Terry didn’t stand a chance. The Nephilimis banks of pulse weapons spat blue death all around them. Nine of the ESG assault craft almost instantaneously disintegrated, one spinning off frantically, trailing smoke and reddish yellow flames and eventually crashing into Garden Island. Taking advantage of the confusion, Annunaki assault ships spilled from the battle cruiser and mauled the ESG craft. Within a few short minutes seventeen ESG craft had been lost and only four Annunaki craft destroyed, with no damage whatsoever to the battle cruiser.
Only Grant had managed to turn tail and get his craft back to the relative sanctuary of the deep ocean. Now he sat on the sea bed in total shock. He had powered his craft down in a place called Perth Canyon, around 9,000 feet below the surface. It had all happened in less than ten minutes, he thought. Seventeen craft. Seventeen! He was having difficulty comprehending what had just happened.
Meanwhile, on board the Nephilimis, Nalater was jubilant. His quick thinking on spotting the wings of ESG vessels leaving the ocean was inspirational, and had been well noted by Tannacha. He had certainly delivered a humiliating blow to the ESG. In fact neither of the two commanders realised the full extent of the damage they had done.
**
Grant had given it twenty minutes on the sea bed and was now traversing the depths of the oceans, making his way back to Earth Central, his heart heavy with recent tragic events.
The journey on the way back was incident free, and Grant docked under the protection of the mag shield at Earth Central. He still had no idea of the recent events on the moon, and was taken by surprise at the sombre atmosphere within the control room. He began to wonder if they knew of the events that had just taken place off Western Australia.
**
Fiona Green, the senior control room manager, brought Grant up to speed on the catastrophic events that had befallen the Blue Star Base and the Katchinas. He was stunned. Worse still, he had to break the news to Fiona, who already had tears rolling down from her misty blue eyes, of what had happened off Western Australia. He composed himself.
‘Fiona.’
He had caught her just beginning another sentence.
‘Fiona.’
He repeated himself.
‘I’ve got some bad news as well, Terry’s ... well...’
He took his third sharp intake of breath in as many seconds and blurted it out.
‘Terry’s dead. I don’t know what else to say. I am so sorry, Fiona. It was almost like they knew we were coming, we ran straight into one of their battle cruisers.’
Fiona sank back and shook her head. She was having difficulty taking the news in; Terry had been extremely popular. He was always a likeable boss, and a huge source of motivation to everyone that knew him. He had also planned and carried out numerous successful covert strikes against the Annunaki, causing untold damage and confusion. Without doubt Terry’s loss was going to be a huge blow to the ESG.
‘How many of our eighteen craft survived?’
She straightaway wished she hadn’t asked the question.
Grant lowered his gaze
‘Just me, I think, I waited a while before I left the area. Didn’t see anyone else.’
Fiona turned without a word and moved directly to the communications console to contact Jumouk on board Iron Duke to break the tragic news. Lee watched the expression on Jumouk’s face change from neutral to sudden anguish. The news came out of the blue and took him completely by surprise.
After a few seconds’ pause Jumouk thanked Fiona and said he would contact her in the next two hours with his instructions. His next job would be to break the news to Lee. He knew how close Lee and Terry had been and that Lee would not take the death of his close friend well.
‘Lee.’
Jumouk hesitated. Lee guessed what was coming had to be bad news. Jumouk was very rarely hesitant.
‘I’ve just heard from Fiona. I’m sorry, but Terry’s dead, my friend.’
Lee looked up from the console he and Marie had been poring over.
‘Dead? I don’t understand, Jumouk?’
‘Apparently he went on the mission to Western Australia, and they were ambushed. We lost seventeen assault craft including Terry’s craft.’
Lee was visibly stunned.
‘But I told Terry specifically not to go on any missions himself. He was there to plan and organise, not to fight. Plan and organise, that’s all.’
Jumouk shook his head slowly.
‘You know Terry was hands on. It was inevitable especially after the success of Thourus’s attack on Heathrow.’
Jumouk looked to Marie then back to his friend.
‘Lee, I am so sorry but we need to put this behind us. We now have a real problem. We have a lot of planning to do, my friend.’
Konoco looked at Lee and nodded.
Marie put her arm around Lee. She could feel his pain, but Jumouk was right: they had a lot of planning and damage control to do.
**
27
The Nephilimis came to rest next to the Serpitus at Perth Airport. The Serpitus had now been fully repaired and Gargius had taken up his position as commander, making sure Salis knew his place as second in command. Both battle cruisers had a full complement of assault craft: one hundred between the two of them.
