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

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