‘We need to take out their cruisers, don’t we?’
Konoco nodded, then reflectively shook his head and remarked:
‘That’s going to take a plan and a half. However, we still do have an advantage. They still don’t know we have a moon base, so all their attention is directed at Earth, even more so now there’s been resistance. So, it’s obvious that our best hope is Blue Star Base and a direct all-out attack with our fleet.’
Jumouk started to pace along the alloy decking of his bridge.
‘OK, but isn’t that putting all our eggs in one basket?’
Lee had been listening and made his way over to one of the display screens.
‘Look at this.’
Jumouk and Konoco joined him at the display screen. It showed a three-dimensional image of Earth, the moon and surrounding space. All six of the Annunaki battle cruisers were shown in their relative positions in orbit above our blue planet, and by now, a constant stream of troopships and support vessels could be seen coming and going between the fleet battle cruisers and all the continents on Earth.
Lee continued:
‘Why don’t we concentrate on the closest three battle cruisers, and use a two-pronged attack with just half our forces, that way we can keep the rest in reserve?’
Jumouk smiled and patted Lee on the back.
‘Go on, Lee, you’ve got our attention.’
Lee resumed.
‘If we come round this side of the moon again, it’s going to look like we came from the moon, and there’s a good chance they will cotton on and discover our Blue Star Base, but...’
He made a hand gesture on the three-dimensional moon, indicating the long way round the moon.
‘If we come around the long way it looks like we just arrived in Earth space, and we keep the advantage of our Blue Star Moon Base not being discovered.’
Jumouk looked very pleased.
‘And the second part of the attack?’ queried Konoco.
Lee smiled
‘That’s the easy bit, but also the clever bit. We launch seventy-five TAG assault craft from Sub Sea One, but we don’t launch until we’ve engaged the three cruisers. That way the Annunaki will be in so much confusion dealing with our attack from space, with a little bit of luck they won’t see the TAG assault craft till it’s too late.’
Jumouk and Konoco looked at each other.
‘Lee, you’re brilliant!’
Jumouk smiled and nodded in agreement with Konoco.
Jumouk clapped his hands together.
‘Everyone agreed, then?’
All three nodded in unison.
‘OK let’s talk numbers then and get this organised.’
**
20
Terry had just been brought up to date by Konoco on the latest plans. Everything had been going well on earth, and the pods were standing up to ground attack on all continents. The only problem was, once they were discovered and exposed, they were extremely vulnerable to attack from the cruisers in space.
Earth Central itself had still not been discovered by the Annunaki, and Terry was instructing assault craft to harass and confuse the enemy by appearing from nowhere, attacking them and then disappearing into thin air. This strategy was working extremely well and had the Annunaki commanders in total disarray.
Sub Sea One was also using tactics similar to Terry’s, but had the advantage of all the world’s oceans to use as cover. They would then pop up seemingly out of nowhere again on whichever continent that suited, carry out their objectives and then disappear back under the waves.
Earth was certainly holding its own against the attacking Annunaki even though they now had a foothold on every continent on Earth.
**
The Annunaki had made good headway north of Freehold and had established a series of well-defended base camps, along with a base of operations. Every continent on Earth now had a substantial Annunaki presence; all the commanders had received their specific orders directly from Tannacha. The Annunaki plan was going well, at least this was the case from Tannacha’s point of view.
Their assault craft were patrolling the skies of Earth regularly, and providing air cover for the now regular troop and equipment movements across the planet. The only annoying thing was the regular appearance of ESG assault vessels which was taking its toll on their air superiority. They appeared to come from nowhere and disappear into thin air, in-between times doing as much damage as they possibly could.
Every now and again a duo of Dropas pods would be discovered and a fierce fire-fight would ensue, air cover would be brought in and, if all else failed, a cruiser would be repositioned in Earth’s orbit to deal a fatal blow from its deadly array of pulse weapons.
Terry knew that the proposed attack on the Annunaki cruisers would, if everything went to plan, significantly change the balance of power in the ESGs’ favour. It was now just a matter of patience. After all, the element of surprise had worked extremely well for the ESG up till this point. All that he could do just now was follow the plan to harass and confuse the enemy as much as possible until the odds were evened up.
**
Thourus was just departing Sub Sea One with a wing of seven assault craft, leaving Balac, his right-hand Android in charge. He was heading for Europe, specifically London, where the Annunaki had a base of operations for Europe. He had a choice of keeping to an underwater route or taking a risk and flying low and fast over continental North America. He chose the latter.
The seven craft burst out of the waters of San Francisco Bay and headed east at high velocity. Rooftops were just a blur and terrain was like a fast-flowing river beneath them In just four minutes they were flashing over the main Annunaki base of operations at Freehold, heading towards the North Atlantic. The weapons fire coming from the Annunaki base didn’t stand a chance of hitting their target, and within seconds they were over the North Atlantic and diving beneath the choppy, dark, surface waves. The object of the game now was stealth and surprise. Accordingly, all the craft had now slowed down as they skimmed the bottom of the ocean.
