by Rob Buckman
“Will this do the trick?” He asked, walking in after shaking snow off his Ghillie suit and stamping his boots clean. Jan rushed over and grabbed it out of his hand, grinning from ear to ear.
“Wow! Yes, that would be perfect if you could find about ten or so of these.” She laughed, turning the spool in her hands.
“No problem. There’s a piping supply warehouse a couple of streets over and had a bunch of these. How you doing on finding the rest of the stuff you need?”
“Doing great. Found the wire I need in an electrical supply place and the electronic components at a ‘Radio Shack’ down the road.”
“So, what’s the next step?”
“Find me a warm workshop and a generator.”
“Can do.”
While Jan worked on assembling the device, Decker used his limited skill as a machinist to manufacture half a dozen, six inch by two-inch slugs out of a bar of nickel-chrome steel to Jan specifications, but Decker was worried. If they couldn’t bring down a destroyer with and RPG, what this six-inch slug was going to do was beyond him. The best he could think of was that it would simply bounce of the hull, or shield. There had to be something else going on with the device that made the inventor thing it would work.
Decker managed to refrain from laughing when he saw the finished device as it looked nothing as he imagined a super weapon would look. Jan and the girls bolted all ten PVC piping spools together, each segment now wrapped in an inch thick layer of fine wire. Protected leads from each segment were bundled together and attached to a circuit board, which in turn was connected to a long Tesla coil and a row of capacitors.
“So this is it?” He asked, looking a little skeptical.
“Sure is.” Jen answered proudly, grinning from ear to ear. The rest of her team looked equally pleased with themselves.
“And what is it supposed to do?”
“According to the specs in the notebook, it’s supposed to drive that slug of metal at hyper-sonic speed. Something on the order of 7,815 feet per second.” That made Decker raise an eyebrow. 7,800? The best a rifle bullet could do was about 3,000 feet per second. If that were true, what would it do to a destroyer or any object it impacted traveling at that speed?
Another surprise from the chewing out was, a couple of enterprising ladies started experimenting with the strange alien armor. It all started one evening when several of them had an informal party with a couple of bottles of plum brandy. Someone found a MP3 player that still worked and with that and a couple of speakers, it wasn’t long before they had a party going and dancing. Someone had also found a Karaoke mic and they took turns trying to sing, and one or two weren’t bad after a few drinks. Warmed up by the drink and the dancing they stripped off more of their clothes until CC was down to her alien armor and trying to do the ‘robot’, and sing at the same time. Everyone was giggling their heads off when CC held the mic to close to the speaker. The feedback was ear splitting, but the most astonishing thing was CC's body armor starting to disintegrate.
“Eek! What the hell?” She screamed, jumping back. The moment the screeching stopped the alien armor stopped falling apart.
“Yes, sir.”
“What do you think, Boss?” What she handed him was an SAS cloth cap badge slightly larger than his. Not only had she copied the downward pointing winged Excalibur and the motto underneath, she’d added the outline of a wolf’s head between the upper parts of the wings in gold thread.
“Damn that looks good. Take you long to stitch it?”
“Oh no. I used one of those embroidery machines I found in a dress shop.”
“Nice. Can you make more?” She grinned at him.
“Thought you'd asked. I have the machine dialed in and it can stitch as many as you want.”
“I want one for each of the girls and a few to spare.”
“On it, sir. I hope I have enough thread. I might have to go search a few shops.”
“Do it, but don’t go alone. You know the rules.”
It wasn’t until next day after they sobered up that two of the girl started playing around with sound equipment, ending up in an audio workshop a few blocks over. It wasn’t until they rigged up a hand held ultrasonic needle, and played around with different frequencies that they found they could ‘cut’ the alien armor. Putting it back together was just as easy, as by holding one edge against another the two halves bonded together. When overlapped two pieces would simply ‘stick’ to each other somehow. This strange material could stop a .50 armor-piercing round in its tracks, yet could be cut and shaped with a simple ultrasonic wand. Suddenly they found they could cut and form the sheets into any shape they wanted, including full body armor that looked like a SCUBA wet suit. This covered the stomach, crotch, upper thighs and arms for better protection. After that they set up a dress shop and one by one, the girls went to be fitted with their new armor, until everyone, including Decker was dressed. The girls had even taken winter underwear into their calculations, but with the ‘overlap and stick’ feature the ‘suit’ could be loosened or tighten as needed. The girls weren't the only ones with a pet project, as Andrea Granlund came to him and held something out for him to look at.
“What do you think, Boss?” What she handed him was an SAS cloth cap badge slightly larger than his. Not only had she copied the downward pointing winged Excalibur and the motto underneath, she’d added the outline of a wolf’s head between the upper parts of the wings in gold thread.
“Damn that looks good. Take you long to stitch it?”
“Oh no. I used one of those embroidery machines I found in a dress shop.”
“Nice. Can you make more?” She grinned at him.
“Thought you'd asked that. Yes, I have the machine dialed in and it can stitch as many as you want.”
