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

informed.

Dust was now all around. Ryan waited till the dust vanished, while Newman and Samuel were coming back.

“Kelsey, the dust has cleared. Did you detect any defense systems? We have seen no threat with our drone scan,” Ryan said as he wanted to move in.

“There is nothing that looks like that. Only further doors I try to get control of,” she replied.

“SW-3, SW-4 and SW-7 move in. SW-2 and SW-6 hold position,” Ryan ordered.

The teams moved in. They used two bikes to have the option to better secure a location.

Yamada’s team were the first which reached the hall. Then they went right to secure every room or door they encountered.

SW-7 did the left side while SW4 split up and followed in a close distance.

Now Samuel and Newman where controlling some of the drones. A team on the Icarus did the threat analysis.

On Yamada’s side was first nothing. It was the wall to the outside where behind the assembly line was. Then further away, it must be over 100 meter, they came to a curve. The hall had no corners, it just was a curve that changed the angle of the wall. Also it was no circle, it had parts that were straight. Now there were rooms with doors to check.

On the other side, SW-7 found a maintenance area where probably the machine was. There were also robotic systems and replacement parts, but no second of those machines.

Yamada had now found the control room. It was empty. Camera feeds were shown and it seemed there were some malfunctions. The details he could not figure out.

“I guess we found the control room. The door was closed, but not locked,” Yamada radioed and sent a video feed.

“Perfect, I move with my team in and see what we can do from there,” Ryan replied. “SW-5 let’s go!” They used the two bikes which Samuel and Newman used. In the trunks were the needed equipment for scanning and hacking.

Yamada continues his inspection with his team, while two of SW-4 waited for Ryan. Then they also continued.

 

“Is this normal that they just vanish and leave all behind?” the Captain asked on the bridge.

“If they don’t want a fight. There are two of this strong doors like that of the power generator room in the hall. I would bet on it they are locked,” Clark replied.

“Kelsey, we have further strong doors. Have you access to them?” the Captain asked.

“I have access to some doors. But cannot tell which one they are. When the teams are in positon I can just try,” she replied.

“Ryan, we have two strong doors. Can you figure out what’s behind from the control room?” Fisher asked.

“We are on it. I let SW-6 help secure them as soon the others have checked more of the side area,” Ryan replied. He was now at the control room door while Newman and Samuel did the work.

“Kelsey, they are trying to activate the ship’s weapons. Now they are scanning,” one of the hacking team informed her over a video link.

“Ok, close the connection and shut the laptop down. Tell Cooper to replace the laptop. We analyze it later,” Kelsey replied. They had setup a simulation of the alien ship system to see when and how the enemy is striking back.

“To all teams they are hacking back. Secure important data you found,” Kelsey ordered to all.

The Captain also informed Ryan.

 

“SW-6 move in, set up a fortification for both big doors,” Ryan ordered now. “Newman, Samuel, they are hacking more successfully back. Can we cut them off?”

“We are still analyzing. I hope in ten minutes I know more,” Newman replied.

Ryan went out. Yamada was close to the first big door.

SW-7 had found a breeding station. There were ten chambers filled with a fluid and something was growing in there. The front was transparent. It was like a coffin with a glass cover. On the last one it was visible it will be a reptilian. They reported their findings and went to the next room.

There were 20 different chambers also with a transparent glass cover. The first ones were empty. But in the last three were humans or they looked like homo sapiens. Also something was on their head. Davis streamed the data up.

Watkins and her team did the analysis as good as they could over video.

“SW-4, SW-7 is occupied continue their path,” Ryan ordered. Then he checked up what exactly they were focusing.

“SW-2 move in. You have to relieve SW-7. Its better Jones will look into this,” Ryan ordered as he knew what was there exactly.

SW-4 found a door to a huge greenhouse. There were growing vegetables and fruits in a partly hydroponic greenhouse.

“Guess we found their food supply,” Anderson radioed and sent the stream. “It is a bigger area in this greenhouse also a good place to hide.”

“Don’t search it. Just open the doors, we send drones to scout,” Ryan replied as he checked the feed, “Icarus, can you control the drones to scout the greenhouse, we are all occupied?”

“Affirmative,” Clark replied and assigned a team to it.

Yamada was now at the second big door which led into a different direction than the other. It was about 90 degrees, where only another room was between them in the curved area which led to the other big door. The greenhouse was next on the right.

SW-7 came out of the door. Now Ryan ordered both SW-7 and 3 to him.

“We will now try to open the strong doors. My last information says we don’t know which one will open. So keep a good distance. I don’t think it’s good to lure on the side when we use the bikes in manual or automatic fire mode. So form up at the bikes.” Ryan ordered. “Kelsey, do we have more information about the doors now?”

