AL:ICE-9

by Charles Lamb

  As they went feet dry, Jake had to bring the remaining group up in altitude to avoid the taller obstacles and any local interference. Considering how quiet these things were he was less worried about drawing attention as he was in surprising someone. His destination was the tallest of the local structures, providing the best oversight of the location. The map identified it as the Parsons Corporate building.

  Lining up on final approach, while keeping the building between them and their target, he noted on the display that each 2-person team from both Troops were splitting off and swinging around to their own specified locations. Jake had spread them out to cover all four points of the compass surrounding their target with good visibility in all directions.

  With his building in sight, he pulled back on the bars to gain altitude and get him level with the top of the building. Throttling back, he then slowed his approach, looking for any unwanted occupants of his intended position. After a quick check with ALICE, to verify no one had compromised the pre-selected locations, he slowed his approach. Jake then settled the hover cycle softly on the rooftop, cautiously testing to see if the structure would support the resting weight.

  Satisfied they were on a firm footing, he climbed off, inviting Sara to do the same. Jake then slid sideways, moving directly to the box at the rear. Opening the lid, he retrieved the two rifles Sara had placed there earlier and handed one to her as she stepped off the sideboard.

  Ever cautious, Jake did a quick sweep of the rooftop with Sara in tow, both verifying they were alone and familiarizing himself with the surroundings. He noted that the rooftop access doors were all gone off their hinges likely removed, no doubt, for materials sometime in the distant past. Once that was completed, he led Sara to the East parapet, which provided the overview Jake desired. From this position, he could see the buildings where he positioned each 2-person team as well as the target location, the focus of this operation.

  Jake had each location check in and reminded them that they were all in hostile territory, and this wasn’t a drill. He also reiterated for the thousandth time, the purpose of the 2-person teams was, one focused in and one out. Be sure to keep their perimeters safe.

  Once the house keeping was completed, Jake turned his attention to the target location. He had reviewed the overheads ALICE provided on the way in, but from this position, he could discern more details of the layout. Whoever this was, they had spent quite a bit of time preparing this location for long-term residency. If Jake had to bet, he suspected they had been here for years, if not decades. The “why here” was answered by the tank and windmill setup in the compound yard, apparently indicating a well for a constant water supply. At some time in the past, someone had sunk a well at this location.

  The compound was across the way from what had to have been a large park at one time, now converted to farm fields. The stolen transport sat parked between the two. The buildings inside the walls identified on the maps as a theater of some sort and the old Pasadena Armory, the surrounding buildings having been demolished and the materials scavenged to create a substantial perimeter wall. The wall completely surrounded the location, enclosing both buildings and a significant amount of open ground.

  They had undoubtedly put some thought into its construction as it established defense in layers. Jake could make out kill zone after kill zone of open areas between the exterior of the compound and the two buildings that comprised the center of their fortress. The exterior walls had firing positions that allowed for interlocking fields of fire from any direction and the buildings themselves held heavy weapon positions on all corners covering both inside and outside the walls.

  The walls were currently unmanned but there was movement on the rooftop. Jake was sure he could make out the guns on the rooftops as the stolen heavy machineguns, with the addition of rocket launchers interlaced along the roofline. Of all that he had seen so far, it was only those rocket positions that concerned him. The positioning of everything else was to repel a ground attack, but the rockets were set up to address an aerial assault. As far as he knew, only he could stage such an attack.

  Pausing to consider the implications, new activity in the yard caught his attention.

  “Jake those are kids in the yard,” Sara stated with surprise in her voice.

  Jake could make out six or seven children running around on the open area, one chasing a dog while the others watched and laughed. As Jake and Sara watched, several adults, both men and women, came out after the kids, and started various activities while the kids continued to play.

  “Jake I wasn’t expecting families here. What are we going to do?” Sara asked.

  Before Jake could reply, Abby reported, “Jake we have movement in the southeast. It looks to be, maybe 20 to 25 armed men on horseback, and they are heading this way.”

  Jake turned to his left, just in time to see the armed party Abby had described. As they watched, the group continued to approach the compound until they were at the far side of the fields in the old park. At that point, there were shouts from the rooftop and suddenly all the people in the yard scrambled back inside.

  Jake commented, more to himself, “Guess we know they aren’t part of this group.”

  Warning everyone not to engage, Jake continued to watch the events unfold. Using the fields as cover, the group on horseback dismounted and several began raiding the crops, packing cloth bags full of whatever they could grab, while a select few engaged with the rooftop positions.

  With shots fired between the two parties, Jake watched as two of the raiders fell. The two groups continued to exchange fire as the riders continued to strip the fields of produce. The heavy machineguns opened up from the rooftop, inspiring the entire raiding party to retreat in haste. Withdrawing under fire from the compound, the entire group retraced their approach path and then disappeared.