“I want one for each of the girls and a few to spare.”
“On it, sir. I hope I have enough thread. I might have to go search a few shops.”
“Do it, but don’t go alone. You know the rules.”
“Yes, sir.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: OR NOT
Decker wasn’t taking any chances of the aliens seeing them test the weapon, if he could help it, as he remembered seeing a video of the rail gun the US military was working on. It was massive and took the output of a small generating station to power it. The one drawback that Decker could see was the fact that the projectile left a purple heat trail through the air at hypersonic speed as friction heated it. The video never showed what happened to whatever it was fired at, betting there wasn’t much left of whatever it was. If the device worked, it wasn’t the air trail that worried him, but being out in the open, if and when, the aliens came to investigate the air trail or the impact zone. He puzzled over the problem for several days while Jan and her team tested the circuits and wrote the firing program. As a precaution, Decker had her download the program to three brand new laptops from the local computer store. These were still in their boxes and wrapped in their protective shield and unaffected by the local EMP blast. As an added precaution, he had the girls carefully photograph each page of the book and transfer it to the three computers and sixty flash drives.
Each girl got one and told to keep it safe against the day that only a few of them ever reached ‘Soda Springs’ and the research base. That way the boffins would have a copy of the specifications and photos of the test to work from. The wiring on the spooling segments was odd from what Decker could see, as instead of a straight winding, Jan had screwed eight pegs into the PVC pipe near each flange and wound the wire around them in a complex pattern like a torus. From what Decker knew about magnetic forces, he suspected this somehow increased the mag force in one direction. If fired in sequence this should drive the metal slug down the barrel at increasing speed, but he was skeptical it would reach the speed mentioned in the notebook. Being a cautious man, he worried about the safety of the team and considered his options about where to fire the weapon.
After a survey of the old mine, Decker pic
ked a side tunnel with a small opening looking out onto the valley with ‘Twin Lakes’ road running down it. If the aliens did come and investigate, there wasn’t much for them to destroy, and protect the rest of the team hiding out in Bridgeport. Using three new carts with runners instead of wheels, they muscled everything up to the mine through the deep snow and got set up for the first test. As luck would have it, the day turned out sunny and clear, so Decker instructed everyone to stay under cover for the duration. The less tracks through the freshly fallen snow the better. Without knowing exactly what was going to happen, Decker set up all the associated equipment, the computer, batteries, tables, chairs, and spare gas out of the way in a side tunnel, thankful later that he did. Jan set up the rail-gun, as Decker thought of it, on the bipod thirty feet back from the opening, and aimed it across the valley towards twin lakes, half a mile away. The back end rested on sand bags, and he adjusted the aim as he sighted down the bore to make sure the projectile hit the large, white painted boulder and not go screaming off into space. Slipping the metal slug into the bore, he pulled the barrel back and butted it against the rock wall, bracing it with a couple of sand bags, suspecting the device had a kick much like a real high caliber rifle. After that, he stepped back and let Jan do her thing as she connected the wires and booted up the computer.
“Archangel, you well clear of the target area?”
“Ten-four Wolfman. I’m five hundred yards away under an overhang.” Without knowing what was going to happen, Decker wondered if that was far enough away. “I’ll warn you when Jan is ready to fire and when you hear that, get your head down, just in case.”
“Ten-four. Got to protect my cute little butt for you.” She giggled. Decker heard several of the girls in the tunnel laugh when they heard that. Decker sighed, wishing he had a separate radio to talk to Joann, and a way to discipline her. One way did come to mind was paddling her butt, but that way might make matters worse instead of better.
“Ready for the first test, Boss.” Jan called. After one final check to make sure the video camera was firmly attached to the rock face outside, Decker moved back and joined the group in the side tunnel. The view from one of the laptops showed the view across the valley while the other displayed the firing program for the rail gun.
“Test fire number one, Joann.”
“Ten-four.”
“In five-four-three-two-one.” Jan called and she hit the enter key. They all braced themselves for something but the only thing they heard was a soft ‘clang’. Decker scooted over, and looked around the corner and let out a soft laugh.
“That’s one hell of a weapon Jan. Looks like the UFMs are going to laugh themselves to death.”
“Shit!” Was all Jan said when she went and looked, coming back rather red faced. The projectile had dropped out a foot from the end of the barrel.
After an hour and six more tests, Jan was snarling with frustration, as even after cranking up the power level the metal slug didn’t travel more than four feet. Decker got as comfortable as he could in the cold, windy tunnel, and took a nap while Jan went over the wiring inch by inch, checking every connection, muttering about silly old men and their stupid ideas.
“Okay, I think I found the problem. I think I had half the segments connected wrong causing a reverse in polarity.”
“Right, whatever you say. You ready to try again?”
“Yes.”
“Wolfman to Archangel.”
“Archangel – go.”
“Ready for the next test.”
“Oh I hope so. I’m freezing my butt off out here.” She grumbled.
“If you don’t start following radio protocol, I can think of a perfect way to warm it up!” Decker growled, immediately regretting his words.
