Striker (The Alien Wars Book 2) (8 page)

Molly pried herself
away from the stunning landscape below. “You didn’t tell us how you can speak
English.”

“I’ve been
stationed on Earth for many of your years. That, as well as going through the
training program, means that I can speak almost as well as you.”

“Training
program?” Derek frowned. “What do you mean?”

“If you’re
selected to travel to other planets, you’re put through a stringent training
regime that includes learning the major languages of the planet that you’re
going to be sent to. So, as I was coming here, I learned Mandarin and English.”

Molly shook her
head in wonder. “I find it hard to learn two languages. I can’t imagine how
hard it would be to learn three languages.”

“Not for me. It’s
a simple process. Besides, we can automatically get any language translated
into ours if—”

“Hey!” Mike shouted
as he emerged from the other room. “I just spoke to one of our contacts. There’s
an order going through to take out
Redding
.”

“When will the strike
package leave?” Carl asked, looking worried.

“It already left.”
Mike hurried up to the controls and studied them for a moment. “We’ll have to
increase the speed if we’re going to make it in time.”

“How long ago did
it leave?” Carl asked.

“A few minutes ago.
It departed from
Las Vegas
, so we
don’t have time to waste.” Mike looked at the humans. “You better get back to
your seats. It might be bumpy, depending on the weather.”

“When are you
going to drop us off?” Derek asked.

Mike glanced at
him. “Sorry, I can’t. The military is going to get destroyed in less than ten
minutes.”

“Destroyed?”
Molly questioned.

“Yes. If we get
to
Redding
in time, we’ll be able to warn them. If not …” Mike shook his head.
“I’m increasing the speed now.”

“Come
on,
let’s get back to our seats.” Kenneth hurried back and
sat down.

“You’d better put
the strap on,” Mike said.

Kenneth glanced
around and saw a strap hanging down one side of the seat. “You’d better find
yours too,” he said, glancing at the teens.

It didn’t take
long for the Striker to increase speed. Kenneth could see how much the speed
had increased by glancing through the glass. Previously, he could see the trees
and houses, but now it was just a blur.

The Striker
streaked across the sky as the sun started to go down. Looking ahead, Mike saw
a huge wall of clouds, dark and gloomy.
 
“Grab a good hold, everyone,” he shrieked.
“Storm just
ahead!”

The words had
barely left his mouth, when the craft shook from side to side. As it entered
the wall of clouds, the light disappeared, leaving only the blinking lights of
the controls.

“Are you all
right?” Kenneth struggled to be heard above the noise of the storm.

The teens nodded
as a crack of thunder close by rocked the craft. Mike struggled with the
controls as he tried to
maneuver
the craft out of the
thunderstorm. After ten or so hair-raising seconds, the turbulence lessened and
the aircraft shot out the other side of the storm.

Once Mike was
sure that the storm would no longer be an issue, he slowed the aircraft down.
Looking at the screen in front of him, he saw that they were approaching the
city. “Now we’ll find out if we’re too late or not.”

Mike and Carl
gazed forward at the screen in front of them. Pinkish clouds hung over the
city. It seemed so peaceful.

After reaching
the city
center
, the Striker hovered in the air.
Leaving the controls on standby, Carl and Mike hurried into the other cabin.

“What are they
doing?” Molly asked.

“I don’t know.”
Kenneth stood up and followed the men. The teens couldn’t resist and chased
after him.

Kenneth had
briefly glanced at the thing that looked like a television screen as he
entered, but he hadn’t studied it closely as he had been more interested in the
main control room. Also, back then, it was just a blank screen.
But not now.
Now, it was all lit up, showing crystal clear
images of the city of
Redding
.

“Are these live
images?” Kenneth asked, astounded.

Mike whistled.
Touching the screen, he zoomed to street level. Images of soldiers working
furiously, and even the exhaust from one of the jeeps, could be seen.

It looked so
realistic and so close, almost as though you could reach out and touch the
people. One of the soldiers looked up.

“Can they see us?”
Derek asked.

“Yes. And they
just have.”

Soon, more
soldiers looked up at them. Some even opened fire with their rifles.

Mike smiled grimly.
“Good.”

“Good? But
they’re shooting at us,” Kenneth said.

“Yes,
which means that everyone will be alert for when the ground forces
attack.
”

“But we’re not
sending any ground forces,” Kenneth replied.

“No, but the
incoming aircraft will be.” Mike tilted his brow at Carl. “Search the sky.”

Carl adjusted the
controls and the buildings of
Redding
disappeared. “If they’re aiming for maximum damage, they’ll be as
high as possible.”

Everyone was
silent as Carl searched the surrounding sky. No aircraft could be seen. Kenneth
let out a sigh of relief.
“Looks like we got here in time.”

“Maybe.
Okay, we’ll head for …” Mike jerked
his head around as something emerged from one of the nearby clouds. He cursed. “There
she is. Come on, we’ll need to distract it.”

As Mike and Carl
rushed off to the control room, the others took a closer look at the aircraft
heading toward them.

Kenneth narrowed
his eyes. ”It’s the same damn type of aircraft that we saw when fleeing
San Francisco
.
Logan
called it the
Destructor, and for good reason.” Twice the size as the Striker, this flying
killer was imposing even from a distance.

“It looks just
like a glider,” Molly said.

