Solar Warden

Encounter Part 8

As expected it was a smooth flight. They were close to their destination. The Moon base came in sight on the display.

"Amazing how could we build such a base in secrecy and stay hidden?" Samuel asked.

"Well, we didn't build it. We captured it from aliens which probably observed us for a long time. Also this view here is infrared enhanced. We are on the dark side of the Moon." Ryan turned the infrared mode off. There was only a black screen now.

"Captured? Did we encounter the aliens or have some imprisoned?" Samuel asked.

"No, they have seen us coming and departed in time. So we captured an empty base with minimal technology. But suitable for our operations. The Solar Warden project we are part of could extend its resources because of that," Ryan explained and switched the infrared mode back on.

The base was close now. On a building was a landing pad and on its side a building that could be a hangar. Also on the ground there was a much bigger area which could also be a landing location.

"You see that big area. That is for our ship we use when we start our operation. The landing pad for it is built by us. Meanwhile since we captured this base we could build some minor expansions. We will conduct some space training here while we wait for the arrival," Ryan further pointed out.

Their craft was now slowing down and finally hovering over the landing zone. The shuttle turned to the opening hangar doors and slowly floated inward. They had to wait a bit till the doors were closed and the area was pressurized to leave the plane. There were more of these TR-3CS spaceplanes in the hangar. All with their back to a wall.

"They have no free docking port so we have to wait," Taylor informed after they touched down. Then Owens also joined. They went to the airlock.

"Here you can see the status of the outside atmosphere. A green light will show you it is normal like on Earth. But you can verify the air components on this display. We have a lot of sensors outside to get detailed information. Sure the most important is the oxygen and enough pressure is available. But if it is not Earth like we have to count on our suit systems to be safe. This will be lectured again in the upcoming training," Ryan told. The green light turned on. Ryan checked the detailed information then opened the airlock and they went out. He led the team straight for the next airlock into the Moon base.

"We are now heading for the briefing room where we meet up with General Wells the leader of the Solar Warden project. He will give a short introduction for the new ones and a mission update," Ryan informed.

They went to an elevator and then to a room where in the middle was a table with 20 seats around it. The team seated down while Ryan went for the General's office. Then he came back with the General. Everyone stood up and saluted. After the military procedure all seated down.

"Good morning SW-5. I will make it short since you might be tired from the journey. Solar Warden is a project started decades ago. Since we always had encounters with alien vessels visiting our planet, some abductions and other incidents, we had the need to prevent that. From the technology we could recover we have our anti-gravity propelled space ships. The first ones were not able to travel to the stars at least with humans. But we could cover our solar system and prevent most alien vessels, which in most of the case were just probes, entering the near Earth space. On one of our last shot down on Earth, we recovered the technology to enter something we call hyperspace and travel to other stars. Still we had no clue where those vessels come from. So our first visit of a nearby star system is a just nearby one. But Lieutenant Archers discoveries gave us probably the coordinates to the origin of the vessel with the faster then light drive. I have also to mention that similar vessels also visited us further decades ago with lesser technology. From our research and analysis of the bodies," the general informed and activated a presentation screen where triangular spacecrafts were shown. Then he continued. "We guess that the prior version had a journey of centuries behind it or must be brought with a mothership to our system. But as you can see here this bodies have changed. We call this the evolution of the Grays. But they are hybrids, clones probably genetically designed and created with some strange device connected to their brain. We are guessing that might be a connection to their operators. Which means that they are more like machines sent to do more sophisticated analysis. We also found no weapons which also concludes the scouting objective. However, we have also to consider that their intense may not be friendly. As we could connect them to a lot of abduction cases. For that you will travel with the Icarus a Daedalus class spaceship to the star system. Which is also not too far away with probably a planet in the habitable zone. Your mission will be to first recon the system and find any trace of them. If you get attacked, you sure have to defend yourself. But also get as much information you can. Don't risk too much to obtain information. You must also be able to bring it back. There is no possibility of communication to Earth," the General finished his introduction.

"Sir. Does this mean we land on a planet?" Samuel asked.

"Depends on what you find there. First you will send probes, then you will land if possible. Even if you only take probes of an uninhabited planet. But that's the decision of Captain Fisher which is in command of the Icarus. Keep in mind you are part of seven SW teams. Most of them are highly trained members of special forces coming from air force, navy, marines and army. You are the team with the most science experience. Which means you do most of the investigations. Also I mention here the altered ranking since we are a mix of different organizations. We start with a Lieutenant that is the same as a Captain of the air force. That's a bit bureaucratic dispute we have here. I don't want to go into details. In the end it would not matter much," the general replied.

"Do we have any useful weapons since they could know most of our stuff we use to protect the solar system?" Owens asked.

"The Icarus has some newer railguns and microwave cannons. But also x-ray lasers and our improved drones and spaceplane fighters," the General replied.

"Sir. For whom on Earth do we speak if we encounter aliens since we all, I guess, are from the US here," Samuel asked.

"Oh, sorry I forgotten the further introduction. Since we captured the Moon base our support has been grown. The Solar Warden project is secretly funded by many Nations. It's still so secret that details only the participants in space and very few on Earth know, but we have countries from Europe and Asia supporting us with personal and resources. Further technology discoveries will, if useful, be brought to the market and also funding us. Well, you didn't notice for example Taylor is from Britain," the general replied.

"Sir. What about the alien vegetation we might encounter do we have any handling there?" Samuel asked.

"Sure, your new suits you will train here with are developed for this. Also we have procedures and staff capable of analyzing and handling that situations. One of the specialists here is Lieutenant Dr.Watkins. So I guess you want to sleep now then your training will start. After that there will be more preparation briefings. Are there any important questions?" the General finished. He looked around, there were none. "Good,dismissed."