Zombie Theorem (Book 4): Aces Mortis

by James Wallace

  Langham chuckled and tried to hide her amusement of Butch’s eloquent plan to shake his dick at the enemy. “What do you want?”

  Nunzio saved the briefing from turning into a complain fest and stood up. “If you can get us some CH-47 Chinook helicopters and some pilots, I have one hell of an idea,” he stroked his chin as he thought.

  Langham looked over a stack of papers in front of her, flipping through sheets until she found the one she wanted. “This is a list of air assets that the General has promised us. I can get you five of them here in about three hours. They will not be alone, the General said he would be providing air cover with two fighter jets and an escort of two AH-64 Apache gunships. How’s that for your plan?”

  Chun was staring at the little island of Coronado that Nunzio stabbed his finger at. “I get it, Nunzio. You have some toys back there, huh?”

  “Yeah, we had just mocked up a couple of up armored Humvees and a couple of those new off road buggies from Bombardier. I can also supply us with a couple of miniguns, shit loads of rounds and some MK-19 grenade launchers. Hell, I can also supply some .50 cal Barrett sniper rifles. I know they can’t take on tanks, but we can make Ridder’s job much harder.”

  “Nunzio, I like your way of thinking,” Chun turned his attention to Langham. “This is all moot unless you were able to do that little thing I requested.”

  Langham looked to the overhead and sighed loudly and theatrically. “Already done, two units of Marines were already in the area. They picked up a Miss Tina Watson and her charges. They are hightailing it to a safe zone, from there I will have them brought here.”

  “That’s a good first step,” Chun turned to his team. “We going to get back into this fight, boys?”

  Hashkeh stood and examined all the hard men in the room. “We will tear the hearts from these Ridder forces and dine on the carcasses of those responsible for this scourge they have released upon our sacred lands,” heads in the room nodded their agreement of the big Navajo’s words.

  Chun squinted his eyes and massaged his temples. “The big Navajo, in so many words agrees, so get those choppers in the air,” he directed to Langham. Then turned and addressed the men around him. “Break open the armory here and take what you need for a quick hit on Coronado. We will need to leave plenty of supplies for our brothers who will be staying here to protect the ship. Be on the flight deck in two hours,” Nunzio winked at Chun, deferring command to the more experienced man. “Dismissed,” the room emptied quickly as men filed out, looking for new gear and weapons to wage war with.

  Butch, Hashkeh, Nunzio, and Chun stayed behind to plan out the next steps with Langham. “Commander, I would like permission to use the Comms, I have an idea.”

  Langham eyed him for a little while. “I know I do not need to warn you that our Comms can be used to track us, right?”

  “I am well versed in that technology, Commander. I will keep it brief and encoded, if I can reach someone I know, I may be able to add some firepower to your ship.”

  Langham turned her body towards the door and pointed. “It is all yours. Tell Copeland I gave you full access,”

  Hashkeh turned and left the room without comment. Back in the bridge he found Copeland quickly and explained what he needed and his authorization. Copeland seemed a little intimidated by the long-haired man, but quickly showed him to the Comms equipment. She dismissed the man, and offered it up to Hashkeh. He looked her up from feet to head and nodded his thanks, took his seat and promptly ignored her.

  Hashkeh worked the equipment like the professional he was. He had been trained exclusively in all forms of Comms suites and acted as the expert on his team. He typed on the computer and left the headset and microphone alone. He had no need in their uses. He sat back and folded his arms across his chest, waiting for a reply. Copeland looked over his shoulder and could not determine the coded words Hashkeh had typed out. She shook her head and left the Seal alone to do his job.

  Hashkeh had two Navajo childhood friends serving in the Navy. One of them was Commander George Ahiga. The surname translated as ‘He Fights’, who served as first officer of the newly launched guided missile destroyer USS Zumwalt. The ship was on a shakedown cruise, working out her new engines and weapon systems.

  On board the USS Zumwalt, somewhere off the coast of Baja, California, a young lady sat at her Comms station in the CIC, or Combat Information Center, trying to make sense of the seemingly gibberish on her screen. Her job was to alert the officer of the deck whenever a communique came through, she raised her hand and called out for Commander Ahiga. He strode over and stood behind her. “Yes, Ensign Hillman? What do you have for us?”