Kenneth just
grunted. The material was shiny, and even though the wings were thin, they seemed
strong, not flimsy like most glider wings. Maybe this was because they appeared
to be covered in the same material that had covered the briefcase. There was
one other major advantage the Destructor had over the Striker. It was as quiet
as a mouse at a cat convention. It could probably glide from the stratosphere
to the height of a treetop and drop a bomb in their laps before they even knew
they were in trouble.

As their aircraft
tilted to one side, they rushed back to their seats. After strapping in, they
stared through the glass as the Striker approached the Destructor.

“What’s the plan?”
Kenneth asked
,
staring as the glider got closer and
closer.

“Are you going to
shoot it down?” Derek said.

“No. The
armor
is too powerful. Any attack, even from our weapons,
would fail,” Mike said.

As the Striker
flew above the Destructor, the other aircraft didn’t even deviate from its
path. It started to circle the city.

As Mike took the
controls and flew directly above the glider, Carl went to the back of the
Striker. Mike lowered the aircraft until there was only fifteen feet separating
them from the Destructor.

“Is he going to
place explosives on the aircraft?” Kenneth asked.

“Yes, though we
don’t carry ones that are strong enough to blast through the
armor
, so they’ll have to be placed inside the aircraft,”
Mike said.

“I’m going now!” Carl
bellowed.

Mike turned to
Kenneth. “Use the screen in the other room to tell me when he’s on the other
aircraft.”

Kenneth raced
off. The teens were already staring at the screen. Kenneth didn’t know how to
adjust the camera, but fortunately, he didn’t have to. The Destructor filled up
the entire screen. On the edge of the screen was a rope ladder that Carl was
climbing down. The ladder dangled to and fro, but Carl kept his cool and soon
stepped onto the other aircraft. “He’s reached it!”

The Striker drew
back a little and rose slightly higher as Mike fine-tuned the controls. Kenneth
wasn’t sure why he had done this, but at least Mike could also watch.

“Why isn’t the
other aircraft firing on us?” Molly asked.

“It probably
doesn’t see us a threat,” Derek said. “Isn’t that right?”

Kenneth nodded absently
and focused all his attention on Carl, who had wound the explosives around his
waist and was crawling across the top of the Destructor. Even with the wind
buffeting him, Carl didn’t stray off course.

“He must have
pretty good shoes to do that,” Molly said.

Despite the
situation, Kenneth smiled. “Imagine what would happen if humans and Seods
worked together and shared their technologies. The world would be an amazing
place.”

“Much better than
all-out war,” Derek said.

The three of them
watched as Carl opened up some sort of hatch and disappeared into the heart of
the Destructor.

Kenneth glanced
at his watch before he stared at the screen. Everyone fell silent as the
seconds ticked by.
 

“Hey! It’s
changing course,” Derek said.

Kenneth muttered
to himself as he saw that the teen was right. The beast had been going around
in a circle for the last few minutes, but now it swooped back in the same
direction it had come from.

Molly sighed.
“That’s not good.”

“No.” Kenneth
stood up and hurried back to Mike. “What do you think happened?”

“I don’t know.”
Mike slowed the Striker and climbed fifty feet. “If they shoot at us, I want to
be ready to flee. Our
armor
isn’t quite as thick as
theirs, so the closer we are to them, the less chance we’ll have of surviving.”

“He must have
been captured,” Kenneth said. “It wouldn’t have taken that long to plant the
explosives.” He frowned as he saw the expression on Mike’s face. Something was
off, as he didn’t look too distraught. “He’s trying to turn them, isn’t he?
Trying to get them to work for the
Alliance
?”

Mike gazed at
Kenneth. “You’re a smart man. You catch on quick.”

Kenneth leaned
forward and hummed at the giant shadow rising through the
gray
clouds. “Hey, I recognize that mountain. Isn’t that
Mount Shasta
?”

“Yep.
And also the
site of our base.”

Derek frowned.
“Of course.
It all fits.”

“What?” Molly
asked.

Derek glanced
between his sister and Kenneth. “George said something about a mountain
northwest of
Lake Tahoe
. The one nicknamed
Death
Mountain
.”

“
Death
Mountain
?
Where everyone
dies?” Molly cried out.

“Yes, but don’t
be afraid. We’re not going …” Mike paused as Carl emerged from the Destructor,
waving furiously. “Ah, that does not look good.” He quickly adjusted the
controls and the Striker increased speed. “Tell me when I’m above him,” Mike
said, glancing at Kenneth.

Kenneth raced
back to the other room, all thoughts of
Mount
Shasta
forgotten. He stared at the sight
on the screen as the rope ladder got closer and closer to the Destructor. As
soon as it reached the surface, he yelled, “It’s touching.”

“Can he reach it?”
Mike shouted back.

“Yes, he’s going
toward it now.” Kenneth stared as Carl marched toward the ladder. Suddenly, a massive
blast ripped through the inside of the Destructor.

The ship took a
nosedive, with Carl running for the ladder. Before he could grab it, the ladder
spun off into the open air.

 
“He can’t get it!” Kenneth roared. “You need
to descend faster!”

“I’m trying to!”
Mike howled.

The Destructor
steepened its dive. Even though the Striker tried to follow the same path, it
couldn’t match the trajectory of the other aircraft as it started to spin.

Kenneth stared
helplessly as Carl ran back to the hatch and disappeared from sight. Kenneth
hurried back to Mike and the teens, who were gazing through the glass in shock.
“Did you see that?”

“He must be
trying to land,” Derek said.