“No, we are now fighting a hacking battle. We already secured a lot of data. The only thing we can do now is to try the opening sequence,” Kelsey replied.

“Try the first one. We are in position,” Ryan said.

“Sequence sent,” Kelsey said.

Nothing was happening.

“That must be a different door, Try the next,” Ryan said after ten seconds.

“Ok, next door,” Kelsey sent the next sequence.

The left door was opening.

Behind was a longer corridor and then a power generator was to see. But no alien.

A drone went in to scout. There were two further doors. One leading backward away the other to the right. The drone stayed in the generator room which was very similar to the one at the outside facility.

“Seems the doors leading to a generator room. The first sequence must be the one of the generator room itself. Also there are two more doors,” Ryan radioed.

“I have five sequences left,” Kelsey replied.

“Try the next one,” Ryan said then waited. “Nothing, go next.”

The right door to another power generator opened.

“Now we have two power generators. Next sequence,” Ryan focused on the right door in the hall.

It opened. Another corridor led to a hall. It was dark there. A drone went in. There seemed to be some rooms left and right in the hall. At the end was another strong door.

“They have disconnected,” Newman radioed.

“What?” Ryan asked.

“We are analyzing their network connection. They have disconnected one. Probably to limit our access,” Newman added.

“The hacking stopped. But they are deleting data here. We could stop it now. So we are checking what’s left,” Kelsey informed.

“Then we try the next sequence,” Ryan said.

“Done,” Kelsey was checking it. There was no reply that the sequence arrived which is a normal network procedure. “This one has been cut off.”

“Then the last one,” Ryan waited again. The other door in the generator room opened to a third generator. The second and the third generator room had no more doors.

“Thank you Kelsey, we are now checking the locked door. Can you close one of the generator room doors. The first or the second. So we have a bit of safety from them.” Ryan walked now to the door of interest.

“Sure,” she replied and the second door closed behind it was still the drone which was observing there.

“Newman, I need to disable a door. So we can proceed with the investigation,” Ryan radioed.

“I’m on my way,” Newman replied and picked up the stuff he needed to put it into his backpack. Newman sprinted out of the control room door to meet up with Ryan on the door to work with. He took his scanner to search for the door control and power cables. There was nothing he could use on the hall side. So he went in and checked the other side. Finally, there was a cover plate he could remove and gained access to the whole system. Through unplugging the power cable, the door was out of order.

“Done. This door will do nothing. I guess the other one will be not so easy,” Newman said as he walked back to Ryan which was on the other side.

“We will first search the area in there. Then you can check it out,” Ryan replied. “SW-3 and 6 secure these new rooms. Logan move SW-1 in. You will cover at the bikes.”

Logan had now the lead of SW-1. He was a former Delta Force member and one of the sniper of SW-1.

“Yes, sir. We are on our way,” Logan replied.

Now no one was outside, where the blown door was.

It took not much time to secure these rooms. They found on the left side a remote control unit. It was probably for the machine as Newman guessed. On the right side there seemed to be a food processing system.

Newman went to the locked door for scanning. It was the same as with the other. But from this side there was no cover to remove. The wall material was the same as of the door. Using explosive was not possible, at least the C4 they had. Also the special explosive they used would only get smaller holes if any and risk to destroy the door control system. Newman was thinking. He knew the position where he could access the system. Somehow he needed to get there.

“The laser. We need the laser drill. This will take up to an hour. Then we can get to the control system, plug in a spy connector and send the opening sequence. Else we have to cut the door itself, but that takes more time.”

“Can the laser drill go down the holes we blew?” Ryan asked.

“I guess so. But the lift should also work now since the aliens are cut off. I check this with Samuel and Kelsey,” Newman replied.

“Go on.” Ryan walked to the bikes were now SW-1, 3, 4 and 6 were. He discussed the situation with them and what they could expect behind that door.

 

“Captain, the stuff down there is very interesting. If we can take samples and do more analysis, we could gain much knowledge. Their farming stuff can improve our vertical farming by ten years. These humans we found are in hibernation as far we could tell. There we could find out if we can wake them up. So we could ask them questions. Also their breeding station is much of interest. Is there a way I can get down with a small research team?” Watkins asked.

“We are on a rescue mission. It will be quite dangerous. Also the situation could change any moment. I cannot guarantee for the safety.”

“I’m a member of SW-5. I know the risks. Also two of my lab scientist are willing to take it. Another two of the physic department are also eager and know the risk.” Watkins replied.

“You have at least some combat training, but the others scientists have none. I ask Ryan how he evaluates the situation, then I call back,” the Captain said and closed the channel, then said to the communication officer, “Give me Ryan.”

“Captain. What’s up?” Ryan asked.

“I have a request from Watkins. She wants to bring down a small science team to take samples and try to wake up one of the humans. Can you provide enough cover for