He ducked back inside the armory to get his own weapon when the entire world blew up around him.
To their credit, every other Marine had made it out of the five barracks before the attacking force hit each building with rockets, blowing them to driftwood.
Already under fire from approaching vehicles, the marines pulled back into a large area filled with earthmovers and other heavy equipment—a very good place to take cover. Then they opened fire on the attackers.
Three of the eight armored vehicles pulled up to the smoking ruins and screeched to a halt. All three began firing rockets from popup roof launchers into the equipment yard. Then doors on the tops of the vehicles opened and large machine guns rose up and began returning fire. At the same time, the back doors of the vehicles burst open and armed men in battle gear started jumping out and returning fire.
All the attackers were focused on the equipment yard so they did not see debris and boards fly up as a lone figure rose from the wreckage. Matt’s face was black with ash and bleeding from several cuts, but the explosion had slammed closed the steel door on the reinforced armory and that had saved him as well as the abundant cache of weapons.
Matt was pissed and holding two handheld rocket launchers. He surveyed the situation then, from his hip, he fired one rocket and from his shoulder the other and two of the armored vehicles went up in smoke and flames, taking many of the armed men nearby with them. Matt ducked down.
The attackers had no clue where the rockets had come from, but the third vehicle spun around and started to drive away. However, it was not fast enough—Matt rose again, holding two more rocket launchers, and fired one into the fleeing vehicle and one into a grouping of men advancing on the equipment field. Matt ducked down again—again, no one had seen him.
Down in the armory, Matt surveyed the weapons available to him, saw what he wanted and smiled. A couple of minutes later, he rose from the rubble again, this time holding a mini-gun that fired 6,000 armor piercing rounds per minute. When he fired the six-barrel mini-gun, a fiery stream of bullets spewed out that cut down trees and anything else in its path. Within two minutes, all of the attackers were dead.
After five minutes of quiet, the 100 or so marines came out of the equipment yard. Matt was still holding the smoking mini-gun. One Marine made his way through the wreckage to Matt and said, “Goddamn, Matt, couldn’t you find anything bigger? Are we a little perturbed today or what? You okay?”
Matt just ducked down and came up with four rocket launchers cradled in his arms. “Pass these out. We’ve got to get to the ships.”
---
As soon as the noise of the attack reached him, Ted Desman made his way to the engine room of the ark ship he was working in and ran down the long corridor. As he ran past the reactor, he skidded to a halt and looked around to make sure he was alone. Then he counted the posts of the chain link fence that surrounded the reactor until he was two past the cooling tank's side seam. He attempted to pull off the top of the pole, but it wouldn’t budge. “Fuck,” he cried. Then he realized that he had started his count from zero and went to the previous pole. Its top came off easily.
He took one of the ‘water bottles’ from his belt, then dropped it down into the hollow pole. Then he took a tube from his pocket and pressed out a ring of paste inside the top cap before replacing it.
One down, two to go, he thought, and started running down the corridor back the way he had come.
Suddenly, he stopped. He’d forgotten something…he needed to slow down and pay more attention to what he was doing. He took the phony plastic water bottle smashed down at the bottom of the holder and blew into one end of it, forcing it back into shape. Then he placed it into the empty water bottle holder and took off running again.
---
Nero was turned away at the door of the situation room. Adamarus walked him back to the elevator and said to him in a lowered voice, “Sorry, son.” Nero nodded. “The best place for you to be is back aboard your ship. If there is anything I can tell you, I will.”
“Yes, sir.” Nero looked back at the Situation Room door for a moment, then got in the elevator.
Adamarus turned and walked back toward the door. When he entered the room, the teleconference screens were lit up but showed only empty seats. The president and the others were not present yet. He saw Leewood and Harrington, so far the only other ones there on this end.
Harrington walked over to meet Adamarus, asking how Grace was. “I was on my way to see her when I got the alert. What luck,” Harrington said with a grimace.
“Know anything about what’s up?” Adamarus asked, looking back at the empty seats on the teleconferencing screens.
Leewood had joined them. He shook his head, “No clue. You?”
Adamarus shook his head.
“Okay,” the voice of President Wicker said from the teleconferencing screen as he took his seat. The three of them took seats. Wicker looked at the three of them in turn. His face was stern with lines of worry. “Thank you for coming,” he said. “I’ve only brought you three and Woodworth and Jan in on this. They're teleconferencing in from Hillsview—we’ll give them a minute. Adamarus, how’s your wife and new daughter?”
“They’re fine, sir.”
“Congratulations, Admiral.”
“Thank you, Mr. President.”
Woodworth appeared on one teleconferencing screen and Jan appeared on the other. Everyone greeted each other.
President Wicker said, “Gentlemen, several most unhappy events have taken place. First, two years ago, an armory at the Marine base at Liscio was broken into and a large cache of weapons, ammo, rockets and armored vehicles were taken. I have kept this quiet in the hopes that the Marine Investigative Division would track these items down, but that has not happened.” Wicker leaned forward, his eyes boring into each person. “Secondly, and far more serious, a year ago, the high security armory at Camp Redland discovered that three mini nukes were missing.” Again, he paused.
