face, the only one of them who did.
'What are you so pleased about?' asked Taylor.
'Honestly, it's hard to say. We're going all in here, no time to regret it any longer.'
Taylor still didn't get it, but it was better than the sombre tone that they had left at the dock.
Chapter 5
Rains’ Stallion soared out of the Neptune's docking doors just a few metres from the crew who had to open the doors manually. The whole operation felt like a hash job, but it was the best they could muster. Taylor made his way to the cockpit through the cramped cabin. He wished he could have taken the whole Battalion, but with the nukes loaded as well, there was no space left.
'Look at it,' said Eddie. 'They may have launched that EMP in desperation, but we weren't doing a whole lot better.'
Mitch reached the pilot and could now see what he meant. The wreckage of many ships from both sides floated through space, and Eddie had to navigate his way carefully through the debris. Fortunately, it covered their approach to the K'til. It was hard to tell if some ships were still crewed by survivors or not, as both fleets were without power.
'You better hope they still have no power, or this is gonna be one short mission.'
'If they knew we were coming, you'd not even have got those words off, Eddie.'
'Hope so.'
It took just a few minutes for them to reach the Gezgen K'til. Rains cut the engines a long way out, letting them drift and appear as incapacitated as the rest. In the distance, a few ships and fighters still slugged it out on the very edge of the battle beyond the range of the EMP. The K'til was badly damaged from the impact and looked almost as if a huge bite had been taken from it, but one that didn't penetrate more than ten percent into the diameter of the hulking beast.
'I thought sure we'd have done more damage than that, hoped at least,' said Taylor.
Nobody responded, so he continued.
'If the Purge ships and their nukes couldn't finish this thing, how'd you know these three nukes will do it?'
'I don't,' replied Jafar.
'Well that's bloody great,' Jones said, smiling.
Taylor was starting to understand why Silva had been so jovial as they set off. Like Jones, he had reverted to light heartedness in order to save himself fromthe soul destroying fear any sane person would feel if confronted with their mission. Yet he was the only one who volunteered to go, and that pleased Taylor greatly. Several of them were looking to Jafar after his rather ambiguous and vague answer to the most important question of their lives. He could see they were awaiting an answer.
'Do you think I have ever destroyed something like the K'til before? Just because I have stepped foot aboard it, does not mean I can guarantee a way to destroy it.'
'He's right,' insisted Taylor. 'This isn't just our best chance. It's our only chance.'
'Pretty close now. I'm gonna have to use some power to slow us down, or we'll wipe out,' said Eddie.
'Then we have to assume any enemy with visual contact will know immediately that something is going on,' replied Taylor.
'I'll do my best, but someone's gonna see it.'
They continued to drift into the hole that had been blasted in the great enemy ship. It was like travelling along a vast canyon but with twisted and wrecked metalwork all around. They were closing quickly now on the furthest point to where the damage penetrated into the K'til.
'What's that there?' Taylor asked Eddie.
There was a glimmer of movement up ahead and sparks of light on a large exposed room where one wall and the roof had been blasted away. The floors above and below were also exposed as if looking in at a cutaway diagram of the vessel.
'If I had to guess, I'd say a repair crew.'
'All right, head right for 'em. Use as little power as you can.'
'What have you got in mind?'
'If we put down anywhere round here, there's a good chance they'll see us anyway. I want to hit them first, and try and minimise any chance of them passing on our arrival.'
'Okay, so how'd you want to play this?'
Put down just enough power to save any damage, and let us drift into the floor above them. Make it look like this is another wreck of space debris.'
'Hell there's enough of it around. This might just work.'
'When we hit the deck, you must both stick with us. Leave the doors to the Stallion open, and make it look like it really is an empty wreck. I don't want any Mechs stumbling upon two pilots waiting with the engines running.'
'You really think we're gonna make it back off this thing?'
'Hell, yeah, I'm too young to die,' Taylor replied lightly.
Rains could not help but laugh.
'Well, all right. I can bring our speed down with bow thrusters alone. That shouldn't draw any more attention than us barrelling in like a piece of junk.'
Eddie turned off the last console lights. They were in complete blackout now as they floated into the mouth of the enemy vessel.
'You know if this thing hadn't come to destroy our planet, I might actually be genuinely impressed,' whispered Eddie.
'Yeah, well save your genuinely impressed expression for when we blow it sky high,' replied Taylor.
'So you expecting us to fight too?' asked Perez.
'If you have to, yes. Rains here proved himself more than capable last time the shit hit the fan and he was left with a gun in his hands. We're few, and they are many, so I need every fighter I can get.'
'Been a long time since I had to shoot anything.'
'Not for long it won't be, Eddie.'
'This is it, no turning back now.'
Taylor turned back to Jones' and his platoon and whispered.
'We're faking a crash landing and coming down right over what looks like a repair crew. I want us out the door and taking them down immediately.'
He turned back just in time to see them pass over the enemy position and smash down onto the floor of the next level. They slid along the metal floor, causing sparks to spray up either side of them before grinding to a halt. It was just enough to make it look like their craft was a wreck, but controlled enough to cause no more than superficial damage.
'Let's go,' whispered Taylor.
Jones was first to the door and heaved the large slider aside but forgot the lack of power. The ramp dropped like a brick and smashed down onto the floor. He cringed but relaxed as he realised it was probably no louder than the bull in a china shop landing that Eddie had just strived for. The platoon was frozen and waiting for a response to the noise, but it did not come. Jones turned, pointing for them to move. He was the first one down the ramp and rushed to the ragged edge of the floor that was exposed to space itself.
As they reached the edge, they ground to a halt and looked down realising the drop onto the other decks and space itself. The low gravity of the space before them would present no danger should they fall, but it did not stop Jones' from feeling unsettled. It was like looking over the edge of a skyscraper. Despite being a Parachute regiment officer, he had still never fully gotten over his discomfort with heights.
Taylor reached the edge beside him and looked down to see one of the Mech workers lifting a weapon to the slightly mesmerised Captain. Taylor quickly fired two carefully aimed shots, hitting the creature square in the chest.
