Battle for the Earth

by John P. Gledhill

  Marie took another sip of her green tea. Her mouth had gone dry, in her case a sure sign of tension.

  ‘How much of the base has been explored?’

  ‘We think around seventy-five per cent, but it’s hard to tell, it’s just so big.’

  ‘Is it safe to bring up non-combatants, from Earth? After all you don’t seem to know that much about the base?’

  ‘Well, we do and we don’t, if you see what I mean. Nothing at all harmful has been found, and the Androids are more than happy to make you comfortable. Besides, I don’t think we have much choice.’

  ‘Well, I honestly don’t know what to say.’

  Marie was dumbfounded. Her best bet, she thought, was to speak to Lee. Konoco picked up his green tea which had now cooled down and swallowed it in one gulp. He replaced his cup and saucer on the table. Then, turning to Marie, he gestured to her to follow him.

  ‘Let me show you what we know of the control room.’

  They re-entered the control room from the annexe and approached what appeared to be a main console. Konoco pulled up an image and started flicking through it.

  ‘Some of it’s self-explanatory. On the whole the systems seem to run themselves, air conditioning, venting, lighting - the day-to-day things. They have a very clever food replication system. We haven’t worked out how it works yet, but you can get anything, and as much as you want.’

  ‘What about housing the people, when they come up from Earth?’

  ‘One level of the base is dedicated to living areas, and there are thousands of well-equipped dormitories, which could easily cope with Earth Central’s population.’

  ‘What is this place, Konoco? This is going to sound really silly, but you don’t think the Martians could have built it, do you?’

  ‘No, not silly, but we did rule that out a long time ago.’

  ‘OK, so we have food, sleeping and recreation - oh, and we’ve also got waiter and maid service. This place is too good to be true, I thought we had done really well with the shelters on Earth, but this is incredible.’

  Konoco closed down the display and turned to her.

  ‘Do you think Lee will be OK with this? I know it’s a bit of a shock, but bear in mind it was a shock to us as well, Earth’s defence was in hand, and we really just didn’t know where to begin explaining this. The plain fact is we still don’t have an explanation.’

  Marie mulled Konoco’s statement over in her head. A bit of a shock, she thought? That’s an understatement. Still, it isn’t his fault.

  ‘No, Konoco,’ she said. ‘I’m sure he’ll be fine once I’ve talked to him. Just leave it to me.’

  **

  31

  When Jumouk and Lee entered the control room at Earth Central, Fiona Green couldn’t believe her eyes.

  ‘Where did you come from, I mean how did you get here? Don’t tell me you walked.’

  Lee laughed out loud.

  ‘Not quite, Fiona.’

  Lee brought Fiona up to speed on everything that had happened. She was visibly relieved at their arrival, she felt as if an unbearable weight had been lifted from her shoulders, so much so that she was having difficulty taking in what Lee was telling her.

  ‘Mars?’

  She stared in disbelief, Lee carried on with the story. By the time he’d finished, Fiona’s face was a blank.

  ‘What do you want me to do now, Lee?’ she asked.

  ‘The first thing you need to do is organise the evacuation of Earth Central. Use any resources you need, but it must be done as quickly as possible.’

  Fiona nodded.

  ‘I’ll get on that straightaway, Lee. Trust me, it will be done as quickly as possible.’

  With that she scurried off with a new sense of purpose.

  Meanwhile Jumouk had been watching the advancing Annunaki warriors on one of the view screens.

  ‘It doesn’t look good. I think we’re going to have to delay them.’

  Lee took a closer look.

  ‘Maybe not. They seem to be fanning their search pattern outwards, they obviously don’t have a clue where we are. OK, I agree they’re eventually going to stumble on us, but I think we’ve still got some time in hand.’

  Jumouk took on board what Lee had said, and nodded in agreement.

  ‘Do you think we should deploy troops, just in case?’

  Lee thought for a few seconds.

  ‘No I don’t think so. How about deploying Androids to the perimeter of Bailey’s Crossing? That way they can stall the Annunaki warriors if necessary, or we can also use them for a diversion when the time comes. Bear in mind we’ve still got twenty-four assault craft here as well. They should help in the diversion.’

  ‘Perfect. Can I leave you to organise that, Lee? I’m just going to track down Fiona and see how she’s getting on with the evacuation plans.’

  ‘OK, leave it to me, Jumouk, I’m going to need to talk to Grant, though.’

  Fiona was doing an excellent job overseeing the evacuation; things were going extremely smoothly, shuttles were picking people up from level four at intervals of around three minutes, the journey to the undersea base was taking around ten minutes and with eight shuttle craft each carrying up to two hundred people, it wasn’t going to be long - maybe forty-eight hours - before the base would be completely deserted.

