Title

 

v.80

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solar Warden

Origin

 

 

 

 

1 Encounter

August 1992. In a control room somewhere in the US.

“Sir, we have the object on radar, again. It's heading for Alaska,” the radar control officer informed.

“Update our interceptor. This time we have a chance,” the superior ordered.

Near the border of Canada was a TR-3B plane flying in the dark sky.

“You will head to Alaska. Sending you the interception vector now,” came through the radio of the pilot.

“Roger. I'm on my way,” the pilot confirmed. He was altering the course and accelerating fast. With Mach five at high altitude he was approaching his destination. Still it took a bit of time to get there and finally he could spot his target.

“Control, I've got visual. Permission to engage?” the pilot asked.

“Confirm target speed,” the control replied.

“Target is at Mach five point three. I'm in weapons range now,” the pilot informed.

“Eagle One. You are clear to engage,” the control ordered after a short pause.

“Confirm engaging target,” the pilot confirmed and was locking on with the microwave guns.

“Firing,” the pilot informed as he pulled the trigger.

There was some strange sound to hear and nothing to see. But the target seemed to respond. It was decelerating and losing altitude.

“I got a hit response should I fire again to be sure?” the pilot asked.

“Negative, hold the distance and follow it. Our special forces are on their way to secure the area.”

The unidentified object was further decelerating, now below Mach one. It was already close to the ground and seemed not to have control of its flight path anymore. Behind it was the interceptor at a distance of one mile, also decelerating further as the impact was imminent. Below was now a flat snowy terrain. The object with its flat triangular bottom side seemed to have some kind of aerodynamics. It was not truly gliding but the nose was nearly in the horizontal. The falling speed was still high. So it crashed into the snow and slid ahead further, lifting a bit off, then borrowing through the snow. His follower decelerated further and as the crashing object stopped he did the same hovering at a distance of one point five miles. Now as he hovered four red-yellow lights were shining at the bottom of the interceptor. There were three on each corner and one in the middle.

“The object has crashed transferring coordinates,” the pilot radioed.

“Capture and recovery team will arrive in 23 minutes. Guard it till then,” the control replied.

The interceptor was now strafing in a circle around it, to check also the surrounding area.

As informed 23 minutes later three helicopters were landing near the object and squads in full ABC suits were jumping out. Two of them searched for a door to open. Others were securing the area.

The interceptor pilot could not see the details but somehow the two managed to enter the object on the backside.

“We are inside,” came over the radio. Then there was silence again.

Further two helicopters were approaching.

“They are dead. No one survived. We need body bags,” came over radio.

Two on the outside were getting the bags and then entering.

After some time, all four with two filled body bags came out and carried them to a nearby helicopter.

“OK. Crash site secured. We are now preparing the transport,” came over radio.

“Eagle One, affirmative. I will leave now,” the pilot informed all and turned the aircraft then accelerated without noise away.

A transport helicopter was coming in for a possible recovery option.

 

Present. Samuel Archer was sitting on his computer. There was a riddle picture on it. It was from a web page with a contest of 750000 dollars to solve this. The picture was showing strange symbols. Samuel had studied computer sciences and archeology. As he works for a university he has a lot of time to think. Here at home he developed also for his work a neuronal algorithm to analyze symbols and writing systems. His computer was still calculating on this current problem as suddenly a solution came up. It now looked like a menu for navigation system, where coordinates could be entered. Then another solution came up followed by more. Inspecting all the solutions showed him that they were all the same except the numbers on it. For him it was clear there would be no definitive solution for this. There are just not enough references there to solve it. It was a bit strange to make a contest that had no singular solution. Sure this picture with the symbolic on it looked now like an interface to a computer game or an astronomical program. It made still not much sense but he believed his algorithm and waited till the calculation was finished. Then he submitted the solutions. It was late now so he did not further check it. But tomorrow he will check his software or let it check on some known problems again.

 

A week later students working with him had verified the algorithm on different known problems. It seemed to work well. So Samuel had not found any error. He was in his office and wanted to finish work early that day.

Then someone was knocking on the door.

“Come in, it's open,” Samuel informed.

The door opened and two men in military uniform came in.

“Hi, I guess you don't want to sign in to one of my courses,” Samuel was wondering.

“Hi, I'm Major Thomas Ryan and this is my assistant Lieutenant John Caine. You won our contest. So I have a paper for you to sign, then you will get the offered prize,” Ryan a man about 30 introduced.

Ryan had a medium size. He was older then Caine and seemed to be good trained. Even with the uniform it was clear not to rifle with him. With his shiny blue eyes, he looked handsome which gave him a charismatic aura.

Caine instead seemed to be young, similar like Samuel. He was a bit taller than Ryan and also as strong if not more. His face and mimic let him look more like a police officer you don’t want to upset.

“You mean the contest with close to Mesopotamian symbols and more than one solutions?” Samuel asked while Ryan came up with a paper.

“Well, it should be not an easy one. This contest existed for years and you are the first submitting the fitting solutions. There is also an additional offer, but first you only need to sign this. Then the money will be transferred to your bank account at top or you just correct it to a different one if you want.” Ryan handed the paper to Samuel which looked at the account and then the number of 750000 dollars.

“Well, was nice to make business with you. I guess this will make my retirement an easy effort,” Samuel replied and signed without changing the account. Then continued. “I guess you don't tell me why the military does such contests.”

“Actually I will, it's to find people with outstanding and needed skills. So I have an offer for that you have to sign this confidential disclosure agreement.” Ryan gave him another papers.

Samuel read the papers then replied. “Why should I do this without reason.”

“Well, there is a job offer I can't talk about the details. But here is the first page of it.” Ryan gave it to Samuel which checked it.

“I have a job. This payment is much better but it does not tell what I have to do.”

“Yes, for that you have to sign the other papers then you get more to read. I don’t know if you are the type who likes adventures and getting secret knowledge.” Ryan wants to lure him.

“Well, that sound interesting, but for the military? I'm not a soldier and didn't had the need for weapons,” Samuel replied.

“You won't be a soldier just a scientist and adviser to take care of the thinking. Your status can be still civilian as you don't have any military training. The only thing here is as you can guess. We want our secrecy for our projects we do. You still can deny the offer. But to know more you just have to sign the agreement,” Ryan declared.

Samuel signed it and gave it to Ryan.

“Good,” Ryan replied and gave him more papers.

It took Samuel a while to get through them.

“So this means I can die while doing my work?” Samuel asked then.

“Depending what you are choosing to do. You see this passage is for field missions. In the lab with computers it's very unlikely. But there might be field missions you choose to do. Then there are the risks you will be told. Sure you will be protected by the best we have to offer. But it won't be like here on this job. By the way doing archeology in certain countries without military protection is much more dangerous,” Ryan explained.

“Well, it is enough for me that I can decide to work in the lab or let's say choosing the risk I want to take,” Samuel replied.

“That's no problem,” Ryan assured.

“OK. With the secrecy I have no problem. I accept. Still I have not seen much secrets.” Samuel decided and signed for five years.

“Fine. Then you can get your stuff. Everything is arranged. If you want you can have a vacation till the end of this month or drive tomorrow with us to your new workplace,” Ryan informed.

“Well, I don't need much. My software stuff fits on a simple stick and the other stuff fits in a trunk. I just have to say goodbye to some of my colleagues here. So I come with you tomorrow.” Samuel was thinking if he did not forget something.

“Alright, we pick you up tomorrow at eleven at your home. We have an SUV so the important stuff should have a place. If you need to store other stuff that does not fit in or want to transfer it, we can arrange that. You will have a flat near your workplace,” Caine told.

“Well I thought not about it yet. The flat here I won’t need for a while. So I don't know yet what to do.”

“No problem, we see to it tomorrow,” Ryan meant confident.

“Then till eleven. Have a nice afternoon.” Samuel reached his hand then all shook.

“Till tomorrow,” Ryan replied. Then he and Caine left.

 

It was a sunny afternoon as they arrived at a nearby air force base. They drove into a transport plane.

“This will be a short flight to our operation base. It's also, as already mention, an air force base with flat's in the secure area. After showing you your new home we go to the lab where you meet the others you will work with. So in which team you will end up, we will see later,” Ryan explained.

“Is there something I need to know about the possible teams?” Samuel asked.

“Well, no. Except there are the operation teams which I lead one and the research teams that work in the lab only. That will be the risk level you decide later on in a month or more. For now, most teams are here training and doing research,” Ryan explained.

The plane started to move after they took their seats. It was late afternoon as they arrived. They made the full tour. So Samuel could see much of the base and labs but not all. There were still some restricted areas. Even that he signed the documents.

Ryan went now with Samuel to the lab.

“Here we do our research and analysis. This is a computer lab where we can do most of the technical analysis. Team this is Dr. Samuel Archer our new expert for the foreign language. He is also a computer scientist like Kelsey. So I introduce you to her first. She is our computer expert coming from a cyber defense team of the CIA. It was more the hacking team which did the attack scenarios. So she is very skilled in analyzing foreign code,” Ryan told.

Kelsey was not tall. With her long brown hair and the fitting eyes to them, she looked surly appealing. “Dr. Archer nice to meet you.”

Samuel which didn’t focused her too much while looking around, he shook her hand. Looking at her directly she could have Arabic ancestors like him.

Ryan notice that there was something more than just a greeting. “Also we have a physicist for deeper technical stuff. Major Newman is our expert in physics.”

Samuel also shook his hand.

Newman’s body seemed to be similar to Samuel. He was taller. From his face and the color, he could have had Afro-American ancestors, which supported his black hair. “Dr. Archer welcome to our team.”

Ryan continued, “Another member of our team is Dr. Watkins. She is our expert for biology.”

She was tall and a bit athletic, with blond hair. Also she looked quite attractive for Samuel. “Dr. Archer we are glad for your assistance.”

After shaking hands, Ryan went with him in the common room. “Here we have our two pilots Taylor and Owens.”

Taylor had the hair cut short. Her size was between Watkins and Kelsey. She looked stronger and more trained.

Owens had black hair. He was also well trained and had size close to Ryan’s. His chest was not as broad compared to Ryan and Caine.

They shook hands and the greeting ceremony was over. Samuel was not sure what he should think of this. Two pilots and physicist. What does they have to do with archology and this translation he made. Then a computer scientist who is specialized in hacking.

Now he and Ryan went back to the lab. It was now Samuels turn to show of what he had. He showed his software to his new team. Even the two pilots showed up to check it out. After showing everything and some discussions, for Samuel the introduction was over. He left to his new flat to start work tomorrow. The others started to play a bit around with the software. It seemed for Samuel that more information will come on the next day.

 

“Good morning Dr. Archer,” Marc Newman the physicist in his team was greeting.

“Good morning Dr. Newman, did you played a bit with my algorithm?” Samuel asked.

“Yes, I gave them a lot more data we have. To analyze this, it will take quite some time to get results. But more important are the numbers. We need to know what value each symbol stands for,” Marc replied.

Samuel was accessing a computer nearby and viewing one of those text pages with symbols, which now were partly translated.

“Well, if you entered a lot more of these cryptic symbol text pages we should get a solution automatically. But if there still is not enough information in it, we have to guess or check the translation by our own to find a possible number we can identify.” Samuel was now checking the translation, but what he could read gave him no clue for the values of the numbers. Both were now checking the translations for some clues. It still was not done. So they looked at some of the possible fitting words by moving the mouse pointer over the symbols to see the current possibilities. Only where a single solution was found the corresponding symbols were replaced.

Then Maxima Kelsey the computer expert was joining them. She was looking very tired.

“Hi, Max seems the morning looks not so good for you?” Marc noted.

“Yes, I worked too long and should have slept longer. But I got a breakthrough with the new translations. I started the algorithm like shown from Samuel with the known stuff and used some cloud power of the NSA. I hope they don't bother. I have been notified that the calculation is done and the solution counter for the numbers I picked says one. There are also some instructions pages I checked before I went to bed. With them we should figure out where we can direct interface with the device and get the raw data out. This means we should be able to find something similar like an ASCII table. So we can easily verify the numbers,” she explained while accessing another computer. The two men were now joining her.

 

It was afternoon as a meeting with Major Ryan occurred.

“I have some reports of the NSA which is accusing us hacking into their system and abusing their cloud for weather forecast calculations. Lieutenant Kelsey is there something to say?” Ryan looked at her.

“Well, if they think it was that we should not argue. We got a major breakthrough. All data and the numbers have been translated. There is not much which could be not solved to a single solution,” Max replied.

“Then Lieutenant Kelsey we will go to phase two. I will apologize to the NSA and tomorrow we will meet on the proving ground. Mr. Archer after your successful training you can decide where to go on,” Ryan replied.

“Does this mean I have to join the military?” Samuel asked skeptical.

“Well, you are in the military. For that a little weapon and combat experience is needed. But if you want stay out of field missions you still can stay on civilian duties. The different risk levels I will explain to you after the training. The training does not mean you will become a soldier. But on field missions a bit endurance and combat knowledge is useful,” Ryan explained.

“But those stuff we have translated was seemingly from a spacecraft. What should combat training be good for working with spacecraft’s?” Samuel argued.

“To give you a bit more information. There was a navigation address in the system of this spacecraft and we will go there as we now understand it. To encourage you a bit more for your upcoming training. It is possible that we will land on a foreign world and you can be part of that team. The full briefing you will get when we depart to our preparation base. You can also stay here and do research, it's your decision,” Ryan informed.

Samuel was thinking.

“I guess I take the training then,” he finally decided.

“Good. I think that's all for now. Dismissed.” Ryan finished the meeting.

Ryan thought he saw something as Samuel was introduced to Kelsey. He was tactical thinking and the knowledge that Kelsey was eager about her carrier because of her father, might lead him to use it to get Samuel ready for field missions. He knew he would need an expert on the front and Kelsey’s skills were just too valuable to risk it there.

“Kelsey, for the training shorter hair might be useful,” Ryan said.

“Affirmative.”

 

A month later Samuel was meeting the others at a hangar. His training was successful done. There were the two pilots Owens and Taylor, the biologists Watkins, Marc Newman, Maxima Kelsey, Thomas Ryan and John Caine waiting. As Samuel decided to take the full risk option, somehow he competed with Newman and Kelsey in the training. They were in the body condition similar like him. Also Kelsey seemed to be interesting for him, which he tried to not show too much. The same was it for Kelsey, because it could have effects on her carrier.

Watkins had a better condition and could compete with the pilots. Also the shooting went ok for Samuel.

Nevertheless, he was now member of the team and had a military grade of a Lieutenant.

“So we are complete. This is our team for the upcoming mission. We are now transferring to our preparation base and then to our operation ship when it arrives. Let's go,” Ryan finished and led into the hanger. It was dark outside and not much lighting. The hangar lights went on as they opened the doors.

“There it is the TR-3CS the shuttle version of our TR-3C fighters. For all which don't know it yet. This is an anti-gravity powered spaceplane. So we have artificial gravity on our flight to the Moon.” Ryan told and walked to the open back ramp of the shuttle. Then he stepped up the ramp for the airlock. The shuttle was triangular and over 25-meter long.

“So here is an airlock this means with pressure suits we could also operate in space. But it also can clean us from most of the biological danger we might encounter. So our standard operation suits will work well here,” Ryan explained.

Both doors of the airlock were open. The inner cabin had ten seats and two stretchers that could be used for multiple needs. There was a toilet and some locker for equipment. In the middle another door led to the cockpit. Taylor went to the front where they started the preflight checks as Owens arrived, after closing the backdoors.

Ryan showed the others around. There was not much to show but the locker near the cockpit door were filled with food and drinks. The weapons locker was empty. And there were some emergency suits. On each side of the cabin above the beds were also a bigger screen. Ryan explained, it will show all needed tactical information, the cockpit view or any other useful sensor feeds. Also every seat had a smaller display in the back. The cabin itself had no windows.

“Preflight check done. We are ready to depart,” Lieutenant Taylor informed as she opened the hangar doors with the integrated remote control.

“OK, team. Get to your seats. Using the belts is optional. It will be a smooth flight.” Ryan informed and also went for his seat. He was the last one.

“We are ready Lieutenant Taylor,” he said as he looked at the front display showing the cockpit view where the hangar doors were opening.

The spaceplane started to hover. Then the landing gears went in. They were a mixture from skids and wheels. Slowly they floated out of the hangar and as they were far enough away they accelerated up into the dark sky. Inside there was not much to feel about that maneuver which looked a bit like a catapult start into the sky. Also the changed angle to the horizontal was not noticeable.

 

As expected it was a smooth flight. They were close to their destination. The Moon base came in sight on the display.

“Amazing how could we build such a base in secrecy and stay hidden?” Samuel asked.

“Well, we didn't build it. We captured it from aliens which probably observed us for a long time. Also this view here is infrared enhanced. We are on the dark side of the Moon.” Ryan turned the infrared mode off. There was only a black screen now.

“Captured? Did we encounter the aliens or have some imprisoned?” Samuel asked.

“No, they have seen us coming and departed in time. So we captured an empty base with minimal technology. But suitable for our operations. The Solar Warden project we are part of could extend its resources because of that,” Ryan explained and switched the infrared mode back on.

The base was close now. On a building was a landing pad and on its side a building that could be a hangar. Also on the ground there was a much bigger area which could also be a landing location.

“You see that big area. That is for our ship we use when we start our operation. The landing pad for it is built by us. Meanwhile since we captured this base we could build some minor expansions. We will conduct some space training here while we wait for the arrival,” Ryan further pointed out.

Their craft was now slowing down and finally hovering over the landing zone. The shuttle turned to the opening hangar doors and slowly floated inward. They had to wait a bit till the doors were closed and the area was pressurized to leave the plane. There were more of these TR-3CS spaceplanes in the hangar. All with their back to a wall.

“They have no free docking port so we have to wait,” Taylor informed after they touched down. Then Owens also joined. They went to the airlock.

“Here you can see the status of the outside atmosphere. A green light will show you it is normal like on Earth. But you can verify the air components on this display. We have a lot of sensors outside to get detailed information. Sure the most important is the oxygen and enough pressure is available. But if it is not Earth like we have to count on our suit systems to be safe. This will be lectured again in the upcoming training,” Ryan told. The green light turned on. Ryan checked the detailed information then opened the airlock and they went out. He led the team straight for the next airlock into the Moon base.

“We are now heading for the briefing room where we meet up with General Wells the leader of the Solar Warden project. He will give a short introduction for the new ones and a mission update,” Ryan informed.

They went to an elevator and then to a room where in the middle was a table with 20 seats around it. The team seated down while Ryan went for the General’s office. Then he came back with the General. Everyone stood up and saluted. After the military procedure all seated down.

“Good morning SW-5. I will make it short since you might be tired from the journey. Solar Warden is a project started decades ago. Since we always had encounters with alien vessels visiting our planet, some abductions and other incidents, we had the need to prevent that. From the technology we could recover we have our anti-gravity propelled space ships. The first ones were not able to travel to the stars at least with humans. But we could cover our solar system and prevent most alien vessels, which in most of the case were just probes, entering the near Earth space. On one of our last shot down on Earth, we recovered the technology to enter something we call hyperspace and travel to other stars. Still we had no clue where those vessels come from. So our first visit of a nearby star system is a just nearby one. But Lieutenant Archers discoveries gave us probably the coordinates to the origin of the vessel with the faster then light drive. I have also to mention that similar vessels also visited us further decades ago with lesser technology. From our research and analysis of the bodies,” the general informed and activated a presentation screen where triangular spacecrafts were shown. Then he continued. “We guess that the prior version had a journey of centuries behind it or must be brought with a mothership to our system. But as you can see here this bodies have changed. We call this the evolution of the Grays. But they are hybrids, clones probably genetically designed and created with some strange device connected to their brain. We are guessing that might be a connection to their operators. Which means that they are more like machines sent to do more sophisticated analysis. We also found no weapons which also concludes the scouting objective. However, we have also to consider that their intense may not be friendly. As we could connect them to a lot of abduction cases. For that you will travel with the Icarus a Daedalus class spaceship to the star system. Which is also not too far away with probably a planet in the habitable zone. Your mission will be to first recon the system and find any trace of them. If you get attacked, you sure have to defend yourself. But also get as much information you can. Don't risk too much to obtain information. You must also be able to bring it back. There is no possibility of communication to Earth,” the General finished his introduction.

“Sir. Does this mean we land on a planet?” Samuel asked.

“Depends on what you find there. First you will send probes, then you will land if possible. Even if you only take probes of an uninhabited planet. But that's the decision of Captain Fisher which is in command of the Icarus. Keep in mind you are part of seven SW teams. Most of them are highly trained members of special forces coming from air force, navy, marines and army. You are the team with the most science experience. Which means you do most of the investigations. Also I mention here the altered ranking since we are a mix of different organizations. We start with a Lieutenant that is the same as a Captain of the air force. That's a bit bureaucratic dispute we have here. I don't want to go into details. In the end it would not matter much,” the general replied.

“Do we have any useful weapons since they could know most of our stuff we use to protect the solar system?” Owens asked.

“The Icarus has some newer railguns and microwave cannons. But also x-ray lasers and our improved drones and spaceplane fighters,” the General replied.

“Sir. For whom on Earth do we speak if we encounter aliens since we all, I guess, are from the US here,” Samuel asked.

“Oh, sorry I forgotten the further introduction. Since we captured the Moon base our support has been grown. The Solar Warden project is secretly funded by many Nations. It's still so secret that details only the participants in space and very few on Earth know, but we have countries from Europe and Asia supporting us with personal and resources. Further technology discoveries will, if useful, be brought to the market and also funding us. Well, you didn't notice for example Taylor is from Britain,” the general replied.

“Sir. What about the alien vegetation we might encounter do we have any handling there?” Samuel asked.

“Sure, your new suits you will train here with are developed for this. Also we have procedures and staff capable of analyzing and handling that situations. One of the specialists here is Lieutenant Dr. Watkins. So I guess you want to sleep now then your training will start. After that there will be more preparation briefings. Are there any important questions?” the General finished. He looked around, there were none. “Good, dismissed.

 

 

2 Icarus

Three weeks later the training was done. Some more meetings happened and the Icarus was back from its exploration mission. Samuel and his team and some of the other SW teams were here on a window, showing the landing pad, to witness the approach of the ship.

The stars were good visible. However, it took quite some time to spot the ship coming out of the darkness. First it was the missing of more and more stars until finally it came into the range of the landing lights. The lights were on the side of the big area directed into the sky. The starship was huge. Even that Samuel knew the specs it was still impressive. A spaceship bigger then modern naval carriers with a length of over 350 meter and a beam of about 200 meter. The main part had a beam of about 90 meter. But there were left and right two wing like attachments where the hangars for the spaceplanes were integrated. The ship touched smoothly down like it would weight nothing. Then the hangar doors opened and a gangway expanded from the base to the ship to make a connection for resupply and personal transfer. The starship now in its size was bigger than the tiny Moon base installation. Contrary the Moon base itself was a lot bigger then what could be spotted on the surface. But compared to the ship it could not match the height nor the size of the length.

While Samuel and the others would be transferred to the ship in the next hours the leaders of each SW team had a final briefing with the general and the captain of the ship. So Samuel and most of the others went to their locker to put the suits on. While Ryan went for the briefing room.

 

The General was greeting all and congratulating the Captain for his successful mission. There were also the seven leaders of the SW teams here. Two of them were from the Icarus, the others from the Moon base. That meant SW teams of the ship were now replaced by the five new. The team leader by the look could come from different cultures. Ryan did not know all of them, yet, except from short discussions. But that didn’t matter. They had a long journey to grow together.

“Before I begin with the next mission briefing a short recap of your mission would be good Captain Fisher,” the General suggested.

“Sure, our first journey verified the reliability of our ship, the navigation system and the hyperdrive. We could reach the selected star as planned and scanned it. There was no planet in the circumstellar habitable zone. But a barren stone planet where we took some samples while we tested some hyperdrive short jumps. This maneuvers worked as expected and the landing team had also no problems with the suits in a not breathable atmosphere. We stayed in the system for three days to gather data and then started the journey home.” Captain Fisher was done with his report.

“Good. Now our objective has changed a bit. With the discoveries made by Dr. Samuel Archer's algorithm. He is now a member of SW-5, Major Ryan's team. We have a probable origin of our hyperdrive technology. So your next mission will be to investigate this. As we cannot assume the aliens will be friendly. I suggest a cautious approach. The main objective is to gain intel but to avoid any threat of returning the intel to us. This does not mean you cannot scout the planet. But keep the Icarus safe and support the operation team as much as you can. There is no need to hurry. Therefore, you try and train on a nearby star system your approach proceedings and scanning methods. As we have no long-range communication you are on your own for this. So you have to make all the decisions for the proceedings by your own. As the travel to your destination would take about a month. We expect you at your destination in two months. So use your detour well. You have two weeks there for testing and planning.” General Wells was finished with the mission description. On the screen behind him was a star map showing the route and marking Earth including the other two stars with their cryptic name number.

“Sir, as most of our teams consist of special forces not having expertise in first contact situations like this. In which cases, we should proceed a landing operation?” Commander Knight of SW-1 asked.

“That's a good question. If you meet up a civilization you won’t proceed at all. In this case your scientists will try to decrypt communication and you just gather as much sensor data you can and return. Else if there is not much found you scan every surface of a planet and decide how you can proceed. If there is a habitable planet you may go down and take probes of course. For that you also have now more experts in biology. Also if you find minor signs of intelligent life, you have to judge for yourselves how much you can risk. Keep in mind if there is someone it would be useful to know what kind of threat they are. For that kind of reconnaissance operations, you are trained,” the General replied.

“Affirmative,” Knight replied.

“Good, I think all is said and things have to be decided when we are there.” Captain Fisher had his orders and was fine with it.

“Then I can only wish you good luck and keep out of trouble. Dismissed,” the general finished the meeting.

 

Samuel was with the others in the back of the TR-3CS and following the approach over the monitor. They went into the right hangar. Then on the left a bigger door opened where they glided in. After touching down a lift brought them a level higher and the shuttle went to a docking position. Samuel could not tell if they rolled there on wheels. But as smooth as it was he guessed they used the anti-gravity gliding of the shuttle. Eventually they were anchored and the back of the airlock showed they could exit without the suits which they were wearing. Owens and Taylor joined them and they went into the ship. Surprisingly Ryan was already there.

“Seems it was a short briefing,” Taylor noted.

“Yes, but there was not much more to say. Now I show you our lockers and rooms. Then we make a tour through the ship. Departure is tomorrow so we have quite some time,” Ryan replied.

Everybody knew from the schematics they got, the internal structure. Also on some points of the ship there were maps of the current level on the wall. Still it was necessary to get common with the interior.

On the next day, there was a preflight briefing of the whole crew in a cinema like room with also such a big screen. The Captain was in front of the screen. There were seats for over 300 people.

“Good morning crew. Everybody should know now about our next mission. Here on the screen you see our upcoming travel again. This mission may have an encounter with an alien race that could even be hostile. Therefore, our first stop will be the star system S 102, where we do our sneak into foreign system testing. So our approach into S 103 stays as stealthy as it could be. From there we will then plan our further operations. Our journey to S 102 will take one and a half week. So we have enough time for further refinements and the new ones to get common with our systems and proceedings.” The captain finished his speech.

“Sir, do we have more information about the alien race?” Samuel asked.

“Well, I guess all of you had the common introduction. We have an archive everyone can access. That means all have access to the special classified information we have. So you can read it and make your own thoughts. Surly this information is still classified for Earth. You won’t be allowed to talk to others on Earth about it and our operation,” the Captain replied.

“Why all this secrecy. Would it not be wise to inform the people about this?” Samuel wants to know.

“Well, you are not from the special forces. But most of us coming from there and conducted CIA operation. So it's common to us talking about secrets can cost lives. We were drilled to it. As of the Solar Warden project is known to the public to some point as conspiracy theory. The politics made the decision to keep it like it is. There might be some whistle blowers which have to deal with the punishment for that. Also this secret cannot be kept forever. But there are reasons for it and we will sure have to talk about them at a later time. Then it will be thought over again if the situation has changed. The main fear of the politics is economically instability or even power loss. The Military sees it quite different. On the one side, it may restrict the resources we could get. Otherwise speaking openly about it will also lowering security. This may also make it more easily for aliens to spy on us, which technology we possess or even terrorist and countries give access to technologies they should not have. More is there not to say. I think we have now to focus on the importance of our mission. What possibilities we have, to gather information without getting caught doing it,” Captain Fisher replied.

“Do we also conduct landing on planets in the S 102 system?” Ryan asked.

“Of course while we go there we refine the sneak in approach and finally if there is a suitable planet we land there and take probes. So you can prepare your teams for that. We will send all teams if it is possible. Remember we are only 210 people some have here more duties because of that. Until we get the full crew the ship is built for, some time will pass. Still we are a lot more as the minimum needed to operate this ship. However as inexperienced in interstellar space travel we still are, we have to prepare for the unexpected as good as we can. Now we make our preflight checks. Then start and travel to S102. Normal training and preparation shifts will now take place. The team leaders will be informed in a further briefing. All back to your duty. Dismissed,” the Captain was done with the briefing.

 

Samuel was on a front window below the bridge part. This curved higher tower from the center part at the end of the ship gave a good overview. He saw down to the Moon base on the side. The only thing what was visible because of the turned on lights.

Then it was time. Slowly the starship lifted off and a short time later the lights went out. The ground behind was in the darkness. Only light came from the stars and the room light. Samuel put on his glasses which had infrared support. Now he could see something coming closer. It was cigar shaped, like his ship without the tower and wing parts. That must be one of the prior stellar vessels used to secure the Solar system. They past it and only the stars were left to see. Samuel went to his work place. A small office room where he could close the door if needed. In this section were more offices with most of them used also by computer science experts. Also Max had her office nearby. With a terminal they had access to all the ship database and sensors readings. So they were able to do analysis or develop improved algorithm. He and Max had also the task now to improve the passive sensor readings. So he started to look at the sensor specs and the description of the current algorithm the system used. After reading some of the specs he activated one of the front cameras which displayed the stars. He continued to read more specs. Then the camera, view started to flicker and went dark. Samuel checked the status of the camera it was OK. Then that of the spaceship. They were in hyperspace now. Samuel remembered from a prior talk with Newman that in hyperspace the physics is different and light seems not to exist there. So he continued his work.

 

Newman and Ryan were on the bridge. The Captain was preparing the exit from the hyperspace.

“Open the exit window,” he ordered. Then in front of them a part with stars appeared.

“Send the probe,” was the next order.

An about two-meter sized cube object flew away.

“Readings coming in. It is clear. Scanning the back now,” the sensor officer informed. The probe made a turn and moved to the side.

“Also clear. We can exit now,” the sensor officer finished the protocol checks.

“Helm, engage the dimension change,” the Captain ordered.

“Affirmative,” came the reply from the navigation. More stars came to sight all around the ship and they were back into normal space.

“Start the position determination and all passive scans.” The Captain turned to Newman. “This is the normal procedure to check for all objects in a star system we scan now some time. Then we fly a bit closer and do it again. After that we can calculate the position of the planets and moons we spotted. We could do a third approach to check from another angle but for a normal approach this is enough data. At that distance we are, there is no possibility to spot us. Light travels not that fast and we would be surly out of range with our size and heat signature.”

“At that distance of about one light-year away from the habitable zone we could even use active scanning for the surroundings. It would not matter much except secure the Icarus more. Also we could move closer to a half lightyear if needed. But it would not solve the main problem. If they radiate like we do it on Earth, we would detect a civilization here without a problem. However, if they don’t and have sensors also in their moon orbits, we will be detected on our closer approach we have to do later. The only option we have is to optimize the sensor scan out of the hyperspace to avoid running into a trap. They could have defense system on the back side of their moon. Much more difficult it will be if they have no moon,” Newman replied.

“Yes, that's the critical phase but we need to do it like we did with the passive mode. There is not too much to improve. Opening this window out of the hyperspace costs a lot of energy. Maybe we can use a smaller window. I'm open for any suggestions,” the Captain replied.

“We have two launch tubes at the front. The size of the window can be lowered to the size of the probe. Then we send two probes through. The first one immediately turns to the side and flies a bit back, too. With the second one we scan also the front and more important hold the connection to us and relay to the first one. So we have 100 percent of the windows back and even can triangulate if needed. The other question now would be. Do we active scan the surface of the moon or passive and how much time we want spent on this,” Newman suggested.

“I guess you already have an answer for this?” the Captain suspected.

“I made simulations and calculations and came to 25 seconds with active scanning. 270 seconds for passive. But it's better we make some real testing,” Newman replied.

“Good. Then we will make it so,” the Captain confirmed.

The scanning was done and the target was set for a tiny moon of a planet outside of the habitable zone.

“Newman, I have a question. I thought the hyperdrive system detects any gravity field around. So why we scan our back?” Ryan asked.

“It detects only the gravity fields that would influence the dimension change. This means smaller ships or sensors further away we could not see or even dangerous micro particles are a problem. But that's a quite different story. This means in normal operations an active scan is a must do to be sure,” Newman informed Ryan.

A bit later they arrived their next stop. They sent now their two probes and 30 seconds later they dropped out of hyperspace. This was nearly instant as they just had to turn off the hyperdrive field which holds the ship in hyperspace dimension. Using the window method would just cost too much energy and time.

“Send the stealth probes into orbit and recover the others,” Fisher ordered.

Two stealth probes moved away from the ship into a position where they could spot the planet. Finally, they were on the opposite site of the moon to each other which gave a better option for scanning methods.

“No signals from the planet and no unusual visuals for now,” the sensor officer informed.

“We wait for the result of the deeper scanning then we hyperjump near to the planet.” Captain Fisher saw no threat to wait one turn of the planet.

“That maneuver we should avoid on our next destination. Sure the stealth probes have a high resolution and in this case with the small moon we are much closer. But to be sure we should after the deep scan send stealth probes to the planet if he is in a habitable zone. This cost much more time but let at least the ship stay hidden. Also we have to check our sensor ability to spot the stealth probes while they work,” Newman suggested.

“Good idea. This will cost some time but has its value,” the Captain replied. He looked at the shuttle status.

“OK, send the shuttle down to the moon. They should take probes and then wait there till we contact them,” he ordered, then continued. “Ryan, Newman get ready for your first trip to a planet.”

“Affirmative,” Ryan replied and both saluted. Then went down to the lockers.

“Deeper scan done. Nothing unusual found. The shuttle is closing in on the moon,” the sensor officer notified.

“Good. Helm jump to the planet,” Fisher ordered.

The ship nearly instantly vanished. Then they navigated to their destination using the gravity feedback of the hyperdrive system. Again two sensor probes were dropped through the hyperspace window and finally the Icarus appeared.

“Send three stealth probes into the orbit. Retrieve the scout probes. Then send the rest of the teams to the planets. Clark scan for our stealth probes on the moon,” the Captain ordered. Then he followed the start of the probes and the shuttles.

“Scans done. Nothing found,” Clark the sensor officer reported.

“Helm, prepare to jump back to the moon. Communication ask the team if they are done taking probes. I want to jump back when they are inside the shuttle. They should wait there until our scans are done.” Fisher commanded.

“They need 15 minutes. They will inform us when they are inside,” the communication officer replied.

“Clark prepare an extra scan if we can't detect them on our first run,” Fischer added.

“I will use the 270 second sweep Newman advised but with active methods,” Clark replied.

“Best we use for this the passive first, then the fast active and add 270 active then. I think time does not matter here but we have to compare the efficiency. Let also the shuttle and stealth probes scan for our activities.” Fisher wanted data that later could be analyzed in details.

“To patch resolution up I need to use 400 percent of the time so we are scanning about 20 minutes,” Clark suggested.

“Good. Prepare it.” Fisher was fine with that.

“I'm on it,” Clark confirmed.

14 minutes later a communication from the moon shuttle went in.

“They are entering the shuttle now and will be through the airlock in less than a minute,” the communication officer informed.

“Clark ready?” The captain looked to him.

“Yes, sir,” he confirmed.

“Good. Helm execute jump,” the order followed.

“Switching to hyperspace,” came the reply and the stars vanished. After a short travel they started to scan. Even the first passive scan did locate the shuttle by its heat signature. But they continued the full procedure for later analysis.

Then they entered the normal space. The Captain ordered the shuttle back. After landing of the shuttle they jumped back near the planet and entered orbit while the other shuttles came back.

The cleaning procedures of the crews and the shuttles took quite some time. It was useful for the new ones to get common with it. Also a quarantine with medical screening was part of the procedure. Then after three days the SW teams could go back to their normal quarters.

SW-5 were in the cantina. It was a place for about 100 people. With the shifts I was not too crowded. The drinks were in a special cup in a case of zero gravity.

“I read a bit in the archive about the hyperdrive. There is mentioned that Einstein coincidently had discovered some effects of it. Does that mean we had the theory centuries ago and could not develop the technology by ourselves?” Samuel asked.

“No, he had done some experiments which finally went into a disaster. Because of that the experiments were stopped and he could not complete the theory or find out what exactly went wrong,” Newman replied.

“You mean the Philadelphia Experiment?” Samuel asked.

“The Philadelphia Experiment is a perfect example how effective our secrecy machinery does cover-up. The experiment had the name Project Invisibility. It was tested at sea with different ships as the rumors tell. But the outcome was unexpected deadly for the crew. Later on as there were tests in the late 90th with the retrieved systems of a shot down alien ship. They discovered similarities to the experiment of Einstein. But the data from that time was nearly useless. We had a not completed theory that was not for hyperspace travel and no measurements like we do it today. So we are still working to complete the theory to fully understand the hyperdrive system. I worked there only short time in the last years, but this gave me at list the needed knowledge to be able to continue,” Newman explained.

“You mean with similarities people died again while testing it?” Samuel asked.

“No, we are in the age of drones and do now more careful testing. But as they tested the drone in the Moon orbit the animals were also found in the walls while other stuff was damaged. Later they figured out they turned off a safety function of this drive. This means jumping close to the gravity field of a bigger mass is something what you should avoid. It seems there are some strange effects we do not understand yet. So Einstein would never have had the chance of a success on Earth. However, the invisibility they witnessed was probably a jump into hyperspace and back,” Newman pointed further out.

“So all this secrecy let to not fully discover the secrets of hyperspace?” Samuel asked.

“Well, it’s not the secrecy only. It cost a lot of money to conduct experiments and the according research. So by the happened disaster also the funding was gone. I guess, without that there is nearly no progress possible. But that was long ago. No one knows what happened exactly anymore,” Newman added.

The SW-6 team was joining them on the bigger table.

“This means without the captured hyperdrive we had nothing then a lousy warp drive theory?” Samuel asked.

