Battle for the Earth (7 page)

‘I don’t deserve you, do I, Marie?’ he said with a weary smile.

Marie just smiled, this time a smile of satisfaction.

Next morning Terry was up bright and early, another two runs had been completed to check for any viral contamination and a complete systems check had been run to check for damage from the EMP discharge. All the checks had come up green, and Earth was good to go.

**

16

Standing on the bridge of his flagship
Nephilimis,
Tannacha looked mighty pleased with himself. Yes, he had suffered losses, but not due to direct action. The date was now December 28 and everything had more or less gone to plan so far, except of course the unfortunate meteor incident. Still, that was all behind them now.

The plan was to take the eastern seaboard of the United States of America first, establish a main base there and then pick off the continents of Earth one by one. Tannacha barked out the command for the routing to begin and a squadron of fifty assault craft sped out of the landing bay on board the
Nephilimis.
This was of course Tannacha’s personal guard, the elite of the fleet.

The squadron streaked up the eastern coast of America heading directly for New York. Anything in their path that moved, was annihilated. The lead assault vessel piloted by a particularly vicious Annunaki called Verton, was just arriving over Charlotte, North Carolina, when he began to break left slightly with a group of five other craft, to head directly for Washington DC and the White House. The rest of the squadron would carry on to New York.

**

Verton had slowed the speed of his six craft down to a minimum and looked downward to his left. They had just entered Virginia, and he could make out the Mill Mountain Star just ahead of him. With a wry smile on his face he disengaged the auto-targeting system on his console and, selecting the landmark manually, loosed a volley of weapon fire on it.

The Star imploded violently, then erupted into atoms. Verton rolled his craft in a sick victory roll then sped on northward towards his chosen target, the White House. Back on board
Nephilimis,
Tannacha gave the command for a troop transport to be dispatched to New York, and a second troop transport to go to Washington DC. Both transports were to have an escort of six assault craft, which would allow ground bases to be set up and a foothold be gained.

**

Verton was just passing over Bailey’s Crossroads, Fairfax County, Virginia, normal population around thirty thousand, just another wholesome American town. Flying in diamond formation, the six Annunaki craft were preparing their targeting systems for an all-out blitz on the White House, and central Washington. Suddenly and without any warning at all, the craft to Verton’s left erupted in a flash of white hot alloy and disintegrated in front of his eyes. Unwittingly, Verton had just flown his wing of six Annunaki assault craft directly over Earth Central.

Deep beneath the suburban streets of Bailey’s Crossroads, Terry had been watching Verton’s approach and had timed his strike precisely, ordering the two pods to fire at the most opportune second, and with devastating effect. The defence of Earth had begun.

Verton spun his craft into a vertical dive, flipping it over at the same time to allow him to see where he had just come from. The formation had fractured and two more of the Annunaki assault craft were in real trouble from the pods. Verton watched in disbelief as the two craft disintegrated before him. He still couldn’t see clearly where the ground fire was coming from. He barked commands to the two remaining craft to follow him. Abruptly and at high speed he shot upwards.

Terry ordered five of the camouflaged ESG assault ships to take up the pursuit, Appearing from nowhere, the ESG vessels sped after the Annunaki craft. Their advanced targeting systems scouring the skies for a lock on the Annunaki targets. A volley of pulse weapons spat out from the first two ESG ships and found their target, a trailing Annunaki craft. The craft spun from the violent explosions on its hull and tore into three pieces, in an inferno of white-hot fire.

The two remaining Annunaki vessels powered their engines to full, and rocketed off to join the safety of the squadron heading to New York. As Verton approached the squadron heading for New York he could tell all was not well. They were just over East Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey, and had run into another two of the Dropas pods.

Fifteen of the Annunaki craft had already succumbed to the devastating fire power of the pods, and the other twenty-nine craft were in a desperate struggle for survival. The element of surprise had been well worth all the secrecy and given the Dropas and mankind a huge psychological advantage.

Verton immediately gave the command for all the Annunaki craft to withdraw. He was still physically stunned from what had just happened.

The Annunaki ships sped eastward and down into the depths of the Atlantic ocean, two hundred miles offshore, and on the sea bed Verton took stock.

**

On the west coast of America, the calm, shallow waters of San Francisco Bay, just east of Point Blunt Rock, erupted as eighteen Dropas assault ships, piloted by the Tactical Android Group, or TAG, blasted from the waters in a perfect wing-shaped formation.

The leader of this group was Balac, Thourus’s right-hand man, so to speak. Thourus had ordered Balac to take the group, three assault wings, eighteen assault vessels in all, and intercept the Annunaki troop transports before they could reach their destinations. Balac spotted the first of the troop transports and its escort. Without hesitation and ignoring the escort vessels, he and the rest of his group tore straight in, releasing a cataclysm of pulse weapons fire at the troop transport.

The troop transports were fairly large, and could carry up to five thousand troops at a time. The two that had been sent to Earth were both full, so that ground bases could be established.

Now the lead transport was taking direct fire from eighteen TAG assault ships. Inside the Annunaki troop transport confusion reigned. No one knew what was happening or who was attacking them.

On the bridge the commander was desperately trying evasive manoeuvres, but nothing seemed to shake his attackers off, there was just too many of them.

Balac watched the explosions rip through the troop transport, as it tried desperately to crash-land, so as to evacuate surviving troops to safety, but one of the Annunaki escort vessels had just taken a direct hit from a TAG craft and was spinning violently towards the bridge of the transport.

The impact was tremendous. The explosion ripped right down the length of the troop transport and ruptured the on-board armoury. The troop transport’s nose rose up and its back broke in four places, then it exploded into a thousand flying fragments.