  The tunnels could then be severed from the undersea base, and Earth Central and the tunnel complex flooded.

  Jumouk was pleased with the progress to date. His only fear was that the base would be compromised before the evacuation was complete. This thought had also crossed Fiona’s mind but she had an idea. She turned to Jumouk.

  ‘Do you think it would be a good idea to seal up the entrances to Earth Central? I mean after the Androids have been deployed and the pilots have got to their assault craft.’

  Jumouk nodded in agreement.

  ‘Good idea, Fiona. Just to be on the safe side. After all, we won’t be using them again, How do you suggest we go about it?’

  ‘Well, it’s just a thought, but remember the barrels of expandable foam that we were going to use for insulation? That stuff is as tough as old boots once it’s expanded and it also goes a long way.’

  ‘Go on.’

  Jumouk was impressed by the inventiveness of the people around him.

  ‘Well, when the last of the Androids leave they could burst the seals on the barrels and dump them down the lift shafts, that would seal everything up nicely.’

  ‘How many barrels have we got?’

  Jumouk was looking a bit sceptical.

  ‘More than enough to seal all five turbo-lift shafts completely.’

  Fiona signalled to one of her commanders. She sat with him at a small desk and instructed him on what she wanted to happen. The commander confirmed his orders and took his leave.

  Jumouk came over and sat down beside Fiona. Smiling, he said in an enthusiastic tone:

  ‘You know, we might just pull this off, Fiona.’

  **

  Meanwhile Lee had organised the perimeter defences around Bailey’s Crossroads, and was talking to commander Jefferson regarding the sealing of the turbo-lift shafts.

  Five Androids would be sent to the top of each shaft with enough barrels of expandable foam to fill it up. After all the other levels had been evacuated to level four, the lifts would be disabled at the bottom of each shaft, and the Androids would start their task of sealing the shafts.

  When they had finished this successfully, they would then deploy to join the other Androids in the defence of the perimeter, along with the assault craft.

  **

  It had now been twenty-four hours since the start of the evacuation and one of the large transports with two hundred and fifty thousand people on board had just arrived off Western Australia. The other two remaining transports were rapidly filling up at the undersea base.

  The Androids on perimeter duty were a whisper away fr
om engaging the Annunaki warriors. In all, two thousand Androids were spread out along the Bailey’s Crossroads city limits.

  The first encounter wasn’t particularly spectacular. As the eight-foot tall Annunaki warrior entered the door of the quiet suburban house, he looked intimidating, an air of arrogance and the attitude of invincibility all summed up his confident posture.

  He had been in what felt like thousands of similar dwellings and had found nothing. However, this one was different.

  Despite the obvious difference in size and stature, as the Annunaki warrior passed the line of sight of the open door, a Dropas Android flew from the back of the door and latched itself onto the huge Annunaki neck, snapping the unfortunate warrior’s spine instantly.

  The Annunaki slumped to the floor stone dead, without having made a sound.

  The Dropas Androids might only have been five foot in height but they had the strength of twenty men and the speed and lightning responses of a cobra.

  The fighting had begun, initially only a few sounds of pulse weapons, then a barrage of weapons fire. The Annunaki had been taken by surprise again. They had for so long been searching without any action, they had become complacent, and sloppy in their approach. The Dropas Androids had gained the upper hand, at least initially.

  Nalater was quickly informed of the commencement of the fighting. He knew now that his gamble had paid off. The city limits of Bailey’s Crossroads were ablaze with weapons fire, He was sure they were on to something big. Tannacha would be impressed.

  He ordered the assault craft into the fray, and brought up reinforcements from the surrounding towns.

  The Dropas Androids were putting up a good fight, using urban guerrilla tactics, moving quickly from house to house to make themselves a hard target for the assault craft and surprising Annunaki warriors as they went. Any advance the Annunaki tried to make was quickly halted and then countered, stretching the Annunaki reserves to the limit.

  The fighting was particularly intense on Belleview Drive. The shape and lay-out of its houses made it a particular problem for the approaching Annunaki warriors.

  The eight or so L-shaped buildings provided perfect cover for each other, and air-defence positions had been established in another line of buildings close by. These were now protected by the L-shaped buildings.

  Every time an Annunaki assault ship came near, a hail of pulse fire would erupt from the line of buildings. The Androids had also released air mines above the structures which were now taking their toll on the Annunaki assault craft as well. The Annunaki were advancing, but it was a slow, costly, advance, and Nalater was growing impatient.

  **

  Twenty hours had now passed since the start of the fighting and the body count was rising on both sides. The Dropas Androids still had a stronghold in and around Belleview Drive. Five hundred or so were now dug in and putting up a ferocious fight, holding back the ever-increasing number of Annunaki warriors determined to rout them.