“Finally, at this very minute, the Trinity Compound is under attack. At the very least, we’ve learned that the stolen armored vehicles are involved. Probably the weapons are, too. Let us pray that the nukes are not used.”
---
The remaining armored vehicles plus the troops they carried proceeded with no resistance until they approached the mess hall. There they met heavy resistance and rocket fire.
Another armored vehicle exploded and the others took cover behind a building and a dirt mound. The ground troops jumped out and fought their way toward the Marine guards who were taking cover around the mess hall and vehicle pool across from it. Rockets and grenades went back and forth and the gunfire was a constant roar.
One of the armored vehicles noticed a ravine running behind the mess hall and drove down into it. Seeing this, another followed it. Using the ravine, they got by the resistance and could see the tops of the giant ships ahead.
---
Ted had placed the last ‘water bottle’ in the third ship and was running away from the ships when a rocket slammed into the one nearest him. Then a steady stream of rockets started firing into the ships. Ted knew they must be causing massive damage, but the ships were so huge that it didn’t seem that way.
He climbed up the embankment, making his way out of the valley that held the three arks. Upon reaching the top, he could see the two armored vehicles that were firing the rockets.
Then the strangest thing happened. Before his eyes, the two vehicles sagged and then both simply melted literally into puddles of liquid metal. The air above seemed on fire and a hot wind hit Ted in the face.
He turned and ran.
---
Matt and the 100 Marines reached the battle that was raging at the mess hall and were able to flank the invaders. Within 20 minutes, the battle was over. Every invader was dead, every armored vehicle destroyed.
---
The next day, President Wicker looked badly shaken as he walked through the wreckage.
The engineers were in the process of evaluating the three ark ships, but the damage was bad. Initial estimates placed repairs at four to five years and, of course, they only had five-and-a-half years.
Adamarus, Leewood and Harrington stood in the shade with President Wicker looking down at the huge ships. The Loud had saved the day. They had taken out the armored vehicles firing rockets into the ships from orbit with a heat beam.
---
Amular’s luck improved a month later when the second grouping of grav-bombs went off and vaporized over half of the comets trailing the alien ship. Six months after that, the final two groups of grav-bombs went off almost completely vaporizing the rest. About 100 comets remained, but if Amular survived the alien, these would be manageable.
---
At t-minus four years, the three data droplets of the Archive, which recorded all things in tandem, were separated and refitted with Loud Tachyon Com Devices so that they could be moved and still do their job recording and retrieving data. Then they were moved.
One went aboard one of the human arks, one went on a Loud ark, and one was sent into space traveling out of system with no particular destination but at a speed that would, in a worst case scenario, take it beyond the blast radius if their sun Iceis exploded.
---
General Whitehall stared at the detonator on his desk. It was a small black box with a retractable antenna and four buttons labeled ONE, TWO, THREE and ALL. He’d left himself options.
A knock sounded at the door of his office. He ignored it.
When the time came, he’d destroy all those that his tormentors loved. He smiled and reached out for the small black box, picked it up, turned it over.
The knock came again.
He sighed, his smile fading a notch. He got up, carried the detonator to his safe and locked it inside. Then, straightening his uniform shirt, he walked to the door and opened it.
“All is ready,” his aide said.
“Very well.”
Both men walked down a short hall and out onto a modest porch. The sun was bright. A light wind blew from the north. Before them, to the left, over 500 soldiers stood at attention. On the right stood the 78 aerial weapon’s platforms of the 1st Mobil Heavy Artillery. They were massive beasts sporting projectile, maser and particle beam cannons. He had wound up with the most powerful and mobile battle division on Amular.
He looked over ‘his’ assets, ‘his’ men, ‘his’ weapons. Before the rows and columns of soldiers, stretched between two poles, a banner rippled in the breeze. It said, “To Protect and To Serve Amular.” However, Whitehall knew that, when the time came, all of this would protect and serve him.
---
Woodworth, Jan, Harrington and the rest of their crew departed for the History Station, which was already in position well above the elliptic between Aster and Serena. From there they would record and report on the upcoming engagement.
Adamarus’ Jumper Squadron was performing their first slingshot around Aster to build up the speed they’d need to have.
Battle Group Three was whipping around Iceis for the third time, building up speed. They would speed around Serena, then Aster, then back to Serena to do battle…if needed.
Radin was with Battle Groups One and Two, which were in position around Serena.
Admiral Katheryn Tulsa Horn’s Battle Group Four orbited on the far side of Amular.
The four huge kinetic cannons were on station and waiting.
Both the primary and backup asteroid targeting stations were in place.
Brandon now commanded the Star Cannon, which was fully assembled and tested.
The four remote orbital fortresses were undergoing final tests by Leewood and hundreds of controllers in bunkers below Amular’s surface.
The massive ground defenses were all in place.
President Wicker was at his new hardened control center beneath Dark Mountain.
