These Few Brave Souls

by Rodney Manchester

  Lieutenant Murphy shoved the others into a narrow corridor between the coffin shaped stacks. Jorgenson fell and Harlin tripped over him, banging his shin on the metal framework of the box support. Nicholas felt a burning sensation on his arm as he jumped over the pair in his path.

  A lifetime of work and play at one gravity builds muscles and coordination that don't immediately translate well at another, lesser gravity. Lieutenant Murphy's leap carried him eight feet into the air and left him hanging like a curve ball before a power hitter.

  Harlin grabbed at his shin as he rolled over. He spotted movement behind the bodies of his companions and saw a cylindrical shaped robot moving toward them. He tumbled clear of Christopher and now reached for his arm to pull him out of the way as he drew his pistol from his holster.

  Christopher felt the tug on his arm through the haze of a blow to the head. He felt himself sliding across the floor before he could make sense of the situation. When the nine-millimeter semi-automatic handgun exploded into action, he winced at the explosive noise.

  Harlin pumped six rounds into the machine before it stopped in an explosion of flying glass particles. Ricochets echoed throughout the room, some ending in shattering noises.

  Nicholas Murphy ended his brief flight with his own weapon drawn and pointed at the machine. "God damn!" he said. "God damn."

  "Yeah. I hear ya, man," replied Harlin. He crouched behind the boxes as he moved toward his silent and still companions. Sudden movement captured his attention as he swung his weapon to the right. There in his pistol sight picture was the very last thing he expected to see at that moment. Armed troops advancing on his position!

  “Halt!” Harlin yelled as his pistol was pointed at the men, now motionless and prone upon the metal deck. Their weapons were pointed at him, reciprocating his intent.

  Lieutenant thought he recognized the uniform of the troops. “US Marines,” he yelled.

  “Bloody fucking hell,” Double H exploded. “What are YOU doing here?”

  “I can ask you the very same question Captain. Lieutenant Nicholas Murphy, USMC sir,” as he came to attention as the British Royal Marine advanced.

  “Lieutenant Warren Harling, US Air Force Sir,” exclaimed Warren as he came to attention as well.

  “Her Majesty’s Royal Marines, Black Squadron, Group M, Special Boat Service,” Double H said and he and his men lowered their weapons. “Who’s in command?” he asked.

  Lieutenant Murphy said “I am sir.”

  “How’d you get here and what are your orders?” Double H asked.

  “We boarded a UFO in Peru and flew here sir. Our orders are to destroy this satellite,” Murphy said.

  “How are you to get home?” Double H asked.

  “My orders didn’t cover that.”

  “Cor Blimey!”

  Eastern boundary

  Taklimakan Desert, China

  One company of twelve tanks from the 12th Armored Division, out of Jiuquan, Gansu approached the edge of the desert. The tracks were halted while when aircraft were detected above them, approaching out of the west. Their anti-air tracks were up and running, the radar beams sweeping the sky. Four times missiles left the launch rails and four times huge flashes announced their destruction. The conflict then shifted to the ground units. It was a short fight.

  The nearby accompanying infantry was not molested as they watched their brethren flash into oblivion. The Captain in charge, Jenicko Xinua radioed his commanding officer in Jiuquan, Gansu. The orders were very specific. Capture the UFO.

  North of the UFO Park

  Taklimakan Desert, China

  Spetsnaz troops from the 15th division, Special Purpose Service had infiltrated the Chinese desert the previous night, slowly working their way toward the UFO Park. Their orders were to take possession of the UFO and hold it for follow on troops and their heavy lift helicopter, the MI-26. Once they were on site, their orders were to wait until the aircraft guarding the park were destroyed, then hold against any Chinese troops. They were onsite now, and the heavy lift helicopter was on its way, behind a mixed squadron of SU-27’s and MIG-31’s.

  Unfortunately for the Russian Air Force, fighters and irreplaceable helicopters both fared no better than their western brothers.

  “Repeat your last transmission,” growled Major Eduard Kromistev.

  “The air package has been destroyed,” the radio blurted.

  “Fuck your mother!” the Spetsnaz officer mouthed the words of the common Russian obscenity.

  “Your new orders are to secure the inhabitant and await return to Russia.”

  “That’s quite a journey,” the officer spoke. “Do you know how far inside China we are?”

  “A diversion is planned and more aircraft are on their way. Capture the inhabitant, move 20 klicks north and prepare for a nuclear event. Await further instructions,” the radio concluded.

