Battle Earth X Read Online Free PDF Page B

again?"
    "I'm a fighter, like you, not an executioner. If we win this, when we win it, we are gonna have to learn to live with one another. I'd hope some more of your race sees that sooner than later. We are gonna need all the help we can get to return from this."
    Taylor could see Jafar was not at all convinced, but he wasn't sure if that was in relation to the Krys living alongside them or the chance of victory. He didn't want to ask. They reached the hangar bay and found Lieutenant Eddie Rains awaiting them.
    "So here we are, Colonel. On the raggedy edge of, well, God knows where. But all that matters is..." he turned and pointed, "I got myself a new ride, and she's a sweet one. Mercury T151 combat transport, twice the armour of a copter, pilot controlled weapon systems, and auto targeting turrets top and bottom. She ain't the fastest or the smoothest looking bird out there, but she sure is a bruiser."
    Taylor could not help but smile.
    "The World may have come to an end, and this is all it takes to perk you up?" he asked Rains.
    "Well, hell yeah. I'll take what I can get."
    The pilot seemed to genuinely believe his words. Taylor wondered how much of it was a coping mechanism for dealing with all they had endured, and yet, it was working, so he could not criticise it.
    "You know our mission?"
    "Investigate that gateway, got it."
    "We have no idea if that thing is operational or not, or even who it was built by or when, so keep your wits about you. This could be a fact-finding mission, or it could be a trap. Who knows? So you keep alert at all times."
    "I always see you home safe, don't I, Colonel?" Rains grinned.
    Taylor grimaced. He could think of too many times they had taken a beating and forced to bail or make crash landings.
    "All I can say, Lieutenant, is that flying with you if never boring."
    Rains laughed.
    "Well, I wouldn't want to bore you," he replied, stretching out his hands to invite them aboard, "Step aboard, Gentlemen."
    As Taylor paced up the ramp, he saw Rains had painted the name Gerty beside the cockpit. It was hand-painted and still shining a little as it hadn't fully dried. It brought a smile to his face once again.
    The interior was cramped, due to the thickness of the bulkheads and support beams inside, which meant they had to duck under as they got to their seats.
    "Not exactly travelling in style, are we?" Taylor asked. Rains was squeezing past them to reach the cockpit.
    "Hey, you've got air and a place to park your ass, what more can you ask for?"
    "Quite a bit," he replied sarcastically.
    A few minutes later they were lifting off from the Washington, and Taylor could just about see out through one of the cockpit windows to the vast fleet before them.
    "A lot made it," Rains said.
    "A lot didn't."
    It was hard to disagree.
    "There she is. The Warrior, and what a fine ship she is. Ever thought you'd have a frigate flying in support?"
    "No, but then I'd rather like to think we didn't need it."
    He turned to Jafar, hoping the alien would share some further knowledge with him.
    "So what else do you know about this thing?"
    "Nothing," he promptly replied.
    "Nothing? I find that hard to believe."
    "As I have told you. All I know is what I have experienced and been told by my own people. This I have never seen."
    "All right, so these space gateways. Did your people invent the technology?"
    He shook his head. "I do not know."
    "Well, are there any other races out there you know of who use them?"
    "I have heard of such in our history, but they are long forgotten. Defeated by the Krys."
    "Defeated? You mean they were made extinct?"
    He nodded.
    "I just don't get it. Why hunt down a species or people to their very extinction? Why not assimilate them, even use them in some secondary roles, and put them to work or something?"
    Jafar shrugged. "I cannot explain it."
    "Well, that's a conversation killer," muttered Taylor.
    They waited in silence while Rains flew them to the gateway. After an hour, Taylor fell