“Maybe in 100 years or more someone would have come up with this by our technology advances. The current projects have just a different more reachable focus. That is where you get money for. Exotic stuff has nearly no chance of funding. So we had luck to retrieve this and still problems with the needed funding.” Newman added.

“Funding, hyperdrive. Guys, we are traveling to a star system, get paid for it and have to deal with what we encounter. Do you think we have time to polish our hyperdrive?” Green one of the others said.

“So what do you expect?” Kelsey asked.

“That is the big question. We are on the hunt. Knowing the bug like Gray are hiding somewhere on our journey. A planet full of bugs creeping and crawling through a jungle ready to jump on us,” Green told.

“Delicious and you will be the first we throw in,” Ryan replied.

“That is my job now. Getting rid of the bugs. Without any flamethrower, napalm, or nukes. Curious.” Green said.

“I thought we are on a reconnaissance mission?” Samuel asked.

“Seems Green wants to interrogate the dead. Guess he needs alternative,” Kelsey said.

“That’s the problem. When I get called there are no more alternatives,” Green replied.

“Great, I let you be the first and cover your back to let you get all the fame,” Caine joined in.

“Caine, you are a true friend. But you know the one behind fall first,” Green added.

“I thought you are our free fall experts.” Owens said.

“You can bet on it when we have to save your asses,” Green confirmed proud.

“SW-6, it was an honor to meet you on table. But the peaceful 5 must go back to duty, in order to save worlds being overrun by you. Cheer up! We fight only if we need to.” Caine said and stood up.

“But don’t save too much. Some doesn’t want to be saved.” Green stood up and saluted.

SW-5 went back to work.

Newman was on the bridge again having a discussion with the Captain

“Those procedures we do take quite some time. I don't want say they are unnecessary, but might not practical in a critical situation where all help might be needed,” Newman advised.

“Yes, I know and therefore a visit to a planet is only allowed if there is no threat in sight. That might be a problem on our next star system visit. But you see we done all we could here. Took probes, analyzed our sensor efficiency, improved our proceedings and even used our stealth probes against us. So we have one-and-a-half-week time to think before we continue,” Fisher replied.

“For the computer scientists working in the quarantine station is no problem. But any other cases, where physical repairs are needed or even combat soldiers, are a problem I think,” Newman added.

“Well, in a critical situation I would suggest at least the combat suits if not the space suits. So certain quarantine is provided while moving around the ship. Sure this might reduce the speed of repairs but a critical situation also has risks of hull breaches. Also briefings can be done in the quarantine zone. So teams can go back to reinforce troops on the planet out of there,” the Captain replied.

“Good. But that should be added to the standard proceeding for such cases.” Newman had not found that in the proceedings protocols.

“Right. Any other suggestions?” Fisher asked.

“Not yet. But I hope we have some till our departure.” Newman was not fully pleased with the preparations.

“We also have the time till our arrival. From my standpoint, we are prepared enough and can decide when we have more data to think about,” the Captain showed his confidence.

“The problem is that then the data might be too much to start thinking. So we need solutions that fit for any cases that could occur.” Newman showed his perfection affinity.

“As Captain I always have to do fast decisions. That's just how it works. Sure it's good if we have a prepared solution for everything that happens to us. But there will be always something we have not thought about. So don't worry too much. We don't rush things. When we find a moon as cover we are fine. If not, we have a lot of time to think a lightyear away. The risk getting detected while approaching the moon won’t go away.” The Captain was calm and went to his nearby cup of coffee.

“Good, I focus further on the moon approach problem, sir,” Newman informed.

“I expect an improvement till we depart here,” the Captain encouraged.

“Yes, sir.” Newman saluted and left the bridge.

 

There were some improvements and finally the Icarus reached its destination. They used the faster active scan and went out of the hyperspace about a lightyear away.

This time they found a planet in the habitable zone and the needed moon. It was a G-class system, but younger as that of Earth. After two more jumps they had what they needed. A planet outside of the habitable zone with two moons. They selected one to close in then used the planet as cover to the habitable one. There were no other signals of a civilization detected so the decision was made without worries. They jumped closer to the uninhabited planet and used him as cover. They found two more much smaller moons not suitable for cover around the habitable planet.

This time they had to stay longer to evaluate everything. But as here also no uncommon signals were found and visuals seemed to have found nothing of importance. They skipped to send shuttles down. It was time for their essential approach to a planet with possible life. Already their scans showed water and indication of vegetation. They jumped into hyperspace and moved to the cover position of the moon. They decided to use the quick active scan again.

“Nothing found. We are clear to go,” Clark informed.

“Exit hyperspace. Send the scout probes closer to the moon and scan.” It was the altered protocol for a habitable planet they worked out which the Captain now used.

At once the sensor officer scanned with the passive ship sensors as it was his duty. But even after one hour there was no sign of uncommon activity found.

“Send the stealth probes to the orbits and move closer to the moon. Get the scout probes back,” the Captain ordered.

Newman also was on the bridge and checked on a terminal the incoming data.

“Suggestions?” the Captain asked.

“As planned, one-day scanning of the planet with the stealth probes. Then we have to decide to send one to the planet,” Newman replied.

That day was a very long one. The shift changed and Newman was nervous enough not getting to much sleep. Others had the same problem. Finally, the shift switched to them again. They used three shifts to get the best quality out. This also helped for the sleep problems a bit. The one-day scanning was over. They had a planet like Earth with a bit less gravity. But life is there for sure. Still there were no signals of a civilization nor other signs they searched for.

“With that data we have, the decision for me is easy, I would send a stealth probe now. Any objection?” the Captain had time. It would not matter now if he sends the probe now or some days later.

Also Commander Knight was on the bridge.

“Well there is no way back if we do this,” Newman noted.

“Sure it is, we jump into hyperspace and fly home,” the Captain countered.

“For that we need to fly further away from the moon first,” Newman replied.

“Yes, but why should we leave at once. Our probe finds something, gets scanned or even intercepted. At what point is there an imminent threat that is important enough to stop collecting intel. We also should get our stealth probes back. Therefore, we stay closer to the moon.” The Captain waited. It was a bit of silence now on the bridge.

“Well, at the end I think everyone wants to know what’s there,” Newman said.

“Newman, to get intel we have to risk something,” Commander Knight noted.

“OK. Send a stealth probe to the planet,” Fisher commanded, knowing there was anyways no other choice.

“Probe away,” Clark replied.

“Now we can plan for our next action. It will take quite some time till the orbit of the planet and then another day till the full orbit scan is done. The next step would be to jump, orbit the planet and send the shuttles down or only jump near the planet.” The Captain didn't want a faster scan also the probe had to stay in sight to transmit the data in real-time.

Everyone were on their duty now while the stealth probes sent the data to analyze.

The probe nearly reached the orbit, as suddenly an object appeared, coming from the backside of the planet.

“Sir, we got an incoming vessel on the probe,” the sensor officer informed.

It was the next shift. The executing officer was on duty.

“Inform the Captain. Wake him up if you need to,” he replied.

“It's accelerating. There is also a satellite spotted now and a second one which are scanning our probe,” the sensor officer notified.

“I hope the automatic scans the incoming vessel. It would be bad if we send commands to the probe. But our moon probes can be informed to focus passively on the vessel. So focus with them now,” the XO ordered.

“Affirmative,” the sensor officer replied, then continued. “Incoming active scan on the probe. We get now data of the vessel the probes automatic has been triggered.”

“On screen,” Portman the XO commanded.

They saw a similar vessel they had in their archives. It was of the kind with the hyperdrive. There was light coming now out of the front and moved very fast against the probe. Then the data stream was lost.

“Probe destroyed,” the sensor officer reported.

“And the vessel?” the XO asked.

“Seems heading back to the planet,” came the answer.

“Do we have the satellites on sensors?” the XO wanted to know.

“No, only the probe near the planet could detect them. But we have their course and can estimate their position,” the sensor officer replied.

“Captain on the bridge,” someone called.

The XO turned and reported what happened.

“Good, the vessel we could spot so we would see it coming. Move the ship further away from the moon. I want to be able to jump within one minute if needed. For now, I think they haven’t detected us. So we can think and plan our options. Let the current shift plan, if something is heading to us jump away in time and head for Earth. Retrieve the stealth probe if you can do that undetected. I go to sleep and check the plans tomorrow,” Fisher ordered.

“Yes, sir,” the XO replied.

 

 

3 Decisions

Two shifts later Ryan and all other SW team leaders were in the briefing room with the Captain.

“You all seen the analysis done till now. We encountered an alien race. Probably from the ship design the one we got the hyperspace technology from. There are two satellites sighted in the orbit and we assume that it will be three orbiting the planet in the pattern we calculated. To gain more intel our options are quite limited if we don't want to expose the Icarus. The plan which I think makes most sense is to send another stealth probe escorted by two combat drones. Those drones also can be used to scan the planet and if they succeed to protect our probe they are able to destroy the satellites which opens up the possibility to move the Icarus near the planet unseen. Suggestions?” the Captain looked around.

“Well, they started shooting. But when we continue with that, things might escalate faster as we want. It also would be more difficult if we decide to land or plan to make a peaceful contact. So I suggest we send two shuttles to the orbit of the moon to make contact with them. This gives us an option to talk. Also to send commands to the probes and drones while the Icarus and the stealth probes on the moon stay hidden. The shuttle can be unmanned. They are just a decoy to suggest the probes and drones came from them. This means we have still the option to withdraw with the Icarus unseen while we have full control of our forces. But also we should be aware that they can analyze our drone command communication then.” Ryan worked out the plan with his team earlier.

“This sounds good. But from the behavior of this race in the Sole system I assume they are hostile. It is a nice attempt. But even if they respond we should be cautious. Such situations are very information dependent. This means the one with the better reconnaissance has a clear advantage. The question here is, if we start to talk they might identify us coming from Earth for sure. Then if we have to retreat they know where to go,” Commander Knight worried.

“That's a good point, Commander Knight. Can we send a message without exposing us coming from Earth? I mean till now shooting down a sensor probe is the same thing we do in our Solar system. That might be just a common behavior. Those probes could be on their travel for hundreds of years. When we do act further they know at least someone is still in their system,” Captain Fisher argued.

“I see the problem, too. As soon we act again they might call for reinforcements or start a search after they cleared our next attempt. Then we have for sure limited time to do something. But the point is for sure how much we want to give away from us and what risks we want to take to gain more intel that we need for sure. I mean if we send a very simple binary message they might not understand it. If we send a more complex one, they can determine for sure who we are. But at least understand it,” Ryan added.

“The point is I need to know what they have on the planet. Flying back without that information gives us nearly nothing to prepare for and we sure have to come back. Also they already know of our existence and of our capabilities except the hyperspace ability. So they are sure in advantage. It does not matter which plan we use, the risk of exposing us coming from Earth is there. We can limit that by reducing the content of the message. That will do it I think. The behavior from them then could also give us useful information. But we know they already probed us. It’s time to get even. Our mission is to get as much intel for a risk we can handle. So we stick with Ryan's plan. Is there any objection?” Fisher asked. There was none.

“Good. Then things will be go faster from now on. Prepare your teams for landing on the planet. One way or the other. Dismissed,” the Captain made a decision.

One hour later everything was prepared. They started the stealth probe, drones and shuttles. It took a while to get to the visual position to the planet. The shuttles stopped and the other vessels continued their journey. After waiting a quarter of an Earth day, they started to send the message on different frequencies and repeated it for an hour. It was a simple message trying to say we come in peace but protect our vessels. The probe and the drones continued their travel and finally closed in for the orbit. Still there was no answer. But additionally to the satellites a vessel appeared again coming from the backside of the planet. It headed straight for the probe's position. The escorting combat drones went for an interception course. One of them further ahead than the other. With the programed behavior they did not need to send any command to the drones. Still there was no answer or anything that could be one. So no abort command was sent.

The alien ship which now was identified as the same triangular ship as last time made the targeting scan, immediately the combat drone made an evasive maneuver. The light on the front of the alien ship went on. This was a further indicator to alter the course again. A fast lighting beam headed to the first drone and missed it. Immediately the second drone started to fire with its microwave gun while closing in on the target. The alien ship fired again and missed the first combat drone which also used its microwave gun. It seemed nothing happened with the alien ship which fired again and destroyed the first drone. The second drone had accelerated, switched to the railgun and fired, while the alien ship started to target scan. The light was visible again. At once the combat drone stopped the shooting and switched to evasive maneuver. Unexpected the light went off and the alien ship changed the course a bit while slowly rotating.

“It must been hit,” Clark guessed.

“That won't stop the drone from attacking,” the Captain replied.

Further shots were fired from the drone. At that distance they were now the hits could be seen with the target camera. Also the hits did alter course and rotation of the alien ship. Finally, an explosion occurred and parts split off. The drone seemed to register that and headed for the next satellite as it was programmed to act after an attack.

Two hours later all satellites were destroyed. The stealth probe was in its orbit scanning the surface in an active mode. While the combat drone was on the other side scanning and after nearly quarter of the planet returned to sight for the transfer of the data.

The shifts already had changed on the bridge. Office teams in the middle of the Icarus analyzed the incoming data stream. An algorithm marked an area which the analyst checked and immediately knew they have found what they were looking for. He forwarded the information to the bridge.

The XO was on shift again he checked it. Then gave the order to further investigate option for proceedings. There was no need to wake up the Captain. Everything went as expected and further action will take place in his shift.

The time passed and the facility they found was on the sensor sight of the stealth probe which was for sure not stealth anymore with its active scanning. Now they had real-time view of their target.

The shift changed and the Captain was in a briefing with the SW team leaders again. The facility view was on the screen.

“We still have no answer to our message and I guess we won’t get one. There is now only one option left to continue. After the meeting we will jump near the planet release two more stealth probes to fully survive the planet. As soon your teams are ready SW-1 till 5 will enter the planet on the backside of the facilities location. Then you approach as fast as you can the mountains and land near the canyon here. SW-5 will follow the river and then cautiously close in to the facilities probable entrance. So SW-5 has enough time to figure out the possibilities entering the facility. You can already study our data on your way down. You also get updates over satellite broadcast if needed. Keep radio silence unless you are discovered. Any questions?” the Captain looked at Ryan.

“Yes, sir. Our attempt to communicate failed. Now it's for us much more difficult to make a peaceful first contact or to evaluate the situation correctly. Do we have here any directives?” Ryan asked.

“Sadly we have to assume it's hostile. Denying the first shot can cost your life’s. Sure we won’t fire on unarmed and as long we are undetected at all. But this is now a standard infiltration mission,” Commander Knight noted.

“Well, standard is relative. We know nothing about the alien abilities down there,” Ryan objected.

“Anyways Ryan's team has the best capabilities to evaluate alien technology. It is a bit dangerous to let them take the lead. Because if captured or killed this will be a hard loss to our capabilities,” Knight added.

“Yes, that's why they should wait for you before trying to enter the building. The other teams are fully capable to give them any military support if needed. But yes, it is a dangerous task for Ryan’s team. What exactly you will do, you have to decide at the target side. Commander Knight you have the command of this operation down there. So you can adapt to the circumstances as needed. Any questions?” Fisher asked.

“No, sir,” all replied.

“Then good luck and Godspeed. Dismissed.” Fisher finished the briefing.

Ryan was in the hangar with his team except the pilots.

“We are now going down to the planet. The pilots are discussing now the optimal approach. When we are landed Watkins will take probes and flies back with Taylor for analysis. Owens will join us and we will use these anti-gravity bikes, short G-bikes or just bikes, to get to the target side. We use the river where we can speed up. Then close to the side we slow down and move through the forest. If our observation takes longer than expected, we head back to the shuttles. Two SW teams can reinforce us from the ship. That means they will take over the observation while the other teams rest in the shuttles. But staying that long has risks. It may be possible that also the aliens get reinforcements. However, given the time of our journey it would be very unlikely that they arrive in the next three days. Also we don't want stay longer. Ok, get your gears. We will depart within the hour.” Ryan went for the weapons locker.

Newman was getting two scout drones not bigger than 50 centimeters and packed them into the trunk of two bikes. He went also for some other technical equipment. Samuel packed an additional combat laptop in one of the bikes with a drone, while Caine got some C4 and ammunition. After finishing packing they brought three bikes up into the shuttle.

Meanwhile the Icarus exited the hyperspace near the planet. The stealth probes were dispatched. Then the Captain waited until they reached their orbit position and launched five combat drones with three fighters accompanied.

Ryan and his team were in the shuttle. They checked the lockers again.

“OK. We are ready to go,” Ryan informed the pilots after he closed the backdoor and airlock.

“We are waiting now for the start signal from the bridge,” Taylor informed.

After seven minutes of waiting Taylor announced. “We are clear to go.”

Then Owens headed out into the space. They formed a V-Formation with them on the right back side. The fighters and the combat drones were in front of them, now heading all to the planet. It was dark there and the facility was located on the other side where the sun was shining.

“We are closing in into the atmosphere. It will be a rough ride. Fasten your belts. The artificial gravity will be reduced and also the dampening effects, because we need the resources for our high speed approach,” Taylor informed.

As soon as Samuel fastened his belt he already felt getting lighter. But it was a slow effect nothing compared to a roller coaster.

The ships went into the thin part of the atmosphere. A half bobble around the ship started to glow but did not reach the hull. The ships decelerated a bit. Then the nose went down and it looked like meteors in formation were going down to the planet.

Now Samuel and the others had the full roller coaster feeling but still it was kind of smooth. Just a simple dive.

The ships went down and into the thicker part of the atmosphere. So the intensity of the fireball around them grew. Turbulences started to shake them around now.

“Losing satellite signal. We should slow down,” Taylor suggested.

“We don't need to. I'm focusing to keep formation. So it's up to our leader. If I lose sensor sight to them or the ground, I will pull up and slow down at once. Till then we hold the wide formation,” Owens replied which used the virtual sight enhancement of his helm to see through the plasma firewall in front of him.

The ships further went down and flew now 1000 meter over an ocean. The noses were now nearly horizontal. They decelerated a bit and the fireball was now transparent, getting more intense on the middle to the back, where it didn't matter for the sight. The altitude was decreasing slowly. On the horizon was no land to see. At 100 meter they stopped descending. A land mass was now in sight.

Samuel and the other followed it on the screen. It still was a rough shaking but they felt the gravity of the planet at least, which was 92 percent of Earth. Near the land they decelerated harsh. They could not see the water wave created behind the ships. The fighters and the drones were far ahead and vanished. They had to secure the landing zone.

The mountains came to sight. They flew about 150 meter over ground and closed unbelievable fast in to the mountains. Another fast deceleration slowed them down. Leaving hypersonic speed let most of the plasma vanish. Sort before they left supersonic there were nothing of the heat bobbles to see. The nose came a bit up as they finally left supersonic. Then gravity dampening worked again and it felt smooth.

“Leave formation and prepare landing,” the leader informed over nearfield communication. Behind them was the approach visible in the vegetation.

The landing sides for each shuttle were virtual marked on the display. It was a very fast approach. But with the dampening there was nothing of it to feel. The landing gear extended and finally they touched smoothly down.

“We have arrived prepare to leave,” Taylor informed.

Ryan went up first. He went with Watkins to the airlock. They opened the backdoor and checked the air conditions.

“Seems like Earth and even a bit better. Very clean air with 21% oxygen. The usual nitrogen. Less of the minor stuff and no smoke or any other pollution particle,” Watkins reported.

Ryan went to the locker to get his gear. Watkins followed.

“Watkins and me go first. We inform you. You can get your stuff meanwhile. The further testing won't take long,” Ryan informed.

They went into the airlock then left the shuttle. Watkins used her scanning device for further analysis. Then some steps away to the ship she built up a measurement point. The device used LIDAR laser to analyze the air and compared it with the data of the shuttle sensors.

“I have no problem to breeze and it feels even better than on the Icarus clean air,” Ryan noted.

“Yes, I see no problem. The higher humidity must be it that makes the difference. In principle we wouldn't need the air filter of the helm. But you know safety first,” Watkins told.

“Well, good to know we have the option to remove the helms,” Ryan replied.

“Yes, but we have to do long term measurements for that. Also the helm protects you from other stuff. For viral and bacterial testing, I start now to take probes. Also I will analyze the plants. From what I can see they could be from Earth. Which would correspond to the US east-coast or Europe. The operation with suite is now verified. You can start the mission,” Watkins informed.

Ryan went back to the shuttle which was less than 100 meter away and activated his near field communication. He stepped through the high grass which could hide a lot of things.

“We are clear to go. Move!” Ryan ordered.

The airlock opened and the rest went out. Three of them moved the bikes to the ground. Taylor went to Watkins. The others checked their equipment. Then Ryan stepped on his bike. Owens was the driver of the next with Newman on the back. Then Caine and Samuel where Caine was the driver.

Owens had a bit problems to store his machine gun.

“Tell me what do you expect we encounter?” Newman asked.

“Well, a bit armor piercing fire power is just the right choice to go into the unknown. Not that I think of something special. I mean the bodies that we know of don't need such a weapon. But maybe there grow armored cats in the woods and I hate reloading,” Owens justified.

“I thought for that Caine has the C4 to piss them off,” Newman replied.

“Let's go we have a job to do.” Ryan looked back at the team. With the virtual identifier the name was shown. So it was possible to recognize them without being able to read the name tag. But it needed near field communication or any other wireless link to work.

“Affirmative,” came back from the others.

Then Ryan took the lead and the others followed. With two stealth probes as satellites they had no GPS like signals. But the system they used was also as effective and showed the position on the display of the bike. Ryan headed straight to the river where he knew they could travel much faster. They landed not very far from it. So it took not long and Ryan accelerated to 160 kilometers per hour. More than the 120 that were expected. It would go even faster here over the river. But that was not necessary. Ryan thought just no danger using that speed.

 

“The other teams are on their way now, too,” Clark reported.

The Captain had the satellite view on one of the tactical tables on the bridge and was following Ryan's team. There were three tactical tables there. One of them with the space surroundings of the ship, displaying the sensor information on a volumetric display, which the other two couldn't. Another one was focusing on the target site. At least one officer was stationed at each table.

Clark's corner had a main screen and one more on each side. He had a keyboard and a mouse like interface which wouldn't fly away in zero gravity. On his screen there were icons to click at the top and left side. At the bottom there was a field for entering text command. He also had a voice interface that worked more or less.

 

Watkins continued taking probes while Taylor assisted her. SW-4 had checked the nearby area for animals but found none. So they left Watkins in the protection of Taylor and the fighter pilots which observed from above.

Ryan reached the end of the canyon. On each side of the river a forest was to see. They followed the river further six kilometers then decelerated much and went into the forest to meet their destination. It was a quiet trip except the wind noise. But here slowed down in the forest the silence came more to perception. Also Newman wondered a bit. They had seen no animals nor heard bird sounds. He looked to the wind shield in front of Owens. There were no splashed insects.

 

“We lost track in the woods. We only see Watkins and Taylor now,” Clark informed.

“There must be some signals of infrared or other signals that can be detected as unusual sensor reading. Get a team to investigate this if we can at least have some motion or life sign detection out of this,” the Captain ordered.

“Affirmative,” Clark immediately informed the analysis team in the offices. One of the members at this operation was Max. She and the others started at once to work on it.

 

Ryan and his team were close to the target site. They stopped the bikes and let them slowly get to the ground. Then they sneaked to the border of the forest. A huge building was at sight. All walls seemed to be curved. The entrance they saw now was in the smaller part of the building. This structure part had had a height of 5 meter. There was no upper level to see. Connected to the entrance part was the tower part with a height of about 50 meters. At the top was a bigger part with a dome structure on it. The bottom part of it was not flat. It went also curved into the oval tower center. Then behind the tower was also a structure without edges. The top of it was about 20 meter and took much larger area then the entrance structure.

The distance to the entrance from their position was about 200 meter. There seemed to be a garden and different trees on their left.

Newman used his binocular to check it.

“There are fruit trees and bushes. Looks very similar like on Earth,” he reported not using nearfield radio.

“Let me see,” Ryan replied. Newman gave him the binocular.

“Hmm, well I expected to see something else. But without taking probes we cannot tell too much. Maybe Watkins can update us later about her analysis. Now we have to figure out how to enter undetected. At least I see no visible cameras.” Ryan gave the binocular back.

“Well, except the building, here everything looks like on Earth. If this is a biological research post they might not have security at all,” Samuel suggested.

“Did you notice that we had no insects on the wind shield. I wonder how this works with the fruit plants. I mean you can guess that the building must be the source for this plants and we saw or heard no other animals yet. So maybe there is no need for cameras. I could use a drone and check out the surroundings,” Newman suggested.

“No, we should stay passive till the others are here or at least closer,” Ryan objected.

“Good, then I do a passive high resolution scan of the building and surroundings.” Newman set the digital binocular into scanning mode.

Watkins was done with taking probes and went with Taylor back to the shuttle. After going through the airlock procedure they let the boxes with the specimens in the airlock. Then Taylor made the preflight checks. Watkins joined her in the cockpit. Finally, they lifted off and flew in low altitude away. Escorted by two drones and a fighter, they went to the backside of the planet. It took a bit longer then their extreme landing maneuver had taken.

 

Arriving at the Icarus they had at once the support of the other scientists to get the probes into the lab. While Watkins and Taylor did the decontamination procedure to get out of the suits. An additional team took care of the shuttle cleaning.

 

Commander Knight and his team were arriving at the location of Ryan's squad.

“Commander we found several spots at the building were some covered things like sensors or weapons could be behind. Some of them are on the bottom side of the towers top in periodic intervals. But also some near the door. With our passive scan options, we are done now. So we have to get active,” Ryan informed Knight.

“With sophisticated infrared sensors they should have already spotted you or our approach to the mountains. Still we spotted no structure then this one. Go on with active scanning but stay here. We will fortify further up to this garden. So we are in front of the door,” the commander replied.

“Newman send the drone. Set it to active scan especially for these cover plates,” Ryan ordered. The cover plates had the same color as the building in a dark green.

“Yes, sir,” he replied. The route for the drone he already entered. With pushing the start button on the touch screen the anti-gravity drone lifted off and went away. He could do further active scanning with the binocular but the drone had the same sensors and could get closer.

The drone went around the facility and made a detailed area sweep. Then it concentrated on these cover plates at the top and around the door. Finally, it checked the door itself.

The door opened. Everyone was focusing there. It was no one to see. The drone went away, to the landing zone while the door closed.

“Seems to be automatic on nearby motion,” Ryan guessed.

Newman was now transferring the data.

While Commander Knight was joining them. “What do we have. We saw no one in there.”

Newman made a quick check.

“The cover plates we could not penetrate. Maybe with x-ray but we don’t have that. Here is the view of the interior. No life sign with infrared. There is a corridor leading to the tower. Also some cover plates are in there. That we can at least reach. Maybe we can get access to their system over there. The electromagnetic check showed also nothing. That means either they are good shielded or they use something else like optical wiring,” Newman told.

“It's your choice Major. My team is in cover position. But the others seem to be still on their move,” the commander noted.

“Good. Caine and me take the lead. We go in and cover the corridor. When we enter, Newman and Archer will follow. Newman does the cover plate investigation. Archer searches the entrance hall for symbols and other stuff to analyze. Then assists Newman if needed. Owens gives also cover from here. We come back when Newman is done. Let's go.” Ryan took the lead. Caine followed. They walked to the door, it opened. Ryan went in first and cautiously moved to the corridor while Newman and Archer ran not too fast to the door. They also went in as Caine and Ryan were already in position. There was no one to see. The corridor let to another hall at its end. Another corridor was on the opposite side of the hall.

Newman reached the plate and removed it. He found fiber optic like cables connected to a device. He used a scanner for further analysis.

“This will take some time at least five minutes,” he told Ryan which was close to him.

“Good. Go on I check the next hall. Caine you hold position.” Ryan turned his head so both should hear him. Caine signaled him to go on. Then Ryan stepped forward.

The entrance hall was completely empty. No tables, seats or decorative stuff. It made not much sense to Samuel. There were even no windows as they already seen from the outside. Samuel expected some semitransparent walls but nothing. Also there were no symbols. There was a dim light source at the top, out of reach. After finishing his inspection, he joined Newman to assist.

Ryan was at the end of the corridor. The hall there was bigger. There were other rooms. He could not see what’s in there. The doors were open or there were none. This he could not make out from his position. Here at the top there were windows which meant they were semitransparent. They saw them as cover plates from the other side. That could mean at the top of the tower could be the same hiding cameras or be just a window. As he had checked everything he could from his position, it was time to move back. The helm camera had recorded all so they could check it out later on a saver location. Reaching the corner to the entrance hall, he went to Newman. “Status?”

“This looks like a service panel. Behind it there is also one for the power. There seems to be both, the data link and the power leading to the door. That means they know when the door opens or even have a camera there. I have done all scans. For spying on the signals I must do some analysis of the scans. We can go back and return when I know how to do it,” Newman reported and put the cover plate back in position. Then stood up.

“OK. Let’s move back.” Ryan commanded. He and Caine went to the door as Archer and Newman went out. Then they covered the door entrance on each side till the others reached the forest. After that they sprinted back knowing Knight's team had their eyes on the door.

After transferring the records to Newman's laptop Ryan went to Commander Knight for an update while Newman and Archer did the analysis.

 

Watkins was in the lab. The faster analysis was already running and she prepared the longer ones.

“Dr. Watkins we have all the results now,” one of the other scientists reported.

“Good, give me a second then I come,” she replied and put the prepared labeled specimen into the analysis device. Then started the process. She left the lab and went for the next free terminal. Other Scientists were already checking the data. She looked at the results and then started comparing the relevant data of the ships database. It was strange they had prefect fits with Earth plants. She continued to check more of the results and all had that fit.

“That can't be or should not. These plants are the same as on Earth. Did you come to the same conclusion and what's with the microbes?” she asked to the other scientists.

“Yes, we have the same conclusion. They must be taken from Earth or does life always evolve the same way. None of us thinks so. The microbes seem also be the same. Still we done only the fast analysis. But if the genetic tests tell the same we have to assume someone planted this. Maybe we should search for the oldest trees. Take probes from the oceans and dig deeper,” one of the scientist replied.

“Well, yes. We have to take further specimens from over 100 till 1000 years at least. I can't believe this is a normal evolution. This had to be planted or let's say terraformed. I report to the Captain. At least we can say the landing zone is like Earth.” Watkins turned back to the terminal and called for the Captain over the communication officer.

“Yes, Dr. Watkins you have a report?” the Captain came to the screen of the communication officer.

“The landing zone is like Earth, there is very low risk breathing the air or touching the plants without protection. We still have to wait for the genetic analysis to be 100 percent sure. But such a discovery we made is very unlikely. We suggest that the area has been terraformed. Therefore, we need to get more probes of more time periods from the past,” she reported.

“What about the area of the facility. We saw around it different kind of plants and how long will it take getting the probes with what resources?” the Captain asked.

“I will still recommend using the protection especially near the facility. These plants there are not tested yet and we don't know what the facility is exactly for. From the satellites scans these plants could have polls. With the mountains around those polls wont travel to the landing zone. So we have a different environment around the facility. Now to the tests I need to do. I need two shuttles. One for a beach near an ocean and another back to the landing zone. For the drilling we need I guess five hours. But if all works well it will be three,” Watkins answered.

“I inform the ground troops that in an emergency removing the protection can be still risky. At least in the landing zone it has a low risk. Also I mention the terraforming theory which suggest that the facility has something to do with. How many scientists will you take down?” the Captain tried to verify that he had all information he needed.

“Correct. It will be three scientists in each shuttle including me,” Watkins replied.

“Good. I have two SW teams as replacement. They will escort you and cover your operation. Try to meet the three-hour window. Report when you are ready to go,” the Captain informed her.

“Yes, sir.” She at once selected the teams for the operation and went to the equipment room. Two scientists were left and continued the work at the Icarus lab.

“Prepare five fighters and drones for launch. They should escort the shuttles. Three fighters replace the current two on the planet. Three drones reinforce the current landing zone the other two drones also reinforce after the escort is done. Use the drones also to patrol around the mountain and scan the area,” the Captain ordered.

“Yes, sir,” came it back from the drone control officer. He was just the head of a five-man team taking care of the drone operations. The rest of the team was down in the middle of the ship near the analysis offices. These drones could also take order from nearby crafts. But the main operation objectives and rules had to be entered via a wired link. This was needed to secure them from getting wrong orders from an enemy that knows how to command them. So in an extreme case the taking order via wireless link could be turned off.

“Did we use the drone commanding yet?” the Captain asked.

“No, sir,” the drone control officer replied.

“Good. Then we continue with the limited wireless command option,” the captain ordered. This option let a friendly nearby craft give some limited simple commands which would help in an attack situation and also let the drone be recalled by the Icarus.

 

“What options do we have now?” Ryan asked Newman.

“I figured out how to connect to the fiber optics. This means first we can listening what is there. Then we have the option to interact if we understand their communication system. We have a bit experience from the captured ship how it works. Hopefully it is the same. This would speed up things.”

“Do we have to stay at that service panel?” Ryan was worried.

“Only as long as I need to plug in the connector. It has a wireless interface. That means about five minutes then we can retreat again,” Newman explained further.

“Very good, then we do it. Caine get ready. We do the same thing as last time. Owens you cover here and Archer checks the link from here or the door what's best,” Ryan informed and waited for a reply from Newman.

“Well, it would be best if Archer is in speak range unless we want to use our wireless communication.”

“Yes, it's better not to expose our communication frequency and encryption yet. At least the spy link works a bit different as I know. Let's go,” Ryan led and Caine followed. It worked as last time, there was still no one to spot. Ryan did not further check the other hall. Newman finished the job and Archer verified the link. They went without encounter back and started the investigation of the foreign network.

Meanwhile the other teams also had arrived. SW-2 took a side cover position. While SW-3 and 4 checked the surroundings of the facility. This would take a few hours because they had to stay hidden in the forests around the facility.

 

“We could make out some infrared signals that could be from our teams. But it's not enough to tell anything specific or even identify someone. But we can guess they are in the area of the facility and are investigating it. At least something can we see now in the forest,” Clark informed as he tested the new algorithm they had now.

“Good. They made already two attempts entering. Still no communication that means they encountered no one. Those aliens must know we are there what are they up to?” the Captain was thinking loud.

“Doing nothing and stay hidden means to buy time, sir,” Clark suggested.

“Buying time. Yes. But doing nothing I don't believe. What about our science teams?” The Captain looked at the satellite feed, made a split screen and showed both locations.

“They arrived and started their work,” Clark replied.

 

SW-3 and 4 were back from their tour. They mentioned the bigger last part of the building and identified it as a hangar. At least they found a huge door that could be opened. But they found no input panel to do that. It was the same information as the prior drone scans which were more detailed. Further they found nothing in the surrounding forest.

“Do we have access to other doors?” Ryan asked Newman.

“No, there is not much traffic we can listen to. It seems they just register the door action. There are encrypted streams. Probably of cameras around the entrance door. This means we get nothing from other locations.”

“Well, it's seems they are observing us for now. This means we should act and investigate the facility. All teams are here so we can do the next step. They should know of us, SW-5. The others should not have showed up yet. I suggest we go in there. Owens, Newman and Archer secure at the corridor. Caine and me do the investigation. Newman an Archer will aid us with drones.” Ryan waited for any comment.

“It seems that's the best plan we have. Optional we could cut the link to the cameras and move more teams in, but I guess it is better to cover this position. We can always advance if needed. I have no objection from my side so go on Major,” Knight replied after a short pause of thinking.

“Good, let's move!” Ryan took the lead.

 

 

4 Consequences

They went to the door as group this time. Then Ryan and Caine walked to the corridor and signaled the others to advance. Arriving there Newman started the first drone. It moved silently to the bigger hall and checked the rooms there. No one was to see. But there were terminals or computers and other technical devices they could not identify. The drone went to the opposite corridor. There were two doors left and right at the middle of it. At the end was a wall of another corridor leading left and right.

Ryan and Caine advanced to the opposite corridor. The second drone was following them, then passed and moved to the doors to investigate. There was a panel on the right side of each door.

“Could be a lift,” Newman guessed while checking the sensor readings of the second drone. Then he went back to control the first one and moved it to the right corridor part.

Ryan followed the drone feed on his transparent helm display. The drone went around the next corner to the left and there were more doors and a hall at the end.

With the other drone Samuel went to the left. There was also a corner leading in the same direction as on the right side. It looked quite similar.

Both drones went to the hall. The right one was first. It was as big as the hall below the tower. Opposite and at the front there were bigger doors. The doors all there were not rectangular formed. They looked more like a trapeze with curved part at the top. The huge door was in the middle, to its opposite there was the same door type. Also two normal sized doors were on the sides of the hall.

Ryan moved forward to the probable lift doors. He tried to activate the panel. Nothing happened. After two minutes of trying both panels, he moved on to the right corridor. Caine followed. The second drone went back to observe the corridor with the possible lift.

Ryan moved to the next door around the corner. It had a similar panel. He tried to interact but also nothing happened. After waiting a minute, he moved to the next door and made the same procedure. There were two doors to the right and one to the left. They seemed to be centered in the corridor.

The first drone investigated the panel of the bigger door which led further away. As the drone went very close the door opened slowly.

Ryan was close by and Caine immediately moved to the left side to cover. The drone went in there.

It was a hangar. In there was one of the triangular ships and a bigger disc like one. In the middle was an alien standing. Unarmed. The drone flew around and checked the area. There were further doors to the side. The entrances of the two ships were open.

Ryan stepped into the hangar. His weapon was lowered.

The alien was a Gray. Naked but bigger than the one they knew. About one point eight meter. The face looked grim.

“Hello, I'm Major Ryan we come in peace,” Ryan said and slowly walked forward.

Caine waited in his cover position. There was a noise behind him.

“Welcome to Eden Major Ryan,” the alien replied while the drone was nearby following the conversation.

Caine turned to look back.

All of a sudden the contact to the first drone was lost.

“What happened?” Owens was asking who also followed the feed.

“Signal lost. Archer send the second one.” Newman ordered.

Archer used the manual control and took the left corridor. He strafed around the corner.

There it was!

An over two-meter-high reptilian creature. Bread and strong with a head similar to a turtle. The rest more gorilla like with reptilian skin. Naked but armed with a rifle like weapon. The weapon was bigger than a standard rifle fitting for the creature’s size. It was now targeting at the drone.

With quick reaction Samuel reversed the direction and moved down. The weapon fired a fast moving white energetic lighting beam. It missed and the comet like thing hit the wall were it with some sparkles and fluctuations vanished. Whatever it was, it seemed not to do much to the wall. Samuel had no time to check that but it was recorded. He now was busy to escape unharmed with the drone.