The commanders had their orders from Tannacha: find the human civilians and wipe them out. They knew the first place they were going to look, North America somewhere around Washington DC, where the first contacts were made. Gargius and Nalater were sure of this: somewhere there the humans were hiding. The two huge battle cruisers lifted off and headed towards North America at low level together with an escort from within their ranks of twenty assault craft.
**
Fiona Green was in Earth Central’s control room watching the 3D visualisation of Earth. She could see the two Annunaki battle cruisers with their escorts approaching. It didn’t take much to figure out where they were heading. No, the more important question was: why?
The resources she had left to protect Earth Central were now very limited after the disaster in Western Australia. In fact there were just twenty-four assault craft left which would be no match for the approaching Annunaki assemblage of ships.
**
Grant put a comforting hand on Fiona’s right shoulder, and asked:
‘How are you holding up, Fiona?’
Her reply was not unexpected for a seasoned professional.
‘Oh, OK, I guess, Grant, but I could well do without this.’
She pointed to the approaching Annunaki forces. Grant pulled a face.
‘What can we do?’
‘Not much, I’m afraid. Grant. We’ve only got twenty-four assault craft left, and no defence pods.’
Grant flinched, mostly because of the guilt he felt, not so much that Western Australia had been his fault, more the guilt of the survivor who had got out alive.
**
Jumouk and Lee were watching the progress of the battle cruisers on their image of Earth. It had already been decided between the four of them that direct confrontation at this time would not be a wise move. Their forces had been depleted and now stood at two cruisers and around one hundred and forty-four assault craft, split between Earth, sea and space. The only thing they weren’t short of was ground troops, although these weren’t much use against battle cruisers.
Marie came over and stood beside them.
‘Anything we can do without all-out confrontation?’
Lee looked at Jumouk.
Jumouk shook his head.
‘We just have to hope they don’t discover Earth Central.’
‘And if they do?’ Marie enquired.
‘Then it’s head-on, I’m afraid. Fight to the death as they say.’
Konoco had been quietly thinking in the background.
‘Why don’t we use a decoy to lead them away, at least for the time being?’
‘What sort of decoy did
you have in mind, Konoco?’ asked Jumouk.
‘How about we start a fight?’
‘What do you mean, Konoco?’
Again it was Marie who asked the question.
‘Well, most of the action we’ve seen up to now has been airborne. Why don’t we use our ground troops to take out, say, Heathrow? Bear in mind we’ve already done quite a lot of damage there. On reflection we could always get Thourus and the TAG to back up the ground troops.’
‘Brilliant! If that doesn’t distract them nothing will.’
Lee slapped Konoco on the back by way of congratulation.
‘Can you set it up for me, Lee?’
Lee turned to face Jumouk.
‘Sure thing, sir,’ he said. ‘My pleasure.’
**
Heathrow was fairly quiet, although security had been stepped up since the TAG attack that had been so successfully orchestrated, Annunaki ground warriors were everywhere and the sky was regularly patrolled by assault vessels.
Most of the movement on the base were shuttle craft going to and fro from the gold reserves held at the Bank of England in London, and capital cities around the rest of the world. Heathrow had been chosen to be a holding station for the gold reserves until they were loaded onto the Annunaki battle cruisers, which could land at Heathrow and be loaded easily.
**
Clarence Finnegan was the battalion commander of the ESG land forces that were about to storm Heathrow. He had a mixed bunch of a thousand ESG troopers and five hundred Androids spread all around the perimeter of Heathrow.
The plan was for the Androids to go in first, taking most of the casualties. Then his ESG troopers would back them up, quelling any further resistance from the Annunaki. Thourus and his TAG assault ships would provide air support. Once the airport was secured more reinforcements would be flown in using shuttles, and the two ESG battle cruisers would take up defensive positions above the airport. If by any chance the Annunaki wanted to bring the fight to them, then so be it. They were now at least on a par with the aggressors.
The Androids were given the command to attack, and immediately engaged with the Annunaki guards on the outer perimeter. The fighting was vicious. The opposing foes were a match for each other, their warrior qualities not in question, and bravery second to none.
The Androids did have one major advantage in the fact that they felt no debilitating pain from injuries, they just kept advancing, like an unstoppable freight train. The skies above the airport filled with Annunaki assault ships, targeting the ESG Androids, but still they came, hacking through the Annunaki warriors, building by building. The low-flying Annunaki assault craft were a gift to Thourus and his fifty TAG assault craft. They outnumbered the Annunaki two to one and had the advantage of surprise. The hardest part of the attack was finding any Annunaki assault vessels that hadn’t already been targeted.
