Eddie ran off in a hive of excitement as he went back to work on his precious new ships. The Major climbed back aboard Gibbons’ vehicle and continued on to General White’s Command Centre. He walked in to find a familiar sight. Nothing had changed since his last visit, other than the enemy lines having pushed further into France and Spain.
“Major! Give us an update on your situation,” said White.
“Sir. The supply boats will be ready for lift-off in two hours. Additionally, Captain Friday has completed our report on operational requirements and further procurement.”
“Well done, Major, I have already received your report. While I congratulate you on your work with the alien technology, your report can be described as nothing but farfetched.”
“Major, you are asking for the manufacture of tens of thousands of new weapons, perhaps more, how can our country pay for this?” asked Smith.
Taylor looked at the General dismayed. In previous years he’d gotten used to budget constraints and concerns about overspending, but he had imagined that they were beyond that now.
“Sir, we are no longer a peacetime country that is maintaining our forces. We are at war with an enemy far superior to us, we need every advantage we can get in this fight.”
“Major, we have the best trained and equipped army in the world, is that not enough?”
“No, General Smith, it isn’t. The EUA forces in France and Spain have just as good equipment as our boys, and they’re taking a beating. Best equipment and army in the world accounts for nothing when we face an otherworldly enemy, Sir.”
“You took the bastards down, Major, you didn’t need anything more than you had!”
“All due respect, General. You didn’t see them. You didn’t fight them. I lost many more marines than we took down of theirs. You want to play a numbers game and hope we have more men to throw away than them, fine! But I suggest you grab a rifle and join the tally!”
Taylor threw his chair back and jumped to his feet, storming from the room without recognition of his superiors. He was not one to be disrespectful, but when their leaders were not taking the lives of the men seriously, it was a hard thing to endure. Any one of the Generals could have had him disciplined for the way he acted towards them, but none had the heart.
Striding out into the parking lot, Mitch leapt into Gibbons’ vehicle and signalled for him to go on before anyone could stop them. Taylor looked back at the Command Centre as they sped off towards the hangar, but nobody appeared to chase him. Taylor only had two things on his mind at that moment, the lives of the Moon colonists and his European counterparts.
Taylor passed anxiously along the lines of marines continually on high alert and patrolling the base. It seemed that more than ever was resting on his shoulders. The Moon extraction mission of the Prime Minister was an ambitious task for the Major’s company, but still within their remit. Organising a highly dangerous and never before planned supply drop to the Moon under wartime conditions, using technology that they had never seen before, was a wholly different affair.
As their vehicle rolled up towards the hangar they could see that the two ships had already been pulled out onto the old derelict runway. With the huge alien engines fitted and rudimentary landing gear, they were an odd hybrid of ideas. It looked as if they were built from components that were a hundred years apart in design.
Beside the vehicles were trucks full of the weapons and ammunition that Captain Friday had organised. Taylor had selected a hundred of the 30mm revolving grenade launchers to be sent to the Moon colonists. Armour piercing rounds were supplied in huge quantities, being the only rounds suitable for their environment.
Eddie Rains stood with his arms crossed admiring the work going on before him. It was clear that he enjoyed the attention he got for dressing a long way from regulations, but Taylor was glad of his confidence and composure.
“Lieutenant, give me an update!” shouted Taylor.
He barked his orders before the vehicle had even come to a stop, leaping off as he finished.
“Last load, Major, we’re good to go in five. In fact its time for me to load up, Sir!”
“Good luck, Eddie, I pray you make it there and back, for their sake and yours.”
He reached out his hand to the flight Lieutenant. Rains took it with a grin on his face. Nothing could ever get the pilot down, at least he never showed it. He turned and climbed aboard the craft. It was far larger than his typical mission, but nothing he wasn’t trained on. The extra power of the alien engines would make it feel more extreme than anything he’d ever flown. Taylor knew he must be scared, but he appreciated that Eddie put on a brave face.
The trucks beside the spacecraft cleared out as the doors clamped shut. Each ship had only two pilots and no other crew. They could neither afford nor risk any more personnel. They also needed the maximum capacity for supplies going to the colonists. There were no clearance lights, no control tower and no one to see them off beside Taylor and a select few staff involved in the operation.
Standing a few hundred metres back, Taylor watched Eddie climb into the pilot’s seat in the nose cone of the ship. Each of the vessels was decked out with an adequate selection of weapons controlled remotely by the pilot and co-pilot, but it was little relief when they knew the odds they faced. Speed was the essence of this mission.
Eddie and the other crew fired up the regular engines and the ships quickly lifted off in keeping with their reputation as exceptionally fast and agile vessels for their size. Powering up they lifted off and tilted up to the sky. The ships glimmered as the alien engines fired up and without warning they blasted off, faster than anything any of them had seen in their lives.
“Good luck, Eddie, to all of you!”
Captain Jones crept from the street corner to an alcove. They continued to their position ahead of the armoured column, having just past through the French lines. Charlie could see his men’s nerves hung on a knife’s edge. The guns continued to roar in the background as they carried on, their movements covered by the fire.