“Newman get your weapon ready. Archer move the drone back into the hall, hide it somewhere there. Then get also your weapon ready,” Owens ordered who now took the charge.

Another shot went through the corridor as the drone changed the direction to move into the corridor of the probable lifts. Then the alien creature went around the corner already running and targeting for the drone.

Owens started to fire and hit the creature which was now trying to evade. A second creature came around. Newman also fired some shots with his P-90. Both aliens fired. In a reflex both, Newman and Owens, turned away.

Newman was on the right side of the corridor while Owens was on the bottom left. The shots missed and hit the ground behind. Newman turned back to fire some uncontrolled shots. The huge aliens closed in and returned fire. Newman knew there was not much time to target and went back.

Now Owens rolled back to his Mk 48. The hit one creature was moving slower on the left side. While the other was running and passing the other on the right. Owens started to fire further hitting the left one. It tried to fire back but then a hit in the head seemed to finished it off. However, Owens could not realize that while continuing firing.

Newman was stepping to the side to fire again. The other alien was on the run at the end of the corridor. It did not aim. Then it moved to the right. Newman fired he could not see if he hit. The creature moved out of sight for him and then also for Owens which now realized his target was done.

“What is the other doing?” Owens asked after stopping firing.

“He is moving to one of the rooms on the right. I check,” Samuel was dropping his HK MP7 and controlling the drone with the open laptop for better view into the room.

“We are not able to go after him. Our position is also not the best anymore,” Newman mentioned.

“There is one of the bigger devices opening in the room. It is stepping in there. This seems like an…” Samuel waited to figure it out. Then a signal alert went in. A command over fiber optics. Samuel checked it. Which was a possible door look. The command was simple containing only a bit. He went to the door it didn't open. So he decided to try to send the same command with the inverse bit. “They locked the door. I try unlock it.”

“Damn an armor suit,” Newman figured out while checking the drone feed through his helm display. “He is already putting it on. This seems to go fast. Very fast. Better we get out of here.” He turned off the feed.

Samuel opened the panel. “I have to cut the connection then I can try to unlock the door.” He sent the inverse bit after unplugging a cable. Then went for the door. “OK, it's open again.”

“Get your stuff and run out of the door then left,” Owens ordered which was standing up with the machine gun.

Samuel used his laptop as tablet to check the drone feed. He was already out of the door. “Guys move faster he is at the corridor.”

Owens dropped the heavy gun to speed up. Newman went around the corner seeing Samuel dropping the laptop. He dropped his gun, the laptop was in his backpack. Then Owens came around. All sprinted left to the forest, knowing where to run not getting in the line of fire.

The door closed and opened up again. A mighty armored creature was now at the door. The armor looked not very massive. One shot went off against the armor and bounced off. The creature reacted to its new target. Another shot went off. Then the alien fired back to its new found target. It was out of the door on the move, slowing a bit down and firing. Further shots and burst of shots went off. Bullets bounced off the armor. The creature seemed to have problems deciding the targets. Then it started just to fire around. In all this shooting, now a much louder single shot went off. The creature stopped advancing. It seemed to search for a specific target. Then another one of this louder shot went off hitting the head of the creature. It finally went down.

“Secure the area. SW-2 move to the door then cover the corridor. SW-4 check the creature. SW-1 and 3 hold position,” Knight ordered over communication. “When the corridor is secured SW-5 get your equipment.”

The teams executed the order and two minutes later the corridor was secured. Samuel picked up his laptop. It seemed undamaged. He checked for the drone. The feed was still there. No one was in the hall to see.

One of the SW-4 members took the alien rifle. He targeted further away to the ground and tried to fire. It worked. They inspected the target location. There was not much to see from the impact.

Newman joined them. “Can I check the weapon?”

After a while he found an interface behind a cover to change the probably setting of the blast. He changed it from low to middle. The weapon was heaver then the ones they used.

“OK. Try again. But don’t fire it at a close target.” Newman gave the weapon back.

The soldier fired at a nearby tree. From their position they could see a black round area where the blast hit. They went closer to inspect. A part of the wood was burned in from the impact. But it did not burn through. Still the deepening was bigger than the barrel of the rifle where the comet like thing left.

“Could be useful,” the soldier mentioned. “We should figure out how many shots it has.”

“I will check. But it seems there is no status display for that.” Newman got the weapon again and a problem to solve.

Knight let the teams advance into the bigger hall which he wanted to secure. He went in to check the situation.

“There is only one such devices which held the armor and help to put it on. But there is other technical stuff we should figure out what it does,” Freeman the leader of SW-2 reported.

“We secure this hall further,” Knight informed and switched to wireless communication. “SW-4 when verified the creature is dead join us in the big hall. Newman and Archer I also need you here to check the devices. SW-1 secure the entrance hall and the corridor with the sniper rifle.”

Newman went into the hall with one of the SW-4 soldiers which was now equipped with the alien weapon.

Knight looked at the one which was carrying the weapon.

“Sir. I upgraded my weapon,” the soldier told proud.

“You know how it works?” Knight asked.

“Newman found the important things out. I have 102 shots at the higher middle settings. Guess it can shot holes in the wall in higher settings,” the soldier replied.

“Good, try it on the right wall there,” Knight pointed the direction where no one was standing.

The soldier modified the setting two levels up. Then targeted the wall and fired. The blast burned through the wall and went for the forest. They could not see where it ended.

“Impressive. But it would be good if it melts the wall not completely if we use it in here,” Knight noted. The soldier lowered the setting one step and fired again.

“Good, now check what setting you need to penetrate the armor of that creature.” Knight had now a plan in mind.

“Yes, sir.” The soldier went out.

Newman and Samuel were checking one of the devices. It helped much knowing most of the symbols.

“Newman can we figure out what happened with the others and the drone?” Knight asked.

“If we send our second one we might lose it. I think they had blocked the communication. I don't know if they still do it in that area. SW-4 told me our weapons do not penetrate the armor. Except the Barrett,” Newman replied.

“Yes, the armor is a problem using grenade launcher indoor is also not the best solution. But we must figure out what happened with the others. Your primary order is to find a connection to hack into their system. Some camera feeds and more intel would be good or at least to know where they have our people. Do you have any further suggestion?” Knight waited.

“Well, strange is that the aliens had the weapons on the lowest settings. I don’t know what it does to us. Maybe it kills by shock or it just stuns with different effects till someone gets unconscious. Similar like our microwave rifles. We also could check the records we have.”

“Well, we have seen the live feeds. Checking the records costs time which you need to figure out how to hack in. You have to decide what’s more effective if Archer helps you or checks the records. I plan to use the alien weapons we have now and search the others.” Knight did not want to wait too long.

“We still have Owens or any other soldier with a not so effective weapon to check the records,” Archer suggested.

“Don't you need your laptop?” Knight asked.

“One is enough at the moment the second gives us not much speed up here,” Newman replied.

“Well, the MK48 is still good for distraction and on the unarmored it did its work. I find one for the records and send him to you. Focus now on the possibility to hack in.” Knight walked to the entrance hall.

The soldier with the alien gun was joining him.

“Sir, I had to use the setting which penetrates the wall,” he informed Knight.

“Then we have to act careful. OK. Wait here I have a plan.” Knight switched into wireless. “SW-4 and all team leaders to me in the entrance hall.”

 

“Captain it seems they have encountered the aliens we have verified an alien body and weapon signature. They still have not reported. Maybe they are busy with the situation,” Clark informed.

“How long for our science team to finish their drilling?” the Captain asked.

“Two hours to go at best. Should we ask for an update?” his tactical officer informed.

“Not yet we have not enough information. But in 10 minutes I want to consider to warn them about a changed situation. Till then I hope we have a report,” the Captain replied.

 

“SW-4 will use the alien weapons, both are working. You have to decide if you want to use the armor penetration option right away or switch to it if needed. I suggest one at least uses it. You will advance and open all doors. Use the guns, C4 or whatever means. Try not to damage the crafts in the hangar. The rest will secure our current position. SW-4 your main objective is to find our people then move back. It is possible you lose communication. I will see what I can do about it. You have your orders. I have to report to the Icarus now. Good luck SW-4.” Knight finished his mission briefing. He walked out of the facility for the report and SW-4 started the search operation.

 

“We just received a situation update. We made hostile contact with aliens. It would be better you speed things up Dr. Watkins,” Major Diaz, the SW-6 leader, informed her.

“Hostile do we have dead?” she was worried.

“Not yet. Two are missing and two dead creatures which attacked us.”

“I do my best to speed things up but much faster than my best assumption it won't get. So we still need approximately two hours. Can you arrange that we get probes from the aliens?” she replied.

“I can try,” Diaz responded.

SW-4 had opened up all doors to the hangar. They considered to use C4 but opening the panels and cutting the power worked to open them manually afterward. They found some empty rooms and one with unknown equipment.

Now they were at the two bigger doors. C4 was their choice. They blew a hole in both doors. The hangar seemed to be empty except two ships. While the other big door covered a heavy lift which was just one level below. They checked the ships in the hangar, while the drone monitored the heavy lift. No one was there. Now they checked the doors to the side which led just to a corridor on the side of each hangar and a level up in the tower over the bigger hall. All rooms there were empty and there were also more semitransparent windows. Also they had no problem with the communication connection yet. There were no signs of Ryan, Caine or the lost drone. They found another door pairs that could be the possible lift doors they found in the corridor below which they didn't opened yet because they were in the cover sight of the others. But now they tried. Powering off helped again to manually open them.

“Commander Knight the doors in the corridor are as expected lift doors. Both lifts are at the top it seems. We found another stair. But contrary the way to the big doors of the hangar and the opposite lift door we found, this area here seems less protected. Also the rooms in the tower we checked are empty. I guess we should continue with the heavy elevator down. This more protected area looks more promising,” Major Pearce, the leader of SW-4, reported.

“While we don't have more of those alien weapons, I don't want to use more teams on the search. Continue with the sub level. A stair down did you not find? Or does the tower elevator lead also to the sub level?” Commander Knight replied.

“No, sir. The tower elevator ends in your level. A stair down is missing. We are on the way to the heavy elevator.” Pearce led the way back.

 

Ryan woke up in a bright room. All what he could see were white walls and a white area which was the light. He tried to look around but couldn't. It seemed he was paralyzed. Only the eyes he could move. Then a head of a Gray came in his sight.

“It's nice you visited us. We always appreciate new samples,” it said. “But your affinity to violence hasn't changed much. Also from your samples it seems the pollution is more extreme now on your planet. We are not interested in any discussions or diplomatic relationships with a such primitive race like you.” The head moved away.

Ryan realized now that his helm was missing. He was still a bit dizzy.

Then an explosion occurred. There were voices to hear. But it was an alien language. Some other noise he could not identify. After that it was silent again.

 

SW-4 moved out of the lift door. The two in front had ARX-160 rifle with the GLX-160 grenade launcher on it. It was a modern lightweight weapon which gave a good combination of firepower. They moved into the hall and went directly to the only corridor ahead and covered there.

The corridor was bigger. It had the size which was a bit bigger then the lift doors. The two with the alien weapon followed and took cover to the side. Then the SW-4 leader went out of the lift. He used his Desert Eagle a not typical weapon for special operatives. On his back he had a M27 with its optics not ideal for close quarter fighting’s. They all used on their rifles the 5.56x45 mm NATO armor piercing ammunition.

No one was to see in the corridor. The light here was not the brightest as at the top level. Ahead the corridor let to a similar hall like the one at the lift with also a bigger door. To the sides Pearce could not see. He signaled to move.

The team advanced and secured the hall which had another corridor to the right. It had the same size as the one they came from.

 

Another explosion occurred. Ryan tried to move. It didn't work. Then silence again. He tried to speak which did also not work well. At least he could whisper a bit. A minor success but an improvement.

Gun fire started. Then further explosions. Some voices. But he could not understand.

 

“It's dead. They are much easier to kill without armor,” a soldier said.

“Well, all shot at it. It had no chance. The grenade launcher was not necessary but in this corridor and at that distance a safe choice,” Pierce noted. “Let's go on. It seems we woke them up.”

They moved further forward and opened the next door to the right with C4 as other options did not work. They found another lab behind a further door which opened automatically. Is was seemingly for plants. Further ahead there was another door.

 

The explosions came closer. Ryan tried to scream but he couldn't. Silence again. Then another explosion it was very close.

“We found them. Secure the corridor.” One in a suit stepped into the sight of Ryan.

“Major Ryan this is Major Pearce are you all right?”

“Caaaan't mo v e,” Ryan whispered.

“OK. We check this out. You seem not hurt. You are in your shirt on a table. I check for Caine now.” Pearce walked to Caine. “Lieutenant Caine are you alright?”

There was no answer.

“Lieutenant Caine if you can hear me, blink two times with your eyes.” Pearce looked at him he blinked two times.

“Ryan and Caine are paralyzed. They are awake and can respond. Caine with eyes blinking. Ryan can whisper a bit,” Pearce reported.

“I send you SW-2 as reinforcement they have a field medic with them,” Knight replied.

“Did you see the aliens in here,” Pearce asked Ryan.

“Yes, a Gray,” Ryan whisper.

“When did they left?” Pearce asked.

“Two explo.. be...f,” Ryan whisper.

“About two explosions before?” Pearce tried to verify.

“Yea,” came back from Ryan.

“OK. Then he is not far away. SW-4 advance I wait here for the reinforcement,” Pearce ordered.

“Sir, we are low on C4,” one of the squad members informed.

“Then go as far as you can. All doors have to be checked. I will get more from SW-2,” Pearce replied and switched to radio. “Commander we are low on C4. We are further investigating and securing the area down here. A Gray could not be too far ahead as Ryan told me. If SW-2 have none we need resupply.”

“SW-2 are not the explosive experts like you but one of them has some. But then we will run low I guess,” Knight replied.

“We have more at our abandoned bikes,” Pearce replied. “But we just want to secure the area down there. I inform you if we need more after SW-2 is here.” Pearce was checking his team operation by looking out of the also automatic opening door and the blown corridor door.

“Good. Don't rush things now unless you see the need to,” the Commander advised.

An explosion occurred as Pearce team opened another door. Pierce went back to Ryan. “SW-2 is now on the way. They take care of you.”

 

Knight informed the Captain about the situation.

“We should take prisoners if possible. I mean the Gray. The others would be too risky. It seems we have made some progress. Unless the situation changes we should proceed trying to retrieve the ships. Reinforcement should arrive in the next hour. Can you say that the zone is safe to fly in?” the Captain asked.

“No, we only hacked in their system and probably cornered them in the sub level. But with the man power and especially weapons we had we can only advance in the sub level yet. We possess now three alien weapons. So with another team we are try to secure the top level which seems less protected as far as we checked. But keep in mind one of those alien rifles is enough to shoot down any craft trying to land,” Knight replied.

“Ok. Then you have no choice secure the whole building else no one can fly out. I advise the reinforcement to use the bikes for now.” Fisher decided. There were not much options. He wanted to abort the drilling. But another hour would not change much. It would be more if they have to use the bikes all the way through the canyon.

“Wait a moment I get a situation update,” Knight told, then talked with Pearce.

 

“We found a door we cannot penetrate. The C4 is not working. Even the highest setting of the alien gun cannot penetrate it. SW-2 is now with Ryan and Caine. So we just retreat now and secure the door area. Wait something is happening. The door is opening.” Pearce hadn't given the commands. He shouted, “Move back, get cover, they might ambush us!”

Two of the soldiers went to the side of the door. Both had the alien weapon. The other two ran back to the corridor but there was no cover till they reached the position of Pearce at the end. At that distance Pearce switched to his M27. The soldiers saw him aiming and went to the side.

Pearce saw through his scope to a bigger device in the middle of the room. There was some light coming from it.

The door was massive and opened slowly from the center to both sides. It was to the half open and still no one to see. The soldiers nearly reached the end of the corridor where they could get into cover around the corner.

Suddenly two of the turtle faced stepped to the side and immediately fired at the running ones in the corridor. One shot missed the other one hit. The soldier went down.

At nearly the same moment Pearce returned fire and also the two at the side started to shoot. The energy blast burned through them and hit the wall behind. While both enemies went down another shot was triggered and burned through to the wall missing the device in the middle.

Pearce stopped firing as he recognized his target fell then searched for more to come. “There is one behind the device on the right. Avoid hitting that thing. Stay in cover, I will shoot again.” He shouted and fired some shots.

The fallen soldier was pulled into cover by his squad mate. Which checked him then for hits.

“Anderson seems to have no signs of the hit,” the soldier reported.

“SW-2 we need your medic,” Pearce radioed and fired more shots.

A door with the same size behind the device was closing. The Alien fired some shots then seemed to retreat to the door.

“Ambush now he is retreating,” Pearce commanded over digital radio.

The two at the front went in and Pearce also advanced. They went around the device on both sides and saw the turtle face going through the door. He was running now to a cover. The right soldier had him in sight and fired. He missed him. Before he could shoot again the alien got behind a corner and out of sight. Then the door closed completely.

Pearce was now in the room of the device. There was some noise coming from it.

“Commander Knight we found an unknown pillar device in a well-protected room and Anderson has been hit,” Pearce informed.

“Send a video stream. Newman will check it. What's the status of Anderson?” Knight replied.

“Unknown SW-2 took care. But no signs of the hit were found. I'm checking the weapons setting now.” Pearce went for both rifles. They were on lowest.

“He is unconscious but seems alive,” the medic replied over radio as the Commander asked.

“Good, get him to safety. We try to get one of the spaceships running. Also we should be able to use the lift. I send Samuel to check this out,” Commander Knight ordered.

“Commander the alien rifles were on lowest. Also I want to mention we did not find the helm of Caine or Ryan yet. At some point we must assume our communication is compromised,” Pearce told.

Then suddenly the other door to the device room started to close.

“SW-4 fall back, the door is closing. Grab the rifles if you can.” Pearce turned on the stream mode then grabbed one of the rifles and walked backward out looking at the device. The two soldiers went back around the device. One of them grabbed the other alien rifle and went with two of them out of the room.

“They are locking the device room we captured,” Pearce radioed.

“Good, just hold position we are looking for a second solution,” Commander Knight ordered.

The door was closed now. Pearce and the others went back to the end of the corridor.

“Secure that position. I give two of the alien rifles to SW-2 and check for Anderson,” Pearce ordered and went with the rifles to the room where they found the missing SW-5 members.

“How is Anderson?” Pearce asked and put the rifles down.

“Still unconscious. But Ryan can speak now and move his fingers. Caine can whisper,” Jones, the field medic, replied.

“The helm system of Anderson is screwed. He will still be able to use the air filter. But all electronics does not work,” one of the soldiers added.

“Ryan what happened up there?” Pearce asked.

“Well, they shot us. I went out and guess Caine happened the same,” Ryan reported. Then told of the Gray speaking to him. Pearce reported that to Knight.

Meanwhile Newman checked the feed from Pearce and assumed it as power generator. Then he continued his work on the alien craft.

It was getting dark outside. Knight ordered SW-3 to get some more equipment from the bikes. Then they had to get two of the alien weapons and search the tower. The reinforcement would be needed soon he guessed. So he called the Icarus.

 

“They are nearly finished. The only thing would be to fly them directly nearby the facility. I search an area near the path you took to the facility. There are possibilities to land. The pilots will fly through the canyon while the combat drones scout the area ahead. Then the first support squad should be here in 20 minutes.” The Captain decided to risk more.

“Good, that will help. At that time SW-3 should be on the way to the top of the tower,” Knight replied.

 

Knight went into the entrance hall.

“SW-3 will bring some equipment. There are some motion detectors. Place them outside the entrance to cover it probably. We don't want surprises. SW-6 will test them in 20 minutes,” Knight ordered to two members of this team.

 

Watkins was finished with her operation. She thanked Diaz for the protection and went into the shuttle. Taylor was already done with the checks and waited for Watkins signal to go. Then they went up joined by their escort and headed to the backside of the planet.

The flight of SW-6 was a stressful hot one. The pilots used the automatic to fly through the canyon at maximum possible speed. At least the acceleration dampers worked well. But the view was shocking. It was all in the control of the avionics now. Any mistake could not be corrected. The pilot had at that fast speed to trust the system. They went through the canyon in no time. The system headed to the landing zone then decelerated fast. At hovering in five-meter height the pilot took over.

SW-6 used the bikes for a short distance then took some of the supply’s and went out of the forest to the entrance. The motion trackers at once showed them coming. Also Owens and Samuel came out of the forest with them. Samuel placed a communication relay before the entrance. He checked the connection then went with Owens into the building.

“I go back to Newman, we have to figure out how to pilot the ship,” Owens said.

“Good. I place the repeaters then we have a fast connection to the ship. This will boost our hacking abilities,” Samuel replied. In the tower hall he placed a repeater, then near the big lift and at the entrance of the disc ship, Newman was investigating. Owens was already at work with Newman.

“How is it going?” Samuel asked.

“Good, the normal flight control we found. Now we go to the details. I hope we are done within the hour,” Newman replied.

“I check for the lift now. Hopefully this works faster.” Samuel left the ship. At the elevator he built up a connection to Max.

“Kelsey I need your support to unlock the lift. Maybe you can find in the system, the needed commands. While I check the control interface on the lift.” Samuel was now climbing down.

“I get two more on this, then we should find it soon I hope,” she replied.

 

“Good, you are here SW-6. You have to support SW-4 in the sub level. We don't know what the aliens are up to. But till we get our people down there out, we can't retreat. There is a possible power generator behind the door. Try not to blow it up. Till now we don't know how to open the doors there. We hope the aliens do not try any further attacks. The tactical information you get from Major Pearce. It seems the aliens use a not lethal mode of their weapons. We don't know why. So keep in mind it is always possible that they change this behavior,” Knight informed the team.

“We are on our way, sir.” Diaz and then the others saluted and they went down were Samuel was busy with the lift interface. Then they went out through the hole of the lift door and finally met up with Major Pearce.

After the introduction to the alien weapon and tactics, SW-6 was prepared. As there were not enough positions to get all in place, SW-4 was relieved to take a break. Diaz did not like the position they had. The trapeze like corridors made it not easy to get cover behind the corner.

 

“Sir, we are on top of the tower. Everything is empty. There are free sockets. But none of them is used here. In the middle is an area where probably a craft can land. It seems the dome can be opened. The controls we could not find. It looks like they are not finished here,” Major Yamada, leader of the ninja squad, reported. They were all equipped with silencer weapons and even some had swords. Also they had special shoes which let them walk with no noise.

“That means it is secure except they can send in a troop transport. Good, return back we are planning our retreat for now.” Knight replied.

“We are on our way.” Yamada gave the needed commands through gestures to this squad.

 

“It works. Thanks Kelsey.” Samuel drove with the lift a level up then back down. Even the damaged door opened. He went at once to SW-2

“Major Freeman. The lift works now,” Samuel reported.

“Perfect. Team get Anderson to the spacecraft. I check how we do it with Ryan and Caine. Anderson should better use the helm now,” Freeman gave the command, then radioed, “Commander how we move Ryan and Caine we got no helm and top suit parts.”

One of the SW-2 members went out with Anderson who now had is helm on. He was a bit slow because of the pain he had with his movement. But he insisted to walk.

“SW-7 is bringing them suits. They are only needed for the space travel in the alien ship. But we have another option, too. In here the air is clear. They must filter it as our tests showed. So transporting without helm is not a problem,” Knight informed. The combat suits had limited vacuum capabilities that secured the travel in space a bit. The shuttles have simpler emergency space suits with filtered air or oxygen supply.

“I inform you when they are on board of the alien ship.” Freeman went back to give orders. “OK. We carry now Ryan and Caine to the spacecraft. The rest of the squad including Freeman carried them to the lift. They used standard military stretchers. The lift was coming down as they arrived. Samuel was at the control. There was enough space for everyone. They went in and moved up. Samuel left with them the lift, but send it down. Then he headed to Commander Knight. While the others went for the alien ship.

“Commander what do you need?” Samuel asked.

“Newman told me you can make a second encryption path for our communication. We think with the missing helms we cannot be sure it's safe,” the Commander informed him what he wanted.

“Yes, no problem I will do it at once and start here. We can then switch when everyone has it. That would mean you have to talk over the communication relay to the Icarus or wait till Newman arrived if you want to use the secure connection. Also you know we cannot say if encryption protects our communication at all,” Samuel replied.

“Yes, I know. It also would be unlikely that they got the information from the helms. As we know that Anderson's helm electronic is shrewd. But we have to do what we can.” Knight was more worried about the retreat.

“I will start with you in a minute.” Samuel was now making the preparations on the laptop. After finishing that, he removed a USB stick and turned the write protection on.

“Commander. I'm ready now.”

“Go on.” The commander entered a command through his gesture interface.

Samuel connected the stick to the mini port of the helm which now was unlocked. He waited till a green light showed up then removed the stick. “Done, you should see now the diagnostics and then the second encryption path.”

“Yes. Test successful. The path is there.”

“Good, I guess that will take about an hour.” Samuel went to the next nearby.

 

Watkins was arriving at the Icarus. She went out of the decontamination.

“You and your team are needed in the briefing room.” Cooper, one of the flight deck staff, told her.

She waited for the others and went with them to the room then took a free seat. The video link to the Captain was opened.

“We are about to retreat from the planet. But we found some labs there. Can you and your team try to help SW-2 to identify what they are doing there. We already got their database, but unfortunately we need time to decrypt their file formats or even crack an encryption. In the labs there, we got direct access to the data and can display it,” the Captain informed.

“Of course we can try. But should we stop our other work?” she asked.

“Well, it's up to you how you do it. Max will explain what options we have. Then you can decide how to proceed,” the Captain added.

“Yes, sir.” Watkins replied. Then Max came on the video screen.

“Hi, It's very simple. I can put you one of the SW-2 members on the big screen. And up to four on terminals in the lab offices,” Max explained.

“Well, I guess three will be enough that means two in the offices and one here. But maybe you can make a split screen here in the conference room, that we can see what the others in the offices are viewing. With one bigger view at top and two smaller below. The communication between the offices and here I know how to do if needed,” Watkins declared.

“No problem, I start now the first link here. Then continue with the others. You just have to login in the terminals you want to use. I send the request there,” Max told. Then the view of one of the SW members came on screen. It was Jones.

 

SW-7 arrived and reported to the commander. At the same time a communication came in.

“Sir. We are ready to go. Just waiting for the suits,” Newman informed.

“Good. SW-7 just arrived I send them with the suits to you,” Knight replied, then switched to Icarus communication. “Captain we are ready for lift off in about 10 minutes.”

“Proceed as planned,” the Captain replied.

The Commander went with SW-7 into the ship. The squad helped to put the replacement suit on.

“The escort is waiting after the canyon. Don't fly to fast with that ship. Stay low. We have time. Then we will follow as planned in three to four hours. If all works well you should arrive at the Icarus by then. The shuttle will be faster and the transfer of the others should take not much time,” the commander informed.

“The canyon is big enough for this ship and the display also has night vision. There should be no problem,” Owens replied.

Ryan and Caine could now speak normal and move a bit. This helped to put the simpler suits faster on. This suits had fully transparent helms and the oxygen supply was on the back.

“You have the sample weapon and the other requested samples?” Knight asked Newman.

“Yes, I stored it back there. We took one with the least power and some fruit samples as well as the alien sample. They are all in boxes,” Newman replied and showed it by opening the storage space. “We will transfer this also to the shuttle so it is faster on board the Icarus.”

“Very well. Then good luck.” The commander went out.

After SW-7 were finished with putting on the suits they also left. Then the door of the alien disc closed.

Newman waited a bit then gave the signal for the hangar doors opening mechanism. He was checking his connection to the outside, it was weaker now. So he signed off from the network and switched to on demand communication after informing the outside. Owens did the same.

The hangar was open now. They lifted off and went out of the hangar following a direct route to the canyon in low altitude. It was no problem to fly with about 300 kilometers per hour through it, while Newman worked on the translation and exchange calculation of the instrument readings. The exact speed Owens could not determine, through the satellite signals it was only an average. Finally, they were through and landed nearby the shuttle where already the pilots were waiting with two stretchers. There were five pilots which made the transfer fast.

Owens then lifted off as he had seen the last was in the shuttle. They went away with two escort fighters. A bit later they saw some fireballs on the horizon. That must have been the shuttle and it's escort they thought. Not knowing what the alien ship can do, let Owens fly much slower. To stay hidden and stay in the limit of an unknown construction.

 

5 Time to go

SW-2 was done with the lab inspection. It seems they analyzed a lot of plants there. Even there was done gene manipulation and some samples were unknown. The SW-2 team went up to the Commander. There was not much to do then prepare the departure. With a shuttle less they would split up a team and leave bikes behind. The plan now was to plant C4 on the lift and head to the bikes. They had about an hour left when they planned to leave. It was dark outside. Then the light went out. Immediately night vision went on.

“Commander the generator door is opening,” Major Diaz radioed.

“SW-4 get ready for support. SW-2 to the lift at ground level,” then Knight switched to Icarus communication. The teams already used now the new encryption. “Captain we got activities, the light went out and the generator doors opened. I expect an ambush.”

The door stopped opening in the half way.

Pearce which had prepared a flare went to Diaz.

“I shoot a flare to give us more sight and disturb them a bit,” he informed that everybody in the near should hear it.

“Go on,” Diaz replied which currently had the command.

The flare went directly into the generator room. It seemed to be turned off as no light was coming from it. With the flare they could spot for a short time that the other door is also only to the half open. Two turtle faces appeared, fired one shot and went behind the cover of the massive door. One shot was returned and all went into cover. No one was hit. They looked back and saw the enemy advancing while shooting. There was no time to fire back. One shot hit a soldier on the right. It was only the arm but he went down. His teammate drew him back and another one took this place firing some shots with his rifle skipping targeting.

“We have one down, they advanced into the hall I have seen four of them. Two at the hall in the cover of the corridor corners and two at the door. They are firing constantly. We have problems to target,” Pearce informed the Commander.

“I send SW-2 down, try to hold position,” the Commander replied.

Another one of Diaz man went down. Again on the left side where Diaz and Pearce were. Pearce instructed one of his man which had the ARX-160 with the grenade launcher. Everyone had their night vision activated. The shots of the enemies highlighted the area and the system adapted to give a decent view. Riley the one instructed went now to the free corner of the corridor. Shots were passing. The Soldier on the right held out the weapon and fired some uncontrolled shots. Pearce had set the alien weapon to level seven. At the same time as the grenade launcher went off and Riley went back. Pearce stepped a bit to the side and targeted the right corner off the corridor where a turtle face was hiding. The shot went through the wall and hit the alien which went down while the grenade exploded. Behind him Pearce saw one alien at the door distracted. The soldier on the right did a good job firing around with his alien weapon. It was set to lowest hopefully not endangering the generator. Pierce moved to the right side while the enemy went into cover. He knew he could not fire at the other aliens at the door. But as long they stayed in cover it was alright. Pearce targeted the other corridor corner and moved to the right. Riley had reloaded the grenade launcher and fired another shot at the same position. Then targeted the door area. Pierce fired, then went to the right side cover. Another alien went down. Now in the cover of the right side he also set back the power of the shots to level two of eight.

“Two down two more to go,” Pearce called out to boost the morale.

Now shots were exchanged and it seemed to go on forever.

SW-2 took care of the shot ones. As expected they were unconscious but nothing more. Their helm electronics was screwed and with it the night vision. Diaz made a further update for the Commander, which was concerned about transporting an unconscious or even more. They had to wait till they come back and even then they need probably drive slower with the bikes. But it could work. The other thing was, what are the aliens up to? Will they hunt them? Can they even do that? And more important how many are still down there? With the unconscious people down there and a not working lift there were problems now.

“Major Diaz can we further talk?” Knight asked.

“Yes, sir. I'm behind the cover,” Diaz replied.

“Do you see a possibility to push them back?” Knight asked.

“We are exchanging shots now. It seems to be even. Without endangering the generator, it will be difficult,” Diaz replied.

“We will have problems to get the unconscious up. This means if more get hit down there we get a real problem. Sure we can reinforce for a while. But for the retreat we have to wait till everyone is conscious or get up the lift which will be difficult while under fire,” the Commander explained.

“Till now there are only two. We can make a counter assault. I guess then they can't hold the position. That's the best I can think of at the moment,” Diaz replied.

“Prepare for that and execute. Keep in mind you have limited shots for the alien weapons. I send SW-7 to support,” the Commander ordered.

Diaz informed Pearce over near field communication. The alien weapons made not too much noise when the shots went off. But the ARX did and he didn't want to speak louder. Then they waited for SW-7 while both Majors instructed their side. Diaz updated then SW-7 how they do it, then all went into position. It was a risky attempt but not unusual. They waited till the aliens went into full cover. This took some time because both sides used the same tactic to hold the position. It was holding the gun around the corner firing some shots while sometimes coming around to target. But this time two with the alien rifle stepped into the middle and fired controlled shots in shorter intervals. They went on one knee for better targeting and to expose less area to hit. Now two more on each side advanced forward as long the enemy stayed in cover. They had HK 416 on their advance. As the first reached the end of the corridor they stepped to the side where the shot were. With a head shot they secured that they were dead. They checked them for the alien weapons while the next advanced. One of the weapons was damaged. The other Soldier switched his weapon with the alien one. Then they advanced forward while the next wave advanced. The aliens used their weapons this time lower as they adapted to the suppression fire. Uncontrolled shots went off. There were now eight soldiers in the corridor and the hall. It was hard not to miss one. But the first shots missed. The front two could now see the aliens and fired at once cross over behind the door. One went down as it was hit by the same kind of weapons as the alien had. The other turtle face dropped the weapons as the shots hit the arm and went for a run away. With the HK the soldier fired again and thought he had hit. But the alien continued its retreat.

Pearce which followed behind the one with the alien weapon swapped his M27 which he used for the advance with a nearby alien weapon and also advanced into the generator room.

The alien went out of the door for the cover of the next corridor which was short compared to the usual hall part outside. Then a soldier which reached the also half open door of the other side fired one shot to pin him down from further retreat.

“It seems to be the last one,” he shouted.

“Secure position first,” Pearce ordered.

“Status?” Diaz asked who was in command and behind the entrance door to the generator room.

“It seems there is only one which is unarmed. Hiding behind a nearby corridor. We have now the generator room but no control of the doors,” Pearce reported while a soldier now with an alien rifle advanced on the left side of the door.

“I inform the Commander those doors worry me. Don't advance,” Diaz replied then switched communication channel. “Commander Knight we are in the generator room one alien is outside unarmed. We cannot tell for sure if it is alone. Also we have no control of that strong doors that are half open. What are the orders.”

“I send a drone down prepare to retreat. If needed I want everyone to be able to get out of there. It's even better if you retreat before the generator room. What happens if someone gets hit in there and the doors are closing. The drone is there in one minute,” Knight replied.

Diaz informed the others. After a short discussion with Pearce they decided to take the risk till the drone arrives. It was no one to see and the turtle face did also not show up again.

The drone arrived and went straight through the door. At that point both doors started to close. Pierce gave immediately the command to run back and went also for the slowly closing door. He was the first who went through. The following soldier had more difficulty to get through with the bulky alien weapon. Not too much space left the last one threw the weapon through turned to the side and barely jumped out of the closing gap. The doors were shut but still signals came from the drone.

Pierce switched to the drone camera feed. He used the surround view mode where the feed of eight cameras made it possible to look around. To reduce the size of the stream only the front camera had Ultra HD. The others used only HD with lesser frame rate of 30 Hz. But it was enough to spot the turtle face behind the corridor corner as the drone went by. The drone made a speed up to avoid getting caught by him. As he noticed it, he followed her, probably to catch. On the left there was also a bigger closed door. It seemed to be the same kind as of the generator room. The opposite side went into a not finished tunnel where only a part of it was a corridor then turned into a tunnel where the end was in sight. The light of the corridor was very dim. It did not matter much for the drone sight which use night vision and even active laser scanning. The drone went further ahead about the double speed the turtle face archived. This corridor part was much longer but now at the end there was something to see. There was the end of the corridor and on its left side was an opening leading to a different part another corridor or tunnel. It looked a bit different and there was something, it looked like a vehicle. The drone went closer. Now it looked like a pathway for a vehicle, a train maybe. It was hovering. The drone lowered the speed and changed angle to head to the other corridor. Then out of the left corner a Gray appeared with a hand gun targeting the drone and fired. The signal was lost.

“Commander we have to check that area closer. I don’t know how good the sensors of the combat drones are. But if this is a magnetic or anti-gravity train there is a possibility we can measure something,” Samuel suggested. “Also we know the direction of the tunnel.”

“Captain, we found a tunnel with a probable train. Samuel is sending the location and heading. Then our full record. Can we scan the area closely with the combat drones? We guess the aliens travel to a different location,” Knight informed the Icarus while Samuel was finishing the data transfer.

 

“Give a scanning broadcast for nearby drones. Don't use direct drone commands,” the Captain ordered. “Clark get the area on the second tactical display and show the data and scan results.”

The drone officer was preparing the broadcast. Because the data he needed was already there, it took him only 20 seconds. “Broadcast away.”

The Captain went to the second table display. He saw three drones altering its course to that area. They went very low. The first one followed the track. While the second one scanned the area around the start point. The third one stayed at the start position and scanned.

A magnetic field was detected by the first one which headed further ahead to an endpoint of a vector that was set by the drone officer. Now the third drone started to follow the heading until it found the magnetic field on a position further ahead. It followed it till it stopped. The first drone which found nothing flew back to the start point passing the third drone. Minor fluctuations of infrared signature were spotted by the third drone. It stayed in position there. As the first drone arrived the second drone was now flying to the end of the vector.

“Commander Knight we have located a possible exit in a forest. There seems to be activity there we still can spot some infrared signature heading to the mountain. That can mean they retreating to somewhere else. I transfer the data. Maybe you want look into this. A fighter is on the way near that location. But it would be suicide to make a close search for him,” the Captain informed.

Knight looked at the data in his helm display. “I will need a periodic update broadcast. So I can send a team.” Knight didn’t like the situation but the opportunity was there and he had a team specialized for such operation.

 

“SW-3 to me,” the Commander ordered. They were securing the hall to the hangar and lift. So they were at no time with the commander.

“I have a mission. We spotted a tunnel exit further away. Probably one Gray and a turtle face are heading to a different location we don't know off. Your mission is to search and follow them undetected. If you spot the location and see a chance to prevent them from reaching it do so. At least the Gray is armed with a hand gun. But it is possible that there are more or even get reinforcement. You will receive update broadcasts. The area is monitored by us as good as we can. Now hurry and good luck.” The commander finished his briefing and Samuel transferred the mission data.

“We are on it, sir.” Yamada saluted. “Team move.”

