Battle Earth IV

Chapter 12

The fleet was rapidly descending on the Lunar colony, and the troops sat quietly aboard next to the copters. Taylor and Chandra were aboard the Deveron once again. It had been hastily patched up after the last battle. As infantry, they all prayed they would make it to land intact, for there was nothing they could do until that time.

The Colonel and Eli sat one side of Taylor, Jafar and Tsengal the other. Captain Jones sat opposite them. It suddenly struck Taylor how accepting the Captain had been of their new allies, especially when he thought back to the punishment and suffering he had faced at the aliens’ hands. Taylor nodded at him and gestured for him to leave their seats for a word. The two officers stepped out of the landing bays and out of sight of the others.

“I have brought two creatures into our unit. Creatures which until recently fought against us. It’s not been a popular move, and yet you’re one of the few who doesn’t seem to have had a problem with it. It surprises me. You’ve got more reason than any of them to hate these newcomers.”

Jones shrugged his shoulders as if he had nothing to add.

“Come on, Charlie, I need you with me a hundred percent, and that means I need to know what you’re thinking.”

Jones looked down and then back up at Taylor. There was sadness in his eyes that Taylor had awoken.

“They may have done some horrific things to me, but it wasn’t those two. The two out there are soldiers, just like us. I’d like to think if I were ever captured that I would be treated the way you treat prisoners.”

“But you weren’t.”

“No, but that’s no reason to act like animals. I have chosen to base my judgement on Jafar and Tsengal on what I see with my own eyes, not what we think of them based on some reputation. You say they saved your life. They certainly helped saved mine. As far as I am concerned, they are our comrades, providing they continue on as they have started.”

Taylor smiled in response.

“You’ve come a long way since those dark days, back to the man I used to know.”

“Mostly,” he replied.

Lieutenant Ryan came over the intercom.

“We’re on approach to the colony, all troops to board their copters. Clear the decks, and gunners to their positions. May God be with you all.”

“God? I wasn’t aware he was watching,” replied Taylor.

Taylor laughed. “Let’s go.”

Fifteen minutes later, the Deveron’s guns opened fire on the enemy ships approaching their positions. They expected a vicious defence and knew that the battle must have commenced a good fifteen minutes before their arrival as the first wave of fighters and cruisers tried to cut a path through.

Taylor was strapped in aboard Rains’ copter when the first enemy pulse smashed into the Deveron. The ship rocked violently but continued onwards. They could just hear the sound of Ryan’s orders echoing around the docking bay outside.

“Docking doors open, launch in five, four, three…”

The engines roared to life around them, and a second later their craft rushed out from the Deveron’s docking bays; out into space where railgun rounds and pulses flashed past the windows of their craft.

“Jesus Christ!” Hall shouted.

“Hold on to your asses, this is gonna be a rough one!” replied Eddie.

Their copter dodged and evaded pulses and the wreckage of fighters from both sides as it soared towards the Moon. All around they watched ships of both sides interlocked into dogfights. Beyond them, they could see the larger ships duking it out and tearing each other apart. The Deveron was long out of sight, but they knew Ryan would have taken them quickly forward into the battle.

Taylor and Chandra were closest to the cockpit and could see the Moon looming ahead of them. Pulses rushed towards them from ground positions, and they could only watch in horror as one of the MDF copters burst into pieces as it took a direct hit.

“Still happy you volunteered to go in with Kelly?” called Taylor.

She turned and glared at him. They both knew it was the right course of action, but they only hoped they could survive long enough to reach the surface. A minute later that felt like five, they were banking hard and coming in to land. Chandra blew a sigh of relief as she realised they had passed within the enemy’s defence grid.

“Now it’s on us!” shouted Taylor.

It had been a long time since Taylor had set foot on the Lunar colony, and it was a wound that still cut deep in that they’d had to flee from it so quickly. He was eager to make up for the orders he’d never wished to receive; finally he was given the opportunity.

“Half of you were with me when we came here last, and remember that day! Because today we get payback!”

Eddie brought them in for a rapid landing. They hit the ground hard, to the level that the undercarriage buckled slightly as they put down. The troops were quickly on their feet and heading for the door. Taylor smashed his hand down onto the door release, and they were out into the low gravity of the Moon.