The ESG Androids had by now confined the Annunaki warriors to Terminals 2 and 3, and the ESG troopers were now securing the perimeters of Heathrow and mopping up any straggling Annunaki warriors.
Thourus had only lost five of his craft in the battle of the airspace above Heathrow, the Annunaki had lost twenty craft and the remaining five craft had disengaged, and disappeared off to the west, presumably to seek shelter with the two Annunaki cruisers that were just arriving at Washington DC.
**
The fighting at Terminals 2 and 3 was becoming more sporadic, signifying that the ESG Androids had now gained the upper hand over the remaining Annunaki warriors, though the cost had been severe. At least two hundred Androids were totally beyond repair and half of the remainder had minor to severe damage. Still, Heathrow Airport had been retaken which was an achievement in itself. Clarence Finnegan, or Finney as he liked to be known, was delighted with the performance of his troops.
**
Nalater and the two cruisers were just approaching Washington DC, when news of the attack on Heathrow Airport reached him. His first instinct was to turn the battle cruisers around and head for the melee, but the timely arrival of Tannacha on the bridge made him think twice.
Tannacha seemed remarkably composed, Nalater had expected at the very least the brutal slaying of one or two of the subordinates on the bridge. Nalater was starting to get a very bad feeling as to the exact reason for Tannacha’s unusual behaviour.
Nalater brought the two huge battle cruisers expertly to rest at Dulles International Airport.
**
28
Heathrow was now Annunaki free, and the two ESG battle cruisers had taken up defensive positions above the airport.
Finney had been running around like a headless chicken, organising things himself in preparation for the imminent arrival of Jumouk, Lee, Konoco and Marie. Lee and Konoco were the first to arrive at Finney’s makeshift office in Terminal 3.
The office itself was shabby looking and basic, with none of the high-tech gadgets you might expect. OK, Finney had only about an hour to clear out all the Annunaki trash and tidy up as best he could, but he still felt bad.
He greeted his two visitors with open arms and made them as welcome as he could. Lee asked Finney if he had ever heard of the word ‘delegation’, and Finney’s face turned as red as his hair. Lee laughed.
‘Don’t look so worried, Finney, I’m only joking. Seriously, good job recapturing Heathrow. I take it everything’s secure now?’
‘As secure as we can be. Checked it out myself.’
Finney immediately regretted making the last remark when he saw a wry smile appear on Lee’s face. Jumouk entered the room and Finney instantly jumped to his feet, Jumouk gestured for Finney to sit back down and pulled up a chair for himself.
‘Looks like we’ve got a bit of a stalemate going on. Those two Annunaki cruisers have parked themselves at Dulles, and don’t look like they’re going to be moving anytime soon.’
Lee finished off the sentence by relaxing back in his seat.
Konoco looked deep in thought.
‘What do you think they’re up to, Lee?’
The question caught Lee off guard.
‘How do you mean, Konoco?’
‘Well they must have a plan, don’t you think?’
Lee pondered the question for a few seconds.
‘Have we? What I mean is, have we got a plan?’
Konoco looked at Jumouk.
‘What do you think, Jumouk?’
Jumouk shook his head.
‘I think Lee might have a point. We are too evenly matched now, so it’s going to be a brave man who takes the initiative, and I for one am rapidly running out of ideas.’
Marie interrupted them, startling them in the process. Everyone had been so deep in thought that no one had noticed her standing at the door.
‘Yes, we are evenly matched, but remember - at one point we were outnumbered nearly three to one, so it can’t be all bad, can it?’
The positive attitude couldn’t have come at a better time, and Marie knew it.
‘So, come on, guys, let’s get our thinking caps on and do what we do best: solve the unsolvable. What’s the real problem here? The Annunaki have set up their main base right on the doorstep of Earth Central, bad luck I know, but there it is!’
‘Well, at least they haven’t found Earth Central yet, which is a blessing,’ Lee added.
Marie grabbed a chair and joined the rest of them round the desk.
‘Yes, but I suspect that they think it might be there or at least something like it, and if they start looking for it in earnest, they will find it.’
‘What if we withdraw the assault craft back to here?’
Lee looked round the room.
‘Well, we can’t move Earth Central, can we?’
‘That’s for sure,’ replied Marie.
‘Remember the Blue Star Moon Base, it didn’t take them that long to twig and discover that! What’s more important, look at the resources they threw at it, everything they had, a
nd absolutely no mercy.’
‘So, basically what you’re saying, Marie, is we can expect the same for Earth Central and the close on a million people down there?’
Lee was shaking his head despondently as he ended his last sentence, but Marie was still upbeat.
Battle for the Earth Page 10