They started to sprint to their bikes.

 

Watkins was now in the lab. She continued her research. The team had split up the tasks. Some did further analysis on older probes they had. Other including her checked the drill specimens. She was focusing on her drill at the canyon landing zone. Checking the different parts of the drill they already had a lot specimens put into the DNA analyzer. But also microscopic analysis showed what she searched for. Finishing the last specimen, she went out of the lab to her terminal. She checked also the data of the others. With a click she opened a call to the Captain. After a short moment he came to the screen of the communication officer.

“Watkins what you got?” the Captain asked.

“As I expected there was and is different life on this planet. Our specimens of the beach show us foreign life forms and the probes of the canyon landing zone showed there were different plants ages ago. The detailed difference we will have tomorrow when the DNA tests are done. Sure the plants can be of similar kind as our specimens show. But I expect a different DNA signature. This will be the same with the microbes we found on the beach. Also we have fossils found in the drills. That means probably in the oceans exist the original life of this planet more or less. On land there was a full wipe and replacement of life. That means all animals have probably vanished with the plants. Then the new ones have been seeded. We can assume that they used some kind of maybe chemical and surly biological warfare to destroy the life. In the labs we found evidence they are capable of this. But there was not such stuff, research or production lab as far as we could tell,” Watkins reported.

“Yes, we guess this facility is still in construction and we don't know what they exactly do with it except playing with agriculture,” the Captain replied.

“Well changing a planet life to ours must have some value for them. Maybe it's coincidentally the same compatibility for them. Getting contact with the prior microbes, plants and animals I would not recommend for us unless further analysis. Maybe they found it dangerous to them,” Watkins suggested.

“That makes sense. But the other strange behavior of them we also do not understand. They attack us with stun weapons and do not use deadly force to win a fight. Risking their soldiers getting killed by us,” the Captain added.

“It seems their soldiers have not much value to them. We know that the other Grays on Earth were clones and even hybrids which does not say they are lifeforms with their own will. They could be some kind of organic robot or whatever. Sure a specimen of the soldier and those new Grays would help determine that,” Watkins replied.

“I see what we can do. But getting a whole body up will be difficult in our current situation.” The Captain knew there should be specimens coming in.

“That's not needed. Small samples are enough to determine the genetics. But if it is a hybrid the best would be an autopsy. That could do anyone I guess or a scan. Best with x-rays,” Watkins specified.

“I'll check for the scan possibilities down there but as I know there is no x-ray. The autopsy would be possible like you did assist in the lab analysis. I will ask if they can spare one or two men for that. What do they have to do?” the Captain asked.

“Well, it's just to search for implants. So we can determine if it could be a hybrid or even a cyborg. At least that's the important part. The exact function of artificial implants if found, we can't tell always. So there will be still questions open. Other stuff with the organs is complicated. There we could determine where to target best, what food they need. I don't think that information is much important,” Watkins added.

“Good. I will inform you. Thank you for your report,” the Captain finished the conversation.

“You are welcome,” she replied.

 

The shuttle with Ryan, Caine and Anderson reached the Icarus. They brought them after decontamination to the infirmary which had a part for quarantine. Then they started the checks. Everyone were able to walk now as their condition had improved. Also the probes and the rifle were brought to the labs.

Watkins let immediately start some of the staff with the analysis of fruits while she inspected the foot sample of a turtle face. It was the one with the armor, where they used the alien gun to test the efficiency. So after Watkins work, the armor itself would be analyzed.

 

Owens was now over the sea. They already accelerated to supersonic travel. But still they were too close to raise up and go hypersonic and then into space.

 

SW-3 arrived at the possible exit. While two of them searched for it, Yamada and the rest continued to trace down the aliens. The updates showed them where to go. So they planned a route to intercept them through the information they had now.

The exit was found and did not open. They avoided to use C4 and closed the opened panel again. Then they headed to the direction of the aliens.

 

SW-2 got the dirty work they pulled one of the turtle faced aliens to the room where Ryan and Caine were found. After getting him on the table they waited for Watkins to connect. The medic Jones got assigned for the next part to come and had also the needed skills.

 

“Samuel is there any way we get control of the generator room doors?” Knight asked.

“I tried everything. They must have cut the cables. We have no access to it. That means if we come from the other side it might be possible. But I don't know if we get the train to work,” Samuel replied.

“Well, I think we should wait for SW-3. On the other side if we send a team including you, we can speed up things and secure our position. It could be also possible we can use our bikes there if the exit door is big enough.” Knight was tempting to send a team. He was with Samuel in the tower hall.

“If they reinforce we might be cut off. I don't know how long it takes and even if I can open the doors. Also I have to close one at least and cut the cable. This will take time.” Samuel was worried.

“Exactly. So we should hurry.” Knight switched to wireless communication. “SW-7 get your gears and report to me.”

Seven minutes later they were at the Commander.

“I have a mission. You will escort Archer to this back entrance. Locate it and open it. If possible silently. Then enter with or without bikes. Get to the train destroy it if you can use the bikes. Secure the area before the generator doors while Archer tries to open them. But secure the area first. Two bikes should cover the entrance outdoors as long the generator doors are closed. Then retreat. If you cannot hold the position outdoors, also retreat. I think the bikes Gatling gun will give enough firepower to hold a while. Keep in mind SW-3 is also out there. So if you have to engage the enemy also report after. We will inform SW-3 over broadcast. Good luck and hurry now.” Knight was finished with the briefing.

“Affirmative,” Major Davis, the leader of SW-7, replied and the team went with Samuel to the bikes.

 

Two Grays with hand guns were walking through the woods. Following them did a turtle face without a weapon. He seemed to be a bit wounded but had no problems to keep up. It was dark in the woods and normal eye sight would not help too much. The Grays seemed to have not too much difficulties. Also the other one had no problems to follow them.

They were on a grass and moss like ground at the moment and therefore their walking was very silent.

Suddenly a crack was to hear. One of the Gray seemed to know where it came from, targeted into a certain direction and fired a shot. Then he saw something and fired again. This let the turtle face look into the direction of the shot. The head from the shooting Gray fell to the ground then it's body. Hearing that let the other Gray change the target direction. Now seeing someone moving he was aiming at him. The backside of a sword hit his hand and his weapon fell to the ground. It made a noise while running away. The turtle face at once charged into the direction of the last attacker. He saw to late the one closing in to him from a nearby tree. The sword hit also a bit below his head. His body ran a bit further uncontrolled and fell then to the ground. The Gray was on the run trying to look right and left. He went to the end of the forest. Which was now in reach. A noise was to hear. Then the Gray fell to the ground.

A man in a black suit with a microwave rifle stepped closer to check. His sword was on his back. There was an icon on his display showing him there was a mission update. He had now time to read. Another one of his team joined him.

 

Davis team had reached the destination. They found the exit in a tunnel with plants grown around to covered it.

With Samuel's help and manual force with a crowbar, they were able to open the door without using explosive. It was big enough for using the bikes. They went in. The information was already sent minutes ago. Two were covering outside. Samuel and the other reached the trains position. It took them some minutes to destroy enough to be sure it won’t drive again. Also they tried to do it most quietly. The tunnel of the train seemed to go a bit further but was unfinished. With a bike the other two of his team took the lead. Davis with Samuel followed them at a distance. They reached the position where they found the drone. Still there was no one to see.

Davis and Samuel joined them. One of them stepped down and headed forward while the driver of the bike followed on the other side ready to use the Gatling gun. Davis also stepped down and waited with Samuel who picked up the drone and put it into his trunk. Then Davis also advanced forward letting the empty bike follow him. Samuel was a bit behind.

They found no one. The area was clear but also there was no control room. At least they saw nothing what looked like it. Samuel went for the door, there was no panel just nothing. He searched with his scanners the walls to the other door. There he found a panel to open. He used his fiber optics spy connector. Then scanned the communication. There was none. But he knew now some commands from their hacks. He tried some and there was a response.

Still it took him over twenty minutes then the door to an unknown room opened. His escort went at once in a cover position. They looked around the opening door and found no one in sight. Davis controlled his bike in, while he waited outside. The bike would be to slow to respond if someone was hiding there, but an acceptable trade. Because the targeting system of the bike could only access a limited angle of 10 degrees. It was not build for indoor use it had to be further away to cover an area as sentry. In the room were a lot of tower like structures and a probable control room. Samuel didn't need to go there. He already found the commands for the other two doors. They opened.

Davis informed the other squad members outside to retreat. Then he reported to Commander Knight.

Samuel worked now on the secure door closing. While the rest of SW-7 fortified the train tunnel as long as Samuel had not finished his part.

 

“They are sending reinforcement we have to hurry,” one of Yamada's men informed.

“I check that. You get the Gray on the bike and return to the facility at once,” Yamada ordered and walked to the border of the forest. He was a bit higher than the cave. Five turtle faces with their rifles were coming up the hill. The others of Yamada's team packed the Gray on a bike. Then two bikes left and one waited with a driver. The aliens were about 200 meter away. Yamada took the microwave rifle, set it to full power, targeted the first one and fired. He went down. Imminently the others returned fire not knowing the exact position of the shooter.

Yamada left and rushed to the bike. The other were already out of sight. He jumped on the bike and they also left while Yamada made a report.

 

“Mark them as target,” the Captain ordered.

One of the turtle faces was reaching the forest. A combat drone appeared out of nowhere and started to fire while flying over them. Two more were down. Now shots headed to the leaving drone. A second drone appeared and another one went down. The one at the forest targeted the drone and fired. He hit the drone while the drone was firing at him. There were no survivors. But one drone crashed into the mountain. The first drone returned and scanned the area then left to the facility and continued the patrol.

 

The Captain let a status update broadcast.

“Now monitor the area of the cave and the downed drone. If they try to retrieve it we have to attack them,” the Captain ordered.

“There are only two drones in the area. Should we send more?” the drone officer asked.

“Not now. But somehow it would be good to scout the cave and update the combat drones for a more efficient ground support. Losing another combat drone is too expensive.” Captain Fisher needed a different solution but with the upcoming retreat there was no sneak back and send a smaller drone.

“Contact Knight I need a discussion,” the Captain ordered.

“Captain what's up?” Knight replied.

“We need to scout the cave can we do that? I know all of your drones are destroyed. But you have some in the shuttles.” The captain needed a plan.

“Well, I have to check with Archer about the programing and control stuff. One shuttle with drones is on the Icarus. That is the shuttle of SW-5. But the shuttle of SW-3 also has some. That means the shuttle can pick up SW-3 and Archer where they dropped our reinforcements. The rest I have to check now. I inform you when I have more. Knight out.”

 

Knight went down to Samuel. He didn't want to talk over wireless. They had power again and the lift was working. Samuel was on the controls in the new room they opened.

“Commander you need an update?” Samuel asked.

“Yes and I have a new task so the update first.”

“This energy storage has power for over a month. At least for that what we need. I found out how to activate the generator if we would need it. We also can close the doors now. Even turn on the generator. But without the control room it is worth nothing. The generator needs the storage system as buffer. I can lock down this control room only with our wireless connectors. That means it is hackable. The generator doors can be controlled by our side only. But if they get the control room they can cut the power. So the generator doors stay in the status of the power loss,” Samuel reported.

“We can live with that as we leave anyways. So close down the doors after I recalled the troops. The next mission is to scout the cave we found with drones. Is that possible at that long range. We will fall back to the shuttles in the meantime,” the Commander explained what he wanted.

“If we have drones, yes. But we need a nearby relay like a combat drone or our communication relay. Depending how many drones we have they can also relay and fly deeper into the cave. Also there is an option to scan and fly back and transmit. That might be a problem if they get shot,” Samuel replied.

“That means it works. You have some time to work that out. A shuttle will pick you and SW-3 up near the canyon. They have some drones on board. The exact number I don't know yet. Do you need to do something here?” Knight asked.

“No, I already have prepared everything. Just was checking the control interface by myself. We already transferred all information from here to the Icarus,” Samuel replied.

“Good, then we can leave?” Knight wanted the lock down the sub level.

“Yes, sir.” Samuel followed him.

“SW-7 move back behind the power generator. Then prepare to leave the facility,” Knight ordered.

Samuel closed the door of the energy storage and control room. Two of SW-7 came back from the train tunnel with their bikes, the others were in the front hall of the power generator room. They had to lift the anti-gravity bikes higher to get around the generator. But that was no problem.

Samuel and the Commander went in last. Then the next door closed through the command of Samuel.

“Now I have to cut another cable. Then we also have not the imminent control of it. But are secure from hacking,” Samuel informed.

“Go on.” Knight went out of the generator room joining Davis. “Are the bikes already outdoors?”

“I brought them in the hall before the lift. They could be also used as sentry in a limited way,” Davis replied.

“I just wait for SW-3 to arrive, then we will leave. So I hope we won’t need to defend here,” Knight told him. Then went to the others. “Diaz, Pearce move your teams up and prepare for the departure.”

Samuel was finished he left the generator room and closed the door. At the moment only three of SW-7 were here. The rest headed to the lift.

The Commander went into the autopsy room. SW-2 was guarding there. Jones had finished it and was also with the others outside.

“Are we done here?” the Commander asked.

“Yes, sir. We found no implants. But he had most organs twice. This explains why they are harder to finish off,” Freeman reported.

“But only one head. We will see what that information brings us. You also can move up with your troops,” the Commander replied and went with them to the lift. “SW-7 move all to the ground level.”

The lift was coming back. He, Samuel, SW-2 and the rest of SW-7 went in.

 

6 Delay

As the Commander went into the tower hall, one of SW-3 arrived.

“Commander we have captured a Gray. We don't know if he is still alive. We shot him with the microwave rifle,” he reported. “We also have a head in a specimen box.”

“SW-2 support SW-3 getting the alien in the autopsy room and check if he is still alive,” the Commander ordered then reported to the Icarus.

They brought the motionless alien down. Then Major Yamada went in.

“Sir, you seen our capture. We also have a head and two alien hand guns. As already reported I shot one of the turtle faces with the microwave rifle. It worked using maximum power. They were too close to try any other power level. But now we know the armor protects them from our microwave rifles.”

“Good, I have another mission you escort Archer to your shuttle near the canyon. We need your drones. Archer will send them to the cave for investigation. You then, will either leave with him to the Icarus or we stay a bit longer for the interrogation. I don't think the Captain wants the Gray on the ship,” the Commander informed him.

“Affirmative. When do we depart with Archer?” Yamada asked.

“I need to speak with the Icarus and Archer should be finished with the preparation. He needs to know how many drones you have. You see him over there on this laptop.” The commander pointed to Samuel location which was in one of the rooms of the tower hall which had a table and seat. Yamada saluted and went to him.

“Commander he is alive,” Freeman reported over wireless connection.

“Good. Tell me when he is awake. Speed it up if you can,” the Commander replied and switched to Icarus communication. “Captain the drone plan will work. We need a combat drone to relay the signals. Everything else is preparing Archer now. When he is done we need the shuttle of SW-3.”

“Perfect, then we prepare a combat drone for that and synchronize with Archer. I inform you when the shuttle is on its way. Is the departure prepared?” the Captain asked.

“Yes, but as mentioned we have captured a Gray. He is still unconscious. I think we should interrogate him at least. I don't guess you want him on board the Icarus,” the Commander informed.

“Interesting. As he is alive, that changes things a bit.” The captain was thinking. “Well, delay your departure a bit. An interrogation would be useful. You are right I would not like him on the ship but I have to think over it. Inform me when the alien is awake.”

“How far should we go with the interrogation? I let him wake up in the autopsy room,” the Commander asked.

“It's your choice. Just adapt to the situation. As we have not lost people we don't have to be aggressive. But also they shot at us first and did unauthorized exterminations as far we can tell. If they done more to Ryan and Caine we don't know it yet,” the Captain replied.

“I will stream it up. So you can follow and write me questions if needed. Also we got a Gray head specimen in a box.”

“Very well. I discuss with Watkins what else we can do,” the Captain finished the communication then ordered a conference at the Icarus. Max was informed to work out with the drone command team the details Samuel needed.

 

About twenty minutes later Samuel and SW-3 were on the ride to the shuttle LZ. They were a bit faster and waited. After landing Samuel went in to get the drones. The others covered the area. Samuel came out with two and one of the pilots was carrying the third.

Then Samuel uploaded the mission objectives, activated the drones and sent the start signal. The drones went away with over 100 kilometers per hour. Samuel and SW-3 went back to the facility and the shuttle to the more guarded landing zone.

The Gray woke up and the Commander was called. While the Commander was on his way, the alien said nothing. It looked at the autopsy mess but seemed not to have any noticeable reaction to it. Then it looked at the guards and did not move anymore.

Knight went in. The Gray looked to him but said nothing.

“We want answers. Why did you abduct people from our planet?” the Commander asked.

He did not answer.

“What have you done to our people in this room?”

Still no answer.

“What do you do on this planet?”

The alien seemed not to care.

“Microwave rifle,” Knight commanded. One of the soldiers stepped forward aiming with the rifle to the chest of the alien.

The Gray stood up turned to the rifle and said nothing.

Knight checked it was on lowest settings.

“Speak now or we shoot,” the Commander said.

He knew this level was very painful for humans and would disable them for a short time.

“Fire!” came the command.

The Gray went down on the other side of the table which was a simple white rectangular box. It was the right table. There were three tables in the room. The dead and opened turtle face was on the left one. Now the Gray was lying on the ground and flickering through the effect of the microwaves. After he calmed down he stood up and made a yawning gesture.

“We only want some information if you are not cooperative we will get them otherwise,” Commander Knight said.

The Gray moved one step forward as he was waiting for the next shot.

“Fire!” Knight commanded unimpressed.

Samuel walked in with a scanner and checked the brain while the Gray flickered. After that the Gray stood up and made the same gesture. Samuel scanned again. Then left the room with Commander Knight.

“He has a device in his head. But we cannot measure any electrical signature from it or any other activity that comes from it. Also our methods are limited. If we go down to the level off EEG, we cannot distinguish from the normal brain function and maybe the device. For that we would need to use a real EEG and MRI what we don't have here,” Samuel reported which was supported by Watkins.

“Thanks for the info. I will discuss further options with the Captain. But take SW-3, place an additional communication relay on top of the tower. I want to observe him in this room using the camera. Place a microphone and a speaker in there if needed. Then we can monitor him when we are gone. We will guard the area with the combat drones. So it should take them some time and resources to get him free,” Knight informed Samuel.

“I inform you when I am done. I guess it will take about an hour,” Samuel replied, then went to Yamada.

Knight discussed further options for the interrogation and the retreat plan with the Captain. Then went back to continue the interrogation. The Gray was just standing there.

“We guess that you are all here artificial created organic machines controlled from somewhere else. If you don't want to talk we continue our investigation. There is no reason why we should stop. Whatever, you will be stuck here for a while or even end up like the other here,” Knight went on.

The alien did not respond.

Knight continued to ask question and let some more shots fire. But he could not get a word out of him.

Finally, Samuel showed up. They tested the communication and its volume then all left the room. Samuel locked the door.

It was time for the retreat. Everyone went to the bikes. The Icarus had the control of the building systems which could be controlled remotely. All teams used the river route to get as fast to the shuttles. Only SW-3, Samuel and the shot ones were picked up before the canyon. Then they left the planet via the backside route.

 

Two combat drones were left behind to cover the facility area. Another one was from the Icarus sent down serving as cave scanning relay and stayed as long as needed. The other three surface scout drones were already in the cave and scanning. In there they flew much slower to get all details. It was about 15 kilometers per hour. The cave was very big at the entrance. It got a bit smaller later on and there it was visible that some kind of drilling had produced the further tunnels leading very deep into the mountain and also split up in multiple tunnels. Still they found no entrance door at the live stream analysis. The drone went deeper in and were not enough to relay the signal further. So one drone disconnected to scan further and flew back to transmit the records. There was a time limit of 10 minutes. It did it with all tunnels. Where it could not reach the end it increased the limit to 20 minutes and then 40. Finally, the drones had finished everything and headed out again. They found the mining vehicles at the end of three tunnels. It was an advanced system using laser and gravity control to form balls of ore which it mined. This all was fully automatic. No alien was spotted there.

The returning drones were close to the exit, now in a more accurate scan mode and flying 10 kilometers per hour. Then out of a cover behind some rocks, the turtle faced aliens appeared with rifles and started to fire at once.

The drones tried to accelerate through automatic heat signature threat detection which defined a threat situation. But the acceleration was too low. 12 aliens fired continuously till no signal was coming out of the cave.

Five minutes later the relay combat drone headed automatically back to the Icarus.

 

Owens and Newman reached the Icarus before the others squads and their escort. They went into the bigger hangar. One of two in the middle part of the ship. It took some time till the breathable condition could be established. Then they opened the exit and shut all system down. Cooper and his stuff prepared the anchors for the gears in a case of artificial gravity loss. Owens and Newman went for the decontamination followed by the infirmary. The standard medical tests were made. Then they headed to their quarantine quarters to rest a bit.

After the others arrived everyone was back on board the Icarus.

A team was observing the Gray. He did nothing. Just lay down on the table. He didn't even close the eyes. The team was ordered to disturb him if he tries to sleep. But it seemed he did not need to. Later as he still did not move much they decided to disturb him with more questions. They just asked the same what the Commander asked but a bit louder. The Gray did not react. He just lay motionless on the table with open eyes.

Meanwhile the team leaders and Newman were in the briefing room of the quarantine zone. Ryan which condition was much better was connected remotely because of a higher quarantine level. Also the Captain used the remote connection. This was a procedure separating the landing party from the ship’s crew to secure the ships operation from unknown danger brought from the planet. The debriefing began.

“We have successfully gained some intel and equipment. But lost our stealth. They know now we are from Earth as Major Ryan reported. Now is the question have we gained enough to fly back?” With the first words the Captain started the debriefing. He was on the main screen of the briefing room split with Ryan.

“Well, the other question is what can we gain more by what risks,” Knight added.

“I checked our cave scans. The mining equipment is quite impressive. It is surly a key to establish a base on foreign planets and even on Earth it would have an enormous value,” Newman advised.

“Yes, those machines are small enough to fit into a shuttle. But how do you think we should secure the area. I don't recommend to fly a shuttle into the cave. Going in there, hacking the machine, moving it out will take quite some time. Also we don't know where the aliens came from.” Knight was worried.

“The combat drones can cover to some point the outdoor area. We could even risk to fly into the cave with them. That for sure would raise the risk of losses,” the Captain replied.

“They already shot one down outdoor,” Knight moaned.

“That was a programming problem. We could not make such a needed update for ground attack scenario over wireless connection. Now we can prepare that for further landing operation. In the cave it is a different case. I would like to avoid sending combat drone into the cave,” the Captain answered.

“True, but if they change their attack pattern we might have to adapt to an unforeseen situation. That means in a critical phase we would be enforced by this, to give more information out about our drone communication as we would like. I mean we cannot do that operation without man and so calculate drone losses in, by denying a needed direct commanding. Also as more we do with the drones, we have by such enemy the risk the drones could backfire,” Newman advised.

“So what do you suggest Newman. Use ground troops to secure the cave. Stay with the limited ammunition of the alien rifles?” the Captain asked.

“That might work as long there are not more of that turtle faces as we spotted last. Even our weapons can kill them as long they have not the armor. But we have to expect there are more and they might use the armor again,” Knight added.

“Exactly and here comes now the important part, we have to make more preparation and analysis before we can act. Yes, this takes more time. I guess at least one or two days. The analysis of the cave scans is not done yet. We just looked over it. We have a part of this armor. That has to be analyzed. The alien weapons seem to use energy only. Maybe we can reload it. Also we found not Ryan and Caine's helms. That means either the aliens are good in hiding them or they have an entrance to another or same secret location in the forest. On the route to the cave we would have spotted them. Also the aliens which shot down the surface drones in the cave must have come from there,” Newman replied.

“What about our capture can we get information from him or it?” Freeman asked.

“It looks like not. The only option is to punish some aliens trying to rescue him. That would mean he has some value. But we don't even know if they know he is imprisoned there. Also there is a little possibility that hunger or thirst drives him to talk. Still we might gain some minor intel of his behavior. I don't think he helps us retrieving the machines,” the Captain answered.

“Also we should check their behavior losing their turtle faces that easily and not punishing us for that. Maybe the genetic analysis will tell more. I guess they are also all clones. Then we have the hybrid thing again. And they seeming not much interested on us from Ryan's report. Except for taking samples from us. What should we expect from that?” Newman added.

“I guess a superior arrogance. But because of that we should be extremely cautious,” Ryan suggested.

“I don't get this behavior with the armor. Why did he run out of the building with it? Did they really thought he was invincible with it and they under estimated us? Or did they want to make our progress slower with that. This makes just no sense. He could just have bought more time waiting in there or even hide the armor from our guns to use it at a much better opportunity. They had the cameras in there. So why?” Pearce asked.

“Good question. That they under estimated us do not make sense. More they didn't care. Which leads to the arrogant behavior again. I guess the best option is to sleep over it. With more analysis results tomorrow we should have a better picture to act accordingly.” Knight decided to skip a plan for an early ambush.

“Yes, also we can evaluate the risks and benefits again. Well done. The next meeting is tomorrow morning at 10 ships time. Good work all and dismissed.” The Captain finished the debriefing.

 

The alien kept its silence. Then on the next ship day the meeting occurred. Watkins had some results and assumptions to report.

“We have now the genetics of the plants. The newer ones must be from Earth. But we also found different genetic signatures in the past. That means there was a kind of terraforming. How they did it is still unknown. We guess it was made with biological warfare measures. The former plants and microbes we found had a different evolution that results also in a for us not common DNA signature. This can be to us and the aliens dangerous or deadly. But therefore much more research time is needed. From some stuff in the lab we seen they alter our plants to produce certain fluids where we don’t know exactly what they are for. Our best guess it’s for nourishment. The fruits genetics is not fully done but other test shows they are from Earth. That would mean we don't need the suit protection at the land area. We cannot be sure because we have no probes of everything. But for areas close to the oceans, lakes and rivers I would still recommend protection. The air should be no problem. Drinking unfiltered water there has major risks. Now to the alien’s specimens. There we still don't have full genetics. Our fast tests show both are clones as most expected. The brain of the Gray is more sophisticated, this means it has a higher evolution and capacity. The devices in there are different and smaller. We can also assume they are advanced. For specifics Dr. Newman will conduct further analysis. That mean we can still not tell what the implants are for. They could be just cyborg like brain enhancement. Faster thinking more memory or whatever. As we know they are clones, there are much more possibilities so calling them hybrids suits more. They could also be just organic robots with some control interface or they transfer the consciousness with it. That's all what we have for now.” Watkins was finished with her report. She was also in the conference room with Newman and the squad leaders.

“Good work and thank you Dr. Watkins.” The Captain had a question, “What about the cave do we there need protection?”

“We have seen no plants or animals. Even fungus could not be detected. For the last we have our detection limits. It is possible that former original lifeforms existed. So I would say unfiltered breathing has higher risks. But we know at the entrance part the aliens operated. There it could be as save as the other land regions. Sadly, we know how they waste their turtle faces. There is still the question do they care much about a minor danger of toxic spores. Most likely there would be an allergic reaction. If treated at once this can be controlled. But we know in combat operation such could be deadly,” Watkins replied.

“Yes, their behavior we cannot understand fully. We only can assume that we now know they are clones and hybrid clones. That they have not much value. Sure the Gray with his implants have some more tactical value. But I assume they are all fully replaceable,” Commander Knight concluded.

“We can only counter that by using drones. But these losses we also cannot replace here. When we run out of combat drones the ship’s protections is compromised. We have then get back to Earth.” The Captain had his concerns. “Also the combat drones are one of our ships main protection measure. Their primary design is for air and space combat. I can only provide a limited amount for our retrieve operation. The ships protection has the most priority.”

“We have other drones we can waste more if needed. I guess all checked the cave analysis report. We have located a hidden door. That means when we go down we can scan further for such doors. We have enough of our unarmed surface drones to even waste them. But now we might be able to search the cave while we guard the door with the remote sentry option of the bikes. Then we also have to search the forest for another hidden entrance. This would be the main danger losing them. I will after the meeting analyze the armor to be sure the bikes Gatling gun is effective. Else the sniper rifle would be useful. That means risking people. But that we might not avoid. We need also to hack the machines we want. That also needs a small team. Then after checking the armor I've plan a test with the alien rifle to determine how it works on low level and how we can load the energy module. That means we should have results till our next meeting. That will give us the opportunity to engage tomorrow,” Newman suggested.

“That leaves us with the possible second entrance in the forest. We have to find that first to also guard it and even then we give them some time to prepare a counter. Also the alien rifle worked well in the facility. But it is a heavy weapon. Operating long with it costs a lot of strength and targeting at longer distances is difficult for us. Contrary with our ARX-160 we have a good light weight weapon. The grenade launcher has its range limits and the 5.56 mm armor piercing ammunition does not penetrate the armor as we know. So we have to further figure out what weapons we can use.” Commander Knight had made a point.

“Depends where we fortify. The forest is on high ground. So they would have a clear advantage shooting down to the cave. That means they can cut us off. Also we can use this as our advantage as long we can secure the forest,” Pearce noted.

“The forest also has an advantage for our team tactics as long they don’t use the armor. I guess we have no weapons to penetrate it,” Yamada added.

“That works if you outnumber them and you get the surprise on your side. But with your tactics you cannot attack a bigger group covering each other’s,” Knight replied.

“True, at least in close combat,” Yamada agreed.

“Well, if I know more about the armor I can tell if the explosive bolt of the crossbow has a chance,” Newman added.

“Back to their behavior. If they don’t value their troops much. They must have plenty of them or it is not an important place here. Sure with the sentry option and knowing where they come from we can stop a bigger number. But another question comes up. What kind of facility is hidden? Don't we need to check this also out? I mean sure if you build a base you need resources first but then what kind of installment is needed first in their eyes? This is probable behind that doors,” Ryan noted over video. He was fit again and combat ready. But the higher quarantine stayed.

“You will need power for the machines, produce replacement parts I guess and food for the personal if there is much at start. We don't know to which extent they do it automatically but at some point here is a facility that supports the main operation. Maybe that's the facility we found or they do extend the operations. When we have the machines we always can try to blow up the doors and swarm them with surface scout drones or even use bikes,” Newman suggested.

“Good option. I will consider that,” the Captain replied.

“Well, we have now options to work out. That can do the team leaders with their teams now. We meet again at afternoon. I inform you when exactly later. On our last meeting Newman and Watkins will join us again. Hopefully with more information that can give us an improvement,” Knight suggested.

“Good, if there are no more matters we have to discuss now, the meeting is done.” The Captain waited a bit. “Ok. Back to duty. Dismissed.”

Newman went for the analysis of the armor. It was a simple task getting the spectra’s, identify the materials, micro- and nanoscopic analysis. Then the other scientist continued the calculations and further analysis while Newman and Cooper used for the next test space suits. They went for the measurement equipment and the alien rifle and continued to the left hangar bay. The hangar doors were closed and Newman used one to fire against while putting a plate with sensors in front. The other cameras and spectral cameras were placed. So it was time to fire. Max monitored the incoming data stream. They used fiber optics to transfer the data to the ships research cloud. Newman let Cooper do the first shot. He triggered and one shot of lowest level went directly into the plate. Most of the sensors there were fried now by the electric discharge of the shot. Those were the sensitive ones. They changed the plate and did it again with a level higher. This time Newman did the shooting. More of the sensors were dead. He estimated on the next level all would be fried. So wasting more sensors was not needed. He had data to analyze. They went back to the lab after putting the measurement equipment and the rifle back to the lab storage and got rid of the spacesuits.

 

The afternoon meeting was ongoing.

“We have now a worked out plan. Newman do we have some news?” the Captain asked over video conference to the lab.

“Well, yes. But it will not affect much the operation. Except the armor analysis. We have explosives for the bolt which will penetrate the armor. Also we have special ammunition. Instead the normal 5.56 mm NATO armor piercing that has much higher velocity. It will penetrate the titan alloy. This alloy is a very tricky thing to produce. It has even a layer of graphene between. So the high speed ammunition has two disadvantages. A nearby pass can cause cell shocks with bleeding that won’t stop. So watch who is close to you. Our suits will protect against a pass but not a hit. Also keep in mind it is only tested with the HK which has a high quality barrel. That's the second disadvantage don't use it with the APX-160. I don't know how long it will take to kill an armored turtle face but more shoots might be needed to speed it up. Except you hit the head. Then to the alien rifle. We cannot load it yet. I need to develop the equipment for it. But I know what to do. It should be a one-day work. Further tests with the mostly depleted rifle have showed it shoots out a cold plasma created out of the surrounding air. The plasma itself is at the lowest level I used harmless except the speed. It would just disinfect you. But the electrical loading is high enough to disable a human. A similar effect like our microwave rifles. So increasing the level just increases the loading and later I guess it also heat up much more and maybe even pressurize the plasma. Which also results in an additional speed up of the blast. Such investigations should be made not on the ship. The analysis also says that the rifle won’t work in vacuum. Maybe fire one shot that is stored in the rifle. After each shot it immediately refills the air for the next one. This also might cool the rifle. But how exactly this works will take much more time.” Newman was finished with the report.

“Fine then we have at least more weapons available. What about the alloy can we make it?” Commander Knight asked.

“Here? No way. Maybe later on Earth. But it is nothing we can use much. Despite it would be very useful for our ships armor. But you know titian is a bit expensive and we have not so much resources of it. Then our graphene production is in a scientific state not mass production. Also we don’t know how to combine the stuff. That means unless we find no big supply of titan. There will be some unique constructions. Sure we have to find out how to produce it. And here comes this mining robots we try to capture. They will make the mining cheaper and we can use them on other planets. It also could mean they can produce the armor inside this hidden location,” Newman replied.

“For the machines I don't want to stay to long down there and if they produce the armor there it would be even more dangerous,” Knight was concerned.

“So next Dr. Watkins what do you have?” the Captain asked also over video.

“The fruits we tested are genetically the same as on Earth. They are even better no pesticides. Till now we found no genetic manipulated plants as far it is detectable. Sure our samples are very limited. But we can guess they eat similar stuff like we do, except animals. Therefore, we would need a dead not too much damaged body for a deeper autopsy on board the ship. Further genetic analysis is completed. The Grays have changed and both have some human parts in the DNA. However, the Grays on Earth didn't had it like this. It means they found in our genes some useful parts for them. This also may explain why they take samples from us. But not why they try to stun us only. It is possible they need life samples for some reason. Which would mean they may try to eagerly trap us,” Watkins reported.

“That's an interesting assumption and could fit well. Also it increases the risk of the next operation. So we may do some additional analysis and backup plans,” Commander Knight advised.

“Right, guess we skip the raid tomorrow and plan for the day after,” the Captain suggested.

“But that means also the aliens have more time to prepare. We have now a good plan. If we work out some backup as fast as we can, it would be still possible to start tomorrow. I don't know how long they need to breed a clone. But what if they have a hidden breeding station there. That would mean they are on full production or just get from a running production an output of whatever many turtle faced aliens a day,” Ryan objected.

“That's a good point. Dr. Watkins what do you think?” the Captain wants to know more.

“Fast production I don't believe. It should take month to breed them. Sure some acceleration is possible which would not concern us. What we can't tell, what their output is. It could be one or less a day or more likely 10 or 100 every month. Also it is possible that a batch of one 1000 is ready tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and then they have to wait more month again. That would also mean they breed to produce an army which gets picked up,” Watkins replied.

“OK. We continue preparation for tomorrow. I have to assume on their behavior they have soon another production ready or still enough in stock. This means giving them more time would improve their forces or do nothing.” The captain made a decision.

“Agreed,” the Commander added.

Then the preparation continued for hours.

 

7 More

On the next day five shuttles with five fighters and ten combat drones went down to the planet. SW-6 and 7 were again the backup. The landing zone was some kilometers away from the facility. The alien was still there doing nothing. They took the same fast approach and went as fireball down till the mountains were close to the horizon. This time they planned all to fly through the canyon. They left the ocean area and continued in low altitude over the land flying supersonic. A half hour later the canyon was in sight. The shuttle decelerated to subsonic travel and on entering to the needed speed to get through. All escort combat drones were already on the other side. Two fighters in front of the shuttles the rest behind. With the automatic they flew through the canyon. It was a proven and fast procedure. Now leaving the canyon they went to the landing zone also some kilometers away from the cave. Some of the shuttle missile slots were filled with surface scouting drones. They opened and released them before touching down. Immediately a dozen each went for the cave and the forest.

On the Icarus the data from the drones were analyzed. Most of the information could be automatically displayed on the tactical table screens of the bridge. Also Clark was now monitoring tactical information on two of his three screens.

The squad went out of the shuttles preparing their equipment and the bikes. Then headed at once to their planned location. SW-1 and 3 went for the forest while the others for the cave. SW-5 was the last who traveled to the cave. They also had two drones for their own. With the bikes it was a short travel and SW-5 went into the cave as the area was secured by the others. The drones were then further investigating the cave again as the bikes sentry were positioned.

Then SW-5 followed the drones and headed to their operation target. A position where they last time detected one of the machines. This time there were enough drones to relay the communication signals out of the cave. Also the drones reached faster than the bikes the end of the tunnels, so the team knew their targets were there.

It went as planned they reached the end of a tunnel. Ryan, Caine and Owens stepped off the bikes and secured the area while Newman and Archer started their work on the machines.

Max was already checking the data she got from the drones and advised the field hackers were to search. Both Newman and Archer streamed their camera view, so also Max or the other engineers and scientists could assist.

Meanwhile the drones in the forest had found the other entrance. It was a small cave leading into the mountain. The door was also much smaller. So two aliens should fit through. However, it was not a good place to fortify. They used a drone to monitor the door and guarded the open cave entrance itself, which gave them much more cover here in the forest. The remaining drones assigned for the forest were on patrol now.

The machine which was a kind of a laser melting the stone and a gravity field transferring the lava to the back. The system had the size of bigger pickup. On the back the lava was split into several balls over its container.

“There is a replacement container moving from the storage area to you,” Max informed.

“How many of this containers are full at the storage location,” Ryan asked.

“Three. They must saw us coming and made this area up. I try to figure out how long it takes to fill one up,” Max answered.

“No problem. It could be even better if we get a fresh one. The lava might cool down faster when we stop mining. Just two minutes then the connection should work,” Newman informed as he was connecting to the system interface they found. He did a bit hurry because it would be good to have the connection before the container arrived. “Got it.”

“Beginning scans.” Max replied.