“Head for that door!” Chandra ordered.

Taylor turned to see a main access point into the station. They had landed exactly on target as Kelly had asked. He leapt from the door and bounced along the surface towards the several metres wide entrance. It looked as if it was intended for more than one vehicle to pass through at a time, and there was a numeric datapad for entry on the wall. Taylor punched in the code Kelly had given him, and the huge doors quickly lifted. The structure looked thick enough to withstand heavy artillery.

The Major looked back to see that the other copters had all landed bar one which was missing. It was relatively few losses, considering the vicious assault, but still many friends lost. They had half the Battalion with them, Jones having led the rest to an entrance a few hundred metres away.

He turned and rushed inside the facility. Within five minutes, the doors were once again shut and all were inside. Gravity had returned to normal as the doors clamped down, but the air was still thin. They were all aware that breaches in the facility meant that there was too little air to go without their helmets.

They had entered what was a vehicle depot for land based craft, but it was littered with heavily damaged enemy craft.

“Looks like a salvage yard,” Taylor said.

“They must have been using this place to reassemble what they could from parts,” replied Chandra.

“Seems a little desperate,” he replied.

“Good, it’s a sign of the times. They must be running pretty thin.”

Their communications were down once again. They all looked forward to the day their tech guys could find a way around the jamming, but for now they were on their own. The troops waited patiently for Chandra, and it made the room almost silent. They suspected much of the fighting had already started, but they were almost half a kilometre from the nearest allied troops.

“Why haven’t we met any resistance yet?” asked Chandra.

Taylor shrugged his shoulders. They all hoped there was a good reason for it, but it seemed too easy. She stood up and signalled for them to follow her. There were two exits from the room into the nearby corridors. She signalled for Jackson to take the far side, and she continued onwards with Taylor and Lieutenant Ota’s Company.

Mitch got ahead of Chandra and led from the front. He reached the doorway and peered through the Perspex plate in the centre and turned to shake his head, confirming there was no contact. He reached for the door switch, and to his surprise it opened. Chandra nodded to Jackson to give the go ahead. They all knew that from now on they only had one goal.

“Go!” she whispered.

Taylor leapt forward and charged through the doorway into the broad corridor. As he did so, he heard the clatter of feet moving quickly and approaching from the west side. He turned back and ushered through a dozen of the troops, ducked down into position, and signalled for Chandra to stop where she was. They waited anxiously as the sound grew louder, and it became quickly apparent it was a dozen Mechs rushing towards them. Mitch nodded and held up three fingers to count down as they approached.

Mitch quickly made the count, lifting himself up as the last finger dropped, and opened fire. He continued to shoot in rapid succession. The creatures seemed to be caught completely unawares by their presence. In just five seconds, they were cut to pieces and only managed to get off a few frantic shots against the hastily prepared ambush. Taylor got to his feet and wandered over to check the bodies. Jafar appeared next to him and carefully studied the fallen creatures.

Taylor had never assigned the two aliens to a platoon or company. He knew he could not trust his own people with them yet. As a result, they kept close to him and the Colonel at all times; a fact that made many uncomfortable.

“117 ^th, they were amongst the first to land on Earth. I believe they fought in Spain and were near Paris towards the end of the war.”

“End? This war never ended,” said Taylor.

“He’s right,” Chandra agreed. “It did end, the war for Earth ended. But we are in a new conflict now, and something humanity has never seen before.”

“These troops have little ammunition between them. They look malnourished, and many have wounds that are not fully healed,” continued Jafar.

“What are you suggesting?” she asked.

“That these are battle weary troops. Soldiers that are on the run from a war already lost,” replied Taylor.

Chandra looked quickly over to Jafar.

“Is that what you would draw from this?”

The alien nodded in agreement.

“The base ship is nowhere to be seen. The fact we managed to land without opposition tells me they are spread thin. The last I heard was that our leaders, our former leaders, were losing heart and looking to end this campaign.”

“Why did you not tell us this sooner?” asked Chandra.

“It is just rumour, Ma’am. We never knew much but what we were ordered.”

“Alright, well I hope you’re right. Jackson should hopefully be making good progress, so let’s be sure to keep up.”

