U.N.E.

Chapter Twenty Four

Chapter Twenty Four

“China's second company has been wiped out!”

“Japan's defence line is falling apart!”

“The Russian's are being pushed back off their line and have sustained heavy casualties!”

“NATO air forces are down to half strength! If this keeps up they will be annihilated!”

Kimberly stood in strained silence and stared at the large screen in front of her as up to the second information from the battle in Japan came in. All around her came tense voices calling out what they were seeing on their own screens. There wasn't a single shred of hope left in the room after watching what had just happened to the Aegis and the Rogues. The world was erupting in chaos right now and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

“Inform the Japanese to pull back to Bravo and request assistance from the Carrier group off shore for aerial support!” Major Ingles bellowed above the commotion. He stood at the back of the room with Kimberly and his hands were crossed over his bulging chest as he regarded all the information coming in. He was probably the only one in the room at that moment who wasn't panicking; but just how long would his bravado hold up?

“Major! The Russians are requesting permission to engage the Destroyer!” someone near the front of the room yelled out, their form hidden in the shadows provided by the low lighting.

“Deny their request! They can barely hold their own damn lines! Tell them to leave it to Lightning squadron!”

Hearing the name of the squadron she had been focusing all of her attention on, Kimberly suddenly found her voice. After witnessing Alex nearly get destroyed and then see him only barely make it in time to retrieve Lisa's ejected cockpit before she was killed, she didn't feel that they were in any kind of fighting shape anymore.

“Wouldn't it be better for them to retreat?” she asked the Major directly. “The Aegis is barely functioning and we've already lost one Rogue. The only thing we would accomplish by keeping them in the fight is that we would lose more!”

“We have no choice!” Major Ingles suddenly barked back so loudly that Kimberly nearly jumped a foot off the ground. “Look at the status of the front lines in France! Casualties are at fifty three percent and still climbing! They're barely holding on! We need to maintain our flank or everything will be lost!”

All sound seemed to be sucked out of the large and dark room for a long and tense moment. Tearing her eyes away from the Major standing next to her, Kimberly looked out over the screens to verify everything with her own eyes. What she was being told was sadly not being exaggerated. Things had been getting progressively worse as the minutes continued to tick away and the fate of humanity looked to be in dire trouble. But still, there had to be something else that they could do. They were risking the loss of four more machines that couldn't be replaced easily; and even one that couldn't be replaced at all.

No, worse than that, was that they were risking the lives of four pilots. Kimberly was all for making a stand and fighting, but not like this. Not with Alexander sitting out there like that.

He didn't deserve this fate. He didn't deserve to have lived the life that had been thrust upon him. Kimberly had often thought of what life would have been like if he had been born as her brother, instead of Lillian's. It was something that she and Lillian had actually discussed on more than one occasion. If he had been born into Kimberly's family then he would have grown up in the States and led a normal life. He would still be a genius and extremely gifted, but at least the government wouldn't have been forced to put him into a Behemoth when he was barely old enough to understand just how important this war really was.