Annihilation: Book 05 - Searcher (46 page)

“Yes General, our fire teams are teleporting to the sites the transports are landing and setting up their penetrator arms.”

“The invaders will be targeting the largest cities. I see there are forty of them. Get the right mix of weapons sent to each.”

“Already on it, Sir.”

“Then get ready, we won’t have to wait long.”

“Sir, Fleet Command just notified me that another division is available. It appears that some of the planets will not be invaded as we thought.”

“Get their commanding officer on my com.”

A Spjek appeared on his display, “General, I understand that you are available.”

“Yes, we are, Sir.”

I’m giving you twenty of the cities to defend. We only have forty five minutes until they hit ground. I am also downloading the weapon mix I’ve planned for each. Please get your warriors moving and get in place as quickly as you can.”

“I’ve already sent four regiments to half of those cities. The others will arrive in less than five minutes.”

“I’ve also given you the transport landing sites. Get your penetrator teams set up first.”

Brez hit his com, “We have another division coming to support us. I want those units in the cities I’ve just downloaded to teleport to the city in your tactical displays. Move it!”

The Red Warriors were operating in full visibility so the local population could see them. The local population didn’t know what to think as thousands of warriors disappeared to be instantly replaced by thousands more. The commanding officer of the local forces watched and shook his head. “Stand by. We will fire if our buildings are penetrated by the green creatures. Stay out of the way of the Red Armored beings setting up in the streets.”

Brez was waiting for the first ships to hit atmosphere when General Durk appeared on his display, “I know this is last minute, but we have two more divisions available.”

“General, there is no way we can mix them in with our forces at this time, however I know how they can assist us once the ships have landed.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Teleport them in two thousand feet above the twenty largest cities and have them come in on their jump jets hitting targets of opportunity.”

“They will be issued appropriate orders immediately. You are the Senior Commander on site. Use them as you deem necessary.”

“They won’t need their penetrators, General. Load them up with close combat weapons.”

“The two commanding officers are listening in on this call. They will make the changes.”

“Attention all units, support elements will be dropping in on suit jets once the invaders hit ground. They will link with your systems once they appear above the planet. Make sure your systems are set for maximum link. Good luck, Red Warriors, make the Realm proud.” Brez looked up and saw the first small attack craft coming in.

The Commander of the lead transport had been trying to communicate with the main ship but was having no success. His Sensor Male looked up, “The main Ship is no longer moving toward the planet but has started drifting off course.”

The Commander worried about what was happening but was too far in to landing operations to change plans. “We will just have to go see what’s happening after the planet is taken. Keep trying to reach them.” That was his last thought as his transport was hit just before touching ground by a projectile that exploded inside his ship and then released thousands of little balls.

Of the two million transports moving toward the surface, only a hundred thousand were able to open their doors to release the creatures. Half of them had balls bouncing inside but the impact released the door allowing those still alive to escape.

The small attack craft didn’t fare much better. More than three million started toward the surface and millions of them were hit by the smaller penetrators which destroyed their systems instantly and released forty of the balls. All eight members of the small ships were killed when those balls started bouncing. Not all of the attack craft were hit and more than a million landed and the eight crew members came out with the survivors from the transports. They stepped out into hell.

Brez stood with Juck his teammate and moved forward as the first attack craft landed. He activated his link and saw which of the invaders was not targeted and fired his arm gun at two that were moving fast to the left. He hit both and they continued forward ten feet before the ball bouncing inside their armor killed them. Juck fired and hit four more that came out of the back of the ship and the two of them moved forward targeting spiders as they advanced. An attack craft landed behind them and Juck spun and fired all four of his hand guns and hit all eight emerging from the ship. There were millions of spiders around them. “Four have broken into the building to the right,” Juck said.

The Commanding officer of the planet’s armed forces watched as his troops fired at the four huge green creatures advancing up the steps at him and saw that nothing penetrated their green armor. One of his troops was bitten by the advancing creatures and another was moving quickly toward him. Suddenly a red colored warrior appeared in front of him and fired a hand weapon into the advancing green creature. He then turned and fired at the other three and pulled a long sword and hit the creature about to bite him. The creature split in half and died instantly. “Sorry about the loss of your warrior. We’ll handle it form here, Sir.” The small Warrior then moved forward shooting the green creatures pouring through the front entrance. He was joined by another small red colored warrior with four arms and they swept the creatures away as they moved toward the front entrance. Another three warriors joined them and they routed the green creatures until there was nothing but a quivering mass of them at the front of the building. They disappeared and the commander just shook his head in amazement.

Brez looked at his display and saw that he had lost three thousand warriors. He could see that the majority of them were in the city center where two transports had landed and released their full load of two million spiders each. “First Regiment, teleport to city center and support second.” He continued to move in front of the government center shooting at spiders. Juck suddenly spun behind him and cut two spiders rushing at them in half. “More coming in, Sir.”

Brez kneeled and raised his auto cannon and fired a stream of projectiles into the mass of spiders rushing them from behind. Juck had already started firing his two auto cannons and continued to use his other two hand guns to pick off individual targets. “It’s good to have a Cainth Teammate,” Brez thought. Ten other warriors teleported in beside them and laid down a blistering barrage of iron balls that killed thousands of the green creatures charging in toward them. The creatures kept coming and Brez was about to order the group to teleport out when the oncoming mass turned and ran from the twelve warriors. “Advance,” Brez ordered and the twelve moved into the green creatures.