  “A nuclear event comrade? Nuclear? Are you insane?” Major Kromistev asked, incredulity in his voice.

  “Comrade Major, the decision has been made. The United States, Great Britain and Australia have obtained alien technology. China has one in their back yard. Either we take that vehicle and its occupant or we become irrelevant. We will NOT become irrelevant! I will not tolerate a neighbor with alien technology. If we cannot have it, China will not get it either,” Colonel General Viktor Bukin said into the radio. “Now execute your orders!”

  “Yes sir!” he replied, but the connection had already been broken.

  Major Kromistev handed the radio handset to the radioman and turned to his Senior Sergeant. “Willim, have the officers join me immediately.”

  “Da,” the sergeant said, having heard both sides of the radio traffic.

  In orbit

  Twenty-two thousand three hundred miles above Quito, Equador

  “It’s time to get organized,” Captain Harrison said to the men and woman who were on the ship in orbit.

  Sarah Von Framden, Corporal Benuchi and Sergeant Adams had gradually returned to consciousness, all with severe headaches and patches of scalp showing where their hair had been burnt. The group was in the hanger bay, gathered around the Captain of Royal Marines following a search of the ship that turned up nothing but silent equipment in the pressurized compartments. And lots of sleeping colonists.

  “First off, we have some official business to conduct.

  “Attention on deck! As the senior military member of this group I hereby assume command of this man of war. After consulting with Lieutenant Murphy, I have decided to name this vessel Joint Forces Ship ‘Success’.

  “Secondly, I name Lieutenant Murphy to be my Executive Officer and Second in Command.

  “Lieutenant Harlin is our Science Officer and is responsible for the civilians on board. Warren, your first job is to communicate with the earth. Second try to figure out how to operate this ship.

  “Sergeant Jones, as the senior enlisted man, you are the squad leader. Organize your team incorporating the US Marines and post a guard on those caskets, or whatever you call them. If anything so much as moves I want to know. Secondly, see if you can find som3e supplies, food, water, that sort of thing. I don’t know if we can live on what these things eat, but we’ve got to have something.

  “Let’s go to work.”

  Jones led his men toward the open hatch and the casket storage room and Lieutenant Harlin, Sarah and Christopher began to move toward the control room. The Captain and his men trailed along.

  As the combined team of military from two different countries and three different branches of the service along with two scientists began to move along featureless corridors, making their way toward the control room, the gravity disappeared and without exception, they floated toward the ceiling, arms and legs flailing.

  “What the hell…” Captain Harrison began.

  The ship shuddered and a hum filled the air. The sounds of activity grew quickly louder, pumps cycled, flowing noises began. Sarah spoke first, “The artificial grav
ity was shut down. We are under power again.”

  Upon arrival in the control room, after learning to propel themselves along with swimming motion and pushing themselves along, the two scientists sat in the awkward chairs and the others just stared at the wall, or what once was a wall but was now a huge display. The scientists had to sit on the edge due to the hole in the rear designed for a tail.

  The display was quite convincing in the message that was being sent. The earth was receding against the black background of space. They had left earth orbit.

  “Oh shit,” Sarah said, echoing the thoughts of those present.

  Gunfire suddenly exploded deep within the ship.

  UFO Park

  Taklimakan Desert, China

  The thirty men of Spetsnaz, 15th division, SPS, stood near the largest UFO in the center of the parked formation. Aligned on either side of the hatch, and lacking any other communication method, the Starshiná Sergeant pounded on the hatch with his ham sized fist. Valdimir Kochenkco was a 35 year old large boned career soldier who tipped the scales at 125 kilos standing a full two meters in height.

  He waited a full five minutes, then using the hilt of his combat knife, pounded again. This time the ringing of metal against the hull produced a ringing that was heard by all.

  The hatch opened to an empty corridor. After pausing another 30 seconds, Sergeant Kochenkco pivoted on the ball of his right foot and stormed the open doorway. He came face to face with the alien.

  A vicious fight ensured, where the attacker had the advantage, not merely in size, but the rules of engagement were on her side as well. Mayluth was under no duty to take any of these offensive little creatures alive, while that was the only motivation for the Russian soldiers.

  Sergeant Kochenkco’s arm was thrown out the door. Noticably missing was his body, which followed shortly thereafter. He was followed in exiting the craft by the enormous now bloody alien who was immediately piled on by the remaining troops who were attempting to restrain the alien. The alien had a much different agenda. Soldier after soldier was thrown away from the tangle of brawling soldiers and one alien.

