Battle for the Earth (30 page)

Jumouk had been waiting for him to finish his meal.

‘Bee, you must not repeat to anyone what you have just told me. If this gets out, I dread to think what it would do to morale.’

‘I understand, I still can’t believe it myself.’

Fiona now rejoined them.

‘How are you feeling, Bee?’

‘I’m Fine thanks, Fiona. Just tired.’

‘I’m not surprised. If it’s OK with you, Jumouk, I’ll take Bee to his quarters and get him settled in.’

Jumouk thanked Bee, and they left.

Lee joined Jumouk at the coffee table.

‘I’ve just heard from Finney. He and Sacha have left London and are on their way to meet up with Mark at Manassas. They’re planning another attack on Dulles.’

‘Do you know what kind of attack?’

‘Not really. They’re being very hush-hush about it.’

‘Did you hear what Bee had been telling us about the Annunaki?’

‘Yes, unfortunately the rumours are all around the base.’

‘That’s regrettable. I don’t know how this is going to affect morale.’

Lee nodded.

‘To be honest there’s not much we can do about it now the cat’s out of the bag.’

Jumouk stood up.

‘See if you can find out what Finney and Mark are up to. We could do with some good news.’

‘OK, sir, leave it with me. I’ll do my best.’

**

Mark Howden and Bill Graham were at the entrance to the sewer complex awaiting the arrival of Finney and Sacha.

The shuttle surfaced and dropped Finney and Sacha on to the small jetty. Making their way towards the entrance to the sewers, they could just make out the eerie shadows of the welcoming party.

With the introductions over, Bill took point and the small group made their way up through the complex labyrinth of tunnels, towards Manassas.

‘Tell me, Mark. Do you have many pilots?’

Finney’s question was almost nonchalant.

‘Yes, we’ve got all sorts. Why? What you got in mind, Finney?’

Finney glanced round at Sacha and smiled.

‘It’s really Sacha’s idea, and it’s so bloody simple, it’s obvious.’

‘OK, now you’ve got me interested.’

Mark was well aware of Sacha’s capabilities and training. He had quickly become one of those urban myths that grow up in uncertain times, a knight in shining armour, invincible and unstoppable.

‘All right, we’re going to need ten Hercules transports with pilots, and enough phosphorous, high explosive and sulphur to fill them all.’

Mark whistled, a long high-pitched whistle.

‘Not so easy, I’m afraid, Finney.’

Finney looked mystified.

‘How so?’

‘The planes, for a kick-off.’

Sacha interrupted.

‘I think I can help you there.’

Finney and Mark looked at each other.

‘How, exactly?’

It was Finney who asked the question.

‘I know where twenty Hercules transports are constantly held on standby.’

‘Where?’

‘George Bush International Airport, Houston, Texas, my friends. All fuelled and ready to go from a secret underground complex.’

‘I was going to ask how you knew that, but I don’t need to bother, do I?’

Finney winked at Mark.

‘He’s the real deal, isn’t he?’

Mark shook his head in disbelief.

‘Shocking! So much for national security.’

Finney put his arm around Mark and said more seriously:

‘Mark, you know that they have started making those Sybote things again, don’t you?’

‘I suspected as much. They seem to like them.’

‘I was talking to Lee. He’s confirmed that at least a hundred have been transported in some form or shape from Australia. They’re probably arriving at Dulles even as we speak. They may even be there already.’

Mark stopped for a second.

They’re a pain in the arse and even harder to kill.’

‘I know. I saw the reports. That’s why we’ve got to stop them. If they ever succeeded in mass-producing these monsters, we really would be finished.’

**

Back at the Manassas base, Mark, Finney and Sacha sat down to work out the details.

‘OK, what have you got in mind?’

Sacha stood up and started to pace around the table.

‘We need to get rid of these Sybote things once and for all. It’s difficult enough to fight the Annunaki themselves, but if they produce an army of these things, then it’s game over.’

Mark and Finney nodded in agreement.

‘The plan is for ten Hercules planes. We load them with ten full aviation fuel tankers from the airport, we strap tons of high explosive, phosphorus and sulphur to the tankers, then we fly over Dulles and drop the tankers right on top of the bastards. We get massive explosions, burning phosphorus that will melt anything it comes in contact with, and best of all sulphur dioxide creating strong sulphuric acid to eat and burn away anything that’s left.’

‘Brilliant! Improvised daisy cutters! Finney, where did you get this guy?’

Mark was thoroughly impressed with the ingenuity of the plan. The so-called ‘daisy cutter’ bombs were second only to nuclear devices for causing utter devastation.

‘Now let’s get to it, gentlemen, before any more of the bastards show up,’ said Finney.

This last comment was a reference to the expected arrival of the second Annunaki battle group.

**

48

Tannacha was impressed with Nalater’s efforts; he had brought him one hundred pre-programmed humans. This was going to save a lot of time processing them into Sybotes. With luck he would have most of them finished by the time the new battle group arrived.

The Sybote production facility was already in the process of creating more human Sybotes out of the new batch that had arrived from Australia. Tannacha wondered if the high council back on Nibiru had made any headway with his idea about Annunaki Sybotes. Anyway, he would probably find out when the new fleet arrived.

Nalater was overseeing the production of the Sybotes personally. He was fascinated by the process of turning a human being into an unthinking killing machine. The process was going well: five Sybotes had already been completed at the cost of just ten human lives.

