He had run about twenty feet when someone tackled him and brought him to the ground. It was the policeman.
“Hold your positions,” the policeman roared. “They can pick you off if they find you in the open. They’re eventually going to have to come down here to get us and we’re going to make them pay for that. We need to stop these bastards.”
“But I need to protect my family,” Pete cried out.
“Don’t you understand,” the policeman fired back. “If we don’t stop them here, no one is safe. Now get back to your post,” he ordered hotly.
A red laser beam from the tallest tower on the ship shot out again. It was aimed at one of the helicopters, but had to sweep towards it as the beam was off target. The pilot of the chopper saw the beam and easily maneuvered his bird out of the way. After ten seconds the beam disappeared.
“It appears that their laser beam can’t target our helicopters. That’s good news,” the policeman shouted out as he returned to his assigned place.
“Why not,” one of the men shouted back.
“They’re too agile,” the policeman responded encouragingly.
“They must not have a targeting mechanism and have to shoot their beams manually.”
Nothing happen for another minute as everyone waited tensely for the invasion to begin. It felt like a Mexican standoff to the men on the ground. Suddenly the laser beam shot out towards the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge. It connected Illinois to Missouri.
The laser cut the bridge in half and left a five foot gap in the middle. After ten seconds, it once again disappeared.
Their trying to cut off any traffic from crossing the river, Pete thought.
After another minute, the beam shot out to the North and severed the McKinley Bridge. It was about two miles away. The beam only lasted for ten seconds again.
“I think they have to recharge the beam for a minute between ten-second bursts,” Pete yelled out.
“I’ll pass that on,” the policeman shouted back. Pete knew the cop could communicate with headquarters through his radio. “Get ready, I think that they’ll be coming soon.”
But the Sumi still didn’t attack. Instead the defenders heard a loud clank like a hatch opening and four machines that looked like something used to clear the ice at a hockey ring appeared. They were driven by Sumi who stood in the back and worked the controls.
Each machine immediately shot a laser beam at the four helicopters. The chopper pilots were taken by surprise, but managed to avoid the beams. To everyone’s horror, the machines began flying towards the choppers and fired their beams every fifteen seconds. Two Cobras fired back using their 20 mm guns. The other two turned and sped away over the city with the Sumi in hot pursuit. The Cobras were out of bullets.
But the laser machines had done their job and cleared the portal for the warriors to leave the ship. They began pouring out of the doorway like locust. In a matter of seconds it seemed like a thousand Sumi cleared the ship and headed for the city.
Meanwhile, one of the Cobras managed to hit a laser machine. The Sumi fell off and the machine crashed into the river. The other Cobra wasn’t as lucky. A laser beam cut the tail section off and the chopper plunged to the ground. The two man crew didn’t make it out.
“Shoot the driver,” the policeman roared as the Sumi driven laser gun entered the city chasing a defenseless Cobra. It went directly over Pete’s position. Hundreds of rifles fired and the Sumi driving the machine had no chance. He was blown off the machine and it crashed down a half a block away from Clark Avenue. The defenders heard more rifle fire in the direction that the other Cobra had fled. Soon it was quiet again.
“Pete,” the policeman yelled. “Take six men and cover the laser machine. Some Sumi may try to start it again.”
Pete La Salle didn’t hesitate this time. He grabbed some men and headed to the crash site. They quickly threw up a barricade of dumpsters and hid in a line behind three cars parked near the crashed machine.
Suddenly the roar of a 20mm gun filled the air. The remaining Cobra had moved to the middle of the starship and opened fire on the Sumi leaving the ship. The 20mm six-barreled Vulcan machine gun fired bullets at a rate of six thousand bullets per minute. Sumi warriors began falling from the sky and plunging into the big river. Their armor wasn’t designed to stand up against the powerful bullets that spewed directly into the opening portal.
Unfortunately, the Cobra had only a minute and a half of ordinance left. Once it ran out of bullets, the Cobra turned and sped off to its home base to hopefully resupply.
The Sumi warriors now began flowing freely out of the portal like water over a waterfall, just as the first wave entered the city.
***
The first Sumi warrior to enter Clark Avenue reared back on his sled like it was a horse. Confusion filled his huge blue face. He and the other warriors had been told that the invasion of site four would be a complete surprise and to expect little resistance. He was also told that he would have many non-blues available for him to kill. But as he looked down the street, he could see no one.
“Over here asshole,” a man said as he popped up down the street.
The Sumi grinned evilly and shot his sled forward. He didn’t make it twenty feet. A barrage of bullets slammed into him and he died as his sled dropped to the ground.
“Don’t use so many bullets,” the policeman screamed. “Take one shot at a time or we’ll be out of ammo in a few minutes.”
No one had time to savor their small victory as another Sumi swooped down into the street. He drove his sled up to where the other Sumi lay twisted and dead.
How could the non-blues have killed one of us?
As he lifted his head to search for the attackers, a single bullet hit him between the eyes. He and his sled crumbled to the ground.