  After a few moments, the only obvious opening in the wall cleared of blockage and an armed group of 10 cautiously ventured out into the fields. Jake could see them moving through the crops and all carrying new weapons supplied from ALICE stores. The group was moving slowly, looking for both dangers, and evaluating the damage done. As they reached to two fallen bandits, Jake could recognize that the first man was dead. After they reached the second, there was a pause and then more shouting.

  Within seconds, two women appeared through the opening and hurried across the field. While the men continued to scour the remainder of the area, the women tended to the fallen bandit, with two men standing guard. After several minutes, the entire group gathered and several of the men lifted the injured man and they all returned into the compound.

  “Well I’ll be damned!” Jake declared.

  “What?” Sara asked, confused at the declaration.

  Jake turned and as he was about to say something, he stopped. Instead, he headed back to the box at the rear of their ride and pulled out a sniper rifle, placing his rifle back in the box. Returning to Sara at the wall, he handed her the rifle and said, “Here, you take this, stay here and cover me.”

  Then, without explanation he turned and returned to the hover cycle, climbing on and with one swift motion, he lifted off the rooftop. Over the open communication line, Jake instructed all positions to take no actions until instructed to do so.

  As everyone watched, Jake swung around in a large loop to the left of the rooftop until he headed south and then looped wide again so he was heading north, his route centered on the compound. Approaching slowly and at about 50 feet above the ground, Jake could make out the rooftop lookouts pointing in his direction. As he closed on their location, he slowed even more and then gently settled to the ground. He had stopped in the open area in front of the gate, near the parked transport on his right.

  Climbing off and standing beside the hover cycle, Jake stood patiently, waiting for some response from inside the walls. After a few minutes to allow the removal of the internal barriers, they opened the gate again. This time, a solitary man emerged and his only weapon, a holstered ALI
CE provided sidearm.

  As Jake stepped forward to meet the man, he heard him speak out.

  “About time you got here!”

  “Yeah, I’m beginning to understand that. I’m Major Jake Thomas,” Jake replied.

  “I know who you are,” the man replied in turn, “names Wade, Chris Wade.”

  “Do you care to explain all this?” Jake asked.

  “This was the only way I could get your attention,” the man replied, in a matter of fact way.

  “One hell of a risk,” Jake retorted.

  “You’re a smart guy, I knew you would figure it out,” Chris answered.

  Looking the man over Jake estimated he was about 45, just under six feet tall and while he was not overweight, the group had surely been doing better than just hanging on.

  Chris began, “With your grand plan to reform the countryside, you left us city dwellers here to deal with the fallout. Prior to your arrival, the gangs mostly left us to ourselves, the farming communities being easier pickings. We would grow a little and scavenge a little, hunting and trading for what additional food we needed. Then you shut down the countryside, driving the gangs back into the city and they started to look at us as a source of supplies.”

  Jake was beginning to understand the position he had placed this and many other groups in. He had blankly assumed all the residence of LA was crooks or just plain lazy, living off what they could gather or steal. All the communities they had liberated supported that impression, as it seemed to be the general opinion. That assumption was proving to be in grave error and these people were the evidence of that.

  The residence they had established demonstrated a strong work ethic and the lifestyle they embraced was far from criminal. In many ways, Jake could see the beauty of this location, close to a continuous source of manufactured goods to the south, a constant water supply, and the option of hunting and trading to the north. Even though the area available for farming wasn’t nearly enough to support a large community, it would, however, supplement their ongoing needs year around in the mild Southern California weather.

  “How many of you are there?” Jake asked.

  “A little over 60, including the kids,” Chris replied, “there is enough of us to man the walls at night and keep the poachers at bay.”

  “So I guess the big question is what do we do now?” Jake asked openly, “I can’t just walk away and you’re not looking to move or you woulda been gone from here already.”

  Abby interrupted Chris as he was preparing to reply, “Jake there is another group coming up from the southeast again, and this one is much larger.”

  Since Jake had his external audio enabled, Chris heard the announcement. Looking to Jake for direction, Jake replied, “Abby, can you get a count?”

  “Looks to be more than 100 riders, probably closer to 150. All armed, with most on horseback, although there are some in wagons. I think it’s the same group as before.”

  At that, ALICE chimed in, “Jake I can confirm several of the lead riders were in the earlier attack. This group consists of 141 armed men.”

  Jake didn’t even try to explain to Chris about ALICE, the look of confusion all over his face.

  “Get inside and bar the gate. Oh, and tell your men not to shoot at me or mine please,” Jake stated as he turned and hotfooted it back to his hover cycle. Climbing on, he powered up and then hit the manual override to set the hover height at 100 feet. Going straight up, the hover cycle leveled off at 100 feet above the ground, giving Jake a clear view of the surrounding area.

  “All units, report in please,” Jake broadcast to the group.

  “Alpha 1 and 2, ready. Alpha 3 and 4. Bravo 1 and 2, turn us loose boss. Bravo 3 and 4, ready to go.”

