attraction.”
Jake and Valerie broke their kiss and Valerie asked, “What?”
“Cynthia and BC are here awaiting the arrival of the transport.”
Jake looked at his display and saw Cynthia’s ship holding station 10,000 miles out from the planet. “I’ll bet Fleet Command doesn’t know she’s here. Can she see us, Junior?”
“No. I’m sure she’s worried about this particular action because of the size of that garrison. This must be one of the Keepers’ oldest conquests.” Junior paused for a moment and then said, “Jake, they have underestimated the size of this garrison.”
Jake felt a sudden dread, “What do you mean?”
“I’m looking at the fleet report on this garrison and it shows it going down ten levels. My scanners are better than anything the Realm is currently using, and I can see there are fifteen more levels they didn’t detect. There are more than three hundred thousand Keepers in that facility. That must be why there are ten communities instead of the normal three or four.”
Valerie looked at Jake, “What are you going to do?”
“I can’t warn Cynthia before the transport arrives because the Keepers will hear the transmission. Unfortunately, the warriors will enter the facility almost simultaneously with the transport’s departure. I’m not willing to call off the rescue and miss saving the ten communities.”
Junior said, “Jake, don’t do it.”
Valerie said, “Do what?”
“Junior, my armor was updated with the new weapons four weeks ago. I’m going to need you and the other Searcher to support us with your needles. Most of that support will have to come from you because the other ship won’t be able to see the lower levels. If it gets too bad you can teleport me out and I won’t block it.”
“Jake, you are not going into that garrison.”
Jake shook his head and hugged her, “Yes I am, and you know I have to go.”
“Why do you have to do it?”
“You would do the same, Val. Junior, I’m going to the landing bay to test my armor. Take care of my future bride while I’m gone.”
“Who’s going to take care of me?”
Jake laughed and left for the landing bay.
Valerie sat down in the command chair and felt her fear rising. She asked, “How is the transport going to take those cities without the Keepers seeing the teleport screen?”
“It is going to use a new process called grab and snatch.”
“What?”
“The transport will project the teleport screen eighteen inches under the soil of the ten cities and the surrounding fields. It will already be in place as the transport arrives a mile above the communities. The transport will then lock the connection and accelerate away from the planet at full speed, pulling the screen up as it departs and teleporting everything above it into the transport’s bay. The only thing left behind will be the orange trinkets the Keepers placed on the population. The screen won’t be visible underground and the Keepers will only see it for a brief moment as the ship leaves the planet. The Warriors will be teleporting in below the screen used to move the cities and begin their attack.”
“Junior, there are too many of them. Jake may be killed.”
Junior gave a sigh and said, “That’s true, but I’ve seen the new armaments and I think they can hold their own until the five Warriors can be rescued if things go south.”
“But six against hundreds of thousands.”
“Seven, Valerie. Cynthia will also be going down. I’ll update her in a few moments as the transport leaves. I’m certain she wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
Valerie sat and worried and looked for the transport to arrive.
“Here it comes,” Junior announced.
The transport teleported to a mile above the ten communities and locked the length of the beam controlling the teleport screen. It fired its drives and accelerated out of the atmosphere, pulling the silver screen up with it as it departed. The screen disappeared two hundred feet above the surface as the huge three-hundred-mile-wide transport disappeared into the darkness of space. Just before teleporting away the transport ejected a frequency generator, which immediately started broadcasting.
“Cynthia?”
“Junior, what are you doing here?”
“No time to explain. The fleet report is inaccurate. This garrison has twenty five levels instead of ten. There are more than a quarter of a million Keepers inside it, and Jake is teleporting down to support the Red Warriors.”
“BC, lock me on Jake’s signal and teleport me down.”
“Cynthia, you have been ordered not to participate in any combat operations.”
“Tell it to the Admiral after you teleport me down. What do you think they will do if I don’t go and try to keep from losing Jake?” Cynthia donned her armor and disappeared from the bridge.
Ethan Tucker was holding station above the garrison when a ship appeared a mile to the west of his position. He heard, “Rescue One, this is the Stars Realm ship Junior, and I am here to support your warriors. I am patching my scans into your system and I need you to handle the east end of the garrison.”
Ethan saw the new scan on his display, “Holy….”
“I know; Fleet underestimated the scope of this garrison. Keep moving and hit anything sticking its head up.”
“You two aren’t going to a party without me, I hope.”
“Oh, hi BC; you take the west end and I’ll handle the middle. Hit the structures that are above ground level.
The surface of the garrison exploded as the three ships began rapidly teleporting to different locations while firing low power needles into the huge Keepers facility.
Dale and the four Red Warriors teleported into the first level of the garrison and arrived in the middle of hundreds of Keepers. Dale released a bundle of the new wasps and watched as every one of the Keepers in the corridor began bursting into bright light and disappearing. Dale watched as hundreds of the brown creatures turned to run, but they could not escape the small, fast moving, darts.
The new wasp was a small Coronado Power Cell that homed in on the thought frequency of Keepers. It would hit, penetrate and release its energy, which was set to completely burn an average sized Keeper. Dale quickly looked at his scanner and was shocked at the number of Keepers coming up from the lower levels.
“Lt. Hamlet, I am taking command of this unit.”
Dale was stunned to hear Col. Dodd, but his amazement increased as the White Demon teleported in to join his team.
Cynthia looked at Jake and said, “Just like old times, huh? What’s the plan?”
“Lieutenant, send a warrior to the each end of this corridor and have them begin launching wasps. Fan out from here and follow my lead.”
Terry and Gord moved quickly down each end of the corridor and fired a bundle of a thousand hornets ahead of them. Jake closed his eyes and looked at the floor. He pointed his right arm down, lowered his wrist, and fired an intense beam into the floor. He then launched a bundle of wasps followed by two hornets. In the corridor under the warriors, the wasps fanned out and Keepers began disintegrating. The hornets turned and headed in opposite directions, homing in on two beam platforms that were moving toward the invaders. The hornets hit the platforms and melted them. These hornets did not explode, risking a cave in, but released intense heat. Every Keeper within fifty feet of the platforms burned.
Jake looked in both directions and said, “This corridor is seven miles long. I want everyone spaced with a mile separation. Once this corridor is clean, notify me.”
Dale looked at his display and noticed he was assigned the extreme left end of the long cave. He turned and ran. Gord was assigned the right end, with the remaining warriors equally spaced between them.” Jake noticed some Keepers’ beams begin to come through the floor.
“Junior, it appears our hosts are delivering a big serving of beam platforms. Anything you can do about
