Chapter 11

So tell me again about what I should expect on Woden, what's it like?" asked Hannah.

She was walking past the 'swimming pool' with Kadesh, unconsciously enjoying the breath-taking beauty of Aetherkraal. It was perhaps ironic that Kadesh was trying to sell the virtues of Woden while surrounded by such natural splendour.

"Well admittedly it doesn't have all of this," he replied, his hand sweeping in an arc before them to indicate the lush scenery. "But then, it has fabulous libraries and museums, art galleries, restaurants and lots more."

"And how many people are there on Woden?" Hannah asked.

"I think the last count I heard the population was over one hundred million."

That was a staggering number for Hannah to try to take in and she shook her head a little in wonder.

"Amazing, so many people and all together on one planet. It seems inconceivable when you compare it to what things are like here."

"You'll love it," said Kadesh, "there's so much life, things to do, places to go. No two days are ever the same on Woden."

Those were just the kind of buttons that Kadesh could press to get Hannah excited about the prospect of travelling to Woden. She had a love of life and the idea that her days could be filled with exciting new discoveries was exactly what she wanted for herself.

"How long will it be before a ship comes? How will they know where to find you? Won't they just think that you died when the missiles struck your ship?" asked Hannah.

"So many questions!" laughed Kadesh, taking Hannah's hand as they walked. "I haven't told you this before, but I sent a message to my commanders to tell them that there were people on this planet. Our ships have scanners so any craft that does come will be able to determine that for themselves anyway.

"The escape shuttle that brought me down to the surface of the planet has an emergency beacon — it's constantly sending out a signal to tell any other ships where it is. That will tell them that I escaped and after that they're duty bound to come down here to find me."

"How long will it take to return to Woden?" asked Hannah excitedly.

"It's a long voyage — maybe six months if the Captain of the ship is making top speed."

Hannah let her head fall onto Kadesh's arm as they walked. She had a dreamy look on her face as she let herself drift off into her thoughts of what life on Woden would be like.

A mass meeting of the tribe was called and David told them all about his past; how he had been bullied and driven out by the other twins. He described what the twins were like and why it was important that the Celestialites stood up to them.

"They will come to try to destroy us — of that I am certain. God has spoken to me and confirmed that even now they are building weapons with which to attack and kill all of us.

"I say that we should demonstrate that we are fierce and strong! I say that we shouldn't wait like a herd of deer for them to come and hunt us! I say that we should strike the first blow and make them think again!" David spoke powerfully.

Already he could see that the members of the tribe were becoming fired up at his words. Once he had them fully worked up at the injustice of being 'picked on' by the much larger community it wasn't difficult to convince them that it was necessary to select a squad to mount an assault on Adam and the other twins.

Now David and Beckie scrutinised the squad of four that was sitting in front of them. These were the ones chosen to carry out the attack.

After God had spoken to them, David had decided the job of building the space ship was the highest priority and that he himself would need to oversee production. That meant he had to give up the notion of leading an assault in person and instead had delegated it to one of their older sons — Scott.

"Now remember Scott, the tactics are to hit and run, hit and run. Never stay in one place for too long and try to ensure that your movements can't be predicted," advised David.

"Yes Father," Scott replied dutifully.

"You should try to make the first blow one that damages their production. God has told me that they are trying to build a space ship too — if you can, sabotage their efforts to slow them down and give us an advantage.

"Do you have any questions?" David asked.

"No Father, we're ready. All of us have been well trained and we know what to do to have maximum impact. We won't let the tribe down, I can assure you of that," Scott replied.

"Good, may God watch over you and guide you in this. His be the glory, our duty is to serve him," said David.

He stood to embrace his son and then took each of the other squad members in his arms too. The pride he felt in them threatened to make his chest swell out until it burst.

Beckie also stood to embrace each of the four, but her expression was more of concern for their safety.

"Be careful and don't take stupid risks," she said, "rely on what you have been taught and work as a team to watch each other's back."

The squad set out under cover of darkness. It comprised of Scott (30), his cousin Alice (23), another cousin Phil (18) and finally yet another cousin (great cousin?) Cynthia (14).

They were travelling in a medium-sized hover vehicle — and had an immediate advantage in that they knew the craft could easily cross water. Ben had had no need to play the same trick on the Celestialites that he had on Adam and the others so Scott and his squad knew that their vehicle was good for most terrain.

Their approach to the area of the caves was a cautious one and the hover craft was hidden out of sight well away from where they expected to find any of the enemy.

Once they had the vehicle under the trees and covered with vegetation, the squad set out to walk the remainder of the way to their target.

Anyone watching would have observed a well-drilled efficient unit. They walked in single file and each of them constantly scanned around them for signs of trouble. They took turns to walk 'point' as this required the greatest concentration and was therefore more tiring.

The squad had its first sight of the enemy while they were still several miles away from the caves. A small group of Stellarites was working in the fields, tending to the communities crops, but they saw nothing as Scott and the others ghosted past them and continued on their way.

An hour or so later, with the light starting to fade, they were close enough to pick out the huge gantry that had been erected to support the manufacture of Thomas' space ship.

The squad crept as close as they dared and then found cover and closed up.

"Do we all agree that we've just identified our first target?" Scott whispered to the group.

There were nods of agreement all round.

"Okay, settle down and try to get some sleep. I'll take the first watch. Once we're sure most of them are tucked up in bed we'll give them a little surprise."

