ALICE Resurrection

by Charles Lamb

  Before she knew it, all four of her Marines had been disarmed, though all attempts to remove their helmets were met with failure. They were then dragged down several flights of stairs before being thrust into the small chamber they currently occupied.

  She had attempted several times to reach anyone, but only the four with her could hear the transmissions. With nothing else to do, the five sat on the concrete floor, waiting to see what happened next.

  ----*----

  With the South Dakota facility offline and all of Kola’s files transferred to the carrier, Jake put the recovery effort on hold. Putting both the 1st Marines and the 10th Calvary on alert, he vacated the facility in the transport that had brought him, and headed to Nevada. He chose Nevada because that’s where Patti had set up shop and right now no one knew more about their enemy than her analysts. Once back inside the transport as its lone occupant, he removed his helmet.

  “Ok, what’s our status?” Jake asked as he took a seat in the back, not waiting to get back before starting. He felt the craft lift off and head southwest.

  “The 10th Calvary is still split, with half in London working with the SAS, and the other half working in Alaska as instructors. All are on alert and ready to meet us wherever we stage. The 1st Marines are completely up to full strength, again with a squad in London and the rest spread around. All locations have high speed transports in place and can have their troops on-site over Hong Kong in less than two hours,” ALICE supplied.

  “I should add that full strength is not what you remember. With all the recruitment and training, 1st Marines are now two full companies of four platoons each. Excluding headquarters elements, you have over three hundred and twenty Marines,” she added.

  “You are going to need them,” Patti offered.

  “Go Patti,” Jake replied, knowing she had the data on their opponent.

  “We have confirmed the Chinese have over twenty five thousand troops and could be as high as thirty thousand. They have armor and artillery with a broad selection of smaller combat vehicles,” she offered.

  “Any air capabilities?” Jake asked.

  “None. In fact, we think that may be why the Chinese attacked Sandy,” she replied

  “Why do you think that?” Jake asked, curious at the suggestion.

  “We have had these guys under constant surveillance. We only missed seeing Sandy’s approach because of the Kola incident. Anyway, once she landed, they were coaxed away from the plane before they were jumped. No Chinese fired a weapon; they literally overran them to avoid unnecessary gunfire. Since then, they have been in and out of the plane nonstop,” she finished.

  “Alice, you have that bird locked out right?” Jake asked as they were starting to settle in the hangar in Nevada.

  “Yes, Jake, and we have recorded every interaction inside since they took Sandy and her Marines,” ALICE responded.

  The statement made Jake cringe, recalling what Sara went through at the hands of the LA gang.

  “Heading in,” At that point he got up and deplaned, crossing the open space between the plane and the doors in record time. As he traveled into the facility and on to the command center, no one interrupted his progress. A group in front of the command center doors parted at his appearance, allowing him to enter.

  “Where is everyone?” he asked as he entered the command center. All pointed to the small room Patti had been using at the rear. Jake crossed the room and entered the door to the commandeered conference room.

  He found the room packed with people, all busy at their stations and oblivious to his presence.

  “Jake,” Patti cried, crossing the room to greet him with a hug.

  “I am so sorry we didn’t catch this,” she added after she released him

  “How could you?” he asked, “This is another of Sandy’s half-cocked, poorly planned, cowboy stunts.”

  “Well, not entirely,” Patti replied with some hesitancy.

  “Explain” was all Jake could say.

  “It turns out she has been pirating some of our research. As I said, we have been watching this group for quite some time. Because I have independent teams doing separate analysis, I have all the raw data in one location and separate from the evaluations. Apparently, Sandy has been going off the raw data without reviewing our findings, or she would have known to stay far away from these guys,” she finished.

  “And your analysis says?” Jake asked, ignoring the fact that someone had been rummaging through the raw content undetected by anyone, ALICEs included.

  “This is a well-trained, organized, and disciplined group. Their weapons are circa pre 2100 AD, but are all in good working order. There is no evidence of NeHaw or any other alien technology in their inventory. Their vehicles are all diesel powered and numerous,” She replied.

  “Why now? These guys just didn’t pop out of nowhere,” Jake asked, as he considered all that she supplied.

  “Our best guess is somebody died,” she replied, seeing the distracted look in Jake’s eyes.

  “Huh?” he responded, bringing his full attention back to the conversation.

  “There appears to be a new leader. We went back into the ALICE archives. As you know, the ALICE systems have been constantly monitoring the world at large over the last eighty years. In the stored data, we see that this area has always maintained a limited amount of vehicle traffic. It was concentrated in the Guangxi region of China and never roamed very far from there.

  In the last few months, that pattern has disappeared completely. Replacing it has been full-scale warfare on anyone in the region that opposed the expansion. They have pushed southwest and eastward to the coast. According to ALICE military records, their tactics are extremely familiar, so we suspect a portion of the Chinese military survived the bombing,” she finished.

  Jake walked over to a table where they had spread a map of the region with markers for unit locations and strengths. Pulling an enlargement over in front of him, he could see Hong Kong Island and the mainland.

  “They have Sandy here?” He asked while pointing to a cluster of high-rise building near the water.

  Pulling a photograph over in front of the two, she pointed to a building with the plane parked in front, in an open square.

  “Yes, based on observations and conversations intercepts, we believe they are in the basement of this building,” Patti replied while pointing to the structure.

  Looking over the other map again, Jake did a quick inventory of the military designators.

  “And there are fifteen thousand troops, four tank platoons, say 16 tanks, and a dozen self-propelled antiaircraft systems. Twenty-five millimeter?” he asked.

