Battle for the Earth (16 page)

As if from nowhere a large blue flash enveloped the half-square mile where the resistance was strongest and laid waste to everything within it. The area was destroyed, not a structure surviving. Annunaki and Androids alike vaporised without distinction.

Tannacha had given the order to vaporise the area and quell any final resistance. There was absolutely no regret for the loss of his own warriors, just the order to Nalater to clear the area.

The two huge Annunaki battle cruisers had travelled from Dulles and come to rest above the stricken neighbourhood. This was the final nail in the coffin for the Dropas Androids. The few that were left were quickly mopped up by the advancing Annunaki warriors.

Just outside the levelled area an Annunaki warrior was investigating a damaged building. Something didn’t seem right about the cellar. There were what looked like heavy metal runners visible on the damaged interior walls.

One of the entrances to Earth Central had finally revealed its position.

Tannacha and Nalater swiftly flew to the site to see for themselves this ground-breaking discovery.

**

Jumouk, Lee, and Fiona were watching the last shuttle being loaded. It had been a hard slog, but all of the people that had been sheltering inside Earth Central were now safely on transports heading for Western Australia, and the final staff members including themselves were now to return to Heathrow.

As they took their seats on the shuttle, each had their own thoughts. Fiona was just very relieved that the evacuation had gone so well. Lee for his part was now planning the final stages of the distraction. The fact that the cruisers had moved was a good sign - upheaval was always good. Jumouk was thinking about the Mars base and wondering how Konoco and Marie were getting on.

When they arrived at the undersea base, they found Thourus getting ready to move the station and flood Earth Central along with the three tunnels leading to and from it.

Jumouk thanked Thourus for his help in the evacuation, and the shuttle set off back to the ESG base at Heathrow.

Thourus gave the word and Earth Central was no more, flooded out by the mighty Atlantic Ocean.

The undersea base was back on its way to its original position; the three huge transports were at rest off Western Australia; and Thourus was on his way back to Sub Sea One.

**

Nalater couldn’t quite figure out what was in the lift shafts, but it was resisting every attempt to drill or dig through it.

It was Tannacha’s intervention that saved the day. He ordered both cruisers to use fine pulse beams to bore through the ground above the base. It was long and laborious but eventually did the trick, providing two rough tunnels which came out on level two. Tannacha and Nalater used a type of hovering jet-ski to make the mile-long journey to level two, which was a lot quicker and more comfortable than walking.

When Tannacha and Nalater eventually came out of the tunnel on level two, all became apparent. A map of the base revealed how so many people could disappear at once. Nalater couldn’t help but marvel at the ingenuity of it all. Tannacha had a quite different opinion, and also wanted to know where everyone had gone.

All of a sudden there was a terrific rumbling sound and a noticeable increase in air pressure, so great that it knocked the both of them off their feet. As they picked themselves up, the rumbling noise began to turn into more of a thundering sound, with immense air pressure variations. Neither knew quite what was happening, but it was now obvious to both that this was not a healthy place to be.

They had just mounted their jet-skis when the first of thousands of tons of water burst out of the tunnel connected to level two. The race was now on. Bailey’s Crossing was only just above sea level, and the tunnels the Annunaki cruisers had just bored would very shortly be filled with part of the Atlantic Ocean.

Each took a separate tunnel with the pounding water rushing behind them as they struggled to keep ahead, and were very much in danger of being over-run as the pressure drove the water up the constricted orifices. They arrived on the surface at more or less the same time, shooting out of the watery tubes like champagne corks out a bottle.

The sight would have been hilarious if the Annunaki had a sense of humour.

**

32

Jumouk was in constant contact with Grant Ashdown at the forsaken Earth Central Base. Grant was now in charge of the twenty-four ESG assault craft still under the protection of the mag shield. He had been watching the unfolding events at the old base and even cracked a smile at the farcical scene played out by Tannacha and Nalater.

Grant was also well aware that the protection provided by the mag shield would be compromised at any second due to the flooding of Earth Central, and the demise of the generators therein.

Grant bit the bullet and told Jumouk to give him three minutes and then have the transports go for Mars.

**

Tannacha and Nalater were shaking themselves down after their episode in the tunnels, when all hell broke loose. Suddenly ESG assault vessels were everywhere; the Annunaki warriors on the ground along with the unfortunate Annunaki assault ships that had landed to view the base, were being destroyed by pulse fire, and the assault vessels that were in the air weren’t faring much better.

Tannacha and Nalater both broke for cover, the nearest shelter being a pile of rubble just across the road from them. As they dug into the rubble to provide some form of protection, Nalater spotted an empty Annunaki assault craft just two hundred feet away from their refuge.

Nalater gestured to Tannacha in the direction of the assault craft and Tannacha nodded in approval knowing what Nalater had in mind.

Grant was having a field day. It was like shooting ducks in a barrel. A state of confusion reigned within the Annunaki ranks, yet again surprise had played a major role in his success up till now.

On board the
Serpitus
battle cruiser the commander Gargius had already given the order to engage the ESG assault ships, and both cruisers were now moving in with all weapons’ banks blazing.

**

Tannacha and Nalater had seized their chance and bolted for the empty Annunaki assault vessel, as the two cruisers diverted the attention of Grant and his fellow pilots. Around ten minutes had passed, and on the other side of the world three large transports had broken water unnoticed in the confusion, and were safely halfway to Mars.

