‘Hi, Fiona. Long time no see. Is that you finished getting everyone settled in?’
‘More or less, thank you, Lee. Initially, anyway. It’s going to take time for everyone to get used to this base. Did you know they’ve got six digital cinemas here?’
‘I hear there’s two hospitals as well. Has anyone seen anything of Grant?’
Marie and Fiona looked at each other, then shook their heads in unison.
**
Grant was indeed busy, doing what he liked best. As the Mars terrain flashed fifty feet below him, his assault craft weaved and bobbed between the craters and mounds on the surface of the planet. If it hadn’t been for the situation and the predicament they were in, this could have been idyllic. He felt like Buck Rogers.
At least five craft were circumnavigating the planet’s surface at any one time. With the Annunaki battle group on the move nothing was getting left to chance, and Grant couldn’t help but put himself in the front line.
He was just passing over Simud Valles just slightly northwest of where the Mars Pathfinder had landed back in July 1997, when his communicator snapped into life.
‘Grant, come in. Grant.’
It was Lee.
‘Grant, can you hear me, over?’
‘Yes, sir. What can I do for you, over?’
‘Grant, can you return to base ASAP, over?’
‘Sure thing, sir. See you in ten. Anything wrong, over?’
Grant had already changed course.
‘No, we just need to speak to you. Thanks, Grant. Over and out.’
Grant was beginning to feel a bit like a schoolboy who had just been caught playing truant.
The Mars base was located under the shadow of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in our solar system. The main entrance to the base was below and sheltered by a place called the blocks in the Olympus Mons. Although technically not on Olympus Mons, they were pretty close, and made excellent cover for the entrance to the base. The surrounding areas had suffered from sand displacement over the years with craft landing and taking off in the lower Mars gravity, but it was still an ideal location.
Grant brought his assault craft into land within the protective force field surrounding the entrance to the base, and headed to the turbo-lifts concealed within the blocks.
Jumouk and Lee were waiting for him in a large conference room. Like everything on the Mars base the room was very practical, but tastefully decorated, with the emphasis on comfort. Grant entered and took a seat facing Jumouk and Lee. Lee began:
‘Thanks for coming so quickly, Grant. Time seems to be of the essence nowadays. Jumouk has raised an issue regarding the people left on Earth. It looks like we’re not going to be able to intervene when the Annunaki start to find the Dropas bases, and the defences round the bases are only going to hold for so long.’
Grant looked shocked.
‘You can’t mean we’re just going to leave them to fight on their own?’
‘Grant, the Annunaki have twelve battle cruisers, and we have two. We now have around two and a half million people on this base. We have to prioritise. It’s no longer feasible to pit our forces against theirs.’
‘But there’s billions in bases all over Earth. Are you saying we just leave them?’
‘No, if we can organise the resistance forces effectively, then they stand a chance.’
Then Jumouk added:
‘Finney and Sacha are organising a worldwide resistance movement and I have to say they’ve been doing a pretty good job up to now. They have been a real pain in the arse for the Annunakis. Although we lost the manufacturing facility on the moon base and obviously the ones on Earth’s surface, we still have some capability with the undersea manufacturing facilities. We’re not quite dead in the water yet.’
‘You mean we can still make cruisers and assault craft?’
‘Perhaps, but that’s going to be down to Thourus and his Androids.’
Grant was beginning to see where this was leading.
‘You mean we hold a guerrilla war until we have produced enough ships to strike back.’
‘Exactly. Unfortunately, I think this means a lot of civilian casualties.’
‘What about this base here?’
‘Pausanias has shown me the defences on this base, and I think we will be quite safe here.’
‘OK, so what’s my role in all this?’
Jumouk looked at Lee as if he wanted him to take the lead. Lee spoke.
‘We think there might just be time to evacuate another base before the arrival of the second Annunaki battle group. Pausanias assures us there is still plenty of room on this base to accommodate more non-combatants.’
Grant sat back in his seat.
‘What we want you to do. Grant, along with Fiona, is to take the big transports and escorts to evacuate the base back to here. Jumouk and I will try to distract the Annunaki forces on Earth with our cruisers, with luck giving you a clear run at it.’
‘You had me at “what we want you to do”. OK, I’m in.’
Lee smiled.
‘Thanks, Grant. But you do know it could go seriously wrong?’
‘Yes, I know, sir, but we’ve got to try. Every life saved now is a bonus.’
‘Good man, Grant! Can you bring Fiona up to date and get organised as quickly as possible? There really is no time to lose.’
**
The plan was simple.
The Victory, under Lee’s command, would buzz the Annunaki base at Dulles with fifty of Thourus’s TAG assault craft. Then they would head off to the far side of the moon. With luck this would be enough to distract the Annunaki for long enough to allow the three large transports to sneak into Queensland, Australia and the Brisbane base. On their return the additional fifty assault craft would be incorporated into the Mars base defences. This would provide room in Sub Sea One for the planned production of more assault vessels by the maintenance Androids.