“There are two more heading our way,” someone yelled. The battle was on.
***
Pete and his crew were having similar successes. They had already dispatched four Sumi who had tried to restart the laser machine. He could hear the chaos of gun fire all around him and hoped that the defenders were winning. But when he looked up into the sky the Sumi were everywhere. They looked like flies at a picnic site, veering left and then right. Then they swooped down to street level to attack. Whenever one would stop to get his bearings or to search for a target, the snipers on the roofs would cut them down. But there seemed to be more of them now and many more on the way.
Pete looked towards the starship and noticed with horror that Sumi warriors were now pouring out of another portal in the middle of the back of the ship. How long can we hold out against such an over whelming force?
Pete heard someone shout a warning. Three Sumi suddenly appeared and drove their sleds down to the laser machine. They were within twenty feet of Pete’s men. One attempted to fire up the machine while the other two scanned the area. They brandished their lasers and swords. Angry determination was plastered on their faces.
One of Pete’s crew, a former marine, popped up at the end of the line. The Sumi covering that flank went to fire his laser gun at him. Pete jumped up and shot the warrior in the forehead, but the other Sumi protector fired his laser from point blank range at Pete. The last man on the other end of Pete’s defensive line managed to pick him off as soon as he fired.
The laser sliced right through the metal of the car, but missed Pete by inches as he moved to the side. His reflexes were faster than the warriors.
The last Sumi was still trying to start the laser machine when the other men in Pete’s crew cut him apart.
“Phew, that was close,” Pete shouted in relief as he picked himself off the ground.
“Here comes another one,” the marine called out solemnly.
***
The battle raged on for two more hours. Some defenders died during that time, but the streets were strewn with thousands of dead Sumi warriors. It was clear who was winning individual fights, but unclear who was really winning the batt
le. The defenders were tiring and running low on ammunition.
The laser beam at the top of the starship fired for ten seconds every minute at targets both far away and some nearby. Everything in its path just disintegrated. The destruction was far greater than the fearsome tornados that all Midwesterners feared. Houses, roads bridges and buildings lay in ruins wherever the lethal beam tracked. The battle raged wearily on.
Suddenly, Pete heard the now familiar sound of a 20mm machine gun firing away. He searched the sky and saw one lone Cobra shooting at the opening in the starship. It was the one that had been part of the initial attack. The Cobra had resupplied and returned to the fight. He watched as the death-dealing machine poured round after round into the area around the portal. Then to Pete’s surprise, it moved in closer.
The Cobra had timed his approach to attack the opening as soon as the laser beam had fired. The pilot knew that he had one minute to inflict as much damage as possible. The information had come from Pete La Salle.
When the Cobra was lined up with the opening, it fired a missile directly inside the hull. Fire spewed out the opening and the flow of Sumi stopped. The missile had killed everyone in the staging area. But the Cobra wasn’t done. The pilot fired two more missiles through the opening. The rockets penetrated deeper into the interior before exploding. The starship wavered slightly. The defenders hopes rose. The deadly Cobra fired a last missile and retreated once again, having shot all its ordnance.
The last rocket did more damage inside, but the huge ship seemed to weather the barrage. It did shudder uncontrollably and floated closer to the shore, but then quickly stabilized. It was now so close to Pete that he could see directly into the inside. A fire was raging. He watched as flames licked the outside of the portal. Strange animalist screams emanated from the ship.
Suddenly six RPGs screamed out from the Gateway Arch. Pete’s hopes soared when he realized that there were still men alive in the monument and they were just waiting for a chance to fire their weapons. When the ship moved closer to the shore, it came into their range.
All six deadly bombs disappeared into the dark opening. Nothing seemed to happen for some time. Then the starship began to shutter and shake violently as the bombs detonated. Four more RPGs leapt away from the arch and slammed through the opening. When they exploded deep inside the starship, it began to list to the right. The ship started to lose altitude on that side.
The gigantic spaceship dominated the sky on the eastern area of the city, but it was visible from any part of greater St. Louis. Cheers from the defenders could be heard throughout the downtown area as the spaceship started to fall.
The starship let out groans like a person would. Explosions erupted inside throwing huge flames out the portal. Many Sumi stopped their attack when they heard the noise and turned towards their wounded giant mothership. Soon many thousands of Sumi gave up the attack and made a beeline to the only home they had known for more than three years. They called out to each other in their strange language and started landing on the side of the starship that listed. They frantically attached devices to the hull using their lasers to weld them on. The devices came from their sleds.
“Hold your fire,” the policeman leader told his troops. “They’re retreating.”
“No, that’s not what’s happening,” Pete screamed. “They’re trying to save the starship from falling into the river. They’re trying to use all their anti-gravity devices to stabilize it. If they succeed, the attack will continue.”
The policeman roared. “To the river men, we can’t let that happen.”
Over a thousand men with guns broke from their hiding places and raced to the river’s edge. Thousands more came pouring out of other parts of the city to help.