  She shook her head, causing her black as night ponytail to sway with her movements. “I just intercepted this weird message from someone calling himself Angry Warrior.”

  Ahiga tapped her shoulder and motioned for her to vacate her seat. She moved quickly as he took it and hunched over the screen looking over the message. He sat bolt upright and thought about what he had just read. “Find the Captain, Ensign in person and bring him here straight away,” he spoke while closing his eyes and poising his fingers over the keyboard. She knew better to salute or answer, she turned and jogged from the room. Ahiga was never one to waste words, when he spoke or gave an order he was listened to by the whole crew. No one questioned his orders.

  Ahiga clicked on the reply icon and got to work typing back in the same looking gibberish. As he finished and hit send, a commanding figure appeared standing behind him. “Commander Ahiga, what’s going on?”

  Ahiga stood quickly and gave back the Ensign her seat. “When you see another message arrive in the same code, send it to my tablet, Ensign Hillman,” he turned to the Captain and looked up to the man, who stood a good four inches taller than him but slim. “We need to speak urgently in private, Captain.”

  Captain Appelo was an Annapolis alumni, and graduated top of his class. He had served on many attack cruisers and quickly rocketed up the command structure, making him the youngest Captain in charge of his own ship in the entire Navy. He was beyond bright, he could see an entire battle scene and work out six moves ahead of his enemy which made him the go to man for this new vessel. Ahiga motioned for the Captain to follow him into a side room.

  “You look unsure of yourself Ahiga, what’s up?” Appelo, leaned against the bulkhead, an easy smile on his face.

  “I received a message from an old friend, who is very credible. I translated it from our code and…,” he looked not sure of himself.

  Appelo had never seen this man act this way. He reached out and took Ahiga’s tablet, reading the message. He finished and handed the tablet over, before removing his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose. “How well do you trust this man and his message?”

  “Completely. To put this in a better light for you, Sir. Hashkeh Naabah is currently with the Seals, more importantly, he is on Team Six.”

  Appelo cleaned his glasses on his sleeve and tapped the bulkhead as he thought. “Okay, so he is most definitely trustworthy. But, and I am just asking here, how do we know this is him?”

  Ahiga smiled broadly. “Not many people know the Navajo language that this communique was written in. And he called me little turtle, a nickname he gave me when we were kids. I trust this is him, and I am one to believe his words.”

  “We intercepted a lot of communications messages flying around out there. About this, for a better word, Zombie outbreak. We also picked up a message from the Secretary of Defense, ordering all Navy vessels to sail into port and offer this Ridder group all their support. I have ignored these orders since no one, but the Secretary of the Navy, the President, and Admiral Keithley even know we exist or what we were doing out here,” he explained for the first time to Ahiga. “I kept this from you and the crew because I had no idea what to do since no one in my command structure has answered my calls for new orders,” he closed his eyes and sighed, sounding exhausted. He snapped his eyes open as he made a fi
nal decision. He motioned for Ahiga to follow him. They moved quickly through the passageways and out onto the bridge, with all its splendor. Gone were the old looking analog gauges and big CRT monitors. In their place, rested new top of the line touchscreen panels that could display all the ships functions.

  Appelo grabbed the headset off his chair and situated it on his head, taking his seat. He typed something into his station and cleared his throat. “Crew, this is your Captain. I am ordering all tests concluded. The shakedown is done, we have new orders, attaching us to the USS Reagan. I will update you all later on the specifics of these orders. But it is safe to say something horrific has happened on the continent, and we are needed most urgent. I am ordering a complete blackout of communications. Helmsman, bring us to the coordinates I transmitted to you, all ahead flank speed. All crew to General Quarters, time for us to get in the fight,” he ended his message and turned off his headset.

  “Thank you for trusting me, Sir.”

