Annihilation: Book 05 - Searcher

by Saxon Andrew

  “They’ll be going back to the planet where they lost the first three Eight Legs. I believe that they will then start looking for systems that might be hiding planets.”

  Melanie, Cassandra, and Tommy just stared at him, “Hey, it’s what I would do in their place.”

  “Matt, we are going to Cainth and then Glod to pick up some trees.”

  “Don’t you need the trees to be made into weapons?”

  “Actually, my ship tells me that it can do it. It wants some raw material so I’m going to listen to it and give it what it wants.”

  “Why don’t you ask it if it wants some of those Captor energy weapons?”

  Cassandra focused for a minute and then smiled, “You’re right; it will wait to get some transported to us; then we’ll go get the trees.”

  “Al, you and Fly Girl come get us. We need to talk with Sprig.”

  “On our way.”

  Tag sat in the library at Castle Gardner thinking about what was happening. Danielle walked in and looked at him, “What’s bothering you?”

  Tag looked at her and shook his head slowly, “The Eight Legs’ main fleet will arrive in less than sixty days.” Danielle covered her mouth with her hand and Tag continued, “I also sense that they will be looking for the Realm; I think they have deduced that hidden planets exist and they will probably ignore those they see and focus on finding systems with hidden planets.”

  Danielle sat beside him and put her arms around his neck, “Are we going to be able to survive this?”

  “I don’t know. It will be a war like no other in the scope and size of the forces arrayed against each other. I want you to stay close to me, Danielle.”

  “I will my love. I’ll always stay close to you.”

  Tag smiled at her but worried about what was coming.

  Matt and Melanie arrived at the Algean testing lab and requested a meeting with Sprig.

  “Come on down, I’m about to test a new device and I can use an extra set of limbs.”

  Matt and Melanie teleported into the lab that the size of ten old airports. The structure was huge and Sprig was standing with Twig behind a device that was pointed at one of the small captured ships.

  “What are you doing, Sprig.”

  “I’m testing a new idea. We don’t have much time so I’m going to use some old technology with some new ideas.” Sprig pointed to a strange shaped missile that appeared to have a cross sticking out of the middle of its hull. “This is a smaller model of a penetrator that was originally used against my race by the Realm. It was, and probably still is, the fastest projectile ever made. It will accelerate to two thirds of light speed in less than fifty miles.”

  “How are you going to use it?”

  “First I want to see if it can be stopped by their green surface.”

  “I thought the idea was to get through their surface?”

  “It will be on the mother ships but the other ships will also need to be destroyed. Let’s see what happens.” Sprig sited at the small green ship more than seven hundred yards away and pushed a button. The missile left so fast that the sonic boom happened almost immediately and tag and Melanie felt it through the ear protection Twig had placed on them just before the launch. Sprig pushed a control and the display screen above the table came on, “This is at one ten thousandth speed.” They saw the missile rush across the field and hit the small ship in the middle and just stop. There was no explosion or transfer of energy; it just hit the ship at that high speed and stopped. Twig raised her branches and thought, “It didn’t suffer any damage; you’re a genius, Darling.”

  Matt and Melanie looked at the two Algeans and shook their head, “Why are you happy if there was no damage to the green ship?”

  Twig turned to them and said, “I wasn’t excited about no damage to the green ship. The missile suffered no damage.”

  “Tell me what you’re trying to accomplish here,” Matt asked?

  “This missile will have two parts; the first part will be a sharpened projectile made from the iron wood tree with a Coronado power cell fully charged in its tail. The projectile will be put in a sleeve just above the cross on the midsection. When the missile hits a ship, that sleeve will continue forward and penetrate the hull as the Coronado Power Cell explodes inside the ship burning everything not made of that green substance out of existence. That blast will be short and will move up the hole created by the projectile as it punctured the ship melting the heat seal on the rear part of the missile still on the surface. That will ignite a small motor on the rear of the missile to keep it against the hull as a fragile armor coated projectile fires through the hole into the ship that will blow apart once a meter detects the projectile has stopped releasing forty iron tree marbles inside the ship.”

  “That sounds like an interesting missile. Will it work on the transports?”

  “We won’t need one on them. We will use a full size penetrator on those ships that will be big enough to hold the energy ball device and the package with a thousand iron tree balls in it. The energy ball device is too big to use on their small ships; that’s why we’re developing this technique. On the transports we’ll have the energy ball inside the sharpened penetrator along with the balls encased in a sphere made from the structure of the Captors home. It will make it through the blast and when its sensors show a temperature where the iron balls won’t melt they will be blasted out of the case. They should bounce around inside those thick hulls of the transport for quite a while.”

