by Steve Hertig
Chapter 30
Plus 1: 13 Feb 2085
Jen fell over the platform, but she didn't transit. The ceiling was falling around her, but both the living and dying goodlife kept their eerie silence. A spider rushed her with several mechanical appendages poised to impale her. She fired again, sweeping phaser's beam across the mech and slicing it in half. She disintegrated the closest wriggling half, struggling not to choke in the midst of its remnant vapor.
Contact lost with Captain Mackinac, Luca reported as two more machines ran at Jen, crashing into each other and becoming entangled just in front of the platform.
That instant was all she needed. She fired repeated short bursts of dispersed energy at the mechs until they collapsed into an orange, glowing heap that quickly faded as she rolled off to the back of the platform gaining what little cover it afforded. She felt a cold breeze as dust swirled around the platform then cleared as sunlight washed over her. She realized the Chinese attack had finally fully commenced as evidenced by a large hole through the base's ceiling above her.
Another spider was pulling itself out from under the ceiling debris. She took careful aim as it struggled. It vaporized, and the block of ceiling fell back with a thud. But she did not fire. Looking up, she saw a figure peering down at her from the roof.
"Colonel Scott, I presume," Zhong shouted with a wave, covering the far entrance into the transit room with his pulse rifle. He then tossed a rope over the edge and rappelled through the opening, landing next to her. "I believe we have the base," he said. "They must have been pulling out for a few days now, just a few mechs left."
"Forget your spurs, General?" she asked mockingly, standing up and surveying the vestiges of the brief firefight. "I think Mackinac made it, but transits stopped just as I reached the platform."
"It seems we were a bit over zealous in taking out the base's power units too early," he said. "Our egress point is not far. Are you okay?"
"I'm not going anywhere," she said staunchly.
He pressed his com unit to his ear. "Seems there's hundreds of goodlife still here and remaining enemy forces have released their Synths. We'll establish a parameter, secure the base and see if we can get a power unit back on line."
"Thanks," Jen managed to say, feeling the separation from John more intensely than she thought possible.
Plus: 24 Jan 2076
Tye looked up at snow-covered Cheyenne peak from the track at Carl's elevated recon post and then down towards the Mountain's main gates. It was a moonless, starry night. A few brief flashes of light down at Fort Carson despite the blackout worried her.
"Hey there stranger, come in out of the cold." Carl startled her from the doorway of the post, breaking her concentration. "Come for the nickel tour?"
"Yeah, something like that," she replied as she climbed the steps to the elevated post.
Paper topographic maps littered the table in the middle of the old lookout tower. Three techs staffed digital displays and four more were scanning the horizon with analog optics.
"It's good to see you. It's been awhile," Carl said giving her a hug.
"Seems like millions of years," Tye said with giggle while still taking in the surrounding spectacular scenery.
"Doc and Ms. Scott get off okay?" he asked.
"Sort of." She tried not to look worried. "We think the captain managed to make transit to the dodec, but Colonel Scott was stranded at the hub when the Chinese took out the station's power units. I am leaving soon to assist in getting the transit system to the dodec back on line."
Carl's stricken look revealed his concern.
"How is Sandy and Midge?" Tye asked. She knew refugees had streamed in ahead of the enemy for weeks although many didn't make the journey across the Great Plains or across the Great Divide. Sandy and her daughter Midge were two of a few people to survive that Carl had gotten close to on his journey back from Martinique.
"We're good," Sandy said as she turned around from one of the recon stations. Midge, at most six years old, crawled out from under the station's table to smile at Tye. "What brings you up to The Horns?" Sandy asked.
"I wanted to see if you guys needed any help with the smart round system," Tye said giving her a hug.
Carl opened a gun case lying on a small, tatty couch pushed to one side of the makeshift recon post and handed her what looked like a fifty caliber sniper rifle. She also noticed Carl's L115A3 case leaning against one arm of the couch, obviously kept within easy reach.
The fifty caliber was light and suited for the minimal recoil of a smart round. The scope was a sleek long ovoid.
Carl handed it to Tye. "Have a look."
The bolt was already open, but she checked the chamber for brass out of habit.
She easily shouldered the rifle, pointing it east out a window. The scope did not contain optics but a display screen synchronized to the chambered round. Each round could engage three targets, as the projectile was really a multiple warhead composed of three, smart missiles. The display provided real time ballistic data, target status and even vid data given special rounds.
She thumbed on the display to surround the scope with a view of the various options available for engagement criteria, target identification, tracking as well as impact options.