They turned and continued on throughout the vast access tunnel. It was broad enough for them to walk twelve wide and with a sizeable space between each other. They made it a hundred metres without any contact of any kind when Chandra broke the silence.

“You really believe what he is saying?”

“I think there’s a damn good chance, yes. It’s not winning this battle that concerns me, for I know we can. It’s what we may have to face after it.”

They took a bend up ahead and the corridor lit up as five pulses rushed towards them. Taylor leapt aside, shoving Chandra out of harm’s way. They both tumbled aside and landed hard against the metal interior.

“Guess they aren’t quite finished yet!” she yelled.

The pulses died down after a moment, and the Colonel leant around just enough to get a view of what they faced.

“Fuck, I can see at least twenty Mechs dug in.”

“Then we take the tunnels.”

Chandra looked back at Taylor with her eyes wide open.

“I know you don’t like it, but Kelly and his people made good use of them.”

“Bullshit, we don’t have time.”

She looked back at the enemy defences that were a hundred metres around the corner. She turned back to the troops.

“Hall! Get me a runner! Tell Jackson to swing around our way and give us a hand!”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

They sent the runner and waited out for five minutes. Chandra grew impatient, and she stood up tall and bellowed her orders.

“Up! Now! We’ve got a job to do. Everyone is relying on us to get this done rapidly. Any delay and we risk the entire mission! Ready your weapons, and be ready on my go!”

“What are you doing?” Taylor demanded.

“We have superior numbers and firepower but limited time. We can take this position with a frontal assault.”

“Frontal assault?” he responded in shock.

“We have no choice. Let’s get in there and do our jobs!”

Taylor edged around to the corner and could see there was no cover down the long spartan corridor.

“God damn, we could have used the shields for this!”

“Well, when Reiter finishes his changes, and gets them back to us, you’ll be the first to have one,” replied Chandra.

She got up and beckoned for the troops near her to come in close.

“This plan relies on speed. We must overcome that position with all haste. We have enough numbers that a quick rush could overwhelm them with minimal casualties. Are you with me?”

She could see that none were keen, but they all nodded in agreement.

“Alright, ready yourselves, on three. We do not stop until this is over. Three, two, one!”

Chandra leapt out into the corridor, and another dozen of their troops were in the corridor when she’d fired off her first round. Just as she pulled the trigger, the first two pulses rushed down the corridor, narrowly missing them all. They knew they would not be so lucky a second time. They flooded into the tunnel as ordered, and those at the front fired rapidly to try and give some cover.

Chandra gasped as the Mechs ahead lifted a heavy weapon up onto the barricade and were about to fire when their position was lit up by gunfire, and shots echoed out from the other side of their position. The heavy weapon team quickly abandoned their weapon and turned to take on a new threat.

“This is our chance!” she shouted.

They were already running, but she and Taylor increased to a sprint, and their suits allowed a rapid pace to cover the distance. They leapt up onto the defensive line to find only two Mechs still alive and fighting. They blasted them from their high position and looked up to see their saviours. Captain Jackson stood at the head of his Company with the barrel of his gun smoking violently.

“Hell of a good timing there, Captain,” Chandra said.

He didn’t respond but only marvelled at his work.

Taylor was relieved as he looked around to see only one of theirs had been clipped on the way in but was still breathing. He look to Chandra and shook his head in disbelief.

“Alright, let’s move on.”

They readied their weapons and continued on as intended. As they closed the distance to the Parliament buildings, they could hear the sound of gunfire. Its intensity rapidly increasing as they grew nearer.

“Kelly must have got there ahead of us, Mitch!” shouted Chandra.

“Then he can’t have met much opposition.”

Taylor recognised their location and knew they were coming up on the broad atrium that marked the entrance to the Parliament. Kelly had told him of the battle they had fought there when they tried to break out onto the surface months before, and he expected to find it littered with bodies and debris. The hall ahead was opening out to the atrium. They could already make out the shape of a strong defensive position, and dozens of Mechs firing from the top.

“Of all the places they could defend, they chose here?” asked Taylor.

Jafar stepped forward to answer.

“They knew it was strategically important to you. That’s makes it important to them.”

“Well it looks like Kelly has got stuck in already. If we can bring enough fire to bear on this flank, we should be able to end this.”

