“We’ve lost contact with all our units,” reported Lieutenant-Colonel Scott in a strained voice.
“It doesn’t matter,” replied Saunders as a fine dust and ash rained down on them. “The radiation will soon finish us off as we have nowhere else to go.”
Lieutenant-Colonel Scott remained silent as he stared at the falling ash and dust. He knew as well as the general what it meant.
“At least we took some of them with us,” Colonel Young said, his face showing satisfaction in hurting the Trellixians. “I only wish we had more nukes left.”
Saunders knew how Young felt. The Trellixians were running rampant over the UK. Saunders figured by now over 80 percent of the population had been killed. If he had the nukes he would use them, but the enemy had bombed and destroyed most of the world’s nuclear arsenal. The lone tactical nuke they just used had been furnished by the Americans.
After a moment he looked at his officers. It would take a few hours for them to begin to feel the effects of the radiation. He gripped the pistol at his waist. He didn’t plan on allowing himself to suffer. Most of his remaining soldiers wouldn’t either. “Let’s go inside. I believe there’s a bottle of excellent rum in one of the footlockers. No point in letting it go to waste.”
As they went inside, Major-General Saunders looked around at what was left of his command. Only a few soldiers moved about. The sky had darkened considerably from the ash and dust in the air. With a deep sigh he went inside and sat down. He wasn’t afraid to die. His wife and son had died in London when it was destroyed. It gave him some solace knowing he would soon be joining them.
-
In orbit, Battle Commander Balforr gazed in anger at the tell-all sign of a nuclear explosion. It had occurred in what this world called Wales. “Where did they get a nuke?”
“Unknown,” Second Officer Jaltor replied. “We thought we had taken all of them out.”
“Scan the surface again,” ordered Balforr. “Send out our shuttles. I want to know if any more of these hidden nuclear weapons are around.”
“It will be done,” Jaltor replied.
Balforr’s large eyes focused on Jaltor. “What did we lose?” So far in the battles raging on the planet they had only lost a few troops and hover tanks in the various conflicts. However, an exploding nuclear weapon in the middle of a battlefield was something else.
“Forty-eight hover tanks destroyed, another sixteen damaged,” Jaltor answered nervously. “We lost 862 soldiers and thirteen attack craft. The attack craft were coming in to finish off the Human armor and were practically on top of the nuke when it detonated.”
Balforr bared his sharp teeth. This was by far the greatest loss the Trellixians had suffered since sending troops to the surface. “These Humans are tenacious. They fight us for every square inch of this planet.”
“The third invasion fleet will be here shortly,” Jaltor answered. “That will give us a fresh influx of troops to engage the remaining enemy forces.”
Balforr was concerned by the thought of the arrival of the third invasion fleet. Several colony ships were with the fleet and they would expect a secure area on the planet to begin colonization. He wasn’t sure if anywhere on this planet was safe enough for them to land.
“Contact Battle Commander Traven. Focus our efforts in the United States, particularly Florida. We need to clear the Humans out of a substantial region for our colonists to land.” Balforr switched one of the viewscreens to show the United States as seen from orbit. Florida should be easy to secure and to keep safe from Human attacks. It would also provide sufficient land area for the inbound colonists.
Balforr didn’t want to inform the High Command the planet was still too dangerous for the colonists. Balforr also realized he would have to commit more of his battlecruisers to the battle. So far he had been giving Battle Commander Traven’s troops supporting fire in major skirmishes. However, he now believed that by ordering his battlecruisers closer to the surface they could use their scanners to identify pockets of Humans and use the ships’ weapons to eliminate them. It would require a lot of power generation for the energy shields but he saw no other way to rapidly subdue the planet.
“Have we located any other traces of additional Jelnoid technology?” This greatly concerned Balforr. The Jelnoids had possessed energy weapons as well as shields for their ships. The Humans had had access to the ruins of a Jelnoid scout craft for over eighty years. It was also possible some Jelnoids might have survived the crash of their vessel. It worried Balforr that they were missing some data.
