"Jesus, how short did you set those timers?"
"Twenty seconds," she replied with a smile.
Taylor laughed.
"Hey, you said to be sure they wouldn't shoot back."
He slapped her on the shoulder.
"Nice work."
He lifted his comms unit.
"Ryan, get us the hell out of here!"
Before he'd finished the sentence, the engines were roaring at full power. Samson stepped up to the breach and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Close call," he whispered.
"As always. Get these wounded to medical. Parker, get engineering crews down here to patch it up."
He looked around to the wounded one last time.
This mission has cost us dearly just to confirm what we already suspected, he thought.
"Jafar, Your information was correct, but I wish to God it hadn't been. Walk with me."
They carried on back towards the bridge. As Taylor threw his rifle over his shoulder, he was reminded of the pain in his arm. The thick Reiter designed armour only covered their torso. The rest of their armour was the same old stuff they had worn from the start and was only effective against minimal blast damage.
"That device they used cost us dearly. We must find a way to minimise its effects, but I fear we have much greater issues upon us."
"Demiran bringing the Gezgen K'til here can mean only thing."
Taylor was listening intently.
"That he has a bitter hatred running so deep for humanity that he would go to any length to end it."
"Why?"
Jafar shrugged his shoulders.
"I cannot think of any offence caused which would do as such. We have killed many of his soldiers, but that alone would not be enough. Either he is sick of the stubbornness of your race who refuse to quit, or he suffered more personally in the last battle in a way we do not know."
"When though?"
"We left Tau Ceti with Colonel Chandra still fighting. I don't know what could have happened or how, but something happened to Demiran then which has changed this war for him altogether."
Chapter 3
Taylor sat gazing out of the window at the flagship Washington they were approaching. Rains was at the helm. It almost felt like the Lieutenant had become Taylor's personal pilot since it had all begun. The trail of vessels from the Moon had stopped now. He could only imagine the evacuation was complete. They had fled to Earth for safety, but he wondered how safe they really were.
"You ever seen such a grand fleet?" asked Eddie.
It was indeed something to marvel at. The combined human fleet was over three times the size of what set out for the fated Tau Ceti expedition. The Earth Defence Grid was equally as impressive; a chain of gun satellites and missile silos floating in orbit. Earth had become a fortress, and rightly so.
"Bloody fantastic," replied Taylor sarcastically.
"Hey, you don't want a chance to give those alien bastards what for?"
Eddie turned back to look at Jafar sitting beside the Colonel.
"No offence," he added with a smile.
Jafar didn't respond to either comment. It was as if he didn't see himself as anything but human anymore. Within thirty minutes, the two of them were sitting in the officers’ briefing room aboard the Washington. Key Naval and Marine officers sat around the vast conference table. Many empty places were filled with projection devices so that those on Earth could partake remotely.
Taylor laid out everything they had experienced and all the information they had learned from Jafar. He simply nodded in agreement with each statement. Admiral Huber was orchestrating the meeting and was the first to speak.
"This Planet Killer must obviously be stopped. That is not an option. We therefore have no choice but to engage the enemy in space. We cannot fight them on the land as before."
There were grumbles in agreement. Nobody could see an alternative.
"What strikes me here is that we still have a great many things to learn from you, Sergeant… Jafar. You would be far better stationed on the Washington, or even sent back to Earth to assist with our intelligence gathering and understanding of the enemy."
Jafar shook his head.
"We could order you to do as such."
"And I would refuse. My brother and I allied ourselves to Colonel Taylor and gave our word to protect him. I cannot perform that duty anywhere else."
"You're in the Marine Corps now," spat Vega.
"Yes, with a responsibility to my fellow marines. I will not leave Inter-Allied or cease to serve the Colonel through any means but my death."
Vega opened his mouth to continue, but Huber stopped him.
"Captain, it seems to me that these are exceptional circumstances. The Sergeant has proven invaluable to us in the field and continues to provide vital intelligence from his current position. As a member of the fleet, he can carry out all that is required of him. Jafar has taken a leap of faith for us. Let us do the same for him."
"Thank you, Admiral," replied Taylor.
"Is that what you desire?" asked Huber.
"Yes. I am a warrior. All I know is how to fight, and that is what I will do."
"Okay, then tell us what we can expect from the fleet which is bearing down on us."
Everyone in the room had their attention on Jafar. Many had never seen an alien with their own eyes before, and yet now they were fixated on one.
"To Lord Demiran, the Gezgen K'til is everything. It is the unique feature of his family and their reputation. It is his symbol of power and control among the other Lords. It would also be impossible to replace. The Gezgen K'til will not be an easy target to strike. It will be preceded by a wave of far smaller ships. Skirmishers if you like. But these ships, they are a power unto themselves. If you want a shot at the Gezgen K'til, you must destroy them quickly, before the Planet Killer reaches Earth. If you do not, you will never withstand the onslaught of their combined power."
"How many ships are we talking about?"
"I grew up on stories of the Gezgen K'til. I have never seen it being used. From my knowledge, I would expect ten to twelve cruisers, of which I have encountered. They are collectively known as The Purge, and will carve their way through everything in their path to make way for the Gezgen K'til."
"Then we should make an impassable wall with our fleet," stated Vega.
"No, you will not stop them. Not like that. They will smash through anything. You cannot use a barrier defence. You need a tiered defence. Allow them through a weak frontline and funnel them into a gauntlet of mines and warships."
"We are familiar with the strategy," replied Huber. "One that has been employed many time in our history."
"For their size, their armour is thicker than anything you have ever seen. Reinforced prows to cut through other ships and reinforced hulls with their bridge at the core, much like this ship. They are almost unstoppable."
"Then how do we stop them?"
The only weakness of The Purge vessels is that they have few crew. Their massively thick armour compromises them in that way. Each ship is crewed by just thirty or forty. If you can get near them, and breach with marines, they are finished."
"Sounds like the exact opposite of what anyone would expect to do. You see something like that and you keep your distance," replied Huber.
Jafar nodded in agreement.
"How can marine parties get so close if they are so heavily armed?" asked Taylor.
"The Purge does not consider fighters and smaller craft a threat. They have relatively little defence against such."
"Maybe that's for a good reason," replied Huber.
"Yes, it is true that the hull of these vessels is almost impossible to breach. However, I did once go aboard one in the fleet. They have only one weak point; one thin point in their armour, the Captain's quarters. A view out into space is a valuable thing, and something no Krycenaean would go without."