“There’s a balcony overlooking that position just above us.” Taylor pointed up.

“Good, take a platoon and get up there, and start laying down some fire ASAP!” Chandra shouted.

Taylor turned back, and the two aliens immediately followed him without hesitation.

“I need a platoon, Lieutenant,” he asked of Ota.

She signalled to one of her 2 ^nd Lieutenants.

“This is Sergeant Rios, formerly of the Rangers.”

A sergeant leading the platoon and a 2 ^nd Lieutenant in charge of a company, they have taken a beating.

“Follow me,” said Taylor.

Mitch led them back to a corridor and then east to a stairway. The two aliens were at the front of the column and still glued to his side. The hulking armoured creatures gave him some comfort, to know that they were on his side. The way up the stairs was quiet.

“We’re in luck,” he whispered.

They continued quickly on at a quiet jogging pace and up to the next level. Taylor stopped them at the top of the stairs. He was still astonished they had made it without opposition.

“They must be running pretty thin on troops.”

“Yes, I’d have expected a much harder fight,” Tsengal answered.

“I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.”

They stepped out onto the empty balcony and crept to the far wall as the battle raged below. They could hear fire now from directly below their feet where Chandra had joined the fight. He pulled himself up just enough to peer over the edge of the small wall he was knelt beside. Mitch smiled as he saw an almost completely clear view of the creatures below. He turned and gestured for the rest of the platoon to join them.

The second the rest of the troop was in position, he shot up to a standing position and threw the barrel of his rifle over the wall.

“Fire!”

The opening volley was almost perfectly in sequence and killed six of the Mechs instantly. A few tried to lift their weapons to respond, but there was little they could do. The automatic fire tore apart the enemy’s position. He could hear a few of the Rangers shouting insults as they blazed away, but there was too much noise from the intense fire to understand what they said.

Muzzle flashes lit up below them as the troops on the level below rushed up to the enemy positions and jumped up onto the enemy wall to join in the slaughter. Even after all the Mechs were dead, they continued to fire into them, enjoying the utter destruction of their foes.

“Hold fire!” Taylor ordered.

A few moments later the Commander leapt into the middle of the bloodshed and looked up to where Taylor was still surveying the scene. He looked back down at the results of their work and then back up to Taylor with a smile.

“That’s some damn fine work, Major!”

Taylor leapt over the wall and used minimal boost to land down on the floor a few metres away from the Commander.

“Sir, I’d have expected a lot more opposition. How are the rest of our forces doing?”

“Last contact we had was from Chen, and it seems it’s like this all over.”

Taylor shook his head. “I don’t like it.”

“We are getting our homes back, Major. I’m not going to complain about it being too easy, and I’d like there to be something left by the time this war is over.”

Chandra arrived as Kelly finished his last words, and she was about to join the conversation when a call rang out.

“Colonel! Colonel!”

She snapped around at the distraught call. It was Captain Jackson, and he looked panicked.

“Ma’am, we’ve got incoming. I counted at least a hundred infantry en route.”

“Shit, they obviously know where we are and are diverting reinforcements to the breaches,” replied Kelly.

“Sir, we’ll hold this position. You have to continue on to re-claim this seat of government,” Chandra said quietly.

“You sure?”

“We’ve taken on much worse.”

“Alright, Captain Morris, I want all stairs covered. We clear this building one floor at a time!”

Kelly moved away to see to his people, and Chandra turned back to the Inter-Allied troops she had. She looked up to where the Rangers Taylor had led were still watching from the balcony above.

“I want another platoon on that balcony. Ota you can handle that? Captain Jackson, have your troops take up position here. Expand these defences as quickly as you can.”

“We’ll be packed in pretty tight here,” he replied.

“I know, but it’s not a bad thing. Nobody is risking explosives here. We need as concentrated fire as we can possibly make. Not a single one of those bastards gets past us!”

“Thank you, Colonel!” Kelly shouted.

He rushed from the scene to continue the sweep through the building. The feeling of taking back what was rightfully theirs overwhelmed him, and he could not help but smile to be home and clawing back their lands, one shot at a time. He led one of the platoons up the nearest staircase and onto the first floor. It was an open plan conference centre. He could see several Mechs step into view to confront them; his smile only widened as he lifted his rifle, and Morris burst into the room on the far side.