  As if from nowhere a large blue flash enveloped the half-square mile where the resistance was strongest and laid waste to everything within it. The area was destroyed, not a structure surviving. Annunaki and Androids alike vaporised without distinction.

  Tannacha had given the order to vaporise the area and quell any final resistance. There was absolutely no regret for the loss of his own warriors, just the order to Nalater to clear the area.

  The two huge Annunaki battle cruisers had travelled from Dulles and come to rest above the stricken neighbourhood. This was the final nail in the coffin for the Dropas Androids. The few that were left were quickly mopped up by the advancing Annunaki warriors.

  Just outside the levelled area an Annunaki warrior was investigating a damaged building. Something didn’t seem right about the cellar. There were what looked like heavy metal runners visible on the damaged interior walls.

  One of the entrances to Earth Central had finally revealed its position.

  Tannacha and Nalater swiftly flew to the site to see for themselves this ground-breaking discovery.

  **

  Jumouk, Lee, and Fiona were watching the last shuttle being loaded. It had been a hard slog, but all of the people that had been sheltering inside Earth Central were now safely on transports heading for Western Australia, and the final staff members including themselves were now to return to Heathrow.

  As they took their seats on the shuttle, each had their own thoughts. Fiona was just very relieved that the evacuation had gone so well. Lee for his part was now planning the final stages of the distraction. The fact that the cruisers had moved was a good sign - upheaval was always good. Jumouk was thinking about the Mars base and wondering how Konoco and Marie were getting on.

  When they arrived at the undersea base, they found Thourus getting ready to move the station and flood Earth Central along with the three tunnels leading to and from it.

  Jumouk thanked Thourus for his help in the evacuation, and the shuttle set off back to the ESG base at Heathrow.

  Thourus gave the word and Earth Central was no more, flooded out by the mighty Atlantic Ocean.

  The undersea base was back on its way to its original position; the three huge transports were at rest off Western Australia; and Thourus was on his way back to Sub Sea One.

  **

  Nalater couldn’t quite figure out what was in the lift shafts, but it was resisting every attempt to drill or dig through it.

  It was Tannacha’s intervention that saved the day. He ordered both cruisers to use fine pulse beams to bore through the ground above the base. It was long and laborious but eventually did the trick, providing two rough tunnels which came out on level two. Tannacha and Nalater used a type of hovering jet-ski to make the mile-long journey to level two, which was a lot quicker and more comfortable than walking.

  When Tannacha and Nalater eventually came out of the tunnel on level two, all became apparent. A map of the base revealed how so many people could disappear at once. Nalater couldn’t help but marvel at the ingenuity of it all. Tannacha had a quite different opinion, and also wanted to know where everyone had gone.

  All of a sudden there was a terrific rumbling sound and a noticeable increase in air pressure, so great that it knocked the both of them off their feet. As they picked themselves up, the rumbling noise began to turn into more of a thundering sound, with immense air pressure variations. Neither knew quite what was happening, but it was now obvious to both that this was not a healthy place to be.

  They had just mounted their jet-skis when the first of thousands of tons of water burst out of the tunnel connected to level two. The race was now on. Bailey’s Crossing was only just above sea level, and the tunnels the Annunaki cruisers had just bored would very shortly be filled with part of the Atlantic Ocean.

  Each took a separate tunnel with the pounding water rushing behind them as they struggled to keep ahead, and were very much in danger of being over-run as the pressure drove the water up the constricted orifices. They arrived on the surface at more or less the same time, shooting out of the watery tubes like champagne corks out a bottle.

  The sight would have been hilarious if the Annunaki had a sense of humour.

  **

  32

  Jumouk was in constant contact with Grant Ashdown at the forsaken Earth Central Base. Grant was now in charge of the twenty-four ESG assault craft still under the protection of the mag shield. He had been watching the unfolding events at the old base and even cracked a smile at the farcical scene played out by Tannacha and Nalater.

  Grant was also well aware that the protection provided by the mag shield would be compromised at any second due to the flooding of Earth Central, and the demise of the generators therein.

  Grant bit the bullet and told Jumouk to give him three minutes and then have the transports go for Mars.

  **

  Tannacha and Nalater were shaking themselves down after their episode in the tunnels, when all hell broke loose. Su
ddenly ESG assault vessels were everywhere; the Annunaki warriors on the ground along with the unfortunate Annunaki assault ships that had landed to view the base, were being destroyed by pulse fire, and the assault vessels that were in the air weren’t faring much better.

  Tannacha and Nalater both broke for cover, the nearest shelter being a pile of rubble just across the road from them. As they dug into the rubble to provide some form of protection, Nalater spotted an empty Annunaki assault craft just two hundred feet away from their refuge.

  Nalater gestured to Tannacha in the direction of the assault craft and Tannacha nodded in approval knowing what Nalater had in mind.