Battle for the Earth (21 page)

Tannacha scowled and gestured in the direction of the coffin. He thought to himself: Nalater can be really stupid at times. I just wish he’d think more like me.

Finally the penny dropped and Nalater spluttered:

‘You mean you’re going to turn six billion people into robots?’

‘Not all of them, and not robots. Sybotes. Good name, though isn’t it? Sounds like someone’s name. Anyway only one in a hundred of them makes it all the way through the process.’

‘Let me get this straight, you’re going to create sixty million Sybotes?’

‘Not that many. Just some of them, after we’ve colonised Earth. Our very own, totally obedient slave force.’

‘Colonise Earth? I thought we just came for the gold, and to kill humans.’

‘Change of plan, my friend. You need to keep up with the times.’

Nalater pulled himself up. The shock of it all had made him forget who he was talking to. He was now in danger of having his head removed from his shoulders.

‘Excellent plan, commander. I don’t know how you do it.’

‘It’s a gift, Nalater, a gift. Now we need to get things organised.’

‘How do you mean, commander?’

‘Let’s see if the Sybotes work.’

With that, Tannacha moved to the other side of the room. He threw open the door to reveal at least twenty-five working Sybotes standing to attention in the large dusky cellar.

**

38

On the Mars base everything was going swimmingly. A routine had been established with the civilians and the staff now running the base, including the Androids who were going down particularly well.

Konoco and Marie had watched the
Iron Duke
and the rest of the flotilla leave Heathrow and had returned to the surface of Mars to greet the new arrivals. Watching the shuttles ferrying people down from the
Iron Duke,
Marie felt a sense of pride at being part of all this. The survival of mankind and I’m helping to achieve it! The thought was overwhelming.

Suddenly Konoco moved away. He had spotted Jumouk and began heading in his direction. Because of the lack of communication there was a lot of catching up to do.

When Lee and Grant had woken up, the six of them -Lee, Grant, Konoco, Jumouk, Marie and Fiona - met up in one of the large conference rooms.

Jumouk welcomed everybody, thanked them for coming, and announced that the first thing on the agenda was the redistribution of responsibilities.

Jumouk was to retain overall leadership, with Konoco his second in command.

Lee would stay as head of ESG, and Grant was made officially head of assault craft squadrons. Marie was now in charge of the Mars base, with Fiona second in command. Pausanias was head of the humanoid Androids on the Mars base.

Finney was promoted to second in command of Earth ESG, reporting to Lee, and in charge of liaison with the resistance. Sacha was directly responsible for Earth resistance and coordination. Mark Howden was made second in charge of the Earth resistance. Thourus remained as first in command of the Android TAG, and ACM forces, with Balac as his second in command.

It had taken a long time to sort out, but eventually everybody’s responsibilities had been made clear. Jumouk was satisfied that the mechanics of leadership were now properly in place. The next priority was to establish a new battle plan.

**

The Mars base was proving to be a godsend for humanity. It was now providing shelter for up to one and a half million people. Even with the worst-possible scenario, this was still enough of a gene pool to start humanity again.

The rest of the population on Earth, however, was still constantly in danger of discovery, even though they were in the camouflaged bases. The Annunaki had already shown how determined they could be at worming out the Earth bases. A plan of action was desperately needed to prevent any more of them being discovered.

Jumouk left this job in Lee’s hands. After all, he had already shown a great aptitude for making the impossible happen. Finney would be responsible for coordinating the harassment of the Annunaki ground patrols, especially around the bases, to distract search-and-destroy patrols. Grant’s main job would now be the defence of Mars with his squadrons of ESG assault ships along with the two battle cruisers,
Iron Duke
and
Victory.
Thourus and Balac would provide air cover for the remaining ESG forces on Earth, coordinating with Finney and the Earth resistance leaders.

Slowly but surely a strategy and structure were coming together; Jumouk was anxious to leave the fighting to others, run the overall strategy, and return to a structured battle plan.

He called an end to the meeting and asked if everybody could report back to Lee as developments progressed. Lee and Jumouk could then make decisions based on the available information, so as to best utilise the forces available to them.

**

Marie and Fiona were getting down to serious business, having Pausanias explain all the workings of the Mars base. This was going to be a lengthy task, so Marie was going to have to prioritise: defensive and offensive weapons first, then proximity detection, followed by life support and logistics. Fiona could then take over the more routine aspects of administration.

Marie was fascinated by the proximity detectors. They were far superior to the ones on the battle cruisers, being more accurate and having a much longer range. As she watched the Dulles base she could see almost every movement there. Somehow, whoever had built this base had managed to conquer the line-of-sight problem. It didn’t matter what you wanted to see, it was there irrespective of the position of Earth or Mars, or for that matter any other planet. It was so clever!

Pausanias now described the defence systems. Apparently they were scattered all around Mars in generous quantities. Even if a fleet of battle cruisers attacked, the defences would be able to cope. Someone had been expecting trouble, Marie thought to herself.

The long-range offensive weapons were excellent as well. Several banks of them were located within the base and the rest around the planet surface, each bank able to track different targets.

All in all, the Mars base was a pretty good and safe place to be just now.

**

Grant had now organised low-level patrols of ESG assault vessels, which would skim the surface of the planet looking for anything out of the ordinary. There was also a wing of twenty-five assault ships on permanent scramble in case they were needed on Earth or in space.

Lee had broken radio silence and sent scrambled orders to Finney in London. Finney had responded with an update on his ESG forces and the resistance movement on Earth.

