The two still looked puzzled but also quite impressed by his sentiment.
“Now tell me something. You speak our language as if you always knew it. How is that possible?”
“From when we are born, we are inserted with a chip in our brains. It works as a subconscious translator so that we can speak and listen in any language. New languages can be learnt within a few hours of reading or hearing them. I am surprised your race have nothing similar when you have many languages, like our people.”
Taylor shook his head in disbelief.
“Fascinating, but we’ve not got anything like it.”
He thought back to Schulz who wanted them sent back as lab rats.
“Many of our leaders would have you sent back to our homeland for interrogation and experimentation. I promise you, I will not let that happen while you remain members of this Battalion and continue to give everything you have to fight for it.”
“You have our allegiance.”
“I ask a lot of you, what do you ask in return?”
Once again the two creatures looked surprised that they were asked their opinion.
“Only to be one of you. You have shown us what life could be like, and we want what you have.”
Taylor smiled. Their lives had been hell since the war began, and yet here were two from the other side who would give everything for the same.
“Your weapons, food, everything else, can you organise your own?”
“There is enough lying about this station from the battle which we can salvage,” replied Tsengal.
“Alright, then go and get what you need, but do not go anywhere without human members of this unit. Others might not be so accepting of you, nor believe your participation in this army. Find Corporal Hall, and join him in his watch at 1100 hours.”
Taylor got to his feet and finally wandered over to join Parker for good. She was clearly still uneasy about his friendship with the two aliens, but she was warmed by his presence.
It wasn’t long before he lay down to rest his weary body in readiness for the morning assault. Eli lay down in her own bed that was pushed up to his. Their hands were intertwined, and they remained silent, reflecting on the day’s events. She broke the silence between them, but it was still quiet enough for only Taylor to hear over the chatter in the vast room.
“Tomorrow, all this could be over. The last human colony back in our hands.”
Taylor smiled. He wished it could be true, but he knew in his gut that it couldn’t be.
“Still a few stations to take, and God knows what state Mars is in.”
“Who cares about Mars? It was nothing but a crappy research centre anyway.”
“Can’t say I have any interest in it either, but our job is to eradicate the enemy presence from the entire solar system.”
“Mmm.”
He turned at her expression.
“Makes you wonder where they have come from. How they found us, and what other life they have found and tried to utterly destroy?”
“Why don’t you ask Jafar and Tsengal? I’m sure they could answer some of your questions.”
She sighed. It was clear she had no intention of ever speaking to them, let alone trusting anything they had to say.
“There are many times in our history when an enemy one day, or one year, is an ally the next.”
“But those were humans, our own people. We always had something in common with them.”
“I am sure that is not the way the native Indians felt, nor the Africans under British rule, or the Mayans when the Spanish invaded. So they look different and come from different lands. I’ve seen more humanity in those two than some of the spineless bastards we’ve had to deal with back home.”
They eventually fell asleep that night, and Taylor got the best sleep he’d had all year; surrounded by his companions, and awaiting a mission which would reclaim the ground that was the one blemish on his career and conscience. He was up early and before most of the others. Only Chandra was fully awake and already geared up.
“Another day, another fight, hey, Colonel,” Taylor said.
An hour later, they were formed up at their docking bay as agreed. Rains stood beside a newly arrived copter while the wreck of his old one still lay untouched in the docking bay deck. The area was silent, and they were all awaiting the final command by Schulz. Finally, his voice came over the tannoy.
“Good morning to you all. Today we embark on a mission to re-claim a colony which had long been lost to the enemy. We stand ten thousand strong, and the Moon Defence forces, that fought so bravely to defend their lands, are among us today. We fight for them, for their homes and lands. But we also fight for our own. The Moon was the first civilian colony to be attacked, and they fought bravely. Let us honour their sacrifices here today, and reclaim it in the name of the human race!”
Cheers rang out. Inter-Allied shared their docking bay with Kelly’s MDF forces and another thousand troops. The deck below them shook under the stamping of feet from the excitement of the troops.
“Yesterday, we lost many fine soldiers to capture this station, and many more will bear scars and wounds for life. Let us remember them, and honour their efforts today by continuing their fine work. Good luck, and God speed. COs have your troops emplane. The time has come for us to strive forward and seek victory!”
The crowds cheered once again and many of the Inter-Allied troops could not help but join in. Taylor was impressed, despite not wanting to be. He never disliked Schulz as a leader, only as a man.
The fleet was rapidly descending on the Lunar colony, and the troops sat quietly aboard next to the copters. Taylor and Chandra were aboard the Deveron once again. It had been hastily patched up after the last battle. As infantry, they all prayed they would make it to land intact, for there was nothing they could do until that time.
The Colonel and Eli sat one side of Taylor, Jafar and Tsengal the other. Captain Jones sat opposite them. It suddenly struck Taylor how accepting the Captain had been of their new allies, especially when he thought back to the punishment and suffering he had faced at the aliens’ hands. Taylor nodded at him and gestured for him to leave their seats for a word. The two officers stepped out of the landing bays and out of sight of the others.
