While Red’s group of fighters engaged the Ark Lords, Eddie’s squad snuck up and crawled under the wagons. The enemy soldier’s feet were clearly exposed. The six Resistance fighters fired their M4s at the spacemen’s feet. It only took a few shots to get the Ark Lords to crumple to the ground, crying out.
As Red’s group advanced relentlessly, Eddie’s group leaped up onto the flat bed of the transport. All of them fired their semi-automatic weapons continuously into the group of spacemen who were writhing around on the ground. The spacemen never stood a chance. Their Kevlar armor, reinforced with carbon nano-tubules, could only stand so many hits by so many bullets before the material failed. The assault was vicious. It left most of the enemy soldiers as just a pile of so much Kevlar-coated meat.
Kind of a gross description, huh? I wanted to kill the Ark Lords and make sure none of them escaped to warn the others. Maybe it was a little excessive but certainly makes for a graphic image, huh?
Entry 5-038: February 7, 2017
Six to four to two
In the historical section of The Ark Lords, I wanted to demonstrate how Jack Henry was not only a hero and a martyr but also a master military strategist. Think about how quickly he used the element of surprise to whittle down the size of the enemy. They had come onto the campus with four military transports and maybe 35 soldiers. Teams A and B destroyed the rear two transports leaving only the front two. Red's team killed the 10 soldiers remaining up on the surface leaving only six to sneak down into the bowels of the Tevatron and retrieve the virus weapon. They went from overwhelming odds to being outgunned without even knowing it. Here is how Jack Henry's troops finished the job:
Down below, the Ark Lords used their night vision face shields to advance down the corridor, toward the tunnel labeled Meson. Their radios were not on. They were unaware of the melee that had broken out topside. They moved quickly but cautiously. According to their instructions, the vessel they sought was contained in a sealed compartment at the end of the left-most tunnel. When they made it halfway down the tunnel, the situation suddenly changed. A volley of quarrels clanged off their armor. Looking around, they spotted the shooters, crouched among the conduits and casings mounted to the ceiling. They aimed their weapons and effortlessly dispatched the resistance fighters with just a few shots from their laser pulse rifles. It almost seemed laughable that these stupid farmers would try and take them on with just bows and arrows.
As they were firing their weapons, three of Jack Henry’s men who had been hidden behind the huge equipment that lined the walls, snuck into the open. They fired their M4 rifles at the spacemen’s legs and arms. Several were struck. Two fell. The rest raced ahead. The one Ark Lord carrying the flamethrower turned and incinerated the three men behind him with no more feeling than roasting a bug. After their screams stopped, he hurried down the corridor to catch up to his comrades. The Ark Lords were now down to four. From one perspective, they were in a bad way. If the stupid farmers were in the tunnels, armed with semi-automatic rifles, they were going to have to get in, get the prize and get out fast. On the other hand, they were wearing body armor and their laser pulse rifles could puncture anything.
At this point, there were only four of them. They had three laser pulse rifles and one flamethrower. They were still convinced they had superior firepower. Boy, were they wrong. You'll see that tomorrow.
Entry 5-039: February 8, 2017
The final approach
Yesterday, we saw that the Ark Lords were down to four men but continued to advance, convinced they had superior weaponry and protection. They simply didn't know what was lying ahead of them. Jack Henry had set up a series of baffles so that they could not fire off a clean shot but rather had to navigate a maze to reach their goal. Here is what happened:
“Come on,” said the lead spaceman and they stood up to finish the maze and get to the end of the tunnel. Turning his back to the main corridor, the second spaceman did not see the sharpshooter rising up from the shadows. A flashlight bloomed against his night vision and temporarily blinded him, not for long but long enough. A single shot rang out and struck the soldier just below the helmet, but above the body armor; the only exposed portion of his upper anatomy.
The other body-armored soldier turned and fired a single pulse, taking out the shooter. He looked back at his companion. His head was at an odd angle, partially severed from his body. It was quite clear that he was finished. He just hadn’t keeled over yet. The lead spaceman grabbed his dying comrade’s laser rifle and quickly finished the maze. Glancing down, he saw the two farmers there were dead, riddled with laser holes. Nothing lay in front of him other than the prize. He’d grab it then he could turn and hold off the rest. He’d radio up top then wait for his companions to come down and make sure it was clear. There was only one way out of this death trap and that was to blast any remaining people coming at him from the main hall.
The lone spaceman failed to notice Jack Henry slowly rising up with a 9mm Beretta in his hand. A quick thrust and the barrel of the handgun slipped beneath the edge of the back plate of the soldier’s armor. Jack pulled the trigger and shot eight rounds into the last soldier, turning his insides into a bloody paste. As the soldier slumped down, so did Jack Henry.
Oh no! Jack had been shot. You may not have realized it yet but he was mortally wounded. Tomorrow, I'll show you his final scene.
Entry 5-040: February 9, 2017
The End of Jack Henry
Death scenes are always dramatic but you can't overuse them. We knew from the historical records that Jack Henry died during the Battle of Chicago. Yesterday, we saw him sacrifice himself to take out the final soldier. He was mortally wounded but the rebels had saved the day. Here is the sad scene of Jack passing on to the next world:
“Jack!” Red shouted. He ran over to his beloved leader and stooped down. He lifted up Jack’s head and rested it on his thigh.
