Escape 2: Fight the Aliens Read Online Free Page A

defeat six fully armed, combat ready Collector ships. Our destruction of four Collector ships in the Kepler 443 battle was the result of surprise and sneakiness by my Weapons Chief.” Jane gestured at the white glowing teardrop of the collector pod that had appeared in the air of the Command Bridge room. “There is no surprise in this battle. The Collector ships will arrive fully alert, fully crewed and ready to circumvent any interference by their ship AI. However, each Collector ship will launch collector pods once they arrive in orbit above Earth. Those pods will head down and attempt to capture solo humans in remote areas of the planet. They will then return to their home ship, there to unload their taser-zapped captives.” She added a wink to her grin. “But what if the collector pods that return to the six Collector ships contain armed and combat trained humans? People ready to taser zap the ship’s crew and then run the hallways, like Bill and I did, to take over the Command Bridge and capture each ship’s captain?”
    Bill let out his inheld breath. Jane’s scheme was a wonder and something that might actually work. While the Blue Sky and the transports made attack runs on the invading Collector ships, the returning collector pods would carry special ops folks ready to take over each ship they landed in. To work, one thing was vital.
    “Captain,” he said, distracting the intense look of Poindexter. “I support your scheme! I can take a transport down and get my vet buddies to form up into boarding teams. But getting our collector pods into the other Collector ships requires the help of each ship’s AI. Do we have that?”
    “We do. Star Traveler has told me it has spoken via neutrino comlink with the AIs of those ships,” she said softly. “Each AI has promised to help us board their ship in order to stop slave collecting.” She looked away from him to fix on Poindexter. “General, I propose a two stage defense of Earth. The Blue Sky and our two transports will, in 50 hours or so, attack the arriving Collector ships. They expect that.” She sat back and resumed her command manner. “But they do not expect the collector pods they send down to Earth to return with armed special ops folks. You and the rest of the JCS can alert our fighters and naval ships so they can take out some incoming pods. Before then, my Executive Officer will spend the next 50 hours collecting spec ops folks and training them in how to take over a Collector ship from the inside !”
    “I like your plan,” Poindexter said, looking around the table at the other JCS chiefs. “But at three people per pod and six Collector ships, you need 18 special ops people.” The Air Force chief looked to Bill. “After we received your vidcam transmissions, our JCS staff researched each of you.” She looked down at a paper in front of her, then up. “Chief MacCarthy, the FBI and my people from the Office of Special Investigations report you hang out with nine other special ops-trained vets at Jack’s Deep Six saloon in Denver. Are those special ops folks the people you plan to use for boarding teams?”
    Briefly Bill felt anger at having his privacy invaded. Then again, what would anyone expect the military chiefs of America to do upon hearing the shocking news that Aliens existed, some were slave-takers and oh, by the way, Earth now has a ship able to travel to the stars? He nodded. “General Poindexter, you are correct. I plan to visit Denver in one of our transports, then convince my saloon buddies to join up as this ship’s boarding crew.”
    Poindexter gave him a thumbs-up gesture, the casual nature of which surprised him. But her expression stayed command serious. “Your plan is fine by me. You and your buddies are still in the Reserve, so the DOD will do its thing and put you all on the Active Duty payroll. But that means you still need nine more special ops people to handle this covert infiltration of the Collector ships. Since