Jai’s eyes opened in shock and Xue might think disbelief. However, he was personally aware that if there was a base inside of China that might be a target, it was probably his.
He had all of those who had done the operations underground with him right here, where else would they attack?
—
The darkness crept over China as Earth turned lazily about her axis. The sun’s rays left the east coast, the shadows chasing it across the middle of the country and finally started enveloping the western part of Russia as the fifty-four Pods looked down at the nighttime visage of China.
ADAM, take the necessary small pucks from the Black Wings, after telling their Captains, and implement step one.
>>Understood. <<
Bethany Anne and her forces stayed up in space, enjoying the quiet before the storm.
>>Bethany Anne, all tactical satellites over mainland China have been neutralized.<<
Thank you, ADAM. TOM, key the radios to the other Pods.
Bethany Anne spoke in a strong, determined voice, “People, our destination is a PLA Base damn near in the middle of China. It is remote, and we have taken out all of the necessary satellites used for communications and visual support for all of China. Further, we have pucks programmed to hit at twelve bases, some in more populated areas, as red herrings. The airfields on all bases will be destroyed. China has been building their bases, including air bases, underground and this is true for our base as well. You have the maps, as well as we could provide. However, this is a retaliatory strike. The base we are hitting is used for their black ops and other clandestine groups. These aren’t going to be regular hacks, people. I want them dead, I want you alive.”
She paused a moment, “Other than that, I want Maximum Carnage.”
TOM kept the mics open in all of the Pods as the Guardians…male, female, human and Wechselbalg roared in approval. They had been training together, bleeding together for so long it felt like half their life. Now, their Queen was releasing them to do what they did best.
Death and Mayhem.
CHAPTER TWENTY
PLA Base, Inland China
The lights started flashing in the deepest parts of the base. The men, already on alert grabbed their gear and cinched up their harnesses as they finished outfitting in their dorms.
Jai spoke, “Li, make sure you shoot the enemy and not Wu, alright?” He smiled at the men as he grabbed his pack.
Li smiled and checked his chambers one last time, “I told him I’d get back at him for ogling my sister last month on leave, I can’t help it if a completely random shot hits him in the back.”
Liang grinned and stepped between the men as he walked to his bunk to grab his helmet, “One shot is random, emptying your clip might be considered on purpose.”
“All I said was she was cute,” Wu admitted. “You didn’t tell me your family was meeting us at the train station.”
The men heard many thumps above them. Jai couldn’t count that many, that fast. You could feel the vibrations as the bombs hit above them. All of the men looked to the ceiling, although nothing could be seen.
There went the airfield, Jai guessed.
“Ok, same as before Wu, Li up front, Liang and I in back. Wu, Liang take left. We are stationed in the cafeteria.” The four men put on their helmets and walked out. Never suspecting they would have to defend their own base in the middle of the country.
—
“General, we have lost communications,” Comms specialist Gao reported.
General Xue nodded understanding and looked around, “All external doors are closed?” He received affirmatives.
Minutes later, multiple bombs hit their airfield. Through the dust and what moonlight was available, he could tell it was destroyed. The fastest method of anyone providing support was now going to be by helicopter.
Then, his external video cameras started turning off. Everyone in the command module noticed that it was a camera per second, as if whoever was coming for them, was playing with them.
Like he and his men were prey, and those that stalked them had them right where they wanted them.
Caught in their trap.
He pressed his lips together. Whoever was out there would find out they had attacked the wrong base this night. He and his men were the best, and they were fighting on their own turf.
He punched the button that sent the signal to those he had placed outside. They would be allowed to fire at will, now.
He couldn’t see anything externally to guide them anymore.
—
All fifty-four pods were coming down in the night, separated from one another by random distances, some as many as five to fifteen miles and different altitudes in case China had anything that might locate them. They chose to come in slower than normal so that they had time to check out the scene around the base.
Which was a good plan.
>>Bethany Anne, we have minor heat signatures located in three groupings around the base.<<
“Show me ADAM.” On the window in front of her, an outline of the base and topographical map glowed in a phosphorescent blue color. Three groupings of circles in red, orange and yellow were placed on the map.
“ADAM, slow to a stop for all Pods, keep us fragmented at this time. Send in drones for reconnaissance.”
