Annihilation - Finding Keepers (Annihilation Series (Book Seven})

by Saxon Andrew

  Finally, level twenty four was cleared. Jake stood there and the six Red Warriors saw most of his armor was covered with brown blood stains. “Load your weapons. It’s the next level that we must investigate. I don’t see anything on the next level that looks like a threat. I believe that every Keeper in the garrison tried to prevent us from getting here. Only fire at an identified threat. Everyone understand?”

  They all nodded.

  “Let’s go,” and the seven Red Warriors teleported to level twenty five.

  The Collective saw that the fleet was not going to arrive before the enemy entered the last level of the garrison. It sensed each level die as that terrible creature killed faster than anything he had ever witnessed. Now there was no Keeper alive in the garrison for him to watch what was happening. He was hopeful the fleet would arrive in time to force the enemy to leave, but they were still a quarter interval away. He started to wish he had listened to the old Values Quadrant.

  The seven warriors landed in a giant cavern that extended out into the distance. Jake turned and saw thousands of squares on the far wall and he teleported to them to see what they were. The other warriors arrived right behind him and felt immediate revulsion. Tens of thousands of clear boxes held one of the species that had been enslaved on this planet. Jake’s scanner showed they were all alive, but in some sort of suspended animation. There were no brain waves in the scans. This was how the Keepers stored their food. Jake just shook his head at the brutality of the Keepers.

  “What are those Jake?”

  Jake turned around and saw to the right of the storage containers a series of cutout holes in the wall extending from floor to ceiling as far as the eye could see. Jake read his scanner and saw that there were more than eight billion in just the left wall. He walked over, looked in one of the cutouts, and saw a round, brown and red, oval about four feet across. Eggs.

  “Jake, the fleet will arrive in twelve minutes. You’ve got to get out of there.”

  “Just a moment, Valerie. BC. Tell me you have one of the Captors’ energy balls in your storage.”

  “What are those?”

  “Junior, what about you?”

  “No, I don’t Jake.”

  “I do.”

  Jake was stunned, “Ethan, what are you doing with a Captors’ energy ball?”

  “I found one lying around the armory and decided to take it.”

  “Teleport it down, now.”

  A silver screen formed and a giant red ball appeared on the floor. “Everyone get out of here.”

  “Not without you, Jake.”

  “That’s an order, Cynthia.”

  “So arrest me. We all go together.”

  Jake turned the timer to sixty minutes and set the blast level to five hundred miles.

  Valerie screamed, “Jake, come on!”

  Jake threw the switch to start the countdown, looked at the warriors and yelled, “Get out of here!” All seven disappeared.

  Just as Jake appeared on Junior’s bridge, the ship disappeared through a silver flash. Thousands of beams ripped through the space the three small ships had occupied one second earlier.

  The navigator on the Fleet Director’s ship scanned the garrison and said, “The enemy has left a large round device in the lower chamber.”

  The Collective heard the comment and ordered, “Get warriors down there and remove it.”

  Thousands of landing craft screamed down to the surface and thousands of Keepers rushed into the first level. As they rushed into the sixth level, the bees in the first six levels activated.

  The bee was a new type of wasp. It didn’t fly as fast as a wasp, but it carried the same sting. If it struck a Keeper, it would burn. The main difference between the two darts was the bee’s skin. Where the wasp was fast, the bee was stealthy. The bee was a leave-behind weapon. The bee would attach itself to a wall or ceiling and its skin would match the color of the surface where it landed. It would then turn off its power and wait. Once it detected movement it would remain dormant until a predetermined delay passed, then it would attack any target within range of its sensors. The seven Red Warriors had each ejected a bundle of five thousand bees on every level they passed.

  Twenty thousand Keepers were rushing toward the lower chamber when 210,000 bees activated. The Fleet Director heard all of them die screaming in pain. He prepared to send more warriors into the facility but rejected the decision when an explosion ripped through the structure, blowing out into the ranks of the assembled fleet holding station just above the planet’s atmosphere.

  The Keepers’ ships were not affected by the blast, but all of the landing craft on the surface were disintegrated and a five-hundred-mile-long crater was all that remained of the huge facility. Nothing was left of the egg chamber. The Collective knew that the loss of the chamber was catastrophic for the future survival of his species. It felt something new, anger and then rage.

  Ales Jongo looked down on what remained of his home. Ulmerton was a ruined planet. The atmosphere had been disintegrated and the surface looked like a barren, burned desert. As he looked down on the previous location of the capital, he saw an explosion forty miles to the north where a small meteor had just hit. Without an atmosphere to burn them, even small meteorites would hit the surface. Jongo knew that the planet would look like the surface of the moon as time passed.

