Portal Wars 1: Gehenna Dawn Read online

  Jake nodded his head. “Please go on. I am not offended.” Taylor was lying, but T’arza had his attention. He wanted to hear the rest of the story.

  “We told your settlers about the true extent of the Portal network…something humans have still not discovered. It is vast, and it leads to many places in the universe…to wonders you can only imagine.”

  Taylor was staring back, waiting for T’arza to continue. He didn’t know what the alien was going to say, but he was starting to see shreds of it come together in his mind. He tried not to guess, to let his imagination run ahead of the facts. But he couldn’t ignore the pit in his stomach.

  “Then they came.” Taylor could feel the ominous tone in what T’arza was telling him. “Soldiers, fully-armed and ready for battle. They attacked us and killed many before we fled. We tried to communicate, to tell them we had come peacefully, but they ignored all our entreaties.” T’arza hesitated before continuing. “After we withdrew, we watched in horror as the soldiers turned their weapons on the villages.” The Tegeri’s mannerisms were different from human norms, but Taylor could tell how upsetting this was for the alien.

  “Soldiers, what kind of soldiers?” Taylor felt his doubts again. What troops, he thought, could have attacked the Tegeri? There were colonies from seven different nations on those first two worlds, and all were destroyed.

  “They came through the Portal. They destroyed the settlements, burning them to the ground. They pursued the few survivors, shooting them down as they fled. They murdered them all, even the children. My people watched in shock, in horror. Our race has had no live young born in uncounted centuries, and even in our oldest memories, children held a special place in our civilization. To see human soldiers butchering the colonial children was something none of my people will forget.”

  Taylor’s mind was racing, wondering whether to believe what he was being told. Could it really have been some human force? Why, he wondered…what reason would other humans have for attacking the settlements?

  The answer was forming in his head, slowly, hazily. It was something so terrible, so inconceivable, that his mind fought it desperately, not wanting to face it.

  “Indeed, Jake…what I tell you is true. The attackers were humans, and they came through the Portal from Earth.” T’arza was speaking, but Taylor was too consumed with his own thoughts to listen fully. The alien’s voice sounded far off now, a distant whisper.

  “What of the videos?” Taylor’s voice was desperate, trying to think of any way to argue against what he had already begun to believe. “They showed us videos of the massacres.”

  “Any videos you saw were false, Jake.” T’arza waved his hand and a screen on the wall flickered to life. “They had many dead Machines to model, and creating false video is a simple feat.” He waved his hand a second time. “This is the true image of what happened that day.”

  The screen showed a small village, nestled in an idyllic valley. New Earth was a beautiful world, not a hell like Erastus. There were fields and forests…and deep blue rivers crisscrossing the landscape. But there was something wrong in the image Taylor was watching. Columns of smoke rose from the small cluster of buildings, and people were running, screaming…trying to escape the fiery death raining down on their tiny community.

  There were soldiers attacking the town. They wore bluish-gray fatigues with black body armor. Those are pre-Consolidation UN troops, Taylor realized. He was sick to his stomach watching the soldiers bombarding the town, raking the peaceful hamlet with mortars and hyper-velocity rounds.

  Small units detached from the main forces, pursuing the colonists who escaped the village. The terrified civilians ran for a nearby wood, but they were mowed down by automatic weapons fire. Not one of them made it 100 meters from the dying village. Taylor watched them die. He saw a child, no more than 5 or 6 years old, stumbling, fleeing…holding his own severed arm in his hand.

  He wanted to weep, to give the victims the tears they deserved, but his mechanical eyes couldn’t cry. He watched as the soldiers advanced, checking the bodies, finishing off any that were still alive. This wasn’t a battle…it was methodical genocide. Taylor felt the sickness coming. He lurched forward, onto his hands and knees, emptying the contents of his stomach onto the polished stone floor.

  “No,” he spat out. “This isn’t true…it is your video that is fake.” He said it, longing for it to be true. But inside, he already knew. Everything T’arza had told him was the truth.

