Solar Warden by Jakob Waechter (best thriller novels to read .txt) 📖

“They are not dying fast enough. Move faster back,” Freeman shouted while he reloaded his HK.

They were already out of the cave while the aliens were close to the fallen. The position of the two SW teams was getting worse as they moved more down the hill.

Bang a loud shot from the sniper rifle and another bang went off. An armored alien was falling.

It did not change the course of the battle yet. But these shoots boosted the morale of the retreating.

“We are under heavy assault we have to retreat,” Yamada radioed as he went behind a tree after chopping a head of with the sword. Further bolts were flying in and exploding on nearby enemies. Till now they were not armored. But now two armored appeared. Yamada went further back trying to use as much cover he could. The team already had killed seven and it seemed not to stop. All sentries they used were disabled. Using them in the forest was much more difficult as on an open field.

Meanwhile the first machine was in the shuttle and powered down. They lifted off to the more secure side where Newman would power it down completely for the journey to the Icarus. The lava balls were already cooled down and in the designated position of the container.

Also the shuttle of SW-5 left. Ryan and Caine stayed to help with the retreat. They headed with three bikes near the caves to support the retreat.

“Freeman is down!” Anderson, which used the alien rifle, shouted.

The aliens where now trying to move the nearby fallen SW soldiers further into the cave. From the higher ground the two SW-1 snipers were doing all they could to prevent that, while the rest of the team tried to assist SW-3. The cover of the trees on the forest border was good. But it did not go to well inside the forest. Still they had no fallen there.

“We cannot hold the forest. We are overrun retreat to the shuttles as fast as you can,” Commander Knight ordered.

“Pearce take all troops and retreat at once. We can cover with the combat drones if the gap is broad enough,” the Captain ordered.

“What about Freeman, Lee and Chavez?” Pearce asked.

“If you can get Freeman on a bike do so. For the others I see nothing what we can do,” the Captain replied and ordered all surface drones, which were assigned to the cave, into the open cave door to scout and distract the aliens.

Ryan and Caine were coming in having the bike of Newman and Samuel with them. Caine jumped of the bike and helped to get Freeman on his while Ryan gave some suppression fire with the Gatling gun. With that he drew the fire away while turning back the bike.

Freeman was now lying over the bike which moved away with him. Some of the aliens were shooting at the incoming surface drones. The SW teams could retreat further. But there was not much to hide here. Which let the aliens advance down the hill ignoring the fallen SW members at the moment. There was no sniper support anymore. But combat drones came in very fast and fire with all they had. Lighting railgun projectiles rained into the ground like meteors. There explosions occurred which blasted rocks and dust into the air. The whole area was turned into a dust cloud where the enemies could not be seen anymore.

This gave the teams time to jump on the remaining bikes and drive faster away. Some shoots were passing them.

The captured Gray stood up. At the same time the door to the control room of the facility opened. Then the Gray raised his right hand and the index finger, shook the finger slowly and looked grim. It went to the door which opened. Walking continuously, he went out of the door leaving the sight of the camera. Another one on the corridor showed him heading to the generator room. The door on his side opened. Then the camera feeds went black and there was a message written on it. 'You better leave now while you can.' …

Knight left as last the forest. He was on a bike and one of his squad members was driving. Behind C4 charges went off to further secure their retreat. Knowing this would not stop them for long he switched to Icarus communication. “Captain, we left the forest. Requesting Omega Protocol immediately!”

“Initiate Omega Protocol!” the Captain ordered.

“Affirmative!” Then the drone officer entered the prepared command for that.

A fighter plane near the combat drones was informed via encrypted radio. With his voice interface the pilot activated the request and confirmed it with pushing of a button. At once a nearfield message went out to the nearby combat drone and was relayed to the others.

Already a broadcast went off and all surface scout drones which were assigned to the forest went with a new formation back to identify and marking the position of every enemy they will spot.

Receiving those information, the already accelerating combat drones, flew in waves to their new targets. These targets had to be in a certain area, so no one outside could be targeted.