Bethany Anne waited and played with the screens to see more down on the ground. The images filling in as the drones, super small pucks with sensing devices on them, flew around the base.
>>We have over sixty-five locations for data acquisition, three groups of combatants, and of course the airfield, destroyed.<<
“Take out their data acquisition ability. If it is video, then do it in one-second increments, I want them to know we are dropping it on purpose. Let me know when this is complete.”
>>It will be complete in thirty-two seconds.<<
“I’ll wait.” She told him feigning patience, wondering if he would get the joke. ADAM didn’t respond. She couldn’t figure out, without asking, if he got the joke and ignored it, or assumed it was a statement of fact.
>>Task complete.<<
“Ok, these twenty-four are a pain. Send the small pucks and obliterate their locations. Do they have additional entrances?”
>>There are ventilation shafts, but they seem to be gated to stop entry.<<
“Send a few pucks in to see if anything can be figured out.”
>>I’m sorry, but there are screens inside the ventilation shafts that inhibit the Pucks progress without busting through.<<
“I suppose I shouldn’t be too annoyed.” She mused. “ADAM, keep some air support going, and watch for new enemy action.”
>>I understand the new orders. Three external forces are neutralized.”
She reached over to the glass and hit the button for her microphone to all of the Pods. “Ok, listen up. You have had a little extra time as we took out external forces waiting to make our landing extremely unfriendly. We will be landing in sixty seconds. Stay away from the entrances until we have pucked the shit out of them and made sure no unfriendlies are behind them to provide an unwelcome arrival.”
Bethany Anne, Gabrielle, John, Eric, Darryl, Scott and Akio stepped out of their Pods. Every other Guardian stayed in for the moment. The seven of them walked up to the huge metal doors closing over the entrance to the base.
Bethany Anne looked up, “Big fucking front door.” She turned around to speak to the guys while pointing to it, “Are they compensating?”
“No, well, maybe,” Akio admitted, “However, remember this is probably the entrance the airplanes use.”
She turned back to the door and walked to the middle, “Oh, hadn’t considered there was a big-ass hanger behind door number one.” She looked around, then shrugged, “Oh well, no piece of chalk.”
“Please, allow me,” Gabrielle said as she walked over, “You want what?”
Bethany Anne pointed, “Big ass ‘X’ to mark the spot.”
Gabrielle nodded and g
rew long claws on her hand, she was looking up when Eric offered, “Need a lift?” She smiled and nodded to him as he walked over, reached down and grabbed her right above her knees. Straightening up, he lifted her high enough to start the X.
Eric was looking right at Bethany Anne’s face when he stood up to see her smirking at him. He realized he could feel Gabrielle’s ass touching his cheek. He returned her stare blushing furiously and just closed his eyes until Gabrielle told him he could let her down. When Eric turned back around, he saw every one of the guys was trying not to crack a smile at him.
Fortunately, Gabrielle didn’t seem to notice.
TOM, transmit my speech to all of the Pods here.
Bethany Anne turned towards her Pod, “Ok, everyone. X marks the spot. ADAM, let’s knock on the door with a few Pucks and then we will follow with a Black Eagle when the door opens enough.”
—
General Xue kept a calm demeanor on the outside. They had felt the bombardment through the rock above, and he figured that the enemy had located his three external forces, probably taking them out from above.
It is what he would do.
Now, they had to get through his main entrance door. They had two other exits to the base, both hidden well. Those, however, would have to wait before he used them. He doubted they would attack without some sort of air cover.
The teams had the video cameras aimed at the hangar door. The waiting was the worst. He had a few men in machine gun nests as deep as he could put them. There was one small prop plane that held twelve in the hangar at the moment, but it was unarmed.
His base wasn’t supposed to support air operations, so there was only room for six inside the front hanger.
He wasn’t watching the screen when the first resounding bang happened. It caused him to jerk in his chair, flinching from the noise. He noticed one of the men off to his right grab his headphones to yank them off before moving to switch his sound level.
“Zoom in on the door,” Xue commanded. “They have something pretty power…” A second attack slammed home on his door, causing the previously noticeable dent to get a little bigger, “…full.” He sat back in his chair, “Zoom back out.”
Xue couldn’t figure out it this was the most powerful item they had, or they were just testing. God, he hoped they started with the biggest…
—
“ADAM, stop fucking around. I don’t have all night here.” Bethany Anne groused.
