"You did it, Mitch."
"Was there ever any doubt we wouldn't, Eli?" he replied.
* * *
Kelly stood at the entrance to a barrack room, not unlike the one Taylor and his people had been given on the Washington. He knew that space would be tight in the bunker complex, but he was glad to have a reinforced roof over his head and heavy armour at the door.
"You knew about this place all along?" Reynolds asked.
"Since it was established, yes. Although I'd hoped to never have to make use of it."
"Once again, we're underground and living in caves. I remember this all too well, and how it went last time."
Kelly nodded in agreement. It certainly brought up some painful memories.
"Last time we lived like this, we had the help of Earth forces. We had supply runs, weapons, ammo, and the hope of somewhere to flee to. What do we have now?"
"I told you when we began this, Captain. We aren't here to survive or win. We exist now only as a weapon. We live to make alien life hell. That is all we can do."
"Do you think that is enough to keep our people going?"
"Has to be. The alternative is death, and that option can be taken anytime you like. Just go for a walk, and death will soon find you."
"Commander Kelly?" a voice asked.
He turned to see it was Corporal Berlin.
"Formerly Commander, not any longer."
"Then what are you?" someone else asked.
Becker strolled in behind her and stopped in front of Kelly, awaiting an answer.
"Retired."
"No longer. I'm the ranking officer here, as you know, and that goes a long way to showing how bad things are. But I am a tank commander. We have stragglers from a few infantry regiments here but nobody above a Lieutenant, and even she is little more than an admin officer who's spent her life filing and clipping her nails."
"Lieutenant Engel!" he called.
A short, thin woman appeared at his side. She had almost perfectly kept blond hair and not a mark on her skin. She wore fatigues that looked like they had never seen a speck of dirt, but she was shy, and that showed in her body language.
"We have to make do with what we have. What we have here is you two, a clerk and an old retiree."
Kelly could not disagree.
"But that is what we have, so fuck it, we can't complain. We have to get on with it. I need an infantry commander, and you are the most combat experienced infantry officer we have. As an officer of the...I don't even know what I am an officer of anymore, I lead whatever we have here, right now. Kelly I am giving you a commission to the rank of Captain, and you will report directly to me."
Kelly didn't look surprised. He could see Becker was more than a little burnt out by it all and needed someone else to shoulder some of the responsibility. He didn't want it, but he knew he had to take it. Becker turned to Engel.
"She is yours now, your problem. Make a soldier of her."
Becker turned and left in a casual manner, swigging from a hip flask as he strutted away. Engel studied Kelly's every move and expression. He could see in her eyes that she was more than a clerk, or at least had the potential to be more.
"Ever fired a rifle, Lieutenant?" Kelly asked.
"Not for a few years, Sir."
Kelly smiled. She could not have been more than twenty-five, meaning not since officer training.
"Don't worry, you will soon enough," he replied. He looked to Corporal Berlin. She stood almost a head taller than Engel and with the build of a strong man.
"Corporal, your armoury here, is it still stocked?"
She looked confused.
"I am not aware of an armoury, Sir."
Kelly smiled.
"Then follow me."
He led the way, and Reynolds and Engel paced after them.
"Sir, I was led to believe this was a fallout bunker for use by civilians and government officials in the event of emergency," said Berlin.
"Not really, Corporal. This was built as a base of guerrilla operations, should our bases and cities fall. Just as they have, and just as we are now doing."
"So we are not getting off this planet?" Engel asked.
Kelly looked back and was surprised. The young Lieutenant looked more than a little disappointed.
"Those who got off this world, you forget about them now, Lieutenant. I like to think they have made it somewhere safe. Somewhere they can rebuild and start over. But I'd bet money none of us ever see them again. This world has been left to us now, and we're on our own."
Kelly led them from one room to another, and it was clear to them all that he knew exactly where he was going. They passed a few personnel on their way, but it was largely empty.
"How many people do you have here?"
"At last count, three hundred and fifty four. That was before you arrived, Sir," Engel quickly replied.
"Then we must have about doubled your strength."
Finally, the room opened out into a large atrium five metres high. Corridors were either side of them, but up ahead a large mural depicting Taylor's defeat of Demiran. It was an overly heroic and motivational illustration that almost made Kelly laugh. He continued right up to the mural and touched it. His touch revealed a hidden access pad that extended with a palm reader.
"What is this?" Berlin asked.
"This is what's gonna keep us in the fight, Corporal. Where we just came from, that was merely the back door. Welcome to Bunker Drachenburg."
He placed his palm on the reader, and a moment later, the mural split in two and retracted into the frame around it. Blast doors behind that opened soon after, and they were all left mesmerised at what they saw. A vast underground hangar stretched for half a kilometre and was lined with armoured vehicles and weapon stores. Thousands of Reitech suits lay in racks along the lengths.
"Wow," said Reynolds.
Kelly led the way forward. After all they had been through, he could see it was to them like walking through winter wonderland.
"How, how is this possible?"
"You see, Corporal, there is hope, just not in the form you would have expected it. We don't have ships. We don't have a way out of hell. But we do have a tonne of hardware and a capable army willing to use them."
"I need to get Captain Becker down here, Sir."
"Then do so."
The Corporal quickly got Becker on the comms, and Kelly overheard it all.
"Sir, Captain Kelly has found resources down here that you are going to want to see."
"Just catalogue them, Corporal. That'll be all."
"Sir, it would take me all week to catalogue what we have down here. It's beyond belief. Everything from ammunition to main battle tanks."
"What? I didn't hear that last part!"
Taylor smiled as he could hear Becker finally take Berlin seriously.
"You heard me, Sir. You need to see this for yourself."
It took Becker just five minutes to reach the entrance to the hangar, and he stopped on finding the entrance.
"How did we not know about this?" he asked.
"Guess it was need-to-know," replied Kelly.
Becker took a few paces forward and stepped into the hangar with two of his tank crew. They were astonished by what they saw.
"Before I was a Captain, I was a Commander," said Kelly, "I never wanted the job it turned out to be. When I signed up, being a Commander meant keeping order on a peaceful moon with a small colony. But times changed. We all changed."
"Sir, Captain Becker!" a voice cried.
They turned to see a man run frantically into the hangar and then stop in shock at what lay before him. It was such a surprise that he forgot why he’d even come there.
"What is it, Private?" Becker hollered.
"Uhhh....Sir...Sir...the Colonel. You need to come quickly."