The five hundred Red Warriors hit their teleport dials and the fifty attack craft jumped away just as six hundred Keepers’ ships appeared above the planet. The Collective and Quadrants looked down on a planet that had been dramatically altered. The former five food communities were gone, with only bare soil remaining behind. The garrison was severely damaged and had been unable to record anything about what had taken place on the surface.
“How much time did this attack last?”
“Only one-thirtieth of an interval.”
The Collective Intelligence was stunned. If this kind of attack was to be stopped, they would have to be prepared to respond instantly. “Military, I want an initial plan about what to if this happens. We will come together in two intervals to analyze our response.” The Collective looked at the planet again and thought to the ships, “Move the survivors to another farm, and take their food stores to the main planet that was just attacked.”
The six hundred ships began launching craft to carry out their orders.
“That was close, Junior.”
“It certainly didn’t take them long to figure out that the other attack was a diversion.”
“We’re going to have to think about whether we want to risk another city.”
Junior thought a moment and said, “True, but let’s go check on those we moved.”
Chapter Fourteen
Grimly found himself in a strange new environment. There was a huge river flowing off to the east that was not there yesterday. The sky had a different hue, the trees outside the city’s boundary were twice as tall, and the hills surrounding the city were no longer there. He saw most of the community had gathered in the central square and were looking out at the strange landscape. He raised his arm and saw that the bracelet he had been wearing his entire life was no longer on his arm.
Suddenly, the crowd heard a noise and saw a strange ship moving down into the middle of the square. Grimly yelled for everyone to move out from under it, and the crowd followed his instructions. A silver-colored square appeared under the ship as it hovered ten feet off the ground, and a strange-looking being stepped out of it. Immediately, another silver square appeared and two green creatures that looked like walking plants appeared. Silence covered the population.
The first being looked at him and everyone in the square heard in their minds, “Welcome to your new home. My name is Jake, and the two here with me are named Sprig and Twig. You have been moved from the planet you have been living on to this one to try and stop the Keepers from killing you.” The crowd was silent.
Jake looked off and saw that the occupants of the other four cities had witnessed the ship coming down and were now moving toward the central community. Jake looked at Grimly again and said, “I see that you are this community’s leader. I welcome you and your people to this planet. The Algeans have donated this planet for you to live on. I’ll let Sprig explain everything to you.”
Grimly just stared at the green being and said, “What have you done?”
Sprig could see that most of the city’s population was in a state of shock. He said, “You have been transported to another universe. We are at war with the creatures that were consuming you, and we have begun to try and save some of the planets that they have enslaved. You are the first we have chosen to move. This is a different universe and planet from where you have been living, but it is now yours to make of it what you choose.”
Grimly stared at Sprig and said, “You mean we’re free?”
Sprig leaned right, indicating a smile, and said, “Yes, you are.”
Grimly knelt down and took some dirt in his hand and slowly shook his head. He stood, looked out at the thousands surrounding him, and yelled, “Our Maker has answered our pleas! We have been rescued from the killers!” The crowd went wild and as members of the other four cities arrived, the celebration grew larger and louder. Jake walked over to Grimly with Sprig and said, “Why don’t you gather the leaders of your people and I will come back at sunset to answer any of your questions.”
Grimly hugged Jake, then Sprig, and answered, “Why not make it at sunrise? We have a lot to celebrate, and I have no idea about who the other cities leaders are.”
Jake smiled and looked at Sprig who said, “We will meet with you in the morning, and would you mind if some of us joined you in the celebration?”
Grimly smiled and said, “The more the better.” Then he ran over and started hugging everyone he could find. Immediately, thousands of Algeans began teleporting in, joining the happy crowd.
Jake teleported to Junior’s bridge and said, “Your cities appear to be quite happy about your choice.”
“Do tell?”
“Let us go and allow them this moment for celebration. The Algeans can take it from here.”
Junior hovered for a few moments, watching the revelry, and felt somehow complete. Jake saw Robby in the crowd dancing with one of the Algeans. “This is what we are here to do,” he thought.
Junior lifted into the atmosphere and jumped to Ross.
Lorg, one of the Cainth survivors from Brayent, watched his monitor and saw a huge amount of activity taking place around the Keepers’ planet he was viewing. He had landed two days earlier in stealth mode on an asteroid outside the planet’s fifth moon, set his sensors to passive, and started searching for a means of attack. After a day, he watched more than fifty thousand Keepers’ ships arrive and take station in high orbit around the planet. This was in addition to those that were in low orbit protecting the planet from surprise attack. “What’s going on?” He wondered.
He looked closely at the scans and saw that there were twenty objects being lifted from the planet’s surface into high orbit just below the outer band of ships. He moved the view in closer and saw that these objects were brown in color, and were made from the hull material used for the Keepers’ Fleet. They were about a mile in length and were slowly moving out of the atmosphere and maneuvered into orbit such that they were equally spaced around the middle of the planet. The objects were pyramidal in shape, and the base of each was pointed toward the planet with the point oriented away from the surface below.
Lorg knew what those structures were designed to do; they were orbital fortresses that would protect the planet below with the Keepers’ thought beams. He watched the alignment of the forts for two days, then the fifty thousand ships jumped away from the planet. He watched as the twenty pyramids began rotating and changing color from light brown to dark brown. “Looks like they are now on line and active,” he thought as he watched the monitor. “What is that?”
Numerous blasts were seen on the planet’s surface and huge structures began lifting into space. Lorg captured a picture of one on his monitor, and had his computer look to see if anything similar had been seen. After four seconds the computer placed a picture beside the first and Lorg felt a wave of fear. Those huge structures lifting into space were the exact match for the ship modification facilities that had been destroyed at the first Keepers planet’s destruction. After five days the structures were in stationary orbit. Lorg estimated there were two hundred circling the planet. It was then that the two hundred ships that had been protecting the planet began leaving their assigned places in the coverage and started docking with one of the facilities. It was clear that the Keepers felt that they were no longer needed to defend the planet.