Grant ordered his squadron to break and head for Sub Sea One. The job was done.

The Annunaki assault vessel that Tannacha and Nalater had just boarded fired its engines and under the control of Nalater bolted directly upwards heading for the safe haven of the
Nephilimis,
cutting through the retreating ESG ships on the way without a single shot being fired.

When the assault craft had landed back on the
Nephilimis,
they both headed back towards the bridge, but just before they got there Tannacha stopped short at his quarters which were on the way, and without a word of explanation left Nalater to carry on alone to the bridge. Nalater couldn’t understand Tannacha’s strange behaviour. He seemed to spend more time in his quarters these days than anywhere else, the trip down to Earth Central to view it for himself being nowadays a rare event.

Still, there was work to be done. Nalater gave the order to re-group at the base within Dulles International Airport.

**

Back at the ESG Heathrow base Jumouk and Lee were going over what had just happened, and exactly where that left them, when all of a sudden Finney burst in. He had just been given the worst possible news.

The main Russian base, miles below the streets of Reutov, not too far from Moscow and with more or less the same lay-out as Earth Central, had been discovered by an Annunaki patrol. Even as they were speaking, it had come under heavy attack. The two Annunaki battle cruisers had diverted and were already there, the outer defences and weapons pods had been obliterated and Annunaki warriors were down to the second level, although they hadn’t as yet taken the control room.

Lee wrung his hands in despair.

‘Is there anything we can do?’

Jumouk shook his head slowly.

‘No, my friend, if they have penetrated the base that far I’m afraid they are lost. We must think of the bigger picture.’

‘We surely just can’t leave them to die. What about dispatching our battle cruisers?’

‘Sorry, Lee, this time their fate is sealed. Without losing everything, there is absolutely nothing we can do.’

Lee sank back down and put his head in his hands. This was really the first time the enormity of Earth’s dilemma had really sunk in.

Sure the moon base and the
Katchinas
were a loss, but they were a military loss and somehow that was different. This time there were civilian losses and he was well aware the Annunaki would not be taking prisoners.

The Annunaki assault on the Russian base was savage and involved a lot of hand-to-hand combat, with the ESG putting up a determined defence, but fighting a losing battle the whole time. The Androids were the only match for the Annunaki warriors, in most cases holding out remarkably well against them, but overwhelming numbers were now taking their toll. The control room and level two held out for six hours before the Annunaki finally suppressed all resistance.

Tannacha had again personally come down to study the lay-out and control room of the base in detail. Naturally, anything of importance had been destroyed and the computers’ hard drives fried, so that nothing was left to help the Annunaki in any way.

The third level had now also been taken, and Annunaki warriors were inside the fourth level, but experiencing no opposition from the human population sheltering there.

Tannacha wandered around the base at his leisure. Very clever, he thought to himself, the Dropas have a lot to answer for. His train of thought was interrupted by one of his commanders wanting to know what to do with the humans.

This was a quandary for him. He had expected, and prepared for, some kind of intervention from the ESG forces at Heathrow, and to his surprise nothing had been forthcoming. Tannacha waved the commander away while he gave thought to his dilemma, and what to do for the best.

He knew that he now had a distinct advantage over the ESG. All he had to do was to find where the underground bases had been hidden and that would be an end to this troublesome species.

**

33

Konoco and Marie were watching the approaching three transports. No attempt had been made by the Annunaki to intercept them, Marie assumed their departure had not been noticed by the Annunaki and that whatever distraction Lee had organised had worked.

They had no idea at all of the events that had been unfolding on Earth. Even the people on the transports were oblivious to the disaster in Russia, thanks to the radio silence. Marie had instructed the Androids on the Mars base via the computer to escort the arriving guests to appropriate quarters and settle them in.

There seemed to be a chain of command within the Android society. Some appeared to be taking command and issuing orders to others. One Android approached Marie and started to ask relevant questions as to the placement of the refugees, something which Marie was not expecting at all. It was a coherent conversation and the Android was obviously capable of thinking for itself.

This was quite different from Android behaviour on Earth, even Thourus, who was the most advanced Android on Earth. He still relied on logic and orders, while the Androids here appeared to have their own opinions and ideas.

Marie asked the Android if it had a name. It answered ‘yes’, it was called Pausanias.

The name, for some reason, seemed familiar to Marie but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Pausanias seemed to have everything under control, making requests to the computer for instructions to be passed on, even naming individual Androids with specific instructions. Marie soon excused herself. She could now quite understand why the Dropas were so undecided about the Androids. She still had a nagging doubt in the back of her head, however. That name, where had she heard it before?

Events were starting to overtake her. The three transports were getting closer now. Konoco was expanding the force field around the landing area. He didn’t know how it worked, but with the computers’ help he had found out how to make enough room for all three transports to land at once. Given the sheer size of the transports, this was an achievement in itself.

The Mars base was a hive of activity and the transports hadn’t even landed yet.

Marie made her way to the top of the lift shafts ready to help greet the people from the transports. Around about two hundred of the Mars-based Androids were waiting to usher people in the right direction when the huge transports landed. They would then be taken to the appropriate lifts and shown to their new quarters, given a hot meal and settled in. The computer would then give a virtual guided tour of the base and its facilities on huge three-dimensional viewing stands, two of which were placed in each dormitory.

This had all been arranged by Pausanias, and his higher-ranking Androids.