“I have brought two creatures into our unit. Creatures which until recently fought against us. It’s not been a popular move, and yet you’re one of the few who doesn’t seem to have had a problem with it. It surprises me. You’ve got more reason than any of them to hate these newcomers.”
Jones shrugged his shoulders as if he had nothing to add.
“Come on, Charlie, I need you with me a hundred percent, and that means I need to know what you’re thinking.”
Jones looked down and then back up at Taylor. There was sadness in his eyes that Taylor had awoken.
“They may have done some horrific things to me, but it wasn’t those two. The two out there are soldiers, just like us. I’d like to think if I were ever captured that I would be treated the way you treat prisoners.”
“But you weren’t.”
“No, but that’s no reason to act like animals. I have chosen to base my judgement on Jafar and Tsengal on what I see with my own eyes, not what we think of them based on some reputation. You say they saved your life. They certainly helped saved mine. As far as I am concerned, they are our comrades, providing they continue on as they have started.”
Taylor smiled in response.
“You’ve come a long way since those dark days, back to the man I used to know.”
“Mostly,” he replied.
Lieutenant Ryan came over the intercom.
“We’re on approach to the colony, all troops to board their copters. Clear the decks, and gunners to their positions. May God be with you all.”
“God? I wasn’t aware he was watching,” replied Taylor.
Taylor laughed. “Let’s go.”
Fifteen minutes later, the Deveron’s guns opened fire on the enemy ships approaching their positions. They expected a vicious defence and knew that the battle must have commenced a good fifteen minutes before their arrival as the first wave of fighters and cruisers tried to cut a path through.
Taylor was strapped in aboard Rains’ copter when the first enemy pulse smashed into the Deveron. The ship rocked violently but continued onwards. They could just hear the sound of Ryan’s orders echoing around the docking bay outside.
“Docking doors open, launch in five, four, three...”
The engines roared to life around them, and a second later their craft rushed out from the Deveron’s docking bays; out into space where railgun rounds and pulses flashed past the windows of their craft.
“Jesus Christ!” Hall shouted.
“Hold on to your asses, this is gonna be a rough one!” replied Eddie.
Their copter dodged and evaded pulses and the wreckage of fighters from both sides as it soared towards the Moon. All around they watched ships of both sides interlocked into dogfights. Beyond them, they could see the larger ships duking it out and tearing each other apart. The Deveron was long out of sight, but they knew Ryan would have taken them quickly forward into the battle.
Taylor and Chandra were closest to the cockpit and could see the Moon looming ahead of them. Pulses rushed towards them from ground positions, and they could only watch in horror as one of the MDF copters burst into pieces as it took a direct hit.
“Still happy you volunteered to go in with Kelly?” called Taylor.
She turned and glared at him. They both knew it was the right course of action, but they only hoped they could survive long enough to reach the surface. A minute later that felt like five, they were banking hard and coming in to land. Chandra blew a sigh of relief as she realised they had passed within the enemy’s defence grid.
“Now it’s on us!” shouted Taylor.
It had been a long time since Taylor had set foot on the Lunar colony, and it was a wound that still cut deep in that they’d had to flee from it so quickly. He was eager to make up for the orders he’d never wished to receive; finally he was given the opportunity.
“Half of you were with me when we came here last, and remember that day! Because today we get payback!”
Eddie brought them in for a rapid landing. They hit the ground hard, to the level that the undercarriage buckled slightly as they put down. The troops were quickly on their feet and heading for the door. Taylor smashed his hand down onto the door release, and they were out into the low gravity of the Moon.
“Head for that door!” Chandra ordered.
Taylor turned to see a main access point into the station. They had landed exactly on target as Kelly had asked. He leapt from the door and bounced along the surface towards the several metres wide entrance. It looked as if it was intended for more than one vehicle to pass through at a time, and there was a numeric datapad for entry on the wall. Taylor punched in the code Kelly had given him, and the huge doors quickly lifted. The structure looked thick enough to withstand heavy artillery.
The Major looked back to see that the other copters had all landed bar one which was missing. It was relatively few losses, considering the vicious assault, but still many friends lost. They had half the Battalion with them, Jones having led the rest to an entrance a few hundred metres away.
He turned and rushed inside the facility. Within five minutes, the doors were once again shut and all were inside. Gravity had returned to normal as the doors clamped down, but the air was still thin. They were all aware that breaches in the facility meant that there was too little air to go without their helmets.
They had entered what was a vehicle depot for land based craft, but it was littered with heavily damaged enemy craft.
“Looks like a salvage yard,” Taylor said.
“They must have been using this place to reassemble what they could from parts,” replied Chandra.
“Seems a little desperate,” he replied.
“Good, it’s a sign of the times. They must be running pretty thin.”
Their communications were down once again. They all looked forward to the day their tech guys could find a way around the jamming, but for now they were on their own. The troops waited patiently for Chandra, and it made the room almost silent. They suspected much of the fighting had already started, but they were almost half a kilometre from the nearest allied troops.