Thourus had a fantastic view: it was a different world down here, full of life and activity, so many diverse species.
They were now in mid-Atlantic and just passing the wreck of the Voltumo, a Dutch cargo vessel, which had exploded and sunk back in 1913 with the loss of all hands. Thourus had been watching it as they passed by, when a sudden movement caught his eye, unrecognisable at first, just a huge shape in the distance, eerie in appearance, and more than a bit disturbing.
Thourus thought he had seen everything beneath the waves, but his database was struggling to identify this looming object, he was even having difficulty ascertaining its speed or direction.
He ordered the TAG craft to a full stop, then checked his proximity detector for any electronic signatures. All it displayed were the six TAG craft around him. When he looked back up, there was nothing.
As suddenly as it had been spotted the ghostly apparition had now disappeared. Not a trace was to be found, apart from the gentle wafting of displaced water under the bellies of the TAG craft.
Being an Android, Thourus didn’t have feelings as such, but still he felt something was wrong, very wrong indeed. He quizzed the other pilots in his wing, but none had seen or detected anything. The small group of TAG craft resumed their mission, slipping through the water just above the sea bed and at a comparatively slow speed.
On arrival in the English Channel no more incidents or unusual sightings had occurred. The good old English Channel, thought Thourus, predictable, but interesting in its own way, thanks exclusively to the amount of shipping wreckage on the sea floor. They had just passed the wreck of the Toward, sunk by a mine in 1915, and were rounding Dover and heading for the Thames.
Gently slipping up the Thames, the seven TAG craft didn’t cause so much as a ripple on the surface of the river. There was a high tide and the TAG craft were now travelling in single fil
e, the idea being to get as far up the river as possible without breaking cover.
**
The Annunaki had become over-confident and had set up their European Base at Heathrow Airport. While you could see the advantage of the sprawling areas of runways, it did leave them open to a surprise attack if someone could sneak up close enough to them.
This is precisely what Thourus intended to do.
Kew Bridge was the point of no return. Thourus and the TAG craft left the Thames behind and carried on at rooftop height, slowly at first so as not to attract attention to fast-moving craft, then just over Cranford they went into full attack mode. Hurtling into the air space over the airport, each of them picked targets of opportunity, shuttles, troop transports, assault craft and anything on the ground that moved.
Pulse weapons fire filled the air, both TAG and Annunaki. Already Annunaki assault craft that had been patrolling the skies of Europe were on their way.
Thourus was looking for the main command centre, and suddenly spotted it. They had had the cheek to set it up in terminal 1. Thourus didn’t hesitate and strafed the Terminal with pulse fire. The building burst into flames and collapsed in on itself. Thourus thought to himself, no one could have survived that, but still continued with crisscross fire from his pulse weapons.
So far two of the TAG vessels had been wiped out and one had asked permission to try to limp back to Sub Sea One.
The damage on the ground was immense. All kinds of ships had been destroyed where they stood - fifty or sixty at least - it was difficult to tell in the carnage. Buildings had been laid to waste, equipment and dead Annunaki troopers were everywhere. The main operations centre was totally destroyed. All in all the mission had been a total success.
Thourus gave the order to retreat back to Sub Sea One with all haste and the TAG wing complied. Escape routes were always well planned in advance of an operation. All involved subterfuge so as not to give away the position of Sub Sea One. On this occasion the wing would split up and head in opposite directions.
Thourus opened up his drive to maximum. Soon he was over Paris, heading south-east towards the Gulf of Aden with ten Annunaki assault vessels hard on his heels. Thourus had made sure they were well prepared for evasive tactics and had issued a hundred airborne mines and instructions on how and where to use them to each of the TAG craft, and pilots, before leaving Sub Sea One.
Now he was going to see his plan in action, as he approached the clear blue seas of the Gulf of Aden. Five hundred feet before he hit the water he released his mines in an umbrella shape behind him.
Still travelling at maximum speed he crashed through the surface water just south of West Sheba Ridge, banked hard left and grounded his craft powerless at the bottom of the Alula-Fartak Trench.
The Annunaki pilots had spotted the mines being released in front of them and had done their best to avoid them, scattering their craft in all directions. One of the Annunaki assault craft was powerless to do anything as he ploughed into the edge of the mines, setting most of them off in unison with each other. His craft disappeared in the inferno and never reappeared.
The rest of Annunaki ships fared rather better. Only two were badly damaged and limped off to seek repairs. The rest re-formed and sped off in the last-seen direction of the TAG craft.
