Battle for the Earth (6 page)

**

Lee almost fell off his seat when the message came through. He had been nearly asleep while the auto pilot ferried him back to the moon. Jumouk explained the situation to Lee, and asked if he could investigate, Lee had already dropped out of auto pilot and turned to an intercept course by the time Jumouk had finished speaking.

It hadn’t taken Lee long to go from being a back-seat diplomat to a full-blown adventurer.

With a big smile on his face Lee sat back and engaged the shuttle’s hyper-drive from a touch pad on his control seat, taking him more or less instantaneously to the outer reaches of our solar system.

**

12

Back on December 2, Tukie was in a bit of a fix. He had to think fast. He was heading for open space. From a standing start the hyper-drive would take twenty seconds to power up, and in that time the Annunaki would have incinerated him. Just at that moment a large piece of debris in the form of a huge boulder spun past his front viewing window.

Tukie reacted instinctively. In a split second a tractor beam shot from the front of the shuttle, latched onto the huge boulder, then pulled the craft to within five feet of the surface.

The discharge from the shuttle was mainly masked by the boulder, Tukie immediately fired up the engines and hyper-drive. The next few seconds were the longest in Tukie’s life. Finally the hyper-drive came alive and the shuttle, boulder and all, disappeared in a burst of light.

**

Onboard the
Nephilimis,
the targeting computers locked onto a small surge of energy just on the outskirts of the debris field.

Tannacha, the Annunaki supreme commander, studied the view screen. A small electronic signature was emanating from a boulder tumbling out of the debris field. It was possible this could be some form of background radiation and Tannacha scrutinised the view screen, then he paced up the deck of the bridge to the viewing window at the front of his magnificent flagship.

Tannacha was not one to leave things to chance and barked the command:

‘Fire!’

A shot flashed from one of the smaller banks of weapons on the flagship and cracked into the boulder, just as it disappeared into a ball of light and flame.

**

On the bridge of the shuttle craft Tukie picked himself up. The boulder had taken most of blast from the flagship and reduced in size by about a third, the remaining part still in the hold of the tractor beam. Tukie checked for damage. There was plenty of it. Up till now Tukie had got off extremely lightly.

The primary concern was the hyper-drive. Sure enough the seals on the hyper-drive containment field had been pushed beyond their limits. The hyper-drive was working, but for how long? Tukie just didn’t know.

As the days and hours passed, Tukie had time to reflect. Four years ago there was virtually no direct contact with the humans; everything had been covert, and life had been simpler. Having said that, things had got a lot more exciting in the last four years; after all, look at him now!

Tukie thought back and remembered the sense of pride he had felt when Konoco had personally picked him for this mission. Sure, they had been friends for a long time, but Tukie was sure he had been picked for his piloting abilities, at least he would have liked to think so.

Konoco had stressed how dangerous the mission would be, but also reflected on the huge advantage of a positive outcome. How knowing your enemy’s movements and strength would be a great advantage.

Tukie had agreed straightaway to the mission. He had felt that anything he could do to lessen the Annunaki advantage in the coming attack was well worth giving his life for.

That thought was rudely interrupted as his craft shuddered and came out of hyper-drive. Driven now only by momentum and on minimal power, Tukie’s future was looking a lot less promising.

**

13

The date was now December 11 and Tukie was trying everything he could think of to get some kind of power back to his instruments. No engines, no guidance, no communication and life support more or less non-existent. If that wasn’t bad enough, he didn’t even know his position in space.

Tukie had stripped the hyper-drive assembly to the core, the gaseous gold had reverted back to its normal state and lay at the bottom of the drive unit like sand on a golden beach. The matter rods had overheated and been sealed off by the core safety systems, leaving a gelatinous blob of inert matter, Tukie shook his head. There was absolutely nothing salvageable from this mess.

The view from Tukie’s front window was mesmerising and very relaxing. Tukie was taking full advantage of this as he relaxed back into his comfortable pilot’s chair, watching the stars slowly rotate past the horizon on his soul mate, the boulder.

Nine days had now passed after his inventive escape from the Annunaki. Had it all been for nothing?

Two of those days had been in hyper-drive, and the rest of the time just drifting with a huge boulder in tow. Round and round they tumbled together, like some kind of crazy waltz, making their way through space. The idea had even occurred to Tukie that his boulder could serve as his headstone.

I wonder what inscription should be put on it, he thought?

Several other ideas had already occurred to Tukie, but the one he liked best said it all.

Here lies Tukie the Dropas who gave his life in friendship with mankind to benefit Dropas and mankind alike. He reached for the stars and the stars took him. Rest in peace.

All of a sudden a flash to the left-hand side of the craft made Tukie spin round. His first thought was that an Annunaki assault craft had followed him. He knew what he would have to do, he must not be taken alive. He had far too much information for that.

**

14

As Lee came out of hyper-drive, he could see a large boulder on his right-hand side. It almost looked like it had a squashed shuttle craft on its surface, an odd sight at the best of times, he thought.

Lee banked sharply and pulled alongside the shuttle’s observation window. To his delight he saw a very relieved, if not embarrassed, Tukie waving at him. Fortunately as Lee’s shuttle craft banked, Tukie instantly recognised it as Dropas and had gone to the observation window to watch.

Lee turned his shuttle round and applied his tractor beam to Tukie’s shuttle. Slowly he tugged the battered shuttle away from the boulder and repositioned it in a parallel course next to him. He wasn’t sure if Tukie’s shuttle would stand a few seconds in hyper-drive, and because Tukie had no communicators that worked, he used sign language to communicate his concerns.