  “Sprig, are the Searcher Class Vessels large enough to fire those?”

  “Yes and no, Matt; these devices can be teleported to the site where they will be fired. Each Searcher will have a battery of more than a thousand of these tuned in to their systems. The system will bring them to the firing point. This is going to be a difficult task trying to hit moving targets but hopefully there will be a learning curve where they will improve. They are equipped with optical sensors tuned to the green color of their ships and will follow the ship as long as it is illuminated. That’s why it is best if they are coming is system toward us so the sun will be shining on them.”

  “What’s the no part?”

  “We need ships big enough to take on the mother ships and the transports in huge numbers.”

  “Can the Defender Class ships handle that?”

  “Not really. They’re just not maneuverable enough in a combat environment. We’re going to bring some ships out of storage.”

  “What kind of ships, Sprig?”

  “I’ll show you.” Sprig raised his teleport device and suddenly Matt and Melanie were on a ship looking out at thousands of huge white ships.”

  Matt and Melanie were stunned, “What are these?”

  “These ships were originally used against my race in our conflict and then against the Captors. Their outer skins are like the Kosiev and can hold millions of the penetrators. They have teleportation ability and can stand toe to toe with the invaders. They’re only a mile long but they are deadly.”

  “Can we train the crews in time?”

  “No, we can’t. Matt we will not have the number of weapons we need in time to hold the invaders off. We watched the recording of their last invasion and we determined that the Captors actually time lapsed the recording. Evidently, the entry point into our universe will only allow ships through it in limited numbers. We have determined that in two months the invasion will start with single ships and then as the entry point is used it will allow multiple ships through. It will take us at least eight months to get the number of weapons needed to take them head on. We’re going to have to let them in before we try to close the door in their face. We suspect more than a hundred thousand or more of the mother ships will be in our universe when we are ready to start hitting them.”

  “So what do we do in the mean time?”

  “Well, we’re certainly going to be moving some planets around as the invaders uncover them. We will start hitting them once they come inside the screen of a
hidden planet. We are disguising some of them to look like they’re inhabited so they will land their ships. Our warriors will be waiting for them on the surface and kill their ships on the ground and as many of their troops as possible. When reinforcements arrive the warriors and ships will teleport out.”

  “Aren’t you afraid of showing them our teleportation ability?”

  “Let them see it. Trust me; knowing it exists and coming up with the knowledge on how to develop it are two different things entirely. My mate and I nearly died from the overload. We just have to make sure they do not capture one of our ships.”

  “Sprig, if they come close we’ll just teleport it away and they will be left behind,”

  “Sprig raised his branches laughing and thought, “There is that.”

  “Are we going to have enough time to build these weapons?”

  “Matt, there are more than twenty million planets in the Realm or under its care. Every one of them is building them at this moment. The crews from the Defender Class ships are now training on the Megaships. We will be ready in eight months. Until we are, we are going to be playing a shell game with the invaders. They will be looking for a pea but we will have a rock ready for them. We are going to start killing them and that first ship is going to be our practice target. After them, we are going to make them pay a price for the atrocities they have committed.”

  Matt felt something inside actually longing to make them pay. He heard Melanie’s thought, “We owe them for Angel.”

  Matt looked at her puzzled, “We?”

  “They hurt you terribly. That’s reason enough for me.”

  Matt felt a warm feeling for his friend, “Thank you for understanding; I so want to hurt them.”

  “So do I,” thought Fly Girl.

  “Not as much as me,” thought Al.

  “Oh yes I do.”

  “No way; you know I want to hurt them more.”

  “You retarded dish washer, you’re not even close to how I want to hurt them.”

  Sprig and Twig laughed and were amazed at Stem’s two creations.

  “So am I, Father,” Stem thought.

  The huge green ship arrived back at the system where they had lost their three children and began exploring it in fine detail. The Sensor Male watched his sensors and said, “The children’s ship wasn’t damaged when they disappeared; I’m not certain that we will find anything in this system. That planet certainly wasn’t one of the advanced life form.”

  “I suspect as much, but here is a good place to start looking elsewhere. Let the ships look through this system; I want you to look through your data and find a place where there should be a planet that has intelligent life but doesn’t register on our scans.”

  “I will begin looking, First Fang.” The Sensor Male looked at the last harvest and narrowed his search down to the Galaxy there were in. He found a planet that had good possibilities and then looked at its system. There it was glowing with intelligent life, so that wasn’t a prospect. He moved his search further out and found another prospect; he looked at the system and there was no sign of intelligent life. “First Fang, I may have found a prospect. May I suggest we send a ship there to just scan the system and have it return immediately?”

