Solar Warden, Jakob Waechter [book club suggestions .TXT] 📗

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