Nelson looked on me with resigned determination. He was ready.
I nodded back to all of ‘em. All at once, we fired on the large ship. Nelson launched several more barrages from the cannon. The ship swerved away from our shots, but not before it took several hits on its wings, hull, and engines.
We walked over to the side and got a better view of the ground scene. Some tanks remained and still blasted indiscriminately at our troops. A few pockets of our people and Nycole fired off several shots while they avoided return fire.
One of the Lebabolis troops put a dressing on my shoulder as I watched the scene below. The Hell Hawks gave chase to the ships for the time being, but they were still outnumbered as well. I tried Charista or Llewyn on the comm, but no response.
“Ashton?”
"Yes, Ana?"
“What's it take to detonate the Valentium?”
He froze with a look of mild fright.
“Come on, we knew this was the deal. If we can't stop these guys, we have to keep the Valentium away from ‘em, right?”
He nodded a bit. "Y-yes, of course. There is a control module below ground where we can activate the sequence."
After we secured the roof, we made our way downstairs when Ashton stopped.
“What?” I asked.
He looked at me a moment. "You know what will happen if we do this, right?"
I narrowed my eyes and nodded my head toward the commotion outside. “You know what happens if we don't stop ‘em at all?”
His eyes shut as he nodded again. "They might detect the energy buildup though, blast in here-"
“This is fail-safe. Our last resort.”
We continued down. Nelson panted a bit. “Thought we were gonna get outta this one.”
I watched him. His brow furrowed, beads of sweat and tears dripped off his face.
“I'm sorry.” I clutched his arm.
We made it to ground level. The explosions from outside sounded louder than before. The tanks were at the truck barricade, mere feet away from us.
Ashton activated the entrance to the below ground control center. He led the way in, and I was waving the rest in when I heard a new sound.
It sounded like a clap of thunder. It was soon echoed with many more.
#
We burst through the barricades around the door and got to the street. A fleet of Hell Hawks were firing on the Omegan ships, sending ‘em into jumbles of debris and fire.
I activated my comm earpiece. “Action calling Hell Hawk fleet, acknowledge.”
A few moments went by with no reply. I checked around and saw several groups of Lebabolis soldiers still fought with Omegan units. We headed to the defensive positions for cover. Several in our group joined back in the fight.
The area was a littered mess of burned hulks of machinery, bodies, rubble, and random small fires. Looked like the Facility was still intact though.
My comm unit crackled to life. "Wing H5 calling Action."
“Action here, nice to see you guys. A bit unexpected, but most welcome.” I waved at one passing ship.
"Roger that. Llewyn made the call and redirected us from Encampment security and transport."
I breathed a slight sigh of relief. At least we had this wave of the fight in hand. I felt certain more were on the way from Omegans though, if Charista's assessment was accurate. We needed more of a plan for ‘em, but that part was up to her.
Amid the sporadic fighting, I heard shouts and cheers from the far end of the facility. Nelson and I exchanged glances. “Let's check it out,” he said. We jogged over to soldiers crowded around the wrecked remains of an Omegan ship. An Omegan lay in the center on his back. Several Lebabolis soldiers had weapons pointed at ‘em.
I worked my way over to Norg in the crowd. “He say anything?”
“Mostly curses and yelling.” He grinned. “Looks like they're shot pretty bad, so I don't know how much more time he’s got.” He spat.
I broke through to the center of the crowd. The Omegan’s eyes fell to me. The head looked somewhat human, except for slightly larger eyes. Cuts and dried blood framed up his face, which had a look of anger mixed with agony.
I hushed the crowd a bit. “Let me guess, Commander Chun?”
He nodded, and the murmur of the crowd grew a bit.
I gestured around myself. “Sorry to break up your little party, but looks like you're fresh out of troops.”
"Swine," he blurted out, along with a small spurt of blood. "Enjoy your minor victory. It won't last." He heaved and managed a snarling smile.
The cheering subsided as more listened to him as he made promises of revenge. They sounded like veiled threats from a dying creature.
Or were they?
I swung my rifle at his head. “You're the only one here who won't last.”
"It's easy to kill a dying being. Wait until you're facing our hordes!" He lurched up, twitched and coughed more from the effort. "Our army."
“Oh, you have an army?” I asked, my voice raised. I stepped onto his chest, my rifle in his mouth. “You'll need more than that.”
