Annihilation - Finding Keepers (Annihilation Series (Book Seven}) (38 page)

Dale looked up and saw an approaching Searcher heading toward his team. The ship settled to the ground, the landing bay opened, and Ethan Rucker stepped out. Dale immediately recognized the pilot from the first fight and ran forward and embraced him. “I’m glad it’s you taking us.”

“I asked for this assignment. I’ll keep you covered.”

Dale turned to his team and said, “We have a great Searcher taking us. Get aboard. We have a job to do.”

The five Red Warriors entered the landing bay and the small ship lifted.

Junior said, “If you two lovebirds are interested, it appears we have another spectator for the coming attraction.”

Jake and Valerie broke their kiss and Valerie asked, “What?”

“Cynthia and BC are here awaiting the arrival of the transport.”

Jake looked at his display and saw Cynthia’s ship holding station 10,000 miles out from the planet. “I’ll bet Fleet Command doesn’t know she’s here. Can she see us, Junior?”

“No. I’m sure she’s worried about this particular action because of the size of that garrison. This must be one of the Keepers’ oldest conquests.” Junior paused for a moment and then said, “Jake, they have underestimated the size of this garrison.”

Jake felt a sudden dread, “What do you mean?”

“I’m looking at the fleet report on this garrison and it shows it going down ten levels. My scanners are better than anything the Realm is currently using, and I can see there are fifteen more levels they didn’t detect. There are more than three hundred thousand Keepers in that facility. That must be why there are ten communities instead of the normal three or four.”

Valerie looked at Jake, “What are you going to do?”

“I can’t warn Cynthia before the transport arrives because the Keepers will hear the transmission. Unfortunately, the warriors will enter the facility almost simultaneously with the transport’s departure. I’m not willing to call off the rescue and miss saving the ten communities.”

Junior said, “Jake, don’t do it.”

Valerie said, “Do what?”

“Junior, my armor was updated with the new weapons four weeks ago. I’m going to need you and the other Searcher to support us with your needles. Most of that support will have to come from you because the other ship won’t be able to see the lower levels. If it gets too bad you can teleport me out and I won’t block it.”

“Jake, you are not going into that garrison.”

Jake shook his head and hugged her, “Yes I am, and you know I have to go.”

“Why do you have to do it?”

“You would do the same, Val. Junior, I’m going to the landing bay to test my armor. Take care of my future bride while I’m gone.”

“Who’s going to take care of me?”

Jake laughed and left for the landing bay.

Valerie sat down in the command chair and felt her fear rising. She asked, “How is the transport going to take those cities without the Keepers seeing the teleport screen?”

“It is going to use a new process called grab and snatch.”

“What?”

“The transport will project the teleport screen eighteen inches under the soil of the ten cities and the surrounding fields. It will already be in place as the transport arrives a mile above the communities. The transport will then lock the connection and accelerate away from the planet at full speed, pulling the screen up as it departs and teleporting everything above it into the transport’s bay. The only thing left behind will be the orange trinkets the Keepers placed on the population. The screen won’t be visible underground and the Keepers will only see it for a brief moment as the ship leaves the planet. The Warriors will be teleporting in below the screen used to move the cities and begin their attack.”

“Junior, there are too many of them. Jake may be killed.”

Junior gave a sigh and said, “That’s true, but I’ve seen the new armaments and I think they can hold their own until the five Warriors can be rescued if things go south.”

“But six against hundreds of thousands.”

“Seven, Valerie. Cynthia will also be going down. I’ll update her in a few moments as the transport leaves. I’m certain she wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

Valerie sat and worried and looked for the transport to arrive.

“Here it comes,” Junior announced.

The transport teleported to a mile above the ten communities and locked the length of the beam controlling the teleport screen. It fired its drives and accelerated out of the atmosphere, pulling the silver screen up with it as it departed. The screen disappeared two hundred feet above the surface as the huge three-hundred-mile-wide transport disappeared into the darkness of space. Just before teleporting away the transport ejected a frequency generator, which immediately started broadcasting.

“Cynthia?”

“Junior, what are you doing here?”

“No time to explain. The fleet report is inaccurate. This garrison has twenty five levels instead of ten. There are more than a quarter of a million Keepers inside it, and Jake is teleporting down to support the Red Warriors.”

“BC, lock me on Jake’s signal and teleport me down.”

“Cynthia, you have been ordered not to participate in any combat operations.”

“Tell it to the Admiral after you teleport me down. What do you think they will do if I don’t go and try to keep from losing Jake?” Cynthia donned her armor and disappeared from the bridge.

Ethan Tucker was holding station above the garrison when a ship appeared a mile to the west of his position. He heard, “Rescue One, this is the Stars Realm ship Junior, and I am here to support your warriors. I am patching my scans into your system and I need you to handle the east end of the garrison.”

Ethan saw the new scan on his display, “Holy…..”

“I know; Fleet underestimated the scope of this garrison. Keep moving and hit anything sticking its head up.”

“You two aren’t going to a party without me, I hope.”

“Oh, hi BC; you take the west end and I’ll handle the middle. Hit the structures that are above ground level.

The surface of the garrison exploded as the three ships began rapidly teleporting to different locations while firing low power needles into the huge Keepers facility.