>>I’m using the one pound Pucks and increasing their power by one each time I send them in. At this short of distance, they don’t attain full speed. It allows me to better understand the real world dynamics of…<<
I’ll give you real world dynamics, ADAM, move those fuckers to Eleven. She told him.
Oh, here we go TOM added, yelling in their mind speech, ROCK AND ROLL!
The next Puck slammed the door, caving the two inwards and pulling the right door off of its top track. The puck continued to slam into the back wall of rock, blasting a hole in the rock wall with a five-foot diameter showering those below and in front with deadly force.
Gabrielle’s Black Eagle darted ahead through the opening in the door. While Bethany Anne wanted to be the first in, she got overruled for protective purposes. It didn’t help her disposition to have to wait. “Gabrielle, is it safe?” Bethany Anne inquired.
“One sec, oh patient one,” came her reply, “There are a few combatants still able to function in here.”
“Well, what the fuck are you doing, signing autographs?” Bethany Anne griped.
“No, Adam is using the new tiny-Pucks to take them out. By the way, I know that the machine gun fire doesn’t make it through the shield, but that doesn’t mean the massive fritzing light show with all of the rounds hitting me on the screen doesn’t cause concern,” she added. The noise from inside the hangar was coming through the communications.
ADAM, give me visual.
A small rectangle popped up on Bethany Anne’s screen, and she watched as the men fired for a second, then something would smash through their bodies. Occasionally, not killing them right off so that they would try a second time to get a bead on Gabrielle.
“Your aiming sucks, ADAM.” The team could hear Gabrielle bitching in the background. Seconds later, the machine and personal weapons fire finally stopped. “ADAM, bring in the surveillance drones and find the video and audio equipment.”
It was another fifteen seconds before everyone heard Gabrielle again, “Ok, everyone come on in, the water is fine. Be careful, there are a few messes in here.” There was a pause, “Oh, God, especially in the north corner.”
—
General Xue’s eyes were wide open. “We’ve lost all video?” he asked although he could see that the monitors they had connected to the video camera’s in the hangar were only showing black. The third attack on his doors had surprised all of them. The massive destruction was not expected to be able to happen, and then the fighter design of TQB came floating in through the new opening and had released small balls.
While his men died, the fighter sat in the middle of his hangar, taking machine gun fire and shrugging it off like the bullets were raindrops on a spring day in Yunnan. His original expectation of forcing them to take massive casualties by the time they entered the base proper, was not going to come true.
—
Jennifer popped the harness on her belt while her partner hit the button to open their Pod. She had moved to the Ad Aeternitatem just two weeks before against her wishes. While she hadn’t met Stephen too many times, separated as they were on the two ships, it did happen occasionally. She tried her damnedest to keep her feelings for the man to a minimum, and her actions professional.
Until she was alone and allowed the faintest wish that Stephen might think a young changeling female would be any interest at all. But, she stomped on the hope after giving it five minutes. A thousand-year-old vampire with who knew how many women in his past wasn’t going to find her to be special. So, buck the fuck up and let’s kill some assholes so I can get my angst out, she thought.
Then the fear hit.
Oh, fuck me! She had forgotten about the fear the Queen’s Bitches could generate.
One by one, the four men of the Apocalypse surrounded the Queen Bitch with Gabrielle in the lead and Akio behind went walking into one of the hallways.
The fear receded, thank God!
Jennifer looked around and saw Peter and Todd waiting. She jumped out of the Pod and turned to pull her gear out from behind the seats. All Wechselbalg had been provided the option of fighting as humans, or wolves. Fully a third were already stripping. Here, the Queen had one command and that had been to make sure none escaped.
She had been appointed to the outside forces team. At least ten of the Werewolves would go out with another ten of them and a commander. Jennifer jogged to where Peter was and joined her group. They waited until he spoke.
“Team Alpha, you will be with me in the lead, and we hit the base from the inside. I will lead and sniff out trouble with Tim and Joseph in wolf form. We will have Todd and Manuel follow me then we will break off as we find new routes.”
Peter looked over the group, “I’ve asked for an additional resource for Beta team, he has agreed, and his Pod will be here momentarily. Joel will lead Beta Team for the Guardians.”
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