“It isn’t over, it’s never over…”
His voice faded, and his head slumped. Neither of them was in doubt that he was dead. Taylor turned to see Parker leap onto him with a hug.
“We did it!” she cried.
He pulled her back to see her body armour was badly battered from the fight, but that she was okay. She wiped the blood from his face, and he winced at the pressure on his broken nose and bruised face.
“Remind me I never want to go into boxing,” he jested.
She smiled as tears streamed down her face.
“Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Chandra looked at Blinker with a look of surprise as she heard a volley of weapons fire in the distance that she knew not to be of enemy origin. She leapt up to see friendly troops engaging the Mechs from the far corridor where they had come from.
“It’s Wittman!” she cried.
The soldiers who had been huddled behind cover jumped to their firing positions with a newly found confidence. Having others come to their aid was something the Inter-Allied were beginning to forget. They leapt out from cover and advanced on the Mechs, firing as they did so. Chandra turned to see that Eli had joined in from a side corridor, and she could make out the shape of Taylor firing one-handed and with a fellow soldier over his shoulder.
The human forces closed quickly on the Mech forces and with continued fire quickly overcame them. Chandra turned in surprise to see Jones slung over Taylor’s shoulder, and the damage they had all taken.
“Is it done?” she asked.
Taylor grinned in such a way that she already knew the answer.
“Then what are you waiting for? Get your arses out of here!”
She turned to Wittman and the others.
“We’ve got minutes until the enemy descend upon us, and we’re done for. Let’s move it!”
They quickly got up to pace and followed the route they had come in. She rushed up beside Jones.
“Mitch, is he alive?” asked Chandra.
“I think he’ll make it! Next time he wants to commit suicide, he can do it on your watch!”
She looked over in despair at the unconscious body of the Captain who both of them had come to know as a great friend. He was a casualty of war that wasn’t reflected in the casualty reports. They rushed out of the vast building to find little more than a scattering of Mechs and drones that opened fire. One of Silva’s platoon was hit and killed, but the rest quickly returned fire without breaking pace.
Campbell hauled the body of the fallen soldier onto his shoulders. Now knowing what they did, they could never leave a comrade behind, no matter the stakes. The exhausted Taylor rushed to the front of the troops even with the weight of Jones on his shoulders. He wanted nothing more than to get free of the enemy lines.
The two Companies poured aboard the three craft while under continuous fire by the oncoming Mechs. They could tell the enemy was far from ready for the lightning strike they had made, and now there was little available to stop them escaping.
“Eddie! Get is the fuck out of here!” yelled Taylor.
The ramps were still lifting as the craft took off. Several pulses smashed into the craft Rains was piloting, but they did little more than shake the vessel. After getting just thirty metres off the ground, Eddie put all power to the rear engines and soared to full speed. They all knew once they had reached full speed that nothing the enemy had could catch them.
“Jesus Christ, Major, you trying to get me killed?” asked Eddie.
“Mighty fine job you did here, Lieutenant. I’ll be sure to make the General aware of your work.”
“Fuck that, you keep me alive and get me a beer, and I’ll be good.”
Taylor smiled. He stepped back into the transport bay and looked down in sadness at the body of the fallen soldier. He noticed Monty and knelt down beside the man.
“Some good wounds to brag about back home there?”
“Yes, Sir,” he responded with gritted teeth.
Taylor patted him on his good shoulder.
“Damn fine soldiering, Monty.”
They arrived back on base within hours to a hail of applause by an entire division that had assembled to greet them, along with detachments from a dozen countries. When they hit the ground and disembarked, Chandra could see that Wittman had over a dozen dead and almost as many wounded. It saddened her to see what a price it had cost them, but they were welcomed back as heroes, nonetheless.
General Schulz and his staff awaited them and saluted as they paced down the ramps. Taylor smirked as he was amused by the amount of kiss ass he knew he had earned from the man who had sent him to prison. Though he looked past to Dupont who still glared at him with disgust and refused to salute.
“Major Chandra, Major Taylor, welcome back!”
They could see the General was desperately awaiting news. They could have transmitted it soon after breaking free of the enemy blocking zone, but they were less than eager to send the news ahead and let their superiors take the glory. Schulz lifted up his hand for the troops to silence themselves and listen to Chandra. He beckoned for his aide to go forward with a microphone that had been linked to speakers all around the base.
“Major, please tell us the news.”
“Thank you, General, but I must let Major Taylor have this duty, for he has earned it more than any of us.”
Schulz begrudgingly accepted. She could see that his hatred of Taylor had waned to little more than a mild annoyance, but it still pained him to see Taylor stealing the spotlight. She passed the mic to Taylor who coughed to clear his throat. He looked out at the eager faces of all the soldiers who awaited the news. Line after line of troops watched him with eager eyes; so many faces that reminded him of all those they had lost on the road to this point.
“I can confirm that as of 1500 hours today, Karadag, the leader of the enemy army on Earth, is dead, witnessed by myself and Sergeant Eli Parker of the 2nd Inter-Allied Battalion…”
The roar of clapping and whistles cut off his speech as the troops could not restrain themselves. They could hear the celebrations ring out across the base. There was not one among them who could not leap for joy at the news. After several minutes of ecstasy, they finally quietened and waited for him to continue.
“We did this together, not as a nation, an army, but as a race. We stood together as the human race. I can guarantee you that this war is not over, but I can also assure you that I will not stop fighting until it is!”
General Schulz stepped forward and raised his hand to ask Taylor for the microphone. He handed it over without question. He didn’t like the man, but he liked speaking publically even less. Schulz picked up the mic and turned back to the troops with a smile.
“This is General Schulz, Commander of the joint European armies. I want to thank you all for your continuing efforts. We believe that our actions today have broken the spine of this invading force. I have already had confirmation that Russian, Swedish and Danish troops are already well on their way to assisting in the Battle for Berlin. That fight is no longer our concern.”
He stopped for a moment and took a deep breath for dramatic effect.
“We can drive our enemy into the sea, and I fully intend to do it. At 0500 hours we advance east, and we keep advancing until we reach the sea!”
One week later. Taylor and Chandra stood at the foot of Jones’ hospital bed. His body was all but recovered, but he gazed into space without any sense of reality.
“Charlie, France is saved. Tartaros is leaving!” shouted Chandra in joy.
He looked over at her with a blank expression. A few months previously it would have been the greatest news the Captain could ever have heard, but now it was if it went in one ear and out the other. The doors swung open, and Taylor turned quickly to see Sergeant Dubois stood before them and gazing at the Captain with sorrow.