"Major Higgs wasn't familiar with one of the symbols," Carl said over her shoulder while putting his finger through the icon.
"Reptilian detection," Tye said.
"Not gators I suppose?" he asked halfheartedly.
"More like raptors," she said looking him in the eye. "You know the ones from the Cretaceous."
"Oh, those reptiles," he said uneasily.
Tye lowered the rifle. It was clear Sandy was not following her. "The Leadership is known for leaving augmented pets behind, Velociraptor and various other similar nasty species like the Troodons. Sterile, they hunt in packs of females. They can live for over a hundred years and are a formidable challenge to poorly armed prey hanging on to its humanity by a thread already. They will mop up most stragglers before their extinction."
Tye re-shouldered the rifle then decided it was best to use the bi-pod and rest it on an old four-drawer filing cabinet. She pointed it out a window into the cold darkness. She looked at the reptilian symbol to activate it as several alarm tones sounded.
"Shit." Carl said extinguishing the red blackout lights in the command post.
Glowing in reflected light from the scopes display, Sandy's face showed fear.
Tye followed the scope's directions to the alarm's source and pointed the rifle northward. "There about two thousand meters down the access track. I must have driven right past them on the way up." She showed Carl two stationary blimps on the screen.
"What are they doing?" Carl asked.
"Scouts probably waiting for the main attack," Tye replied.
Carl rubbed his chin nervously, "Notify command of the threat and every quad issued smart systems of the revised icon key," he told a sergeant at one of the displays.
Tye handed him the rifle. He surveyed the surrounding area again with the smart scope but came back to the original targets. "Just those two as far as I can tell."
"It is mostly line of sight." Tye handed him a round from the ammo crate next to the couch.
Tye followed Carl outside. He chambered the round and brought the bolt home. The scope reacted to the new round and brought up its tactical display. A green light flashed notifying Carl the round was ready for firing. He clicked off the safety and pulled the trigger. An odd pop issued from the barrel followed by a loud crack that signified the warheads simultaneously reaching supersonic velocity. One blip disappeared nearly instantly, the other followed, but not before a shrill shriek could be heard echoing back from the snow-covered slopes. He made another 360 survey with the scope.
The post was silent as Carl turned the red blackout lights back on.
"What else are we up against out there?" Tye asked.
"Recon reports indicate the enemy is massing on fronts several hundr
ed miles long." Carl's face was grave. "Both sides of the Rockys," he added.
"Sounds medieval," Tye said.
"That looks like the plan," Carl acknowledged calmly, "a full-frontal attack with mass numbers. There are reports of a few aircraft too, but limited tactical vehicles. Just small stuff and transports." He pointed to one of the topographic maps on the table next to them. "We've got over five thousand militia personnel and refugees able to shoulder a weapon in key passes not to mention nearly thirty thousand combat troops deployed in the foothills and garrisons close to the mountains. We should hold on a while. Some armor and aircraft would have been good."
Tye nodded and then looked around at the command post’s staff. They looked nervous, but she could see resolve, too. "I better get back. I am leaving for the Taklimakan within the hour," she said with a shiver.
Plus 1: 13 Feb 2085
There was not much for Jen to do except help with the grim job of body removal. Zhong's people still were exploring the base's power systems. Other tangible intelligence was scarce and prisoners were nonexistent.
They had just finished clearing the transit station when Tye and Higgs appeared on a transit platform. Jen turned away to examine a dead mech to give them time to dress as weapons, uniforms and boots materialized next to them, but they rushed to her anyway.
"I'm okay." Jen blushed and closed her eyes but not before noticing Rodney's freckles covered more than his face.
Tye and Higgs dressed as Jen filled them in on the situation. There was still no power and Zhong's techs had not been able to interface an external generator to the power grid.
The remaining goodlife were slowing coming out of their stupor, and the Chinese were providing rations to those able to eat and medical care to those who needed it.
Higgs accompanied one of the Chinese techs to the base's power facility, but Tye stayed with Jen in the transit station. She slung a pulse rifle over her shoulder and checked her sidearm as she walked over to the spider crushed under ceiling rubble.
"Standard-issue scavenger mech," Tye said calmly. "But it is an early variation and consistent with our profile of a primal dodec. We will need mineralogy to confirm." She tugged at an end of an appendage, but it did not give. Shouldering her rifle after adjusting the power setting, she tried to cut the tip off the limb but without success.
The mech cooled quickly from a dull orange as Jen removed the translucent, blue blade from a sheath just above her right boot. She cut easily through the leg and handed Tye the sample. Tye inspected it briefly before it disappeared.