Dale and the four Red Warriors teleported into the first level of the garrison and arrived in the middle of hundreds of Keepers. Dale released a bundle of the new wasps and watched as every one of the Keepers in the corridor began bursting into bright light and disappearing. Dale watched as hundreds of the brown creatures turned to run, but they could not escape the small, fast moving, darts.

The new wasp was a small Coronado Power Cell that homed in on the thought frequency of Keepers. It would hit, penetrate and release its energy, which was set to completely burn an average sized Keeper. Dale quickly looked at his scanner and was shocked at the number of Keepers coming up from the lower levels.

“Lt. Hamlet, I am taking command of this unit.”

Dale was stunned to hear Col. Dodd, but his amazement increased as the White Demon teleported in to join his team.

Cynthia looked at Jake and said, “Just like old times, huh? What’s the plan?”

“Lieutenant, send a warrior to the each end of this corridor and have them begin launching wasps. Fan out from here and follow my lead.”

Terry and Gord moved quickly down each end of the corridor and fired a bundle of a thousand hornets ahead of them. Jake closed his eyes and looked at the floor. He pointed his right arm down, lowered his wrist, and fired an intense beam into the floor. He then launched a bundle of wasps followed by two hornets. In the corridor under the warriors, the wasps fanned out and Keepers began disintegrating. The hornets turned and headed in opposite directions, homing in on two beam platforms that were moving toward the invaders. The hornets hit the platforms and melted them. These hornets did not explode, risking a cave in, but released intense heat. Every Keeper within fifty feet of the platforms burned.

Jake looked in both directions and said, “This corridor is seven miles long. I want everyone spaced with a mile separation. Once this corridor is clean, notify me.”

Dale looked at his display and noticed he was assigned the extreme left end of the long cave. He turned and ran. Gord was assigned the right end, with the remaining warriors equally spaced between them.” Jake noticed some Keepers’ beams begin to come through the floor.

“Junior, it appears our hosts are delivering a big serving of beam platforms. Anything you can do about thanking them for their courtesy?”

“Don’t stand above them, and allow ten feet for the passage.”

Jake fed the locations of the platforms to the combat computers of the team, and had an alarm sound if anyone moved between the platform and the surface. “We’re clear, Junior.”

Junior fired an intense micro needle that was only two inches wide, but incredibly hot, into the ground. It penetrated two levels and hit a beam platform. “BC, Ethan; use your scanner and fire a micro needle at any beam platform in your area of coverage. The team will not be within ten feet of the area above the platforms.”

“Ok, this is how we’re going to do this. This level is clear. Before you teleport to the next level, eject a bundle of bees. Use your blaster to burn a hole next to you through the floor into the next level. Then fire a bundle of wasps and two hornets through it. Wait six seconds to give the hornets time to complete their run, then teleport into that level. Your computers will take over once we jump in.” Jake looked at the warriors and said, “Execute.”

The Collective was analyzing production data when it felt thousands of its warriors dying. It sent its perception out and saw five thousand farms under attack. It heard, “I’ve sent ships to the farms and they will arrive momentarily.”

The Collective looked at the planets being attacked and one jumped out at him. Military responded again, “I see Grenwa is one of those being assaulted. I don’t know if the enemy just got lucky or knew its importance. I’ve sent a hundred thousand ships to its defense.”

The Collective said nothing, but turned its attention to Grenwa and entered the farm’s Director. “We have assistance on the way.”

“The Fleet arrived a twentieth interval ago and is coming in from the jump band.”

“Military, why is our fleet only jumping to the jump band?”

“I don’t know. Our drives will not take us any further. Science, what’s happening?”

“There is a probe emitting a frequency that is preventing our ships from jumping to the planet.”

“Just the one planet?”

“No, all five thousand.”

The Collective went back to the Director and asked, “Can you hold out?”

“The attackers are now down two levels and we are organizing our defense eight levels below them. At the current pace, the fleet should arrive before the nineteenth level is reached.”

The Collective was anxious. How did the enemy prevent their drives from operating? Then it had a sudden thought that caused fear, “If their drives were not working here, what about the fleet in the enemy’s universe?”

“Military, get a scout to the enemy’s universe and see if the fleet is also being affected by this device.”

“It won’t make any difference. They may move the populations, but we will destroy the planets until there is nowhere for them to escape.”

“Even so, find out what’s happening.”

Military ordered the scout to go and felt an unfamiliar emotion: fear.

“This just in for your viewing pleasure. A Keepers Fleet of a hundred thousand ships has just come out of jump at the drive limit.”

Jake fired a hornet at a beam platform and said as he released another bundle of wasps, “They really respond in a big way, Junior.”

“I’m not so sure about that, Jake.”

Jake sensed something in Junior’s tone, “What do you mean?”

“This is the only planet that drew that level of response. All the others only had a thousand ships dispatched.”

“There’s something here that’s important to them.”

“That’s how I see it, Jake. Have you seen anything that would justify that level of response?”

Jake fired his blaster at a Keeper coming out of an opening in the floor, “No but we’re only down to the sixth level.”

“My scanners show a huge welcome party for you on the eighth level.”

“What do you see?”

“The entire corridor is filled with Keepers aiming their beam platforms at the seventh level.”

Jake looked at his display and saw that the sixth level was clear of Keepers. He ordered a halt to the advance. The team waited and listened in to Jake’s transmission, “Junior, can you fire one of the old needles into that level and load it with hornets.”

“If he can’t, I can.”

Junior asked, “What are you doing with old needle armament, BC?”