  Jake paused waiting for Sara to report. After a few seconds, he asked, “Sara, are you there?”

  ALICE replied, “Jake I do not detect Sara on the rooftop where you left her.”

  With that, ALICE provided an overhead of the rooftop that Jake and Sara had occupied together earlier. As she zoomed in, you could make out three bodies spread out across the area Sara last occupied. One had Sara’s knife sticking out of his chest. Scanning the rooftop, there was no sign of Sara herself.

  “Crap, I shouldn’t have left her alone, ALICE can you pick up her suit transponder?” Jake asked.

  “Currently it is not responding to queries, nor are there any audio responses. That however could be expected if she entered the building itself. The metals in the structure could be blocking the signals.”

  Frustrated at the mixture of priorities and the perceived failure of leaving his Sara alone, Jake did a quick assessment of the situation. Panning the overhead out, he located the approaching force, estimated their rate and direction of travel, and then located his own forces spread out throughout the area.

  “On my order, B Troop engages the approaching hostile force, aerial engagement only with suppression fire. Alpha 1 and 2, close on Sara’s last know location and try to locate her. Alpha 3 and 4, take hovering positions at 50 feet AGL covering the compound below me. Should any hostiles escape A Troop, you are to engage and remove any threats. Any questions?”

  While Jake watched his display, he noted that no one chose to question his or her assignments. He knew they all wanted to be on point for this go around, but each took his orders without challenging his instructions. When the approaching force entered the choke point created by several buildings along their route, Jake gave the go order and as one, eight hover cycles sprang off their various rooftops and sped to their assignments.

  As Jake watched the scene unfold, he whispered to no one in particular, “Sara, where are you?”

  Chapter 9

  Sara had been standing at the eastern edge of the rooftop, watching that crazy man that was her one true love, again risking life and limb without explanation. As he had done on previous occasions, he insisted on performing certain activities he considered extreme risk on his own, leaving everyone else to watch and worry.

  With the rifle he had left her in hand, she was assessing her targets for risk to her man. The initial reaction was to target the man he was engaged with, however after some thought, she realized Jake would dispatch the man himself, should need arise. Next on her list were the two heavy machine gun positions on the rooftop behind the walls. As both were of equal risk, and neither seemed to have an advantage in lethality, she was unsure which to target first.

  Finally, she decided on the rocket launcher between the two. Of the firepower directed at Jake, this was the one most likely to breach the combat suits protections. With her targets located and prioritized, she settled in and focused on the conversation between the two men, surprised at the turn it was taking.

  All this apparently prevented Sara from noticing the men sneaking up behind her. Suddenly two men appeared, on her right and left. The one on the right grabbed her rifle while the left attempted to get her in a headlock. Spinning left. She drove her knee into the man’s groin, causing him to double over while driving her left hand into the throat of the one holding her rifle.

  Looking out over the rooftop, she saw five more men, all running in her direction. Drawing her sidearm, she shot two in the chest. As she was lining up on the third, the man she had kneed earlier kicked out from his position on the ground, knocking the gun from her hand.

  The man she had punched in the throat, now recovered, started to grab for her. Wrestling within his grasp, Sara pulled the knife from her belt and plunged it squarely in his chest. She turned as three of the running men hit her from the side and all four of them fell to the rooftop. Struggling to free herself, the fourth man savagely slammed his rifle butt into Sara’s abdomen, knocking the wind out of her. Her combat suit had prevented any serious damage, however Sara was still unable to resist as they picked her up and tied her wrists behind her.

  Struggling to breathe, she was also unable to speak as the men gathered the loose weapons, drug her to the stairwell, and then they all disappeared dow
n into the building.

  ----*----

  Jake had to fight the urge to rush to Sara’s last known location as he watched the heads up display inside his helmet. Continuing to hover at 100 feet above the ground, he remained over the compound where Chris Wade continued the traditions established long before his birth. The two additional hover cycles below him provided air cover for the defenders below, while the entire B Troop closed in on the approaching antagonists.

  Jake had selected a location where several large buildings required the approaching mass to bunch up. This continued for about a block before the riders could spread out at a cross street as they closed in on the compound. The riders split into three groups, the major part coming right up the center, as Jake expected.

  As he watched, the lead element of the horsemen started entering one end of the block, while Joe and his other three troopers still had half the distance to cover from their starting points. Jake could see the smaller number of the riders choosing to go around, but not enough to be concerned about just yet.

  He could see Abby and her trooper were slowly hovering around the Parsons building where Jake had left Sara. They had started a search pattern, circling the building in ever-larger circles, looking for traces of Sara. Jake felt a pang, as he again had to swallow his urge to charge off and leave his post. Sometimes it sucked being the boss.

  ----*----

  Sara was dragged down the stairs, two men holding her up between them. As they reached the ground level, she was finally breathing normally again. Leaving the stairwell, they met two additional men who were holding a large group of horses, in what must have been the lobby of the building in its heyday.