The city center was a picture from someone’s twisted nightmare. Thousands of Red Warriors were twitching from the poisonous bites of the invaders but millions of the spiders were also dead. The links of the Red Warriors reorganized them as they lost members of their teams and moved them where they would be most effective. It looked like chaos but there was order in the mist of the millions fighting and dying. At the start of the battle there were more than six million spiders but now their numbers were down to less than two million. The twenty thousand Red Warriors stood their ground and fired their auto cannons continuously. They were thankful for the Algean device in their auto loaders that teleported iron balls into their magazines when they were running low. That device is what made the difference. Even with the power of their armor, none of them could have carried as many balls as they fired in that battle. As other parts of the city were coming under control, Red Warriors teleported in and joined their team fighting for survival at city center. The twenty thousand grew to thirty thousand and soon there were more than fifty thousand Red Warriors holding off the charging green mass. Soon, even the spiders knew that this battle was going to determine who would win on this planet and they all started swarming toward the site. As they ran toward the battle the Red Warriors followed them until the center of the city was full of the two forces.

Brez looked at his tactical display and said, “Admiral Grace, are you ready?”

“We are, General.”

“Attention all Red Warriors in city center, on my command you will teleport out to the coordinates on your combat link. We will execute that command in ten seconds.”

Melanie looked at Admiral Kosiev and said, “Have you got your targets.”

“We have Admiral. Leo then pushed his com and said, “Fire in 3,2,1, fire.”

Above the city center the twenty megaships hidden behind their red screens fired their loads of iron balls at the streets below them. Just before those balls struck every inch of pavement the hundred thousand Red Warriors disappeared. On the streets below the millions of green creatures stopped and looked for the beings they had been fighting and then the iron balls hit.

Brez keyed his command circuit, “Red Warriors advance. The hundred thousand Red warriors moved into the city center and found there was nothing alive to clean up. Brez looked at the millions of dead spiders and ordered, “All Warriors, teleport to the city on your link to support those still fighting.” Brez saw ninety thousand of his warriors disappear and then he ordered the remaining ten thousand, “Start looking for any that might still be in the city. Make sure you leave no stone unturned.”

Brez keyed his com, “Admiral Grace, my Warriors in the fourth largest city could use some help.”

“On our way, General.”

Brez looked at the poison that coated his armor from the close calls with death he had in the day’s fighting and thought, “Looks like I won’t be coming out of this outfit any time soon.” He looked at his display and said, “Let’s go to the fifth city, Juck. Things are still undecided there.”

“Right with you, Sir.”

Brez smiled and thought, “It’s good to have a Cainth teammate,” and then they disappeared.

And reappeared in the middle of a huge rush of spiders coming at them. They instantly teleported a hundred yards to the right and began firing their auto cannons into the side of the rushing mass of green creatures. A company of Red Warriors were the target of the mass and they were laying down a solid wall of iron ball projectiles in front of their line. The creatures were piling up in front of the warriors as they slowly gave ground as the mass continued to come at them. Brez continued to fire and keyed his com, “First and second companies teleport to my location now. An additional two hundred Red Warriors appeared around Brez and began engaging the tide of green spiders as they began to turn toward the new comers. The new arrivals continued to fire as the mass swarmed quickly at the two companies of warriors. “General, we have seen your tactical on our display and will fire on your order.”

Brez saw a megaship had ported in above his warriors and he keyed his com, “Teleport eight hundred yards to the rear in three seconds, Captain, fire.”

The Megaships unloaded a magazine of five hundred thousand iron balls directly into the mass of spiders below them just as the Red Warriors disappeared. Brez ordered, “Advance in odd numbered teams; even numbered will advance second.” Half of the warriors moved five yards forward, kneeled and fired their auto cannons non-stop. Two seconds later the other half moved through their ranks and did the same. The first group used their arm guns to hit any individual targets still moving and then moved five yards forward. Brez noticed that Juck had the area in front of his two auto cannons clear for more than a hundred yards. “General, we have another mass approaching from your rear. I am calling in two more ships for support but they will not arrive for two minutes. Try to keep this mass out in the open in the square around you.”

“Will do our best, Navy. Even number teams will continue to fire forward; Odd numbers turn and move fifty yards and prepare to hit the mass coming from our rear. Eighth and ninth companies, teleport to my coordinates and support one of the two groups.” Brez knew that he was leaving only nine thousand warriors in the town he had just left but felt that they were in better shape to handle what remained. “Juck come join me in the middle; we will support the side hardest hit.”

Juck stood and ran to Brez’s side and said, “It appears that the group coming at our rear is much larger than the one just hit by the Megaship.”

“Only momentarily, there are additional spiders moving in from the front joining the survivors. Let’s try to slow the ones down in the rear and then move to the front.”

Brez keyed his com, “All warriors, the Navy will arrive in a minute and fifty seconds. We have to make this mass of spiders stay in the square and that means we can’t jump out before they arrive or this mass will scatter. Set your systems to automatically teleport in one hundred seconds; we will fight until that time arrives or we will die holding this ground. If we can take out this mass then we will save millions of the local population. If they get inside our lines, draw swords and try to survive.”

“Here they come, Juck yelled over the link.” The warriors facing the rear began firing in unison and began hitting the spiders a hundred yards out as they rushed into the square from the surrounding buildings. Huge mounds of them began building which only slowed the ones jumping over them slightly.”