“No, just regular weapons consistent with the observed technology level of the planet,” replied Jaltor.
Balforr turned his attention to the viewscreens. He could still see the darkened area over Wales where the nuclear weapon had detonated. He wondered why the weapon hadn’t been detected prior to its detonation. “Send all available shuttles to the surface. Scan every square inch of this planet once more.”
“That will take days!” protested Jaltor.
“I don’t care if it takes a year. The Humans are hiding something and I want to know what it is.”
“I will send the shuttles. Should we use the ones in Battle Commander Traven’s fleet as well?”
“Yes, every one he can spare.”
Balforr took a deep breath. The conquest of this planet was not going as he had planned. By now his fleet should have already been on its way to its next target. The Trellixian Empire needed room to expand, new worlds to colonize. He had been one of the leaders in that expansion and now he was being delayed by this one world. Perhaps he should contact the High Command and request a fourth invasion fleet with more troops. One way or another, he would crush the resistance on this world and eliminate every Human on the planet.
-
General Mitchell gazed in shock at one of the viewscreens showing the northwestern part of Wales. Only a few minutes before a nuclear weapon had detonated. “Are you certain it was one of ours?”
“It had the signature of a W80 with a yield of around thirty kilotons,” replied Major Thomas. “Major-General Saunders had one with his command. It was hidden by a Jelnoid device which made the weapon impossible for the Trellixians to pick up with their scanners. It exploded in the Snowdonia National Park in Wales.”
“How much damage did it cause?”
“It probably killed everyone within three miles of the blast. It appears the blast occurred on or below ground as it threw up a lot of atmospheric debris. The wind is currently blowing about fifteen miles per hour out of the northwest. The severe radiation should stay within the confines of the park.”
“How many people live in the park?” Mitchell didn’t think it was too heavily populated.
“From the latest census around 26,000.”
“Saunders’s command was the last major military unit still operating in the UK,” commented General Briggs. “There remain some Special Forces in a few areas but they’ve been instructed to avoid contact with the Trellixians until further notice.”
“Our facilities in the UK?” Even in the UK there were a few underground bunkers and research facilities in remote areas.
“Undetected so far,” Briggs replied.
General Mitchell blinked his eyes as he thought over their next move militarily. Until the new energy weapons and an operational energy shield were ready all he could do was harass the Trellixians and try to get as many people as possible to the relative safety of the mountains. “Colonel Steward, send a message to Professor Wilkens. Tell him we need the first one thousand pulse rifles at the end of two weeks.” He wasn’t sure if this was possible but he needed those weapons.
“Yes, sir,” Steward replied as she prepared to send the message. All underground military sites and research facilities were connected by underground communication lines. The lines were buried so deep there was little chance the Trellixians could detect them.
“General Briggs, inform our troops in the field they are to avoid direct confront
ations with Trellixian military units. Have them revert to sabotage and guerrilla warfare. I believe we have some units equipped especially for that.”
“Yes, sir. We have units out of Fort Bliss and Fort Hood in Texas which have already been sent out across the country. Also, several brigades from the 10th Mountain Division have been scattered along the East Coast. Same for parts of the 82nd Airborne Division as well as the 101st.”
“All right, give the order to our other units to pull back to the mountains. They’re to escort as many civilians as possible. Their part in the fighting for now is over.”
General Mitchell walked over and sat down where he could see the large viewscreens focused on space as well as Earth. The atmosphere remained a little darker than normal from the original nuclear bombardment of the Trellixians and a lot of cities still had fires raging. It would be days yet before they all burned themselves out.
On one of the viewscreens showing the slopes of the heavily forested mountain above them, small bunkers were being built. For now these would hold machine gun and artillery emplacements. Sometime in the future new energy weapons would be installed. When that happened maybe they would be ready to fight back.