Tukie responded that they at least had to try. Before Lee took the chance, he contacted Jumouk to ask his advice and to pass on the good news. Everyone was delighted, especially Konoco. Jumouk agreed with Lee that the chance was worth taking, and wished them both luck.

Lee sat back in his seat and waved over to Tukie, they both smiled and Lee engaged the hyper-drive. Seconds later both craft dropped out of hyper-drive and Lee gave a concerned look in Tukie’s direction. Tukie was fine, and waved back at Lee. Lee towed Tukie’s craft down to the Blue Star Base on the lunar surface and both of them went off to get debriefed.

**

Jumouk carried out the debriefing himself and it soon became clear how big a task they were going to face.

‘Ten battle cruisers, you say?’ he said, looking concerned. ‘Are you quite sure, Tukie?’

‘Definitely,’ replied Tukie. ‘Remember three of them ran me down, and they have got a lot more besides.’

Jumouk started to pace the floor of the room.

‘I didn’t expect that many, that’s two and a half to one. Any ideas, Lee?’

Lee looked at Jumouk. He knew the awesome power of a battle cruiser, and thought to himself, for the Annunaki to have six more than us is a huge advantage for them, and a major disadvantage for us, no matter how well we have prepared.

The room fell into a deathly hush. Then Lee stood up suddenly and started to pace up and down the room. Thinking out loud he said:

‘We can’t attack them when they come out of hyperdrive. That would spoil all the preparations on Earth. But what if they left hyper-drive, and thought they were encountering some natural disaster?’

Jumouk looked encouraged, and asked Lee to carry on.

‘Perhaps a meteor shower? Or something similar?’

‘Good,’ said Jumouk. ‘Let’s get some ideas on the table.’

The idea was simple.

Place objects of sufficient density and mass in the flight path of the Annunaki fleet, so when they drop out of hyperdrive, as much damage as possible is done to the fleet. The objects would be natural in origin, and with luck the Annunaki would put this down to meteor strike and extreme misfortune. The proximity detectors on the Annunaki fleet would be useless, as the craft travels faster in hyper-drive than the detectors signal. It would be a bit like putting your hand out a car window at 70mph and feeling it getting blown backwards. Mapping technology had to be used in hyper-drive, not unlike a high-tech shipping lane.

**

Jupiter’s moon Callisto was selected by the Dropas scientists, and the Dropas miners set to work.

Time was now very short, but the miners were very determined. Large pieces of Callisto were mined and transported into the Annunaki orbital approach, then finally Callisto was blown up strategically, and the larger debris was towed and placed at calculated points where the Annunaki would drop out of hyper-drive.

**

Five days had now passed, it was now December 16. Konoco and Lee were checking the mapping of the approach to Earth.

‘It looks good, very good,’ Lee commented. ‘That should do a bit of damage when they drop out of hyper-drive. With a bit of luck we might get one or two of their cruisers.’

Konoco nodded in agreement and said:

‘Lee, that was a brilliant plan you had, let’s just hope it works as well as we hope.’

Lee smiled.

‘I think under the circumstances we’ve all done brilliantly.’

Everything was now in place awaiting the imminent arrival of the Annunaki fleet, and Earth was in the hands of its destiny.

**

15

December 20, 2020, 23.15 GMT. Jumouk, Konoco and Lee were in a shuttle craft standing off Earth, in orbit at around 600 miles. They were watching the Annunaki globes orbiting the Earth. Just forty-five short minutes to go and it was game on.

Terry was back on Earth. Everything had been done to ensure minimal damage from the EMP charge. He couldn’t help thinking to himself, ‘Bring it on.’

There had been so much anticipation of this moment it had been a physical drain on everybody.

**

Midnight arrived, and sure enough the twelve globes detonated in unison and delivered their devastating pulse. The bright flashes could be seen in the night sky, a few seconds of intense light, dazzling to watch and quite spectacular in their own way.

Ten minutes later the viral orbs released their payload to allow the dust of death to slowly filter into our atmosphere.

Unfortunately for the Annunaki plan, Dropas engineers had surrounded each of the viral orbs in a protective skin, stopping the deadly payload from being dispersed into our atmosphere.

The deadly dust now trapped within their new containment package could be safely collected by a few assault craft, and the twelve packages taken deep into space and destroyed safely by members of the newly formed Tactical Android Group.

This had been the plan from day one, but had been a closely guarded secret. The introduction of the flu virus back in 2009 had just been a back-up in case one of the orbs or protective skins should leak.

Lee engaged the drive on the shuttle and flew it into the upper part of Earth’s atmosphere. As he did so they could see one of the protective skins being picked up in a tractor beam from an assault craft, ready to be taken out into deep space.

As far as the Annunaki were concerned everything would be going to plan. Lee circumvented Earth at high speed, scanning for traces of virus as he went.

After six sweeps of Earth’s atmosphere, Earth was given a clean bill of health. They all breathed a quiet sigh of relief and returned to Blue Star Base.

**

Back on the moon base, Marie was waiting for Lee, and as he came into the control room she smiled, a radiant smile with warmth and genuine affection. This had, after all, been one of the trickiest parts of the plan so far. One wrong move and the whole plan could have been exposed, or God forbid, everyone exposed to a lethal virus.

Lee smiled back and said:

‘Job well done, Marie. Have you heard anything from Thourus yet regarding the disposal of the virus?’

Marie nodded.

‘Yep, just finished talking to him. All the virus has been destroyed by his Androids. You could say the mission was a total success.’

Lee sat down at one of the consoles and let out another sigh of relief. He looked tired. It had been another long night, but again Marie came to the rescue with a steaming hot cup of green tea. Lee looked bemused as he took the tea from Marie.