Fiona had the most mundane job of all, but one in which her organisational skills came into play, arranging shift patterns for the staff to ensure full cover twenty-four hours a day. Then there were the meals, the accommodation and, not least, entertainment. Boredom was one of the quickest ways to demoralise a successful community. All this was achieved with the willing help of the base Androids, for which Fiona was eternally grateful, as she had very little working knowledge of the systems.

Meanwhile Jumouk and Konoco were poring over numerous scenarios. They wanted to be prepared for anything and everything. All in all they felt that they weren’t doing that badly all things considered. There hadn’t been any huge loss of human civilian life as yet and the Mars base was pretty secure and providing new surprises by the hour. The Annunaki had for some reason apparently holed up at Dulles and, although there appeared to be a lot of activity, they didn’t seem to be going anywhere fast.

Neither had broached the question that was at the back of everyone’s mind: where had the Mars base come from and, if it wasn’t the Dropas who had built it, then who had?

This was the missing bit of the jigsaw that really troubled Jumouk. If there was someone else out there, who were they, and were they friendly? Or were they just some race from hundreds of thousands of years ago, and were now extinct? No one seemed to be able to answer him, not even the sentient Androids on the base - or, at least, they didn’t seem to want to answer him.

Lee buzzed the door of the annexe room next to Jumouk’s quarters. Konoco invited him in. The annexe was in the style of all the rooms on the base, pleasantly decorated, functional and relaxing with mood lighting and comfortable furniture.

‘Lee, how can I help you?’

Konoco was glad of the interruption; it had been a long day.

‘I just thought I’d bring you up to date. I’ve talked to London and everybody’s being brought up to speed by Finney and Sacha. For some reason everything seems quiet down there - well, for the time being anyway.’

‘Good, any more thoughts on that task Jumouk set you?’

‘Sorry, Konoco, not as yet. This is going to be a tough one.’

Konoco nodded.

‘Thanks anyway, Lee. Keep working on it.’

Lee excused himself, and left for the control room.

**

39

Tannacha was giving instructions to one of the scientists who was running his Sybote operation. The orders were simple. Five of the Sybotes would hunt down all the snipers that were causing a problem round the perimeter of the base. They would be armed with pulse weapons and hand-to-hand combat weapons. They would also be fitted with personal communication devices and an advanced form of CCTV, so that Tannacha and Nalater could monitor their progress.

Sitting back comfortably in front of a line of viewers, Tannacha and Nalater commenced their watch.

All five Sybotes were moving swiftly toward the outer perimeter; Nalater disabled his perimeter defences to allow them through and outside into the buildings and rubble.

‘So far so good!’ exclaimed an excited Tannacha.

The view from the CCTV couldn’t have been better; as a small muzzle flash could be seen from the front of Sybote no. 1, the sound of a hollow point bullet could be heard crunching into the Sybote’s head. The Sybote didn’t so much as falter, moving with tremendous speed and agility, so that within three seconds it was on to the sniper’s position.

The preferred method of termination by this Sybote was removal of the sniper’s head by hand, in one lightning-fast movement. The torso of the sniper slumped to the ground and the Sybote held his prize aloft for all to see.

This provoked a hail of sniper fire, pinpointing the positions of the other snipers. Moving remorselessly through the hail of fire, one after another the Sybotes terminated their targets. The bullets simply bounced off their armoured exoskeletons. Not one pulse weapon had been used by the Sybotes. All of them seemed to prefer the ‘personal’ touch. Half an hour had seen all the resistance snipers wiped out and not one Sybote injured.

Tannacha gave the order to recall the Sybotes. He had one last surprise for Nalater.

At the first stage of creating the Sybotes - the introduction of the electronic scorpion for mind control - it was possible to re-educate the humans in this state to be used as spies. With the proper re-education they could pass for normal, infiltrate the resistance, and pass back vital information about positions and plans.

After the resounding success of the Sybotes, Tannacha had now released ten of the spies into the surrounding area.

However, it would not have been Tannacha if there hadn’t been a twist in the tail. All ten of the spies had been afflicted with horrendous injuries by the Annunaki, ranging from amputations to serious head wounds. Some of them wouldn’t survive until they were found, but that didn’t matter so long as the rest that were rescued were credible.

This game plan really was wait and see; the outcome at this stage was completely unknown.

**

Mark Howden, the resistance commander in Dulles, was just receiving word that his snipers had been slaughtered. No one could be specific as to how it had happened, only that there were no survivors.

This was the second piece of bad news today. Finney had contacted him to tell him he was now second in command of all Earth’s resistance forces, reporting to Sacha in London. His remit was clear: find, organise and unite any resistance groups scattered worldwide. This would involve setting up an efficient communications network that was Annunaki proof.

It was going to be a massive task, and all while he was fighting the biggest force of Annunaki warriors on the planet, right on his doorstep. Fortunately for Mark he had amongst his band of resistance some of the top communications people on the planet. This would now be their job, a task which Mark had every confidence they would make look easy. After all, it was they who had been able to set up communications with London.

But back to the matter in hand. Mark now had to find out what had happened in Dulles with the snipers. He ordered two patrols to go to Dulles International and see if they could piece together what had happened there. The patrols were under strict instruction not to engage the enemy. This was strictly a fact-finding mission.

As the patrols picked their way around the perimeter of Dulles the carnage inflicted on the snipers was all too apparent, and the fact that they had all more or less been killed in the same way was puzzling.