Underground shelters awaited the population within the cities of Amular.
Three hundred thousand people waited in cramped quarters all around Trinity City as technicians worked around the clock to repair Amular’s three arks.
The two Loud Umbrella ships acting as arks for their species were preparing to leave the system.
Anderson Shipyards had left Amular, and with thousands, headed for deep space.
Evelyn Eden was with the thousands of workers at Hideaway Shipyards—they would power down and simply hide in orbit around Cinder.
The black hole…the Spiral Slayer’s Blackship, had crossed the orbit of Farnom and was headed toward its close encounter with the gas giant, Aster.
The die was cast.
PART TWO – Armageddon
“Omega arrival is the ultimate goal of all intelligent species; they just don't know it throughout most of the journey.” –The Loud named Bugs
Chapter Thirteen – Arrival
“You should never enter into a battle that cannot be won. However, for us, there seems to be no choice. We cannot negotiate with the force that approaches. We cannot retreat. Moreover, this force does not understand surrender. We can only lie down and die…or fight. Therefore, we will fight! We’ll fight them in space until our missiles are gone! We will fight them in orbit until our laser cells deplete! And, we will fight them in the streets until every man, woman and child is...”
General Santo Shun, Supreme Commander,
United Settlements of the Independent Mining Consortium
His last words before his assassination as Amular’s
Leviathan Fleet advanced on the USIMC Capital
Source: The Archive
T-Minus 003 Years
Near the Gas Giant Aster…
For 200 years, the billions of humans within the Iceis Star System had waited for the Blackship’s arrival and worked non-stop preparing to fight it. Now that the moment was upon them, it seemed to Adamarus that the two centuries had passed in the blink of an eye.
In the blink of an eye, he thought, and with that, he suddenly made an unexpected association with something that had happened long ago. Adamarus remembered the explosion that had killed his friend Lt. Tom Horman and many others, and seemingly himself. That moment that had changed everything.
In the blink of an eye, his existence had gone from the smooth hum of the air vents, the soft comfort of the pilot seat and the security of the cockpit, his normal world…to…blaring alarms, fire, smoke, the abrasive sound of escaping atmosphere and harsh white lights starkly displaying the smashed and twisted wreckage. From good to bad in a single blink. However, the transformation had not stopped there—there had been far more.
He had somehow not just been brought back from death’s door, he had been remade—young, strong, immortal—by strange aliens who had given that gift to everyone. The normal world he’d known before that ‘blink’ had been forever swept away and replaced with a bizarre and wonderful world that contained the Loud, their incredibly advanced technology and humanity’s scientific view of the cosmos turned on its head.
Then, just a few years later, fortunes had flipped yet again. The home of their new friends, the Loud, had been wiped out and only four ships remained of their entire civilization. A civilization the humans would never get to know—lost forever as if it had never been.
However, neither species had been given time to grieve—no time even to emerge from grief’s first phase of denial for they would learn that the same alien force was now coming for them. Coming wrapped in the event horizon of a black hole the size of a small star system—coming at .99999 the speed of light—ETA, 200 years.
Adamarus wondered if perhaps he had really died after all and that death was somehow this insane world he now inhabited.
“Admiral, sixty seconds to visual,” Jag said, pulling Adamarus back to the present. The announcer was Adamarus’ first officer, Commander Robert J. Manner, call s
ign Jag. “Shall I switch to visual enhancement?”
This would allow the computer to calculate where the invisible event horizon was and place a black sphere there. Otherwise, only distorted star light would be seen.
Jag was the shortest crew member at 5’6” but his no nonsense and aggressive mannerisms, plus his strong facial features, more than made up for this—no one thought of Jag as short. His completely bald head only accented his strong characteristics and perfectly complimented the angles of his craggy face.
Adamarus tried to stretch his spine by tilting his head from side to side. “No Jag…not yet. I want to see the raw feed when the object first comes into view. Mark the area with a circle…so we know where to look.”
A blue circle appeared in the middle of the view port, indicating where the object would first appear. The gas giant, Aster, was just off to the right, filling a quarter of the main view port. Just above the circle, the two swollen translucent orbs of the Loud Nebula looked almost as big as Aster. Laced with white veins, the nebula looked like some grotesque living creature.
They were in Amular’s most advanced and newest fighter, The Torrent TX300 IPA—just referred to as the TX300. The ‘IPA’ at the end stood for ‘interplanetary’ and ‘atmospheric’ capabilities. The ship had a crew complement of six. Although considered an interplanetary vessel, no one would really want to make interplanetary voyages in it, not if it could be avoided. The crew area was just too small.
The Jumper Attack Group consisted of six Torrent TX300s. Adamarus’ fighter was named Jumper One; the others were Jumper Two through Six.
“Forty-five seconds,” Jag announced.
The bridge was dark and filled with LEDs, controls, switches, screens and dials. The six closely spaced seats emerged out of small cubbies filled with the light from an even denser concentration of instruments.
Countdown Amageddon (The Spiral Slayers Book 2) Page 27
