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

replied, the rest prepare for the door opening.

Newman went out of the control room to the door. The laser drill was now moving out. He met up with SW-4 and walked to the hole. His infrared showed him the current heat level. But the outer hole was already cooled down. Looking in the hole he saw the gap where the big doors will move. There he didn’t want to be if it starts to open.

Now armed with a spy connector he went further into the hole, over the gap, to the acceptable cooled down hole. The second hole was smaller but wide enough to work with both hands and see where to go. Also the cover plate on the other side was a bit molten. But the panel and cables seemed fine. He connected and went back without problem while Blair was supporting him. At least the gap and the hole was no longer then his body which made it easy enough.

“I’m out. Do we have access?” Newman asked Samuel over radio.

“Yes, everything looks fine,” Samuel replied.

“Major Ryan we are ready.” Newman took his tablet while Blair grabbed his rifle.

“Newman go back to the control room. We will secure the area behind first. I give you the signal when to open,” Ryan replied, then gave the orders for the rest of the teams. Two of SW-4 stayed at the door. The third went into a nearby door as cover. Then Ryan gave the order.

As expected the door opened slowly.

Fujita flew a drone in and scouted the hall behind. There was no one to see. At the end was another such a door.

“Move in and secure,” Ryan ordered.

SW-4 moved into the hall. Ryan advanced with Caine and the none snipers of SW-1. As they were now enough, they went to the first room to the right. The door opened and the drone did the first scout.

“Clear,” informed Fujita. Then they moved in, to look around. They found only five empty seats in a white room.

Ryan went out to the other side. He waited till all were in position then opened.

Again the drone flew in.

“We have them. Knight and the others are there,” Fujita informed.

Ryan moved in.

Knight and the others were lying on tables. The helms and the suit top were off as it were with Ryan and Caine. But this room looked more like an autopsy or surgery room. Ryan looked over Knight. He was sleeping or unconscious. His eyes were closed. However, the infrared showed his breath. “Newman, SW-2, we need you. We have three unconscious to move out.

“The stretchers are in the bikes in the cave entrance. We get them while I send Jones,” Freeman replied.

“Newman can we use the two container for transport?” Ryan asked.

“Sure. I let Samuel get them,” Newman replied which was already out of the control room.

“Watkins, get back to the shuttle, we are retreating,” Ryan informed.

“Affirmative,” she replied.

“To the rest hold position till we get our people out. Then we will retreat together.”

Newman was now with Ryan.

“Can you check the door. I just want to know if we could open it the same way.” Ryan said to him

“We already checked the connection. They must have cut the cables like they did it with the other door. So I will check it now,” Newman informed and went to the door with his scanner.

 

14 Escape

Jones arrive and immediately started his checkups. They had also found something that could faster remove the paralyzes effect. After taking some samples and conducting fast analysis, he injected them the drug.

“They are still unconscious. But I guess not for long time. What’s more important is to know what was done here. I see no instruments, devices or other medical equipment. Did they only take probes or something we couldn’t detect?” Jones asked Ryan.

“Guess, we can only analyze their blood. If they had stored some data, it seems we have no access to it. So they transferred it somewhere else. Also the samples they probably took might hide behind next door. Pursuing them will cost us time and has the risk that they capture one of us. So I follow the Captain’s order. We retreat with them and decide on the Icarus what to do,” Ryan replied. He also wanted not to risk more unless there is surly more to gain. They achieved their objective. Sure it would be very interesting to further inspect the humans and the breeding station. So they could better determine what the aliens are doing here. Also the humans with the brain interface gave some big questions.

The rest of SW-2 went in. They put the stretcher below the unconscious. Ryan told his plan to Freeman then they waited for the container. Finally, they arrived.

In no time they had the three on the two containers with the stretchers.

Samuel was now controlling the containers out while Newman was done with his analysis.

“We have to open this door the same way. So again one hour,” Newman reported.

“Good, coordinate with Kelsey if we got all data. We will leave now. The hall will be covered till you are done. But hurry, I don’t want to wait for too long,” Ryan replied. Newman went to the control room.

“All teams move back to the sentries. SW-2 escort the containers to the shuttles,” Ryan ordered.

The containers went to the lift and with it up. Then SW-2 followed. Samuel was on a bike to control the transport. Also SW-2 were on their bikes. It was a slow progress, limited by the container speed. But this gave Newman the time to finish most of the stuff. He called the Captain. “Did the bike thing on the list work?”