With near supersonic speed the combat drones closed in. The first one fired two, one second, bursts at the first target, then pulled up. Following the second drone fired two bursts at two targets close to each other. Then the third drone fired on the next. This was the first wave which flew away while the explosions occurred. Dust spilled out of the forest. Trees were falling and the second wave came in and fired on its marked targets. The first wave was already turning and flying back as the third wave came in. Now both waves fired from different angles and crossed each other at different altitude. These three waves flew now an eight over the forest, continually firing on new targets. As there were no enemies left they shot on trees near the small cave entrance to the mountain base. A dust cloud was now coming out of the forest. There was nothing to see, as the combat drones kept firing on previous stored tree targets and the small cave area.

“Send nine reinforcement drones, soon they are out of ammo down there. Fly directly down,” the Captain ordered.

At once combat drones started from the Icarus front side launch bays, which were five on each side. These slots are always filled with drones. To the combat site it was a short travel as the Icarus was now in an orbit over the facility area.

Knight met up with the others. Freeman was brought into a shuttle to recover. Ryan reported to Knight about the left two soldiers.

“Captain, is the forest area secured?” Knight asked over radio.

“The drones shot at all targets. When the dust cloud is gone we send the surface drones in again. Also the reinforcement of the combat drones will arrive in ten minutes,” came the reply.

“Good, we try now a rescue operation. Keep the forest area secure,” Knight switched the communication. “All to me! We go now for a rescue attempt.”

As all seemed to be there Knight started, “Listen up! We have two left in the cave. The enemy stopped pressuring us and is falling back. With the crossbow in the forest we had some problems firing fast enough. So SW-3 will switch to the microwave rifles. Use the level you used for the Gray. This will not endanger our people and we may take prisoners. My team and the rest of SW-4 will back you up. The rest stays here. Ryan, you have the command here. We may need backup for the retreat. We will approach the cave from the right and sneak in position. So SW-3 can use a direct route when we are in position. Keep in mind we have limited number of bikes. This means we cannot use the full strengths for the backup. Now hurry and get your gears.” Knight went to a bike. His team and SW-4 followed him.

Yamada and his team went to their shuttle. The pilots were already in the airlock with the requested weapons. After getting them they also went into the direction of the cave.

The Captain updated Knight on the enemy count. There were only a few outside of the cave. In the mountain base there was no one to see.

“Newman what’s the status?” Ryan asked over radio.

Newman was exiting the shuttle. “We are starting the preparation with the first mining machine. I have not time frame, yet.”

“Update me if you have one,” Ryan was not sure if the rescue operation will work as planned and if not he needed options that may not only pure military ones. Then he ordered some of the others to guard the area for now, while he followed a drone feed of the cave.

There were not much turtle faces left. Those five, which moved back and reached the fallen, were now carrying them further into the cave. Knight’s team was on the approach from the side and should be out of sight. The wind blew the dust cloud into the direction of the green facility. So the cave was not much affected from the dust.

Knight headed as far as he could with the bikes, so he needed only to walk some steps to see inside.

Meanwhile SW-3 was on a direct approach up the hill seeing Knight and the others getting in position.

“Yamada, hurry they are close to the door. I don’t want to use the sniper rifles,” Knight informed as Yamada already jumped of the bike and sprinted up the hill. He pulled the rifle from his back and went down in position to target.

The aliens were now close to the cave door busy with carrying the others. So only one had a weapon in this hands and the others none at all.

“SW-3 are you in position?” Yamada asked.

Two replied with, “yes, sir.” The others were just getting there. He assigned the targets then gave the command to fire. Only two went down. At once he started to target the next.

The aliens sped up and pulled the fallen into the entrance of the cave. Now the one with the rifle shot into the direction of Yamada but missed badly.

Next shots went off and all aliens lay on the ground.

“Move!” Knight called out and all ran to the entrance with their rifles in the hands.

All of a sudden the huge cave door started to close. The fallen were already inside.

“Captain, I need status of the inside,” Knight radioed.

“No one to see, but I don’t recommend getting locked in,” came the reply.

It didn’t matter. They were too slow. The door moved further down and closed. Two of the turtle faces were before it. They were waking up now.

“Increase the level of the microwaves one step and fire,” Knight ordered.

This was now for humans a critical level which would be not used for stunning. They fired.

“Good. Now secure the area at our last position. We don’t know what comes next,” Knight switched to radio. “Ryan, I need Jones and some bindings for our prisoners. I don’t know if handcuffs are sufficient.”

“I send him with the needed supplies,” came the reply. “I guess we need now a plan to open