Thourus sat at the bottom of the Trench for a further ten minutes, with the power off and motionless. In the deepest part of the Trench he was virtually invisible.
**
The Annunaki vessels were now long gone. Thourus powered up his craft and swung south, heading towards the general direction of the Falkland Islands and ready to round Cape Horn and head up the coast of South America, then on to Sub Sea One. As the TAG craft sped along the bottom of the South Atlantic Ocean, Thourus couldn’t help wondering how many of his TAG vessels would return to base. He was well aware, in all probability, he would be the last to return as his escape route had been the longest.
Putting the thought behind him, he returned to watching the spectacular underwater landscape. As all kinds of marine life were flashing past his front viewing window, he could tell what part of the world he was in just by looking at the marine life, and knew all the wrecks on his well-travelled underwater trails.
He had made a particular point of finding out the history behind these underwater attractions, indeed it was his own idea to use the better positioned wrecks as listening stations.
This had also given him the perfect excuse to explore some of them, a job he found extremely interesting.
He was rapidly approaching Sub Sea One, built deep within the Taney Seamounts, a collection of five undersea volcanoes, 4,500 thousand metres below the waves, just to the west of San Francisco Bay. Thourus slid his assault craft gently onto the landing pad and then, after disembarking, hurried to the main control room where Balac was waiting to debrief him.
The mission had been a total success, even better than had been hoped for. Jumouk had personally called to congratulate Thourus on a job well done.
All the TAG ships and crews apart from the two that had been destroyed had returned safely, albeit some of the craft had been damaged, none though beyond repair.
All in all a real bloody nose for the Annunaki!
**
21
On the bridge of his flagship Tannacha was seething at the latest news. How could the ESG have pulled off a raid like this with such shattering success? He had lost at least fifty-five vessels of all shapes and sizes, and his European base of operations was in disarray. The most worrying thing, though, was the ease that the ESG were showing in the ability to appear and disappear at will.
As Tannacha pondered that thought, suddenly all hell broke loose. Alarms were sounding all over the bridge, panicked movement was everywhere as a fleet of two ESG battle cruisers and fifty assault craft had just appeared from nowhere and were launching an attack on the three Annunaki battle cruisers stationed on the other side of planet Earth.
**
Lee was commanding one of the of the ESG battle cruisers. The other was under the command of a highly skilled Dropas called Wesell. He had immediately engaged two of the three Annunaki cruisers to great effect. The initial banks of pulse weapon fire had taken them both completely by surprise. This was playing on the Annunaki weak points of complacency and arrogance.
Both Annunaki cruisers suffered extensive damage to their weapons systems and their drive engines, leaving one of them a virtual sitting duck for the twenty-five ESG assault vessels escorting Wesell. The other Annunaki cruiser banked sharply and started evasive action, which involved the spontaneous release of the assault craft in its complement - what was left after more than half of them had been assigned to Earth the previous day. The remaining fifteen Annunaki assault vessels decamped from the cruiser to take on Wesell and his escorts.
Lee had not been quite as fortunate. As he had manoeuvred to target the bridge on the third Annunaki cruiser, he had been spotted and had run into a hailstorm of pulse weapons fire. The escorting ESG assault ships flanking his cruiser were being destroyed and the Annunaki cruiser had now released its full complement of fifty assault vessels, all of which were now bearing down on Lee and what was left of his twenty-five escort vessels.
**
Back on Earth, in San Francisco Bay, Thourus and his attack force of seventy-five assault craft burst though the still waters and rocketed vertically at maximum thrust on a direct course for the third Annunaki cruiser that was giving Lee such a hard time.
The TAG assault craft caught the Annunaki cruiser completely by surprise, unleashing a terrifying tsunami of concentrated pulse fire to the Earth-side flank of the massive ship. In this instance size didn’t matter: the whole cruiser erupted in front of them with debris cascading in every direction.
Thourus now began to concentrate on the Annunaki assault vessels that were mauling Lee’s cruiser and escorts. Again the element of surprise was on his side. His TAG assault wings sw
ept in like angels of death on the stunned Annunaki assault craft left reeling from seeing the loss of their cruiser. Lee broke off from his initial course in an effort to evade the Annunaki assault ships and let the TAG pilots have their hour of glory.
The experienced TAG pilots were in their element, and with the Annunaki vessels in disarray, the pickings were easy. Most of the Annunaki craft were now making a break for it, heading in all directions only to be chased down by a TAG craft and atomised.
However, two of the Annunaki ships that had managed to make a break towards the dark side of moon were making good their escape, skimming the lunar surface and, using craters for cover, they remained undetected.
The rest of the surviving Annunaki assault ships made for the other side of Earth and the relative safety of the three battle cruisers there. In all only twenty-one of the sixty-five craft made it, along with the badly damaged cruiser.
Battle for the Earth Page 7
