Read Battle Earth: 12 for Free Online Page B

surprises for a life time, Eddie."
    They saw pulses flash ahead as the ship came under fire.
    "Guess they're getting a little tired of us gate crashing their party!" Rains grinned.
    He raised the power, and they soared out from the flank of the Diderot. On the scanners Taylor could make out the dozen friendly vessels and a similar number of enemy on their flank. They had jumped almost into orbit, and as the copter surged forward, they were entering Earth's atmosphere in under two minutes. Rains looked at his scanners every two seconds.
    "Don't follow us. We don't need that kind of attention right now. Almost made it," he whispered.
    Then a blip appeared on the scanner, and Rains brought up a rear display screen to show a single enemy heavy fighter closing on their tail.
    "That's not good," he said.
    Lights flashed from its pulse cannons opening fire, and Rains took evasive action. Four of the pulses raced past them, but the first skimmed their fuselage, and the copter rocked violently.
    "Shit, we can't take many more like that!"
    Taylor looked back at the video feed and watched the fighter get them in its sights, but as it was about to fire, a missile trail from the Diderot soared out and struck its engines. It was blown apart, and Eddie let out a sigh of relief, shaking his head in amazement.
    "Nice to see somebody has our back."
    They got into the Earth's atmosphere and through light cloud cover, half expecting to find a wall of enemy craft awaiting them, but there was nothing. Rains began to level out, and several other craft came up alongside them as they soared up the Adriatic, running in parallel with the coasts of Italy and Croatia.
    "Beautiful," said Rains, "Sure wouldn't mind coming back here some day. Some day when I haven't got fighters on my tail and ground interceptors trying to knock me out of the sky."
    Taylor said nothing.
    "Or maybe it wouldn't be half as much fun."
    Still Taylor said nothing. He was watching the terrain pass beneath them.
    "So you really think it's him?"
    "No idea, Eddie, but it's worth a shot, no matter how small a chance."
    "You know all these raids we keep making, or you keep making. All well and good, but what about the vast armies still on Earth?"
    "We avoid them. Keep hitting their infrastructure, and keep hunting for Erdogan."
    "And if you never find him?"
    "Trust me, we'll meet again. Whether I find him or he finds me."
    "Sounds like a reckoning."
    "It will be."
    "Not far out now. We'll be over Padua in two minutes."
    "Once we hit the ground, we have a maximum of ten minutes, whether we complete the operation or not. If we haven't called you in sooner, you be at Extraction Point A at the ten-minute marker. Whoever is there at that time, whether it's all of us or none of us, you get going. Reinforcements will be on us like a tonne of bricks after that time. You don't wait around, you hear?"
    “Got it!”
    “On your feet!” Taylor ordered, heading for one of the side doors.
    “We do this and you gotta take some rest, Colonel,” Silva said, leaning in.
    “That an order?”
    “We need you at your best, Colonel, and we need to be at our best to get the job done.”
    “We go where the fight is.”
    “There’ll always be a fight to join. Doesn’t mean it always has to be you fighting it, Sir.”
    Taylor shook his head. He knew it was logical, but it he didn’t want to hear it.
    They felt the forward thrusters kick in, and they held on tight as they were brought to an abrupt hover.
    “Go, go, go!” Rains shouted.
    Taylor hit the door release, and once again was out the door in a fearless fashion. Silva shook his head before jumping quickly after him. He hit the ground just beside the Colonel and was surprised to find him standing still but looking cautiously ahead, and then to either side. Silva could see his concern. There was nothing there. They were on the southwest outskirts of the city, and yet there was no sign of life, human or alien. It was as if they’d landed in a