  The Tegeri remained silent, clearing empathizing with the pain Taylor was feeling…the shock at the revelations he’d provided. “Jake…” He spoke softly, slowly. “…I understand this is a terrible discovery.” He paused, giving Taylor a few seconds to focus on what he was saying. “You were chosen very carefully for this contact. We have examined many of your people before selecting you. I fear that I am laying upon you a great burden.”

  Taylor was silent. His mind was racing, but not a word came to his lips. He just stared at his alien companion, a numb expression on his face.

  “We are prepared to offer you one more proof of our sincerity, Jake Taylor. Even as we speak, our forces are withdrawing from this planet. Within four planetary days, we will be gone from the world you call Erastus.”

  Taylor was shocked again. He sat quietly, trying to get some perspective on all he’d heard. He could hear the sound of his heart beating in his ears, feel the weakness in his legs. “What am I supposed to do?” His voice was weak, throaty.

  “I cannot tell you that, Jake.” T’arza spoke softly. “I do not know the answer. You must find this yourself…you must take what I have told you and decide how to proceed. Our peoples have fought an unnecessary and pointless war for far too long.”

  “But I am one man.” Taylor’s words were a plea. “What can one man do?”

  “One man can do much. As I said, you have been chosen with great care. You are an extraordinary representative of your species, both in fighting ability and intelligence. You also have a number of less-easily defined qualities.” T’arza walked closer. “You are capable of far more than you might imagine. And you inspire an especially potent form of loyalty from others.”

  Taylor looked up, staring at the Tegeri. He opened his mouth then closed it, once again without saying anything.

  “There will be no more war on Erastus. You will have the opportunity to communicate with your fellow slave-soldiers, to spread the word…and formulate whatever actions you wish to take.”

  Taylor winced at T’arza’s choice of words. He was about to object, but then he thought, he is right…what are we but slaves? “Actions? What actions? What can a few soldiers do?”

  “You will have to decide that, Jake. It is only knowledge that I can offer you.” T’arza paused. “It is important that you understand the truth in all of this. Do you still doubt anything I have told you?”

  Taylor sat quietly for a few seconds, thinking, trying to get a grip on his emotions…to think rationally about what he’d been told. As he thought, he became more and more convinced. It all made sense to him. “No.” He spoke slowly quietly. “I don’t doubt any of it.”

  “I will give you a few solitary moments to collect your thoughts.” T’arza moved toward the door. “Then I will return. I have more to share with you. I will provide you with my people’s full knowledge of the Portal network. It is far more extensive than your people know. Your neural implant will retain the knowledge for your use. Perhaps one day it will be useful to you.”

  Taylor watched T’arza walk through the door. Then he bent over and vomited again.

  Part Three

  Rebel

  Chapter 18

  From the Journal of Jake Taylor:

  Betrayal. It is a common story throughout human history, one all too familiar. Yet rarely has there been so shocking a revelation of perfidy as the one T’arza made to me.

  It was a lie. All of it. Everything I fought for. All my men suffered and died for. A waste, a deliberate fr
aud perpetuated so a group of politicians and diplomats could seize power. It is all I can think about. It consumes my thoughts by day and through every sleepless night. I feel as if it will drive me mad at any moment.

  The Tegeri didn’t start the war…their Machines did not attack the human settlements. They had come in peace, to teach the colonists the secrets of the Portal worlds. And they had been attacked by secret UN forces. The whole thing, forty years of war and incalculable suffering…all to create a crisis, one the UN’s leadership could use to annex the remaining independent nation states. Even worse, it was continued for decades. Why? Because it was useful to keep the masses in line? Because faced with an ongoing threat to mankind’s existence, people will meekly accept whatever is imposed on them? It was a deliberate plot, a creation of minds so monstrous, I cannot comprehend such creatures. Or perhaps now, I can.

  I felt empty, violated. My parents…my brother. The family I lost. Beth, my sweet Beth. It was all for nothing. I was taken from those I loved and consigned to hell. Even my humanity was stolen from me. For nothing save to further base political corruption, the lust for power of a group of men not worth the life of even one of my soldiers.