I fired, and his head exploded into a misshapen gob of blood and tissue.
Chapter 46 (Ana)
T he Valentium was secured on board Hell Hawks for our trip. After discussions with Charista, Llewyn and our group, we decided that we needed to pull back further to a place more easily defended. Sector 5 had too much damage and too many wide open paths.
I was watching the crews as they loaded a Hell Hawk when I heard Nelson behind me.
“Found something for you.”
When I glanced at him over my shoulder, he smiled and brandished some kind of stick.
“You brought me a stick.”
“No, no, no.” He chuckled. “It looks like a bat, a baseball bat.”
“What’s baseball?”
“A game from my time. Not as important right now but this,” he smacked his free hand with the stick, “can come in quite handy if you ever find yourself without a weapon.”
“Oh, is that right?” I asked, my eyebrow arched. “You becoming a weapons expert?”
“Well, not like you guys. But I figure, one can never be too prepared for what's ahead.”
Nodding, I stood. “Can't deny that.”
He handed me the bat. It was lighter than it looked, but I bet it did damage if used in the right way. I swung the stick at a rock on the round, and it careened off into the distance. “Not bad, long as the other person doesn't have a pulse rifle.” I gave it back to him with a wink as he shrugged.
An announcement sounded on the loudspeaker that Charista had a nationwide announcement for broadcast. We headed into the meeting room of the facility for perhaps the last time.
The lights dimmed. The Lebabolis insignia appeared, along with the Coursons and Charista.
“Citizens of Lebabolis, I bring you great news and hope. Our military force has met the Omegans at Sector 5 and soundly defeated them! The Omegans were intent on harvesting the Valentium we have stored, but we were able to crush their strike with minimal losses.”
I turned to Nelson. Minimal losses? Our military? She forget who helped her, or who led the damn force?
“Furthermore, we are making plans for your continued protection. Effective immediately, our facilities and borders are under secure lockdown protocol. Please do not be alarmed, as I have no reason to believe we will have further risk of threats from the Omegans. This is merely a precautionary measure to secure the people and resources of Lebabolis and ensure our mission continues on without fail.”
The screen switched to the Lebabolis insignia again, and faded to black. The room was silent. I rose up and made my way to the front of the screen.
“We won today. This fight. There’ll be more though. Remember, I’m with you. We’re gonna face whatever they bring next. It’ll get much worse before it’s over.”
People’s eyes veered from the screen to me.
“If we’re together, nothing will st
op us. Just remember this day and how we stood together. It’s the only way we’ll beat ‘em... together.”
Toward the front, Norg stood and held his arms up, crossed in the Valkyrie salute. Everyone watched him for a few moments, then Treg and Nelson joined in. Soon, even some of the Lebabolis troops stood, their arms held high in an ‘X’. The Radomet kept a reserved watch on the room.
The fire in us roared as one.
Excerpt
On the following pages, we’ve included an excerpt from “The Harvest”, a short story by Paul Heingarten, available exclusively for Amazon Kindle and all devices running the Amazon Kindle App.
Sia Garrett is a rookie at BOSAM (Bureau of Safety and Monitoring), where she tracks the emotional state of the citizens of New Damai as part of The Experiment. Emotions are monitored and any potential outburst of violence is dealt with quick and thorough. The experiment has all but eliminated all forms of violence.
However, growing unrest among those who live in the ghettos outside New Damai because they could not or would not comply with The Experiment has Sia wondering just what made so many unable to follow along.
Soon mysterious hacks into the BOSAM system and an incident involving her husband have her left with a choice. Will she remain with those seeking order out of chaos, or will she risk learning the truth behind what The Experiment is really for?
THE MONITOR
By Paul Heingarten
A sea of brilliant lights danced before me. It used to make me dizzy, but after a few months on the job, it became like a wall to me.
I worked for BOSAM, the Bureau of Safety and Monitoring. I was part of a team that monitored people, everyone in the city of New Damai for the past five years, in fact. We monitored the little chips all citizens had implanted in their necks that tracked emotional activity in the brain.
I adjusted my chair and shivered. They always kept this place cool and on the verge of icy. It made the temps outside seem even hotter than they already were.
The display in front of me got fuzzy. I checked the small compuport on the desk and made a few adjustments. I scanned through the readouts of all the chips in my queue. Each one showed a color that ranged from dark blue to faded green for the emotion. BOSAM was started after the Rage Events caused enough problems, damage and loss of life for the government that all their other means failed.
