**********
However, given all that had happened over the last few days, and the time taken to get the list of brainwashed or cloned people to the various foreign intelligence agencies, the alien commanders soon discovered just what was happening. Phairlis was more than just angry knowing that he had lost all of his agents working in the United States of America, he screamed out his rage at the communication`s officer who brought him the bad news. However, he did have enough time to alert all of his local commanders in all the other countries around the world. They immediately issued orders for the clones and the humans who had been brainwashed to report to the local headquarters urgently to receive further orders.
It was soon after this that the area command centres found themselves under attack from the local military. Those clones who were still inside one of the centres had to decide whether to attempt to fight their way out, or to surrender, after ensuring that the local commander did not cause their implants to self-destruct, usually by killing him, their other choice was to die fighting to the last man. Across the nine countries that had alien bases, the decision was a mixture of the choices, mostly depending on how the clones thought the local authorities would treat them. However, many clones escaped, picked up by the attack craft Magenta, and they were taken to the safety of the Moon.
It was not the same for the humans that had been brainwashed; ordered to remain in the local command centres until the crisis was over. Therefore, when the authorities raided the centres they found themselves trapped. If the clones chose to escape or to fight, then the humans were a part of it, with only a few surviving. If the clones decided to surrender then the humans lived, for the authorities would not have taken kindly to the mass murder of their people.
The major police raids across the globe finally managed to convince the Chinese government to hold off; they pulled back their fleet and stood their massive armies down, while they looked further into the matter.
**********
The virus was spreading very fast within the heavily populated Pearl River Delta Economic Zone, with the hospitals hopelessly deluged by the number of cases. The authorities had no choice but to enforce martial law, and all civilians ordered to wear facemasks, and only allowed out to buy food. It was an attempt to halt the spread of the virus; however, it did not work, for the cases of those infected grew sharply.
Redh Madr, sent by President Mortise to act as a sleeper, with orders to operate only when necessary, decided that the time to take action had arrived. It was seeing the many deaths due to the virus that made Redh Madr commit himself, for he could not stand by any longer and see so many innocent people die. He soon heard that Doctor Baris had committed suicide, rather than be taken prisoner and interrogated, and this helped to convince Madr that his time had also arrived. He must somehow get all the phials containing the disease and the vaccine to the authorities on Earth, Baris had told him that he could trust Sally Jameson or her uncle, so he decided that the United States of America was to be his destination.
With this in mind he sat at his computer terminal and expertly hacked into the ship`s defences, first he targeted the sonic weapon and added a sub routine that would make the weapon self-destruct as soon as it was turned on. For his next piece of sabotage he went into the part of the computer that operated the starship`s sensor array, and here he deleted a huge amount of instructions, lastly he inserted a virus into the ship`s main computer that would operate in one hour`s time, to destroy anything that he may have forgotten about. He knew that he had endangered himself, if they discovered his act of sabotage before he got away, but he thought the gains outweighed the risk to his safety.
Madr now walked calmly down to the flight deck aboard the Constellation, There were ten small spacecraft parked there, a team of engineers surrounded one of them, they were repairing it, its engine was firing at low power, Madr smiled, for he knew that the noise would more than cover his own activities. On the wall furthest away from the engineers were the controls to the force field that prevented the air from escaping from the flight deck into space. This technology allowed the cruiser`s complement of fighters to land or take off without the need to drain the flight deck of air. Madr attached a small amount of explosive to the controls, and then he set the timer for five minutes. With the preliminary work completed, Madr climbed into the cockpit of one of the other small craft, the one furthest away from the technicians. He believed that as he was a member of the council of the Chosen Ones that no one would question his action, they would assume that he was merely having a look at the craft, and in this, he was correct. Madr had flown similar craft in his youth, and he had no trouble in powering the craft up, he looked about him, no one had noticed him yet. He now hit the craft`s hover button, and the craft lifted off the deck, still no one had noticed, it was due to the noise of the craft under repair. He now hit the power button and the engine roared into life, now the technicians noticed him, but before they could stop him Madr took the craft through the light force field. The Constellation was in orbit around the Moon, meaning that he had a flight of at least an hour before he reached Earth, worried about pursuit he brought the engine up to full power; the acceleration pushed him back into his seat until the inertial dampeners kicked in. Almost one hour later and he was finally nearing Earth, his scanners showed him that six craft were in pursuit of him, but twenty seconds later he was dropping down through the Earth`s atmosphere, unfortunately with the other craft preparing to follow.
“American air force, I am an alien in need of your assistance, I have with me samples of the virus attacking the Chinese people, I also have samples of the vaccine needed to rid you of this alien made virus. My people have sent six attack craft after me to stop me from giving these lifesaving medicines to you, help me, please.” Madr pleaded desperately.
Six of the latest F40 Stealth aircraft were deployed, they arrived on the scene just as the attacking craft began to fire at Madr, they were ordered to assist the alien craft under attack, which they did successfully by destroying three of the attacking craft before the others retreated. When the three surviving craft reached the Constellation they found that the force field had been sabotaged, and that all of the starship`s computer systems were down. They were forced to head for the main Moon base and land there; unfortunately, they would be unable to refuel their craft until they returned to the Constellation.