The TAG had already broken off their attack and were now in the process of mopping up the escort craft.

One by one the Annunaki assault vessels fell, some spectacularly and some in a flash and a puff of smoke, but all six fell with no Dropas casualties. Balac was as close to exhilaration as an Android could get. What a result! The wing re-formed, and proceeded to speed off to intercept the surviving troop transport.

**

17

Tannacha stood on the bridge of his flagship. Proximity alarms were sounding everywhere, Annunaki officers were running backwards and forward trying to verify reports, and confusion had replaced the calm of a short hour ago, Tannacha spun round and shouted in his low growling tone, ‘Stop!’

Everyone on the bridge came to an abrupt halt.

‘Will someone please tell me where these attack vessels have come from and who the hell is behind it?’

‘Dropas, sir, we think, but we’ve got no idea where they’re coming from.’

‘Find out, then get me our losses so far in this abomination. No excuses, recall everything till I find out what’s going on.’

At that moment as Tannacha turned round, the
Nephilimis
banked hard to its right. Several juddering movements followed, the sound of weapons fire spoiled the quiet on the bridge, and smoke started to taint the air.

The
Nephilimis
had been hit by a barrage of pulse weapons and was listing badly to the right. A small number of fires had broken out along its sprawling corridors. Jumouk had ordered an ESG battle cruiser and twenty assault ships from the safety of the shroud on the far side of the moon to attack the
Nephilimis
and destroy it, in the hope that if the Annunaki flagship was destroyed the Annunaki will to fight on would crumble.

The ESG ships had moved so fast that in the confusion they were on top of the
Nephilimis
before they were even noticed. They had managed to do a considerable amount of damage to the flagship before it turned tail and ran to join two of the other battle cruisers which were orbiting on the far side of Earth.

The ESG ships returned quickly and silently to their lair under the cover of the mag shield on the far side of the moon.

**

Meanwhile Tannacha had flown into a violent rage and broken the neck of one of his officers for so-called stupidity. This was the officer who was in charge of fleet security and should have noticed the oncoming ESG attack.

Tannacha’s rage only grew worse as reports of the losses on Earth started to flood in. Still under the delusion that the ESG attack on his flagship must have come from Earth, he ordered two waves of assault craft to Earth on a search and destroy mission, a total of a hundred craft.

**

Balac had now got the other troop transport in his sights. It had changed course with its escort and started heading back to the Annunaki fleet which was orbiting the Earth.

The strategy was the same from the TAG craft, apart from now targeting the weakness on the bridge of the troop transport. As all eighteen vessels let loose a horrendous volley of pulse weapons at the bridge area of the troop transport, the whole front section of the troop transport crumbled under a ball of fire to become a flaming inferno. The troop transport fell back on itself and plummeted to Earth, breaking up into a million pieces as it hit the Georgia landscape.

Two of Balac’s TAG pilots were in trouble. Three Annunaki assault ships were chasing them down, while the other three escort craft had retired from the fray and were heading back to the relative safety of their orbiting fleet.

Balac immediately set off in pursuit of the Annunaki vessels which were threatening his attack craft. As he closed in on the first Annunaki craft, the TAG craft it was pursuing appeared to tumble in the air and burst into flames. Balac continued to bear down on the Annunaki craft and opened fire. The Annunaki pilot never knew what had hit him. What had been a short-lived celebration of a kill now became his funeral pyre. The blazing Annunaki craft smashed into the ground without being able to try so much as an evasive manoeuvre.

Balac now turned his attention to the two remaining Annunaki vessels. They were chasing down a TAG pilot who was bravely outmanoeuvring them at every turn, even though he was clearly under severe pressure. Balac slipped in behind the trailing Annunaki craft and opened up with his pulse weapons, landing a glancing blow just to the left-hand side of the pilot. The Annunaki pilot watched in horror as his console went dead in front of his eyes. He tried desperately to steer the craft with his limp, lifeless controls, but nothing was working.

Seizing his opportunity, Balac fired a volley directly at the disabled craft. The outcome was inevitable. The Annunaki vessel disintegrated before his eyes. Balac turned to the right just as the other Annunaki ship was breaking off its pursuit of the TAG craft. It bolted directly upwards at tremendous velocity, its destination the safety of the orbiting Annunaki fleet.

Balac signalled for the wing, now seventeen ships, to return to Sub Sea One. At full speed they took off, flying as low as possible to reduce the risk of detection, over Idaho, then Oregon, passing just above Salem and onto Rabbit Rock and into the blue Pacific waters where they were now invisible.

**

18

Verton had received new orders from Tannacha. He was to join up with the group of a hundred assault vessels, take command and resume the search-and-destroy mission.

Verton and what was left of his wing burst through the choppy Atlantic waves and set off to join up with the main Annunaki group. With Verton and his wing slipping into formation with the group, this was now a sizeable task force, one hundred and thirty-one Assault craft in all, and a major responsibility for Verton. After all, he knew well enough what Tannacha did to failures.

The formation was spectacular. Verton’s ship was right at the front, followed closely by four section leaders’ vessels, two either side and trailing him, thus creating a V-shape. Following them were seven sections of eighteen ships each, in V formations, creating the wider effect of a giant diamond. They travelled comparatively slowly, looking out for any Dropas or human activity.

Verton couldn’t understand it. There was nothing, it was as quiet as the proverbial grave, yet ten minutes ago the skies were full of activity. Below him he could see Andrews Air Force Base. It was totally desolate, abandoned by its inhabitants. Nothing below him or even around him was stirring.