  Ales knew he should be enraged, but he felt mixed emotions. His family was gone and his father was killed by the Keepers. He reflected and knew that his father’s death was a mixed blessing. He had never forgiven him for executing his older brother two years earlier. He loved Gilum and worshiped him. However, Gilum was infected with the same disease as his father, blind ambition, and had less patience than the Duke. He begged Gilum not to go through with his plans to kill his father, but Gilum refused to listen.

  Gilum told him, “You must act like you hate me, Ales.”

  “Why, you know I love you!”

  Gilum reached out, tasseled Ales’s hair, and said, “If my plan fails and father even remotely thinks you knew about it and didn’t warn him…you know what he’ll do. You must tell everyone you hate me. Avoid me at meals and refuse to talk to me. I’m going to criticize you so others can see we are not friends. You must do this.”

  Ales sighed and remembered following Gilum’s advice. His father even gave him the privilege of firing the blaster that killed his older brother. Before he pulled the firing lever, he saw Gilum look at him, nod, and smile. His loyalty confirmed the Duke proclaimed Ales Jongo as the new heir to the title. Ales would give everything away just to have Gilum back.

  Ales also knew that he really couldn’t blame his father for what he did. He only protected himself against an enemy trying to kill him. He stared at the planet and both hated and missed his father in equal measure.

  How did this happen? The other planets attacked by the Keepers were now moving around the universe, playing a deadly game of tag with the Keepers Fleets. Why was Ulmerton the only casualty? He also knew that as soon as the Keepers Fleets arrived in the Realm’s universe, all the Searchers on Ross teleported away before the planet was attacked. Why would they do that if they recommended that the Duke land his ships on his planets? There was also the issue of the failure of the teleport systems on the Duke’s fleet. Did the Keepers cause that?

  He stared at the dead world and then thought, “Is is possible they detected me in the Ross system?” With that realization, it became clear that the Realm caused the destruction. He didn’t want to believe it, but it had to be true. He didn’t think the Queen would do it, but her brother or that uncle of hers would do it if they suspected the Duke had tried to kill the Royal Family. What to do now?

  Ales decided that attacking the Realm during the current invasion was tantamount to suicide. If they can stop teleportation systems and make the frequency generators fail, there would be no place safe for him. No; he was going to wait. But first he was going to ensure his fleet enforced his rule on the Province’s p
lanets. After he solidified his position, then the Realm would receive his undivided attention. Unlike his father and brother, he could be patient and strike at the right moment. He looked at the planet one more time before he teleported away, smiling. He possessed patience but like his family, he also knew the taste of raw ambition.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The Collective and all Quadrants examined the data collected from the recent attacks and the Fleets operating in the enemy’s universe. After two intervals, the massive intelligence separated into its various pieces.

  “Military, we have only destroyed one world since our invasion launched. At the current progress, our star will die of old age before we destroy all their planets.”

  “I’m of the opinion that the enemy allowed us to destroy that one planet.”

  The giant being said, “What data did you use to draw that conclusion?”

  “I examined the scans of the ships that were on the destroyed planet. The markings on them match the eight ships we destroyed in our universe that revealed themselves to us. I’ve discussed this with Psychology, and we think that planet was attempting to communicate with us to negotiate its safety in return for assisting us.”

  Psychology added, “The probe that is being used to prevent our jumps into the systems of the targeted planet actually prevented the drives of the grounded ships from operating. It appears the governing entity knew of their attempt and allowed our attack.”

  Production spoke, “We should have collected one of those ships on the ground and brought it back to us for examination.”

  The Collective replied, “We never thought the opportunity would present itself but you’re right; we should have collected one. But we didn’t, so there’s no use in dwelling on that missed opportunity. Our fleets now know to capture one if it becomes possible. It appears we missed an opportunity to use our enemy to our advantage.”

  Psychology offered a mental shrug, “We would have still destroyed them, even if we agreed not to do so.”

  “Of course, but we would have used them to our advantage.”

  Science asked, “What are we going to do about the attacks on our farms?”

  “It appears there is not much we can do to stop them. If the new enemy continues to take our food resources, we will probably starve before we destroy their universe.”

  “What if we assign a ship to each planet to prevent them from taking the farms?”

  The Collective considered the proposal for three seconds, which represented millions of computations, “It will delay the fleet going to the new universe, but we aren’t having much success as it is.”

  “How many ships are ready to reinforce the fleets attacking the new enemy?”

  “One point two million.”