“Did we get ‘em?” Jack whispered.
“Yeah, Jack,” Red replied. “They’re all dead.”
Jack grunted. “You have to…” His voice was so quiet, Red couldn’t hear him. He bent over so his ear was next to Jack’s mouth.
“What is it, Jack?” Jack Henry spoke but his breath barely stirred the air. Red had to strain to hear his words.
“Use their cannon and level this place. Then go back home and get the rest of them. No matter how many men it takes. Bury them and their vehicles and their spaceship and their weapons. Bury every place they’ve ever been on the Earth. They may have other disease weapons stashed somewhere else.”
Jack coughed and blood spurted out of his mouth but he went on. “Someday, there may be others, more spacemen. Make it so they can’t find a trace, not a hint, that their race was ever here. Swear to me.”
“I vow it, Jack,” Red said. A tear formed in the corner of his eye. “Even if it takes us a thousand years, we’ll erase everything. It’ll be like they never existed.”
A wan smile formed on Jack Henry’s face. Some men would have died conflicted, knowing the war was not over, but not Jack Henry. He knew he had done all that one man could do. This was the turning point. The Resistance had achieved the edge they needed. Now it would be up to others more capable than him. After all, he was just a young man and he missed his parents. His whole frame sagged as his spirit left his body to rise up and join his mother and father in peace.
Of course, if you've read The Milk Run, you know this is not truly the end of Jack Henry, only his body. Aason Bierak meets him up in Heaven and Jack is very helpful in facilitating Aason's rescue of Lupe. We also have the story of Lacy Henry, the wife that Jack left behind. You can read her story in The Vuduri Companion. It's too bad that he had to die but that's what martyrs do.
Entry 5-041: February 10, 2017
The Stanley Cup
One of my goals in The Ark Lords was to create a replica of the Darwin Virus Strain 5 canister so that Captain Keller could shoot it and scream to Rome that she killed them all. But I h
ad to come up with an ostensible reason why there was a replica in the first place. So I hatched a plan making the replica a training device for both the humans and the weaponized VIRUS units. It would be filled with air so that when it was punctured, you'd hear the air escaping. I wanted it to look a little like the modern day Stanley Cup. Here is how it came about:
Rei stared out the cockpit window at the hill in front of him.
“We have to find a way in,” he said. “I gotta figure out where they would put it.”
“You have mentioned it before,” Ursay said, “but I do not even know what we are looking for, other than some sort of storage vessel.”
“You’re right,” Rome said. “MINIMCOM, from the information on slab 20, could you build us a replica so we know what to look for?”
“Of course,” MINIMCOM replied. “I will use my transporter as a molecular sequencer. Give me a moment.”
A whistling noise and breeze issued from the cargo compartment. The three humans walked back there just in time to see a whirlwind swirling around a shiny cylinder that was assembling itself right on the floor of the cargo bay. The cylinder resembled a Dewar flask normally used to hold liquid nitrogen but with an oversized cap. After a few minutes, the tiny tornado surrounding the vessel stopped.
“This is a life-sized replica,” MINIMCOM announced from a grille within the cargo compartment. “However, there are a few small differences. I built it out of aluminum since that was the most readily available metal in the soil,” he said. “The real thing is built out of titanium. Also, this replica is very thin so I highly pressurized it with air to give it the necessary rigidity. The real thing would have thicker walls. And finally, this one is completely sealed. The real canister has a removable lid although I do not imagine that is anything you are going to fool around with.”
I was looking at this image from a web site called Verge Campus and it shows you which version of the Stanley Cup I had in mind. I actually didn't realize there were so many versions but I guess when you think about it, when it first started, they weren't thinking 150 years into the future when the first cup was handed it out in 1863.
Entry 5-042: February 11, 2017
Occam's Razor says dig here
As an author, you have to make informed decisions on when to draw the plot out or when to take shortcuts to get to the next piece of the action. Surely, I could have placed the Darwin Virus Strain 5 canister anywhere in the world but then why would Rome, Rei and Ursay be wasting their time in Batavia, Illinois during this section of The Ark Lords? I decided to just make Rei have a flash of brilliance so that we could get on with the story and not just present you with a travelogue:
Rei walked over and picked the canister up. It was surprisingly light. Well, maybe not surprising since it was really almost just an aluminum balloon. He held it up to the light, looking at the top and bottom.
“How are we going to find that?” Rome asked. “It’s so small and the Tevatron is so large!”
Ursay motioned for Rei to hand it over to him which Rei did.
Rei turned to face the front of the ship. “You have to remember Project Darwin’s goals,” he said. “They had to make it secure but not so hard to find if the people looking for it really needed it. So I’m guessing they put it somewhere under the main hall or maybe in a collection tube.”
He stopped for a moment and looked up at the ceiling. “It was called Wilson Hall, I think,” he said. “It was built out of concrete. Too much to haul away. So when your people bulldozed it, that’s what made the hill we just walked up. And since they put up Hanry Ta Jihn’s gravestone at the top, I’m guessing he died down below. So Occam’s Razor says we start here, under this giant mound of dirt.”
