Chapter 7
Four men stumbled into the room where Kelly sat, they carried one badly wounded man between them. The old Commander looked on with a woeful expression. Seeing his people die was a heart wrenching experience, but he knew that he could not win any victories without losses.
“Sir, we took down two of the bastards, but we have two dead and two wounded. We can’t win with this sort of attrition, there’s just not enough of us.”
Kelly looked around the room at the bedraggled forces. They had adopted an old underground research facility as their new base. So far it was unknown to the enemy forces. A hundred men and women lay about the facility, tightly packed in. Thousands more were crammed into any safe place that could be found.
The regular missions into the building above ground were risky, but a necessary risk in order to continue rescuing survivors and foraging for supplies. It was apparent that many of the alien forces had left the Moon to assist in the battle for Earth, but there was still more than enough of a force to stop them from fighting in open combat.
“We need to contact Earth, we need their help. Guns, ammunition and food. Without it we are dead,” said Kelly.
“What are they going to do for us? You saw what the Earth forces did when we were attacked! They turned tail and ran!”
Kelly looked at the angry soldier, Private Doyle of the MDF, who had risen to commander of a section simply through battlefield casualties.”
“I will remind you, Doyle, that many UEN soldiers still fight and die beside us!”
“Not by choice, they’d have got out if they could!”
Kelly got up and stormed across the room, shouting at the man.
“Don’t you think we’d all have gotten out if we knew what was coming? We defend these lands for the people, not for the damn land!”
Doyle looked sheepish. He knew he’d been an idiot, but it was a hard fact to stomach or admit. The Moon inhabitants had become hugely attached to their lands, despite few Earth dwellers understanding the appeal.
“We have a steady supply of air down here with plenty of processors feeding into the old bunkers we are using. However, we were never equipped for war. We have too few guns, an ever dwindling supply of ammunition and food is running out quickly.”
“You think anyone down there can or will be willing to help, Sir?”
“Yes, I do. But if they’re not aware of these hardships we are facing it is unlikely they will, so I cannot guarantee we will get any assistance. But I’m confident that if they knew they would do everything in their power to help us.”
“I could get a signal out,” said Lewis.
Kelly shot a glance at the communications officer, a capable man who had never experienced field duties.
“Are you certain?”
“If at least some of the equipment is still undamaged, then yeah, I can do it.”
“Where would you need to be?”
“At one of the comms stations, nearest is just above the surface from here on the third floor of the library.”
“Good, then let’s not waste any time, prep anything you need, I’ll assemble a message so there is no time wasted. Doyle, get your wounded taken care of, but return immediately with a full section, draw troops from wherever you have to.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Doyle rushed off to carry out his orders. The demoralised young man had seen a glimmer of hope and was chasing it with all his energy. Kelly turned back to the comms officer who looked uneasy. He was impressed at the man’s courage in volunteering, but he could see the fear in his face and body language.
“Lewis, what else do we need?”
“Just me, get me to those rooms with the message you want to send and pray everything still works!”
Ten minutes later the men were assembled and ready to move. They strapped on their body armours. The experiences they’d in combat had shown the armours to be far less effective than against man-made weapons. But they could still save a man from glancing blows, as well as fragmentation and trauma from explosions that some of the pulse weapons caused.
Kelly felt foolish in his armour, too old to be wearing it and too old to be fighting. Despite this, he would not ask the men to risk what he would not. Getting that signal out could be the single most important thing they did for survival and he wanted to ensure it went to plan. Twelve men were all that were going up into the surface buildings. They had many more capable fighters, but they couldn’t fight the enemy in open combat. They had become reliant on staying out of contact or ambushing one or two of the Mechs at a time.
“All ready?” he asked.
The men nodded. He looked around the room to see civilians and soldiers alike staring at them. Their faces were blank, still in shock. Many of them had seen friends, family and neighbours killed by the invading creatures. He knew he could not leave without giving them some hope.
“Listen up! All of you!”
The room was near silent before, but now you could hear a pin drop.
“We are going to get help from Earth! I am confident that if they can find a way, they will help us! We didn’t come down here to die, we came here to survive! We’ll beat these sons of bitches. I know you have lost a lot, we all have, but we still have each other! We will survive and we will win!”
There was no response, no cheering, the people were still too shocked to show any major emotion. He could see that a few faces looked doubtful, but many more had just a faint touch of hope.
“Martinez, if I don’t return, you’re in charge.”
Kelly had known the officer for many years. He liked the man and trusted him with many things, but knew that he wouldn’t be capable of leading them to survival, let alone victory. Despite this, he had no better choice. He made the gesture out of procedure rather than anything else.
“Let’s go!”
They strode out of the room towards one of the access tunnels they used to get up to the surface structure. A ladder led up to a small storage room on the ground floor of the library building above. The underground access tunnels had been carefully hidden and forgotten by most overtime. They had been sealed off for government and military use only.
Kelly climbed the ladder first, lifting the hatch that was well concealed under the carpet of the small room. He raised it only a few centimetres, listening for the sound of the huge Mechs constantly patrolling the buildings above ground. The area was quiet, a welcome piece of news. He lifted it higher and climbed out into the room, followed by his team which completely filling it.
“Put the hatch back down,” he whispered.
Cautiously opening the door, the Commander stepped out into the corridor of the ground floor of the library. He had become very familiar with the structure years ago, when he regularly visited in order to meet various groups to discuss the documentation of the colonisation of the Moon. Libraries had seen a major resurgence since people wished to publically discuss the things they read.
The lights were still on. The colony would run without any maintenance for years to come. The highly developed nuclear power source would keep the power on, as well as oxygen and water processing going almost indefinitely. He stepped towards the staircase, not wanting to risk activating the elevators, even though they were working.
The building was eerily silent and as they reached the stairway it immediately became clear that every sound they made echoed through the tall stairwell. Kelly had seen enough of the enemy to know that he never wanted to see them again. The thought of going above ground scared him more than anything in his life, but to do nothing would condemn every surviving colonist to death.
