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

“Yes, I am already thinking, but C4 I guess won’t do it,” Knight replied.

“Do we have now a map of the mountain base?” the Captain asked.

“Yes, sir. I put it on table two,” Clark informed.

“Try to hide now the drones. We still need to know what is happening there. Maybe let one or two hide and go silent,” came the order from the Captain while he looked at the map. He didn’t know how the enemy will track the drones. But if they don’t search them explicitly, there is a good chance they won’t be spotted, he thought.

Still there was no one to see. But the others near the fallen woke up. They were a bit disoriented. Then two of them carried one of the fallen away while the other took the rifle and stayed.

“They are carrying one of us away from the door. One is guarding at the door,” Knight was informed by the Captain.

“We have a lot of alien rifles here, but I guess they won’t burn through that door. However, we will try.” Knight replied, then made the preparations for that.

A huge lift door opened and two more turtle faces came out of it. The elevator had a height of about four meters and a width of over ten. The other two with the fallen stepped in. After getting the last one all vanished and this level was abandoned from the living. Still there were some structures, machines, production installations and storage areas. At that level it seemed the ore was getting refined. Iron, titan, aluminum and whatever rods were there produced and stored. This all seemed to work fully automatic.

“I guess the lower level is more interesting,” Clark noted as they viewed the interior of the base.

Knight was already informed what happened. The alien weapons could not penetrate the door itself, but only melt the stone.

Ryan was following the progress as Yamada let some drones fly from his shuttle to the cave in order to relay the signals with them. So they didn’t need to use stronger ones which could be spied on more easily. Also it helped to reduce the signals of the drones in the mountain base.

“Newman, we have a problem. The cave door is closed. Can we use the last laser drill to open it?” Ryan asked.

“It would be worth a try. I’m still busy cutting the power of the first machine. I hope to be finished with this in 30 minutes. The next one should go faster. I can send you Samuel then we could capture the machine,” replied Newman and plugged a strange device out of the laser drill.

“That would be good. I inform Knight about the plan. Then inform you again if we have a go.” Ryan proceeded and after some words with Knight and then with Newman, again, was Samuel on the way.

“Captain, they have full control of the facility now. Most of our links are still there. But all in the lower level have been disabled. I hide now all others but one to see what they are up to. Also if we want to get active, we could try to get the camera feeds back,” Max informed.

“Prepare it, but don’t get active. We might need that later,” Fisher replied, then informed Knight about the status of the lower level of the facility.

The Captain guessed the Gray was now in the control room of the facility. With the doors closed there was probably no way to get him out. Also the Gray could not have retreated through the tunnel or got reinforcements. Because the forest was secured by the now replaced combat drones, while survived by the surface scouting drones and all other sensors each craft had.

Jones and the rest of his team arrived at the cave. The other SW squads were already retreated to the cave exit.

“We have two prisoners. They seem to be still alive but better you check that by yourself. Now we are testing how long they stay unconscious. With the bindings and handcuffs we need to disable their hand and arms. I don’t want them to be able to grab a gun. The rest we can handle with the microwave rifles, I think. SW-3 will watch them while you check them out.” Knight walked with the SW-2 part and SW-3 to the turtle faces.

“Should be no problem. We use the bindings and handcuffs first. Then I check them out,” Jones replied.

“Good, later when they woke up, I want them also out of the cave. We will see if they understand what we want,” Knight added.

They reached the enemies and started the work. Heavy as they were one of SW-3 was needed to assist in turning the first. He didn’t come to consciousness. So it worked well to immobilize both with the bindings. They used more of the binding thinking the handcuffs might not hold. Then Jones scanned them and took blood samples for analyzes. This time they had more equipment for checks. Even a EEG was possible now.

“My tests are done. The EEG is running. On the Icarus they will analyze it. The important part will come when he wakes up. Then we see what we can do,” Jones informed and all stepped back further.

“Better we go back to our secure location. It is always possible they storm out of that lift to rush for the door,” Knight wanted to play it safe.

As they reached the others, Ryan and Samuel arrived.

“Commander we are ready to go. Caine has the command at the landing site. I think we two are enough to get the mining machine and two of this containers.”

“Go, on and hurry. I need you for another matter later,” Knight replied.

Then Samuel and Ryan each on a bike headed into the cave with three escort surface scout drones.

“That’s quite risky, to send Ryan and Samuel in. If they have something new we can’t handle, they are cut off,” Pearce noted.

“Some risk we have to take now. It will be more when we move in there. I hope we can get something out of these prisoners. But I fear they have not much value,” Knight needed some more options. He thought about the Gray in the facility, which would add more value for an exchange.

