The Star Cross: The Dark Invaders (33 page)

Earth Fall

Major Mark Dolan crawled painfully to the top of
the small brush-covered hill he’d been behind for the last several hours. His
uniform was ragged and filthy; blood ran from a shallow, jagged cut on his
forehead, the result of a splinter grenade falling too close to his position.
Only by throwing himself to the ground upon realizing what was about to happen
had Dolan survived at all. The private who had been with him lay dead, his body
torn apart by the grenade.

Around Dolan, dead bodies and burned-out vehicles
were everywhere. Unfortunately most of the bodies were human and not
Trellixian. The aliens were nearly unstoppable, their vehicles protected by
energy shields and possessing weapons much more powerful than the humans’. The
enemy could be killed with great effort, but normally the attacking humans died
in the attempt. However, the humans were fighting for their world, and there
was never a shortage of volunteers to attempt the almost impossible.

In the distance Dolan could hear the heavy
explosions of powerful warp missiles and more splinter grenades blasting away
at the weakening human defenses. The Trellixians were rapidly pushing back the
meager remnants of Earth’s military toward the bunker complex that housed their
last-known active base. For nearly twelve hours, Mark and his handpicked squad
had been watching the battle. Their job was to stay on the outskirts,
undetected, and report back to their superiors the results of the battle.
Several times Mark had been tempted to join in the fighting when a Trellixian
passed within weapons range, but his orders were very explicit. No contact with
the enemy! Observe and report back!

“Major, this is Captain Reynolds. I’m in
position,” a female voice said over his earpiece.

Everyone in his squad wore a small communications
earpiece, set to a frequency they didn’t think the enemy would be monitoring,
so they could stay in contact with one another. It was a risk, but one that was
necessary if they wanted to complete their mission.

Captain Lisa Reynolds was two hundred meters to
his west on another small ridge, which provided a good view of the ongoing
battle. She had two other soldiers with her, assigned to keep her safe.
Reynolds was a military analyst sent on this mission to gather data on
Trellixian battle techniques. Mark wasn’t sure what good that would do if the
mountain base and its bunker complex were destroyed. As far as Mark knew,
resistance across the planet had been smashed, and this was the last major
surviving military installation still fighting back.

“Make sure you record everything,” ordered Mark,
as his gaze swept across the embattled human defensive lines. Several massive
explosions struck the human lines, blasting deep smoking holes in the ground.
Mark thought he could see soldiers pulling back from the besieged positions.
“Keep messages to a minimum. We don’t want to tip off the enemy we’re here.”

“Yes, sir,” Reynolds replied. “We’ve got my
equipment set up and are recording the battle.”

“Don’t take any unnecessary risks,” Mark
instructed. “I want us all to get back safely.”

Removing his battle helmet and enhanced vision
goggles, he wiped the sweat from his brow and cautiously rose up to better see
what lay on the other side of the small hill. A blackened ruin of blasted
earth, burned-out trees, destroyed vehicles and dead bodies lay as far as his
trained eyes could see. Several kilometers to the north, close to the
mountains, he could see the fighting still raged, the meager Earth forces
battling desperately to hold on to the last bastion of hope against a fearless,
overpowering enemy who knew no mercy.

After sliding his goggles and helmet back on, he
adjusted the sights to allow him a close-up view of the fighting. Trellixian
hover tanks were moving steadily forward, their large cannons firing round
after round of heavy blaster fire into the entrenched human troops. Side
launchers on the hover tanks fired a seemingly unending supply of splinter
grenades into the human positions. Occasionally an Earth heavy missile would
strike one of the tanks, stressing its shield but having very little effect.
Mark let out a deep, guttural sigh of frustration. If they could only find a
way around the Trellixians’ energy shields, the battle would be more even.

Thousands of Trellixian troops in nearly
impenetrable battle armor followed closely behind the tanks, mopping up
straggling pockets of defenders. Occasionally short-range missiles and shells
from heavy artillery exploded among the advancing Trellixian troops, but a
direct hit was necessary to penetrate the battle armor. Scanning the dead, Dolan
noticed a few Trellixians scattered among the human casualties, but not many.