Tannacha had returned to the bridge of his flagship to await the imminent arrival of the second battle group. He was just practising his welcoming oration to impress the new commanders when Nalater’s shuttle docked with the five new Sybotes on board.

Nalater and his Sybotes made straight for the bridge where Nalater immediately gave the order and the Sybotes set to work.

Tannacha and his personal guard of four elite Annunaki warriors put up a good fight but were no match for Nalater’s new assassination squad. The bridge quickly turned into a killing ground, with dead Annunaki warriors strewn everywhere, including the limbless and headless torso of the once-feared Tannacha.

**

Nalater now took control of all the Annunaki forces on Earth. He brought in key Annunaki warriors who he knew were loyal to him to take charge of the
Nephilimis,
and to proclaim him the Supreme Commander of all Annunaki forces.

His victory was to be short lived, however.

In all the commotion and excitement no one had been monitoring the proximity detectors, and the arrival of the resistance squadron of ten Hercules transports above Dulles had gone quite undetected.

**

The unusual and somewhat odd-looking daisy bombs had been triggered to explode at five hundred feet above the base. This was to maximise the impact. As aviation fuel, high explosives, phosphorus and sulphur mingled together to create a series of massive explosions, the destruction was total.

There were ten huge explosions in all. Between them they razed the whole base to the ground, leaving not a single structure standing in an eight-square-mile area, with virtually nothing left alive.

In most cases the Annunaki warriors were killed instantly, but some unlucky ones died in screaming agony as the phosphorus burnt though their flesh and into their bones and skeletal structure. The strong sulphuric acid caused by the fusion of molecules of sulphur and O
₂
during the explosions filtered through every gap in the rubble, eating any surviving flesh or bone, alive or dead.

The Dulles base and production facility had been destroyed totally in one diabolically clever raid.

The
Nephilimis
fared no better than the base. Explosions tore through her outer hull, and white-hot phosphorus burnt through her insides like a blast furnace melting steel.

There were no survivors. What was left of the
Nephilimis
crashed into the ruins of what had once been the Dulles base.

**

From the Hercules transports the spectacle below was one that signified total victory.

If the Annunaki had ever thought that Earth would just roll over and die, this would be a permanent reminder to them of mankind’s determination to survive, even against all the odds.

Finney was elated. Sacha, by contrast, looked thoughtful. He was, after all, a realist. This had been a great success, but there was a new battle group on the way and he knew that this might not be handicapped by such shoddy and inept leadership.

**

Sacha was right. At the same time as the Hercules transports were landing back at Houston, the second Annunaki battle group appeared from hyper-space orbiting over Earth. With the help of the two small lead shuttles they had successfully navigated the hazardous debris field further out in space, proving from the outset that this commander was to be no one’s fool.

The flagship of this second battle group, the
Orpious,
settled into a high orbit above Earth and North America. Sutan, the commander of battle group, had been surprised not to have received any word from his brother, Tannacha.

Leaving most of his fleet in geosynchronous orbit above Dulles, Sutan took his flagship and two other cruisers down to the Dulles base to investigate.

The sight that greeted them was beyond anything they could have imagined. Total devastation was visible everywhere. Nothing could have survived within the area of the base or indeed in the wreckage which was only just recognisable as the
Nephilimis.

In a black rage Sutan immediately signalled the battle cruisers back into orbit, with orders to target and pulverise all the capital cities throughout Earth as a taste of the retribution to come. Wasting no time, the battle cruisers broke orbit and shot off to rain death and destruction down on city after city from their massive banks of pulse weapons. New York, London, Paris, Minsk, Tripoli, Pretoria, Edinburgh, Dublin were obliterated, as the Annunaki cruisers moved from continent to continent, mercilessly intent upon wiping out all trace of mankind’s presence on planet Earth.

**

Sutan and his two escort cruisers began the task of finding any ESG ships or cruisers still left operational, although even with proximity detectors this was going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

With no initial success Sutan ordered all assault vessels to disembark from the battle cruisers and start searching on Earth, around the moon and on Mars. Hundreds upon hundreds of Annunaki assault craft were now out on search-and-destroy missions, each one of them itching for a fight.

Part of Earth’s resistance was now to be in the Dulles area, and Sutan gave the order to unleash the Annunaki Sybotes, one thousand strong, to spread out from the old Dulles base and destroy the resistance once and for all.

The huge transport ship
Gerona
came gently down to rest on the flattened Dulles base. The Annunaki Sybotes that disembarked from the ship were indeed fearsome monsters, and virtually uncontrollable. With the fitting of the second mind-control device they had at least stopped killing one other, but it was still a case of letting the mad dogs out, rabid ones at that.

Sutan himself had very little time for these monstrosities and even less faith in them. They had been Tannacha’s idea and had been taken up by the Annunaki high council as an experiment.

Sutan’s own perspective on things was much less fanciful and certainly much simpler: just flatten the planet, kill all its inhabitants, apart from what was needed for a future food source, and rebuild it to suit Annunaki requirements.

This is the way things would be. Earth would be ready for colonisation within a month, and vengeance would be taken for the destruction of the first invasion fleet.

**

49

Jumouk watched the arrival of the second Annunaki battle group in despair. He had known it was on its way, and how big it was. Here was the irrefutable fact, in the flesh, and it was already demonstrating a quite different battle strategy.

Dulles had been a huge success, but the timing had been unfortunate with the arrival of the second battle group right on the heels of the destruction of the first fleet. Now these battle cruisers were systematically destroying every capital city on Earth with ruthless and breathtaking precision.