by Hatchett
All the time, the rest of her group were acting as spotters, using binoculars and focusing on the ground below. Hannah was constantly listening to what the spotters were telling her and relaying the information to the leaders on the ground.
It wasn’t perfect, and there would be mistakes, but it gave the groups on the ground some idea of what was going on and what to look out for.
68
Alarms were ringing incessantly on the Mothership and Kinaejah was trying to work out what was going on from the dozen or so holographic screens floating around him.
He had heard the message from one of the Stormtroopers on the ground and watched the footage from the cubes and was stunned to see hundreds of armed humans running towards and under the devices as they ran past. Then the screens went blank.
“What the fuck is happening?” Kinaejah screamed.
“We’re under attack,” Thaejah replied, monitoring his own screens.
“I can fucking see that,” Kinaejah replied. “How?”
“The wall is down,” Thaejah explained, “and thousands of humans are pouring in.”
“But how?” Kinaejah reiterated.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s the same problem we had with the shuttles and Battlecruisers. Maybe a traitor.”
“But I thought we’d sorted that out? Everything was checked.”
“The craft were all checked, but we haven’t had time to check other devices.”
“Where have all these humans come from? I thought we’d killed most of them off.”
“I don’t think now is the time to speculate how this has happened. We need to sort it out first,” Thaejah suggested.
“Send in the Battlecruisers,” Kinaejah ordered, “and turn those bloody alarms off.”
Thaejah gave the necessary commands.
A few seconds later he realised that they had some serious problems, problems which might cause Kinaejah to self-combust.
“We have another problem,” Thaejah started, tentatively.
“What? An uprising on the ground isn’t enough? What is it?”
“The Battlecruisers are not responding to orders.”
“What?!” Kinaejah screamed.
“They won’t move,” Thaejah added.
“Take us into Geostationary Orbit, and get the technicians to work on the craft,” Kinaejah ordered, suddenly calm. “Get the Intergalactic cruisers over London.”
Thaejah flicked through the screens and gave the orders, and the Mothership started rising.
“What about those on the ground?” Thaejah asked.
“They’re on their own for now,” Kinaejah replied, trying to think things through.
A couple of new screens popped up and the faces of Kasaejah and Verdaejah appeared.
“Kinaejah, we’ve seen what’s happening. Do you need any help?”
“What can you do?” Kinaejah responded sarcastically. “Do any of your craft work?”
“We haven’t tried,” Kasaejah responded, then looked away from the screen and started giving orders.
Kasaejah waited a few seconds before he looked back to Kinaejah.
“It seems they’re not working here either,” he admitted.
Kinaejah flicked the screens closed. He didn’t have time to waste on the likes of Kasaejah and Verdaejah, especially when things were going to shit.
“Why are we going into space?” Thaejah asked with interest.
“Just a theory. If we leave the atmosphere, maybe whatever is affecting our systems on the planet will start working again.”
The Mothership eased through the atmosphere into space and Kinaejah gave the order to sit at 10,000 kilometres. Many of his screens were blank and he swatted them away. He needed eyes on the ground, and for some reason, the live feeds had stopped working as well.
69
“The Mothership is going,” Adil shouted as he noticed a subtle change in the lighting in the shuttle. It was like a gigantic black cloud had moved, allowing what little sun there was to filter through.
They all looked up and saw that Adil was right.
“Mason must be on it,” Harry surmised.
“He is,” Jess confirmed.
“Running away,” Matt suggested.
“No, just trying to give himself some breathing space and time to figure out what to do,” Jess suggested.
“Will it affect what you’re doing?” Harry asked.
“I’m not sure,” Jess admitted. “I haven’t tried communicating with anything in space, although I suspect Bishop and Data won’t be affected.”
“Are they able to keep doing their bit?” Harry asked, not really sure what ‘their bit’ was, but assuming Jess was in control.
“It’s a strain,” Jess admitted. “The central AI unit on the Mothership is fighting back and I’ve no idea how much longer we can hold it.”
Harry spoke to Hannah and she relayed his message.
“All ground units. We don’t have much time, I repeat, we don’t have much time.”
The spotters continued coordinating the ground attack.
70
“We’ve managed to find the problem,” Thaejah reported, as Kinaejah looked out of the side of the Mothership at the UK down below.
Kinaejah was annoyed. It looked like he had run away at the first sign of trouble, and whilst that wasn’t the case at all, he knew that’s what the other Elders would be thinking.
“Good! Then send the Battlecruisers.”
Thaejah ran his claws across one of his screens and waited for a few seconds.
“Another problem,” Thaejah announced, mentally bracing himself for the barrage sure to come.
“For fuck’s sake! What now?”
“The Battlecruisers are operational, but the skin of the ship isn’t opening. The good news is that I think we can get around this quite quickly, now that we know what we need to do.”
“Which is?”