Newman and Archer stepped back. Now using their laptop on a nearby bike. They were already moved to the side for the incoming traffic. Then the container showed up. It was hovering over the ground. The laser of the mining machine stopped. The lava stream disconnected and the last part was transferred to the hovering balls. At the bottom of the container were half balls which later could receive the cooled down ones. The container itself had nearly the size of a pickup. Seven balls were hovering over the container. It seemed to be a bit waste of space. The empty container moved to the side of the other. All of SW-5 were further away to avoid getting between the process.

The full container disconnected and went away. Then the empty one connected to the machine.

“This must be cost a lot of power,” Samuel guessed. “I wonder how much of this power generator we seen they have in the hidden location.”

“Well, there was no time to figure out what exactly the generator was. Maybe they have even a bigger version of it. But with that energy storage system they have, they could even use solar power. So this generator must be easier to build,” Newman replied.

“Maybe they do solar later who knows or it is something other regenerative. We should have checked the generator,” Samuel noted.

“Too big and not enough time. It's probably fusion maybe more advanced as on the ship we retrieved on Earth. But we have the saucer ship and with this machine we have two vehicles to check their energy storage system and generators. So we are fine with what we can get.” Newman checked the scan results. The mining continued as the connection of the container was done. The lava started to flow again and finally three balls started to grow. It took a little bit then Max had found the stop command. Newman and Samuel did some further checks. Then Newman sent the command and the laser went off again.

“Good. Now we only need to move it,” Newman informed.

 

“I hope they hurry I don't know how long we can hold this position if they open that door,” Anderson moaned.

“Keep calm. The Gatling guns will shred them,” Pearce replied.

“Only as long they have ammunition. How long does it take to deplete them? One minute or with reload two minutes. What time does it take till they find out how to deplete them without losing troops?” Anderson asked moaning further around.

“Then we are here and we can manually fire. We would be not as good as the automatic. Even fail to react in time. But we sure can hold it 10 minutes. That’s the time SW-5 needs to come back,” Pierce reassured.

 

“Got it!” Newman was happy now. The laser mining machine was moving. Not too fast, but 15 kilometers per hour.

“Icarus I set a navigation point outside the cave. Lieutenant Kelsey you add then one to the shuttle. I don't know yet if it is possible to speed them up. But if we want another one it's better we take care of it,” Newman reported.

“We have three shuttles available for transport. A second one would be useful. If the first one reaches the cave exit don't go for another one. It will not make much difference they seem to be the same,” the Captain replied.

“Yes, but they are mining a different kind of primary ore. So we should take at least two. Especially now as we know how to do it. I need only to connect our spy relay. Then Max can do the job,” Newman justified and stepped on the bike.

“Proceed, we check again when you got the next.” The captain was pleased how the operation was working out. But he didn't want to risk too much. It took them not too much time to get to the second mining machine. Newman needed only about a minute.

“Ok. Kelsey check the connection and take over.” Newman went back to the bike and waited for the response. The laser turned off and the lava stream ended into the balls. They were cooling down now. Slowly the machine started to accelerate hovering to the exit.

“Waypoint set. Its moving,” Max replied.

“I see, good work. Then I can proceed.” Newman switched to inform the Captain which surly knew it already, “Captain now we got the second one on its way. Should we proceed to the next?” Newman asked.

“Negative. Two are enough. Retreat to the secure zone and try speed up things.” The Captain ordered.

“Affirmative,” Newman replied.

Ryan took the lead while Newman and Archer followed. Owens and Caine were on the back. They passed the storage location and then the first machine. As they reached the fortified location they went around them avoiding to get in the covered area of the sentries. Also no one wanted to try out the safeties which would identify friendly troops. Further drones also went out of the cave to check now the way back to the shuttles.

SW-5 went directly to their shuttle, where Samuel and Newman went into it to use the laptops in the shuttle seats.

Ryan and the others guarded the area around the shuttles.

The first machine was passing the fortified location. Then Max found out how to increase the speed. It was only an option for fast moving not to enter the speed directly. She checked this with Newman and Samuel then they decided to try out the option. The machines increased the speed to 32 kilometers per hour. Max further searched for directly enter the speed. But after five minutes she also focused as the others how to move it into the shuttle. The turn off trigger she had already found. Maybe manual drive option would do it. She searched for it.

 

The second machine was passing the fortified door. They had to shut down the sentries again.

“Prepare to retreat when it is out of the cave,” the Captain informed.

Suddenly the big door opened.

“In position fast! Use the sentries manually. Switch it on automatic as soon as possible,” Pearce ordered. At first there was no one to see. They were further behind on a corner near the wall on the end of the entrance corridor, which had vertical walls instead the trapeze one of the facility. Bigger corridors were going left and right on the back. They were big enough for three of the machines. Also they were as high as the door of about five meter. One sentry was on automatic now, the second followed. A ball like drone came around the corner. The sentries fired at once and shredded it. Further stuff was thrown out which the sentries took care off. Some exploded other seemed to waste the ammo of the sentries.

“Pearce, Freeman better you fall back outside the cave. We can better cover you there,” the Captain advised.

The sentries were depleted. They moved with the other bikes back and tried using another two for the cover. Further behind another stuff was thrown and now a shot came in hitting the first sentry. The second sentry was done with reloading and fired again. It took not much time then it also was out.

They still did not use their power shots. But the blasts were enough to screw the electronics. Even the EMP safety they had seemed not to work.

Following the missing fire of the sentries. Two armored aliens came to sight added by two none armored. They immediately opened fire with the rifles. Also the SW teams returned shots as reacting to the sight. Some smoke grenades were used, hoping to disrupt the targeting. One of the armored aliens was hit by a rocket launcher, where the nearby unarmored one was also hit by the blast and fell to the ground. The other armored alien continued firing as he was hit by the high speed projectiles. Two of them seemed to be down. But one unarmored which was now further away stood up again and ran into the smoke while another armored appeared with three more unarmored. Some of them were now moving faster out of the door opening.

Without the sentries the fallback was now difficult. SW-2 was now bringing two in position.

“Lee has been hit,” Anderson shouted, while Lee was falling to the ground. One of the front armored enemies was now moving very slowly.

“Get the sentries on. Then get Lee on a bike,” Freeman commanded and continued firing with his HK.

The first sentry was hit while the second started to fire and shredded the armored already hit one with some unarmored nearby. Further shoots were coming in and hitting the sentry.

Chavez who was pulling now Lee to a bike, was now getting him over the bike. One of the blasts hit him and both fell to the ground.

“Damn. Now Chavez is out, too. Fallback we have to lure them out of the cave,” Pearce shouted.

There were now much more out of the door. About ten were to see.

“They are not dying fast enough. Move faster back,” Freeman shouted while he reloaded his HK.

They were already out of the cave while the aliens were close to the fallen. The position of the two SW teams was getting worse as they moved more down the hill.

Bang a loud shot from the sniper rifle and another bang went off. An armored alien was falling.

It did not change the course of the battle yet. But these shoots boosted the morale of the retreating.

 

“We are under heavy assault we have to retreat,” Yamada radioed as he went behind a tree after chopping a head of with the sword. Further bolts were flying in and exploding on nearby enemies. Till now they were not armored. But now two armored appeared. Yamada went further back trying to use as much cover he could. The team already had killed seven and it seemed not to stop. All sentries they used were disabled. Using them in the forest was much more difficult as on an open field.

 

Meanwhile the first machine was in the shuttle and powered down. They lifted off to the more secure side where Newman would power it down completely for the journey to the Icarus. The lava balls were already cooled down and in the designated position of the container.

Also the shuttle of SW-5 left. Ryan and Caine stayed to help with the retreat. They headed with three bikes near the caves to support the retreat.

 

“Freeman is down!” Anderson, which used the alien rifle, shouted.

The aliens where now trying to move the nearby fallen SW soldiers further into the cave. From the higher ground the two SW-1 snipers were doing all they could to prevent that, while the rest of the team tried to assist SW-3. The cover of the trees on the forest border was good. But it did not go to well inside the forest. Still they had no fallen there.

“We cannot hold the forest. We are overrun retreat to the shuttles as fast as you can,” Commander Knight ordered.

“Pearce take all troops and retreat at once. We can cover with the combat drones if the gap is broad enough,” the Captain ordered.

“What about Freeman, Lee and Chavez?” Pearce asked.

“If you can get Freeman on a bike do so. For the others I see nothing what we can do,” the Captain replied and ordered all surface drones, which were assigned to the cave, into the open cave door to scout and distract the aliens.

Ryan and Caine were coming in having the bike of Newman and Samuel with them. Caine jumped of the bike and helped to get Freeman on his while Ryan gave some suppression fire with the Gatling gun. With that he drew the fire away while turning back the bike.

Freeman was now lying over the bike which moved away with him. Some of the aliens were shooting at the incoming surface drones. The SW teams could retreat further. But there was not much to hide here. Which let the aliens advance down the hill ignoring the fallen SW members at the moment. There was no sniper support anymore. But combat drones came in very fast and fire with all they had. Lighting railgun projectiles rained into the ground like meteors. There explosions occurred which blasted rocks and dust into the air. The whole area was turned into a dust cloud where the enemies could not be seen anymore.

This gave the teams time to jump on the remaining bikes and drive faster away. Some shoots were passing them.

 

The captured Gray stood up. At the same time the door to the control room of the facility opened. Then the Gray raised his right hand and the index finger, shook the finger slowly and looked grim. It went to the door which opened. Walking continuously, he went out of the door leaving the sight of the camera. Another one on the corridor showed him heading to the generator room. The door on his side opened. Then the camera feeds went black and there was a message written on it. 'You better leave now while you can.' …

 

8 Omega protocol

Knight left as last the forest. He was on a bike and one of his squad members was driving. Behind C4 charges went off to further secure their retreat. Knowing this would not stop them for long he switched to Icarus communication. “Captain, we left the forest. Requesting Omega Protocol immediately!”

“Initiate Omega Protocol!” the Captain ordered.

“Affirmative!” Then the drone officer entered the prepared command for that.

A fighter plane near the combat drones was informed via encrypted radio. With his voice interface the pilot activated the request and confirmed it with pushing of a button. At once a nearfield message went out to the nearby combat drone and was relayed to the others.

Already a broadcast went off and all surface scout drones which were assigned to the forest went with a new formation back to identify and marking the position of every enemy they will spot.

Receiving those information, the already accelerating combat drones, flew in waves to their new targets. These targets had to be in a certain area, so no one outside could be targeted.

With near supersonic speed the combat drones closed in. The first one fired two, one second, bursts at the first target, then pulled up. Following the second drone fired two bursts at two targets close to each other. Then the third drone fired on the next. This was the first wave which flew away while the explosions occurred. Dust spilled out of the forest. Trees were falling and the second wave came in and fired on its marked targets. The first wave was already turning and flying back as the third wave came in. Now both waves fired from different angles and crossed each other at different altitude. These three waves flew now an eight over the forest, continually firing on new targets. As there were no enemies left they shot on trees near the small cave entrance to the mountain base. A dust cloud was now coming out of the forest. There was nothing to see, as the combat drones kept firing on previous stored tree targets and the small cave area.

“Send nine reinforcement drones, soon they are out of ammo down there. Fly directly down,” the Captain ordered.

At once combat drones started from the Icarus front side launch bays, which were five on each side. These slots are always filled with drones. To the combat site it was a short travel as the Icarus was now in an orbit over the facility area.

 

Knight met up with the others. Freeman was brought into a shuttle to recover. Ryan reported to Knight about the left two soldiers.

“Captain, is the forest area secured?” Knight asked over radio.

“The drones shot at all targets. When the dust cloud is gone we send the surface drones in again. Also the reinforcement of the combat drones will arrive in ten minutes,” came the reply.

“Good, we try now a rescue operation. Keep the forest area secure,” Knight switched the communication. “All to me! We go now for a rescue attempt.”

As all seemed to be there Knight started, “Listen up! We have two left in the cave. The enemy stopped pressuring us and is falling back. With the crossbow in the forest we had some problems firing fast enough. So SW-3 will switch to the microwave rifles. Use the level you used for the Gray. This will not endanger our people and we may take prisoners. My team and the rest of SW-4 will back you up. The rest stays here. Ryan, you have the command here. We may need backup for the retreat. We will approach the cave from the right and sneak in position. So SW-3 can use a direct route when we are in position. Keep in mind we have limited number of bikes. This means we cannot use the full strengths for the backup. Now hurry and get your gears.” Knight went to a bike. His team and SW-4 followed him.

Yamada and his team went to their shuttle. The pilots were already in the airlock with the requested weapons. After getting them they also went into the direction of the cave.

The Captain updated Knight on the enemy count. There were only a few outside of the cave. In the mountain base there was no one to see.

“Newman what’s the status?” Ryan asked over radio.

Newman was exiting the shuttle. “We are starting the preparation with the first mining machine. I have not time frame, yet.”

“Update me if you have one,” Ryan was not sure if the rescue operation will work as planned and if not he needed options that may not only pure military ones. Then he ordered some of the others to guard the area for now, while he followed a drone feed of the cave.

There were not much turtle faces left. Those five, which moved back and reached the fallen, were now carrying them further into the cave. Knight’s team was on the approach from the side and should be out of sight. The wind blew the dust cloud into the direction of the green facility. So the cave was not much affected from the dust.

Knight headed as far as he could with the bikes, so he needed only to walk some steps to see inside.

 

Meanwhile SW-3 was on a direct approach up the hill seeing Knight and the others getting in position.

“Yamada, hurry they are close to the door. I don’t want to use the sniper rifles,” Knight informed as Yamada already jumped of the bike and sprinted up the hill. He pulled the rifle from his back and went down in position to target.

The aliens were now close to the cave door busy with carrying the others. So only one had a weapon in this hands and the others none at all.

“SW-3 are you in position?” Yamada asked.

Two replied with, “yes, sir.” The others were just getting there. He assigned the targets then gave the command to fire. Only two went down. At once he started to target the next.

The aliens sped up and pulled the fallen into the entrance of the cave. Now the one with the rifle shot into the direction of Yamada but missed badly.

Next shots went off and all aliens lay on the ground.

“Move!” Knight called out and all ran to the entrance with their rifles in the hands.

All of a sudden the huge cave door started to close. The fallen were already inside.

“Captain, I need status of the inside,” Knight radioed.

“No one to see, but I don’t recommend getting locked in,” came the reply.

It didn’t matter. They were too slow. The door moved further down and closed. Two of the turtle faces were before it. They were waking up now.

“Increase the level of the microwaves one step and fire,” Knight ordered.

This was now for humans a critical level which would be not used for stunning. They fired.

“Good. Now secure the area at our last position. We don’t know what comes next,” Knight switched to radio. “Ryan, I need Jones and some bindings for our prisoners. I don’t know if handcuffs are sufficient.”

“I send him with the needed supplies,” came the reply. “I guess we need now a plan to open that door?”

“Yes, I am already thinking, but C4 I guess won’t do it,” Knight replied.

 

“Do we have now a map of the mountain base?” the Captain asked.

“Yes, sir. I put it on table two,” Clark informed.

“Try to hide now the drones. We still need to know what is happening there. Maybe let one or two hide and go silent,” came the order from the Captain while he looked at the map. He didn’t know how the enemy will track the drones. But if they don’t search them explicitly, there is a good chance they won’t be spotted, he thought.

Still there was no one to see. But the others near the fallen woke up. They were a bit disoriented. Then two of them carried one of the fallen away while the other took the rifle and stayed.

“They are carrying one of us away from the door. One is guarding at the door,” Knight was informed by the Captain.

“We have a lot of alien rifles here, but I guess they won’t burn through that door. However, we will try.” Knight replied, then made the preparations for that.

A huge lift door opened and two more turtle faces came out of it. The elevator had a height of about four meters and a width of over ten. The other two with the fallen stepped in. After getting the last one all vanished and this level was abandoned from the living. Still there were some structures, machines, production installations and storage areas. At that level it seemed the ore was getting refined. Iron, titan, aluminum and whatever rods were there produced and stored. This all seemed to work fully automatic.

“I guess the lower level is more interesting,” Clark noted as they viewed the interior of the base.

 

Knight was already informed what happened. The alien weapons could not penetrate the door itself, but only melt the stone.

Ryan was following the progress as Yamada let some drones fly from his shuttle to the cave in order to relay the signals with them. So they didn’t need to use stronger ones which could be spied on more easily. Also it helped to reduce the signals of the drones in the mountain base.

“Newman, we have a problem. The cave door is closed. Can we use the last laser drill to open it?” Ryan asked.

“It would be worth a try. I’m still busy cutting the power of the first machine. I hope to be finished with this in 30 minutes. The next one should go faster. I can send you Samuel then we could capture the machine,” replied Newman and plugged a strange device out of the laser drill.

“That would be good. I inform Knight about the plan. Then inform you again if we have a go.” Ryan proceeded and after some words with Knight and then with Newman, again, was Samuel on the way.

 

“Captain, they have full control of the facility now. Most of our links are still there. But all in the lower level have been disabled. I hide now all others but one to see what they are up to. Also if we want to get active, we could try to get the camera feeds back,” Max informed.

“Prepare it, but don’t get active. We might need that later,” Fisher replied, then informed Knight about the status of the lower level of the facility.

The Captain guessed the Gray was now in the control room of the facility. With the doors closed there was probably no way to get him out. Also the Gray could not have retreated through the tunnel or got reinforcements. Because the forest was secured by the now replaced combat drones, while survived by the surface scouting drones and all other sensors each craft had.

 

Jones and the rest of his team arrived at the cave. The other SW squads were already retreated to the cave exit.

“We have two prisoners. They seem to be still alive but better you check that by yourself. Now we are testing how long they stay unconscious. With the bindings and handcuffs we need to disable their hand and arms. I don’t want them to be able to grab a gun. The rest we can handle with the microwave rifles, I think. SW-3 will watch them while you check them out.” Knight walked with the SW-2 part and SW-3 to the turtle faces.

“Should be no problem. We use the bindings and handcuffs first. Then I check them out,” Jones replied.

“Good, later when they woke up, I want them also out of the cave. We will see if they understand what we want,” Knight added.

They reached the enemies and started the work. Heavy as they were one of SW-3 was needed to assist in turning the first. He didn’t come to consciousness. So it worked well to immobilize both with the bindings. They used more of the binding thinking the handcuffs might not hold. Then Jones scanned them and took blood samples for analyzes. This time they had more equipment for checks. Even a EEG was possible now.

“My tests are done. The EEG is running. On the Icarus they will analyze it. The important part will come when he wakes up. Then we see what we can do,” Jones informed and all stepped back further.

“Better we go back to our secure location. It is always possible they storm out of that lift to rush for the door,” Knight wanted to play it safe.

As they reached the others, Ryan and Samuel arrived.

“Commander we are ready to go. Caine has the command at the landing site. I think we two are enough to get the mining machine and two of this containers.”

“Go, on and hurry. I need you for another matter later,” Knight replied.

Then Samuel and Ryan each on a bike headed into the cave with three escort surface scout drones.

“That’s quite risky, to send Ryan and Samuel in. If they have something new we can’t handle, they are cut off,” Pearce noted.

“Some risk we have to take now. It will be more when we move in there. I hope we can get something out of these prisoners. But I fear they have not much value,” Knight needed some more options. He thought about the Gray in the facility, which would add more value for an exchange.

“If they don’t send reinforcements, they must be low on soldiers by now,” Pearce guessed.

“Maybe, that could be the luck we need. But why they then wasted them. There were much better ways to encounter us.” Knight thought about how much time the laser drilling would take. It was a bit uncomfortable situation. On his days as SAS the enemy was known. The tactic, the types of traps, the territory and the buildings. Also they had most of the time the surprise effect on their side.

Here it was different. The equipment was a bit better, but that would not make that much. Was he risking too much. Effected by this only stun behavior of the enemy. Maybe he thought.

“Captain, it might be useful to recapture the Gray if we want to bargain with them. For that we need reinforcements and a plan to open the doors in the facility,” Knight radioed over the relay they had built up here.

“We are checking the option. I keep you informed,” the Captain replied and walked to the communications officer. “Connect me to Kelsey.”

“Captain, what do you need?” Kelsey replied.

“An option to open the doors in the facility. We want the Gray.”

“There are some possibilities, but he unplugged some cables. So we have to reconnect at the right point. Also it is possible that he took now more precautions. This means we might need some other equipment to hack in. If we give him too much time he might even counter our efforts.” Max had done more analysis of the data they got from the last trip.

“Can Samuel or Newman do that?” Fisher wanted a fast operation.

“Probably with the right equipment and training,” Max replied.

“You are our cyber-attack expert. I guess it is time for a field mission. Normally you need only to assist. But we need this fast. Get your gears and the needed equipment. SW-6 will assist you,” the Captain decided.

“Yes, sir.” Max answered accordingly.

It was for Max the first field mission. As she joined the CIA as cyber security expert she thought it would be a nice office job with the leading technologies available today. After the transfer to Ryan’s team it still was a nice office job with some outdoor exercises. She likes sports and had an acceptable condition and skills to master everything. But it was nothing compared to what the SEAL’s did.

She reported to Major Diaz and the team prepared the stuff they needed.

Diaz was a former SEAL like Ryan. But contrary to Ryan’s team all members of his team were former SEALs. So the upcoming drop was just the usual what SEAL’s do.

The preparation did not take much time. So they finally went all in suits to the shuttle, then the technicians came and helped to put on their backpacks. They were unusual and heavy. Max didn’t know them.

“What’s this. A new device for what?” Max asked curiously.

“Oh, didn’t the Captain told you? This will be a combat drop.” Diaz replied while a technician checked his backpack.

“You mean a parachute? I never jumped,” Max was now a bit overwhelmed and concerned.

“Well, it’s more than that. The parachute is only for emergency. This is an anti-gravity life support system. We do a stratosphere jump, because the location might not be completely secure. We do not know what’s happening in the facility. So this is the fastest and safest way to get us down,” Diaz explained.

“Yea. Down no matter what,” Green made a comment.

“Shut up Green. This is fully automatic. So you will have to do nothing. You will get the full instruction while we fly down.” Diaz checks were done.

“Everything is fine,” the technician said and continued with Green.

“You are good to go,” another technician, which checked Kelsey’s backpack, informed her and went for the next.

“Ok. Kelsey we can go in now.” Diaz took the lead.

Max was now a bit worried and did not follow.

“I’m no SEAL. Does the Captain know this? I read about the things you do. I have no training in this.” Max got overwhelmed by her worries and felt fear.

“Kelsey this sounds more than it is. Sure it is dangerous. But you need no training for this. It is all in the hand of the tiny computer in your backpack. You are an expert, so you know computers make less errors then humans.” Diaz stopped and reached his hand. “You can close your eyes if you want and will land smoothly like a feather.”

“How often have you done that?” she asked.

“Over 50 times. We tested that that stuff. This is the safest thing I ever used. It’s like a bungie jump that last a bit longer, with an amazing view. You will enjoy it.” Diaz was near out of ammo what he could say next. It was a bad situation. Needing the highly skills of a computer expert and then the fearless mind of a SEAL. Diaz thought what would Ryan do, which had lot of more experience for this.

Max took the hand and stepped in with Diaz.

“In what did I let me lure in,” Max moaned.

“In the best and safest experience you can get. Compared to the stuff we did on Earth this is easy. And where can you get a free and safe stratosphere jump?” Diaz sat down and Max next to him.

“I’m not an idiot. If something goes wrong with the suit, my blood starts to boil and I can say goodbye,” Max moaned.

“Hey, don’t shook my team. You already did a mission on a planet. Your suit worked well and in space with the shuttle this also could happen in an accident case. Now to the important stuff. When we go to the ramp a green light will show up in your display. It says everything is fine. If it turns red or vanishes you have here in the front a plug for the parachute you normally won’t need. In that case we have enough time to send you a bike that will get you to your destination. But don’t worry that never happened there is much failsafe build in. At the ramp we just throw our stuff out and jump. The automatic will stabilize your drop and you can enjoy it. If it is at the end to fast for you just close your eyes. You will be fast slowed down then turned up for the touchdown. There will be also a countdown for the last three seconds to hear. Then you can open your eyes and see your touching down like a feather.” Diaz finished the introduction.

“That sound easy. What does the emergency plug do exactly?” she asked.

“You won’t need it, but it opens up a parachute to slow you down and finally another parachute for gliding down. Then you are a sitting duck for targeting. That is not what we want to do. Also on your display you will have all information, speed, altitude and heading. What is nice to have. But you have not much influence to it.” Diaz looked around the last one was coming in.

“Major, I changed my mind I want out of this,” Green joked.

“Green, you are the first.” Diaz countered.

“Aye, aye, sir,” he replied and saluted.

The pilots come in and closed the door.

“Let’s rock,” one of them said. The others cheered.

Max was still worried but somehow something between excited and nervous. With the anti-gravity stuff things seemed to be more controllable. Space travel was a smooth and enjoyable experience like cruising at the sea, she thought and calmed more down.

“So your mission is to get Kelsey into the facility and secure it, while we search the Gray to stun and capture him. Then get him to the others at the cave. SW-3 will give us support. Ryan and Newman might join us later,” Diaz instructed, while the shuttle started out of the hanger.

 

Newman was done with the second mining machine. He left the shuttle to fly back with Taylor and Owens. The shuttles with the captured machines also left, escorted by two fighters. They flew to the ocean to accelerate there up in the sky. The backside route was not needed anymore.

SW-6’s shuttle was near the drop zone. Four went into the airlock and then to the ramp which was still closed but already depressurized. Then the rest went into the airlock including Max and Diaz.

“We have nearfield communication if needed. Also a team on the Icarus is observing the landing backpacks. So don’t worry it will be an amazing experience,” Diaz said then he opened the airlock as the procedure was done.

“We are coming close to the drop zone. I open now the ramp,” the pilot informed.

“Copy that,” Diaz replied. “Green show us your best performance.”

“Roger that.” Green was the joking one or he did it to overcome his fears. Diaz did not care much. Green was a solid soldier and that was what matters.

The ramp opened, at the top the darkness of space could be seen. They waited for the green light. It went on.

“We reached the drop zone. You are clear to go,” came from the pilot.

The four at the front activated the bikes and threw them out of the shuttles. After that a supply crate went out. Green stepped to the end of the ramp then turned around to see to the airlock. He saluted and let his body fall backward out of the shuttle. The others jumped just forward from the ramp away. Max and Diaz were the last.

“It does not matter how you jump out. The automatic will stabilize you. Forward jump is the most proven. Check the green light, then you are good to go,” Diaz said and walked with Max to the end of the ramp.

“Green light is there. This is nuts. Completely nuts!” She was looking down and jumped ignoring her fear in the believe everything will be fine.

“Oh myyyyy goooooooooood,” she screamed as the freefall effect came in and the automatic turned her into the position to look down. It was not that difficult as she anticipated, similar to the space training she had. Looking now down gave an amazing view. She forgot to check for the green light. “Wow, this is indeed amazing.”

“As I said. But don’t forget to check the green light,” Diaz added.

“Green. I’m here. But I have no light,” Green joked.

“Then do what you can best,” another one said.

“Screeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamm!” Green shouted.

They accelerated down.

Max checked the display information. She was close too supersonic, then the boom came. Sill it was smooth.

10 000 meters were left the display showed. Then the speed decrease. The ground was coming closer.

“Now you can close your eyes if it is too fast for you. The parachute won’t matter anymore,” Diaz informed.

The others were already on the ground near the shuttles at the landing zone.

“Oh my god!” Max screamed.

“This is hell reaching for you. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Green screamed.

Both started to scream further.

Max closed her eyes. The deceleration increased much then she turned up and the signal was to hear. Opening her eyes, she was close to the ground or at the ground. After two seconds she could make out a slow motion and then felt the ground on her feet. She had arrived. Green helped her to get rid of the landing backpack.

The others already opened the crate to get the weapons out. SW-3 was already there. Three of them had the microwave rifles. The other two use now a HK with the high speed ammunition.

Most of SW-6 had now the HK except Green. He also used a microwave rifle because of the main objective. For Kelsey the microwave rifle made the most sense, she was now full of adrenaline.

They jumped on the bikes and drove to the tunnel entrance in the forest.

“Captain, we are on our way,” Diaz informed.

“Affirmative, it is clear now,” the Captain confirmed to ensure the combat drones are no threat. They were circling further away in a waiting loop.

Green took the lead into the tunnel. With his infrared sight and targeting system of the Gatling gun, he checked his front for enemies. There was nothing to see.

Yamada was behind him. They switched into the corridor part. There both drove side by side until the crossing of the unfinished corridor part and the control room.

Yamada hit the brakes and tuned fast into the unfinished part. There was no one.

Green also decelerated and turned in the hall before the power generator. It was secure for now. The others fortified the train tunnel with two bikes.

Diaz and Max arrived. She jumped of and immediately started the work.

“As expected, he cut the cables. So he also cannot use the camera. Probably he had seen us coming.” Max took a scanner from the bikes trunk. She searched around the door. “This will take some minutes.”

 

Newman arrived at the landing zone.

He and Caine took two bikes, Ryan sent and drove to the cave.

 

“They are waking up,” Jones informed.

“Ok, get them out of the cave,” Knight ordered. As already discussed Samuel, Anderson, Riley and Ryan went closer. Anderson had the alien gun set on lowest. Riley and Ryan used the microwave rifles from SW-3.

The turtle faces looked around. They spotted the one with the rifles closer to them. A little gesture plays and they seemed to understand. It was unexpected easy to get them out of the cave.

Newman was full at work with the laser system. Finally, he thought to be ready, while Samuel tried to communicate with the turtle faces without success.

Then the laser started the work.

 

Max was done with her analysis. “I can activate the opening mechanism. But this is a onetime try. It seems the Gray did not take precautions there. However, he can stop this by sending a command. I guess he will be on the control console. So I will shoot with the microwave rifle a failsafe device. The automatic will then open the door. I don’t know how much time we have.”

“Good,” Diaz looked to Yamada. “Major, place your best shooter on the left, Green to the right. Shot as soon you have a target. If the door opens wide enough we storm. Get ready.”

Yamada selected Fujita for the shooting and prepared himself to storm from left.

Diaz went on the right with his HK. “We are ready, Kelsey.”

“I target now.” She had marked the position and used a targeting assisting system on the rifle to get the alignment. “Three, two, one.” The shot went off and the door started to open. It was a slow process.

Fujita had the best position. Knowing where the controls were helped much. The microwave rifles were on the setting they used in the forest. He saw the Gray reaching for the controls and fired. “Gray down.”

The door was barely open to get through.

“Check the area and wait till it’s more open,” Diaz said and waited.

It was now three meter wide open.

“Move!” came the order from Diaz.

Fujita and Green went in first then Diaz and Yamada followed. The next two secured the position at the door, also to watch the Gray, while the others searched the room. Finally, they went for the Gray.

Green handcuffed the Gray on his back. Then he and Fujita carried him out of the room.

“All clear,” Diaz informed.

Kelsey went in and plugged a spy connector to an optic panel. Then she opened her laptop and started to analyze. “I want to check now how they interrupted our communication and the cameras. They shouldn’t have access to the facility except they used our stuff.”

 

“It works. We are cutting through the door. I estimate to be done in one hour,” Newman informed Knight.

“Perfect, then we only need the Gray. I check with the Captain.” Knight switched to Icarus communication. “Captain, the door is approximately in one hour open. Then we need the Gray.”

“We have him. Kelsey is still analyzing. Ryan can secure the facility from the other side. Soon we should have the cameras back,” came the reply from the Captain.

“Affirmative, I send Ryan,” Knight turned to Ryan. “Major, you are good to go. We still have no cameras. Best you use drones.”

“We are on the way. Caine, Newman let’s go.” Ryan went to Samuel. “Do you see any success with the prisoners?”

“No, I cannot tell if the can read the stuff I showed them in their language. Maybe they just don’t respond or won’t speak like the Gray. But they seem not to be aggressive or trying anything to get away. Even the EEG is not bothering the one. From it we assume they can read what I showed them,” Samuel replied.

“Then it does not make sense to continue. Get your gears. We go back and help Max securing the facility,”

“Yes, sir.” Samuel close his laptop and put it into his backpack, then walked with Ryan to the bikes. They drove away to the shuttle. Ryan needed a weapon. He left the microwave rifle and his HK at the cave for the others.

Arriving at the shuttle Owens was there with Taylor guarding with the other pilots the shuttle area.

“We go back to the facility maybe we need a pilot again. There is still a ship to capture.” Ryan did not command Owens, yet. It was obvious he would choose him with having already experience flying an alien craft.

“My MG is read,” Owens replied which had the weapon in his hand.

“Sure you want use it. Against the armor it is useless and for indoor there are better weapons,” Ryan suggested.

“So you recommend what?” Owens had his favors which meant nothing for the engagement conditions.

“The HK with high speed ammo, I guess you don’t like, so the microwave rifle does fit. Also the alien rifle is an option where we have plenty at the cave,” Ryan replied and went to the shuttle. The others of the team followed. It was a fast choosing. Samuel, Newman and Owens took the microwave rifle for different reasons, while Ryan and Caine the HK for indoor use with primary high speed ammunition. Newman added five drones to avoid any surprises. They went out. Samuel and Newman activated the follow mode for three drones. The other two they stored in the trunks of two bikes. Five minutes later they were on the entrance of the facility.

This time Owens and Ryan went for the door and checked the entrance out. They went for the corridor and secured it. Then the others followed now with five drones.

“I send now the drones to give us an overview and finally secure connection to Kelsey. So we can reduce the signal strength,” Newman told and opened his laptop.

“If they have radio receiver in here this won’t stop them from listening,” Ryan noted.

“Yes, but they use a different encryption. So we can assume at least a delay,” Newman sent the three drones on automatic survey.

Samuel also opened his laptop. So both had a drone to control by themselves. First they checked the ground level. Then after finishing the top part they went down till the closed power generator doors. The drones spread out do relay the signals with minimum strength. Then they connected to Max.

“It is all clear on our side,” Newman informed.

“I found a strange device which seems to transfer data. This could be a wireless communication device, connecting the two facilities. The scans could not find any frequency. But there is also one in the hangar it seems. Can you check this out? I want both disconnected when I activate our control of the network.” Max had already disconnected the one on her side and let it work with a dummy network which simulated the real one. So she could analyze what the thing does.

“Of course. I report back when we are there,” Newman told Ryan what’s up. He had the probable position of the device marked on a virtual map they had now. Ryan and Owens took the lead. Newman reported back as they reached the destination in the hangar. After some instructions, Newman started to scan. It took not much time to find it. Comparing it with the video feed, Max identified it as the same. Newman started a longer analysis and finally decided to plug it off while scanning it. It did not help much to determine how it functioned.

He connected to Max, again. “I turned the thing off. My analysis did not come further than yours. It is sending and receiving data. But I don’t think it is a data storage. I only have the theory we already had with the quantum communication of the Gray. This means the link should be dead since I fully unpowered it. I will take it for further analysis to the ship. If this really is what I think of, this would be a breakthrough technology which could give us the possibility to communicate to Earth on any distance in real-time.” Newman was exited.

“Yes, I read the report. But we could not figure out the other devices we had. I don’t think with these it works better. Even if we get the device I have, powered to the Icarus, it will be difficult to impossible figuring out how this works when it is a quantum effect with entangled particles. You know scanning it directly will probably destroy the entanglement of the particles. I open now the doors and connect the network to the Icarus. Then we figure out how we continue.” Max typed some commands into the laptop which activated the link to the Icarus and the camera feed. Then she informed Diaz. They opened the generator doors first on their side. As there was no one they opened the other. SW-3 moved with the still unconscious Gray to the lift and then brought him to the cave.

Newman was now with Max in the control room, checking out the working device.

“I think we should take our chances and hack them. Sooner or later they figure out they are not on their real network,” Max suggested.

“Right. With the assistance of the Icarus this could work. I’m not the expert for this. So I will check with Owens the spacecraft and send you Samuel to assist. At some point we have to decide, if we try to get it powered to the Icarus or if it has more use here,” Newman packed his stuff to go up.

“Yes, but with the dummy network it should not matter where it is. So you have to get the portable power supply and adjust it for this,” Max replied.

“True, I will try after the work with the spaceship is done. I guess you, Samuel and me will then fly with Owens up. Till later.” Newman was on the move.

“See you,” then Max called the hacking team on the Icarus. It was quite some work to do.

 

Watkins was in the briefing room with her staff informing the Captain.

“We analyzed a fluid found in the disc ship. This is something which activates some genes, animals use for hibernation. It does a bit more so we need further tests. And finally some animal testing on Earth. But it is obvious in this case, that they use it for space travel. We have seen the sleep chambers. Now we have even working ones. So with the limited space in their ships, hibernation or something more advanced is the only possibility how they can travel more time demanding distances. Else they need a bigger ship like ours,” Watkins reported proud.

“Yes, that could be the case unless they can travel much faster. But then also this option let them travel a longer distance. Can we use this for us? That we could fly with the alien ship to Earth?” the Captain was curious.

“Theoretically. But there must be a lot of tests made on Earth to ensure the compatibility for humans. Maybe we have to alter the formula a bit. However, we should be able to develop this technology, I guess. In a timeframe of five years,”

“If you can get more information out of this do so. But five years does not concern us now. The option to use an alien craft would be nice,” the Captain wanted an option for practical use.

“We can only do some further tests. It may lower the risk a bit. But I would never recommend it for a trail on human,” Sharon a member of Watkins research team said.

“Then do the tests if nothing more is important on the desk. Do you know what they eat?” Fisher asked.

“We found also some fluids that could be their food supply for space travel. There the analysis is ongoing,” Watkins told.

“Good, anything else?”

“No.”

“Then thank you for your report. Good work.”

“You are welcome.” The report was over Watkins and her staff left the room.

 

9 The drill

Newman was now also searching for the communication device in the alien ship.

Still Freeman was lying on a stretcher in the shuttle. His suit was off. He had a blanked as cover. Jones injected him something for faster regeneration and pain reduction. It felt good not like Anderson had reported.

“Hey, someone there?” he called.

There was no one in the shuttle.

“Ah, you are back. I inform Jones,”, one of the pilots radioed.

“How is the situation?” Freeman asked.

“At the moment peaceful. Jones is on his way. He is here in about 10 minutes and will check you out,” came the reply after a short break.

“I am fine. Ready for duty.” Freeman replied and stood up. He was a strong Afro-American, third generation in the US military. Proud of his job, he was eager to go on and show as leader nothing can stop him from his duty. As a former Delta Force member he was drilled to overcome conditional obstacles. But here it would be handled a bit different. The directives were a bit changed. He was now in his t-shirt and shorts checking the tactical information on the screen.

“Wait for Jones it will be a short checkup. There is not much going on. We still wait for the drill to finish,” the pilot replied.

“Drill?”

The pilot told him the situation and stretched the time till Jones was there.