  “Aw hell Ahiga, I asked for you to be my first officer for a reason. You have a reputation for always doing the right thing, and for getting shit done,” Appelo worked on his tablet and sent his orders throughout the ship. He turned his attention back to Ahiga. “Send a message to Hashkeh and the Reagan, letting them know we will be in position two miles off the Coronado coast. We will be happy to bring our new railgun into the support of their little mission. Also, let them know we have a nice contingent of Force Recon Jarheads on board, and I would be happy to chop them in if they need support. Those guys have been grumbling that they are bored, sitting around with nothing to do. Might be good to let them loose, so they can stop sulking around and chewing on the bulkheads.”

  Ahiga laughed and snorted over the description of the dangerous men sitting below. “I will get right on that, Sir. Just to alert you also, I have a sister on board an Ohio-class submarine, the USS Maine to be exact. She is the first woman assigned to that boat, Commander Anaba. Hopefully she has received the message and is talking to the skipper of her boat to join in.”

  “Would be nice to have a sub in on the Strike Force, let’s just hope we don’t need her nukes. Anything else, Commander Ahiga?” Appelo enquired.

  “No, Sir,”

  “Go get that Second Lieutenant Tann. I will brief him on our new orders and bring him up to speed on the raid with the Seals.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain.”

  On board the Reagan, Hashkeh read the reply from his friend Ahiga. It seemed that their carrier just added a very deadly weapon to their Strike Force. As Hashkeh was about to stand, he happened to look down and see a message from Commander Anaba. He opened it and read through quickly, his eyebrows raising in amazement. He translated it quickly onto a piece of paper and ran from the room looking for Chun and Langham. He found them on the bridge wing looking down to the flight deck.

  Chun saw Hashkeh coming at them quickly with a concerned look on his face. He bodily moved Langham aside to save her from being ran over by the Navajo. In Hashkeh’s hand he carried a sheaf of papers. “Woh!”

  Hashkeh stopped quickly and looked them over. “I have important information to share.”

  Langham looked around, checking to see if anyone was within earshot. “Okay Hashkeh, drop it on us.”

  He handed the messages to them and followed them up with his comments. “My friend, Commander Ahiga, is the first officer on the USS Zumwalt. His Captain has decided to throw his lot in with us, he is cruising now in our direction. The Zumwalt is a new guided missile cruiser on a shakedown cruise off Baja waters. She will be on station off Coronado and supporting our mission, she is offering her contingent of Force Recon Marines to help. But most importantly, Ahiga’s sister Anaba is a commander on the USS Maine. Seems she just staged a mutiny, her Captain was firmly in Ridder’s pocket. She is now in command of the boat and is heading our direction. She is going to need help, she has five other officers on board that are in league with the old Captain.”

  “Jesus Christ on a crutch! A mutiny on board a nuke sub?” Langham rubbed her face trying to understand what she had just heard.

  Chun thought quickly. “How far away are they?”

  “Not far, two hours out. They had been waiting off coast for orders from Ridder.”

  Chun’s eyes moved back and forth quickly as he worked through plans. “Okay, go get Kevorkian and tell him to bring his team to the flight deck. Inform him to bring CQB weapons and that he is going to be clearing a submarine.”

  Hashkeh didn’t waste a moment as he turned and took off through the ship to relay Chun’s orders. Langham was still trying to understand the ramifications of the information relayed to them. “What are you doing? This will leave your team shorthanded on the Coronado hit.”

  “No, it won’t. We have the Marine Force Recon guys as back up. I have enough time on the Dragonhawk to fly this mission. Nunzio will need to lead the raid on Coronado, I have full faith in him. Gotta go, Commander,” Chun sidestepped Langham before she could comment and was off, through the bridge and out the hatch.

  Langham reached up and took apart the meticulous bun she had put her hair up into. She took her time brushing through her hair with her fingers and sighed. “I guess we can relax the Military decorum.” She talked to herself when she felt the stress build.

  “Ma’am, we are still receiving flash messages from the secretary. She says she knows we are out here somewhere and we better fall in line and report back” the slight voice came from Lieutenant Heeter, one of her good friends and a good egg she was mentoring for her own command someday.