“Come on you bastards!” shouted Chandra, and she fired rapidly into the advancing Mechs.

The creatures were rushing down the hallway up ahead, just as they had done only twenty minutes earlier, but they were meeting a far different defence. Volleys of fire rang out from the fifty troops who had a view of the area, and the lines of creatures were being smashed down. The Mechs continued to pour into the corridor, rushing over their fallen comrades in a desperate bid to take back the Parliament building.

Pulses rushed overhead, and several struck into the defensive wall the enemy themselves had constructed. It was made of some form of resin and seemed almost impervious to the pulses that they fired. Taylor felt the burn of a pulse smash into his position, and it struck Lam with full force. He was thrown back off the wall and onto the floor behind.

Taylor turned, leaping down to check on his comrade, but by the time he’d got to the man, he was already dead. Chandra stepped down to join him. Their attention quickly turned to the eastern perimeter when they realised they didn’t have the time to mourn anyone while the battle raged. They rushed over to Jackson’s position to find three of his Company dead and five others wounded, but the rest were fighting hard to hold the enemy back. Chandra stepped up to the Captain to look over the defences and could see the creatures pouring into the hallway as far as she could see. She jumped back down next to Taylor as a pulse raced past her head. It melted the edge of her helmet.

“God, they’re giving us hell!”

“They must be diverting a lot of their strength to this place. If we can just hold long enough, we could break their armies here,” replied Taylor.

“Yes, but we must make sure Kelly succeeds. Take Parker and her section, and go to him. Make sure he raises that flag. It may be vital to our survival!”

Taylor nodded in agreement and rushed off, grabbing Eli from the perimeter. They hurried to the stairway where Kelly had last been seen.

“We need to find the Commander and make sure he gets through this, okay?”

Before they could respond, Jafar and Tsengal stepped up to join them. Taylor could see Eli was as uncomfortable as ever with their presence, but he knew they could be useful.

“Okay, let’s do this!”

Taylor quickly followed in Kelly’s footsteps. Within a minute, they were in the broad conference hall the Commander had so recently passed through. Over twenty Mechs lay scattered and dead, as well as two MDF soldiers. Another wounded soldier of Kelly’s force lay resting against a sidewall with his rifle in hand. A pulse had struck his leg, and he was unable to stand.

“The Commander, where is he?” asked Taylor.

“He carried on to the next floor.”

Mitch turned and led his team back to the stairs and up. They were getting further and further from the ground floor and fighting to the extent that it was just a background noise, yet they could still not hear any gunfire from above.

“Kelly must have covered some ground!”

They continued up another three floors until finally they could hear the familiar sound of the Reiter rifles firing rapidly. They reached the floor where the action was taking place and burst out from the stairs to see Kelly up ahead reloading his rifle.

“Kelly!” Taylor shouted.

The Commander slammed in his magazine and quickly lifted his rifle at the sound of his name, but he relaxed when he saw Taylor. Behind him a dozen of his troops continued to battle around a bend on the hallway.

“Where are the rest of your people?”

“We’re scattered a little thin, Major. This floor is infested with the bastards!”

“The Colonel is under heavy attack, Sir. We need to turn this around, and we need to show everyone that we have secured this building.”

Kelly nodded in agreement. He put down his rifle and pack and lifted out a flag, the blue and white spot flag of the Lunar colony. He flicked out a telescopic pole and clipped on the flag.

“This second we lift this flag over Parliament, it will change everything. The enemy clearly have eyes on this place.”

“Let’s do it!”

“On me!” Kelly ordered.

The twelve MDF troops followed Kelly and Taylor’s unit to the stairs and continued upwards through the structure. They passed two other floors of fighting where Morris had engaged the enemy. They finally reached the top and rushed out from the stairwell. As they did so, an explosion erupted behind them, and the stairwell collapsed. Taylor turned back in horror to see Parker and the others fall through the breach.

“Eli!” he screamed.

Pulses ripped into their position, and he was suddenly hauled with immense force into a side room. He tumbled in against a desk and looked back to see Jafar had thrown him inside. Only Taylor, Kelly, Jafar and two of the MDF soldiers had made it. Kelly looked horrified and in utter shock.