“What is Occam’s Razor?” Rome asked.
Rei shrugged. “It means the simplest solution is probably the right solution. Why introduce complexity when you don’t need to?”
“Well, in that case, this is as good a place as any,” Rome said. “But you still didn’t tell me how we’re going to dig down to find it.”
A broad smile crossed Rei’s face. “We aren’t going to dig for it,” he said. “But I know some ladies who will be able to get us into the building.”
Whatever could he mean? I'll tell you. The weaponized VIRUS units. They will dig and dig until they are told to stop. They would be a lot more gentle that just blasting the rubble with MINIMCOM's roadgrader cannons.
Entry 5-043: February 12, 2017
The Deadly Termites
I had introduced the concept of weaponized VIRUS units near the end of Rome’s Revolution as a tool Rome and Rei could use to destroy MASAL and detonate Kilauea. But they were too good of an idea to just drop so that is why I brought them along on this trip in The Ark Lords. They are actually very well-behaved and only do what Rome or Rei commands them to do. They needed to dig down under the surface with surgical precision, not an explosive force such as MINIMCOM's roadgrader cannon.
It was as strange conversation. The tiny VIRUS queens crawling from Rei’s finger over and around the ersatz vessel. “Remember,” Rei instructed them. “I only want you to excavate a way for us to get underground. There was a large building here. Once you enter the underground complex, I want everybody to shut down. If, by some chance, you see something that looks like this metal object along the way, don’t touch it. Alert us at once. Understand?”
The VIRUS queens confirmed their orders so Rei, Rome and Ursay exited MINIMCOM and circled around the invisible starship, stopping at the base of the hill. They didn’t bother with their invisibility cloaks. Rei reached into his pocket and pulled out a brown leather-like pouch. He shielded his eyes with his free palm and stepped to his left under he was satisfied that he was directly in line with the marker mounted on the top of the hill. He undid the drawstring and dumped the pouch of super VIRUS units on the ground. Immediately, the dirt started churning. In another life, what he saw would have filled him with dread. In this life, Rei knew the super VIRUS units were obedient and would be careful. They dug a wide, gentle ramp down 40 feet under the ground until they punctured the main complex area.
“What do you see?” Rei asked the ultimate queen.
“We have reached a large corridor,” she replied. “There are many rooms. Do you want us to continue?”
“No,” Rei answered mentally. “That’s great. Thank you. Go ahead and shut down.”
“Acknowledged,” replied the queen and then the signal went dead.
Rei and Rome followed the ramp down with Ursay just behind them carrying the replica of the vessel under his arm. The ground was littered with the tiny corpses of the now-inactive VIRUS units. It was best not to think about it.
Entry 5-044: February 13, 2017
Where did they get them?
Yesterday, we saw that Rome and Rei used the weaponized VIRUS units to dig a sloping tunnel down to the basement of the Tevatron. At first, they didn't know which way to go but Rome's infrared vision allowed her to detect the fact that the tunnel labeled Meson exhibited signs of battle. Rei correctly assumed that Jack Henry would have set up for the final battle exactly where The Ark Lords wanted to go. As our heroes headed down the hallway, they saw something very peculiar. I'll let them tell you:
“Look,” he said. “Rome, you’re right.” Rei pointed up at one of the wire carriers. There were slashes through it that looked like they were burned. “Laser pulse rifle burns.”
“Why would they fire their rifles up there?” Ursay asked.
Rei looked at the opposite wall then back at the burns. “Men with lances, knives, crossbows, anything could have hidden among all this clutter. By now, the Ark Lords knew they were here. Let’s keep going.”
They continued along, taking note of the increasing signs of battle. More holes, more burn marks. “Bullet holes,” Rei said. “So now the battle really took hold. The only thing I still don’t understand is where they got the guns.”
“Perhaps here,” MINIMCOM said. Rei glanced up
and saw MINIMCOM standing at the top of a short stand of steps. The steps were pressed up against a large, white propane tank mounted on stilts. MINIMCOM reached forward and turned the sealing ring inserted in the center of the door that was bolted onto the tank. Rei started to warn MINIMCOM but before he could get the words out, MINIMCOM already had the door open. The livetar swung the door all the way to the side and stepped inside the cylindrical room. Rei, Rome and Ursay walked up the steps and joined MINIMCOM in the chamber. The inside of the tank had a false floor and surprisingly, a very dim light emitted from panels in the ceiling. MINIMCOM twisted his cape behind him then borrowed OMCOM’s trick and his shoulders lit up, illuminating the chamber completely.
“Oh!” Rome exclaimed. “This looks like the back room in Edgar’s storage bin.”
“Yeah,” Rei answered, looking around. “This was an armory.”
Well at least the mystery of the Vorasdock was now solved. Jack Henry and the rebels used the Ark Lords' own weapons against them. Tomorrow, Rome picks up a souvenir that plays a critical role in the denouement.
Tales of the Vuduri_Year Five Page 7