The checkup took a bit of a time and the data was verified with the doctors on the Icarus. Satisfying for Freeman he was now declared fit for duty. He put one of the backup combat suits on, which they had now in the shuttles. Then he went with Jones back to the cave.

 

“Flying this ship should be no problem. We have now everything we need. It’s quite similar to the disc.” Owens was pleased with the progress. He had already figured out most of the things with Samuels assistance.

“Then I have to check one more thing.” Newman used his electronic scanner again and searched around without success.

“What are you looking for?” Owens wondered.

“We found this interesting communication devices. I assume the ship also should have one. Better I ask for Kelsey’s help, now.” Newman opened a panel and plugged in a spy connector, then connected to Max. “Kelsey, do you have any success?”

“Yes, we are getting some data we are analyzing, now.”

“Very good. I also need your help here. I plugged in a spy connector to the ship. I assume they also should have at least one of this communication devices. But I failed to find it with the scanner. It’s probably turned off,” Newman checked the ships diagnostic he found.

“You are probably right. On the ship on Earth we found not such device maybe it’s different on these ships. I try with the team to find out how we can access it. Then locating it should be no problem,” Max made the needed calls.

Then Samuel joined.

“I think I have a clue. Checking the control panel down there led me to the access menu. Hopefully it’s here the same.” Samuel went through the menus. “There it is. Max I found it.” It was not the correct call in a mission. The military protocol was to use surnames. For Samuel it was a bit strange behavior. Now he recognized his mistake. But no one did respond to it.

“Good. I’m scanning. You can go on,” she replied.

Samuel pushed the button on a touch screen. The device activated. But did not send or receive data. The menu showed the option where to connect. There were two. Samuel had a bit problem with the translation. He took his laptop out of his backpack and tried to find a solution. “There are two destinations. I have to figure out what they are. Maybe the base here and one on a different star or both on different star system.”

“Did not the connection down there has a name?” Newman asked.

“Unfortunately no,” Max replied.

“On the Icarus we could compare it with that of the disc,” Samuel suggested.

“They are probably the same. Then it gets us to nowhere,” Newman replied.

“Then the hard way, we search for reference,” Samuel added.

 

The drill was done. They had now an entrance of over two-meter height and three-meter width. Slowly the drill moved to the side. It was controlled from the Icarus.

“Captain, we go in. We will send drones down the lift if possible and return. Maybe a bigger hole would be useful, later,” Knight radioed to the Captain.

“Affirmative. We continue with the drill when you are at the lift.”

“Pearce, get your team ready. SW-1 prepare to move out. Yamada, you support us with drones. We try to activate the lift. You send the drones in. Freeman, your team continues guarding the prisoners.” Then Knight moved out to the new entrance.

Yamada let the pilots of his shuttle send more drones. So he had seven available. Knight was the first who went in. The walls seemed to be molten out of the stone. At some point were metallic structures. Probably to support the static. They did not come close to the machinery which was producing rods of metal. The other drones still observed this level. So the only threat could come from the lift.

They were close now. Knight brought the teams in position while the laser drill started its work again. Then he went to the elevator and tried to activated it with the only mechanism he found. It was not a button. Only an area maybe a touch pad or something similar. He just touched it and moved his hand close to it around. There was no visible signal. While he slowly walked backward the door opened. It was moving up. The lift was empty. Five drones flew in.

“We are scanning the lift now. There is a similar area which you pushed on it. I try to touch it with a drone.” Yamada informed.

Knight had stopped walking back. One of the drone was flying to the probable button. It slowly knocked on it. Nothing happened.

“I’ll push it,” Knight said then.

“No, wait. I try the infrared laser scanner. It would be useful if we can interact with the drones,” Yamada interrupted.

It seemed to work the door closed. There was only this outer door at first. Then a transparent one like roller blind came down. It was the same as on the other side. There the stones of the mountain could be seen. The whole top area was a light area. It was not bright but sufficient. Slowly the lift went down. The walls outside could be seen on both sides now. Then a door on the other side came in sight. As the lift stopped the transparent door opened first. Then the other followed a second later.

It looked quite similar in this level and there was no one to see. The drones went out and scanned the area. One stayed close to the lift as signal relay.

“Captain, we are moving back,” Knight informed and waited.

“Ok. The drill is off and moving away,” came the reply seconds later.

The two teams headed out to the others while the scanning continued. Still no one was seen. But there was a production installation to see, which seemed to produce a mining machine like the one they captured. Also there was a different type of door.

 

“I have now references. The left button is for the base in the mountain. But I guess if we connect they will be notified. So for hacking purpose we should continue with the running connection and maybe figure out how we can activate this without notice,” Samuel said.

“I inform the Captain,” Newman replied and activated the Icarus connection. “Captain, we have now two and with the disc ship maybe three possibilities to connect to the mountain base. But only the running connection in the facility gives as more chances to proceed hacking undetected. Should we try to move the connected device up? This might have some risks losing the connection.” Newman asked.

“We are now scanning the sublevel of the mountain base. There are also robotic machines there. This would suggest we also can get a connection there. If it is possible, Kelsey can continue her work on the Icarus and let the device in the facility not losing the connection. You and Samuel should assist at the cave. Then we can leave the facility for now and focus our resources on the main objective,” Fisher replied. He thought there was nothing to gain there and the forces might be needed if they continue with the mountain base.

“Affirmative. Then Owens will fly Kelsey with the alien ship up. Are the combat drones notified?” Newman asked.

“Yes, they are on passive. But inform me when they start,” Fisher answered.

“Owens will do that. I inform the others, now,” Newman talked with Ryan then with Kelsey. She needed some minutes to prepare. Then they locked down the sublevel again and all went with the lift up.

Owens informed the Captain and flew with Kelsey through the canyon. An escort of two fighters joined them. They flew to the ocean and then accelerated up.

 

Meanwhile the rest of SW-5 accompanied by SW-6 arrived at the cave.

Knight was already studying the sublevel. He then went with the team leaders Newman and Samuel for a briefing further away from the prisoners.

The mining laser was on again and continued increasing the width of the entrance.

“We have now a tuff decision to make. Newman show us the sublevel,” Knight said.

Newman showed the map on his laptop which he used as a tablet now. The analysis team on the Icarus did a good job. It was not the finalized version. But the important stuff was on it. The tablet went around the group of leaders which inspected it.

“What about the door. Can we open it?” Ryan asked.

Samuel used his tablet to show the door. It was locked, more massive then the others of the generator room. Also it seems to have a different mechanic.

“We can drill everything with the laser. However, this will take quite more time. I would guess a day or more. Depending how thick it is. It looks very thick,” Newman replied.

“What about the three door hinges on the side can we blast them?” Pearce asked.

“With special explosive from the Icarus, yes. But the door needs to be open. So it would crash to the ground. This is probably similar to vault doors. Once closed the hinges have nothing to do with the door locking mechanism. We would only make it harder to open,” Newman explained.

“So what are our option to open it?” Knight asked.

“As I mentioned the laser. Maybe hacking their system too, which does not mean it is connected to the door. There are sure cameras down there so they know what we are doing down there. So planting explosives on the hinges and getting them to open the door won’t work,” Newman answered.

“So we are down to try to make a deal with the prisoners. Not knowing our opponent makes this a risky bet. What we know of them makes it also unlikely to work. The other option would be to place charges on the production line and lure them out. This we can even combine with placing charges on the door hinges, if we can find and disable the nearby cameras,” Pearce said.

“An interesting option. But as we want our people back. This would force us to fight us through to them. However, they would only open the door if they see a chance to stop us. If they are low on soldiers they might just wait. Which means the only chance is to deal with them or deal with the door,” Newman noted. He had his tablet back and checked the production line.

“I would call this a classic trap. If we want our people, we have to go down. They can lock the lift anytime they want. Let us play with the door and open it when they feel prepared. Down there we have no air support and a smaller team could be fast outnumbered,” Freeman said.

“Right and we know they have these communication devices. Sure one to connect to other star systems of them like we found it in the alien ship. This means we have a time limit. They sure already called for support. Drilling one or two days is no option,” Newman added now.

“Then we are down to the risky prisoner exchange. We need options if this fails.” Knight did not like his, but was willing to do it if they had some follow up.

“The lift doors are not strong. If they block it, we put holes in. Like we did it with the other. But because of the height it is not a good option for retreat. However, reinforcement is possible,” Pearce noted.

“True. But if the lift is up this could be difficult. This is a very heavy lift so the bottom must be very strong,” Newman added trying to find a better solution. No one said anything, all were thinking now. “However, do you see this overlapping area on the map. There the top level’s bottom is not reinforced by the metal structure. This means with a little drilling and some explosive we can crash this. So we should have a hole where we can even send the bikes down. What I don’t recommend in a fight. You know what will happen if the bikes get hit by an alien weapon and you are over eight meter in the air.”

“Still, this option is a good one we could use for a surprise. This would mean two teams go down try to bargain. But we would be unable to blow the hinges. This would mean the enemy could retreat and close the door. Then we gained nothing except the chance for a prisoner exchange.” Knight wanted better options but at least it would now make a bit more sense to try.

“We still got Kelsey’s hacking attempts. That is more like the laser drill with no time estimation.” Newman had no more clues.

“If we try this exchange. We have four SW teams as backup available. But blowing a hole into the bottom does not give us access to use all fire power we have. Only a few can support from the hole. This makes it not very effective. It might work if they have not much forces left. But if they have it is useless,” Freeman added his concerns.

“Other problem. They already disrupted our communication. So we might not synchronize when to blow the location up. It should surprise them, so we can’t prepare it. Drilling a hole and planting charges will take at least two minutes,” Newman noted.

“No, problem. Use the alien rifles, shoot a hole wait ten seconds for the cooling. Then throw the charges in. This should be below one minute,” Pearce suggested.

“That might work. I will make a test to be sure.” Newman didn’t want to speculate too much with explosive.

“It’s a bold bet that they do a prisoner exchange. I guess they take the chances to get more. We know they like to get samples from us. So when we go down they might just try to shot us and get us behind the door. Then the reinforcement can’t do much,” Diaz said.

“That’s the problem. Can we in such a situation hold the line till you blow up the ground and support us. As we know you will do this here.” Knight pointed on the location on the map. “We can try to hold the line there.” Now he pointed at a position further ahead. “This should give you the chance to get down without being exposed to much. With some bikes we should have enough firepower.”

“We already had problems to use the bikes in an ongoing fight. They work if the distance is far enough and they are already in sentry mode. Down there we might have the distance problem again,” Pearce pointed out his experience.

“Is there any way we can use them like the combat drones on the forest? The Omega Protocol worked quite well.” Knight asked.

“Maybe. This would take some time for preparation. Also it would be a dangerous thing. The Omega Protocol worked, because only the enemy was in the target zone and we could use the superior speed of the drones. What do we do if they interrupt communication? I would not recommend this,” Newman replied.

“I don’t want to lose too much time. It will be a risky attempt. As sooner we act our opponent also has less time to prepare. The plan is now SW-1 and SW-4 go with the prisoners down. If something goes wrong, we have to blow up the bottom and adapt as good as we can. Ryan, you will have the command. If it doesn’t make sense to support like we planned, find another way as long there it time. I will now inform the Captain. Then we will arm up and go in,” Knight decided.

The Captain was not quite happy about the plan, but he had no better option than to leave. Knight was sure his squad and SW-4 would have enough firepower. Also there was the possibility the door won’t open at all. Then the discussion was nearly for nothing and time would fade away.

 

Owens and Max arrived at the Icarus. She brought the dead communication device after decontamination into the lab. Then she went for a short medical checkup and went finally into an office in the quarantine zone to continue the work without a suit.

Owens had some assistance to power down the alien ship. Newman had already informed the team and Owens what to do. It was a needed procedure because it could be possible to activate a ship over this communication device. So they had to cut the power to the engines and the weapons system. Then check the same on the disc ship to ensure nothing could happen. Also the wanted communication devices had to be still powered but disconnected from the ships network for later hack options. This meant further things which Kelsey would do if she had the time.

 

Newman worked now on one of this container they had captured. He unplugged the power for the gravity field generator which controlled the stuff at top. So they could use it without danger as transporter. This was useful now to store all the alien rifles they stacked together. For the upcoming mission Knight wanted only use two of them. It made some sense because the microwave rifle was not useful against the armored suit. Nevertheless, he used one and had his HK on the back. The two sniper used the Barret. Then one of his team members an alien rifle the others a HK with high-speed ammo like his on the back. Pearce used also a HK. Anderson, with his experience, the alien rifle. The other two had the APX with its grenade launcher.

It was no problem to signal the reptilian aliens to go. Also the Gray followed the order which was also spoken out as he surly understood it.

The laser drill was nearly at the end. It stopped and went to the side. They went through the entrance to the lift.

As they were close to it, surprisingly the lift door opened. There was no one in there and could not be as the areas were monitored with the scout drones.

“Seems they expect us,” Knight said and signaled the prisoners to move in. “Move.”

Everyone went into the lift. Then it closed automatically and went down.

“Still no one to see and the door is closed,” Clark informed from the Icarus.

The door opened and they went out. Knight signaled the team to get in position. He and the two with the alien rifle walked with the prisoners to the big door. Then stopped a far enough away where they could still get in cover, but had the door in sight. There were two routes from the lift to that door. This made it much easier for all to find a suitable cover position. The spread out teams were now behind Knight and on the other side having the door in sight.

“I want a prisoner exchange,” Knight called out. Nothing happened. “We can end this peacefully.” Knight waited.

After a while he looked at the clock to check the time. Then he thought about the time he wanted to wait.

“I wait here further 10 minutes. Then we move back,” Knight informed all over radio. Do they really not care? Maybe for the Gray or were Knight’s forces a threat denying the door opening? Knight thought about many more reasons. Then checked the clock again. Seven minutes were past. He waited further and thought more about possibilities. Was his time limit too short? He checked the time again. Elven minutes had past.

“Well, it seems your friends do not want you,” Knight said to the Gray. “Let’s move to the lift.”

He gave the signals to the reptilians. They all followed and moved back.

Then the door made a noise and opened slowly.

“Stop!” Knight gave the signals and repositioned the prisoners.

It was dark in there. Only the light in the cave did brighten up what was behind the door.

Out of the darkness a Gray stepped out and stopped a bit further out of the opening while the door still opened.

“So you finally decided to stop your killing,” the Gray said.

“Sorry, but we only defended ourselves and needed time to adapt,” Knight replied.

“Nevertheless you did some damage. Not that it matters much and I guess you already assumed it. Seems you are still unsure. Yet you try to make a deal with probably nothing.”

“Sorry, but we were the first who got attacked. Defending itself does every living being. Also we have a history with your kind for what we would like an answer,” Knight said.

“Having nothing and still trying to get something. But as a good will for your changed behavior you get your two soldiers back,” the Gray replied. Then Lee and Chavez came into sight.

“You two can go to the lift. Don’t worry you need no air filters on this planet,” the Gray said.

Both had no helm and the top part of the suit was removed as it was with Ryan and Caine. They walked to Knight which also let the others go.

“So you did the same to them as to our men at the facility,” Knight continued, as both passed him.

“Does it matter? You have your people back as you wanted. Unfortunately, we want also something of value for us,” the Gray replied.

Chavez and Lee were close to the elevator.

The Captain and the others followed the trade over the drone video stream.

“I thought we had a deal,” Knight said.

“We gave you your people back as a gesture and to answer your question. We take samples for analysis propose. So we will do it with you. Please drop your weapons. You might hurt yourself with that stuff,” the Gray replied.

Chavez and Lee were in the lift. The door was closing.

Suddenly the connection to the drones was lost.

 

“Damn it. Diaz, secure the lift. SW-5 go! We have a charge to set,” Ryan ordered and led to the position for planting the charge. Caine had the alien rifle. Newman the C4. He already tested it once.

 

Knight targeted with the microwave rifle the Gray. The prisoners were already out of sight.

“Hold position!” Knight ordered and fired. Nothing happened. Knight set the microwave rifle to maximum.

“Well, then the other way,” said the Gray, turned and walked away into the darkness.

Knight fired again. Still nothing. He activated the IR sight support. The Gray was too soon out of sight for him to switch weapons.

“Fire at the Gray no matter what,” Knight said and also radioed registering now the connection lost icon on his display. The others who could hear it fired. Then the Gray was out of sight. A strange metallic noise like steps were to hear.

“Check the lift and prepare to fire,” Knight ordered. “Energy weapons too maximum!”

“Riley check the lift,” Pearce ordered.

Knight also went back to cover. A huge mechanic machine appeared. It had a height close to four meter. With legs and arms it looked like a huge robot. It was probably made with this titan alloy and seemed massive against the armor suit they had encountered. On the right arm there was something starting to spin. It looked like a Gatling gun around the metallic arm. In the middle of it there was a simpler hand like mechanism which was also on the other side. It had three finger like grabs. The robot, or was there someone in the middle part, stopped.

The main structure had enough space to house a Gray. Maybe even one of the reptilian. But that was more unlikely. Exactly Knight could not determine it. He targeted at the middle to probably hit the one inside or at least the electronics.

“Prepare to fire!” Knight shouted.

The right arm of the machine was rising.

“Fire!” Knight pulled the trigger and shot at it.

Other shots followed. The plasma of the alien rifles spread out before the machine and vanished slowly with some fluctuations. It looked like there was a shield. Bullets bounced off the metal and some sparkles were to see. The Barretts shot with also no effect as well as a grenade.

Now the arm was pointing in Knight’s direction.

“Cover!” Knight shouted and dropped his gun jumping to the side.

A lot of plasma bolts headed into his direction and then to the position of the others. Everyone were in cover now. The other side was still firing without seemingly damaging it.

“Anderson shoot at the top. We need a holes to get rocks down!” Pearce ordered him.

Riley was coming back with no success. “The lift does not respond.”

“Ok. See were Anderson is shooting. So when the battle armor is coming closer, I want you to shot at the holes with the grenade launcher when I order you,” Pearce informed him.

The machine was now firing some shots to the other side then it walked forward near Knight’s position.

“Prepare to fall back if possible,” Knight shouted which had now his HK ready.

Anderson was finished with the shooting at the top.

“Blair, grenade to the top when I order it,” Pearce shouted to him.

Then they fired at the machine while it came closer. As it went closer to the holes Anderson shot, both with the grenade launcher were looking to Pearce now.

“Now!” he shouted and pointed up while still the others fired with all they had at the thing.

The pointing Blair could notice and joined Riley shooting up.

 

Caine had already fired into the ground. Now Newman planted the C4 and activated the timer. He ran away as fast as he could.

 

The machine was now close below. Explosions occurred over it and finally the rocks came down. They crashed on the machine and then to the ground. Still it was moving and the stepping on a rock while some more were falling on it. That it could not compensate and was falling to the back.

“Fire all what we have,” Knight ordered and all fired. It did seemingly nothing. Still this shield was working. Knight was hoping that somehow the shield would deplete and then at least the combination of the alien rifles and the others could do something.

“Focus on the arm with the Gatling gun,” Knight shouted.

It already stopped turning. Maybe it was even damaged through the falling. Also the armor may not as effective there. The machine was no trying to stand up.

An explosion occurred and further behind near the side of the lift the rocks also went down.

“Fall back. Lure the machine to the other side,” Knight ordered, then shouted, “Retreat!”

Yamada and his team were now throwing three ropes down. Caine was on the border of the hole looking down. He could see the huge machine which was standing up. Immediately he fired and was surprised about the shielding effect.

“Ryan, we have a problem down there!” Caine shouted. “Better Newman comes, too.”

Both joined Caine which changed the setting too maximum and fired again.

Knight was running to the cover at the other side of the lift.

The machine was up now unsure were to pursue. Blair went into cover.

Knight met up with the other part of the team. After him Pearce and Riley were joining.

“We will lure it to here. You will try to get behind. If you see the chance to escape do so. Else fire on it as much as you can. The others already blown up the top at the dead end. There should be ropes now. If they reinforce. Tell them to retreat.” Knight started to fire again. Grenades exploded, bullets sparkled off and plasma was absorbed by shield. It went not well and there was no clue to improve it.

“It must be creating a strong electromagnetic field. Continue shooting with the plasma rifle. This must cost a lot of energy,” Newman said which was now recording what he saw.

The machine ignored Caine and moved to the lift while raising the left arm. The plasma Gatling gun on the right was not rotating anymore.

“Get up!” Ryan shouted to Blair which was now on his way to the rope.

“Caine better lay down on the side to give cover fire if needed,” Ryan ordered. Caine went to the right.

The machine was closing in on Knight’s position. If they run to early the machine would probably turn around and cut them off. His rifle was now depleted. He didn’t want to reload it. At closer distance the high speed ammunition would be dangerous. “Anderson, give me your rifle and run. The same is for the others.”

Anderson which was close to Knight gave him the rifle. Knight continued firing and stepped around the corner, shots of the other arm from the machine were passing. This was only a gun mount at the top of the arm, which fired much slower.

Pearce also took over the other alien rifle, but went further back. He checked the open door. There was no one to see with his infrared support. Was the machine their last option, he thought.

Finally, Knight went on the run. Pearce was now at the end. He used no cover there and was aiming for the probably coming machine.

Riley was on the corner close to the lift. The others were heading for the ropes.

“It’s turning. You will be cut off!” Riley shouted.

“Go up! There is nothing you can do,” Pearce shouted back and went for the corner.

The machine was faster than Knight. It didn’t matter anymore. Pearce fired. The machine reacted to this and fired back. He went just in time behind the cover. But soon there was no cover. One more shot went off then he retreated back. The machine was close before him.

Riley was on the rope now trying to get up. It turned to Riley ignoring the shooting of Pearce.

Caine was also firing again and nearly depleted.

“Watch it! On your back!” Ryan shouted.

Riley turned around. The left arm was pointing on him. He let the rope go. The shot went off and missed, but the second one didn’t. Riley went down. It turned.

Both, Knight and Pearce, which were firing while stepping back, were now out of options. There was nothing to hide or run to. The arm was targeting now then fired two shots with a short readjustment delay. It was over down there.

“The lift door is closing!” Diaz shouted.

“Run back. Drop the weapons!” Ryan shouted.

Everyone went for the entrance.

 

It took a bit till the lift came up again and the door opened. The machine stepped out and accelerated towards the entrance.

Everybody were sprinting as long as they could. They were now in the corridor which led out. Mighty steps were coming closer from behind. Caine was the last one. But Samuel was on his limits. He could not keep the speed. Feeling the pain, he tried to override with his will. Focusing kept him a bit longer running. The cut hole was close. Then around the corner. This machine was taller than the cut. Still the door did not move up.

Samuel slowed a bit down. Caine was close to him.

“Go, go, go!” Caine shouted. A shot was passing. They went around the corner. Samuel slowed further down.

“Don’t stop!” Caine shouted. Samuel did his best to keep up. It was only the mind which kept him running now.

The machine went on the opening. Still the door did not open. Now three sentries fired. It also seemed to do nothing. From the left arm three shots were fired and the sentries were down.

Samuel was now on slow jogging speed.

SW-2 returned fire, to keep the machine occupied, while the others made their run on the side of the cave.

After exchanging some shots, finally, the machine stepped back.

“It must have respect from the combat drones,” Ryan said a bit out of breath. He was with Newman already out of danger a bit down the hill.

Now Samuel came also to the for now safe zone. He broke down fully exhausted and went to the ground.

Even here the radio seemed to be not working. Ryan could connect to the ones close to him, but the Icarus was not available. He went close to the relay station they had. Then he got a connect.

“Captain we lost man down there. I didn’t count yet. Also here our communication works not very well,” he reported while looking around.

“What happened down there?” the Captain asked.

“They encountered a heavy armored mechanic machine on legs. It also had some kind of shield against the alien rifle. We had nothing to damage it. I will draw back to the landing zone and check the data we got. Then you get the numbers and names who are missing. I guess we need then also resupplies.”

“We still can observe the area. Report back as soon as you can. Can you send some data, now?” the Captain asked.

“I let all transfer their records before we leave here,” Ryan replied then activated his record transfer.

“Everyone to the relay station and transfer your records up. Then we regroup at the landing zone!” Ryan shouted.

Freeman went to him. “Three bikes are down. Some have to walk.”

“The first ones on the landing zone come back to pick up the walking!” Ryan shouted.

Then all went to the relay station and loaded up their records. There was always a record running if not turned off. But additionally it was possible to record something into an extra file. Even with different settings.

The first ones left after transmitting the data. Ryan went with SW-6 on a walk till they got picked up.

He had already the number that three were missing and it was clear that Pearce and Knight were not there. Arriving at the landing zone Freeman told him that Riley was the third missing.

It was a short check now as the communication worked, then the missing ones were verified.

“Captain, we need a new battle plan. Knight, Pearce and Riley are missing. Lee and Chavez are well. This armored machine is denying us the access to the cave. With this communication disruption field, we cannot operate with drones very well or at all,” Ryan reported after his short troop check.

“We pinpointed one of this jamming transmitters. Now fighters will try to destroy it. Then we could have at the cave entrance a better situation. Inside this mountain base we can do nothing, then get the position of the next one. This armored machine seems to be a problem. Trying to destroy it with rocket launchers would be difficult and dangerous,” the Captain replied.

“Yes, I check now the options with Newman. If we have something I report at once.”

“Good, we will now also search for a solution. We keep you informed,” the Captain said. He had already given the order to find a way to destroy the machine. He followed now the approach of the fighter. The craft flew in attack range near the mountain. Then the pilot fired his railguns and microwave guns similar like a drone would do it. He flew a bit slower than the drones, but used the attack assistance system which aligned the guns to the correct position. So he had only to fly at a five-degree angle to the target.

The three seconds burst hit and the jamming signal of this transmitter vanished.

On the tactical display the fighter flew away. There was no defense system. They had already checked before as good as they could. But this was a strange behavior. What is a jammer worth without being defended, the Captain thought?

 

10 The machine

Ryan was discussing with Newman, Samuel and the other left team leaders while Newman had already done some analysis.

“Our only option till now is to use rocket launchers in the cave. This would be a dangerous if not impossible task. The combat drones cannot go in. Without control they are also very dangerous. Also I won’t recommend to use troops and combat drones in the same target area,” Ryan said.

“But I guess the combat drones are our only option. It is very likely that the rocket launcher will damage the machine and the cave. This only would work in an area that would be large enough to inflict less damage on the cave. It is very unlikely we can force such a situation. Also if we send combat drones in, there should be none of us there. To overcome the jamming, we need more surface drones. They have to fly close to each other. Let’s say ten meter. There are signals they can’t jam that easily. But they have to be in sight as we will use IR signals. So we scout around the corner with the surface drones, while two combat drones are ready to engage. Also we have the schematics of the base now. This means while Samuel and I are checking with the surface drones the mountain base, the combat drones will follow. We mark the target, then the combat drones adapt and do the job. After that we recall them. There is a bit programming needed for both drones, but it should work. Still there is also the risk that we damage the cave structure,” Newman suggested then waited for the responds.

“This means drone commanding near the enemy sensors. Is there a risk that his backfires?” Ryan asked after thinking a bit.

“This target marking we already done with the Omega protocol. There the advantage was a fighter made this with nearfield communication for the target area. We will do the same. But here it is very likely that the enemy also can receive the signal. This signals are encrypted and we also do some precautions that it is not possible to use it against us. However, they will learn something about our drone communication,” Newman replied.

“This is our only plan that make sense, yet. I will inform the Captain about it. Does anyone else have something?” Ryan looked around. The other leader shook their heads. “Ok, take your time to think. Meanwhile I inform the Captain.”

 

Fisher was also not very pleased with it. But it was the best they had. “Proceed with preparations. We will try to come up with something else. But as soon as you are ready we have to act. I send more bikes and surface scout drones down.”

“There is another thing. Sure we must get rid of the machine first. But what then? This door will be locked again or they have a second machine,” Ryan added his concerns.

“Kelsey had some success while the operation down there was running. When the machine is no threat anymore. We should try to disable the jammer. Then plant charges on the door, after disabling their cameras. Somehow then we have to get them to open the door. If there is another of those machines, we have to deal with it again. But at some point if there is no progress or the losses are too high I might have to consider a retreat.” Fisher didn’t like the idea letting someone behind. However, he was willing to do it if needed as for the safety of the crew and the mission.

 

Ryan checked the equipment they had and the ammunition. Newman had now the order to proceed with the preparation. He let via fighter two combat drones land in the proximity of them. Samuel and Newman started the work at once.

Kelsey was analyzing the date she got. Then she checked one of the alien ships and prepared her next hack attempts. The others of the ship hacking team assisted her. It was a lot of data to go through and also the next configuration was tricky. Any mistake could expose their attempts or would be not registered because of not monitoring the systems good enough. But that was what Kelsey could not know. It was also possible that they already had detected her attempts and let her proceed.

The resupply went down. SW-7 split up in two shuttles and threw six bikes out of the shuttle, then crates with rocket launchers, special explosives and the needed surface scout drones. It was now a fast and proven way to resupply with the anti- gravity drop system.

Receiving the resupply, the ground troops packed the anti-gravity drop system in the last transport shuttle and also added the half of the alien rifles they had recovered. Then the shuttle lifted off and flew with an escort of fighters to the ocean route up to the Icarus.

Now Newman and Samuel had all what they needed for the plan. Still it took them some hours to finish the work.

Ryan already abandoned to find a better solution. He was no preparing the operation after the machine is gone and a trail with the rocket launcher if needed. Sadly, they had nothing to lure the machine out of the cave.

“What if the machine is back behind the big door?” Freeman asked.

“Then we got a serious problem. Still we can try to disable the cameras we detected. That does not mean we get all. Also we have to take care of the jammer,” Ryan replied.

“Then it will be tricky to plant the charges. We can’t use the combat drones to cover our back,” Yamada added.

“Yes, if we try this I don’t know yet. But we have no robot that can plant them for us. This means three man fast in and out. However, first we should disable the cameras there, retreat and wait a bit. Still the drones can give us the intel we need. It should be enough time to get back with the bike when the door opens,” Ryan said.

“We should blow a hole on the other side into the ground so it will be impossible to intercept us,” Freeman suggested.

“Good point. That we will do after the cameras are gone.” Ryan was quite pleased what they had now. But to get the door open Kelsey was the best bet.

They focused now on other details. After some time, Newman and Samuel came by.

“We are ready to go.” Newman informed.

“Then let’s go to the cave. There we will fortify again.” Ryan stood up from the circle the leader formed and called the soldiers in. After describing the plan, all went out to the cave, leaving the pilot behind at the shuttles.

They used the anti-gravity containers to transport some of the stuff like explosives and rocket launchers.

 

Arriving at the cave there was nothing to see from the machine.

Diaz team had now two rocket launchers with them. They were securing the cave entrance. No one was in the cave. Also one sentry was placed.

Newman and Samuel did now the drone initialization. They were after this activated with a program that was sufficient for the next what will come.

“All drones ready. Should we proceed now?” Newman asked Ryan.

“Yes, proceed,” Ryan replied.

Newman flew his lead surface scout drone to the base entrance. Other drones were following it. Samuel did the same with his lead drone. Now there was a communication chain which could not easily interrupted by jamming signals. At least Newman thought to be sure of that.

The machine was not in sight.

Newman flew in and went to the right while Samuel to the left. They saw now the other drones on the ground. Probably shot down. They went to the lift and then all around this level. Also looked down the blown up hole. Still the machine was not to see. Then both went down the hole. Samuel to the left were the lift was and around the corner to the huge door. It was closed.

Samuel went back to the hole, while Newman flew to the right where the assembly line was. He went around a corner. Then the machine was in front of him aiming and shot.

The drone signal was lost. Now he had the command of the drone behind. He flew at once back. The stepping noise of the machine was to hear.

“You better fly up, its coming,” Newman informed.

The machine went around the corner. Newman was now further away. He started a target scan while he went back. Then he flew zig zag to make it not too easy for the machine. It fired while moving. The shot missed close. Newman was on the next corner and flew around. Then he went to the hole. “I hope we can lure it up. Watch the left side of the lift. I come up for the right.” He assumed that the machine wants to secure the base entrance again. But why did it not appear earlier. They must have seen the drones with the cameras. At least the machine has to come up. The area there was much better to intercept it. Also the cameras could give a very short warning time. That would not be enough to fall back to the lift and move down. It was an option to shot at it while it is in the lift, but that would be not as effective.

The machine went around the corner. Newman moved the drone further up then further back seeing the machine heading for the lift.

Now he observed the lift at the top. It took a bit, then the lift door opened. The machine headed straight to Newman and shot. Losing the next signal Newman had the machine in sight. He now flew zig zag, again.

The machine raised now the other arm. It was now enough away from the lift and there it was good enough to flank.

Samuel did his target scan from the side. The plasma Gatling gun was spinning. They must have repaired it or was it a second machine.

“Sending attack order,” Newman informed.

The combat drones accelerated away, flying over the soldiers into the cave. Then the chain of surface drones made space for them to fly a direct route. There were only seconds then the first combat drone went into the entrance followed by the second. Number one went left and the other right. The target information was already sent. Further updates followed. With a shorter route the second combat drone was the first which went around the corner into target sight.

Newman was busy leading the fire a bit away from that location. But the machine seemed to have the information now and turned.

Both targeting laser of the surface drones went additionally on. There the combat drone would fire also some of the shots. It was a more complex targeting algorithm to achieve maximum damage in short time.

The combat drone shot as well as the machine. Both were hit, but the combat drone went down at once.

Now the other combat drone fired all what it had. The machine already had some damage that seemed to do not too much, it stopped moving. Then moved back while turning. Railgun projectiles shredded through the once invincible armor. It could not complete its turn. An explosion occurred. Sparkles and electric fluctuation were to see. The machine was falling backward to the ground. Further shots went in, then Newman send a cease fire command. The combat drone stopped firing. Newman scanned the machine.

Ryan was following the stream and now walking to Newman who was some steps away.

“Is the laser drill still available?” he asked.

“I think so we just have to send a drone close to it. Why?” Newman asked.

“We could cut both arms off and retrieve them. This will first secure the situation and give us something for research,” Ryan added.

“Good idea. Samuel you monitor the area. I have to improvise,” Newman said and flew his lead drone back to his position.

It was just as simple altering of the programming. Then he started to make contact with the laser drill which was moved after finishing with the entrance further into the cave. There were only 700 meter, so the drone signal relay also worked for that without problem.

The cutting took some time and finally he ordered the laser back from where he got it.

Samuel and Newman did now check the base, again. As the door was still closed, it was secure enough to move in.

 

Ryan gave the order. SW-2 got the job to hold the position outside. They had now the rocket launchers. Also one of SW-6 took one into the base. Anderson had the usual alien rifle, while the rest of his team took the AXP. Ryan and Caine use the HKs with high speed ammo. The other two of the team stuck with the microwave rifle. They headed out to recover the cut of parts. Newman was controlling a container to move there. It was no big deal to do this. Then they started the search for the other jammer. Through the surface drones they had already a triangulation. On the way to it they disabled all the cameras by shooting them with the alien rifle. This was the job of Anderson and Fujita which had one. The rest of SW-3 use HKs. Finally, they found the jammer and destroyed it with the alien rifle. It was not heavy armored or shielded.

“SW-3 and SW-6 go back to the bikes. SW-3 will now plant the charges while SW-6 is covering from the other side with one rocket launcher. Hold the needed distance and position the bikes for fast retreat. I will now blast the hole on the left side of the lift for SW-3,” Ryan ordered. “SW-5 move on. SW-4 support us.”

They went to the position and Anderson shot the holes for the charges, then Caine placed them. This time they wanted a bigger hole. After they went back Caine triggered them remotely.

As SW-3 arrived, Ryan remembered them to disable the cameras first. Then they went down with the bikes. It took not much time to get rid of the cameras. But Newman and Samuel did another scan to be more sure. So SW-6 had enough time to get in place with the heavy weapons, while SW-3 was waiting for the scans to finish. Finally, the scans where done.

Yamada and his team parked the bikes close enough to jump on them fast if needed. Placing the charges worked without problem. They were now activated and waiting for the encrypted signal. Drones were in position to relay the signal if needed. SW-3 went back up and informed SW-6 to also leave.

Everyone formed up at the cave entrance to discuss the next steps.

 

On the Icarus the Captain was in a conference with the hacking team.

“Kelsey, what options do we have now?” the Captain asked.

“We spied on their network. So after a long analysis of this data, we have the needed command to open the door. Their security seems to be low. But when we send this command they can also send a close command afterward. The door is opening slowly. Depending on their response time the door won’t open enough to use the charges. This means we need diversions that let them not see what is happening and occupy them somewhere else. For that we are developing a virus. That will manipulate their monitoring systems and do causal warning on various stuff we have access to. We don’t know what this is all exactly. So there is a chance we might do some serious damage. But if we want a fast solution we have to take risks or analyze longer and increase the risk of being detected,” Kelsey informed the Captain.

“This means your virus is ready when?”

“One hour at best. Should we proceed with the full risk option?” Kelsey replied.

“This means if this fails, we have no access to the door anymore?” Fisher was concerned.

“Probably. They will cut the cables and operate it manually. So it’s also the question how much time we want spend to ensure that this is working. We only have one try. But as I said using more time also has its risks. The other thing what we also could do, is to stop their production outside. I don’t think that would lure them out,” Kelsey added.

“Also a good option, but if we do that they know we are in their network.” Fisher was not sure if this was worth the risk.

“Alternatively we could try to blow it up. But hacking there at the time we open the door would also occupy them somewhere else. We will also use one of the captured ships to connect into their network. So when the virus starts they will for sure not know where it is coming from. Which would also mean we should storm them as fast as we can. Then we even could gain access to all their data,” Kelsey said.

“Yes, this is a dangerous gamble, we don’t know what they have in there. Sure we can use drones to scout. But finally we will risk a lot. Is there any way we get more intel? So that we can prepare?” Fisher was sure the teams could handle it if they knew what could come, except more of these machines.

“That will also increase the risk getting detected. We can do this as soon as we open the door.” Kelsey had already planned this.

“So we are sending troops in. While we are crippling their systems. What if a power generator fails and blows up by this?” Fisher needed more to decide.

“I guess they should have some failsafe stuff. We are only altering some control information for the control room we have access. But we could check back with the physics department, what happens if a fusion reactor blows up. I don’t think they are as stupid as we are and sue nuclear fission like we do. However, I can just say we are playing with fire,” one of the team members said.

“We don’t even know if it is fusion for sure. That’s only and assumption from their tech we know from them. It will be risky and we are betting on some failsafe systems. But as soon we are getting the information when the door opens, we have to use all department for analysis. Camera feeds will be redirected, databases transferred and we also have the risk that they hack back. We will be in a secure environment where nothing can happen except the data we transferred gets deleted. So a real-time analysis is very important,” Kelsey added.