It was a long trip to the weapons depot, not in distance, but in time. Every step had to be carefully negotiated. With the equipment they had they could only hold off a light assault by the Mechs. Having armour was a relief to the infantry forces, but it was far too little against the odds they faced.
“Sir, the position is just fifty metres ahead,” whispered Green.
The Lieutenant was pointing to a low building that appeared to be a substation, but was likely far more. Jones looked back to his men waiting for his command, but they were not at all keen in advancing any further.
“Get the armour surrounding the building, the APCs remain on the south side for loading, I want eyes on the roof ASAP.”
The men immediately moved forward. Far from the lines of the EUA forces it was eerily quiet. The guns raged in the background but all around them was quiet, like sunrise before commuters had risen to go to work. The building was protected by nothing more than a wire fence and a locked door that presented little resistance to the troops.
Captain Jones went into the building where he immediately found more doors. They were huge steel doors as tall as the building. A keypad entry system was at eye level. Fortunately the Colonel had already supplied Jones with the codes. He quickly tapped them in, sceptical as to whether they would even work. He wondered if anyone had accessed the building in a few decades, they were a reminder of the days of fragile peace amongst the major powers on Earth.
The keypad flashed as the doors prized opened twenty metres wide. They could see crates of weapons and ammunition. The rifles were obsolete compared to what they now used, but the ammunition was still the same.
“We’re in business! Get the APCs up here and get to work!”
The first vehicle backed up against the structure as the heavy tanks rolled on around the perimeter. The Captain had not yet seen the effectiveness of their armour against the invaders. However, by the fact that they still held Brest, he speculated that they had played a major part.
“Make sure we have eyes on all quarters! I want to know the second we hit any trouble!”
Jones pulled his rifle sling around until the weapon hung on his back and his hands were free. He reached out for the first crate, hauling it off the stack and towards the vehicle. Doctrine had taught him to never dig in with the labour of the rank and file, but experience had showed him that they didn’t want to be in enemy territory a second longer than they had to.
* * *
“Taylor, give us an update!” shouted White.
“The boats are on the way as we speak, General, we expect them to hit the ground in thirty minutes.”
“You think they’ll deliver the goods and get out okay?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Then let’s deal with the next shit storm at our door!”
“Sir?”
“A new front has opened in North Africa. Reports suggest that the African nations’ forces have been pushed back at an alarming rate, along with the UEN forces stationed there. Spain is also falling at an alarming rate.”
The General tapped his screen and brought up the latest map before them. It was received with a gasp as each of the top brass saw quite how fast the world was falling.
“Towns and cities are falling so quickly right now that we can barely keep track of the current lines, let alone get much intel!”
“What’s our next step here, General?” asked Taylor.
“I want a full report from Moon colonists on the effectiveness of the weapons we are sending them. Meanwhile, relying on the reports you made for us, we are equipping as many of the units as possible.”
“So we do nothing?”
“I will not risk ground troops until we have re-equipped as best as possible as per your recommendations, Major.”
“And what about Europe? Africa? We are just going to let them all die?”
“At this stage we’d just be adding more bodies to the pile, Major. Let’s make sure that when we move we have enough muscle to make a dent.”
Taylor lowered his head. Yet more inaction and delaying on the General’s part was a depressing and ever more common experience. He knew that every action would be on the General’s shoulders, but he also knew that the time had come to act.
“I want reports the second those weapons have seen action, Major.”
“Yes, Sir.”
* * *
Lt. Rains looked amazed at the readings on their equipment. He had been space trained as per regulations, but he never envisaged the speed at which they were blasting towards the Moon. Beside him sat Lieutenant Perez, who’d been his co-pilot for several years.
“Never thought to be in this seat, Eddie.”
“We got the best seats in the house, my friend. Delivering help to the needy and riding in probably the fastest ship that has ever existed. We’re having a blast!”
“Let’s just hope its fast enough,” Perez replied wearily.
The Moon colony was now in sight, a vast ugly city to their Earth dwelling eyes. Like Taylor, they could never understand why anyone would want to live there. They still had no idea on the sort of scanning and surveillance equipment the invaders used. They had never travelled into a combat situation without a thorough understanding of their enemy, let alone such a fear of them.
Speed and surprise were the only tools to hand for the few brave pilots rocketing towards the Moon at speed. Taylor had already predicted they would have an absolute maximum of five minutes on the ground before encountering trouble. Previous experience showed that they would have the guns to take on a small group of fighters, but not any great numbers.
The landing zone was a barren and desolate area a kilometre from the edge of the colony. To even the well-trained eye it was every bit as untouched by humanity as it appeared. To anyone who knew better, beneath the surface was a military bunker and tunnel system leading to various parts of the colony.
“What if we get hit by ground troops, Eddie? We haven’t planned for that possibility.”
“Then we’re fucked. Planning has been as good as can be, now it’s down to luck.”
“Hardly reassuring!”
“If you wanted certainty, Perez, you should have worked at a desk.”
Perez nodded with a grin. They both loved their work, the thrill of the high-speed combat aircraft and exhilaration they experienced through much of their work. Now for the first time ever their stomachs churned as their own mortality become uncomfortably apparent.