Battle Beyond Earth: Insurrection Read Online Free PDF

flew in the background as crews fought a fire behind him.
    "What can I do for you, Colonel?" asked the officer, surprisingly calm.
    "What's the damage?"
    "We have a lot of casualties, hard to calculate the numbers so far. Most of the bridge crew are dead or wounded. The President and Lord Jafar are in medical undergoing treatment."
    "How bad are they?"
    "I'm sorry, Colonel. I just don't know at this stage."
    "And the rest of the fleet?"
    The man shrugged.
    "I am getting a few reports in, but many have lost comms altogether. I...we....are just dead in the water. I don't know what to do."
    "And Commander Cohen?"
    "She...is among the dead, I am sorry to say. I am the highest ranking officer currently reporting for duty here."
    Taylor shook his head, realising the extent of the damage.
    "I need to get back to you, but I'll need a skeleton crew over here to take care of prisoners and wrestle this beast into submission, can you send a team ASAP?"
    "I'll do what I can, Sir."
    Taylor ended the call.
    "What have we done?"
    Alita’s voice was full of sorrow and regret.
    "What have we done? No, what did they do? What did that piece of shit do?" He pointed at the bloody mess of Eme on the deck.
    "We didn't ask for this fight, and we sure as hell didn't want it. Divide and conquer, that is exactly what has been done here. We bought ourselves some valuable time to prepare for the coming war, and now we've probably been set back months, maybe even a year."
    "A year?" she asked, looking out at the wrecked fleet, "You think we can replace this in a year?"
    "Damn right we can, and we will. Because if we can't, it will be the end of us."
    "But...this fleet has been built over probably a decade or more."
    "Built in a time of peace. Trust me, war time manufacture can work miracles, and miracles are what we need."
    "But you don't believe in miracles."
    "Not from any God, no, but I believe men and women can make them happen."
    She slumped down to the floor and against one of the units. She looked utterly lost.
    "How do you keep going? How do you do it? I don't even want to stand right now, can't. I don't want to fight for this anymore. How do we ever keep moving forward?"
    Taylor didn't know how to answer, for he wasn't even sure himself.
    "Survival instinct is a strong driving force," stated Babacan.
    "That's the best damn answer I have heard yet."
    "But do you believe it?" she asked him.
    "Do I think life is worth living? When I have those I love around me, yes."
    "And when you came into this new life? You had none of that."
    "No," he said, thinking back to those miserable days, "And that is why I was weak. We all need something to fight for. None of us does it for fun, or just out of a sense of duty."
    "And when you lose everything you care for?"
    Taylor shrugged.
    "You find something new and keep moving forward. That is the cycle of life. None of us live forever. Or not too many, anyway."
    "Are we destined to lead the life that you have? To fight, and fight, and suffer, and lose, and dance with death so often that we may meet with it any day. To live in that state of fear?"
    "Fear? No, no. It may be my curse to go on living while others die around me, but I do not live in fear. Not fear of death, anyhow. We all die. To fear death is to fear life."
    He knelt down beside her and took her hand in his.
    "This is what is worth living for."

    * * *

    Hours had passed before Taylor and his team were on their return to the station aboard a transport shuttle. There were large porthole windows running the length of the craft, and they could see the devastation of the battle with their own eyes. Most chose to ignore it, but Alita couldn't bring herself to do that. Something hit the fuselage and bounced off, the body of a Human crewmember that floated on past the windows. A few tears came to Alita's eyes, but she tried to hide them.
    As they came into land in the docking bays of the station, they watched a constant stream of shuttles bringing in the