Phil, Alice and Cyn all tried to make themselves comfortable amongst the bushes while Scott remained alert. Already he was planning the attack in his head so that it would do maximum damage and also have as much of a psychological impact as they could create.

Simeone knew that the WS Scout was closing on him rapidly. By his calculations he would have less than a day on the planet before the other ship arrived. That didn't give him much time to do anything.

The Clarion was already in orbit around planet P73197 and the first thing he picked up was the damaged hulk of WS Reaper. As far as he could see it was possible that it could be repaired, but that would take considerable time and effort.

The second thing he picked up was the emergency beacon from the surface of the planet.

"Yes! That means that the Scout won't be able to simply kill everyone on the planet for fear that they'll kill the pilot too. That is certainly going to annoy the Captain! One way or another he's going to have to put men on the surface. That should give me a little more time," he thought to himself happily.

Simeone now had a decision to make. His scanners told him that there were no life forms close to where the emergency beacon was located, so it was likely that the pilot had joined one of the groups of people on the planet.

According to the readings his ship was providing, there were three distinct concentrations of people on the surface — which one should he choose to contact first?

Logic suggested that the largest group would have made the most progress and he decided that would be the one to approach.

He prepared himself to go down to the planet and then spoke to the ship's AI.

"AI, tele-port me down to the coordinates of the largest group on the planet. Set me down far enough away that I can approach without being seen. If these people are aggressive enough to fire missiles at a ship, I want to make sure I'm not in immediate danger before contacting them."

"Confirmed," chimed the AI.

Tele-porting was something that Woden had developed in the last thirty years or so. That and all of the other advances made since the time of the seeding of P73197, was information that none of the twins had. Their DNA gave them all inherited memories of everything about Woden up to the point they had been created, but everything developed after then was unknown to them. That was going to prove an important point in the near future.

Simeone braced himself and within moments he found that he was standing in the midst of a darkened wood.

"Stupid! I didn't think about what time of day it was. On Woden it wouldn't matter, but here there's so few people that they still have open countryside without any city lighting. Ah well, the Scout is too close for me to waste time waiting for daylight. I suppose I've got no choice but to try to make contact tonight."

A quick glance at his compass told him which direction the population was and he started walking towards it.

Scott felt a hand on his shoulder and he was immediately awake. The squad huddled together in a tight circle and he explained his plan and the role he wanted each of them to play. All of them put on the night-vision goggles they carried with them.

The squad spread out and began to make their way towards where the huge gantry was situated. Phil focused on where each of the other squad members was and then set out to make a circuit around the gantry. When he completed the circuit, he knelt beside Scott and whispered his report.

"Nothing, not a single sentry to be seen. This is going to be very easy," he said.

"Don't get complacent," warned Scott.

He signalled Cyn and Alice forward and left the three of them to place their charges. He continued to scan the area, scrutinising every inch of the green-tinged landscape through his goggles.

Twenty minutes later the three squad members returned and confirmed that everything had gone according to plan.

"Okay, we've got thirty minutes to high-tail it away from here. Let's make for the ridge we passed earlier, that should give us a good view of the show," Scott whispered.

The squad kept their discipline and returned to walking single-file. Despite the dark, their goggles helped them make good time and within twenty-five minutes they had climbed to the crest of the ridge that Scott had described.

"Better take the goggles of unless we want to blind ourselves," he ordered.

The others pulled their goggles off and all four of them turned to face back the way they had come. Scott checked his watch and mentally counted down the time until detonation. He had reached 'four' on his count backwards from ten when the sky below them was lit up by a series of impressive explosions.

Whoomp! Whoomp! Whoomp! Came the blasts one after the other. Even without the benefit of the night-vision goggles, the squad could see clearly what was going on. Their charges had been designed to not only cause as much damage to the gantry as possible, but also to make as much noise and light as they could. The flames burned intensely white giving a clue that the charges had included phosphorous and magnesium.

The fact that there was no sign of any structure in the midst of the flame and light told them that they had been successful in destroying the gantry. Scott slapped the other three on the back and congratulated them on a job well done.

"Let's head back to the vehicle and pick up some supplies. We'll give it a day or so to let things calm down and let them think it was a one-off. After that we can reconnoitre and find other targets of opportunity. For now, well done!"

If Simeone had any doubts that he was heading in the right direction, they disappeared when the night was torn apart by a series of explosions. He could actually feel the ground beneath his feet shaking and the sky ahead was lit up by a spectacular pyrotechnic display.

"What the heck was that? Maybe it's not such a great idea to approach these people. They seem to have a great love of blowing things up!" he thought.

With fires burning fiercely before him, he paused to think about what to do before deciding he had little option but to carry on.

Adam and Thomas were screaming at people to do something to try to save what little they could of the work that had been completed so far. Both had come running as fast as they could when the sound of the explosions and the shuddering of the walls in the caves had woken them.

The fires were burning incredibly hot, fuelled by the phosphorous and the magnesium and no one could get close enough to salvage anything. No arrangements had been made to deal with a fire and Adam made a mental note to rectify that as quickly as possible.

They had to watch while the huge beams of metal twisted and melted in the intense heat. Thomas actually cried at the loss.

"Fergus! Fergus!" shouted Adam.

Fergus came trotting over from where he too had been watching the fires rage.

"Round up several squads of men to go out and look for whoever did this. Tell me when they're ready. You can lead one and I'll take the other!" Adam ordered.