  “We’ll need twenty million more to protect all of our farms.”

  “We’ll have them in less than a half cycle.”

  “Then send them.”

  Military responded, “The orders are being sent.”

  Ron Kune continued to monitor the production facility and knew that a new fleet was almost ready to jump to the Realm. Suddenly, the huge fleet jumped away from the facility. He scanned their jump tracks, and none of them matched. Wherever they were going, it was not to the same location. He locked in the closest jump track and fed it to his computer, “Where are these coordinates located, Sally?”

  “According to my charts, the ship has jumped to one of their slave planets.”

  “Collect some more tracks before they fade and see if there is a pattern.”

  After a few moments Sally said, “I’ve examined two thousand and they are all locations of the worlds they use for food. It seems the Keepers’ high command has decided to stop any further rescues.”

  “Get this information downloaded and sent to Fleet Command.”

  “On its way, Ron. It appears the attacks have bought some time for the Realm.”

  Ron shrugged, “There are still more than two million of their ships attacking the Realm.”

  “Unsuccessfully, so far. I suspect they are trying to find a way to get around the frequency generators and until they accomplish that task, sending more ships would only be a wasted effort.”

  “Perhaps, but these creatures aren’t dumb. Let’s hope our luck holds out.”

  Junior arrived back in the Realm and had listened to Valerie yell at Jake all the way back.

  “How could you have risked everything? Without you the Realm is lost, and you cut that so close the edge would slice through a Keepers’ ship. Are you crazy? You promised you wouldn’t put yourself at risk and look at what you did! As Queen I am ordering you not to take part in any future combat operations.”

  Junior sighed and watched Jake try to get a word in, but Valerie didn’t even take a breath during her tirade. Truth be told, Junior agreed with her. The loss of Jake would have been too high a price for what was achieved. Finally, Jake grabbed Valerie and kissed her hard. She finally became silent.

  After a few moments Jake leaned back and said, “You’re wrong. It was worth the price.”

  Valerie opened her mouth, but didn’t know how to respond.

  Junior did, “No way it was worth it if we lost you.”

  Valerie nodded so hard Jake thought she was going to get whiplash.

  “Junior, how many teams were killed in the rescue attempts?”

  Junior looked at his communication log and said, “Seven hundred teams; about thirty five hundred Red Warriors were killed.”

  “With what we learned today, we won’t lose any more.”

  Junior and Valerie were silent.

  “We don’t need to attack the garrisons to destroy them.”

  Valerie asked in a softer voice, “Why not?”

  “Because now we know that only a few of them are set up to become new home worlds if we destroy the existing ones. We also know how to identify those that are slated to replace the old ones.”

  Junior said, “Give me a minute.”

  Valerie punched Jake on the arm and said, “Never scare me like that again.”

  Jake rubbed his arm and smiled.

  “You’re right.”

  Valerie said, “Will one of you explain what’s going on?”

  Jake took Valerie’s hand and pulled her over to the command chair. She sat in his lap. “Now we know the structure of the garrisons. We just destroyed the largest garrison in the Keepers’ universe, and there are only a thousand more that are similar in structure. It appears the garrisons that have more than five cities surrounding them are the future planned home worlds. All the rest are not deeper than ten to fifteen levels and if they have eggs, they’re in limited numbers. I should have thought of this before, but Ethan having that Captors’ ball has shown me that there is no need to penetrate their forts with warriors. We’ll just teleport a Captors’ ball into the lowest level and destroy the facility without killing the planet.”

  “Where are we going to get the needed number of Captors’ balls?”

  “The former home world of the Captors still has billions of them stored, Junior.”

  “We have a com from Joe and Manny coming in.”

  “Put it on the screen.”

  Joe and Manny appeared on the screen and Joe started yelling at Jake. Valerie interrupted him, “I’ve already read him the riot act, Joe. However, I now am thankful he took the risk.”

  Joe looked at Valerie and Manny asked, “Why?’

  Jake explained what he uncovered and saw the two military leaders of the Realm start to relax. Manny said, “I don’t know if that will help us.”

  Jake said, “Why not?”

  “The Keepers are sending a ship to every farm planet to prevent further rescues.”

  “Do they have that many ships?”

  Manny looked away for a moment and said, “Not yet. But they are modifying more and more every day. I suspect they will have enough within four months.”

  Jake thought for a moment, “It won’t matter. We’ll still be
able to rescue the farms. How many transports does the Realm have in its inventory?”

  Joe asked, “What are you thinking?”

  Manny looked back at the screen, “Only five thousand are modified with the stealth screen. We have fifty million in our total inventory.”