“The AI has been attacked or hacked. I have no idea how, but that’s what’s been causing all the issues, not a traitor.”
“It could still have been a traitor who affected the AI,” Kinaejah pointed out.
“True,” Thaejah acknowledged.
They both waited, watching their screens.
“Fixed,” Thaejah announced. “The Battlecruisers are on their way.”
They both watched as hundreds of Battlecruisers shot out of their hangars and dropped towards the Earth.
“Now we’ll show them who’s boss,” Kinaejah said with a smile and turned to watch the feeds on his many screens. He was looking forward to his craft annihilating these humans once and for all.
71
Jess was lying on the floor of the shuttle, her fingers pressed against both her temples as she concentrated. Sweat was dripping down her face and Harry had moved across and knelt next to her to wipe her brow and tip a bottle of water so she could drink. She suddenly opened her eyes.
“The Battlecruisers are coming!” she said, and Hannah quickly relayed the message.
“We knew you wouldn’t be able to hold them off forever,” Harry said comfortingly, “and to be honest, you’ve managed to hold them off far longer than we expected, so it’s all good. Those on the ground will be ready.”
Jess sat up and took the bottle of water from Harry and gulped down what was left. She looked hot, sweaty and tired, but was not about to rest.
“We need to move out of the area now!” Jess said. “Hold on!”
With that, Jess gave the AI units their orders and the two cloaked shuttles streaked across the sky towards the West and didn’t stop until they were twenty kilometres from London.
They all looked skywards and saw a myriad of flashes and sparks as countless Battlecruisers entered the Earth’s atmosphere. They looked like a cloud of angry wasps as they descended towards the city.
“Here we go,” Jess murmured.
“We’ve accessed the pyramid,” Hannah announced and there were cheers all around.
“Tell th
em we’ve had to move so can’t provide oversight or targets. They’re on their own for now,” Harry said
Hannah relayed the message, wishing everybody good luck.
“What now?” Adil asked.
Jess turned to look at him.
“We’ve occupied the pawns so now it’s time to put the King in check,” Jess said with determination. “But first, Bishop, Data and I have one more thing to do.
72
As the shielded Battlecruisers dropped silently towards the city like massive doodlebugs, the people on the ground found cover and made their preparations.
Those with EMPs charged up the devices while the others split their attention between providing cover against any further Stormtroopers roaming around and preparing their RPGs.
As the sky filled with falling Battlecruisers and the first few energy bolts were released towards the ground, the people on the ground retaliated by firing their EMPs. There wasn’t much point in aiming the devices too accurately; there were so many Battlecruisers swarming down that there was almost a one hundred percent probability of hitting at least one of them. In any case, you couldn’t see the pulse so you wouldn’t know if you’d hit what you were targeting until the target stopped working.
They sky looked like it was raining down lightning and the fight looked totally one-sided until the unseen EMPs hit home.
The Battlecruisers that were hit crackled with energy, the pulse breaching the shield and frying the AI units inside. With nothing to control the Battlecruisers, they fell to earth like stones, landing and exploding and creating massive craters which shot deadly shrapnel in all directions.
The humans directly below the falling craft had little chance of survival; even though many had caused the destruction of the Battlecruisers in the first place, they were also effectively signing their own death warrant as the Battlecruisers smashed into the ground.
The humans further out fared far better; they were able to release their EMPs to hit the Battlecruisers side on, so they weren’t in danger when the craft fell.
Hundreds of Battlecruisers crashed in the first wave of shots, and as the humans waited for their devices to recharge, the hundreds of remaining Battlecruisers identified and picked off targets at will.
The second wave of EMPs took out more Battlecruisers, but far less than the first wave because of the losses on the human side. It was becoming clear that the humans would be wiped out long before aliens ran out of Battlecruisers, and that was without thousands of other Battlecruisers which had been stationed on the Inter-Galactic Cruisers, and which were now streaming towards London from Washington and Moscow. The way things were going, they would be late to the party and wouldn’t be needed.
As the Battlecruisers searched out targets following the second wave of EMPs, the humans hid as they waited for a recharge.
Suddenly three Battlecruisers in different parts of the city started shooting bolts at their nearby craft, destroying them as effectively as the EMPs.
The Laakuu on the Mothership monitoring and guiding the Battlecruisers wasted crucial time before they worked out what was happening, and when they did, they took out the rogue Battlecruisers, thinking that was the end of their problems. However, as soon as the three rogue Battlecruisers were destroyed, another three started attacking.
This distraction allowed the humans on the ground to release the third wave of EMPs, again less than the second wave but still causing a significant amount of damage and restoring the balance of the fight.
Some of the humans who had been tied up attacking the pyramid eventually managed to help the attack on the Battlecruisers while the rest continued their frenzied fight against the Stormtroopers in the building.
The battle was immense, and the outcome was in the balance.
73
As the battle raged in the city, Jess gave new instructions to Bishop and Data.