  “Where is it?” The Sensor Male sent the data to his display and he looked across the galaxy and saw there was no intelligent life in the system. “Send a ship. Even if it doesn’t return we will know we have found what we’re looking for.”

  The Sensor Male turned to his board and ordered a transport to go and look at the system. He thought, “If it doesn’t return; should we go?”

  ***

  “Matt, an Eight Leg transport just jumped into the Begron system and then disappeared,” Al said.

  “That’s where they’re going next. Stem go ahead and move the planet and replace it with a barren one. Take the screen with Begron so they will see it when they arrive. We aren’t quite ready to hit them yet. I’m sure they will investigate before they move on. We should be ready by the next one.”

  “We’ll have it done within two hours.”

  The Eight Leg mother ship appeared at the jump limit and launched its ships. The Sensor Male looked at the system and saw a planet where there was none on the transport’s scan. How does this happen? He turned and looked at the Ship’s Male, “There is a planet where there was none. How is this happening?”

  “I don’t know; I also see no sign of intelligent life on that planet. Do you?”

  The Sensor Male twisted its head upside down indicating his frustration, “No, but if the planet could be hidden from our scan, it’s possible life could also be hidden.”

  “Then let us go and see.”

  The Sensor Male turned back to his display and worried. Nothing in the data banks matched with what was happening on this mission. He hoped the family arrived soon. This did not feel like things were going to go well.

  After twelve hours the huge fleet arrived at the planet and looked at the barren, lifeless planet. There were old cities that were standing in ruins from some kind of long ago conflict. Their skeletal remains stood with overgrowth of plants and the dark green of corrosion. The streets were cracked and most bridges were collapsed. There was some sea life but land animals were totally absent.

  The Sensor Male looked out at the dead planet and said, “How could anyone totally destroy a planet like this?”

  The Ship’s Male raised two legs and said, “We are in the business of doing something just like this.”

  “No we aren’t,” The Sensor Male replied. “We harvest a life form, maybe two, but we leave the planet vibrant with life to develop new intelligent beings. We cultivate and harvest our universes like a good farmer should. “This,” and he indicated his display, “is blasphemous.”

  The Ship’s Male looked at the planet and said, “Why didn’t we see this on our first scan? Obviously, there is no one here that could cause it.”

  “First Fang, is it possible that there is a life form that can hide themselves from our sensors?”

  “Perhaps, are you suggesting that there may be life on the planet and we don’t see it?”

  “I don’t know, but we should go down and make sure.”

  “Issue the orders and let’s see what happens.”

  The Sensor Male turned to his boards and began sending out the orders. Millions of ships landed on the planet and swarmed around the surface and found nothing. The Ship’s Male watched his display and could see that there truly was no intelligent life on the planet. “Find another candidate for us to explore. We won’t send a scout this time but will go ourselves and see what happens.”

  The Sensor Male had been looking even before the fleet arrived at this system and had found two other prospects. “I have discovered a prospect not far from this system.”

  “Recall the ships and let’s go see.”

  “Matt, the probe shows the mother ship recalling its ships.”

  Matt shook his head. “They didn’t waste any time. We’re still not ready.” Matt thought a moment and then said, “Al, which system with a hidden planet is closest to the Eight Legs current location?”

  “There are two; one of them is pretty close.”

  Matt looked at Melanie, “Where do you think they are going?”

  “The closest system; they want to see if the planet is invisible when they go with the mother ship instead of sending a scout.”

  Matt hit his com, “Stem, move the planet out of the closest system and don’t replace it. Let’s see what happens.”

  The Eight leg fleet arrived in the Ojcek system directly above the plane of the planets and scanned their positions. The Sensor Male immediately said, “First Fang, the fourth planet is missing.”

  “What do you mean it’s missing?”

  “There is no planet where there was one during the last harvest.”

  “Is there debris where it might have exploded or been hit by a large asteroid?”

  “No, there is no evide
nce a planet ever existed in that orbit.”

  “Could the planet possibly be hidden?”

  “I don’t know how they could hide a planet but if they could then it is hidden quite well; I cannot detect anything in that orbit.”

  “Launch our attack craft and distribute them around the star in the orbit that planet should be in. Let’s look all the way around the star.”

  “Launching ships, First Fang.”

  Matt, Melanie, and Stem sat on Aladdin and watched the feed from the probe as millions of attack craft move toward the orbit from which the planet was just moved.