Grant escorted the transports together with the ten assault ships swiftly into Queensland airspace and on to Brisbane. The main entrance to the base was under the Gabba sports stadium off Main Street.
The first of the huge transports hovered over the stadium, with the shuttles ferrying people from the ground to the transport as speedily as was possible, while the other two transporters waited their turn, hovering patiently nearby. There was no sign of any Annunaki activity so Grant assumed the diversion plan had worked well. Meanwhile the assault ships were patrolling the skies above the Gabba stadium and the transports continued to hover in the airspace around it.
Fiona was already in the Brisbane base organising the evacuation. She was now quite well versed at this, with her previous experience at the other bases.
A steady flow of slightly bewildered people were now appearing and embarking from the shuttles onto the first transport. The evacuation of yet another base had begun. The reason Australia had been chosen was for the diversity of the species - just in case the worst did come to the worst.
This meant that humans from five continents were now going to be on the Mars base.
**
Lee had met up with the fifty TAG assault vessels and they were heading towards the Annunaki base at Dulles. He felt sure the Annunaki must have been monitoring their approach but, surprisingly, they hadn’t so far made any move to intercept him. He wasn’t sure if the Annunaki had spotted the transports heading for Australia and were going to attack them and leave him alone, but as far as he was concerned, this was not an option.
Lee increased the cruiser’s speed and began to loose off speculative volleys of pulse fire. If they hadn’t seen him coming, they couldn’t miss him now. True to form a mass of blips appeared on the proximity detectors heading straight for them. The battle that ensued was massive, and brutal, with both sides fairly evenly matched.
Jumouk had wanted to avoid confrontation if at all possible, but the initial absence of Annunaki interest had forced Lee’
s hand. Now both sides were in a fight for survival, and neither was gaining the upper hand.
Assault ships were being downed at an unprecedented rate with blazing weapons fire from both cruisers and from the defences at the Dulles base. The firefight had now being going for fifteen minutes, and Lee was becoming concerned about the losses he was taking.
Now with the diversionary job done, Lee decided that discretion was the better part of valour and ordered his forces to retreat to the far side of the Moon. The battle cruiser Victory opened its engines right up and hurtled vertically towards the Moon, leaving the assault vessels to disengage and follow its lead.
Fortunately for Lee the Annunaki hadn’t given chase and had regrouped over their own base. Out of the full fleet that started out from Nibiru, only eighty assault ships and one cruiser had survived.
**
Lee and his cruiser along with the TAG craft had assembled on the far side of the moon. The losses were substantial. Out of fifty TAG vessels only twenty-two had survived the encounter, and Lee’s cruiser had also taken a hefty beating.
As they sat on the lunar surface, maintenance Androids from on board the Victory were already working on the vessels that had suffered damage, including Lee’s cruiser. Five TAG assault craft were in orbit around the moon and watching out for any Annunaki retaliation, or movement from the Dulles base.
Jumouk had been monitoring the proceedings on Earth. Apart from the obvious losses, everything was going to plan and the operation was by all accounts ahead of schedule. The race was on, however, because of the second Annunaki battle group, and the uncertainty about when it would arrive in space over Earth.
He was only too well aware that, if they arrived before the evacuation could be completed, disaster would follow. He made the decision that each of the transports when full would leave immediately for Mars and not wait to travel in a convoy. This was extremely risky but necessary now: he had to limit vulnerability on Earth.
**
As usual Fiona had done a brilliant job. The first transport with its human cargo was now on its way back to Mars, and the second was nearly full.
Then all hell broke loose.
Annunaki assault ships were suddenly everywhere. Pulse weapons fire smashed into the empty transport hovering round the Brisbane base, knocking it off its axis. ESG assault vessels were engaging the Annunaki assault vessels but were heavily outnumbered.
Lee and the TAG assault craft he had with him were already on route to the Brisbane base to help out and Thourus had now sent the last of his reserves from Sub Sea One.
In all, sixty ESG and TAG assault ships were involved in the fray along with the Victory. They were up against a force of seventy Annunaki assault craft that had come seemingly from nowhere.
This was all Nalater’s doing. He had come up with the idea of sneaking his craft out of Dulles and travelling underwater to Queensland to appear suddenly to attack the transports at the Brisbane base. The plan had been stolen from the ESG and had worked well, taking everyone by surprise. And now to make matters worse, the Nephilimis had just turned up and joined the fight.
The battle for the skies over the Brisbane base was intense, and so far undecided.