“You know that our objective is also to gain intel not to lose it,” Fisher said.

“Therefore we can use USB-sticks. If someone found something important, we can copy it on it and remove the stick. This will limit a data loss. Even they will need some time to counter us,” another one of the team replied.

“Good, proceed with the preparation. We talk about the risks when you are ready. Meanwhile I send reinforcements down and let them inform about that plan. So the enemy will not get it by spying the communication of us.” The Captain was finished with the briefing and went into the next with SW-7. After that they were flying down over the ocean route. It was no need to hurry. Kelsey needed time to prepare and even if she was finished the Captain wanted to check again.

 

SW-7 arrived at the landing zone. Owens was flying also back with them. He went to Taylor and informed Ryan that he was on the ground again. With the bikes SW-7 headed to the cave. Then Davis informed Ryan about the plan. So following was then a briefing with the team leaders.

A bit later Newman joined them. “I have everything prepared. But while opening the door, plugging in the spy connector can cut us of if things don’t work out as expected. Also I would recommend to retrieve our shot combat drone. It may get in the way and it might be possible to repair it,” Newman suggested.

“You want repair it here? It will not be possible to get it up to the Icarus, I guess?” Ryan wondered.

“Yes, maybe it’s possible to send replacement parts. What happens if we have to use them again? We might lose another one or two. So changing the numbers here might be worth it.”

“If we can do this fast enough, before we act, you have a go. But as soon as I get the order, we have to abort this. I hope then it is not stuck in the entrance,” Ryan replied.

“Don’t worry. I take care of it,” Newman knew how to do it fast.

“Take SW-4 and anyone else you need,” Ryan was confident that Newman was done with the movement of the drone till they start the operation. It was also something to keep the other occupied.

Newman, Samuel and the rest of SW-4, each of them took a bike and headed to the combat drone. Samuel and Newman were unarmed, they had the needed ropes and the other stuff with them.

While two of SW-4 guarded, the others connected the bikes with the ropes to the combat drone. Then Newman could with success extend the gears which made it much easier. They used three bikes and started to test. It did work at once. The drone was moving. Newman controlled the bikes remotely. So they pulled the combat drone to the entrance while all were behind the drone pushing a bit as needed. They went out of the entrance. It made some laud noise moving it over the stony ground. This was because of the skids which were close to the bottom. It was not possible to extend the tires further. Also they moved it backward which had some danger getting stuck. In this case they had probably to do it the other way, Newman thought. Now at the caves end came the other problem. Moving it a bit down the hill without the breaks could end up in a crash. Newman had to do some tricks to activate them without electronics. Power was still there. But he had to do some rewiring like he did it with the gear. This time he actually needed something to do it remotely. He had no wireless switch for that. So he used a manual one of the combat drone and stayed on it while they pulled it further.

Samuel was now controlling the bikes. The whole teams were distracted by this. Slowly the drone moved down the hill. Then started to accelerate. Newman activated the breaks as it was getting fast. It worked and Newman could barely hold his position. Then the drone stopped. The others cheered.

“Perfect, we can anchor it with some ropes then we are done,” Newman jumped of the drone. The others helped and it was done in no time.

“There is no time left to check out the drone. The Captain informed me that we will start soon,” Ryan informed all.

Now the final preparation started.

 

“Kelsey, you are sure now this will work?” Fisher asked.

“As sure as we could be. We will cause enough diversion, but we also disable the report of the door opening. Sadly, we could not check how they guard the door, there are still some risks. But if the surprise is as expected on our side, this must work. All in our team see it the same,” Kelsey replied.

“Fine, then we are good to go. I order now the teams to move in position. You get informed you when you can start. So you have a short time to check, again.” Fisher still thought this as very risky. But his tactic team had no better solution.

“Acknowledged.” Kelsey closed the connection. Everyone in her hack team did now further checks as there was nothing more to do.

 

“We have the order to move in. Let’s go!” Ryan called out after he spoke with the Captain. SW-4 jumped on their bikes as well as SW-6. They were the first ones down there and fortified the positon. The others followed on foot. They used ropes on both sides to get down. Except Newman and Samuel. They also used bikes, to get as fast as possible to the assembly line. With the drones they already scouted where they had to go. They waited on the fortified location till Ryan and the others were in place.

The drones were programmed not to show the moving in and position of the squads. So most of the camera stream were turned off. Now as all were in place, Ryan ordered Newman and Samuel to go.

“In position,” Ryan radioed to the Icarus.

It was now not much time till they would act. Newman had the last word. He arrived with Samuel at the assembly line. They jumped of the bikes and went to the first machine. Samuel open the cover plate. Newman saw the target where to connect. He took the spy connecter and plugged it in.

 

11 The vault gate

“Connected,” Newman radioed. This was the signal.

Kelsey hit the enter button, then all started.

Ryan looked at the vault gate. There was nothing to see. But some clicking was to hear. And then it started to move. The door opened, slowly but steady.

Behind was an empty corridor with walls probably out of metal. The bottom seemed to be different. Still the door was opening. It was now broad enough to get through. Ryan waited to see more and let the door further open.

“Prepare the drones,” he said to Yamada and waited further 20 seconds. “Send the drones now.”

Yamada gave the signal. Five drones went in to scout the area. They flew through the dark corridor. At the end was an opening without a door. They reached it and entered a huge hall. Much bigger than the hall of the tower. The drones spread out and flew high to avoid direct detection. No one was to see. But some cameras were in the top.

Then the door stopped and started to close, stopped again and opened.

Ryan triggered the charges. Three explosions went off blowing dust and stones from the nearby wall around. The huge gate was falling to the ground and then to the left side which let the entrance unblocked. Else they had to climb over it or whatever.

“They detected the door opening. I countered it. But now they know we are hacking them. I try to get the camera feeds and other information. The control of their system will be difficult to gain without plugging cables,” Kelsey informed.

Dust was now all around. Ryan waited till the dust vanished, while Newman and Samuel were coming back.

“Kelsey, the dust has cleared. Did you detect any defense systems? We have seen no threat with our drone scan,” Ryan said as he wanted to move in.

“There is nothing that looks like that. Only further doors I try to get control of,” she replied.

“SW-3, SW-4 and SW-7 move in. SW-2 and SW-6 hold position,” Ryan ordered.

The teams moved in. They used two bikes to have the option to better secure a location.

Yamada’s team were the first which reached the hall. Then they went right to secure every room or door they encountered.

SW-7 did the left side while SW4 split up and followed in a close distance.

Now Samuel and Newman where controlling some of the drones. A team on the Icarus did the threat analysis.

On Yamada’s side was first nothing. It was the wall to the outside where behind the assembly line was. Then further away, it must be over 100 meter, they came to a curve. The hall had no corners, it just was a curve that changed the angle of the wall. Also it was no circle, it had parts that were straight. Now there were rooms with doors to check.

On the other side, SW-7 found a maintenance area where probably the machine was. There were also robotic systems and replacement parts, but no second of those machines.

Yamada had now found the control room. It was empty. Camera feeds were shown and it seemed there were some malfunctions. The details he could not figure out.

“I guess we found the control room. The door was closed, but not locked,” Yamada radioed and sent a video feed.

“Perfect, I move with my team in and see what we can do from there,” Ryan replied. “SW-5 let’s go!” They used the two bikes which Samuel and Newman used. In the trunks were the needed equipment for scanning and hacking.

Yamada continues his inspection with his team, while two of SW-4 waited for Ryan. Then they also continued.

 

“Is this normal that they just vanish and leave all behind?” the Captain asked on the bridge.

“If they don’t want a fight. There are two of this strong doors like that of the power generator room in the hall. I would bet on it they are locked,” Clark replied.

“Kelsey, we have further strong doors. Have you access to them?” the Captain asked.

“I have access to some doors. But cannot tell which one they are. When the teams are in positon I can just try,” she replied.

“Ryan, we have two strong doors. Can you figure out what’s behind from the control room?” Fisher asked.

“We are on it. I let SW-6 help secure them as soon the others have checked more of the side area,” Ryan replied. He was now at the control room door while Newman and Samuel did the work.

“Kelsey, they are trying to activate the ship’s weapons. Now they are scanning,” one of the hacking team informed her over a video link.

“Ok, close the connection and shut the laptop down. Tell Cooper to replace the laptop. We analyze it later,” Kelsey replied. They had setup a simulation of the alien ship system to see when and how the enemy is striking back.

“To all teams they are hacking back. Secure important data you found,” Kelsey ordered to all.

The Captain also informed Ryan.

 

“SW-6 move in, set up a fortification for both big doors,” Ryan ordered now. “Newman, Samuel, they are hacking more successfully back. Can we cut them off?”

“We are still analyzing. I hope in ten minutes I know more,” Newman replied.

Ryan went out. Yamada was close to the first big door.

SW-7 had found a breeding station. There were ten chambers filled with a fluid and something was growing in there. The front was transparent. It was like a coffin with a glass cover. On the last one it was visible it will be a reptilian. They reported their findings and went to the next room.

There were 20 different chambers also with a transparent glass cover. The first ones were empty. But in the last three were humans or they looked like homo sapiens. Also something was on their head. Davis streamed the data up.

Watkins and her team did the analysis as good as they could over video.

“SW-4, SW-7 is occupied continue their path,” Ryan ordered. Then he checked up what exactly they were focusing.

“SW-2 move in. You have to relieve SW-7. Its better Jones will look into this,” Ryan ordered as he knew what was there exactly.

SW-4 found a door to a huge greenhouse. There were growing vegetables and fruits in a partly hydroponic greenhouse.

“Guess we found their food supply,” Anderson radioed and sent the stream. “It is a bigger area in this greenhouse also a good place to hide.”

“Don’t search it. Just open the doors, we send drones to scout,” Ryan replied as he checked the feed, “Icarus, can you control the drones to scout the greenhouse, we are all occupied?”

“Affirmative,” Clark replied and assigned a team to it.

Yamada was now at the second big door which led into a different direction than the other. It was about 90 degrees, where only another room was between them in the curved area which led to the other big door. The greenhouse was next on the right.

SW-7 came out of the door. Now Ryan ordered both SW-7 and 3 to him.

“We will now try to open the strong doors. My last information says we don’t know which one will open. So keep a good distance. I don’t think it’s good to lure on the side when we use the bikes in manual or automatic fire mode. So form up at the bikes.” Ryan ordered. “Kelsey, do we have more information about the doors now?”

“No, we are now fighting a hacking battle. We already secured a lot of data. The only thing we can do now is to try the opening sequence,” Kelsey replied.

“Try the first one. We are in position,” Ryan said.

“Sequence sent,” Kelsey said.

Nothing was happening.

“That must be a different door, Try the next,” Ryan said after ten seconds.

“Ok, next door,” Kelsey sent the next sequence.

The left door was opening.

Behind was a longer corridor and then a power generator was to see. But no alien.

A drone went in to scout. There were two further doors. One leading backward away the other to the right. The drone stayed in the generator room which was very similar to the one at the outside facility.

“Seems the doors leading to a generator room. The first sequence must be the one of the generator room itself. Also there are two more doors,” Ryan radioed.

“I have five sequences left,” Kelsey replied.

“Try the next one,” Ryan said then waited. “Nothing, go next.”

The right door to another power generator opened.

“Now we have two power generators. Next sequence,” Ryan focused on the right door in the hall.

It opened. Another corridor led to a hall. It was dark there. A drone went in. There seemed to be some rooms left and right in the hall. At the end was another strong door.

“They have disconnected,” Newman radioed.

“What?” Ryan asked.

“We are analyzing their network connection. They have disconnected one. Probably to limit our access,” Newman added.

“The hacking stopped. But they are deleting data here. We could stop it now. So we are checking what’s left,” Kelsey informed.

“Then we try the next sequence,” Ryan said.

“Done,” Kelsey was checking it. There was no reply that the sequence arrived which is a normal network procedure. “This one has been cut off.”

“Then the last one,” Ryan waited again. The other door in the generator room opened to a third generator. The second and the third generator room had no more doors.

“Thank you Kelsey, we are now checking the locked door. Can you close one of the generator room doors. The first or the second. So we have a bit of safety from them.” Ryan walked now to the door of interest.

“Sure,” she replied and the second door closed behind it was still the drone which was observing there.

“Newman, I need to disable a door. So we can proceed with the investigation,” Ryan radioed.

“I’m on my way,” Newman replied and picked up the stuff he needed to put it into his backpack. Newman sprinted out of the control room door to meet up with Ryan on the door to work with. He took his scanner to search for the door control and power cables. There was nothing he could use on the hall side. So he went in and checked the other side. Finally, there was a cover plate he could remove and gained access to the whole system. Through unplugging the power cable, the door was out of order.

“Done. This door will do nothing. I guess the other one will be not so easy,” Newman said as he walked back to Ryan which was on the other side.

“We will first search the area in there. Then you can check it out,” Ryan replied. “SW-3 and 6 secure these new rooms. Logan move SW-1 in. You will cover at the bikes.”

Logan had now the lead of SW-1. He was a former Delta Force member and one of the sniper of SW-1.

“Yes, sir. We are on our way,” Logan replied.

Now no one was outside, where the blown door was.

It took not much time to secure these rooms. They found on the left side a remote control unit. It was probably for the machine as Newman guessed. On the right side there seemed to be a food processing system.

Newman went to the locked door for scanning. It was the same as with the other. But from this side there was no cover to remove. The wall material was the same as of the door. Using explosive was not possible, at least the C4 they had. Also the special explosive they used would only get smaller holes if any and risk to destroy the door control system. Newman was thinking. He knew the position where he could access the system. Somehow he needed to get there.

“The laser. We need the laser drill. This will take up to an hour. Then we can get to the control system, plug in a spy connector and send the opening sequence. Else we have to cut the door itself, but that takes more time.”

“Can the laser drill go down the holes we blew?” Ryan asked.

“I guess so. But the lift should also work now since the aliens are cut off. I check this with Samuel and Kelsey,” Newman replied.

“Go on.” Ryan walked to the bikes were now SW-1, 3, 4 and 6 were. He discussed the situation with them and what they could expect behind that door.

 

“Captain, the stuff down there is very interesting. If we can take samples and do more analysis, we could gain much knowledge. Their farming stuff can improve our vertical farming by ten years. These humans we found are in hibernation as far we could tell. There we could find out if we can wake them up. So we could ask them questions. Also their breeding station is much of interest. Is there a way I can get down with a small research team?” Watkins asked.

“We are on a rescue mission. It will be quite dangerous. Also the situation could change any moment. I cannot guarantee for the safety.”

“I’m a member of SW-5. I know the risks. Also two of my lab scientist are willing to take it. Another two of the physic department are also eager and know the risk.” Watkins replied.

“You have at least some combat training, but the others scientists have none. I ask Ryan how he evaluates the situation, then I call back,” the Captain said and closed the channel, then said to the communication officer, “Give me Ryan.”

“Captain. What’s up?” Ryan asked.

“I have a request from Watkins. She wants to bring down a small science team to take samples and try to wake up one of the humans. Can you provide enough cover for a safe retreat if needed?” Fisher asked.

“Good question. We have a good fortification, but not too much cover. They might at least get in the line of fire. However, they would be as far away as it is possible in this hall. With the bikes it should be no problem to get away in time. With the lower doors we don’t expect another machine. When we open the other door in about one hour I may send them out. This means they have only less than 30 minutes to get something done. Then it is unknown how the situation evolves.” Ryan replied.

“Depends what behind the door. They can sure continue if there is no resistance. I cannot say what the aliens do with this tactic. But somehow it seems they do not want to engage us further,” Fisher added.

“Or they still preparing. Nevertheless, our mission is to get intel. Tell Watkins this will be no picnic. She has no real combat experience and the other none at all. Well, I have time to talk to her when she is here. At least I want to know what they do with the humans. I send SW-2 to pick them up at the landing site.”

“Ok. But send them back as soon it gets dangerous.” Fisher also wanted the intel. He informed Watkins and let prepared a shuttle for them. It was a risky attempt. But maybe having no confirmed losses did encourage his decision or the progress they made. Still the intel about the aliens was there and to get another chance very unlikely. Sooner or later reinforcements will arrive. Then they had to be away. Was there estimation correct? Three days, maybe five, but not more. To gain intel they needed time. First to secure the area if this was possible at all. What will they do if they get the others back? Retreat at once? Or continue on the intel gathering? The Captain was thinking. They had now a lot of stuff to analyze. But still do not know what the aliens were doing exactly on this planet. A secret outpost? A research facility for what? And now these humans. He went back to the table, which was displaying the pictures of them.

“Has the analysis here brought us some data?” he asked his communication officer, which immediately checked the status.

“Yes, sir. The data is now transferring to the table.”

Then the leader of the analysis team spoke, “Captain, we checked our database as ordered and found some similarities to some abduction cases in the past. But there is something strange. They seem to be younger or have similar age to cases that were decades ago. Sadly, we have in most of the fits no DNA data to compare. But on we could.”

“Good work. I inform Watkins to check this out.” Fisher looked at the archive data and compared the pictures. What did the aliens? Now he had a riddle to solve and more reasons to pursue an investigation.

 

12 The others

Knight woke up in a white room. It was different to the one in the facility. He checked around and was in some kind of seat that was moved back. His helm was still on his head. Thinking about what Ryan happened was different. He could stand up what he did. The others were also in this room. They were two more. Did all the others escape? There were five seats in here. Knight went to one and shock him slightly.

“What?” came the response.

“It’s me Knight.”

“Oh, where are we, I’m Riley.” That the electronic was down he figured out fast.

“I don’t know. I check the other.” Knight went to the last.

“Wakeup. This is Commander Knight.” He shook the soldier slightly, too.

“Knight, what? Oh, I’m Pearce.” Pearce looked around. “Seems they got us.”

“Yes, but I expected something like what Ryan and Caine happened,” Knight wondered.

“Do you feel also that something is odd?” Riley asked.

“Maybe a bit dizzy and moving feels a bit different. But I cannot specify it,” replied Pearce.

The door opened and a Gray was standing there. “So you are awake. You can remove your helms if you want. There is no danger.”

“What do you want?” Knight asked.

“Nothing. I will just show you around. You can have it in your suits or more comfortable with this one here.” He pointed to the wall. It was opening and there some white closes were in sight. “You can also stay here and do nothing.”

Knight thought a bit. The suit electronics was not working any more. The using of the air filter was a nice to have thing. But then the suit had not much advantages except in combat situations. He removed his helm and put it to the side. “I think without helm it is comfortable enough.”

The others made the same decision.

“What are we, now? Prisoners? Lab rats?” Knight asked.

“You will see what options you will have. But don’t worry there will be no harm.” The Gray stepped back and waited for the them.

Knight took the lead and stepped out of the door. On the left there was one of those heavy doors like from the generator room of the facility. It was closed. To the right there was also such door, but open. Behind was a shorter hall part followed by a corridor with a bigger door left and right. At the end it was going down. The Gray walked to the open door. “Just follows me.”

“We could easily overcome him,” Riley whispered.

“Then what? We have no weapons and no clue how to open the heavy door. So we have to wait and watch,” Knight whispered back.

They followed the Gray to the end where a stairway appeared.

“We could take the lift, but walking around will show you a bit more.” The Gray stepped down.

They went around a corner to the right. Then there was another one to the left. It was approximately going down five meters. The stairs were wide, about six meters. Now there was an opening to see. The bottom was flat. They reached the end of the stairs and saw it.

A whole city was there. Mushroom shaped buildings in a gray, green color. Lights were coming out of the windows. These mushrooms were big. Some had a height of about 20 meters other over the double. The area of the cave could have a size of over one kilometer. They were on a higher point. Some kind of bridge leading to the buildings.

“A whole City. Why have you built this underground? Don’t you like the sun?” Knight asked.

“We don’t depend on it. This is only a small research outpost as probably you already assumed. There were some needs to build it underground first, because of our research.” The Gray led the way to the next building on the bridge path. There were three bridges which led to the middle, the left and right. The center path was directly leading to one of the smaller mushroom to which they walked now.

“This means because of your terraforming?” Knight asked.

“If you call it that. We do a lot of biological research to improve our knowledge. There is some need for a secure environment close to our research.”

“So why did you attack us? You could just talk to us and negotiate something?” Knight tried to get the answer they did not have.

“There is nothing to negotiate. The decisions are already made. You can adapt or not. It is your choice.”

“What does that mean?” Knight had no clue.

“We will speak with you directly. As you already assumed the Gray are only organic machines, clones who do their purpose.”

They went into the building with a big entrance hall. There was something written in front of them, but no one could read it. They went up and also over wide stairs and then to the right into a conference room with a big table and chairs around it. It was an oval one. At the end were a new kind of aliens.

 

They looked a bit similar in the face as the Gray, but more insectoid, like a mantis. They had four arms and two legs. The finger count was the same as the Gray and quite similar. Like humans they seem to walk upright and had closes. The black uniform looked like military, but could be just a uniform for whatever system.

“Welcome Commander Knight, Major Pearce and Lieutenant Riley. Please sit down,” the middle one in a female voice said. The Gray was standing on the side doing nothing.

They sat down.

“Greeting. So who are you?” Knight asked.

“You can call me Tibia. Your new master,” she replied.

“So we are what, prisoners?” Knight wants to know.

“Slaves as first. You will do what we want and can advance in our society to be a servant, get free and finally your own spaceship. It is of your little mistake that you think you could get away with the information you gained here. Indeed, you have found out mostly nothing. But we don’t like it to let you fly back and analyze our stuff and report what you think you have found here. So your ship will be destroyed soon and what is left will have the chance to serve us,” she said.

“Then others will come and look what happened,” Knight replied.

“By then they can’t even get close to the planet. We will have similar defenses like in your system. But a bit more advanced. It’s just you surprised us with your visit here.”

“So you wasted your soldiers just to lure us into your base and try to force us to stay till your reinforcements are here?” Knight was pissed that they went into the trap. He tried to stay calm and show not much emotion. Now he had to find a way to warn the Icarus if it was not too late. But how?

“Soldiers, no. They are just like the Gray. Workers which got a rifle to buy time. It did not matter much. At the ground you cannot win anything. The stuff you damaged, will be repaired. But you can do some contribution to our combat programs. You can train with our workers and then later with our soldiers to optimize their efficiency. Sure the workers are strong. But lack some genetics that soldiers should have. However, there are some improvements which can be made. Also by cooperating you can also receive if you want improved abilities. This will mean longer lifespan, better regeneration and some other genetic optimization your bodies lack. We are far more advanced in genetics than you are on Earth. This can be a profit for you. Not cooperating will just lead to a boring life not worth living for. So by cooperating you will learn we are the better and far more advanced society than yours.”

“And by cooperating we get free and a ship to fly home, bringing the wisdom to our world. That seems you try to trick us,” Knight tried to argue.

“Well, by that time let’s say 100 years. You will have the improved lifespan and whatever ability improvements you chosen. The Earth will have somewhat advanced, but not much. With the quarrels they have between themselves they just slow down their progress. Sure you can fly home and see what a pity life there is and try to improve it. But others already have failed and even your kind itself. If you master to get free and a ship, the last thing where you want stay in this universe will be Earth. Sure you may try to give them some of your experience, but you won’t stay there.”

“So we give you our experience as soldiers. That’s the deal?” Knight wanted more details which in the end would not matter much. They had to cooperate to some extend or do nothing and hope the others would rescue them.

“Not only that. It just means that you show your cooperation. But what we want is that you learn also from us. How to behave in our society and how an advanced society works. You know the rebel and conflict stuff on Earth is caused by the lack of controlling and understanding yourselves. A missing social education or also genetically problem that leads to unneeded violence. So to advance in our society you need to show some skills,” she answered.

“What about your behavior. Killing people on board a starship, where you could negotiate peacefully?” Knight had enough from this arrogance.

“True, but some will have the chance to escape to the planet and join you in the struggle of better beings. It’s just a little decision we made. Sure your ship can surrender at any time and save all lives on board. But we expect resistance which may lead to death.” Now the three insectoids talked in their own language which sounded strange.

“It is time for your first duty. Just follow us,” the right one with a more male voice said. “I’m Tarsus and will observe your progress. We will go now to a small training facility, where you can show a bit of your skills.”

Two of the insectoids stood up. Tibia stayed seated. Then the two left the room with Knight and his companions.

Knight did not like it and as close as the others were, he could not discuss it with his companions. He had to wait for a better situation.

They went down the stairway to the left and used a side exit of the building. There also stairs were leading further down to the ground and they went to a bigger mushroom crossover.

On the left they could see to the highest mushroom in the middle. It was going up to the top of the cave, where it was connected to some support constructions which seemed to carry the cave. Would it be possible to burrow the city with some well-placed charges? Knight was not sure. The experience with the strong doors told him, that they would need special charges. Which they most likely had not enough brought down from the Icarus.

They went into the other building. There was a smaller hall which looked more like the planet side facility entrance. Light was coming from the above area and nothing decorative was found. Left and right were doors and also in front of them. They went straight ahead into a corridor which was leading to the sides.

Tarsus opened another door in front of them. They were now in a smaller room. A bigger door was at the end.

Tarsus said something to the other which then went out.

“You can choose now to get new suits or just helms. It’s just for your safety. With the new suits the effects of our weapons will be damped. So you will just slowly go down on a hit. With your suits and helms you just fall unconscious. The helm will protect you. Here in the training area is all mostly flat. So there is not much danger. You will fight three of our workers. The area has some cover to make use of it. At the middle there is a building which you should try to capture and hold. But winner is the one team which has someone still standing or five minutes holding the middle building,” Tarsus explained.

“So what is this? Some kind of entertaining game?” Knight asked.

“You mean like an arena. No. It’s just a training and research facility where we test new genetic materials. In this case our workers are monitored. So we can determine their efficiency and optimize them. Later this year you will fight our warriors. They will be a bit superior. Which means you will have to find a solution, improve your abilities or if you want let us genetically enhance you. If you can’t beat them whatever you decide to try, you will get a new assignment you can try to master. I go out and let you decide how you want approach this. The door to the training ground is open so you can inspect it. When you come back your equipment will be here.” Tarsus went out of the door.

“What now?” Riley asked.

“We go out and inspect the arena. I don’t know how intensive they are monitoring us. But for now a bit cooperation won’t hurt,” Knight walked into the training arena. Further out there he whispered, “I assume they give us no lethal weapons. That will make our options limited. Don’t give your best here. Just try to win and look around for options. I don’t know what’s best. But having our suits will give us the option to remove their helms and run. Using their suits may give them probably more control over us. Who knows what else the helm does.”

“But without helm it is quite dangerous against the worker I guess. He didn’t lie or sadly we have no other choice,” Pearce whispered back.

“I may try to ask for our helms. But that will probably don’t work,” Knight replied still whispering to them. Then continued normal, “This is a standard fight scenario a lot of cover. We can try some flanks and in the building we could sure hold the position. But also have a problem with one not covered side. The same is with the opponent.”

“Best we try to prevent them from entering it. If they lose one or two trying, we could have an easy play with the last one,” Pearce replied.

“Riley any suggestions?” Knight asked.

“Just hide left and right of the building and shoot them on the run to it,” Riley said. It was a one level building with windows on each side and two entrances. The ground level was rectangular and there were no doors that could be closed. The window part was also just an opening which was a bit higher than a normal window would be. A stairway led to the flat top which was for whatever reason a circle. So the building looked like a mushroom with a rectangular stem. An about one-meter-high wall was the top cover in an octagonal configuration. Also there were the same walls around the stairs. They were now standing at the top.

“The other option is to hold the position up here if we are much faster here. But they might spot us,” Pearce said.

“Yes, the position up here has some advantage over the lower covers, which will them prevent from hiding. It will depend how good they are in long-distance shots. Till now that was not very impressive. Let’s go back we have seen enough.” Knight led the way back.

Both aliens were back. There were now two tables in the room. On one were the three suits and helms. The other one had three rifles on it, which were more like the microwave rifle, but smaller.

Knight took one of the rifles targeted with it, checked the weight and handling. It was lighter than the microwave ones they used. Also he found nothing that showed the number of shots.

“It is a very simple rifle. You see the targeting point. It works similar as with your rifles. Here is a hidden button to show how much shots you have in the display.” Tarsus showed Knight and the others it. “Removing the energy cell is also simple. You have 500 shots and can get another cell in the building or from an opponent.”

“What about our helms. We are more used to them not that I think yours might be bad. But all our training was in this suits we have,” Knight mentioned.

“We guessed you will try these. Your helm electronic is screwed. But no problem. Just try these helms and check how they feel and work. Then you can have your screwed helms back if you want,” Tarsus replied.

Knight put a helm on. They seemed all to be the same. It did fit to the suit connection and then adapted to his head. It felt good even better as his helm. The sight area was a bit better to the bottom and it seemed to have nearly no weight.

“You have voice commanding. It understands infrared mode, normal mode, targeting mode and enhanced mode,” Tarsus added. “Oh and when you take the rifle, you get the shot count.”

The others also used the helm now. Trying out the modes worked well. They seemed to be better with comparable features. But for that they would have to test them.

Knight removed the helm.

“Yes, it is not bad. But here in this fight our helms are sufficient and they have the optimized weight we are used too,” he said.

“No problem, as I said you can use yours. It’s just for the safety.” Tarsus looked to the door and three Gray came in with the helms.

Knight checked the helm he got now and could see it was his by the number code in it. He put it on.

“Now when the door opens the first round will begin. We have speaker to inform you if needed. I will now go to the observation room. If you need something, outside in the entrance hall a Gray is waiting. They will also patch you up after a hit,” Tarsus and the other insectoid went out, then the Grays followed.

Knight and this team were ready. The door opened and they went out.

 

“Icarus I have sent the list of replacement parts. I will now go back to the cave and help the others,” Newman radioed and stepped on his bike. He was up there on the shot combat drone with no cover except the monitoring of the drones and satellites.

“We send it to the landing zone. The pilots will then put it on a container,” Fisher replied.

“Perfect, I also wrote a short list on the Icarus what I wanted to check out. May the physics department have a look on it. It might have some use.”

Fisher was a bit curious what that could be. He immediately let open a channel to the department. It took a bit of time then he got a list. He changed the order and let the work start.

Newman was with Ryan now.

“The Laser will need about 15 minutes, I guess,” Newman reported after checking the progress.

“Well, then Watkins has not much time for her stuff. When the door opens I want her and primary the scientists at the top level. Maybe you can assist her a bit,” Ryan replied.

“I’m on my way.” With the bike it was a short ride for Newman.

 

Watkins was with Jones and a scientist at the humans. The others of her team were taking samples and scans of the greenhouse which had violet lighting in there.

Watkins was checking the readings of some displays of the hibernation chamber. She used a tablet to help with the translation. Then Newman joined them.

“Can I assist?” he asked.

Watkins turned around then the identifier showed her who was standing there. She did not recognize his voice while studying deeply the data. “Oh, Newman. Yes, we are trying to figure out if we can wake this one or just open the device and take samples from him. Those readings show me at least that it would take some time to wake him up from his current temperature,” she told.

“If it does not kill him I can search for the opening mechanism or an override.” Newman looked at the device.

“We are assuming this thing is just holding the temperature and is monitoring the life signs. But how the wakeup process exactly works we don’t know. It could be just heating up the temperature or injecting something,” she added.

“I see nothing connected to him. So an injection would probably come after opening. I will search now for an interface to connect to this device. Did the analysts find some instruction in the database?” Newman had his scanner in his hand and was searching around the device.

“Not yet. That is the problem we are down to guessing,” Watkins replied and further checked the reading.

“There is only this button here in front of the transparent shield. I have to check it out, but probably this opens the device. What else it will do we can see by trying or I try to figure it out,” Newman told his findings.

“Only one button means it is fully automatic, I guess. But better to be sure if you can find this out.” Watkins wanted to know what she was doing and not the trail thing.

Then Newman found the interface and connected. He knew from the other devices how to get the information out. It took him only three minutes.

“So I think I got it. This button just opens and closes the shield. If it stays a longer time open, the system will adapt a bit with the cooling, but automatically ask you what you want on the display. There must be also some icon or something to switch to a different menu. I guess it is here.” Newman pushed on the display. The menu switched. “Here you can start the wakeup process. It will automatically open and heat up. If we switch here back, you have the status screen. When I open now with the button, you might have some time to take samples. Then we can close it. It may warn you if something with the condition is changing. If it cannot hold the temperature it will ask to wake up or just do it after a while. So take the samples fast. Then we close it again.”

“Wait I make the preparations,” Jones said.

He was getting the stuff he needed from a backpack nearby. It was the one of Sharon which was currently with the others in the greenhouse.

“I’m ready,” Jones informed.

Then Newman hit the button. The transparent shield turned into the side. It was curved so it needed not much space.

Jones took three samples in no time. There was no warning. Only the temperature changed a bit. But this seemed not to trigger anything.

Newman closed it after he made a scan. “Seems he has a device in his head.”

“Interesting. Then logically they are clones which I already assumed because of the age,” Watkins replied while looking at the status display.

“Then we need to wake him up later, I guess.” Jones said.

“If there is time, sure.” Newman was done here. “If this is all for now, I check back to Samuel.”

“Yes, that’s all for now. We do some fast tests which we can do here. Then check the breeding station. I call you when we need assistance,” Watkins was now busy with the probes. Jones assisted to speed the things up.

 

13 Beneath the earth

Knight and his team were in the fifth round. They had won all matches and got not hit once. There also was no need to do any special things. It worked well just with the standard maneuvers. They already found out, the reptilians are using the same rifle as on all the other encounters in the facility and the cave. Then it could be possible to increase the settings of the plasma shots. Riley finished the last on off which was coming to the building.

“You have won. Please return to the start room,” came over the speaker again. They took off the helms and walked slowly down the stairs.

“We have to get them into the building or let one in and shot him there. But best we let all in so we have fast access to the weapons. We will try one with maximum power in the building. If it works, we make a run for the cave exit. Hopefully the others could open it or we have to try it by ourselves,” Knight whispered.

“If we find the door panel, I can at least try to trigger the opening mechanism. Maybe reconnect the power cables or shot the control and hope for luck,” Pearce whispered back.

“At least we could hold the area at the door for some time, if they have not much more of this reptilians,” Riley added also whispering.

They went back to the room and after the door closed they waited for the next round to start.

Knight looked at the door again where he had to shot. The others checked the door behind.

Then the arena opened again.

“Let’s go, we wait at the building. I hold the entrance, while you flank them from the sides. Hope they don’t chose to flank us if they don’t see us at the top,” Knight said as they were running to the building.

They reached it with no encounter. Pearce went to the right corner and Riley to the left. Then Knight went in, to look out of the window on the other side. It was a new position they never used on the other trails. Knight spotted them marching to the building. A shot went off to his position. He immediately went back. Then further shots went through the window. Knight was already at the entrance on the other side and signaled the others to watch. He waited there and targeted the only possibility the opponents could come to him. A reptilian came to sight. Knight shot immediately and hit him. “Go!”

The others went around the building.

One was now at the corner and shooting around at Knight. They exchanged some shots.

A shot from somewhere else went off.

“He is down,” Riley shouted.

Knight went immediately in. “Where is the last one?”

“Probably on top. I searched the other rooms on my side,” Pearce replied which went now to Riley at the stairway.

“Lure him to the stairway,” Knight ordered.

Riley and Pearce fired some shots up. It took a bit then the reptilian appeared and fired back from the side at the end of the stairway. He could only target Riley at that position.

“He is here,” Riley shouted and went into cover. Then shot up some uncontrolled shots.

Knight was now running out of the entrance. He glanced back up till he saw the reptilian firing down the stairs with the back to him.

So he stopped, turned and targeted. The reptilian went down in cover. Shots were going up to the top of the arena. Knight waited in targeting position. Seeing the reptilian going up, Knight fired and hit the last one.

“You have won. Please return to the start room,” Came again over the speaker.

Knight went into the building. A shot one was here.

“It’s working,” came from Pearce.

Knight removed the power cell dropped his rifle and went to the useful one. The others already had theirs. The reptilian close to him woke up. Knight shot him.

“Ready?” Knight asked after he changed the setting of the rifle.

Both saluted. Knight took the lead and they made a run for the start room.

The door was now closing.

“This is senseless what you are doing,” came over the speaker.

Knight shot at the door. One side did not close further. There was now a hole in the top of it. They moved the defect door part back and went in. Further two shot went off. Then the next door parts could be moved manually.

They checked around the corners. There was no one to see. They made a run for the exit in the entrance hall. It opened automatically as they were close. Outside there was also no one to see. Knight led them up the stairs around the middle building to the bridge where they went to the city. While running over the bridge they checked sometimes back still spotting no one. Without encounter they reached the stairs.

“I cover here. You go up and secure the top. Then try to open the door,” Knight ordered. Pearce and Riley went up. All doors were closed. They pushed all buttons they found. Then tried to open the strong door at the end as no door opened. It did not work. Then Pearce fired a shot left to the button. Now he could remove it and had access to the wiring. Riley found a cover plate which he also could not remove.

“Step back,” Riley said. As Pearce followed he shot also trying not to hit the wiring. Now he could also remove the cover plate.

Unfortunately, there were more cables than anticipated. They searched for a manual control mechanism.

“We need time with this main door. The other two doors are still closed. If they are lift doors we are in a trap situation,” Pearce called down.

“There is still no one to see. I come up,” Knight replied and went up the stairs. Everyone were now looking at the mechanism.

“If we shoot this, either the door opens or we have to open by rerouting the power,” Pearce declared finally and pointed at a panel were the power cables went in and out.

“Yes, give it a try. Use the lowest setting,” Knight replied.

Pearce altered the rifle settings. They stepped back and Pearce shot.

Nothing happened.

“Ok, then the hard way,” Pearce dropped the rifle and removed the panel cover without a problem.

The power cables could be unplugged but where too short to connect them.

“Well, now it will be tricky,” Pearce stood in front of it and thought.

“I have it. Kids don’t try this at home. Step back,” Pearce removed the cable which protected the panel case. Then he plugged in the power cable which probably led to the door mechanism. After plugging in the other corresponding part some sparkles came out of the panel and finally the door started to open slowly.

They waited till the door was half open. Pearce removed one cable and they went through to secure the hall and the rooms there first.

Their wakeup room was empty as well as the other on the opposite side.

They went for the next door

“I secure our back,” Knight said and went to the side of the half open door.

The others began the work. Then the door to the right opened.

“We got company,” Knight called to the back, then focused on targeting.

An insectoid appeared. Knight tried to pull the trigger. He couldn’t, because he was totally paralyzed. Only his eyes could move. Two more insectoids appeared.

