,” he replied.

“Taylor, we’ve got a problem.”

He recognised the voice now as that of Admiral Lasure.

Oh shit,
he thought.

“This for my ears only?” he asked.

“That would be your decision, but those with you may want and need to hear this.”

Taylor pressed a few keys, and a screen projected out before them, showing the Admiral on the bridge of the Diderot.

“Go on,” added Taylor.

“Just two minutes ago we received confirmation that a gateway has been established in our Solar System. It appears that it materialised just moments before, and that it is now operational.”

“My God,” said Kelly, “they’ve got access to and from their worlds any time they please.”

“Yes, as we speak the number of vessels passing through the gateway is increasing in every moment, and they are heading our way.”

“Do you have any ability to destroy it?”

Lasure shook his head. “This fleet is far beyond what we are able to handle.”

“How long do we have?” Taylor asked.

“Many of the vessels have remained at the gateway, presumably to protect it. Another twenty minutes, and they will have all they need to come right at us.”

“So how long can you give us, Admiral?”

“We can hold them here for a little while, but not long. We have perhaps three hours at the most until they’re through us and coming for you.”

“We could still leave, run like you did before,” added Kelly.

They all looked to Taylor for an answer, and he was already shaking his head.

“We don’t run,” he quickly replied, “We’ve still got a chance here. We run, and we’re on the run for the rest of our miserable existence, but neither will I throw away the lives of everyone here. A handful of us have the chance to do this. Lasure, I want you to hold out as long as you can. Buy us some time and make it look like we’re still in this fight, but don’t risk anymore than you have to. Get us two hours. That’s all I ask.”

“We can do that, Colonel. Good luck to you and all those brave people who go with you. You’ll have to forgive me, but I have work to do, just as you do.”

“Thank you, Admiral, and good luck to you,” replied Taylor, and the communication abruptly ended.

He turned to Sarik, “Ready when you are.”

The alien immediately led him and the other volunteers onwards. He began to wonder about the alien’s motivations now, so he turned to Jafar for answers.

“They can see we’re on our last legs, and still they work with us? What do you think is keeping them on our side?”

“Honour,” Jafar replied confidently.

“And you don’t think he’d forgo that to side with whoever is going to win?”

“Depends how honourable he is.”

Taylor sighed as he realised he wasn’t going to get a useful answer.

The whole of the Inter-Allied Regiment watched as Taylor, the human volunteers, and Jafar followed their newly discovered allies up a ramp and into their vessel nearby. They were all aboard, and Taylor looked out for one last time through the closing ramped, and he saw Anders take a step forward.

“Go get him, Colonel!” he yelled at the top of his voice.

The rest of the troops erupted into a frenzy as they shouted and hollered all manner of things to give him a proper send off. The door came to a close, and they could hear the engines fire up on the craft.

“Think this was a good idea?” he asked Kelly.

“No,” Kelly replied without any hesitation, “but it’s a damn sight better than anything else I have heard.”

They lifted off the ground and soared into the sky. Taylor glanced over to the cockpit and the alien pilot who flew them. It didn’t feel right to be making their last mission without Eddie Rains at the helm, but he was glad the Lieutenant was going to live, as he doubted any of them would.