Plans were for several full divisions of troops to form a defensive ring around the mountain in case the Trellixians discovered the underground command base. Fortunately they were far enough back in the mountains to make its discovery more difficult. However, when hiding nearly twenty thousand soldiers it made everything that much harder.
General Briggs walked to stand next to Mitchell. “We’re taking on an empire, one that has never been defeated. I watched the tapes provided by the Jelnoid engineer who survived the crash at Roswell. The Jelnoids were much more advanced than we are and even had a space fleet to defend their worlds. They still lost and their worlds were ravaged by the Trellixians. Only one small scout craft managed to survive and it crashed here. We’re placing a lot of faith in Professor Wilkens and the other scientists.”
General Mitchell nodded. “We’ve had eighty years to reverse-engineer the Jelnoid technology. The Jelnoid engineer helped us to understand much of their science and technology. It’s only been in the last few years we’ve begun to reproduce it. I have faith in the human race and I believe if we can hold out long enough we can drive this enemy from our planet. Someday we’ll be hunting them. They should have never come to our world.”
General Briggs was silent for several moments. “I hope you’re right,” he replied. “But we have a long road ahead of us.”
General Mitchell looked at the viewscreens showing one of the two-thousand-meter-long Trellixian battlecruisers. Beams of energy fired toward Earth at some target. His eyes hardened. Someday he would see those battlecruisers blown out of the sky and from orbit around Earth. He would not rest until that day arrived.
Chapter Nine
Captain Lisa Reynolds stepped from her tent, looking toward the creek. In recent days large numbers of civilians had passed through the skirmish line and been sent on to the hidden supply caches. She knew from there they would be evaluated and sent to prepared locations deeper in the mountains. She had heard rumors of deep tunnels extending far inside some of the mountains where tens of thousands of survivors could be hidden. It was hard for her to imagine living in such confined conditions. She also wondered about the reasons for all this.
Several days ago she had taken some scans with her special equipment of a Trellixian shuttle flying low over the long valley they were in. It had flown on, not detecting the scans or seeming to notice the hundreds of refugees and human soldiers. Lisa had been nervous about using her equipment on the shuttle though her orders in such a situation were very explicit. She was to gather as much data as possible on the Trellixians and their technology. Lieutenant Symington stood by her the entire time with his eyes focused intently on the shuttle. He was obviously relieved when Lisa finished her scans and the shuttle disappeared from sight.
Her attention was drawn to Lieutenant Symington speaking to a Marine captain. Two days earlier Captain Morrison arrived with 118 Marines. Major Dolan immediately sent orders Morrison and his Marines were to reinforce the skirmish line along the creek. Additional food, water, ammunition and other supplies were sent to Lieutenant Symington to ensure the Marines were properly equipped.
Lisa knew two additional Marine companies had been sent to reinforce Lieutenant Symington, one on the south end of the Rangers’ skirmish line and one on the north, effectively extending the line to a total length of nearly eighteen winding miles through the mountains along the stream, practically to its source. Whatever was going on seemed to be well-planned. She wondered how much Professor Wilkens had to do with all this and where he was. She suspected he had to be at some hidden research facility. At some point she was certain he would call for her to join him. Maybe then she would finally get some answers.
“We had six hundred people come through yesterday,” Private Peterson said as he stood nearby Lisa. “I checked your scanner a few minutes ago and several more large groups are coming our way.”
Lisa nodded. “It’s slowing down considerably.” There had been a few days where over 2,500 refugees had come through, some escorted by soldiers and others fleeing into the mountains on their own. Many were poorly equipped for long-term survival. Lisa wondered how many would have survived if they hadn’t been found by Lieutenant Symington’s Rangers and now the Marines.
“Either that or there are more Trellixian soldiers in the area.” Private Peterson was deeply concerned Trellixian soldiers could show up at any time. He was constantly checking Lisa’s scanner.
