Falling Ark Read online

  “Aww, Dom and Ava’s first date!” The radio suddenly burst into life and Derek’s voice echoed around the steel corridor.

  The stairs clanked and rattled under my feet but they were sturdy and Hank assured me that they were as strong as they ever were. If he was happy using them, then I shouldn’t complain.

  “Are you always spying on me?” I asked Derek as I stepped through the hatch, He and Sam waiting for me by the holotable but they were engrossed with something on the screen. Sam was clearly excited by something.

  “Sam has discovered something he thinks is interesting. Tell him he is wrong? Or that he is a mad man!” Derek informed me.

  “Why, what’s going on?” I asked.

  “Everyone on Earth knows we are here.” Sam started to explain. “Lara is showing video feeds of our activities across all the networks.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me.” I replied.

  “She also knows that we are gathering asteroids. That they will give us enough resources to stay up here as long as we want.” He continued.

  “Yes…” I urged him to get to the point.

  “But we don’t want to stay up here, we want to get back to Earth, to reveal her secrets, and her tech. To expose her.” Sam went on.

  “And to get back to my wife and family!” Derek added.

  “I know all this.” I exclaimed, getting frustrated at the conversation. “We can’t return though, because Lara has a platoon of aircraft waiting for us.”

  “She is also jamming our communications.” Derek added.

  “Exactly. That’s my point!” Sam said.

  “Nope, you lost me!” I replied, urging him to speed up and explain his point. “Lara knows that her aircraft could easily wipe us out if we return. She is stranding us up here, but the longer she does, the stronger we get.”

  “Ask yourself this, why doesn’t she just send her ships up here and take us out?” Derek intervened, helping the conversation reach its conclusion.

  It was a good question, what was Lara waiting for?

  “That’s the thing. I don’t think her ships are strong enough to leave Earths gravity.” Sam pointed out as he spun the floating Earth around on the holotable.

  The three-dimensional depiction of Earth had little yellow dots moving around in the high atmosphere representing the ships that Lara had deployed to guard the planet. Occasionally one would fly higher than the others and then quickly return.

  “You noticed that?” Sam pointed to the ship that tried to leave the Earth. “They have been trying that for a few hours now but every time they try, they just fall back to Earth.”

  “That makes sense. I had to tweak the gravity drives on the ship to get us to the moon. I realised that they could be made a lot more efficient once I had used one.” I explained.

  “Yes, and Lara hasn’t figured that out yet.” Sam said, happily.

  “I think you might be right.” I confirmed.

  “Great, now you both believe it.” Derek said sharply. “It’s clearly a trap. She is baiting us.”

  “I don’t think so.” I continued. “The changes I made; I don’t know anyone who understands the machines like I do. They weren’t obvious changes either; Sam might be right.”

  “That gives us the advantage.” Sam exclaimed. “Lara is only getting stronger, the more drives that she can produce, the stronger she will be, until we cannot possibly overcome her.”

  “At which point we cannot return to Earth.” I finished Sam’s thought for him.

  At that moment a message icon appeared in the corner of the screen. Ava was calling. I tapped her smiling face and her webcam window popped up.

  “Guys, are you watching the new transmissions from Earth?”

  “No, why, what’s going on?” Sam asked.

  Ava cut the camera feed and displayed a video of Lara giving yet another one of her speeches from outside VisionTech.

  “People of Earth. These terrorists that sit above us, watching from their stolen moon base are preparing an attack. They are manoeuvring large asteroids around the moon, ready to launch them at the Earth.” Lara explained. A graphic showed the moon being orbited by rocks.

  “You can see for yourselves, look towards the moon and you will see stars orbiting it. Today I urge you to ask your politicians and leaders to grant me controlling rights to your countries defence systems so that I can effectively stop this threat.”

  Another graphic displayed a rocket, launching out of the sea and blowing up an asteroid that had been sent from the moon.

  “You have seen the technology for yourselves, it is dangerous in the wrong hands and these terrorists pose an imminent threat!”

  The screen went blank then cut back to Ava’s face.

  “Did she just ask all the countries of the world to hand over their nuclear missile codes.” Ava asked, shocked at the idea.

  “I think so.” Sam confirmed.

  “We need to stop her now!” I shouted.

  “But how, she has twice as many ships as us and she is still producing more.” Ava pointed out.

  “We need more ships.” Derek yelled.

  “We need to strike before Lara can make more.” I added.

  “That’s it!” Sam yelled. “We’ll steal her production facility!”

  Chapter 29

  It was an insanely risky plan; the only plan Sam knew how to create.

  We gathered everyone in the control room to hear any objections as we explained the details to the crew.

  “Here’s the situation.” Sam explained. “We have around two hundred gravity drives in total. We can use them to help build this base, we can mine the asteroids and extract the resources but eventually we are going to need to create more complex tools and we don’t have any equipment to do this. The longer we stay away from Earth, the more time we give Lara to build a fleet and make it more impossible for us to return.”

  “What are you suggesting?” A voice came from one of the crew.