“We have to go back. We have to go back for them,” he muttered.

Taylor gritted his teeth. He wanted to go to Parker’s aid more than anything, but he also knew they had a job to do that would save many more lives.

“Sir, this is on us. We have to do this!” Taylor shouted.

“With five soldiers? How?”

“Sir, do you want the Moon back or not? I didn’t come here to die!”

He got to his feet and pulled the Commander up.

“How far is it to the roof access?”

Kelly mumbled a little until he regained his composure and could see Taylor was serious.

“It’s about fifty metres from here.”

“Alright, we have fought our way across a world, a space station, and onto this rock you call a home. We can make it fifty metres!”

He rushed over to a door at the far side and saw a Mech peering through the glass. He quickly lifted his rifle and fired five shots into its head, sending it tumbling to the floor the other side.

“One down!”

He ripped open the door and fired another few shots into the nearest Mech. He looked back to the others with a look of bloodthirsty frenzy. Kelly could see that in that moment, the Major was unstoppable. It gave him a new sense of hope, and he leapt into action, carrying the flag in one hand and lifting his rifle into the other.

The five of them passed quickly through the burnt doorway and over the body of the Mech whose fresh blood spewed out across the hard floor. They got to the end of the hallway when a door beside them burst from its mounts, and the wall at its side it collapsed. Five Mechs burst through into the hall and were already firing before Taylor could respond. The two MDF soldiers were killed instantly, and a pulse smashed into Taylor’s rifle that split it in half and continued on to smash into his torso plate.

The power of the pulse launched Taylor into the far wall, and he crumpled down to the ground. He coughed out blood as he turned onto his side. Kelly lifted his rifle, but it was smashed aside by one of the creatures who proceeded to smash a hard strike into his flank. It caused his armour to buckle. It hit him again which launched him down the corridor and onto his back.

Jafar leapt nimbly into action and dodged a pulse and fired rapidly into the first creature. Taylor looked up to see him duck under another strike and thrust a blade into the beast’s faceplate that Taylor had not previously seen. He drew his Assegai in one hand and pistol into the other and stumbled to his feet. He rushed forwards firing rapidly. The pistol had a lower calibre version of Reiter’s ammunition, but it still needed ten shots to take down the creature.

He jumped onto the next one and thrust down his Assegai into its chest, forcing it to collapse down onto the ground. Just as he drew out the blade, he was hit by the backhand of one of the Mechs and tossed aside. The impact snapped his neck back and broke his right arm. He rolled over on the ground and just managed to get back to his feet. The creature turned its rifle on Taylor and was about to fire when Jafar rushed forwards. He barged it into the wall, and the pulse it fired missed Taylor by just a few centimetres, bursting into the wall behind him.

Taylor marvelled at Jafar’s ferocity as he tore the creature’s faceplate off and crushed its skull with a single strike. He jumped forward and took his weapon in his left hand as he saw the last reach for Jafar. Mitch thrust his Assegai up into the beast’s belly, and it keeled over. He drew the weapon out and thrust it in with two other wicked thrusts to make sure. The two dead Mechs dropped to the floor together.

“You’re a formidable fighter,” Jafar said.

“Likewise.”

Taylor turned as he heard coughing from behind them. Kelly was on his knees but keeled over in immense pain. He rushed over to the Commander who was clearly severely wounded. The flank of his armour was badly buckled, and it was clear he needed help quickly.

“Help me up,” he gasped.

Taylor hoisted the Commander up with his left arm and gritted his teeth through the pain he felt soar through his body. He could barely support the Commander who was laying most of his weight down on the Major. Mitch looked to Jafar who stood awaiting his orders.

“Give the Commander a hand,” stated Taylor.

The creature quickly responded and rushed to Kelly’s side, simply hoisting him up as if he weighed no more than a child.

“The flag!” Kelly murmured.

Taylor crouched down and lifted the flag onto his shoulder and braced it with his broken arm, despite the pain.

“We’ve got just a few metres left, and I’ll be damned if we aren’t gonna make it now!” Taylor shouted.

They continued on towards the roof access chamber. Taylor could feel his body was a wreck once more, and he was thankful Jafar was taking the weight of the Commander, as he was barely able to support him. They reached the access doors and stepped through into the chamber. The interior doors clamped down, and they instantly felt gravity lessen which took the pain and pressure off them all.

