Annihilation - Finding Keepers (Annihilation Series (Book Seven}) (47 page)

“Yes they are, Jake, and the operation was a huge success. There were eight planets in which the Keepers had killed every inhabitant and shipped them to their home worlds. The Searchers still killed the garrisons, but we weren’t in time to save those worlds.”

“How long before your project is ready?”

“It has been ready for twenty rotations. We were originally holding off until the arrival of the transports, but I’m following your lead now.”

“Have you planned for both eventualities?

“Of course.”

“We begin our attack tomorrow.”

“I wondered about that. I would have thought you would start as soon as the rescues were completed.”

“I need you to do some things first. I suspect that after our operation begins, things will move rather quickly.”

“What is that?”

“I want you to go to the community where I lived and bring them to your galaxy from the other universe where we took them for safekeeping. You need to make that happen quickly. You can use one of the planets you were going to give one of those that were killed by the Keepers. Will you do that today?”

“We moved them four days ago.”

Jake smiled, “I’m always amazed at how thorough you are. Are you still moving planets around?”

“Yes, we are. The most developed planets are being moved hourly, and the others as needed. Why do you ask?”

“I am sending you a list of suggestions I would like for you to consider.”

Sprig looked down on his board and downloaded the list in less than a second. “Jake, are you sure you want this done?”

“I assume you’re referring to the last item on the list.”

“You’re right. The others make perfect sense regardless of how this turns out. But that last one will have huge ramifications if we do it.”

“Will you do it?”

“Do you have a reason for wanting it done?”

Jake paused and said, “Why is your species the most peaceful of our universe? None of you serve in the armed forces, you develop our weapons but don’t use them, and you don’t force your will on anyone. I want you to think what you had to endure to become what you are. Then think about that last request.”

Sprig was silent.

“Will you do it?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I’ll need you to meet me in the Castle shortly after our operation starts. I’ll let you know when.”

“I thought you would. I don’t look forward to that.”

“None of us do, Sprig.”

“Jake, are you sure about this?”

“Yes, Junior. I’ll explain why later.”

“Fair enough. My parents have been looking for me.”

“Why?”

“There are no secrets, Jake. You can’t just take the entire Brez Division and not cause raised eyebrows.”

“I know. Are you able to avoid them until after the operation tomorrow?”

“That’s why I’m staying in this universe with you.”

“I have the same reason, only in my case it is avoiding AG.

“Welcome to my world.

Twelve Keepers Fleets jumped into the Realm and planets started changing locations. What the planets in the Realm didn’t know, because there was only one planet moved into a system, was that more than eighty percent of the Realm’s members were moved all at one time.

“Jake?”

“Yes, Sprig?”

“It’s done.”

“Thanks. Plan to meet me at the Castle in five drags.”

“I’ll be there.”

Jake hit the general frequency on his com, “Searchers, we are starting the countdown in one minute from………now. You know your targets, follow the plan to completion. You’ll need to be back at Ross in five drags. Good luck, and Semper Fi!”

The countdown hit zero and a hundred thousand white ships disappeared from Jake’s display.

“Where to, Jake?”

“Take me to the Keepers’ home world where the Collective Intelligence is located.”

“Oh boy. This should be interesting.”

The Collective was groggy but was functioning. “Military, what happened?”

There was a long silence, and then, “Every farm in our universe has been taken. Every processing center on every planet has been destroyed. It was the deaths of those billions that caused our breakup.”

The Collective knew that without those farms, starvation was only a short time away. We’ll have to gather food from other universes, quickly.”

Suddenly a thought interrupted the Collectives orders, “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“Who said that?”

“I am one of the leaders from the universe you are currently attacking. I’ll continue this conversation momentarily, but first I think you need to look in on your fleet.”

The Collective immediately sent its mind to the ships in the major fleet. Nothing seemed wrong, then everything went crazy.

The Keepers Fleet had swelled to more than forty million ships. Most of them were gathered in formations waiting for scouts to arrive with target coordinates. They would continue to wait for a long time, because the Brez Searchers that had remained in the Realm’s universe used their new scanners to find the scouts. There were ten thousand of them scattered around the universe. The Searchers tracked them and designated one of them for attack. The moment the countdown hit zero, all ten thousand Keepers’ scouts saw a small white ship appear next to them. They tried to use their main beams, but nothing happened to the attacking ship. The Searchers fired their beams and the Keepers’ ships were blown in half. The Searchers designated to attack the scouts joined the other twenty thousand that were attacking the Keepers Fleets still in the Realm.

Ethan Tucker teleported in to one end of the line of Keepers’ ships starting to enter the atmosphere of Daggadore. He expanded the cone of his main beam to four miles and accelerated toward the long line of ships. He flew the entire length of the formation in ten seconds, then turned for another pass. He looked at his display and saw nothing to attack. All 100,000 ships had been disintegrated. He checked his scanner and could see that the other two Searchers had also taken out the other two formations attacking the planet. “Three hundred thousand down, many,many, more to go.”

Ethan checked his scanner, and saw a fleet jump in close to another member of the Realm, and designated it as his target. The three-ship team teleported to the Keepers’ location and attacked again. Ethan looked at his display and wondered, “Where did we get this weapon? This is dangerous to have loose in the Realm.” Three hundred thousand Keepers’ ships died. Ethan hit his board, designated another Keepers Fleet, then jumped.

