Taylor glanced at Herbert, knowing they must stay focused.
“You know what to do. Deactivate all weapon systems.”
The Sergeant quickly complied and went for the main console.
“You have a choice, Colonel. Save millions of people, or save your friends.”
Taylor didn’t want to hear anymore of it, but the subject matter was one he could not ignore.
“All right, you ugly bastard. Quit beating about the bush, and say your piece.”
In all honesty, he was terrified of the alien Lord's presence, as two had come close to killing him before, but he would not admit it or show fear in the face of another.
“I am Erdogan, and I have come to do what my counterparts could not.”
Taylor knew the name, and he knew what that meant. The most powerful of the Krys Lords was here.
This can’t be good. But he had no choice to play along.
“Go on…”
“In ten of your Earth minutes, the weapon systems of this device will destroy key cities of you and your allies. I have seen fit to isolate the key weapon systems from this grid so that they cannot be shut down remotely.”
Taylor looked back to Herbert. The Sergeant looked horrified, and that was all the confirmation Taylor needed.
“What the hell do you want?”
Erdogan ignored the question and continued.
“I have been studying you, Colonel, for a long time now, and I know how to hurt you. In ten minutes, you may get to the other weapon systems and deactivate them. Or in those precious few minutes, you may get aboard the Nassau and save your friends. Jones, Parker, I know them all.”
Taylor was frozen and began to shake and sweat with nervousness and anger. He rolled it over in his head and tried to find a way out.
“Your choice, Colonel, your friends or your planet. You have ten minutes.”
As he said it, the hologram ended, and a timer started on the main screen in the room. He rushed over to the Sergeant who was frantically flicking through keys on a touch pad.
“What’s our situation?”
“Silos 12 through 26 have been isolated from the system through two control points. If we go now, we may just reach them in time, but there is nothing we can do from here. Some of the nukes can be stopped by counter measures on the ground, but many are beam weapons that cannot be stopped.”
He looked up to one of the monitors which displayed the Nassau and thought of his friends aboard.
“We have to go now, Colonel. That is what they would want. If we don’t go now, millions will die!”
Taylor calmed his breathing and thought about it for a moment and then responded. “No, I won’t do it. I won’t let this bastard make me choose.”
“What would you have us do?”
He froze for ten seconds, and Herbert grew more impatient.
“Do you still have control of the other silos?”
He looked down at the screens.
“Yeah, about half of them, why?”
He took a deep breath and answered. “Target silos 12 through 26, and destroy them immediately.”
Herbert looked at him in disbelief.
“You want to destroy the defence grid? Those were not our orders.”
“Not then, but things have changed somewhat, wouldn’t you say?”
Herbert was silent.
“What will happen if we fire silo on silo?”
“I believe it will trigger automatic response systems. The silos would destroy one another.”
“Then fire all but two.”
Herbert looked confused.
“Just do it!”
The Sergeant punched in the targets and then held his hand over the authorisation switch to open fire. Taylor couldn’t wait any longer and turned it himself. The two of them stepped back and watched as gun ports opened along the massive defence grid. Missiles flew across space and were soon met with beams smashing into parts of the station.
It was utter chaos and destruction; huge segments were blown apart and pulled into the Earth’s atmosphere.
“We’re in deep shit for this,” stated Herbert.
“Only if we live through it,” he replied.
Taylor looked at his watch. Three minutes had passed and their work on the defence grid was all but done.
“What now?” Herbert asked.
“With whatever we got left, target the power generators of the Nassau and take them out, along with any other nearby vessels.”
Herbert opened his mouth to question it, but Taylor only stared back. He obliged and punched in the codes, and a salvo of fire erupted from what was left of the defence grid.
“You know how many trillions of dollars of stuff you just destroyed?” asked Herbert.
“Me? You pushed all the buttons.”
Herbert looked a little pale.
“Our work here is done. Let’s go and save the Regiment.”
Herbert looked around as if to ask ‘with what army?’, but Taylor headed for the door anyway. He stopped on hearing gunfire, and out from another corridor in the intersection came Captain Grey. He was covered in blue blood and carrying a shield that had been carved in two, yet he still held it.
“Nice of you to finally join the party.”
Lieutenant Spears strode out with him. They were little more than thirty in total.
“This is everyone?” asked Taylor.
Grey nodded grimly, and he could see they had suffered greatly fighting their way there. He understood now why they had met comparatively little resistance; Grey had taken the hits for them.
“Did you deactivate the weapons? Did you get it done?” asked Grey.
“In a fashion,” muttered Herbert.
“It’s a long story. Right now we need off this heap. We need to get aboard the Nassau. Know a way of making that happen?”
“There’s a shuttle a little way back, nothing great but it should fly,” stated Spears.
“Then lead the way. We’re riding to the rescue of Jones, so buckle up because it’s gonna be a rough ride!”
They rushed at speed behind Spears who was covering ground quickly and moving with real purpose. They reached the shuttle and found it was of civilian nature; shiny and new, but without any weapons or armour to speak of.
“How the hell are we going make it through an enemy fleet in this?” asked Grey.
“You’ll see,” replied Taylor with a smirk.
They were airborne in less than two minutes, but as they got out into space, the faces of the troops were of shock. They looked out at the debris of countless ships, and parts of the station they had been aboard burning.
“What the hell did you do?” Grey asked.
“What I had to, trust me.”
Herbert was still shaking his head in astonishment.
“He put the lives of our Regiment before all others.”
“What do you mean?”
“We probably could have shut down those weapons in the time we had, but we never could have saved Jones and the others. Taylor took out the weapons and gave us a clear path to the Nassau.”
Grey shook his head in disbelief.
“What is it, Captain?” asked Taylor.
“This is gonna come back to bite us in the arse.”
“Yeah, well, pretty much everything seems to. Let’s just get our people out of there, and I’ll call it a victory.”
Chapter 12
They were coming in for their final run to the Nassau, and Herbert still stared at Taylor. He knew what the glare was for. Erdogan. Taylor hadn’t told the others, and they both knew it was a big deal. Taylor told himself it was a problem for another day and did his best to believe it.
“We’re gonna have to head for one of the landing bays, no other way in!”
Taylor shrugged. “Whatever you gotta do, do it, Spears. It’s as good a place to put down as any!”