“This is it. You won your war, Major, and today we win ours,” Kelly said.

He reached forward and winced in pain as he hit the door exit button. The heavy double doors swung back before them, and they stepped out onto a small platform. It had a ladder that led to the very highest point in the colony. Jafar lifted Kelly onto his shoulder and hauled him up with Taylor close behind.

Pulses of light and tracer still lit up the sky above them, but far less than they had seen on their descent. They reached the top of the steps and staggered out across the rooftop to where the flag used to stand. All that was left was a snapped mast where the enemy had torn it down. Kelly dragged himself up and took the flag from Taylor. He used it to support his weight as he limped to the post. Finally, he turned back to look at their fleet and stretched upright, holding the flag with pride.

General Schulz had been watching the progress of the battle over several display screens on the bridge of his vessel when it suddenly caught his eye.

“What the hell is that? Focus on that for me.”

The Navy officer quickly zoomed in on the scene, and Schulz looked in astonishment at the moving sight. The officer quickly tapped a key and displayed it on the main monitor for all on the bridge to see. At first, several looked confused at the sight of the two men and the alien atop the building. But the reason quickly sank in.

“They’ve done it!” one shouted.

Cheering rang out across the vessel. Schulz turned to his comms officer.

“Send word to the fleet. Mission accomplished! The Moon is ours!”

On the rooftop of the Parliament building, Kelly turned to Taylor and reached out his hand in friendship.

“I never thought I’d see the day, Major, let alone to see you are the one here with me.”

“I didn’t do this alone, Sir.”

Kelly nodded in agreement. He turned to the alien standing beside him.

“I didn’t catch your name?”

“Jafar.”

“I am in your debt. It will not be forgotten.”

He reached out and shook the alien’s hand that dwarfed his.

“This is a new dawn, Mitch. Humanity has taken back what is rightfully theirs. We have triumphed against all odds.”

Chandra looked down at the bodies of fifteen soldiers that had fallen, and a medic who was desperately working to save two others. They were cutting down their enemy in vastly greater numbers, and yet they continued to come. Then when she was starting to doubt if they could win, Jackson’s voice rang out.

“They’re running! They’re running!”

Chandra looked up to the ecstatic officer and rushed up to the edge of the defences to see for herself.

“My God, Kelly’s done it,” she whispered.

She turned back to the troops who were weary but in a frenzy of excitement.

“I won’t see one of those bastards escape this Moon. Kill them all!”

She lifted her rifle and leapt of the barricade, rushing forward and firing as she went. The troops screamed as they charged after her. An hour later, she was soaked in the enemy’s blood and stood satisfied that she had done as they had promised. She had lost friends that day, but at least she could feel she had given better than they got. Jones rushed down the corridor to greet her, stopping in shock at the thick blue blood that was sprayed across her body and dripping from the Assegai in her hand.

“It’s over, Chandra. We’ve won!”

Twenty minutes later, the troops of Inter-Allied lay about in the conference hall and surrounding rooms of the Parliament building. They had no idea where their lives went from there, but they were relieved. Eli lay stretched out in Taylor’s arms. She was cut and bruised but felt better than ever.

The Colonel finally strode in to meet Taylor. She had wiped the enemy blood from her face, but it was stuck like glue everywhere else. She looked down at the two of them and smiled to see they had made it through. Jafar and Tsengal sat among the troops as they’re own. They were engulfed in conversation with several of Taylor’s marines.

“I guess they came through, then?” she asked.

“More than you can imagine.”

A voice came over the tannoy throughout the whole colony. It was General Schulz.

“We have won a victory today of truly outstanding proportions. I want to thank every man and woman among you for your efforts. You have done everything that was asked of you and more. The invaders took humanity to the brink of destruction. Today we have clawed it back, and stand victorious!”

Cheers rang out and echoed all around the Parliament building.”

“Today we reclaimed what was ours. Tomorrow, we take the fight to their lands!”

Clapping and cheering rang out. The thought of getting real payback was appealing to them all. But Taylor now knew one thing for sure; there was no end in sight to their war.

Defeating the enemy on Earth had ended the first Earth War. Invading the Moon had started the second.