Above the ground fighting, Trellixian
wedge-shaped attack craft swooped and dove at the fragile human defensive
positions, trying to crack open the human lines by firing small warp missiles
which impacted the ground in towering explosions of flame and dirt. The warp
missiles made a high-pitched screaming noise as they came down.

Human aircraft had been cleared from the skies
weeks earlier. Defensive missiles and occasional blaster fire from the main
base itself were now directed heatedly toward the attacking Trellixian aircraft
as they came within range, in a futile attempt to turn the tide of the battle.
Only recently had human scientists reverse engineered a captured hover tank,
enabling them to create energy cannons similar to the enemy’s.

Mark almost stood up in elation as several beams
of white energy converged on one of the Trellixian craft, cracking through its
energy shield and causing the ship to explode in a bright orange fireball,
spilling out its flaming parts over the fighting below. If the humans had only
had more energy cannons, they might’ve had a chance to turn the tide of the
battle. From what he could see, only about a dozen of the powerful weapons were
being used by the defenders.

As Mark watched, a large and ominous shadow
passed over him. Looking up, he sucked in his breath as he recognized one of
the Trellixians’ space battlecruisers plodding through the Earth’s heavy
atmosphere toward the human military base. In moments, the massive cylinder
came to a stop, its defensive shields lighting up as the base focused all its
firepower on the massive vessel in a last-stand effort. Heavy missiles and
energy blasters smashed futilely against the powerful energy shield, which
erupted in bright cascades of color as it shrugged off the ineffective attack.
The outside of the huge vessel was dotted with antennae, communication dishes,
and offensive and defensive weaponry—designed for war.

Huge beams of incandescent energy leaped from the
nose of the vessel, plowing up the earth along and through the human troops’
defensive lines. Smoke and fire burst into the air as the ground was burned.
Whenever the beam touched a human soldier or vehicle, they were turned
instantly into smoldering ashes under the tremendous destructive power being
unleashed. For long minutes the deadly beams moved up and down the human lines,
until the defensive firing lessened and then stopped.

Mark felt intense anger at what he had just
witnessed. He gripped his assault rifle tightly in his hands, wanting to rush
forward and fire it at the Trellixians. However, he knew to do so would be
suicide and against his orders. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to lie
still and continued to observe the battle. He greatly feared it was nearing its
end. He desperately looked for any signs that the embattled soldiers could
regroup, but there were none.

The enemy spacecraft continued to move forward,
now focusing its powerful energy beams on the mountain and the underground base
it sheltered. However, the base was buried deep beneath several thousand meters
of bedrock and protected by reinforced steel beams with thick concrete walls.
It was fortified with all the defensive and offensive weapons the human race
had been able to throw together in the short time since the Trellixians had
invaded Earth and embarked on their genocidal war. The base was protected by a
rudimentary energy shield cobbled together by some of Earth’s greatest
remaining scientists, who had taken shelter in the base.

The shield strained as the Trellixian beams tried
to penetrate to the base below. Great streams of energy seemed to be erupting
from the mountain, and the shield persevered. Mark held his breath. The
Trellixians seemed to have been stopped for the first time. Their energy beams
ceased firing, and for several long minutes silence came over the battlefield.

Mark refocused his enhanced-vision optics on the
ground immediately in front of the base. The Trellixian hover tanks and their
armored troops were pouring through the smashed human lines. Little to no
resistance was encountered, as most of the defenders were dead. Mark tried not
to think of the thousands of human soldiers who had lost their lives in this
battle.

