Battle Earth VI

'All right, good work.'

He lifted his comms device up.

'This is Taylor. You have five minutes to complete your sweep.'

'And us?' asked Jones.

'We stay with the nuke until everyone else is clear. It's got an anti-tamper device, just in case we missed anyone on the sweep. Once we have left it, I want to be getting as far away as possible.'

He sat back against the nearest console with a sigh.

'What is it?' asked Jones.

'Even if this works. If we somehow destroy or disable the Planet Killer and this Purge fleet all in one, we still have a long way to go.'

'Yep, but that's not news to any of us, is it?”

Jones lay up opposite the Colonel with his rifle resting across his knees.

'You know when I was held by those bastards back so long ago, it was the hope of days like this which kept me going. Days when we would get to stick it to them.'

He slapped his hand down on the nuclear weapon.

'Ramming a nuke down the bastards throats, that's just the ticket. They took almost everything from me. Not only that, they have taken Chandra as well. Until I find who was responsible for her death, I lay blame on their entire fucking race. Gone are the days when we run in fear and fight to their schedule. Today's the day we show them who's running this war.'

Taylor nodded in agreement. He thought of Chandra.

I know she'd be gleefully smiling at the outcome we’re heading for.

'Times up, everyone out now.'

'You're right. I am gonna find out what happened to the Colonel before this war is over, and I will not rest until I do. Leaving her out there is the biggest regret of my life.'

'And yet you know all we could have done was followed her to her death.'

He nodded.

'Yes,' he whispered in return.

'Then let's honour her memory by blowing these bastards back to the hell they came from.'

Jones turned to see Jafar had unintentionally heard everything from where he stood.

'You know what I said about those bastards doesn't extend to you? You are not one of them any longer.'

'No, and I too lost that day. Tsengal was killed along with the Colonel, and I have no doubt he was with her at the end.'

'All right, we'll have plenty of time to reflect when this is over. Or we'll all be dead and it won't matter,' replied Taylor. 'Let's move!'

Chapter 4

'Colonel Taylor, report immediately to the bridge.'

He had been aboard the Neptune just two seconds. Enough to hear the cries and cheering of success as the troops of the 2nd Inter-Allied poured onto the docking bay decks following their successful mission. He wasn't going to leave until he'd checked his own people. He stepped into the centre of the deck where he could easily be seen and the officers find him. They all approached for a quick debrief.

'Well done to all of you, I want updates on your Companies…Jones?'

'One dead, four wounded.'

'Grey?'

'Three dead, two wounded, Sir.'

Jackson?'

'Three dead, none wounded.'

'Ota?'

'We weren't needed in the end, Sir.'

'All right, that's about the best we could have hoped for.'

'One of my ships was hit and disabled on the way in, and I had to deploy my last platoon in their place. They have reported no wounded and crews are out recovering them now,' Grey added.

'Good, get the wounded to medical. Re-equip and be ready for whatever comes at us next. Ota, I want your Company stationed here ready for rapid response via the Stallions. The rest of you know your grid sectors. Get to your posts and be ready for any possible breach in the hull. Well done, all of you.'

He turned and strode off as ordered towards the bridge. Jafar was the only one who followed him. The alien would rarely ever leave his side, and it gave him a sense of security to know he had the strongest fighter in the fleet at his side at all times. He reached the bridge to find there was little sign of celebration amongst the crew.

'Colonel Taylor!' called Bailey.

She beckoned him over to the operations table where she was looking over the current enemy positions.

'Good work out their, Colonel. Be sure to pass on my congratulations to your people once this is all over. Of the Purge fleet, we destroyed two of the cruisers outright during the battle. Another two are disabled and one triggered one of the nukes not long after you departed. That leaves seven at our disposal loaded and ready to use. They have presently been set to continue their course to Earth in order to conceal our intentions. As far as the enemy is concerned, those still moving are still fighting with them.'

'Then it worked,' Taylor replied with relief.

'So far, yes. We are pulling back to the main fleet who will disperse and appear as if scattered from the Purge. We need them to bring this so called Planet Killer into the hornets' nest.'

Taylor smiled. Damn right, and ram it down the bastard’s throat.

'Have we had any sightings of the Planet Killer yet?'

'Ours scouts have confirmed it, yes. At their present speed, we'll have visual contact within the next ten minutes. I sure hope this thing needs to get as close as you say it does.'

Taylor turned to Jafar for confirmation. He merely nodded in agreement in the calm fashion he always did.

'If it didn't, they would surely have come to a halt by now. No, they're coming for us.'

'Now we just wait, and hope our guns are bigger than theirs. That our fleet is bigger than theirs, and our luck is better than theirs,' whispered the Admiral.

'We can't have fought this hard for this long to have it all end now, can we?' Taylor asked.

It was a rhetorical question, and Bailey seemed to agree.

'We've got incoming!'

They turned their attention back to the operations table to see pulses approaching.

'Evidently, their big guns are still bigger than ours,' stated Taylor.

'Deploy counter measures!'

At the distance they were at, it still took time for the pulses to reach them, a fortunate thing indeed, considering the size of the shots. Cannons aboard the Neptune fired counter shots at the huge pulses and smashed them into thousands of particles well before they reached them.

'Much closer and we won't have that luxury,' Bailey said.

'Targets will be in range in thirty seconds!'

'Prepare all weapons. I want to give them everything we've got from the get-go,' she replied.

They could see the fighter wings advance from the human fleet. The Planet Killer was visible now, but they had been well prepared for it. To most who had fought the enemy in the first invasion of Earth, it looked little different to what they called Tartaros.

'Looks like they haven't got a whole load of ships covering that monster. You were right,' Taylor said to Jafar.

'I doubt they think it's in any danger, not yet anyway,' replied Bailey.