“If they don’t send reinforcements, they must be low on soldiers by now,” Pearce guessed.

“Maybe, that could be the luck we need. But why they then wasted them. There were much better ways to encounter us.” Knight thought about how much time the laser drilling would take. It was a bit uncomfortable situation. On his days as SAS the enemy was known. The tactic, the types of traps, the territory and the buildings. Also they had most of the time the surprise effect on their side.

Here it was different. The equipment was a bit better, but that would not make that much. Was he risking too much. Effected by this only stun behavior of the enemy. Maybe he thought.

“Captain, it might be useful to recapture the Gray if we want to bargain with them. For that we need reinforcements and a plan to open the doors in the facility,” Knight radioed over the relay they had built up here.

“We are checking the option. I keep you informed,” the Captain replied and walked to the communications officer. “Connect me to Kelsey.”

“Captain, what do you need?” Kelsey replied.

“An option to open the doors in the facility. We want the Gray.”

“There are some possibilities, but he unplugged some cables. So we have to reconnect at the right point. Also it is possible that he took now more precautions. This means we might need some other equipment to hack in. If we give him too much time he might even counter our efforts.” Max had done more analysis of the data they got from the last trip.

“Can Samuel or Newman do that?” Fisher wanted a fast operation.

“Probably with the right equipment and training,” Max replied.

“You are our cyber-attack expert. I guess it is time for a field mission. Normally you need only to assist. But we need this fast. Get your gears and the needed equipment. SW-6 will assist you,” the Captain decided.

“Yes, sir.” Max answered accordingly.

It was for Max the first field mission. As she joined the CIA as cyber security expert she thought it would be a nice office job with the leading technologies available today. After the transfer to Ryan’s team it still was a nice office job with some outdoor exercises. She likes sports and had an acceptable condition and skills to master everything. But it was nothing compared to what the SEAL’s did.

She reported to Major Diaz and the team prepared the stuff they needed.

Diaz was a former SEAL like Ryan. But contrary to Ryan’s team all members of his team were former SEALs. So the upcoming drop was just the usual what SEAL’s do.

The preparation did not take much time. So they finally went all in suits to the shuttle, then the technicians came and helped to put on their backpacks. They were unusual and heavy. Max didn’t know them.

“What’s this. A new device for what?” Max asked curiously.

“Oh, didn’t the Captain told you? This will be a combat drop.” Diaz replied while a technician checked his backpack.

“You mean a parachute? I never jumped,” Max was now a bit overwhelmed and concerned.

“Well, it’s more than that. The parachute is only for emergency. This is an anti-gravity life support system. We do a stratosphere jump, because the location might not be completely secure. We do not know what’s happening in the facility. So this is the fastest and safest way to get us down,” Diaz explained.

“Yea. Down no matter what,” Green made a comment.

“Shut up Green. This is fully automatic. So you will have to do nothing. You will get the full instruction while we fly down.” Diaz checks were done.

“Everything is fine,” the technician said and continued with Green.

“You are good to go,” another technician, which checked Kelsey’s backpack, informed her and went for the next.

“Ok. Kelsey we can go in now.” Diaz took the lead.

Max was now a bit worried and did not follow.

“I’m no SEAL. Does the Captain know this? I read about the things you do. I have no training in this.” Max got overwhelmed by her worries and felt fear.

“Kelsey this sounds more than it is. Sure it is dangerous. But you need no training for this. It is all in the hand of the tiny computer in your backpack. You are an expert, so you know computers make less errors then humans.” Diaz stopped and reached his hand. “You can close your eyes if you want and will land smoothly like a feather.”

“How often have you done that?” she asked.

“Over 50 times. We tested that that stuff. This is the safest thing I ever used. It’s like a bungie jump that last a bit longer, with an amazing view. You will enjoy it.” Diaz was near out of ammo what he could say next. It was a bad situation. Needing the highly skills of a computer expert and then the fearless mind of a SEAL. Diaz thought what would Ryan do, which had lot of more experience for this.

Max took the hand and stepped in with Diaz.

“In what did I let me lure in,” Max moaned.

“In the best and safest experience you can get. Compared to the stuff we did on Earth this is easy. And where can you get a free and safe stratosphere jump?” Diaz sat down and Max next to him.

“I’m not an idiot. If something goes wrong with the suit, my blood starts to boil and I can say goodbye,” Max moaned.

“Hey, don’t shook my team. You already did a mission on a planet. Your suit worked well and in space with the shuttle this also could happen in an accident case. Now to the important stuff. When we go to the ramp a green light will show up in your display. It says everything is fine.