Nick Thomas - Battle Earth V

“Get everyone inside,” she whispered.

“We have no idea where it leads.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

She pointed to the open docking bay doors that were now forced open by the wreckage of Suarez’s ship.

“Any minute the whole God damn Krycenaean army is coming through there. If we stay here, we’re done for. Get them inside!”

He rushed back to his troops and sent runners to the other two Battalions. They’d made it halfway across the docking floor when a dozen enemy ships burst through the entrance with their guns blazing. Few stopped their dash for the ramp, and in the rush, hundreds were killed by the relentless enemy assault.

Chandra stopped inside the vast doorway and watched the retreat with her rifle at the ready to cover the remaining troops. Mechs poured over the defensive wall they had previously fought over. She took careful aim and killed one that toppled out over the wall.

The strafing runs of the enemy craft as they approached were devastating to the fleeing troops in the open. She watched wide-eyed as many more were killed instantly. Their armour was unable to stand up to the heavy weapons. Klimenko was the last man through into the ramp, having covered his troops as best he could.

“This is the end for us, isn’t it, Colonel?”

“If it is, then we’re going down fighting!”

“Is there any other way?”

They turned and rushed down the ramp after the last of the survivors. They could count their numbers in the hundreds. A bitter count after the thousands they had begun the defence with. They descended thirty metres before taking a full turn and continuing another thirty, and then the same again.

“Where the hell does this go?” she asked herself.

They eventually reached flat ground where the hall opened out into a vast room. Two hundred of the troops had taken up positions around crates, tables and wheeled vehicles. She stopped and stared out at the vast chasm. A chill ran down her spine as she recognised everything around her, thousands upon thousands of incubation chambers, just as they had seen during the first war. All were full of humans, as they had first seen them in Paris.

“My God!”

Most of the troops had been oblivious to the chambers as they had never seen them before, nor cared with the enemy hot on their heels.

“What the hell is this?” asked Warren.

“Your guess is as good as mine, but I can tell you I have seen it before. The last time we found these chambers with bodies still inside, it cost us a city. Ramstein. The enemy bombed it into oblivion to hide whatever secrets lay within.”

She turned to Tsengal.

“Have you ever seen these before?”

“No, we have been asked several times, but never.”

The alien strolled up to the chambers and peered into them with curiosity and disbelief.

“They’ll be on us soon, Colonel. What are your orders?” Warren asked.

She looked around one last time and snapped out of her daydream.

“Keep moving! Whatever this place is, they clearly have worked hard to protect it. The further we get inside, the better protected we are from their fire. Who knows? We may even find a way out!”

“You heard the lady. Keep moving!” Warren shouted.

They beat a hasty retreat along the seemingly endless line of incubation chambers. Tsengal seemed to study everyone they passed. After five minutes at jogging speed, they came to a circular chamber that appeared to be the heart and core of the facility. Substantial dividers ran around the area. They could already tell they would make perfect defensive lines along the firing line they had just run.

“Take up positions here!” Chandra ordered.

She guessed their number at little more than three hundred now, and all huddling in tight behind the only cover they could get. They were only thankful the enemy would refrain from the use of heavier weapons, due to the value of everything around them. Chandra paced around the inner desks and consoles of their new position with Tsengal just as curiously striding beside her.

“We’ve never answered any questions about these things. Never have any survived long enough for our experts to analyse them. All they have ever had are first hand accounts by soldiers, and what good is that to a scientist?”

She could see that Tsengal was carefully studying much of the text and tapped several keys on a console.

“You understand what all this is?”

“No, not yet, but I understand the language.”

She stood silently and patiently awaiting more information. Many of the troops were reloading magazines. Others watched the two of them intently. Tsengal didn’t speak. Finally, she could not take it any longer.

“Are they clones, or prisoners or what?”

“I can’t say. But they’re being programmed.”

“For what?”

“To live on Earth, but with programmed triggers and purposes.”

“What?”

Her face turned to fear when it was beginning to make sense.

“They’re infiltrating our society. Fighting us from within.”

“It would appear so. It has not been the Krycenaean way to my knowledge, but no race has presented such a threat in our history as the humans.”

“We need to get word to the fleet. They must know this information!”

Tsengal nodded. Warren had been listening in, just as almost all around had been. He stood up and paced towards them.

“How on Earth can we get a message out now?”

“We have to. The lives of all of us mean nothing compared to the value of this information.”

She looked past the Major to see the grim faces of those beyond. They all knew they were reaching their end.

“I agree, but how?”

She looked up to the roof in despair and then to all those around them. She stopped as her eyes met Tsengal. He stood out above them all.

“You could do it. You are the only one among us who has a chance of getting out of here. Leave behind all trace of your association with us and rejoin your people. Find a way to get this information to Taylor.”

“Colonel, I cannot leave you.”

“You can. I am ordering you. Your death here will mean nothing. Worse still, our deaths will mean nothing if you do not do this. Promise me you will reach Taylor with this information.”

She could see the loss in his eyes, and it warmed her heart to see such human emotion within him. He looked to the others he had fought so hard beside. Many nodded in agreement for him to do as she asked. It hurt him deeply to live on and leave them, but he could see they wanted nothing else.

“I promise you I will do so.”

“We’ve got visual, Sir!”

Huber spun around.

“How many?”

There was a silence as they all waiting with baited breath. Taylor strode up to the console of the man who had notified them. He had not left the bridge of the Washington since returning from their successful but deeply saddening mission.

“I’ve got twelve confirmed, no, more, many more.”

The officer brought up a video feed display of the incoming forces. They were spreading out rapidly, and he could count fifty ships already and many more advancing.

“Christ!”

He turned back to Taylor.

“This is why we stayed at the damn gateway!”

It wasn’t much of a consolation to the Major, so he just nodded in agreement.

“How long until they are in range?” Huber asked.

“At their speed, ten minutes or less, Sir.”

“Ready all weapons! Launch fighters!”

“Here we go again,” muttered Taylor.

Huber stepped back and grabbed him by his breastplate and onto his feet.

“You better get your head in the game, Major. There’s a war to fight.”

Taylor took in a deep breath and regained his composure. Despite the vast enemy descending on them, he couldn’t help but think of Chandra. The enemy horde closed the distance quickly and was firing in no time at all. Taylor had become so desensitised to the brutal enemy assaults that he simply stood and watched, as if he were sat at the movies.