Free Battle Earth: 12 by Nick S. Thomas Page B

mine. Get us moving, Captain!"
    He rushed to the door.
    "1st Platoon, you hold here unless I tell you otherwise. Jafar, Silva, on me."
    He rushed onwards with just the two of them at his side.
    "Running a little thin, don't you think?"
    "It'll have to do, Silva," replied Taylor.
    They all had their rifles on them, but no one had shields.
    "This is a monumental fuckup of a defence," stated Silva.
    "We underestimated our attackers, that's for sure."
    He knew it was the greatest underestimation he'd heard in a long time, to the extent that it even brought a smile to Silva's face.
    "Where are we heading?" he asked.
    "Sweep and clear, and if we can get to either the armoury or our copter to pickup shields, all the better."
    "Copter is closer."
    Taylor nodded and went ahead to lead the way. He took a bend and could hear movement, so he ducked back behind a support beam, holding his rifle up at the ready. The steps were lightweight, so he assumed they were human, but he wanted to be sure. Three crewmembers took the bend and stopped in horror at the sight of him. They were carrying Reitech carbines that they had drawn from the armoury, but without the exo-suits even the carbines were hefty loads to lug around.
    "Colonel, what's going on?"
    "We're heading for the hangar bay. Fall in and form a rear guard."
    He went quickly past them, and they tagged on. Gunfire echoed out ahead, and Taylor took a corner to see the flank of one of the enemy firing its weapon. It was using some kind of forearm-mounted pulse weapon and carried a shield in its other. The Mech’s armour was sleek and compact, much like what Jafar used to wear. It was also jet black and made them appear as a shadow. He felt a tingle run down his spine, and he now understood why they were so terrifying.
    Without any more hesitation, he lifted his rifle and took a well-aimed burst at the creature’s head. The first shot glanced off its helmet, but the second and third penetrated, and it dropped down dead before it could turn to face him.
    "Not so bad," he muttered to himself.
    Even before he had finished, another one of them took the corner with its shield held before it. Taylor fired a few shots, but nothing could get through.
    "Grenades?" Silva asked as he ducked back for cover.
      “This close to firing up a gateway? Hell, no."
    "We need to live long enough to get that far," he added.
    "We can't face them like this. We need to get to our gear."
    He pointed off to another room next to them and a door they could see on the far side.
    "That way! Move!"
    He leaned out and fired a few shots for covering fire before following the others. Silva led the way through another few rooms and corridors until they reached the entrance to the hangar. Silva leaned in just enough to see two of the creatures pacing across the deck. He caught another glimmer of movement and could see it was Rains sitting just inside a side door of one of the copters. Two other crewmembers lay dead not far from the craft. Rains looked terrified. Silva looked to the nose of the copter he was in and could see the Reitech chain gun had a magazine loaded; he could only hope it had ammunition. Silva gestured towards the gun and signalled for him to put down fire before turning back to the group.
    "Rains is gonna put down some fire from that nose gun, then we hit them, okay?" he said to the group, as Taylor peered around for a look with his own eyes.
    "He starts that gun firing, and they're gonna hit back hard. No hesitation, you hear?"
    Silva nodded in approval, but the sailors with them looked terrified and barely able to move. Taylor couldn't blame them. He remembered the first time he saw the Mechs, and these were a far more terrifying enemy than they were accustomed to. Taylor watched Rains climb carefully into the cockpit, but he stumbled as he dropped into the seat, and the creatures heard him. They turned to fire, but Taylor took it as his chance. He raised his rifle and fired a six-shot burst into the