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

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