“I thought I’d lost you,” he said, falling to his knees.
She shook her head. “How did you find me?” she asked and began to sob. He looked down at her restrains. There were some kind of metal clamps around her wrists and ankles, but he could see no release mechanism.
“Don’t you worry; I’m getting you out of here.”
He stood up, pulled out his Assegai, and cut through each of the bands. He carefully helped her to sit up.
“Sir, we haven’t got a lot of time left,” said Robinson.
He nodded an acceptance.
“Can you walk?” he asked Coco.
She nodded. “I think so.”
Jones hauled her off the table and let her stand on her own two feet. She wobbled for a moment before getting her bearings.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“Aboard the enemy flagship.”
“What? How did I get here? And what are you doing here?”
“It doesn’t matter. All that matters right now is we have to get the hell off this damn thing.” He pulled out his sidearm and thrust it towards her.
“You stick close to my side, okay?”
She looked dazed and utterly confused by the situation, but she took the weapon as Jones whisked her away back the way he had come in. A broad smile stretched across his face as he realised he had achieved what he never thought possible.
We’ve done it, he told himself.
Coco’s rescue wasn’t the mission, but it gave him hope they may yet succeed in their endeavours.
* * *
Taylor stood empty handed now. His rifle had been ripped from his side during the fight, and only his sidearm remained. He knew it would do little to Erdogan. He began to circle and keep a keen eye on his opponent, who appeared to be waiting for him to act. As he circled, he looked around at the weapons on the walls around them and finally decided on a metre-long pole with a slightly curved metre-long blade protruding from it. He figured he would try speed against his powerful opponent.
As his fist clenched around the shaft of the weapon and drew it from the wall, the blade lit up and glowed green with electric sparks sizzling around its length. Taylor held it suspiciously at arm’s length before deciding it was worth a shot.
“You must know that I am impressed,” stated Erdogan, “As weak as you are, you have been a greater adversary than all those who came before you. For such a weak little being, you have done well. How have you survived this long?”
“Quitting just ain’t in my nature,” Taylor replied.
He rushed forward and thrust with the fiery blade. Erdogan sidestepped and swung for Taylor. He leapt back out of the way and quickly spun the blade over his head and cut across Erdogan’s arm as it passed by. The electrified blade cleanly sliced into the vambrace of his armour.
As the alien Lord took a pace back and lifted his giant mace, he looked at the wound on his arm. The faintest trickled of blue blood seeped from a slash in his armour.
“So you aren’t all powerful, after all? You bleed like every one of you I have killed.”
“Enough of this playing. It’s time to die!”
He rushed forward and swung the mace vertically, causing Taylor to jump aside, but he slammed his body into Mitch and forced him to stagger back across the room. As he tried to get his balance, Erdogan rushed at him, swinging the mace. All he could do was lift his weapon to parry the incoming attack, but it wasn’t enough.
The mace struck the pole blade he carried and snapped it in two with little resistance. The mace ball then struck Taylor’s armour at his solar plexus and threw him back against a back wall. He felt the wind being pulled out of his lungs, and he was shocked by the sheer power of the alien.
He was starting to realise he may not be able to win, and the desperation of the situation was weighing heavily on him. He reached for the nearest weapon to hand, a two-metre long pole, with a cutting blade and spike at one end resembling a halberd. He went forward and swung with the reach, but it was easily met with a parry from the shaft of Erdogan’s mace.
Taylor swung a few more strikes, but he could not get through and was starting to run out of options. He knew in his heart he could never beat any of the alien Lords alone, and yet he had attempted it, anyway. It was starting to sink in now that he may well die there in that room.
Was it all for nothing?
The two of them had parted and stood off several metres from each other now. Erdogan still looked as smug as ever. He knew Taylor couldn’t beat him. Taylor looked over to the doorway where Parker and the others were still trying to get through. She stopped and stared at him. She could see the desperation in his face. They both knew he couldn’t win.
“This is the end for you, Colonel. Your people cannot escape, and neither can you.”
He rushed at Taylor, and despite Taylor cutting in with the halberd Erdogan caught it and drove him up against the sidewall. Taylor was crushed and lifted up off his feet. His weapon was pinned across his body, and he could barely move a single centimetre. Erdogan’s helmet retracted back, and his face closed in towards Taylor’s.
“Good bye, Colonel.”
He drew his body back and kept one hand against Taylor, still pinning him to the wall, and lifted his mace in one hand. It was raised up ready to strike Taylor’s head. He knew he couldn’t survive the strike. He struggled but could not get free.
It’s over, he thought, but he could not let Erdogan have the satisfaction of seeing him look weak.
“You know some day it’s gonna be a human who takes your head off!”
Erdogan smiled, lifted the mace a little higher and went to swing it but felt his arm lock. He looked down. Jafar was beside him with a firm grasp on his arm.
“Let him go!” Jafar shouted.
Aysen approached from the other flank to strike, but Erdogan had already seen him. He launched Taylor at Jafar, and the two tumbled over to the floor. He then turned on Aysen. He took a swing, and Aysen barely ducked under, rolling out of the way across the room.
Taylor was quickly on his feet, but they were all frozen like statues. Erdogan stood at one wall with all three of them in front of him. He looked completely unfazed by their presence.
“Great timing,” Taylor said.
“We do not have much time,” Jafar replied.
Taylor looked down at his datapad, and as his eyes met with Erdogan, he could see some confusion in the alien’s face. He was trying to comprehend what they meant.
“You thought we came here for you, jackass?” Taylor asked.
He laughed as Erdogan’s face turned to stone and then disgust.
“Whatever plan you have, it will fail,” he replied.
But Taylor continued to smile, seeing the doubt in his face. Jafar drew out a two-handed sword, and Aysen took out a long blade spear. Taylor raised his halberd up one last time.
“So how about it? Let’s dance.”
Erdogan rushed right for him, and with the weight of a massive strike snapped the Halberd in two as Taylor lifted it to parry. He came in with another strike, but Aysen lunged at him, driving him back. Jafar cut towards him. The sword cut into the pauldron of his armour, but he backed off before it could penetrate deeper.
Aysen was the first to go forward and thrust repeatedly at Erdogan. He dodged and brushed off the spear thrusts with his arm, until finally closing and striking Aysen with a punch to the face that landed him flat on his back. Jafar was next and cut in with his sword, but Erdogan parried both attacks with his mace and then slid the ball end forward into Jafar’s face. The blow knocked him back several paces, and blood gushed from his nose.