  “We need to stop her production at source.” Derek said as he stepped into the conversation. “As far as we are aware, Lara’s gravity drives are inferior to ours, thanks to Dom, and we need to strike now while we have a slight advantage.”

  “What we are proposing is dangerous, but in the long term it is our best chance.” Sam said as he clicked a button on the screen and blueprints of Lara’s facility appeared on the displays around the room. “The only way Lara can beat us is through sheer numbers. The only way she can do that is through this machine, the replicator.”

  The screens zoomed in to show the outline of the giant machine in the basement of the facility. Sam had updated the schematics to include the huge tree that had burst its way through the atrium.

  “As far as we can tell this giant tree has managed to wrap its roots around the thick concrete walls that encase the replicator.” Sam nodded to me. This bit we had rehearsed, it needed to be polished and sound confident.

  I stepped up and cleared my throat. “If we can get close enough we can capture the tree, lift it out of the ground, then the replicator should come with it.” The graphics on the screen demonstrated harpoon style weapons coming out of the Armillary’s hanger bay doors, grabbing the tree and lifting it up, along with the replicator and away from the facility.

  “Then we destroy it?” The question came from within the crowd but I couldn’t tell who said it.

  “Once we get the replicator we can return here, where Lara can’t reach us, then we can feed it raw materials and it will spit out anything we need, electronics, medicine and gravity drives.” I informed the crew and stepped back to give the stage back to Sam.

  “There are twenty-four of us. Some of us are going to be needed on the Armillary to work the harpoons. The rest need to pilot the ships.” Sam explained.

  “We have more ships than people so we will configure them into groups, a pilot and a gunner will operate from a central ship and will be directly in control of eight remote ships as well as their own.” Derek con
tinued, graphics on the screen explaining how the planes would fly in formation with a single control vehicle in the middle.

  “Why don’t we just operate them remotely from here?” Another voice from the crowd shouted.

  “That’s a good question and brings us on to our next point.” Derek replied. “Lara has been jamming our signals since we left. The communications devices inside the ships will be reliable for around half a kilometre but if a ship falls out of that range then it will not be controllable and if a craft gets disconnected it will rely on its own artificial intelligence to get back into formation. If that doesn’t happen, then we lose that ship, potentially giving Lara another craft.”

  This time a hand went up from a crew member at the front. “I can pilot one of those ships” he said with conviction. “But to pilot an entire fleet on my own seems like an impossible task.”

  Derek smiled at Ava as he started to explain the work she had done on this project.

  “That is another excellent point. Don’t worry though, we have a supercomputer in the basement that is uploading a powerful intelligence into every control system. Controlling multiple ships will be as natural as riding a bike.”

  The crew looked at each other and I could tell that we were starting to win them over. Instead of the sceptical looks they initially had, they were starting to smile, and I could tell that they thought this might actually work. Most importantly, they believed in us and what we were saying.

  Sam tapped one of the screens and displayed Lara’s fleet that was on patrol at the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere.

  “This is the most difficult part of the mission.” Sam started as the screen zoomed into the fleet, displaying an armada of craft. “Lara has around a hundred ships flying in formations and as soon as we leave she will unite them all, preparing for our attack.”

  Murmurs came from the crowd. The graphics displayed our smaller force approach her giant fleet.

  “They outnumber us two-to-one at best.” Derek said, confirming the thoughts of everyone.

  “That is why we are going to perform a pincer movement.” Sam continued. “Half our fleet will flank in from the right and the other half from the left splitting the fight into two fronts, surrounding them.”

  “Are you sure that splitting up our forces like this? Are you sure it’s the best strategy?” This time it was the captain who interrupted.

  Sam looked at him and then loaded a graphic that showed a simulation of the ensuing battle.

  “We are assuming that Lara’s ships are controlled by a basic intelligence that was originally in our planes. We can knock out their remote connection, jamming their signals just like they are jamming ours.” Sam said.

  “We will be fighting drones?” The captain asked.

  “Yes. Our supercomputer has scanned the basic systems inside these planes and it suggests that they will engage the closest target. This way, we believe we have the edge, if we split up, and separate their fleet, we can easily fight one-on-one. Don’t forget, our planes are faster and more manoeuvrable, this is our best chance.” Sam replied.

  The faces of the crowd once again changed to more positive expressions.

  “We will fly in a loose formation.” Derek continued. “Feel free to break away once combat has started. Ideally try to get them to chase you away from the battle, speed up and loop back on them, they cannot compete because it will be your eight ships against just a few of theirs. Just remember we are stronger and faster than them.”

  Derek took control of the screens for this final stage of the presentation.

  “Once we have cleared the air of most of the fighters the Armillary will make its way to the facility where we hope there will be very little left to stop us.”

  “When do we launch?” A voice from the back of the room shouted, the room roared in excitement with this.

  Sam smiled at me. They were excited, they believed that we could do this. It was a good plan after all, given our limited options.

  “We are waiting for Lara’s fleet to be in position above the facility.” Sam explained and showed a map of the Earth and Moon.

