Free Jesse's Starship 3: Joshua's Walls by Saxon Andrew Page B

“Stop and roll the recording back.”
    The images on the monitor froze and then began moving slowly in reverse. After a few moments, the clear image appeared and froze on the monitor. Rumel walked forward and looked at the creatures. “It appears there are several different species on this image.”
    The Scan Commander nodded, “Yes, Commander, my computer tells me there are six different creatures. However, it appears that one of them outnumbers the others by eight to one.”
    “Show me a close up of that one.” A green and orange colored creature began growing on the monitor and Rumel said, “Freeze it there.” Rumel walked up closer to the monitor and immediately felt fear. The huge flying Weg had two arms with one of them having the glowing claws. The other one also had ten claws but they didn’t glow. He wondered why but then he looked at the body of the creature and saw a flap of skin on its chest. He said, “Bring that flap of skin on its chest closer.” The view moved in and he knew trouble lay ahead. Sticking out of the skin fold was the handle of what had to be a blaster.
    Rumel looked at his Scan Commander, “How many probes do we have scanning that planet?”
    “Twenty.”
    “I want the records of all of them examined and I want to know when those flying creatures first appeared.” Rumel went to his command chair, sat down, and waited impatiently for the answer to come in. Ten hours later, his communication panel lit up, “What did you find out!?!”
    “Commander, it appears the flying creature you are asking about appeared six weeks ago. The first species began appearing a month after we started using the human’s jump boots but the one with the skin fold was first seen six weeks ago.”
    Rumel jumped up and said, “Has the attack on Nogon started!?”
    “They dropped on the planet forty minutes ago, Commander.”
    Rumel pushed his panel and said, “Commander, recall your warriors from the planet. They’re dropping into a dangerous situation.”
    The Gracken Commander looked at Rumel on his display and said, “Since when has danger ever slowed us down?”
    Rumel stood up, “If you don’t want to watch all of your warriors killed, RECALL THEM NOW!!”
    The Gracken Commander stared at Rumel for a moment and turned back to his board. Rumel watched him and suddenly saw shock on the Commander’s face. Rumel slowly sat down in his command chair and knew he had taken too long.
    • • •
    The Ground Commander of the Gracken Brigade looked at his ranks and saw his brigade and the Second Brigade were performing at their normal high standards. The charging Weg were being blasted at a rate that was better than he ever expected. He watched his nine-foot tall warriors handling their huge weapons with a dexterity that was simply beautiful to watch. He looked out from the wall of the mountain his forces were lined up against and looked up at a clear sky that was a fitting backdrop for the engagement. He suddenly felt that too much time had passed since the attack started. Usually, by this time, the Weg would have arrived under their positions and they would have jumped to the carriers. Something was wrong.
    He fell back as the air around his warriors was suddenly filled with a giant mass of creatures boiling up out of the ground in front of his positions. He ordered his warriors to jump and as he rose toward his carriers he saw them covered with flying creatures. He felt a huge pull on his back as one of the flying monsters landed on his backpack and ripped through his force field with ten glowing claws. He reached over his back and grabbed the Weg with an armored fist and pulled it in front of him. He grabbed it by the head and twisted savagely. He tossed the dead creature away as three more came flying in and grabbed his armor. The last thing he saw was his entire command falling from the sky toward the ground below where their self-destruct circuits activated and blew up their armor and weapons in