Aboard the ship, each Sumi attached their anti-gravity device and turned them up to full power. They then began sprinting to the opposite corner of the ship in the hope that they could counterbalance the falling side. Some hatches opened up along the top of the spaceship, but only stayed open for a few seconds. The Sumi near the hatches leaped inside.
The men on the shoreline set up a mile long gauntlet. Those with rifles shot at the running Sumi. Those with handguns scanned the river for any Sumi that fell into the water, but so far none had surfaced.
“How long can they hold their breath?” one nervous defender sang out.
“They may not be able to swim or their heavy armor may be pulling them down. In any case, keep a sharp lookout,” the policeman responded.
The gun fire from the men on the shoreline was devastating. No Sumi made it to the opposite end. They looked like grains of salt falling from a shaker as they fell from the mothership. But they kept trying. Wave after wave of Sumi attached their anti-gravity devices and sprinted to their deaths. To everyone’s amazement, the huge ship began to stabilize. It still had a list of about ten degrees, but that was all.
Black smoke now bellowed from the front opening in the ship. It meant that the Sumi inside were attempting to put out the flames using water. One of the men with a handgun noticed that a huge black hose had dropped down from under the spaceship.
“They’re pumping water from the Mississippi River to put out the fires inside,” he screamed.
It took a few minutes, but someone near the connection organized a counter attack. Many machine guns shot at the water pipe and eventually severed the connection. But the black smoke had hidden something else.
Hundreds more Sumi had streamed out of the back opening in the ship. They spread out under the large flat bottom and came charging at the unprotected men on the shoreline. It looked like the Sumi would get their revenge and kill many defenders. The men on shore were all bunched together in the park.
Chapter Twelve
Meanwhile back at the safe house in Turkey, Colton Banyon and his team were preparing for the final confrontation with Erox and the Sumi warriors. They had collected the amber chariot, the King, and all the weapons they would use. Banyon knew that the Patel clan would do their best to recover the two statues and meet Banyon in Cambodia. Banyon also knew that the sarcophagus carrying the dead King would be delivered to the site on time. They were all critical parts to his plan.
Colonel Cole had informed him that his part was complete and the device had already been delivered to him in Turkey. Also, several of the people at the safe house were working feverously to find a way to destroy Vril. It wasn’t imperative that the answer be found in time, but it sure would help.
Banyon decided to call the President and find out how his part of the plan was coming along. Banyon’s team would have to leave in three hours to face the demonic Erox and there were still some major loose ends to clean up. It was a four hour flight to the final destination.
“We have many more than we expected,” the President told Banyon cheerfully. “They will be ready.”
“That’s great news sir,” Banyon responded as he wondered why the President was in such a good mood. His nation was under attack.
“And we have more good news Colt,” the President responded. “We have fought the Sumi to a standstill in St. Louis. The military response is less than a minute away. We will destroy that machine.”
“The starship in St. Louis is heavily damaged,” Banyon informed the President. “We are intercepting transmissions from the captain. He doesn’t believe he can sustain the attack and has asked Erox for approval to withdraw. Almost half of his warriors are dead.”
“And?” the President asked expectantly.
“There has been no word from Erox,” Banyon explained as he walked over to where Carol was monitoring and forwarding transmissions from the Sumi ground forces. “Of course, we are not passing on any bad news. We want Erox to be motivated to come to Cambodia. He thinks that we will surrender, but he will know the truth about his little invasion soon enough.”
“Good luck on your adventure then, Colt,” the President said. “I have to go now. I want to watch the destruction of the Sumi ship in St. Louis.”
“Yes, sir,” Banyon replied.
“Wait, before I go,” the leader of the free world asked, “do you have any idea why the Sumi starships look like the Cambodian temple called Angkor Wat?”
“I can tell you what the King of Maltos has told us,” Banyon explained.
“I expect that he would know,” the President sardonically responded.
Banyon ignored the Presidents chilly remark. “He said that it is the only structure that they know how to build properly. Not only do all their starships have the same design, but also all the buildings in the cities on Maltos are built using the same layout. When the Sumi run out of room, they just built another structure next to the existing one.”
“I don’t understand,” the President remarked. “Why do they use that particular structure?”
“It is the same design that they used when they lived on earth five hundred million years ago,” Banyon told the President. “It is sacred to them. According to legend, the plans were given to them by a god about a billion years ago.”
“That’s interesting. So how did the Cambodians manage to build one?” The President asked.
“Sir according to Anax Yuk, the King,” Banyon replied. “The Sumi have tried to establish outposts here many times. The original structure they built, or what remains of it, is still hidden in the jungles of Southeast Asia. It was built over four thousand years ago by the Sumi. But the Khmer empire King, Suryavarman II found the remains around the end of the 12th century. He had his people build a new version because he felt the structure which we call Angkor Wat showed grandeur and harmony. It was originally dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu.”
“Okay,” the big man said. “Now you’re just confusing me. Why is all this important?”
The Society of Orion: Book Eight The Sumi Collision (Colton Banyon Mysteries 22) Page 4