  With broken and mangled bodies surrounding the dwindling fight, the Russian soldiers gradually took control, restraining the arms of the still valiantly struggling reptile. The struggle was anything but quiet, but in the desert, who was there to hear it?

  Just South of the UFO Park

  Taklimakan Desert, China

  The Chinese infantry company had abandoned their vehicles and proceeded on foot after the tanks had been destroyed. His company of men, 135 officers and enlisted, had double time marched the remaining ten kilometers and were nearing their objective when the pounding and loud struggle was heard.

  The Chinese Infantry Captain, Liu Wei Zedong, ordered his men to halt behind the one remaining berm between his company and their objective. Along with his senior sergeant, they crawled up the sand dune and watched the ending of the fight.

  “Lieutenant Li Jun, charge up and over the hill twenty meters to my right, Lieutenant Liu Jie, charge up and over the hill on my left. Prepare to engage the foreign soldiers!”

  With no time to organize themselves further, the Chinese infantry ran up and over the sand dune, attacking the few remaining Spetsnaz soldiers below. The vicious fire fight ended the only way a fight can end when one side had over 130 trained soldiers fighting less than a dozen trained Special Forces soldiers. The Spetsnaz were over run, but only after Major Eduard Kromistev used his radio one last time before being shot to death on the hot dry sands of a foreign desert. The alien Mayluth sustained major injuries from multiple gun shots. Nonetheless, the Chinese troops put her on a medic’s litter and began transporting her to their vehicles.

  COBRA

  No 10 Downing Street

  London England

  The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was explaining to the President of the United States how the Royal Marines had killed the alien in Morocco when the UFO took off with 30 of his men aboard. Mid-sentence he stopped, interrupted by the President.

  “Excuse me Billy, Howard just handed me a note. The UFO in orbit has apparently departed. It has left orbit and is heading away. Not very quickly I’m told, but it has definitely left orbit. With all of our people on board. Yours too apparently.”

  “Well hell. I hate to say this, but unless you’ve got some black project that can reach them, they are on their own,” Billy West declared.

  “Unfortunately no, we don’t,” the president replied. “On their own indeed.”

  Four ship of MIG-31’s

  100 Kilometers north of the UP Park

  Taklimakan Desert, China

  Captain of Aviation, Vicktor Bolemko spoke into his radio “Say again?”

  Ground control technician Stárshiy Serzhánt Vladimir Cheznowski repeated “Deploy the weapon now and immediately return to base.”

  “Da,” Vicktor replied and immediately relayed the order to fire the nuclear tipped missiles and reverse course.

  NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY

  Washington, DC

  The detonation of an unplanned nuclear device on, or in the earth is a rare event. It happened when the North Koreans, Indian’s and Pakistani’s each revealed their nuclear ambitions, but this was only the second time in history a nuclear weapon had been used in anger. The third time followed shortly thereafter.

  Rare events still have a protocol that is followed.

  First, the highly sensitive satellite in orbit detected the radiation surge and the infrared heat flash.

  Then the tracking computers determined where on earth exactly the event occurred and if it was in motion. Less than 120 seconds later, the appropriate phone at 1600 Pennsylvania began to ring. It was the nature of that particular phone that demanded an immediate answer. It had never rang in the memory of anyone present.

  Beijing, China

  “They what?” General Li Qiang Xung’s face turned ashen as the color drained. He was stunned.

  “What has happened?” Premier Zhang Qiang Lu asked.

  “The Russian’s have fired nuclear tipped missiles at the alien in the desert. The UFO is likely destroyed, however, we have the alien alive.”

  “The Russian bear will pay for this. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, their military is in disarray. They are so desperate they fire weapons of mass destruction at us. We will show them what mass destruction truly is.”

  “Jiuzhou?” asked Li.

  “Yes, it is time we demonstrated the power of the nine domains.”

  The general picked up the phone from the table and dialed a number from memory. “Execute Jiuzhou.”

  Inside the bunker 150 kilometers distance, the enlisted technician’s jaw dropped as he contemplated the order. His Senior Sergeant glared at him and said “Execute now!”

  The technician took the key from around his neck and inserted it into the lock. He looked at his sergeant. “Now.” He turned the key.

  The twenty minute war between the Russian Republic and the People’s Republic of China was nearly over, the end being determined by the flight time of the quartet of missiles that were even now taking flight.

  Epilogue

  Military Hospital

  Deep underground

  Delingha, China

  Mayluth awoke swathed in bandages, aware of her recent nearness to death. She found herself in a white room, unable to move. But she was able to think and she was very good at thinking.