Battle Earth: 12 by Nick S. Thomas Read Free Book Online

ghost town.
    “Looks all too familiar,” whispered Silva.
    “When our people were evacuating, yeah,” replied Taylor, “but not anymore. If Erdogan were here, then it would have been with more than a few thousand of his soldiers.”
    “So they just picked up and left? You think it’s a trap?”
    “I’d expect to have been hit by now if that were the case. No, I don’t see how they could have any inkling of our arrival.”
    Suddenly, Taylor caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye and panned quickly to see a single Mech warrior strolling towards them as if taking a walk in the park. It was a bizarre scene that caused Taylor and his platoon to simply stand and stare for a moment as others descended into position behind them.
    Finally, the creature raised its rifle. It fired and began falling back to the corner of building it had come from. It got off two shots and disappeared behind the structure. A dozen shots landed where it had been and knocked chunks of concrete from the corner, and yet it had escaped them.
    “Move, move, move!” Taylor ordered and rushed forward towards the cover of a low building ahead of them. As he hit it, he edged to the corner and looked around for some sign of the enemy.
    “This is no trap. They had no idea we were coming,” said Silva as he hit the wall beside Taylor, “Think Erdogan is still here, after all?”
    Taylor shook his head. “No idea at all, but I intend to find out.”
    As he finished speaking, he ran out from cover and made a sprint for the building where the creature had come from. As he got halfway, several pulses struck the ground around him from weapons fired from windows of the buildings up ahead. Silva and several others tried to lay down covering fire and spot for targets, but he couldn’t make out much for certain. A few more shots struck the wall and made him duck back for cover.
    A pulse skimmed the edge of Taylor’s shield. Two more landed close by his feet, but he managed to reach the position where they had first encountered enemy contact. Silva peered around the corner to see Taylor was already looking for targets. He appeared to show no fear at all, but more than that, he seemed to have no regard for his own life. Silva shook his head, knowing there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.
    “Oh…what the hell!” He rushed out from cover and sprinted towards Taylor’s position.
    Pulses struck the ground all around him, but he kept going and hoped for the best. Just as he was about to reach cover, his shield took multiple pulse impacts. It fell from his arm, and the handle broke free, so he let it slide before it hindered his movement. He reached the building beside Taylor and let out a sigh of relief, looking back at his shield. It lay shattered on the ground and smouldered from the heat of the impacts.
    “Nice day for a run?” Taylor asked.
    “Goddamn it, Colonel, you’re going to get us all killed some day.”
    “We’re all gonna die eventually,” he said calmly.
    Taylor raised his hand and spoke into his comms unit.
    “King, come in, you on course this time?”
    “Affirmative. Approaching from the north. We have met minimal resistance and are five hundred metres from you.”
    “Keep moving!” yelled Taylor. “Anders, maintain this position, Matthews take the right flank. Keep going forward!”
    Jafar and several others made it to their position and awaited his orders.
    “You think Erdogan was here? Or still is?”
    Jafar shook his head.
    “You’re a big help.”
    “He’s right, Colonel,” added Silva, “We’ve not seen a single bit of evidence that he was ever here.”
    Taylor looked at his watch and sighed.
    “We’ve got a few minutes left. Let’s use them.”
    As he finished, he took the bend where they had seen the first Mech and rushed out without even checking what was around the corner. The others followed suit and found themselves in a street between tall buildings that sheltered them from the