  Lara’s fleet was always suspended in high orbit, closest to the moon as the Earth spun underneath it.

  It appears she already has support of the major world governments as she has acquired rights to fly her fleet over every country. Either that or no-one had the power to stop her.

  As the Earth spun, the facility in the middle of England was highlighted and started to rotate towards the fleet. At the same time icons representing our own fleet left the moon and converged on Earths fleet just as the facility was underneath.

  “We have four hours! Everyone has been given a role, and who they need to report to, good luck!” Sam cheered and the room erupted.

  Sam tapped on the screen one last time and the names of everyone appeared and issued them with a location, telling them where to go to pick up their instructions for the upcoming battle.

  As the crew dispersed, I caught the eye of Hank.

  “I need your help.” I said. “Can you help me bolt the harpoons to the Armillary hanger floor.”

  “Already taken care of.” Hank said with a smile. He pointed to the screen where his name was next to a handful of crew and the words ‘Armillary Hanger’. “I just hope that harpoon system works!”

  Before the meeting I had quickly designed a simple harpoon system using the basic equipment we had on board. It was a design that resembled a rail gun, a prototype weapon that the military were constructing.

  The biggest problem, the military rail gun used very powerful magnets to accelerate a metal projectile very quickly. We didn’t have any powerful magnets, but we did have gravity drives.

  I set them up to pull the ships anchors and chains towards them very quickly. This way we could shoot them out of the Armillary and towards the tree. It was similar to the way Derek had altered the course of the bullets that were fired at me by Frank days ago.

  This design would fire the ships anchor with the chains attached to the central core of the Armillary where the gravity drive was housed. This should be strong enough to lift the tree and concrete box out of the ground. These chains were designed to hold the huge container ship in place after all. I just hoped that they didn’t rip the Armillary apart.

  “Dom!” Tony shouted from across the room. He was standing with Julie and he beckoned me over to him.

  “We are ready with the ammo if you show us where to put it.” Julie said.

  Tony and Julie had been developing small pellets that they could grow on one of their trees. These biological weapons could replace bullets in a machine gun. They wouldn’t tell me what they did when they made contact, and I really hoped that we weren’t going to need them, they were a last resort.

  “Take them to Hank in the Armillary hanger, he has a gunner their waiting for you.” I informed them.

  “Will do!” Julie said, saluting me.

  I could tell that she was only joking with the salute but this whole endeavour did seem to be connecting to something deep inside everyone, their eagerness to destroy something evil.

  Not one second after I saw Tony and Julie step out of the control tower door did Ava appear next to me.

  “Are you ready for this?” she asked me in her usual, bubbly way.

  “I hope so!” I said in an unconvincing tone. “Where are you going to be? Not in a fighter I hope!” I looked at the screen and saw her name next to mine in the Armillary control room.

  “I’m with you.” Ava said, smiling. “And let’s just say that I have a little surprise for Lara when the time comes.”

  A mischievous grin grew on her face as she winked at Sam.

  “Everything ready?” Sam asked, walking over from the other side of the room.

  “It’s all ready to go.” Ava informed him.

  I don’t know what they were planning but it seemed everyone was preparing a ‘last resort’ and had something hidden up their sleeves.

  T
his might work, I thought as I left the control tower and made my way over to the Armillary.

  Chapter 30

  As I looked out of the window, the lights of the planes around us shined brightly against the void of deep space.

  We flew away from the Moon in a tight formation, all craft surrounding the Armillary in a cloud, we hoped that this might, in some way, hide our numbers.

  The advancements made to the gravity drives had made them significantly faster than our previous trip and we were able to make the journey in just over an hour. This was slow by our standards, but we didn’t want to tip our hand too soon. Lara didn’t know what we were capable of yet and I didn’t want to give away our strategy.

  Approaching the rendezvous point meant it was the time for our fleet of fifty ships plus the Armillary to split up. We sent twenty-two ships to the left, westward in Earth’s orbit over the Atlantic Ocean, and twenty-two ships right, into the North Sea. We remained on the Armillary along with six ships in support.

  Most of the craft were piloted remotely by one lead ship but we hoped Lara wouldn’t work that out. If it looked like we had a bigger force at our disposal then it might just cause her concern.

  “The plan is working!” Derek shouted as he looked up from the array of screens in front of him. I count a hundred and twelve of Lara’s ships. Fifty have followed the Alpha Squad, and fifty to the Gamma Squad.”

  We had decided to give each half of the fleet individual names to avoid the confusion between left and right squadrons, it was Hanks idea.

  “There are just twelve ships left in front of us, standing down at the moment.” Derek informed the command tower.

  The four of us acknowledged Derek’s news.

  Sam was on the controls of the ship, Derek and Ava were running intelligence, staring at screens, looking for anything that might help. The captain was sitting in front of a dedicated command station ready to take control of the six planes that we had put in formation around us, to protect the Armillary. I was running communication between ourselves and the hanger crew on the deck below, talking to Hank, ready to give him the order to harpoon the tree.