  The things I have done claw at me in the night, the horrors I have inflicted…on my own men…and on an enemy I have misjudged, one that didn’t deserve my hatred. The Machines weren’t an evil foe, seeking to destroy humanity. They were victims, unwilling warriors trying to defend the Tegeri against ruthless invaders…my men and I, and thousands like us. Their blood is on my hands now.

  Ten years of war. A decade of bloodshed, of death. Ten years in hell, fighting an alien enemy, an adversary I long believed to be evil, ruthless. I have wronged the Machines, the Tegeri. My men and I, unwittingly, have become all we hated about our enemy. Our cause was the unjust one, not theirs; we were the aggressors, the killers.

  The Tegeri released Taylor, just as T’arza had promised. He was dropped 10 klicks from the battlefield, with a canister of water and a day’s rations. It was just after the small sun set, during the first twilight of the day. The second twilight, when the large sun passed below the horizon, was the coolest time, but it lasted less than an Earth hour. T’arza had carefully chosen the moment of Jake’s release. Taylor was tired, and struggling to assimilate what he’d been told, but the effects of the Tegeri stun weapon were gone. T’arza wouldn’t let him leave until the last of the symptoms had passed.

  The transport carrying him had come in low, escorted by a dozen gunships. The Tegeri had gone to great lengths to choose Taylor, and they weren’t about to get him shot down by his own people when they were trying to release him.

  He started to walk slowly. He was really feeling the heat, even though it was far from midday. He’d been so confused, so disoriented, he hadn’t even noticed that the room where he’d met T’arza was considerably cooler than normal for Erastus. It wasn’t Gregor Kazan’s air conditioning, but it was a hell of a lot more comfortable than the blasted rock and burning sands he was now traversing.

  Ten klicks wasn’t that far by most standards, but it was a long walk in the searing heat of Erastus. Unsure of his stamina, he moved deliberately, not wanting to tire himself out too quickly. Overdoing it early, exhausting yourself in the middle of the desert…that was the surest way to get killed on Erastus. He’d explained it a thousand times to rookies. They didn’t all listen, but Taylor kept trying.

  He could hear faint explosions…the sounds of battle in the distance. His men were still fighting. He was pretty far away, but the noise was random and sporadic. Whatever was going on at the front, it didn’t sound very intense. He moved toward the noise, but he got less than a kilometer before he heard the antigravs moving toward him. The gunships were pretty quiet for aircraft, but when you knew what to listen for you could hear them coming from a distance.

  He ran toward a small cluster of rocks, instinctively looking for a place to hide. He was halfway there when the sound of his com exploded in his ears.

  “Jake!” The voice was immediately familiar. “Jake, is that you?” Taylor recognized Bear Samuel’s slow southern drawl.

  “Bear?” He stopped running and turned to watch two of the gunships land. “What the hell are you doing on a gunship?”

  A team poured out of each of the antigravs, fully armed and equipped. They formed a perimeter around Taylor, weapons drawn and aimed outward, ready to defend their commander against any threat.

  “I was looking for you…what do you think? We were almost ready to give up on you. Everybody but Blackie. He’s got MacArthur’s people out scouring the entire area for you.”

  Taylor saw his massive friend hop out of the gunship and run toward him. “Goddamn, Jake…I’ve never been so happy to see anybody in my life.” Samuels threw his massive arms around Taylor and gave him a colossal hug.

  “It’s damned good to see you too, you big oaf.” Taylor’s voice was strained. “Now let me go so I can breathe.”

  Samuels took a step back. “What the hell happened, Jake? Everybody in the command post was unconscious when we finally got through those incendiaries. Nobody was seriously hurt, though. And you were the only one missing.” The big man stared at Jake with a confused look.

  “It’s a long story, Bear.” Taylor was looking past Bear, toward the battlefield. “But first, what’s going on with the battle?”

