“Almost there,” whispered the pilot.
Their ship rushed over the frigate, and the pilot quickly brought them to a standstill behind the cover of the powerless ship.
“What are you doing?” asked Taylor.
“We can’t go back out there. We’ll never make it.”
“We can’t wait here, or it was all for nothing.”
“And is us all dying for nothing worth something?”
Taylor couldn’t help but agree, but they desperately needed to do something. He looked down at his watch and at how little time they had left to complete their mission. There were no options left, and in that instance, he drew his pistol and put it to the pilot's head.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Taylor was utterly calm as he responded.
“Full power, get us to our target now!”
“You’ll kill us all.”
“Either go now and maybe survive, or I’ll shoot you down and figure it out myself.”
He was getting desperate, and it started to look that he may well actually shoot the man. That was enough to convince the pilot.
“You’re insane,” he said, putting the power down, and they soared forward. Gunfire rushed past them, and then a red warning light flashed in the cockpit.
“Incoming missiles, deploying countermeasures. Our luck won’t hold forever, Colonel!”
As he said it, everything went quiet, and the shots stopped. They both looked at the viewing screen displaying the Nassau with utter shock.
“He’s done it. Jones has done it,” said Taylor.
He knew it was the only reason the firing would stop. As he said it, they saw a burning ship pass them at speed and barrelling out of control. Troops were bailing out from the rear door. He knew it was Captain Grey’s ship. He was amazed they had made it at all.
“Good luck to you,” he muttered.
“Poor bastards,” added the pilot.
“Poor? They’re alive, aren’t they? They’ll reach the station, no problem. It's us you should be worried about. We’re on our own now,” said Taylor, as he holstered his pistol. “Take us in as planned, and then get yourself a rifle. You’re coming with us.”
All the army pilots had been training for infantry combat, but none of them ever expected to physically be involved in it. The pilot looked horrified.
“You just flew through hell, and you’re okay with that, but getting your boots on the ground scares you?”
“You shoot, I fly. It’s the way I like to keep it.”
“Well, tough shit. Today you are whatever I need you to be.”
Taylor was ever bit as terrified as the pilot, but he’d never show it.
“You really expecting me to take up a rifle?”
“Bet your ass, I need every fighter I can get.”
He looked back, expecting to see Jafar close in behind in support, forgetting he was with Jones. For all the time he had grown to hate the aliens, it now felt strange to go into combat without one.
“Nassau is launching fighters and transports,” said the pilot.
“It’s fine. They can’t stop us now.”
They were coming in for their final descent to the defence grid. It was an intimidating sight to fly past lines of railguns and other weaponry. A single salvo from any one of the towers would end them before they could even see it coming. Knowing they were disabled didn’t calm their nerves an awful lot. Just twenty seconds later, they made their landing on one of the maintenance doors as planned.
“Good work,” said Taylor, holding out his hand in friendship to the pilot he had so recently held a gun too.
“Spears,” replied the pilot. “Lieutenant Spears.”
He wished they would all live long enough that it was worth knowing the man’s name. The ship had come to a halt, but nobody made a move. He wasn’t sure if they were waiting for his order or if they were afraid.
“We’re almost there, almost through. The World is looking to us. Just the few of us, so let’s not let them down. You’ve held true for Jones all these years, will you now follow me to victory?”
Many of them nodded, but there was no roar of excitement and approval, as he would have expected of his marines. Jones’ men were disciplined like no others and their cool silence laconic.
“Open the door, prepare to breach,” he ordered.
They leapt into action and clamped the charges onto the doors of the maintenance bay.
“Fire when ready.”
The shaped charges made a short and controlled blast that had almost no echo at all. Taylor looked in through the breach, half expecting to be met by a gun line, but the entrance was clear. He stepped inside and found the emergency lighting was already on. It struck him as suspicious, for he did not expect any systems to be operational anytime soon.
“How the hell have they got power?”
He turned to see nobody gave a response. They had no better idea than he. He didn’t know whether to be glad they had made it safely, or terrified they were stepping into something they couldn’t handle. Either way there was no choice in the matter now. He carried on through the corridor until they came out near a bank of massive capacitors. He could only imagine they were a part of the power systems of the weaponry they passed on the way in.
The room was opening up, and the ceilings were now ten metres high. It was nothing like a ship he’d ever been on. It was more like a power station back on Earth. Two metre-wide cylinders reached up from the floor to the ceiling like rows of columns, but none of it meant anything to the Colonel, other than as a marker he recognised from the research he had done en route.
“Freeze! Colonel Jones of the Inter-Allied Regiment, you are under arrest! Lay down your weapons, and no harm will come to you!”
Taylor couldn’t tell where the call had come from, but he jumped to the nearest column for cover as he tried to find the source. It was at least a little relief they didn’t know his true identity.
“Someone ran us into a trap,” said Herbert.
“Maybe, but they were always gonna be protecting this place.”
There was total silence for a moment, and they looked around for some sign of an enemy presence.
“Lay down your weapons, and this will end without bloodshed!”
Then Taylor noticed it was coming from a tannoy system in one corner.
“They’ve got us on camera. Damn! We’re gonna have a shit load of trouble coming down on us real soon.”
He expected a response from those with him, but then he forgot they were British, and they waited for his command. He looked around for the cameras which were giving away their position, but they were clearly too small and well hidden, but he also knew the defence platform was vast enough that they could only cover so many areas.
“Let’s move now!”
Taylor jumped out into a quick pace hoping he was right. No gunshots ensued, and he knew he must be. They passed on into a room full of yet more hardware that meant nothing to him. Taylor knew exactly what he was looking for, and that was all that mattered.
They knew they were running on borrowed time, but none of them expected to be caught up with so soon when they heard a string of gunshots up ahead. They were forced to duck for any cover they could find. Shots zipped past Taylor’s head, and he tried to get a fix on how many they were facing. He could already count a dozen rifles being fired ahead of them. He looked to Harris who was up against the pillar beside him.
“Any good ideas, Corporal?”
Harris shook his head. “No way around them, Sir. We’ll have to go through them.”
That's not what I wanted to hear, but what choice do we have?