The first major casualty was the empty transport that had been hovering waiting to take on refugees from the Brisbane base. It had been savaged by at least ten of the Annunaki assault craft and had finally succumbed, smashing into the Woollongabba Telstra Exchange, a tall, telephone office building, around two hundred and seventy feet high, bringing them both crashing to the ground in an inferno of fire mixed with rubble.
Meanwhile the two huge cruisers were inflicting enormous damage on each other. Lee ordered the three-quarters-full transport that had been loading, to abandon the Brisbane base and head for Mars with all haste.
The engines on the transport had fired before getting the chance to close the main hold doors, throwing a succession of unfortunates out of the craft as it climbed desperately to reach escape velocity. The base itself was in turmoil as the Annunaki assault craft swooped savagely, time after time, on the defenceless humans caught out on the open playing field.
With the transport now on full power and on its way back to Mars, Lee ordered his ships to disengage and beat a hasty retreat to the Mars base. The Brisbane base was now past saving.
**
This time, however, Nalater was not giving up and gave chase. He was hot on the heels of the now disorganised, raggle-taggle bunch of ESG craft and the battle cruiser. Lee was getting the pounding of his life and Nalater knew it. He could smell Lee’s blood.
The bridge on the Victory was a mess and now starting to vent atmosphere. There were breaches in the hull all over the cruiser and she would not be able to withstand much more punishment.
Jumouk ordered the Iron Duke and thirty fresh ESG assault craft from the Mars base to go to the aid of the stricken Victory. As the battle cruiser Iron Duke and its assault vessels flashed past the incoming transport, the sight sickened them. Most of the TAG assault ships had been destroyed or damaged, while the Victory was crippled, and losing power rapidly. The Nephilimis and its accompanying assault craft were savaging her at will like sharks attacking a whale in its death-throes.
The Iron Duke powered in with all weapons’ banks spitting out blue streaks of death, scattering the Annunaki assault craft that had not succumbed to the hail of weapons fire in all directions.
Tannacha quickly took command on the bridge of the Nephilimis, countermanding Nalater’s instructions and ordering the immediate withdrawal of all Annunaki ships back to the Dulles base.
The Iron Duke took up a defensive position between the Annunaki vessels and the Victory like a mother protecting her child, while the ESG assault craft looked more like a pack of snarling attack dogs chasing an unwanted visitor from their home.
The Victory was now dead in space. The maintenance Androids were doing their best, but even they had their limits. It was starting to look as if the Victory had fought her last fight.
However, the Iron Duke wasn’t going to give up so easily, and three powerful tractor beams latched onto the Victory, pulling her into the big cruiser’s protective embrace. Then the entourage slowly began the journey back to Mars.
It was a long hazardous journey and the Victory almost didn’t make it. The main problem was hull integrity and pressurisation leaks, but somehow the maintenance Androids managed to hold her together.
As the two cruisers came to land on the surface of Mars, Jumouk extended the force field around the two ships and vented breathable atmosphere into the bubble of safety.
The transport had landed safely and was now unloading her shell-shocked occupants to the safety of the Mars base. Maintenance Androids were crawling over all the damaged ships, and the wounded were being transported to the hospital facilities within the base by Pausanias’s medical people.
Jumouk could now sit down and reflect on what had happened.
All in all it could have been worse. At least they had managed to save two-thirds of the Brisbane base and the Victory hadn’t been lost. Still, it was a major setback, especially with all those assault ships being lost, although everybody was now back in the safety of the base and the damaged vessels could be repaired.
Marie watched the Brisbane base for signs of movement. It almost looked as if the Annunaki had now lost interest and were all back at Dulles. She had no doubt that the Annunaki would have suffered badly as well but, still, just to leave the base like that was very strange.
Grant was exhausted. It had been a very long twenty-four hours and he had lost a lot of friends in the battle. His fleet of assault vessels had been badly mauled, with most of them damaged to some degree or other.
**
46
Marie had been right. Back at the Dulles base Tannacha was counting the cost of the last sortie. His battle cruiser was badly damaged and under repair by the Annunaki technicians, who were in all reality nowh
ere near a match for the ECM Androids. Tannacha only had fourteen assault craft left that were serviceable, the rest being either lost or badly damaged.
If the ESG mounted an attack on the Dulles base just now, the base would certainly be lost and the Annunaki presence on Earth would be terminated. This was the main reason Tannacha had overridden Nalater’s orders and retreated from the battle.
It should be said, however, that even with the great losses suffered by both sides, both sides had gained something and the stalemate had been broken, even if it was, for the time being, advantage to the ESG.
Tannacha was scrutinising the proximity detectors on board the Nephilimis looking for what was left of the ESG fleet. He assumed that yet again they had sought refuge around the other side of Mars. To him it was imperative that any movement from the ESG fleet should now be detected as early as possible to safeguard the Dulles base.
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