Battle Earth: 11 Read Free Page A

wondering how to break the facts to them lightly, but decided it best to give it to them straight.
    “More, and if we beat them, more again. And they’ll keep coming until we run out of ammunition, till we are fighting in hand-to-hand. Until they have crushed us. That’s how you deal with a resistance. Find it and crush it utterly.”
    It was a morbid overview of what they faced, but they knew it to be true. Thirty minutes passed without a sign of the Krys, but they were all aware they were out there. Finally, the signal came over the comms.
    “Incoming aircraft.”
    The anti-aircraft weapons on the roof sprang into action. Return fire hit the rooftops of the bunker. They could hear the impacts, but the bastion all around them would not be broken. It was more like listening to heavy hail hit the roof of a house than a bombing raid.
    “How long will that hold for?”
    “I don’t have all the answers, Lieutenant. It’ll hold as long as it holds.”
    Becker suddenly appeared at the doorway. His uniform was still filthy, but at least his face had been washed. He had dozens of cuts over his face and neck but no serious injury. His eyes were quite different now. He still had the look of a man who’d suffered a great loss, but now that feeling was joined with a fiery hatred.
    “If I’m going to die, it won’t be in a field hospital while everything collapses around me,” he stated.
    He strode across the room and picked up one of the rifles Kelly had laid out. Kelly didn’t want to press him; he was just glad to have him there. The gun emplacement beside him opened fire, and he turned sharply to see the first few Mechs land. He looked at Becker, who nodded back at him, took up position at one of the loopholes, and began systematically gunning down everything he could.
    “Give them all you got!” Kelly hollered.
    He followed in Becker’s example and took aim, firing on as many as he could. He could barely believe the number of enemy who were falling to their guns. They seemed to drop like flies, and yet for everyone they killed, another dropped in to take his place.
    “You keep coming!” Kelly bellowed, “You think we’ve been through hell! I’m gonna drag you right down there with me!”
    He squeezed the trigger and fired like a mad man. There were so many targets he could barely miss. By the time his magazine was empty, less than twenty remained. He let go of the rifle and picked up the next, but as he took aim, he noticed something far larger descend into view. It landed hard and could barely support its weight.
    It was a Juggernaut. He knew because Taylor had told him of them, and those stories alone were enough for him to realise how fearsome they were.
    “Bring it down!”
    He took aim more carefully now and fired for every potential weak point he could find. He hit the head but it did nothing. Next he aimed for the joints at the shoulder and then the groin. The heavy guns along the line joined him, as well as dozens of others, and finally the creature collapsed dead to the ground. He sighed in relief. But just as he thought they had gotten past this new danger, another two dropped in from above.
    “Fire!”
    They concentrated their fire on one as the two beasts stormed towards the blast doors. One was badly wounded before it got there, but the other hit the doors full force. To their surprise they survived the impact. They were relieved, but a moment later a large explosion rang out that buckled the doors inward. Kelly rushed to the corridor to look upon them and could see a metre-wide hole in the centre of the doors, where the creature had ignited like a living bomb. Through the hole he could see lines of Mechs advancing on them.

Chapter 2
     

    Taylor rolled uneasily in his bed. He'd barely slept in the time period he still called night. The clocks were set to GMT, and he was sticking to it, as was the fleet. As he tossed and turned, his elbow struck Parker who was squeezed in beside him. She groaned a