As the Trellixian hover tanks came within range
of the base, heavy energy weapons hidden among the rocks opened up, tearing
through the tanks’ shields like a knife through butter. These weapons operated
off the base’s fusion power plant, and their energy output was nearly off the scale.
Unfortunately they burned out after firing one shot, as they could not handle
the torrents of energy passing through the barrels. The Trellixian hover tanks
couldn’t stand up to such energy. Tank after tank fell to the ground, split
open by the powerful energy beams. Loud explosions reverberated across the
valley, and smoke filled the air. The few surviving troops cheered loudly,
seeing the nearly indestructible tanks stopped and feeling a brief rise of
hope.

Mark could barely hear the distant cheering and
looked up to see what the Trellixian battlecruiser was doing. It still hovered
above in a threatening manner, still under fire from the base’s weapons.

-

On the Trellixian battlecruiser, its captain saw
the ground assault on the humans’ last redoubt had failed as well. He was
taller than an average human with dark green skin, due to his Saurian ancestry.
The captain had a large head with sharp tearing teeth and eyes twice the size
of a human’s. He gazed in anger at the ship’s main viewscreen, which showed the
surface below. The humans were proving to be a more formidable opponent than
originally expected. The Trellixian High Command had felt it would take less
than four weeks to subdue the planet; they were now into their twelfth week of
heavy fighting, and losses had been eight times higher than projected. Nodding
to his communications officer, he ordered all ground troops to pull back, as
the battlecruiser slowly edged higher into the air. Its heavy energy shield
glowed brightly as human energy weapons and missiles impacted the shield,
trying to crack it open to bring to Earth the mighty ship of space.

High Command was also alarmed by how rapidly the
humans had been able to come up with their own energy weapons. Cascading waves
of energy from the human weapons bit and clawed at the powerful Trellixian
shield. This world was needed for living space for the Trellixian race, and the
fighting had delayed the first of hundreds of colonization transports.

“Shield is holding at eighty-two percent,”
reported the tactical officer. “Our energy weapons are incapable of penetrating
the shield the humans have placed around the mountain.”

“I would suggest we deploy a Malken missile,”
suggested the ship’s second officer. “Our sensors are indicating the humans’
base is deep beneath the mountain.”

“A Malken missile will penetrate deeply enough,”
confirmed the tactical officer.

The captain nodded. The Malken missile was the
most powerful and deadly weapon in their arsenal. Not even the humans’ energy
shield would be able to resist the deadly antimatter missile. They were also
very difficult to produce, so each battlecruiser was only equipped with one.
Its use had to be authorized by the council.

The captain turned toward the communications
officer. “Send a request to the High Council, requesting authorization to
deploy a Malken missile. Inform them it’s the only viable option for destroying
the human military base. Once this base is annihilated, the planet will be
ours, and the colonization transports can be sent.” The ship possessed an FTL
transmitter, and it wouldn’t take long to get a response.

-

On the ground, several minutes passed as Mark
watched the ship continue to gain altitude. At last it came to a stop, high
above the base, just out of range of the human weapons which had been impacting
its energy shield. With foreboding, Mark saw a single small black dot fall away
from the belly of the ship. “Everyone take cover!” Mark yelled over his comm.
With apprehension, Mark flung himself behind the small hill as brilliant light
and overpowering noise crashed down upon him, driving him into unconsciousness.

Sometime later Mark awoke, realizing he had been
out for quite some time. After staggering back to the top of the hill, he
stood, looking with shock and despair at what had once been the strongest base
the human race had constructed to stop the Trellixians. A jagged, smoking hole
lay where the mountain had been. Trees had been knocked over, and a number of
fires raged in the forest. The sky was obscured by dark smoke, and a lot of ash
floated in the air. The base was gone!

Trellixian hover tanks moved about the smoking
ruins, searching for human survivors. Troops in dark battle armor also combed
the rocks and defiles, looking for scattered human defenders who might have
survived. From the lack of firing, Mark guessed none or very few were being
found. Over sixty thousand troops had begun the defense of the valley, with
another twenty thousand soldiers, technicians, scientists, and politicians
taking shelter inside the base. With growing despair, Mark knew it was over.
The base was gone; everything was destroyed! Earth’s last hope was a jagged,
smoking hole in the ground.