“I was talking to Marine Corporal Anniston and he said the aliens are bombing everywhere,” said Private Hambridge, standing to one side, watching the slow-running creek. “We may be getting toward the end of the exodus to the mountains. It’s getting too dangerous for people to move about.”
Several times since the Rangers had deployed along the creek Trellixian shuttles had flown over. The shuttles hadn’t paused but kept going deeper into the mountains. Only once had Lisa used her scanner for fear of detection. The increase in the number of enemy shuttles they’d seen seemed to indicate the aliens were concerned about what was going on with the people and military units fleeing into the mountains.
“A lot of people have died,” said Peterson grimly. “We’ve all lost people in this war. There can’t be a lot of them left out in the open.”
“I wonder what it’s like in the cities?” said Hambridge. “The Trellixians are trying to exterminate us.”
“We may not be as easy to exterminate as they think. Isn’t that right, Captain Reynolds?” said Peterson. “That’s why you have all this special equipment, so we can learn the weaknesses of these aliens and fight back.”
“Perhaps,” Lisa replied evasively. She didn’t want to reveal too much. Major Lorre had been very explicit about that.
“I’m going to get something to eat,” Hambridge said. “I saw some breakfast food come in a few minutes ago on one of the ATVs. I want to get some before it’s all gone. I can only eat so many of these MREs.”
“Go ahead. I’ll join you later.” With a deep sigh, Lisa decided to take a quick shower before it got too crowded. The Rangers had run a small pump to the creek and set up a pair of showers behind the tents. After being out here in the woods for so long Lisa’s problem was keeping her hair untangled. The water was cold but she could bear it for a minute or two. “I’m heading for the showers. Let me know if anything unusual shows up on the scanner.”
“Will do,” Private Peterson replied. “I’ll stay close to the scanner until you tell me otherwise.”
With a nod, Lisa headed back to her tent to pick up a few items and a change of clothing. She had been provided a larger tent. She wondered if she would ever get to sleep in a real bed again. The Army cot she was sleeping on now was better than the ground but she really missed her bed in her parents’ home. She also knew Portland was a place she could probably
never return to as it had been nuked.
-
Corporal Sampson was next to the creek watching Private Richards deepening and extending his foxhole. All along the creek where Rangers or Marines were deployed it was much the same.
“Chest deep,” Sampson reminded Richards, watching him use the E-Tool shovel to dig and widen his fighting hole. “If one of those damn warp missiles hits us that hole just might save your life.”
“At least the ground’s soft,” muttered Richards as he stopped and wiped the sweat from his brow. “Any idea, Corporal, on how much longer we’ll be out here? I miss my bed back at the base.”
“As long as it takes,” Sampson replied as he walked away.
He had a few more Rangers to check on. Eleven days without any signs of the enemy, other than the few shuttles that had flown overhead, tended to make people less cautious. Sampson knew from the briefings with Lieutenant Symington the Trellixians could show up any day now. Sampson also wanted to check on the four MK48 machine guns set up to cover the far side of the creek with two Rangers responsible for each one. In addition there were two M224 60mm mortars behind them in two firing pits, each with a pair of Rangers. The firing pits were primarily to give the Rangers some protection from incoming fire.
-
“We’ve set up a pretty good line of defense along the creek,” Lieutenant Symington explained to Captain Morrison. “We have a company of your Marines anchoring down each end with my Ranger company and your Marine company here in the center. We have machine guns set up at strategic locations where trails come through the woods as well as mortar pits where we can call in fire on any target out to three kilometers on the far side of the creek.”
Captain Morrison studied the contour map Lieutenant Symington had laid out on the table. “I’ve seen these Trellixians in action.” Morrison’s face creased in a worried frown. “We had a brief encounter with them just before we reached the mountains. We took out six of them but it cost us over forty Marines to do it. The armor they wear is nearly indestructible. Our regular rifles won’t penetrate it. We had to use machine guns with heavier rounds and grenades.”
Earth Fall: Invasion : (Book One) Page 12