  “It’s the damnedest thing, Jake.” Bear put his hand behind Taylor, herding him gently toward the gunship as he spoke. He wanted to get his newly found commander to a secure location as quickly as possible. “The bastards just up and ran. They abandoned every position.” Jake could hear the surprise in Samuels’ voice. “It’s the closest thing to a rout I’ve even seen.” His face morphed into a bloodthirsty smile. “Blackie’s got the boys hot on their heels…and the rest of MacArthur’s birds will be hitting them in a few minutes. We’re gonna blow them to hell, Jake.”

  “No.”

  Samuels stopped and turned toward Taylor. “No what?” He was completely confused.

  Taylor stared back at him. “No pursuit, no air assault. I want all units to stand down immediately.”

  Samuels stood silently, a dumbfounded look on his face.

  “Do you understand me, Bear?” Taylor’s voice was cold and grim. “Immediately.”

  “Sure, Jake…I mean, yes, sir.” Samuels yelled through the open door of the gunship. “Raise Major Black right away.” The individual coms had a limited range, but the unit in the Dragonfire would reach Black wherever he was on the field. “Tell him we found Colonel Taylor.” He paused for a second or two, a puzzled look on his face. “Advise him that the colonel orders all units to stand down at once. Repeat, all units are to cease attacks and stand down immediately.”

  Bear turned back toward Taylor. He looked completely lost.

  “I’ll explain it all, Bear.” Taylor reached up and grabbed one of the handholds on the antigrav, pulling himself inside. “But let’s go find Blackie and the others first.” He smiled, an odd expression on his face. “I only want to go through this once.”

  No one said a word…they just stared back in shocked silence. Jake Taylor, Ten Year Man, Supersoldier…the invincible warrior of Erastus was telling them to let the enemy go. The Machines were withdrawing across their entire line, abandoning their entrenchments. Taylor’s forces were ready to pursue…and MacArthur’s gunships were rearmed and standing by to attack and annihilate the fleeing enemy. Everything was perfect…the entire army was ready to utterly destroy the Machines facing them. But Taylor was in command, and he said no.

  “Jake…” Blackie’s voice was strained. “…I don’t know what’s up with you, but do you realize the shitstorm we’re gonna get if we let them get away?” He didn’t want to push Taylor too hard. He didn’t know what to do.

  “Fuck it.” Taylor’s voice was cold, emotionless. “I don’t give a shit what HQ wants.” He turned and looked at Black with an icy expression. “My order stands. All units are to stand down
.” He was silent for a few seconds. “And I will shoot the first officer who disobeys.”

  Black stared silently at Taylor, trying to find his voice. He was Jake’s best friend, but he felt like he didn’t know him at all right now. What the hell is going on, he thought…what happened to him out there? Black had assumed Taylor got stunned or disoriented during the attack on the command post and wandered into the desert. But now he started to wonder what had really happened.

  “Attention all units, this is Colonel Taylor.” He was speaking over the open com, addressing every soldier in the army. “I have issued orders for all units to cease hostilities. All forces are to remain in current positions until further notice.” His voice was imperious, commanding…as if he was daring anyone to disobey.

  “Colonel, this is Major MacArthur.” Taylor sighed. Here it comes, he thought. “What in hell is going on down there? My people are in position. I need to launch the attack now.” MacArthur sounded angry and confused.

  “No.”

  “Colonel, I don’t think you underst…”

  “What part of no don’t you understand, Major.” Taylor’s voice was like death. “Your squadrons are to return to base at once.”

  “Colonel, my orders are to…”

  “Your orders are whatever I say they are.” Blackie and the other officers were standing around staring at Jake. They couldn’t hear what MacArthur was saying, but they’d never heard anything like the menace in Taylor’s tone. He wasn’t shouting…not even raising his voice. But there wasn’t a man present who would question anything Taylor said now. “If you disobey me, I will order every AA asset in the army to target your force.” A short pause. “Do we understand each other?”

  MacArthur was silent for a few seconds, but he scraped up the courage to come back at Jake one more time. “Colonel, I will not disobey your orders, however I intend to make a full report when I return to base.” He cut the line.