Maddix called from behind me, "Anything good, Sia?"
"Oh, the usual, people on their merry ways."
All about us were our fellow crew, checking their individual Monitor stations. The air was filled with the sounds of occasional chatter and contacting field agents over the comm.
I don't know all the science of it, but the way they explained in training, BOSAM researchers isolated the activity that led someone to excessive violence. Since the martial law orders the government did in response helped next to nothing to restore any order, they decided it was best to allow BOSAM to quarter off the borders to New Damai with a Magno-Barrier so the "Experiment" as they called it could be contained.
Through the Monitors, we tracked whenever that was about to happen and sent one of our roving units to the scene before things got out of hand. It wasn't an easy sell with people at first, but when everyone was promised the Experiment would raise general safety, they saw it different.
Most did, anyway.
I looked at Maddix. "I see you're on External Patrol tonight."
He nodded and checked his gear. "I hope there's no Rage Events. Got me a hot date later."
"Ooh, we don't want her to be disappointed." I glanced at my screen. I was never sure what caused the Rage Events in the beginning; they had started before I was born. Riots were an everyday occurrence in those days. Those who were able worked and supported themselves to a degree. Others looted and robbed whoever was in their way. Even kidnappings and abductions weren't uncommon nationwide.
"Guess you'll be at home tonight, ya old married broad." Maddix patted my shoulder.
"Hey, I'm two years older than you. And if you weren't so worried about the flavor of the month you might be hitched already." I chuckled.
Maddix shrugged. "Me and marriage don't fit in a sentence. Maybe someday." He slid his helmet on. "I'm on comm band X23. Hope we don't talk anymore this shift!"
I waved him off with a grin. He had been here a year longer me. He rotated between the External Patrols and Monitor Control, like the rest of us.
The Experiment split the entire city into sectors, each with its own patrol. No citizen was ever more than five minutes from a patrol person. And the chips gave us an average seven minute warning before the Rage Event, which had been pretty effective so far.
Of course, not everyone bought into the system. Upon implementation five years ago, people were given the explanation of the benefits and potential for safety. The Experiment mandated every adult got a chip, and kids after age five too. I never had a problem with it since I had lost Mom and Dad in a Rage Event.
Any eligible person who refused the chip was sent to ghettos outside the New Damai borders. And that was it. If you weren’t chipped, you weren't allowed into New Damai. Instead, you fended for yourself, sandwiched between two Magno-Barriers, one to New Damai and the other to the outside world.
People at BOSAM never talked much about those in the ghettos. We called them Breakers; I figured it made it easier if they weren't known as people. Sometimes we had a Border Event, which meant one or more of them attempted their way into New Damai.
My console chirped a warning. On my display, one of the colored shapes shook and blinked. I reached toward it, grabbed its icon and pulled toward the center of my display. The color deepened from yellow to orange, not a great sign.
"Rage Event Horizon passed," the system voice droned.
I tapped the icon, pulled up the name and geo coordinates.
"Comm Band 9101!" I called out. My console displayed a video window with a field BOSAM agent.
"Wilson, this is Sia!" I called out to the screen. "Rage Event in your quad. Estimate ten minutes to peak. Location, food distribution center, copy?"
Wilson held his ear as he listened. "Copy, Sia, will report when threat contained. Out."
The video screen vanished and returned me to the sea of squares or, like some called it here, the aquarium. We each monitored a sector of the city, 5,000 people per each Monitor station like mine.
Some days were slow, but other days were nuts. We handled things with the forces on the ground so far though.
My personal comm channel hailed. I tapped a few controls, and George's face appeared on the id screen. I activated the privacy field and answered.
End of Excerpt
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About the Author
Paul Heingarten spreads time between writing, being a musician, and, since 2002, a career in Information Technology. He lives in the southern United States with his wife Andrea. Cataclysm Epoch is his second novel. Cataclysm Epoch was selected as a semi-finalist in the 2017 William Faulker – William Wisdom Writing Competition held in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Other Titles by Paul Heingarten
The Harvest (short story)
Leave from Absence (novel)
The Monitor (short story)
Natural Election (short story)
Cataclysm Epoch (The Valkyrie Chronicles Book 1) Page 21
