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Chapter Nine

  The Morning of January 20th

  The Original Owners of Genesis

  The Defender lifted off from the township on Genesis to the cheers of its people, a people who now hoped that their future was now safe. Tyler felt more at ease in his mind about the colonists of Genesis after meeting them at the celebrations of last night, but he still wanted to get to know them a little more before fully trusting them. Some of them were undoubtedly strange, but amongst any group of people this was always so.

  With the ship now on its way Tyler asked Colin Freeman to turn on their defence shields, to ensure that they were safe from any attack as they flew low over the lush green countryside of Genesis. Tyler then ordered Colin Freeman to switch on the cloaking device as they quickly approached the area of the planet where the scanning field, that Colin had discovered, was located. The colonists tripped this field when they had travelled through it to try to begin their mining operations. It had told their attacker that there were interlopers in its vicinity, and it then launched its ferocious attacks on the mining parties. Colin had identified an area that should be shielded from the sensor, it lay behind a large hill; this would also prevent a repeat attack from the powerful energy weapon. They slipped through the scanning field without any sign that their ship had been observed, their cloak successfully hiding them from the city`s sensors, finally they landed behind the large hill. From its sheer size, Tyler saw that it should provide the landing team with the cover they required to start their covert operation.

  "Ok Paul, I will contact you on the short wave radio when we have taken all of our equipment out of the Defenders hold. If you will then take the Defender out of the planet`s atmosphere, you should be able to operate far more easily than inside of it. You can also provide us with updates on our attacker; we will contact you on the short wave radios when we want you to begin any operations against our foe. Don`t forget to turn on the defence shields and then to re-cloak the ship before you move out of the protection given by this hill, or you might find yourself immediately under attack from our new enemy." Tyler ordered. "Also when you climb up through the planet`s atmosphere you may be given away by your heat signature, so I suggest that you fly out across the sea for a while before taking her up, so as to be well out of sight of our friend with the itchy finger."

  "Don`t worry Tyler; I will take good care of the Defender." Paul promised.

  The landing party consisted of Tyler, Caroline, Appolon, Tryon, Charles Bragg, Colin Ryan and ten men from the local defence force. Tyler had decided to allow them aboard the Defender, but they travelled in the ship`s hold where they were under the watchful eye of the remainder of the landing party, with the exception of Tyler who joined them after the ship landed. The men from the local defence force were able to look with awe upon the massive Phaser that sat in the hold of the Defender, and accompanied them on their journey.

  "Right everyone let`s move all of the equipment we are taking with us out of the hold, and allow the Defender to move off." Tyler ordered.

  Soon two of the portable force fields had been unloaded from the ship together with a portable translator that they had obtained from amongst the remains of the broken Heliot fleet. The remainder of their equipment consisted of food, water, and a heavy portable Phaser cannon, also looted from the broken Heliot space fleet. They watched wistfully as the Defender first turned on its defence shields, then it re-cloaked and disappeared from their view. Moments later, they heard it as its engine lifted the heavy ship and took it away from the ground; the force of its engines lifting off blew an enormous amount of dust and air about making the landing party turn away from it until it had finally departed.

  "The city is about ten miles away through the woodland that starts on the other side of this hill so we should sight it no later than three hours from now, depending on the terrain. Charles will take over the command while we travel through the woodland, as he is far more experienced at this sort of thing than I am." Tyler said to the assembled men. Charles Bragg now came forward and spoke to the assembled team.

  "Ok Appolon you take point, Tryon you are tale end Charlie, Tyler will you and Caroline follow behind me. Colin will you bring up the rear of the main column, the rest of you do not make any noise, which means that no one talks until I tell you to. Move out in single file on my command and try to keep a yard or so between each man, stay alert and keep one eye on Appolon at all times." Charles Bragg looked at his men before finishing off his orders.

  "Ok let`s move out, quietly."

  Colin Ryan was put at the rear of the main column to keep the local men under control and to also keep them from getting killed, he was a marine of the first order who had been in this situation many times before, and like Appolon he knew the correct way to act in any given situation. With these worries out of the way Charles Bragg could concentrate on what he did best, commanding the team. Colin Ryan had thought that he was done with this sort of operation, seems he was wrong, but he kept all such thoughts private.