Madr landed his craft at the Nellis air force base, and immediately voiced his urgent demands.
“I need to talk to Captain Will Rogers of the Texas Rangers or to Sally Jameson, the NASA scientist. Then I need to talk to General Powers, I have urgent information about the alien starship in orbit around your moon. It is a matter of your nation’s security, please do as I ask or many lives will be lost.”
The officers, the personnel and the scientists were astonished as they listened to this small grey alien speak in perfect English, and it took them a moment to respond to his request, the commanding office of the base being the first to recover. He knew a little about the current emergency, and of the alien connection, so he had Will contacted. As the situation was said to be so very urgent by Madr, and because the pentagon had insisted when he informed them of the alien`s demands, Will was flown to Nellis in a fast jet. Once there Madr greeted him and handed over the samples of the vaccine and the virus, Will stood there just a little stunned, both by the vaccine, and because he was speaking to a real life alien.
Will had one of each of the samples sent to Area 51, for security, before despatching the other samples to the CDC in another fast jet. Once they received the samples, they contacted the Chinese authorities by a secure landline and informed them that half of the samples were on their way to them. The samples were flown to China in a F40 stealth aircraft that hugged the ground for security reasons, and was refuelled along the way to ensure it got to its destination as soon as was possible.
Madr next visit was to see General Powers and President Chambers, the American president, who want
ed to speak with their alien guest. The Chinese ambassador was also present, to prove to the Chinese government that aliens were indeed behind their present troubles. Chambers did not know how to feel, due to this incursion, they now had the proof that Will and Sally had been looking for, proof that an alien invasion was now a real life threat, and one that the other nations of the world were forced to recognise. However, an alien invasion was not something to feel relieved about, which was why he had asked Madr to come to Washington to advise them on the situation, and to offer any advice that he had on how to proceed. Madr insisted that Will be one of his escorts, and with a senior member of the alien leadership now with him, and as an ally, Will asked about the short life span of the clones. Madr only took a moment to think over the curious question, but then he smiled.
“Unknown to the people of your planet you owe our Doctor Baris a great deal. Not only did he destroy the only three clone ships in existence, thereby stopping our people of sending even more clones to your planet to replace human beings, but he even ensured that most of the clones that did reach this planet would die prematurely. Unfortunately he is dead now, for my people finally got on to him, however, his last act was to ask me to bring the vaccine to you.”
Chapter Seven
Earth Retakes the Moon
After the usual greetings were out of the way, Madr repeated to the assembled company of how much they owed to an alien, Doctor Baris.
“My friend not only destroyed the three clone ships, severely denting the invasion plans, but badly damaged the space cruiser Constellation. His final act before his death was to tell me where he had hidden the phials of the vaccine and the virus; his final thoughts were of your people.” Madr said grimly.
This explained to the people standing in the Oval office the cause of the bright flashes behind the Moon and behind the planet Uranus.
“Mr President, Ambassador Lee, you must launch an all-out attack on the space cruiser Constellation, and before my people can repair any of its offensive or defensive hardware. You should also take out the attack vessel Magenta.” Madr now turned to the Chinese Ambassador. “Ambassador Lee, you should know that it was the attack vessel Magenta that was used to spread the virus that is currently causing so many deaths in the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone.”
Lee turned away so that the Americans could not see the mixture of emotions that flooded to his face, when he had them under control he turned to speak to Madr.
“The people of Earth have few spacecraft available to them, but all of them are unarmed, do you have any suggestions to make my friend, so that we can succeed against your more advanced ships.”
Madr smiled, for the ambassador of a nation that his people were trying to annihilate, to refer to him as a friend, meant a lot to him, and he nodded at Lee to try to purvey this.
“Yes, Ambassador Lee, I do have some.” Madr then turned to face all four of the men sitting in the Oval Office, for Will had also attending the meeting.
“Your two nations, plus any other nations that you can trust to keep the planned attack a secret from any of my people, must fit your most powerful missiles to your space shuttles. Then you must attack and completely destroy both the space cruiser Constellation, and the attack craft Magenta. You must launch the attack before my people can ready their defences. They possess six of the spacecraft that I used to come to Earth, and the Magenta has a small energy weapon fitted on the underside of the craft. Until the repairs to the hyper drive are made the Constellation is defenceless, its main weapon`s system, and its shields, will not function. They do have a sonic weapon which is very effective, however, when I left the Constellation I disabled it, hopefully they will not notice this until they try to use the weapon, and then it will explode.” Madr said grimly, for his words told of the deaths of more of his people.
“If you are successful then the invasion could be put off indefinitely, if not for ever.” Madr declared confidently. “Oh your people will find the cryo-storage starship Future parked near to the other two craft; it is unarmed, and unless it attempts to interfere can be safely left out of the attack.”
Chambers thanked Madr for his help; help that he knew must have caused him much soul searching. Many of the aliens would see Madr as a traitor.