The thirty thousand Searchers left in the Realm targeted the three thousand Keepers Fleets and the destruction happened at a rate that was incredible. The Demon’s white beam blew through the brown ships and left nothing behind. The Keepers couldn’t react fast enough to escape, and none of those being attacked got a warning out to the others. Though they were connected telepathically, none understood what was happening.

The 70,000 Searchers designated to attack the major fleet in the Keepers’ universe had set their beams to a width of three hundred miles. They came out of their jump in a formation with three hundred miles separation between ships, and accelerated toward the giant gathering of Keepers’ ships. The Keepers detected the universal drives breaking into normal space and fired their main beams at the long line of small, white, ships.

The Fleet Director was puzzled that the ships were not being affected by the fleet’s beams. He ordered a higher intensity, then saw the small ships accelerate toward his location. He looked at his display and saw a white beam coming at his ship. He died as his ship disintegrated around him. The huge Keepers Fleet was occupying a space more than forty million miles wide, with the bulk of the fleet in the center. The Searchers flew through the center of the fleet and turned port and starboard to come back around at the survivors. Every ship in the center of the giant fleet was gone. The survivors were stunned and continued firing at the white ships with no effect. Many turned on their jump drives but before they could escape, the Searchers blew through both groups. None survived. The attack lasted only two minutes and where once forty million ships had been gathered, there was nothing left.

Cynthia looked at her board and was amazed. There was no doubt in her mind that the Demons had designed the white ships specifically to handle the Keepers. Their ships disintegrated without slowing the beam down. She checked her sensor display and said, “You have your targets; first the production facilities and then the home worlds. Remember; use our Stars Realm main beam to hit the planets. Once the home worlds are gone, you are released to attack any ships remaining in this universe. You have four more drags before you are due back at Fleet Command. Do not be late. Ready…..Execute.”

The Collective saw the destruction of the Major Fleet and knew that his species had finally encountered a foe that could kill its ships. “Why did you not use these ships before?”

Jake said, “We didn’t acquire them until a short time ago. Ordinarily, we would be negotiating with you so that we wouldn’t have to eliminate your race, but it’s like Values said, “your species has no redeeming qualities and represents a danger to all of creation.”“

“When did you speak to Values?”

“Just before we discovered these ships. You killed your heart when you took all of the finer emotions out of your species. Your lust for power, your cruelty, and brutality to those you conquered is unforgivable. You will be receiving what you have delivered to all you encountered. I just wanted to be the one to tell you before you die. I felt I owed it to Values to do this. You will not be back. We will kill every one of your planets and everyone of your species in this universe. You should have listened to your heart.”

The Collective felt the first eight home worlds die. It was stunned, but it said to all the Quadrants that were starting to fall apart, “Values was right. Creation has decided we are to be removed.” The Collective’s last thoughts we bitter. We could have changed our course many times but chose to continue our domination of this universe. Life was better when we were farmers.”

Nine hundred home worlds died, and the Collective was blown apart. This time, it would not recover.

“Jake, are we any better than them if we exterminate them?”

“Junior, I want you to remember that young mother and her newborn baby being taken to be consumed by the Keepers. We may be hardened by this experience, but we would never commit an act like that. They committed acts like that every day with absolutely no remorse.” Jake paused, “The vision of her crying over her child’s imminent death still haunts me. I decided when that happened this species had to be stopped; permanently.”

Junior saw the vision in Jake’s mind and knew he was right. Sometimes, someone had to make hard decisions, and it required a hard person to make them. “What now, Jake?”

“We don’t have long. We need to go to Castle Gardner and talk with the Gardners and Valerie.”

Junior knew that the hardest decisions were yet to be made.

Ales Jongo was watching a Keepers Fleet as it jumped in and accelerated to attack El Prado, one of the three remaining provincial capitals. This particular planet had been a problem for his father and he had just destroyed the probe that protected it, “Using the Keepers to make sure I don’t have succession problems. This was almost too easy.” He smiled in anticipation as the Keepers accelerated toward the atmosphere. The Duke’s Admirals had been ordered to join him in the coming attack on the Realm and the loss of the Duke wouldn’t change their participation. That Duke’s ambition was going to pose a huge problem, especially to his succession of his father. “What the…?!?,” he thought.

Three small white ships appeared and swept through the Keepers’ formations. They fired a white beam and wherever than beam hit, nothing remained. The Keepers Fleet was gone in less than thirty seconds. There were hundreds of thousands of Keepers ships attacking, and now they were gone. He hit his com, “This is Ales Jongo, who are you?”

“We are Searchers of the Stars Realm. What are you doing here?”

“My scanners picked up this fleet attacking and I came to see if I could assist the planet. It is my responsibility to protect the planet.”

“Perhaps you’ll explain why you destroyed their probe. We recorded you firing your beam at it just as the Keepers Fleet arrived.”

“Ales hit his teleport panel and jumped away. “Admiral, the Crown has found a way to kill the Keepers. We must act quickly before they have the chance to gather their forces.”

“My forces are ready. We just need a few drags to jump to the staging area.”

“I’ll join you in three drags, Admiral. We must hit Ross before the Brez Division returns.”

“What about the Algeans?”

“Our third fleet will move on them as we begin our attack.”