Out of Space

Chapter 29: All along the Watchtower

"Power is being rerouted to the point defense lasers! Capacitors charging at 0.3% and raising."

"Get those people in the ship now! Just ignore it!"

"Shut the side hatches! Make sure all is locked down."

Chaos and panic reign in the Bridge, crews at their stations frantically give orders and directions to the men and women still evacuating back to the ship. Blake stood in the middle, staring at the image of the alpha wolf.

"Sir!" Ford came up next to Blake, "85% of the crew are accounted for. The remainder is the surveying teams in the South and Southeast section!"

"Inform them to lay low and be on alert," Blake orders. "Once the all clear is given than get them to return back."

"Weapons, how much more time do we have before the lasers are ready?" Blake asks.

"Sir, as long as the capacitors reach 0.4% strength, we can fire." Came back the reply.

Blake turns back to the screen, watching the wolf creeping its way forward.

"Captain, sensors are picking up more movement." Sensor officer Randy reports. "Moving UAV to expand area view."

The UAV observing the approaching danger, under the control of Randy, drifts high upwards and the video is transmitted back to the Bridge. Dozens of bluish-grey shapes follow behind the alpha wolf, their bluish-grey fur blends them perfectly to the undergrowth as they appear and disappear from view.

"Contacts just crossed the 2km mark."

"Weapons?" Blake asks without turning from the screen.

"Capacitors holding at the 0.7%. That's all the power we are getting from the WTS generators!" Weapons reports. The WTS generators are three in one power generators, powered by Wind, Tidal, and Solar energy.

"All hatches secured, the ship is secured, Sir!" Ford informs Blake. "Other than the away teams, and the perimeter defense teams, all crew is onboard and accounted for."

"Weapons, launch missile 1 directly in front of the Alpha wolf as warning shot!" Blake orders. If we can make them retreat, that is the best case scenario, he thoughts.

"Aye, missile 1 firing!" The weapons officer hits the launch key, and a slight tremor could be felt, as the missile was ejected out of launch bay, before igniting its engines and darts off towards the direct impact area.

A flash of light and a small dirt cloud explodes upwards over a kilometer away. The UAV wobbles and readjusted itself as the shockwave from the blast threatens to knock it off the sky. The view switches to infra then thermal as the cloud of dirt and smoke blocked the view, before switching back to normal vision.

"Where did it go?" Infra and thermal shows nothing, except for the missile impact area. Everyone eyes were on the screen watching, hoping that the missile manages to scare away the wolves.

As the smoke clears, a small crater has formed where the missile has hit. The alpha wolf has retreated back and glares around in confusion wondering where the attack came from. It narrows its eyes and throws its head back and howls, before turning and ran away with the rest of the wolves.

"Contacts are leaving!" Randy excitedly reports. "They just left the 5km mark! They are out of sensor range!"

"Stand down, people." Blake orders. "Good work everyone."

Blake gestures Ford to follow him, and he left the bridge and enter his office. "We need to be able to fend off those wolves. Infra and thermal have no effect on them, if we can't lock on the missiles means we can't hit them."

"Sir, we will also need to replan the perimeter walls." Ford rubs his chin. "Currently, the plans for the wall is set to a height of 12m. But this alpha wolf changes a lot of things."

"We need the reactor to be ready." Blake sat on his chair and sighs. "Without power, we can't fire the lasers and that's is currently our only trump card."

Ford nods. "I'll push Matt harder." before leaving the office.

Four hours later, the wolves returned. They came to a distance of 2 km before Blake orders another missile fired, this time to kill. The missile fired and guided manually only manages to scare the wolves away without killing or wounding any.

When night came, the wolves attempted to approach again, only to be driven back by another missile. Throughout the whole night, the wolves constantly probe the lines, trying to sneak closer to the base colony.

"Did you manage any sleep?" Blake asks Ford, yawning. "How many times did they come? Five or Six?

"Six times, Sir," Ford replied, he held two cups of coffee and hands one over to Blake. "I managed to nap a bit."

"Well, at least we didn't waste all those missiles. At least 2 confirmed kills and 2 wounded." Blake sips the hot drink. "But at this rate, we will run out of missiles before they run out of bodies."

"Chief Matt is rushing his team non-stop to fix the reactor." Ford sets down his cup of coffee on the table. "He says he needs a more time. Which we do not have."

"Well, at least the capacitors are at over 10% power. We can switch to lasers instead of using missiles now." Blake informs Ford. "The wolves are very intelligent, they appear to be probing our defenses and are trying to find a weak spot."

"Yes, I gather that they are trying to weaken us too by doing constant raids." Ford frowns. "It's like they are stalking us as prey."

Down in the bunkers, James and his team rotated duties inside, some will be on watch while the others resting. Throughout the day and night, the alerts keep popping up, making them scramble and stand ready at the firing ports. The concrete bunker is built with a tower built on top and a basement barracks for the soldiers to rest and store supplies.

Most of the team looks tired and fatigued, except for Bartley who managed a snore or two, while the rest attempted to fall asleep but couldn't.

"Corp, what are they doing?" Mills rubs his eyes and yawned. "Why are they not attacking?"

"I don't know." James blinks his tired eyes, he was too hyped to fall asleep last night. "Maybe they are testing us?"

"Wish they stop doing that," Mills grumbled as he opens the packed meal, delivered from the mess earlier. "Urgh, more purple carr-ato mash!" He spoons some out and swallows it. "Damn wolves, start the attack! So we can eat you after we kill you!" He shouts towards the forest from the firing port.

James smiles tiredly. He reaches for one of the packed meals when the perimeter alert beeps madly.

"Action stations!"

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