  Langham turned to face her, but kept silent as she removed an errant bobby pin. “Can you please find me a baseball cover somewhere? All this hair is driving me crazy.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” she stood there a little longer building the courage to ask the question burning her tongue.

  “Heeter, what do you think is the proper response to this self-absorbed, pompous, bitch?”

  Heeter slumped her shoulders and took her time releasing her hair from its prisoned bun. Once she had her hair down and around her shoulders, she shook her head allowing the hair to fly. “Well ma’am if this was my ship and I had the same operational verified information you had, I would ignore the woman and her orders. Then I would get those two F-35 fighters out of the hangar and into the air. We will need cover soon cause I have a feeling she will be sending out assets to track us down.”

  Langham let a little wry smile spread on her natural luscious red lips. “Then what are you waiting for?” Heeter gave a little ‘yip’ and clapped her hands. “Don’t ruin this moment, Lieutenant. While you are cutting those orders, I want you to check with that swarthy Italian Seal, Nunzio. If we will take the other three pilots we have sitting around and drop them off at the Coronado airfield, maybe they can get some more aircraft for us,” Langham motioned for Heeter to move on.

  Langham turned to the railing and put her hands on it, bending at the waist, trying to relax the kinks in her back. “This is going to be one long day proceeded by an even longer night. I guess I should stop talking to myself and get back to work,” she mussed with her hair again and moved back into the bridge, firing off orders and request for status on the ship and supplies. It was then she heard the Dragonhawk’s engines spool up, the whine was easily heard all the way to the top of the island, where the bridge was located. With such a small crew on board and no air operations except that one helicopter, the whop of the rotors started next and increased as the Dragonhawk leapt into the air like the mythical creature its creator named it after. She sent a silent prayer for the men on board it and then promptly let it be consigned to the back of her mind. She had a million other things to worry about.

  Chun boarded the Dragonhawk and checked it’s status, found all the gauges in the green, and was mildly surprised someone had thoughtfully topped off the fuel tanks, giving him more than enough range for this operation. He shut down the power and moved to the big sliding door, sitting on the edge and letting
his legs hang as he waited. He didn’t have to wait long. Kevorkian came striding out of the island followed by three other men, all small in stature. Chun held a little meeting right where he sat. “The mission has changed. Instead of dropping you off and waiting around for you to bring the officers out, I am going to drop you guys off to act as personal guards to protect the new Captain Anaba. If the officers aligned with Ridder and the Initiative cause trouble, feel free to shoot them out a torpedo tube. We don’t have time to deal with these ass hats. When the sub rendezvous with the Reagan, come back aboard. I am leaving you three to defend the strike force. I am taking Thor with me, any issues men?”

  Kevorkian gave a slight sour look, then considered his actions and shook his head no. “No problem here, Lt. bring back beer though.”

  Chun knocked knuckles with the man and got them settled on board before going through the startup procedures. He was lifting off the deck within five minutes. Pauline had shown him how to cut the checklist in half, which allowed him to take off faster. He pointed the nose of the Dragonhawk northeast and advanced his throttles to three quarters. He just happened to miss the four large Chinooks as they appeared in his windscreen from out of nowhere, their double rotor configuration beating through the air. He then saw something he wasn’t ready for. Two of the brand-new modified MV-22F Ospreys, their blending of a plane body with two large propellers on each wing could tilt upward allowing the aircraft to take off and land like a helicopter was extraordinary. The modifications that differentiated these Ospreys from their cousins, were the hard points added to their airframes, allowing them to carry a multitude of weapons, including all types of new cluster bombs, air to air missiles for defense, and the Hellfire anti-armor missile. Their engines had to be completely replaced to produce more power for the new nose cannon taken from the AH-64 Apache and worked to fire a new type of ammunition incendiary, allowing it to lay waste to troops and light armored vehicles like swiss cheese. The cockpit had been redesigned to accommodate the new sensors laid within as well as a battle management system, that allowed a pair or multiple other Ospreys to fight as one sharing targeting information and planning. Coming in behind them, looking like black angry wasps flying in formation, were four AH-64 Apache helicopters. Chun dropped low and vacated the airspace as fast as he could.