The three of them latched on to and took over the AI units in individual Battlecruisers and started firing bolts at any other Battlecruiser in the vicinity. It took the Laakuu some time to figure out what was happening but when the Battlecruisers they had control over were destroyed, then switched their concentration to others and continued their destruction. At one point, Jess lost control of a Battlecruiser when friendly fire from one of the ground based EMPs hit the one she was in control of. She immediately switched to another and continued fighting back.
After the fourth wave of EMPs, Jess realised that time was running out. She, Bishop and Data had done what they could to help the people on the ground and even up the playing field, or even tip it in their favour, but the people on the ground were now on their own. If Jess didn’t move on to the next phase of the attack, the other Battlecruisers coming from Washington and Moscow would arrive and all would be lost.
Jess took another quick drink of water, feeling drained, but knowing that she had to keep going. There wouldn’t be another opportunity.
She spoke to Bishop and Data and the skins of the two shuttles switched from translucent to opaque, except for a few large windows along the side. She was more than aware of Adil’s fright earlier and didn’t want to scare him any more than necessary, especially with what was coming next. She nodded to Hannah.
Hannah was quickly on the radio to the American Special Ops soldiers in the second shuttle to tell them that the next phase of the attack was about to take place.
The two shuttles tilted and accelerated upwards.
“What’s happening?” Adil asked shakily.
“You ever wanted to be an astronaut?” Jess asked, suspecting she already knew the answer.
“Fuck no!” Adil retorted. “You know I don’t like heights, so why would I want to do something as stupid as that?”
No one in the shuttle said anything. They had all guessed what was about to happen and all were looking more than a little uneasy, except Harry, who had a small smile on his face.
Jess had talked to Harry about this part of the operation in some detail, but at the time they had assumed the Mothership would be sitting above London. The fact that the Mothership had retreated into space didn’t change the plan, but it did make the exercise far more exciting or daunting, depending on which way you looked at it.
“So, you wouldn’t fancy going into space then?” Jess asked. If she were being honest, she wasn’t entirely sure that she fancied it either.
“No chance!” Adil replied. “The thought of space scares me shitless. Worse than heights. Far too much…space.”
Jess grinned. She was doing a pretty good job of keeping Adil’s attention off their current climb, and mentally instructed Bishop to reduce the size of the windows and close Adil’s one completely.
“What the fuck?” Adil asked, seeing his window become opaque, followed by some juddering before things calmed down again.
“You’re an astronaut,” Jess announced.
“Yeah, right,” Adil replied, although he didn’t sound too confident.
He looked towards his window, then realised it had been closed. He looked across to the other side of the shuttle and saw that the others were gathered around their own windows and were looking out.
Adil couldn’t see a thing past them, so he got up and wandered across.
“Are you sure you want to look?” Jess asked.
Adil frowned as if to say, ‘what’s the problem?’ and continued over. He leant on Matt’s back and looked over his shoulder and gasped in shock. He took a couple of faltering steps back and closed his eyes, then re-opened them and went back for another look, closely watched by Jess and Harry.
Adil then returned and stood by his seat and took a few deep breaths.
“Are you OK?” Jess asked.
Adil just nodded, still breathing heavily.
The others were chattering and pointing, thoroughly amazed by what was happening and what they were seeing.
“You better sit down,” Jess suggested. “We’re almost there.”
Jess turned towards the front of
the shuttle and commanded Bishop to make the front end transparent.
Everyone but Joshua gasped in awe as they saw the Mothership looming in front of them, the shuttle looking like it was about to career into the side of the massive structure.
“Are we going to crash?” Hannah asked.
“Don’t be stupid,” Joshua castigated her.
“Do they know we’re here?” Matt asked.
“No. Bishop and Data have made sure we’re cloaked, and all communications and trackers are turned off.”
“Why do you insist on using the stupid names for the AI units?” Joshua asked, with a sneer. “They are just numbers.”
“They’re not numbers to me,” Jess shot back. “For your information, they are sentient, and they don’t like you very much, which I can fully understand.”
“Sentient!” Joshua spat, with a snide smile. “They’re just glorified computers.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Whoever built them gave them the ability to learn and develop. And I can tell you now, they have developed far more than you could ever imagine.”
Joshua looked towards the box at the front of the shuttle, wondering if the bitch was winding him up. He decided it would be better not to antagonise her so kept his thoughts to himself.
74
Kinaejah and Thaejah had been watching the Battle for London on their screens, watching from a Battlecruiser’s point of view until it was destroyed, then they switched to another one.
Kinaejah had started off with a huge smile across his face, a smile that slowly ebbed away as the battle developed.
First, his Stormtroopers had been taken by surprise then his Battlecruisers had started being destroyed at an unacceptable rate. By the time word came through that some of his Battlecruisers were firing on their own, he had looked to Thaejah with fury in his eyes.