America, Russia, China and Europe all decided to follow the suggestion put forward by Madr, they fitted guided missiles to eight Moon Shuttles and launched them within a week; with the eight craft was the craft that Madr had landed in, flown by an American astronaut who had not been taken by the enemy.
They launched from the opposite side of Earth to that which the Moon was currently shining down upon; then they drifted in space, some 250,000 miles away from their planet, with all their systems turned off. Furling made this suggestion, for he too was brought into their confidence. He had also said that with the limited systems still working aboard the enemy craft, they would be able to get much closer this way, before the enemy finally noticed them. The plan worked, the Magentans had their few systems still available to them, all based on the near side of the Moon and pointed towards Earth, not into space.
The cryo-storage starship Future sat on the surface of the moon, as was the attack craft Magenta. It was only the recently repaired sensor array on the Constellation that saw the nine approaching craft, and even then the crewman manning the console did not notice them immediately, for they gave off such a small electrical signature, and the fleet from Earth was then in firing range.
Aboard the lead American shuttle, the commander heard the Constellation alert the crew of the Magenta, he immediately alerted his small fleet and accelerated towards the alien starships.
“Lieutenant Carlson, fire off two missiles at that big bastard, it must be the Constellation.”
Behind him his fleet, which had been moving along Indian style, so that the aliens would have little for their lookouts to see, now fanned out so that all eight of the shuttles could bring their weapons to bear on the alien craft. The two Chinese Moon Shuttles charged ahead and targeted the attack vessel Magenta, which never managed to lift off the surface of the Moon, seconds later four missiles struck the alien vessel, it exploded in a massive ball of fire; no one survived the attack.
The other Shuttles targeted the Constellation, which was still powering up its sub light engines, before it could move away it too exploded in flames. The destruction of the major vessels of the enemy fleet made the allies rejoice, however, the battle was not over, not yet.
They were not the only craft that the enemy possessed, three fighter craft appeared over the horizon of the Moon, and as soon as they were in range they fired their energy weapons, shuttles were sluggish compared the fighters and two were hit, a European shuttle and the other American craft. The European craft was hit amidships, and only its size prevented it from disintegrating, even so it lost engine power and began to fall down to the surface of the Moon. The American craft was struck towards the rear of the craft, and its engines exploded in a brilliant ball of flames.
The three fighters rushed through the line of shuttles and began to turn to launch another strike at their enemy, one that had destroyed so many of their comrades. As they did so, an energy bolt struck the lead craft destroying it instantly, Captain Boone, a descendant of the famous Daniel Boone was flying in the fighter that Madr had stolen. He flew behind the shuttles to permit them to attack the larger alien craft; and low over the surface of the moon, and because of this, he had gone unnoticed by the alien pilots. He now targeted the next in line of the alien fighters; it immediately broke sharply to port with Boone on its tail. The last alien pilot gave chase, targeting Boone. However, his craft too exploded in a ball of fire when struck by two missiles fired from the two Russian craft. The battle now was essentially over, only one alien fighter remaining, and minutes later, it crashed into one of the Luna craters, for it had run out of fuel.
Preparations were already being made to retake the Moon, this complete victory made it all the easier. President Chamber
s called on all of the aliens on the Moon to surrender. Earth now trained it Earth based missiles upon the Moon bases, together with those remaining on the shuttles. Weapons systems were not permitted on the Moon; and with the Constellation guarding the bases they were not considered necessary by the aliens. The aliens on the Moon, on seeing their only space cruiser destroyed immediately surrendered. Three large transport spacecraft transported the necessary troops across to the Moon, they landed them in batches around it, soon all the aliens were under arrest, transported back to Earth, and there they were imprisoned, pending their war crimes trial.
However, the planet Mars was much further away from Earth, it would take careful planning and more spacecraft than Earth currently had, ones suitable for the long journey to Mars, before that planet could be retaken.
Chapter Eight
President Mortise
President Mortise was in a very happy mood, it was due to an event that began one year ago, it was when news had come in from the admiral in command of the Magentan space fleet, Admiral Tennant. He had informed Mortise that one of the automated spacecraft had found another planet, one remarkably similar to their own, and one that appeared to be uninhabited. The automated craft had launched four small drones through the planet`s atmosphere and tested the air, the water and the soil, all were found to be good.
This news was kept a secret, until a manned starship had checked it out; Mortise feared that if the news got out prematurely then Consul Phairlis might decide to launch an all-out attack on the peoples of Earth while issuing a unilateral declaration of independence. With the space cruiser Constellation, nominally under his command it could mean the deaths of many Magentans, if Mortise wanted to come to the assistance of the people of Earth. Admiral Tennant had agreed with his thoughts, and he had ordered his personal staff to say nothing about the new planet. The officers and men of this branch of the Magentan space fleet were all loyal to the admiral, and so the most secret of secrets never got out. Tennant had immediately ordered the space cruiser Galaxy to investigate the newly discovered planet. A preliminary report regarding the planet told Mortise that the planet was all that they had hoped for, and more.
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