“Yes, that is possible but has its limits,” the Captain replied. It was just a possibility to secure the bikes against the effect of the alien rifle. To do this they had to cut the connection to the antennas and sensors. But it also meant a very limited function. Using the bikes then in a completely manual mode left them with slow speed and manual firing without targeting assistance. However, the pure firepower stayed and the aliens would be surprised.

Newman was done now. Kelsey had still control but all data they could access was transferred. This left them with the cameras to tell when the aliens open the door to recapture their underground facility. Newman went out of the control room to Ryan.

“Everything is done. We will know when they open the door. I also have an option to make the bikes immune to the lower plasma shots. The downside is only a manual firing mode with no precision and slow driving speed. About 30 kilometers per hour,” Newman reported.

“Good, that might have limited use. But better than nothing,” Ryan replied then shouted, “All teams, retreat to the shuttles. SW-3 hold the position with the bikes. Follow us when we are up,” Ryan went back with the others. They moved up with the lift then Ryan informed SW-3 to follow.

SW-3 was with the bikes much faster and they reached as first the shuttles.

Meanwhile Ryan and the others reached the cave exit.

“What do we do with the combat drone and the replacement parts?” Newman asked.

“We shoot them when we leave with the railgun of a combat drone or fighter,” Ryan replied. They jumped all on the bikes and headed to the shuttles.

 

Knight woke up and saw the sky. The wind was blowing a bit. He couldn’t move nor speak. Where was he now? That was not the cave anymore. Had he and the others been rescued? The Icarus! He had to warn them at once. Knight tried to speak, it didn’t work.

 

Ryan was with the others on the landing zone. They loaded up the shuttles. It was planned to leave together. Still the door in the cave was closed. They had not to hurry. Till the container will arrive it would be further 30 minutes. He organized the preparation to shoot the defect combat drone. It would be executed when they are in space.

 

Knight could whisper now, but there was no one to hear it, while the wind was blowing from the velocity of the container.

The containers arrived. SW-2 was ready to get them to the shuttle. Samuel let the container sink to the ground.

Now Jones was with Knight, he came into the vision of him.

“The Icarus is in danger. The alien reinforcement wants to destroy her,” Knight said who now could nearly speak.

“Ryan!” Jones called out. The others were already lifting Knight up. Then Ryan arrived. Knight informed him. At once Ryan radioed the Icarus.

 

“Get us out of the orbit, we need as fast as possible be in a jump ready position,” the Captain ordered.

“Affirmative,” the navigator replied and made the needed calculation. “Sir, our route will make the approach for the shuttles much longer.”

“That risk we have to take. Our main objective is to get back to Earth. No matter what.” Fisher didn’t like it. But they would have achieved nothing if the Icarus does not fly back.

The Icarus accelerated out of the orbit into the space to leave the planets gravity influence behind.

The shuttles were ready to start. They left some bikes behind and flew this time directly up into the sky. Then 100 miles away from the mountains, in high altitude they went too hypersonic and towards space. They already had to alter the course to adapt for the Icarus flight path. With them were all fighters and combat drones except one combat drone for the destruction run of the left stuff.

“Captain, unknown Signal on sensors! Starting to scan,” Clark informed.

Fisher went at once to the volumetric display. “Show the trajectory.”

“It is on interception course. They are also launching ships,” Clark was now busy to get the readings.

“Prepare the combat drones with APEX ammunition,” Fisher ordered.

“The enemy ship has the double size of ours. It is launching the triangular ships we encountered,” Clark could tell now.

“Sound the alarm! Send a sensor drone into their direction. Mark the ship as hostile for the combat drones and get all fighters we have ready. Same ammunition as the drones.” Fisher checked the trajectory. “I need the ETA and what’s the ETA of our landing parties.”

“The ship will reach us in one hour. Our team will arrive in 40 minutes. But I guess the enemy fighters will be much faster when they send them,” Clark replied.

“Inform Ryan, we may need other options, they might need to retreat. And show me a count of this triangular ships.” There were now a lot of red dots around the big enemy vessel on the volumetric screen. They were all gathering in front of it. The number was now shown, there were 62, still increasing.

 

Knight and Watkins were in Ryan’s shuttle. Ryan informed all about the situation.

“If we proceed to the Icarus we have to get Knight in a suite. Still it will be a risky attempt if these enemy fighters can intercept us,” Ryan said.

“Going down to the planet means to hold the cave for a while. We have all to leave the shuttles behind, open for an attack. Then what. Try to capture a city?” Knight could now move the upper body parts a bit.

“We also have to delay the destruction of our left stuff down there,”