“Ooh, yes sir Wolfman.” Decker shook his head and sighed.
“Boss. You need to do us all a favor and spank the hell out of the horny little bitch and take her to bed and put her out of our misery.” Jan muttered, smiling slightly. Decker gave her a bleak look and shook his head. Jan let out a sigh and shook her head again in sympathy.
“In five-four-three-two-one.” She intoned and hit the enter key.
What happened next could only be described as startling as the cave filled with a white flash and the sound of thunder. Decker scrambled to his feet and looked at the outside video camera but all his could see was a faint purple line across the valley that quickly dissipated.
“What the hell was that?” Joann yelled breathlessly.
“You okay, Joann?”
“Yeah, just about… lord alive I thought a bomb had gone off…”
“What about the target boulder, Joann!” Decker cut in as he ran to the opening and looked out across the valley as he spoke.
“What boulder? There’s nothing left of it but dust!” She shouted. Joann was right, where a five-ton granite boulder use to sit nothing was left but a giant hole.
“Oh my Lord!”
Replaying the video it was easy to see why they thought the flash and thunder had come from the rail gun, as the instant Jan touched the enter key the projectile had shot across the valley and hit the target. The flash and thunder were the aftermath coming back at them. The target boulder was only a quarter of a mile away, and if the slug was traveling at near the eight miles a second the notebook suggested, it hit the boulder a mere fraction of a second after Jen touched the key. Decker next inspected the PVC barrel and much to his surprise, it had hardly moved, and other than a few wisps of smoke coming off the windings, the devise appeared undamaged.
“You want to try again, Boss?”
“Hell yes. We might not get another chance.” Saying that, Decker loaded another slug into the barrel and reset it in place.
This time the thunder was belated and muted, as instead of hitting a boulder, the slug buried itself in the opposite hillside until it stopped. Not so the impact shock wave, that traveled ahead until the ground pressure equaled the shock pressure and reversed itself. This traveled back up the path of the slug in a cone, vomiting out a fifty foot wide by fifty-foot deep crater in the hillside.
“Oh my… That’s incredible.” Decker breathed.
“Wow! Think what a few hundred… no, thousands of these could do to the UFMs!”
“Heads up Wolfman – we got trouble coming.”
“Sit-rep Archangel!”
“One large alien ship heading our way.”
“Go to ground deep, archangel – now!”
“Ten-four – making like a gopher.”
“Let’s get the weapon out of here just in case.”
“Ten-four Boss.” Jan and several others rushed around the corner and grabbed the barrel to take it deeper into the mine, and it was just as well they did.
“Oh shit!” Joann called. “Boss – one of those big ugly ships is coming up over the horizon and headed this way.”
“Joann, you get your ass underground now! That’s an order.”
“That stupid little…” He was at a loss what to call her. “She’ll get herself killed.”
“W…what?”
“We kicked over the wasp’s nest, now move it, deeper. I want a mountain over me as protection.”
They ran through the darkness with only their flashlight to show the way for ten minutes before the ground heaved under their feet and tumbled them to the rocky floor.
“Shit-shit-shit!” Decker swore as he scrambled to his feet.
“What just happened?” Someone yelled in the darkness.
“The UFMs just dropped a KEW on the valley. Let's just hope they don’t drop one on the town.”
“Oh lord! What about Joann?” Decker was between the rock and the hard place. Go look for Joann or go find out what happened to the Pack.
“Go and see if you can get out of the mine back there and find Joann while I go see what’s happening in town.” He yelled as he took off at a run.
“Shit-shit-shit!” Was the only thing he could say.
A KEW was one thing he ha
dn’t expected. The sonic and maybe an EMP pulse from the devise must had lit up the UFM sensors like a Christmas tree, considering how fast they’d reacted. Pulling one of the bombardment ships out of its equatorial orbit to investigate, and drop a KEW on something as insignificant as a single rail gun meant they weren’t as invulnerable as everyone thought. The speed of their reaction and dropping a KEW in the location of the weapon was nothing more than a pre-emptive strike to wipe out the weapon, and the people operating it. Only the fact that he’d taken the precaution of firing it from inside the mine preventing that from happening.
Even in his rush to get back to town, he didn’t forget to take precautions against wandering alien destroyers, seeing several of them flying back and forth looking for targets. The only good thing was the cloud cover rolling in again with the promise of more snow. Without his active cammo, he dodged from wrecked building to wrecked building, overturned cars and trucks, and back again to wrecked buildings as he came out from under the tree cover. The extent of the damage done by the blast wave worried him, and it was only when he came in sight of the town hall brick building that he felt a sense of relief. The windows were blown out but other than that, it showed little signs of damage. Inside was a mess but thankfully the Styrofoam sheets over the windows prevented glass from flying all over the place and injuring people. Even so, there were a few, mainly cuts and bruises but no broken bones, for which he was thankful. As expected, Doctor Mason was busy in her makeshift surgery fixing them as he walked in.