"We should have an answer quickly," she said.
"Thanks for coming," Jen said as the spider's metallurgic sample materialized at eye level and dropped between them with a clank. "The waiting was killing me," she said deadpan, picking it up. She handed it to Tye who removed the attached micro drive and inserted it into her pad.
"Sometimes it is hard to tell goodlife relics from the machine constructs," Tye said, "but analysis confirms the spiders are even older than we thought as well as zero-g constructed." Tye shrugged her shoulders. "All pieces of the same puzzle," she said tossing the sample onto a pile of mech remains.
Jen scanned the hole in the roof. The bitter chill of the wasteland's evening flowed over them and caused her eyes to tear.
"I guess we keep waiting," Tye said heating the pile of mech parts up with her pulse rifle until glowing brightly and radiating warmth.
Jen looked at her sat-chron. It was counting down Luca's estimated time they had left. It displayed less than forty-eight hours. She crouched next to the smoldering pile of metallic evil, rubbing her hands together over the glow and staring at the case next to her containing the enemy's nano weapons.
Plus: 24 Jan 2076
The evolving scene Carl saw out the recon post's large, east-facing window was horrendous. His coffee cup fell to the floor bringing the rest of the station's personnel also to stare at the view. Bright streaks in the thousands launched from the plains to the east lit the pre-dawn sky. They slowly raced to altitude then seemed to accelerate as their trajectories began to drop and track straight down upon them.
"Evac!" Carl shouted to the station personnel, knowing they had just seconds to reach the subterranean shelter. He was the last down the stairs with the fifty cal. The ground shook as he closed the blast doors behind him.
"Everything's out," The station's communication specialist reported from a secondary com station. "Telemetry suggests EMPs have taken out this areas surface relays and most observation gear."
They were safe for now in the shielded and reinforced bunker beneath the recon tower, but the continuing rumble of incoming rounds felt ominous. Staff scanned useless workstations; it was apparent there were no functional sensors left outside.
Carl looked at Sandy gently bouncing Midge on her hip who was casually inspecting a smart round.
"We have to get eyes topside," Carl said.
Sandy gave Midge a gentle squeeze and took the cartridge from her then handed it to Carl. "Could Paterson and Carson survive all this?" she asked as the bombardment came to an abrupt stop.
"They're tough," Carl said slipping the round into his breast pocket and then slinging the fifty-caliber rifle over his shoulder. He grabbed an ammo case and headed back up the stairs.
Midge held out her arms.
Carl took a step back, bent down and gave her a reassuring kiss on the forehead. "No one else's topside until I give the word," he said to the seven soldiers looking at him. He knew they were probably scared because he was terrified.
Thankfully, the blast doors opened easily. Dawn was breaking as he surveyed the interior of the post through smoky wisps with the help of a tactical light. It was largely intact although all the windows were blown, and most of the workstations appeared damaged beyond use. He peered over the sill to the east. Eerie orange flashes coupled with delayed sounds of explosions betrayed Fort Carson's position within a thick smoke cloud. He looked northward to Peterson, now covered with numerous fires, and knew it could not be operational. Carl scanned the sky hoping to glimpse the few rehabilitated aircraft from Peterson that were operational just thirty minutes ago. The post's com dish lay twisted at the base of the tower.
"Okay, stay frosty," Carl called down the stairs. "I'll need an operational SITREP ASAP." He tipped the couch, dumping glass fragments and debris to make room for the L115A3's case lying nearby. He picked up the fifty cal, positioned its bi-pod onto an east-facing windowsill and activated the alien scope. It was still set to the reptilian detection. The scope's alarms instantly sounded as Carl scanned around the recon post and then down to the plains below; at least several hundred blips showed movement in the foothills below them. He saw the altitude annotations on most blips slowly increment higher.
Sandy was busy helping get their workstations back online. Others were carrying spare equipment up from the shielded shelter below.
"We need that dish back online," Carl shouted to the com specialist, just as the tech emerged with a replacement dish from below.
"Yes, sir," the specialist replied, hefting a new dish to his shoulder.
Touching the smart system's display to change to from reptilian to humanoid, the scope's alarm sounded a different tone as it's screen filled with small red triangles. He swiped the scope's screen to incorporate simultaneous feeds from any other active scopes along the front to contribute to his scope's data. Twenty-six other scopes were online.
"We've got data from other scopes," Carl announced. But just as the data feed refreshed, thousands of red triangles appeared streaming from numerous single points on the plains before them. Carl knew those points had to be TRs.
"Shit," Carl swore. "We'll need more ammo."
