The Star Cross: The Dark Invaders (36 page)

Mark leaned forward, his curiosity piqued.

“The civilian complex here is truly amazing. It’s
a cylinder nearly fourteen kilometers long and three wide with a ceiling nearly
a kilometer above. It’s located beneath a chain of rugged mountains and lies
nearly seven kilometers beneath the ground. It was built with technology we
gleaned from the crashed Roswell ship. We used massive heat beams to vaporize
the rocks and create the chambers we needed to build our facilities in. Also a
series of labs, living quarters, and recreation areas were set in the walls of
the complex, providing us the maximum amount of living space. The huge open
spaces of the complex were determined to be needed, in case we had to spend
much time underground. Some of the world’s best scientists and technicians have
been gathered into this complex, as has a select group of other civilians. We
have nearly two hundred and eighty thousand nonmilitary personnel in the
civilian complex.”

Mark leaned back in his chair, surprised and
amazed at what Colonel Branson was describing. The work done was breathtaking
and that so many people had been safeguarded here was unbelievable. He could
hardly wait to see this habitat, this underground world. For the first time in
a number of days, he began to feel hope.

“There are also two smaller military complexes.
We plan to continue harassing operations against the Trellixians from the two
bases. We’ve built a number of deep underground subway tunnels, shielded from
Trellixian detection, to allow us to move about large parts of the country
virtually undetected. We’ll be supplying new weapons we’ve developed to
surviving civilian populations on the surface. When the Trellixians attacked,
we were nearly ready to put a new rifle into production—the scientists call it
a pulse rifle. It fires a thin stream of energy which will cut through a solid
sheet of steel like it’s butter. We have an assembly line set up in the
civilian complex, and the first one thousand pulse rifles should be ready
within four weeks.”

“Sounds like something our troops could have
used,” Mark replied bitterly, remembering how they had been unable to penetrate
the suits of armor the Trellixian ground troops wore with their conventional
weapons.

“If we’d been given more time…” replied Branson,
nodding his head in agreement. “The two military complexes are located short
distances from the civilian complex. Each contains six thousand highly trained
troops plus support personnel. The troops will be used for quick surgical
strikes against the Trellixians, once our forces are equipped and trained with
the new weapons.”

“What are our chances against the Trellixians?”
Mark asked. They would still be facing almost insurmountable odds.

“If we can arm the civilian population and
disperse it as much as possible, we can wage a guerrilla war against the
Trellixians for years. Some of our troops will be assigned to training civilian
militias. With the resources of our three complexes, we can make our world
untenable for them. Our scientists are the best the world has to offer and are
working intently on finding something we can use against our enemy. Given time,
we may find what we need, but our job will be to disrupt the enemy as much as
possible and to ensure that as large a section of the civilian population
survives as possible.”

Mark was silent for a long moment. “That may be
all well and good, sir, but the Trellixians have their battlecruisers, and as
long as those are in orbit around Earth, I don’t see what we can do. They also
have that new weapon they used, and I’m not sure even these complexes you have
been telling me about would be safe from it. Captain Reynolds thought it might
be an antimatter weapon.”

“Come over here, Major,” ordered Colonel Branson.

Mark did as ordered, wondering what the colonel
wanted.

“I’m about to show you our biggest secret,
something we’ve been working on for years.” Colonel Branson then turned and
pressed a button on the wall. Instantly part of the wall slid open, revealing a
large window. “Look.”

Mark stepped forward and glanced out the window.
He stood frozen scarcely believing what he was seeing. “Are those what I think
they are?”

“Yes,” replied Branson, looking down at the busy
scene below.

He and the colonel were high up, overlooking a
large cavern. It held a huge construction facility with five large objects
lying in their berths. Each was a massive cylinder with a curved bow and flared
stern.

“Those are spaceships, one thousand meters in
length and two hundred meters in diameter,” Branson informed Mark with a large
smile on his face.

Mark was speechless as he gazed at the huge
constructions. It was obvious they still had a ways to go before they were
finished. Several of the vessels had armor missing on their hulls, and each was
covered in a spiderweb lattice of scaffolding. Construction workers swarmed
over the vessels, and the bright arcs of welders flashed everywhere.

“How?” he finally managed to blurt out.

“As I told you earlier, we reverse engineered
many of the systems from the ship in the Roswell crash and had the help of the
one survivor, Catelli, the ship’s engineer.”

“How soon before they’re done?” Mark still felt
stunned at what he was seeing. It was hard to believe that, very shortly, the
human race might have its own interstellar spaceships.

“Two more years,” Branson replied. “We’d hoped to
have them finished before the Trellixians showed up, but that didn’t happen.”

“What’s to become of me, sir?” Mark asked.
“What’s my next assignment?”

“I’m going to assign you to one of those ships,”
Branson answered with a slight smile. “I want you to learn how they function
from bow to stern, and, in two years, you’ll be helping to drive the
Trellixians from our world.”

“What if we can’t?”

Branson was quiet for a moment, as he gazed out
at the ships. “We leave,” he replied in a steadfast voice. “We load the ships
with our most able and brightest people and send them out into the galaxy to
find a new world to start over on. Perhaps someday they can return to Earth and
set it free.”

Mark felt his heart quicken at the thought of
searching the galaxy for a new world. It would be a great experience finding
one and starting human civilization on a virgin planet. It would also be sad,
as it would signify the loss of humanity’s home world, perhaps forever.

Mark’s eyes returned to the ships in the
construction facility. He was amazed at what had been accomplished here. When
the big military base had been destroyed, he’d thought Earth was finished and
that the human race would fade away to extinction. Now they had hope and the
possibility of a future. Someday the humans would rise from the ashes, and the
Trellixians would learn what they had awakened by attacking Earth. From this
last bastion of hope the human race would reach out and conquer the stars.

The full story will
be available early in 2017

Other Books by Raymond L. Weil

Available at Amazon

Moon Wreck (The Slaver
Wars Book 1)

The Slaver Wars:
Alien Contact (The Slaver Wars Book 2)

Moon Wreck: Fleet Academy (The Slaver Wars Book 3)

The Slaver Wars:
First Strike (The Slaver Wars Book 4)

The Slaver Wars:
Retaliation (The Slaver Wars Book 5)

The Slaver Wars:
Galactic Conflict (The Slaver Wars Book 6)

The Slaver Wars: Endgame (The Slaver Wars
Book 7)

-

Dragon Dreams

Dragon Dreams: Dragon Wars

Dragon Dreams: Gilmreth the Awakening

Dragon Dreams: Snowden the White Dragon

-

Star One: Tycho City: Survival

Star One: Neutron Star

Star One: Dark Star

Star One

-

Galactic Empire Wars: Destruction (Book
1)

Galactic Empire Wars: Emergence (Book 2)

Galactic Empire Wars: Rebellion (Book 3)

Galactic Empire Wars: The Alliance (Book 4)

Galactic Empire Wars: Insurrection (Book
5)

-

The Lost Fleet:
Galactic Search (Book 1)

The Lost Fleet: Into
the Darkness (Book 2)

The Lost Fleet:
Oblivion’s Light (Book 3)

The Lost Fleet:
Genesis (Book 4)

-

The Star Cross (Book
1)

The Star Cross: The
Dark Invaders (Book 2)

-

(All dates are
tentative)

The
Lost Fleet: Search for the Originators (Book 5) October 2016

The
Star Cross: Galaxy in Peril (Book 3) December 2016