“Better get rid of this dangerous weapons, you might hurt yourself,” Tarsus said and altered the settings of the rifle. They removed it from Knight’s grip.

The other insectoids went in and took care of the occupied SW soldiers which were also paralyzed now.

“Your efforts are futile, but were expected. Nevertheless, you will rest now and think over your actions. Trying this too often might lead us to get bored of you. Then you will end up as lab rat. Imprisoned for a long life doing nothing and sometimes get probed,” Tarsus raised the rifle and shot. Two more shots went off in this hall.

 

“We are through. I send the laser back to the lift,” Newman informed Ryan.

“Good. I send the scientist back and SW-4 to cover you,” Ryan replied, the rest prepare for the door opening.

Newman went out of the control room to the door. The laser drill was now moving out. He met up with SW-4 and walked to the hole. His infrared showed him the current heat level. But the outer hole was already cooled down. Looking in the hole he saw the gap where the big doors will move. There he didn’t want to be if it starts to open.

Now armed with a spy connector he went further into the hole, over the gap, to the acceptable cooled down hole. The second hole was smaller but wide enough to work with both hands and see where to go. Also the cover plate on the other side was a bit molten. But the panel and cables seemed fine. He connected and went back without problem while Blair was supporting him. At least the gap and the hole was no longer then his body which made it easy enough.

“I’m out. Do we have access?” Newman asked Samuel over radio.

“Yes, everything looks fine,” Samuel replied.

“Major Ryan we are ready.” Newman took his tablet while Blair grabbed his rifle.

“Newman go back to the control room. We will secure the area behind first. I give you the signal when to open,” Ryan replied, then gave the orders for the rest of the teams. Two of SW-4 stayed at the door. The third went into a nearby door as cover. Then Ryan gave the order.

As expected the door opened slowly.

Fujita flew a drone in and scouted the hall behind. There was no one to see. At the end was another such a door.

“Move in and secure,” Ryan ordered.

SW-4 moved into the hall. Ryan advanced with Caine and the none snipers of SW-1. As they were now enough, they went to the first room to the right. The door opened and the drone did the first scout.

“Clear,” informed Fujita. Then they moved in, to look around. They found only five empty seats in a white room.

Ryan went out to the other side. He waited till all were in position then opened.

Again the drone flew in.

“We have them. Knight and the others are there,” Fujita informed.

Ryan moved in.

Knight and the others were lying on tables. The helms and the suit top were off as it were with Ryan and Caine. But this room looked more like an autopsy or surgery room. Ryan looked over Knight. He was sleeping or unconscious. His eyes were closed. However, the infrared showed his breath. “Newman, SW-2, we need you. We have three unconscious to move out.

“The stretchers are in the bikes in the cave entrance. We get them while I send Jones,” Freeman replied.

“Newman can we use the two container for transport?” Ryan asked.

“Sure. I let Samuel get them,” Newman replied which was already out of the control room.

“Watkins, get back to the shuttle, we are retreating,” Ryan informed.

“Affirmative,” she replied.

“To the rest hold position till we get our people out. Then we will retreat together.”

Newman was now with Ryan.

“Can you check the door. I just want to know if we could open it the same way.” Ryan said to him

“We already checked the connection. They must have cut the cables like they did it with the other door. So I will check it now,” Newman informed and went to the door with his scanner.

 

14 Escape

Jones arrive and immediately started his checkups. They had also found something that could faster remove the paralyzes effect. After taking some samples and conducting fast analysis, he injected them the drug.

“They are still unconscious. But I guess not for long time. What’s more important is to know what was done here. I see no instruments, devices or other medical equipment. Did they only take probes or something we couldn’t detect?” Jones asked Ryan.

“Guess, we can only analyze their blood. If they had stored some data, it seems we have no access to it. So they transferred it somewhere else. Also the samples they probably took might hide behind next door. Pursuing them will cost us time and has the risk that they capture one of us. So I follow the Captain’s order. We retreat with them and decide on the Icarus what to do,” Ryan replied. He also wanted not to risk more unless there is surly more to gain. They achieved their objective. Sure it would be very interesting to further inspect the humans and the breeding station. So they could better determine what the aliens are doing here. Also the humans with the brain interface gave some big questions.

The rest of SW-2 went in. They put the stretcher below the unconscious. Ryan told his plan to Freeman then they waited for the container. Finally, they arrived.

In no time they had the three on the two containers with the stretchers.

Samuel was now controlling the containers out while Newman was done with his analysis.

“We have to open this door the same way. So again one hour,” Newman reported.

“Good, coordinate with Kelsey if we got all data. We will leave now. The hall will be covered till you are done. But hurry, I don’t want to wait for too long,” Ryan replied. Newman went to the control room.

“All teams move back to the sentries. SW-2 escort the containers to the shuttles,” Ryan ordered.

The containers went to the lift and with it up. Then SW-2 followed. Samuel was on a bike to control the transport. Also SW-2 were on their bikes. It was a slow progress, limited by the container speed. But this gave Newman the time to finish most of the stuff. He called the Captain. “Did the bike thing on the list work?”

“Yes, that is possible but has its limits,” the Captain replied. It was just a possibility to secure the bikes against the effect of the alien rifle. To do this they had to cut the connection to the antennas and sensors. But it also meant a very limited function. Using the bikes then in a completely manual mode left them with slow speed and manual firing without targeting assistance. However, the pure firepower stayed and the aliens would be surprised.

Newman was done now. Kelsey had still control but all data they could access was transferred. This left them with the cameras to tell when the aliens open the door to recapture their underground facility. Newman went out of the control room to Ryan.

“Everything is done. We will know when they open the door. I also have an option to make the bikes immune to the lower plasma shots. The downside is only a manual firing mode with no precision and slow driving speed. About 30 kilometers per hour,” Newman reported.

“Good, that might have limited use. But better than nothing,” Ryan replied then shouted, “All teams, retreat to the shuttles. SW-3 hold the position with the bikes. Follow us when we are up,” Ryan went back with the others. They moved up with the lift then Ryan informed SW-3 to follow.

SW-3 was with the bikes much faster and they reached as first the shuttles.

Meanwhile Ryan and the others reached the cave exit.

“What do we do with the combat drone and the replacement parts?” Newman asked.

“We shoot them when we leave with the railgun of a combat drone or fighter,” Ryan replied. They jumped all on the bikes and headed to the shuttles.

 

Knight woke up and saw the sky. The wind was blowing a bit. He couldn’t move nor speak. Where was he now? That was not the cave anymore. Had he and the others been rescued? The Icarus! He had to warn them at once. Knight tried to speak, it didn’t work.

 

Ryan was with the others on the landing zone. They loaded up the shuttles. It was planned to leave together. Still the door in the cave was closed. They had not to hurry. Till the container will arrive it would be further 30 minutes. He organized the preparation to shoot the defect combat drone. It would be executed when they are in space.

 

Knight could whisper now, but there was no one to hear it, while the wind was blowing from the velocity of the container.

The containers arrived. SW-2 was ready to get them to the shuttle. Samuel let the container sink to the ground.

Now Jones was with Knight, he came into the vision of him.

“The Icarus is in danger. The alien reinforcement wants to destroy her,” Knight said who now could nearly speak.

“Ryan!” Jones called out. The others were already lifting Knight up. Then Ryan arrived. Knight informed him. At once Ryan radioed the Icarus.

 

“Get us out of the orbit, we need as fast as possible be in a jump ready position,” the Captain ordered.

“Affirmative,” the navigator replied and made the needed calculation. “Sir, our route will make the approach for the shuttles much longer.”

“That risk we have to take. Our main objective is to get back to Earth. No matter what.” Fisher didn’t like it. But they would have achieved nothing if the Icarus does not fly back.

The Icarus accelerated out of the orbit into the space to leave the planets gravity influence behind.

The shuttles were ready to start. They left some bikes behind and flew this time directly up into the sky. Then 100 miles away from the mountains, in high altitude they went too hypersonic and towards space. They already had to alter the course to adapt for the Icarus flight path. With them were all fighters and combat drones except one combat drone for the destruction run of the left stuff.

“Captain, unknown Signal on sensors! Starting to scan,” Clark informed.

Fisher went at once to the volumetric display. “Show the trajectory.”

“It is on interception course. They are also launching ships,” Clark was now busy to get the readings.

“Prepare the combat drones with APEX ammunition,” Fisher ordered.

“The enemy ship has the double size of ours. It is launching the triangular ships we encountered,” Clark could tell now.

“Sound the alarm! Send a sensor drone into their direction. Mark the ship as hostile for the combat drones and get all fighters we have ready. Same ammunition as the drones.” Fisher checked the trajectory. “I need the ETA and what’s the ETA of our landing parties.”

“The ship will reach us in one hour. Our team will arrive in 40 minutes. But I guess the enemy fighters will be much faster when they send them,” Clark replied.

“Inform Ryan, we may need other options, they might need to retreat. And show me a count of this triangular ships.” There were now a lot of red dots around the big enemy vessel on the volumetric screen. They were all gathering in front of it. The number was now shown, there were 62, still increasing.

 

Knight and Watkins were in Ryan’s shuttle. Ryan informed all about the situation.

“If we proceed to the Icarus we have to get Knight in a suite. Still it will be a risky attempt if these enemy fighters can intercept us,” Ryan said.

“Going down to the planet means to hold the cave for a while. We have all to leave the shuttles behind, open for an attack. Then what. Try to capture a city?” Knight could now move the upper body parts a bit.

“We also have to delay the destruction of our left stuff down there,” Newman added.

Ryan informed Owens at once to delay it. They were already close to leave the orbit. Then Ryan activated the display with the tactical information. They saw the squadrons around the enemy ship. There were now 120, still increasing. Both, shuttles and the enemy ship, where pursuing the Icarus from a different direction.

“There are less than 90 combat drones on the Icarus. If they cannot bind the enemy fighters we are sitting ducks. There is no experience how the battle will turn out. It is possible that the Icarus will be forced to jump. Also we don’t know when the capital enemy ship is in weapons range. I fear we are not in a good position,” Ryan said. Owens was now joining them.

“Owens what is your opinion. Do we get to the Icarus?” Knight asked.

“That’s a good question.” He looked at the tactical display. There were now 138, still increasing.

“We took with two drones one of them down and lost one combat drone. This time we will engage differently. But it does not guarantee that it has more success. If they break through they can easily intercept us or they split up. That means they can outnumber us or just force the Icarus to jump.”

“They said they want to destroy the Icarus. So they will ignore us. Without the Icarus we only have the option to fly back and that’s what they want,” Knight was sure there was no point in destroying the shuttles.

“Yes, but with the Icarus away, we only can go back to the planet. In space, I guess, they will destroy our escort then we are out of options.” Owens added.

 

Fisher was discussing now the option. It looked not good to get the shuttles to the Icarus in time.

“I see only one option, we jump. The shuttles are leaving the orbit soon and need instructions. If we jump to the other side they could avoid the alien ships. But we don’t know how fast they are. This means the shuttles will have the alien ships in their back,” Fisher said.

“If Knight’s information is correct they won’t harm the shuttles. They will do everything to destroy the Icarus. Maybe force us also to leave the ship,” Clark replied.

“Then we can change the odds by jumping away when they send the fighters. Send the shuttles the new coordinates. Maybe we can outrun them. How long till we can jump?” Fisher looked at the tactical display. There were now 155 fighters and they started to move towards the Icarus.

“15 minutes and it won’t be less. We are on maximum acceleration. At that speed we will have, we never did a jump,” Clark was concerned, he made the calculations for the approaching fighters.

Fisher wanted to give the order for it, but a third labeled ETA time showed up and was decreasing. It went down to 20 minutes where it seemed to count in normal time scale.

“Now we have the question, are they in less than 15 minutes in weapons range? Do the shuttles have the new coordinates?” Fisher asked.

“I informed them,” the communication officer replied.

“They are changing the course now. This acceleration of the enemy fighters is faster than of our shuttles. I must admit they can easily intercept them,” Clark informed and checked the further readings.

“Show me the numbers,” Fisher needed to adapt somehow. But attacking the incoming fighters was not a good option. At least with the drones and fighters. He looked now at the displaying numbers. The combat drones were better. He had a plan now. “Give me Ryan.”

He discussed it with Ryan while the enemy fighters split up as expected. 40 were flying now after the shuttles. The rest was still heading for the Icarus.

“Launch all combat drones, intercept the 40 enemy ships. Then meet up at our jump destination,” the Captain ordered. With that decision the Icarus was nearly defenseless against the rest. But the combat drones had now an advantage in numbers. Till more of the combat drones were shown to the enemy it would be too late for the enemy to alter the course.

Hopefully the programming was good enough for the enemies next move. Fisher was a bit worried. Without fighter support there were not much options to control the drones, because most of remote commanding was turned off. But letting the enemy the chance to hack them was not an option.

 

“What now? We are on the run. The Icarus is launching combat drones,” Owens was back from the cockpit.

“We don’t have the exact plan. But, I guess, we get now support. At least down to the planet we have a limited time window. Still the door in the cave base is closed. So we have options,” Ryan replied.

“We are soon accelerating from the planet away. I would say the point of no return is reached I about 10 minutes. Then we have to be sure we make it to the rendezvous,” Owens was worried about the approaching fighters.

“The problem is, if we go down to the planet, we don’t fly away with maximum speed. Then they are faster on us,” Knight said. He was no expert for air or space battles. But that he could tell.

“Right. Our combat drones have faster acceleration. So they should be here at the planet in time to intercept the fighters. But they will meet up close to the planet as I calculated,” Owens added. This gave at least the others something to consider.

The Icarus had now launched all combat drones which were accelerating towards the 40 fighters.

“Wow, bold move. At least we should be save for now,” Owens commented.

“This means we make it to our destination.” Ryan looked at the tactical display. “Knight needs now the suit.”

Watkins went for the emergency space suits. The enemy capital ship jumped away.

 

“That was not expected,” Fisher looked at the volumetric display. He tried to think what they are up to. Intercept the shuttles on the other side. They could have extrapolated the course or are there other options? “Inform Ryan that the enemy capital ship might intercept them. I guess they still have enough time to decide.”

“Less than five minutes. At least for a fast return to the planet,” Clark informed. It was an acceleration problem. They were using the planets gravity to build up more speed. Once they are away of the planet it would cost them quite some time to stop and fly back. Also there was then the chance that the rest of the fighters would reach them.

Fisher was now thinking hard and the time was against him. He also had to give orders for the incoming fighters. Also another possibility came him now in mind. That maybe the aliens jumped into hyperspace and moved close to their jump position, to make a jump not possible or just destroying both ships by trying it. What had the aliens to lose. From the information of Knight, the insectoids are the controlling lifeform and very likely not on board of any ship. So it was down to the production value of a ship and its controlling robots, organism or whatever they are.

“The fighters are decelerating,” Clark informed. They calculated for a full kamikaze acceleration to the Icarus, which meant the fastest option to reach them. Then the enemy fighters would overshoot while shooting at the Icarus or kamikaze with devastating effects. But now with the deceleration it would take even more time to reach the Icarus.

Was this a trap and the Icarus could not jump?

“Check our hyperdrive. Is it possible that the enemy capital ship is blocking our jump ability and trap us here or even crash into us?” The Captain needed that information. But it was not likely that the experts figure this out in time.

“I inform the physics department. Too bad that Newman is not on board. He is the expert in this matter,” the communication officer replied.

“True, give me Ryan afterward,” the Captain checked the volumetric display. All their combat drones were now close to engaging the 40 enemy fighters. Also the other fighters were closing in.

“Helm, let us strafe around a bit to make it harder for the incoming fighters to hit us.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Prepare to fire a missile salvo at them,” Fisher wanted to see how effective they were and maybe force them to evade.

“Affirmative,” came the reply from the weapons officer.

“I have now Ryan on the line,” the communication officer informed.

Fisher went to him.

“Ryan, we don’t know if the capital ship can block our ability to jump or even worse. The other option that they intercept you also is still possible.”

“Wait, I ask Newman about it.” Ryan was now talking to Newman, then switched back. “He is thinking now. So what option do we have. I guess not much.”

“That’s the problem. You alter course. But the enemy can adapt for that. When you are close to the jumpable zone he can even get closer on you. We also don’t know if they have still fighters on board. That means they could outrun you. For us is the only option now to get rid of the fighters. This will sure take time. You should consider either to stay in orbit or even go back in the cover of the cave till we worked out a better solution.” Fisher was following the combat drones on the volumetric display. He checked now for the fighters which were closing in on the Icarus. “Fire the missiles.”

Ryan was now thinking. “Wait a moment I discuss it with the others.

 

The combat drones were in a perfect formation for the attack. They swarmed out to be able to fire at nearly the same time. With a firing solution that was barely to avoid and also increased the weapons range. That caused them to fly side by side, top and down to each other. They were close now and nearly in the calculated weapons range. The enemy ships lighted up. At once an evasion maneuver was executed. Coming back from it the weapons range was reached. Shots from the aliens missed. The combat drones fired continues bursts following the firing solution. Also the alien fighters lighted up again forcing an interrupt with an evasion maneuver. Another shot from the aliens passed while lot of alien fighter exploded. It was the bigger number which made the firing solution so effective. Still there were alien ships left. But now they were even closer and both sides would have it harder to evade. The combat drones fired again and also the alien ships. However, none of the alien fighters survived, but all combat drones which altered their course now.

 

“We cannot outrun the alien fighters. This means if the Icarus or the combat drones can’t bind them we are done. They sure denying us to fly close to the Icarus. Maybe they just try to disable our ship. But they sure will give the Icarus a reason to stay. If we go down, we limit their options and have our fate in our hand. Maybe later we have a better chance. So the Icarus can try everything without taking care of us. Sure in the orbit we have a time advantage, but it is worth nothing unless we have enough time to fly to a zone were the Icarus can pick us up,” Knight said.

“Yes, this would also mean we need to fly a certain distance away from the planet undetected. So the enemy fighters need to be destroyed. Maybe then they cannot observe everything and we could use the cover of the planet,” Ryan replied. He thought also it would be better to go down. Even if there was the possibility that the shuttles would be destroyed, while they hide in the cave.

“I guess somehow will Fisher try to get them further away from the planet. So it still will be a tuff thing to trick them. But without enemy fighters we should be the faster. This means there is a way to get to the Icarus,” Owens said.

“Good, we are going down. I inform the Captain,” Ryan decided.

 

“Missiles are closing in,” Clark informed.

Captain Fisher looked at one of the tactical 2D displays which was showing a closer look of it. It automatically zoomed in as the missiles approached the enemy.

Light signatures were registered by the sensors. Then the missiles vanished from the screen.

A bit later shots were passing the Icarus in a far distance.

“They could be soon in weapons range or better targeting range,” Clark said. The shots were also something like the railgun, but a bit faster and were illuminating. Though there were some theories what exactly they were, because plasma should not last that long. Whatever it was it had a similar precision as the railgun and that was the deciding factor for the weapons range here.

“When we are ready to jump?” Fisher asked.

“In about three minutes,” the helm replied.

“Prepare another missile salvo just in case. But alter the flight path. Avoid a direct course. Fire when ready.” Fisher thought this was worth a try and would keep them occupied.

“Aye, sir,” the weapons officer replied and altered the parameters. “Missiles away.”

“Ryan is on the com,” the communication officer informed.

“Put him through,” Fisher replied, “Ryan, you made a decision?”

“Yes, we go down to the cave. The course is already altered. What time window do we have to be down there?” Ryan asked.

“I guess at least three hours if not more. We have to figure the things out. If our jump works as expected, we will then also strip off a fighter from your escort and when you land leave you with one fighter and one combat drone,” Fisher replied. He looked now at the countdown for the jump.

“Affirmative,” Ryan confirmed.

“Do our physicist found out something?” Fisher asked and continued, “Let one of Ryan’s escort pilots lead the combat drones, then they have to fly slower. He should not engage the capital ship.

10 second to jump coordinates.

The missiles were closing in. The enemy fighters started to shoot again.

8 seconds. Now Missiles vanished from the screen.

7 seconds.

“They still found nothing unusual,” the communication officer replied.

Three of the enemy fighters were hit and exploded into pieces.

3 seconds.

“Then jump as soon as we can,” Fisher ordered.

0 seconds.

“Jumping,” the navigator confirmed.

 

“They are gone,” Ryan said as he looked at the tactical screen. It was a bit delayed because of the distance. The enemy fighters were changing the course now. Still they were far away and with the speed they had built up, it would take them some time to alter course to a new target.

“The door in the cave is opening,” Samuel informed.

“Then we have to hurry,” Ryan replied and switched to Owens, “We need to go down fast, they opened the door in the cave probably to lock the first door we hacked.”

“Affirmative, then get all in the seats and fasten the belts,” Owens informed the other ships.

The combat drones and one fighter went ahead. Ryan and Newman helped Knight into the seat. He could now move all body parts a bit, that helped a lot.

Ryan informed Owens as soon as all were prepared. Then it started to shake and the acceleration was to feel as they went over the limits of the inertial damper. It was a maneuver they could do only for a short time and when entering the atmosphere, they had to compensate a lot more effects. This time they would go down as a fireball directly over the facility area. Giving a target highlight in the sky. The combat drones were the first. Compared to the stratosphere jump this was a hell ride. Flying down with an insane speed. Then decelerating with about five G were three G could be compensated. It would have gone a bit faster. But the leader of the shuttle group in SW-3 shuttle, wanted to let the fighter and the combat drones have a bit time to secure the area. Which meant to spread out and scan.

Then the shuttle went in and landed near the cave. The area was still monitored by the scout drones. SW-6 and 7 went first out of the shuttles, with the bikes they headed into the cave. SW-2 took care of the still not fully operational three. They brought them into SW-1 shuttle to put their combat suits on. SW-5 secured the area of the defect combat drone which Newman and the other two scientists started repair.

Samuel tried do check what the Grays were doing. SW-3 went into the cave and checked all incoming sensor data which meant the position of the enemy fighters and what was happening in the cave.

The assigned one combat drone and one fighter stayed while the others left now back into space. The rest of the combat forces followed SW-6 and 7 into the cave.

Watkins also lead the rest of the scientists into the cave as it was clear that the three Grays they spotted would not make much resistance.

Yamada was guiding the combat troops in. All three Grays were in the control room. They didn’t even try to shot down the drones which were on standby.

Fujita was now trying to scout the open door. There was another hall, it looked quite similar and all doors were closed.

Now three Grays went out of the control room. They seemed to know what was coming. Samuel could at least tell they had removed the spy connectors. How successful they were with the door he could not tell. But the last was closing.

 

Captain, I have the physic department on the line,” the communication officer informed.

“Put them through,” Fisher was now waiting. In mind he did plan now how to intercept the fighter first.

“Sir, we got a new gravimetric signature it’s on the location where we wanted to pick up the shuttles,” came it over the speaker.

“Clark get this on a tactical table,” Fisher ordered at once.

Clark did the synchronization with the physics department. He had not to do much as reroute the hyperdrive system to the table.

Fisher looked now at the table. “They must also see us and already know that the shuttles are not coming,” Fisher said.

He was now guessing what they maybe could do in the hyperspace. Till now the Icarus was the first ship. There was only one smaller drone test ship before. So it was not possible to test much of the hyperspace physics then to travel fast and safe to a different location.

“Can they shot at us?” Fisher asked.

“Maybe. With a torpedo with his own hyperdrive,” came the answer from the physic department.

Fisher looked at the volumetric display. He needed a new position for the Icarus to regroup with the combat drones.

“It’s moving towards us!” Clark shouted.

Alerted Fisher glanced back to the table with the display of the hyperdrive system. It was not too fast.

“Move back,” he ordered. Then he selected a location with his finger in the volumetric display and marked it with a gesture of the other hand. “Helm, I marked a new position. Bring us as fast as possible three.”

“Affirmative.”

“We will leave the hyperspace there and recall our combat drones. I need to know if we can detect them from normal space or if they can shoot at us out of hyperspace and how. This torpedo theory sound likely.” Fisher wanted to do other things first, but things went different. Now the physicists were busy again. Fisher checked the tactical position. The enemy ship was slower at the moment. What were they up to? They had the same limit, Fisher thought. In the gravimetric field of the planet they could also not leave the hyperspace. That meant they would be at least safe there. But how close could they jump out to them. The first time there was quite a distance between them. Not only because of the gravimetric field. Learning the hyperspace mechanics while in a combat situation was not what Fisher wanted. The enemy ship did not accelerate further, but it surly could. Also the question was can the aliens fly faster in hyperspace.

“Recalculate our exit point with our combat drones recall and the enemy fighters. Optimize this as good as possible,” Fisher ordered.

“Aye, sir,” the helmsman replied and started the calculation. He had not much time they were already close. The helmsman did the final correction and showed it on the volumetric screen. “This gets us five minutes faster to the drones.”

“Good, as soon as we are there, launch the sensor probes. Do a fast scan and exit,” Fisher did not want to give the enemy ship a chance to surprise them in hyperspace.

“Affirmative.”

Now Fisher was thinking. Without destroying the enemy ship, they could not escape. Risking a pursue in hyperspace was not a thing he wanted to try out. But step by step, first the fighters then the next problem. Without loses of combat drones it won’t work again.

“We reached the exit point. Sending probes,” Clark informed.

The enemy ship kept the speed and still headed for the Icarus. Fisher was looking at its movement.

“All clear,” Clark reported.

The Icarus jumped out of the hyperspace.

“Recall the combat drones and the fighters to our position,” Fisher ordered. He looked at the volumetric display. The enemy fighters were heading to the planet were the combat drones currently were. The enemy capital ship also appeared further away. Now the enemy fighters changed the course for the Icarus. Also the enemy capital ship was heading for the Icarus as Fisher checked it again. But why did it jump out so far away. There must be a reason. “Alert all personal we are in combat. Everyone have to put on combat suits or space suits, now. Clear the bridge and move to the combat bridge!”

Fisher wanted to order this in hyperspace where they should have had more time, which they hadn’t. Now with the approaching fighters it was about 40 minutes for the confrontation. But he had to encounter them sooner not to endanger the ship. He checked the volumetric display again. The combat drones were fast enough. There were some possibilities.

 

“The Icarus is back. They are now preparing for a fight,” Yamada informed Ryan.

“Good, keep me informed. We might need their hacking support,” Ryan replied. They used all the bikes they had available. Owens was now with Taylor on the way to the old landing zone where they abandoned bikes they could not take with them.

“SW-6 and 7 secure as fast as you can the doors. Samuel is joining you, to cut the connection,” Ryan ordered.

The teams went into the big hall while the first door was still open. Three Grays were at the closing door in the last hall. A surface drone was with them. All Grays were not armed. The thick door was slowly closing at their position. SW-6 and 7 took position at the end of the huge hall. The closing door prevented to target the Gray as they went behind it.

“We cannot pursue the Grays. The door is closing and we would risk getting cut off,” Diaz informed Ryan.

“Just hold position and let Samuel secure the door control,” Ryan was close to the huge hall entrance.

Samuel arrived. He went to the other side and unplugged the network cable. Then he used two spy connectors to access both sides.

The door started to close. That was unexpected as Samuel already unplugged the cable. As he could not remove the cover plate of the power distributor. He jumped on the bike and went out with it.

“What’s happening the door is closing?” Ryan asked as Samuel went out.

“I don’t know yet. I’m on the way to the control room. The Icarus support can also help to analyze.” Samuel went with the bike to the control room, stopped and jumped off to get in.

“Kelsey we have problems with an unexpected door closing,” Ryan radioed meanwhile.

Samuel already knew where to look at. They had the last time done a full analysis here. He checked for the communication devices they had disconnected. They were all now reconnected. So he unplugged them again. With connecting another spy connector, he started to analyze now.

“We have a bit delay here because of the distance. But I’m checking now,” Kelsey replied. She was now wearing a combat suite which was the suit of her choice as she had most experience with it. The space suits had some advantage in safety but also would slow down the work speed. All the lab scientists were using the space suits, now.

 

Fisher and the bridge crew were now in the combat bridge and their suits. It was a section in the middle of the ship. It was like the offices and other installations a good covered area which was much better protected against hull breaches and weapons impact. On the bridge of the tower it would be enough to penetrate the glass. Certainly they had an armor plate which could cover the glass, but it was nothing compared to the multilayer plating that was now between them and the vacuum of the space. Still it was unknown with what the capital ship would shoot. Fisher hoped to find an option not to try it out. He was now discussing how they would engage the enemy fighters with less as possible losses.

Meanwhile opened Samuel the door again. They had now the full control back. At least that was what Kelsey verified.

“Are we down to the laser again?” Ryan wanted to know.

“Probably, I can send an opening command there. But I fear they can overwrite it and then plug in the cable if they hadn’t done it already,” Samuel replied.

“Then check this and get the laser in position, I guess we have further two doors to go at least.” Ryan went into the control room, he wanted to get something done. Who knows how long they had to wait, Ryan thought.

“The door does not respond. They have already cut the connection. So we will drill now,” Samuel confirmed.

“They are still in the hall behind. Wait. Drone signal lost,” Ryan switched to the drone before the door, then he saw the connection lost icon on his display. “Seems they are jamming, again. I check the outside.”

Ryan went out of the control room for the fortified position where SW-1 and 4 were.

“Status?” Ryan asked.

“Position secured, but we lost communication,” came the reply from a nearby sniper.

“Watch the door, something might happen.” Ryan was a bit worried. With Newman and SW-3 up there it was not much protection. Sure for the next hour they should be safe but something was odd. He went to Caine which was at the control room door.

“Caine go up and check the situation up there. They should retreat into the cave for safety and Newman should triangulate the jammer,” Ryan ordered.

“I’m on my way,” Caine jumped on the nearby bike and went out of the hall.

 

Newman and the others were nearly finishes with the repairs as the jamming began.

“Better we move into the cave, I get the scanner and check where this is coming from,” Newman opened the trunk of the bike and picked the scanner out. It was clearly coming from the cave. He closed the trunk, jumped on the bike and drove to Yamada.

Yamada’s team did also a triangulation with their tablets. It was not as precise as Newman’s scanner, but enough to determine it was close to the location of they closed door.

“It’s down at the hallway out of the big hall to the closed door,” Yamada said as Newman arrived. Newman scanned again.

“More where the aliens are hiding,” Newman added after his second scan.

“That could be a problem to deactivate it,” Yamada was worried.

Then Caine appeared. “I need a status report, a triangulation of the jammer and stay in the cave to be more secure.”

“Here seems all clear. But we cannot communicate with our fighter. I pinpointed the jammer to the hall where the aliens are hiding, more exactly at the left room there,” Newman informed. Then the jamming stopped.

Yamada checked at once for the drones. They were all there.

“The Grays are gone. They jammed out of the hall behind the door or the left room there,” Yamada reported Ryan.

“Good, get me Newman down. He should help to speed this up here,” Ryan replied.

Yamada informed Newman, which ordered then after a talk with Ryan, the other two scientists to finish the work on the combat drone. With his bike he followed then Caine down.

The laser drill was already in place. Newman made with Samuel some fine adjustments, after they scanned where to go. Finally, they went back to the control room and started the drill.

“So what now?” Newman asked.

“We should figure out which of this communication boxes leads up to the ship we captured. So we could have a connection to the Icarus while they jam us,” Samuel suggested.

“Good idea. You inform Kelsey, while I start the preparations,” Newman went out to the bike to get some stuff.

 

Ryan was with Watkins now. “How is it going?”

“We initiated the wake up process in this chamber. He is getting now more and more temperature. At this rate I assume he wakes up in 10 minutes,” Watkins replied.

“What’s this stuff he is wearing?” Ryan looked at it. It had on some points metallic buttons.

“That seems to be a senor suit, probably measuring temperature on different locations or even more. We did not figure out, how it is transferring the data, yet.”

“I send you Newman if he has the time for it. Call me when he is awake. I will now report to the Icarus,” Ryan went out and back to the control room.

“How can we prevent that they jam us again,” Ryan asked as he entered the control room.

“We have only a solution for the Icarus communication. That should work when we found the right communication device. I think we should have it in 10 minutes. So we have a secure line to this control room. For the jammer we have to open the door, find it and disable it. But that does not mean they haven’t another one behind the next door,” Newman replied.

Samuel was further testing the unplugged communication devices, one by one.

“They have now their reinforcements in space. Jammed us shortly probably for testing and moved the Grays away unseen. When they do it again they could try to ambush us somehow from both sides. The Icarus cannot warn us and might have trouble to prevent them from landing troops. This means that new connection could be our joker,” Ryan said. He was worried that they could be trapped down there.

“We also could delay our capture by blowing down rocks. But that would only work if we know support from the outside will come. With the unbreakable connection to the Icarus we know at least what is coming. Maybe we get the combat drones inside the cave and even the fighter. That would mean we could give them the needed orders or just hide them here,” Newman suggested.

“Good idea.” Ryan went up for a nearfield communication with the fighter.

 

He woke up and looked around. There were strange creatures to see. He could not recognize them. His face showed the unknown situation. He started to speak in his common language.

Watkins could not understand it. She reached her hand and helped him up.

“We are from Earth. Most of us speak only English,” she also didn’t know what to say as response.

The awoken further said something.

Freeman and Jones were also there.

“I try something out,” Watkins went back to the tablet and wrote something on it. Then translated it into the Mesopotamian symbols hoping it would be correct enough. She showed it to the awoken. He seemed now to read, then nodded.

“Great, it seems he can read his. Now we check if he can write.” She wrote again on her tablet, then gave it to him.

He nodded again. Then tried to figure out how to write with the tablet. It took a while then Watkins translated it.

“Well, he has a name, I don’t know how to speak. At least the system can’t translate it. He is asking what he should do. I ask him what languages he can speak,” Watkins wrote again.

It took a while again.

“He speaks only the language of the masters,” Watkins informed after she read the reply.

“So you have awoken one of our experiments.” The awoken made now a different face and was speaking English.

“What are you doing with them?” Watkins asked.

“Does it matter. That is our business,” he replied.

“Sure. You are experimenting with our DNA. Abducted this one from our planet against his will.”

“Not this one. The one we abducted lives now with us. He has a longer lifespan then you and an honorable rank in our society. This is just an experiment that used some of his DNA. It is similar like the Gray you met.”

“Inform Ryan, again. He should be here by now.” Watkins said to the others. Freeman made a gesture in Barnes direction to do it as he watched now the awoken not to make any dangerous move. With the suits he probably could do not much. Still it was possible to somehow grab a gun. The awoken stood up.

“So what are this bodies? Your avatar to move around wherever you want,” Watkins tried to get information.

“That is just a function that is useful. No they are just optimized for doing some kind of jobs. We have our simple worker they need no interface. Then our explorers which are suited for space travels. You call them the Grays. They have a lot of functions, but also limits and here with that human looking ones we try some stuff on this planet. But you will learn all this when you joined our society.”

“But we don’t want that,” Watkins replied.

“What options do you have when your ship is gone. You stayed too long and have now to pay the prize.”

“We will resist,” Watkins replied.

“Resistance is futile. Sure you can bore you to death or try the funny rebel stuff. But on this planet you can damage only our equipment that can be easily replaced.”

Ryan was now joining them.

The awoken continued, “So the best way to not harm yourself is drop your guns. Let your ship land on this planet and cooperate.”

“So what exactly do you want from us?” Watkins asked.

“That’s obvious. Your DNA, your behavior, some analysis to pinpoint the sequences. You all can get here a chance to advance in our society, improve yourself how you like it and a life better as you can imagine.”

“Oh and for that we give you all our lives in your custody. Let you analyze our technologies and forget you did things to us against our will and try to destroy our ship,” Ryan said.

“Well, you also can wait till it is done. Curiosity is a fine thing. You stayed too long but also got the chance to get more. On your planet someone behaves like you would be just killed.” The awoken looked a bit around and stepped out of the chamber.

“It was only a reaction to your actions. Call your ships back and let us leave. Then this facility stays as it is,” Ryan responded.

“You are free to do what you want. We are talk about the conditions after your surrender.” The face changed again.

“We do not surrender,” Ryan said.

“My master does not want to speak with you anymore,” the awoken spoke in a bit different voice and pace.

“Then sit down over there,” Ryan replied.

He walked to the direction Ryan pointed and sat down on a chair like structure on the wall.

“He can speak English now. That is amazing despite our situation,” Watkins said.

“Yes. Freeman, guard him. I don’t want him to walk around. Watkins check him out what he is exactly. Is this now an organic robot or a living being temporary controlled by a device?” Ryan ordered.

“It is a living being with DNA. The question is can it think or decide for its own,” Watkins replied.

“I need more details. Is he controlled or does he have a free will like us. I mean the difference between a machine or a human. They seemed to be tools for the aliens. I need to know exactly what they are. With the Gray we had not so much luck. Maybe here.” Ryan wanted to know more about the others to understand their behavior and thinking.

“This will be difficult. You know machines can already master the Turing test. This means to simulate human behavior. I do my best. But our analysis methods are limited here.” Watkins knew this would take probably much longer than they at least wanted to stay here.

“Yes, but also I need something to decide if we leave them here. Take them with us or even destroy them what would be unlikely because they can create them again.” Ryan was not sure how the things would work out. But the best he could do now is to get intel. He went up to Knight to discuss the situation. After reporting also to the Captain he went back to the control room.

 

Meanwhile Watkins and her team took care of the awoken. SW-2 did the guarding.

“We have now a not jam able connection. Still we don’t know how exactly their communication devices work, but we do also use our own encryption over them,” Newman reported.

“Good, then help Watkins to analyze our awoken, if you have nothing more important to do,” Ryan replied.

“I only have to check the combat drone repair status. They said it is done now. So I would get the drone inside and reassign the scientists down here. After that I have time for Watkins,” Newman told Ryan.

“Make it so. We need as much information we can get out of here. This might give us maybe some options, I hope.” Ryan thought about how they could somehow force the alien ship to leave. Maybe they could threaten the city below. Take some important prisoners. It could work out quite differently if they have these insectoids. But how they overcome this mind control thing or whatever it was what Knight experienced. Ryan did not know how to approach this, but was guessing it would work only with one. So they had to be just more. That was difficult if there is a whole city.

 

Fisher had now planned it out with his teams. It would not be the same as they had it with the 40 fighters and probably the enemy would react differently. But soon a deciding battle will begin. A star battle which result shapes the fate of the teams on the planet and maybe also on the ship. Fisher decided to risk an engagement with the capital ship if he could get enough combat drones out of the upcoming fight. Losing that meant a retreat at once. But was this possible with the capital ship around?

“Checkpoint reached,” Clark informed.

“Signal to engage,” Fisher replied.

All combat drones and fighters headed in a prepared formation against the alien fighter.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 09.05.2016

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