  “Yes, twenty-five millimeter. They were just brought in from outside the city. I am afraid they are expecting us,” Patti answered.

  Jake stood starring at everything on the table before him before replying.

  “They aren’t expecting this,” was all he said.

  ----*----

  Leftenant Daniel Atkins was leading a small team, in the tunnels under the streets of London, chasing down troublemakers. Every now and then, new arrivals would descend on London from the countryside, attempting to assert their influence on the peaceful inhabitants.

  This was not the first team he had been directed to guide into these tunnels, but it was always stressful. The tunnels were a maze of twists and turns, merging new and old construction, going back over a thousand years. They had even located the infamous MI-6 to Whitehall tunnel of lore on one such adventure.

  They had used these missions as training for new recruits, but never at the expense of the team’s safety. Like now, he had Sergeant Carson on point with one of the Yank’s new toys, while the newer troopers were mixed in with the seasoned. Like the bulletproof undergarments they all now wore, the scanner was a gift, to better protect his troops from harm.

  This device could detect those lurking in the dark recesses of the tunnels, preventing them from passing unnoticed. The other item the enti
re team was utilizing were the alien tech goggles, giving them sight in near total darkness. Refusing the helmet’s they were offered, these gave a much better image than the legacy British military units they had, and were smaller, not much larger than oversized welding goggles.

  It was then the Sergeant signaled he had a hit on the scanner, motioning ahead and to their right. Stepping up, while signaling everyone to hold, Atkins checked the display. On the small screen, he could make out three or four dots indicating humans. He was aware that if someone was sitting too close, the scanner couldn’t discern one of two bodies.

  Lifting his goggles, he could just make out the dim glow of a fire ahead, hidden from direct view, as it appeared to come from a side tunnel. Returning his goggles, he motioned his team to spread across the tunnel and then indicated they should move forward.

  By the time they had halved the distance to the side tunnel, they could hear the soft conversation of several men, more than the four on the scanner. Motioning members of his team to cross to the other side, he watched as they moved silently along the far wall, making them almost invisible. The darkness would help keep them unseen to the men around the small fire.

  By the time he reached the opening in the wall, they were on the far side and in position. Pulling a flash bang from its pouch, he pulled the pin and counted in an exaggerated fashion so his men could prepare.

  Tossing the grenade so it bounced off the far wall of the side tunnel, it allowed Atkins to remain concealed from view. He saw it rebound from the wall, hopefully into the group of men, before retreating and closing his eyes. The loud detonation was accompanied by a bright flash, magnified in the goggles so that his eyelids glowed red.

  “Now,” he declared as he ordered his team in from both sides of the opening, rushing the disoriented men scrambling to recover from the 170 decibel blast. There was one short burst of automatic rifle fire, before all the tunnel occupants were down and disarmed.

  Checking his team, he was startled to find one of the new men down by the entrance, blood leaking past his hand on his neck where the rifle fire had hit him just above the neckline of the undergarment. As the others subdued the troublemakers, he checked the man over, finding three holes where the rifle burst had hit the man in the chest and shoulder before the last grazed his open flesh.

  “It just opened the skin,” he told the man as he applied a battle dressing, while motioning for the Sergeant to take the prisoners on out of the tunnel.

  “You might thank the next Yank you see for this,” He said while helping the man to his feet and pulling at the neckline of the undergarment.

  Chapter 14

  Sara was desperate to get back to the US after news of Sandy’s capture. As someone with intimate knowledge of what that meant, she was prepared to do whatever she needed to spare Sandy the experience.

  Jake, however, had insisted she stay with the Brits, acting as his personal point of contact. While his reasoning was sound, it did little to satisfy her emotional need to do something. So far, her only duty had been to set up a private call between Jake and Colonel Banks. Jake had politely but firmly asked that she not attend.

  Apparently, whatever the call was about, the good Colonel was motivated into action. After leaving the room, he had called meetings of his own, spurring the SAS troops in hurried activities throughout the facility. Sara was then notified that a high-speed transport was on its way, per Jake’s orders.

  Initially excited, expecting it to be for her use, she was deflated to learn it was assigned to Colonel Banks and would be heading east, not west.

  ----*----

  Sandy sat in the corner of the small dark room with the four others in her party, devastated that her well thought out plans had so completely imploded. Besides risking her own life, she had unthinkingly risked the lives of these four before her.

  After being manhandled into the small space, the team leader had organized her team, discussing their observations and working through their options. Sandy had done everything asked of her, not always understanding why, but drawing strength from the team leader’s confidence. She could see why the young woman had been chosen for promotion so quickly after graduation.

  Even in the darkness, with the IR illumination, built into their helmets, they five could see clearly, as if it was daylight. They had been stripped of their weapons, but a couple of the women had secreted items inside their BDU jackets, inaccessible to the Chinese as they patted them down. While the treasure trove only amounted to one small knife and a handgun, they were better than nothing.

  Sandy expected that the Chinese would eventually see they were not a threat and let them out. Until then, they would just have to make the best of it. She also expected that Jake was aware of their plight by now and would intervene. She was not looking forward to the lecture he would deliver on her recklessness.

  With the enhanced audio their helmets provided, all five heard the activity outside the door long before it opened. Moving to the far side away from the doorway, Sandy’s helmet corrected for the additional light as the door opened, flooding the room.

  Standing in the doorway was a man with several more behind him, all armed. The one in front surveyed the group before he pointed and said something to the others behind him.

  “There, the one without rank insignia. She is the leader, bring her, but leave the rest,” he said to the others.

  ----*----

  Ju did not consider himself a fool. Quite the contrary, he held himself in high esteem. Educated and trained by both his father and grandfather, though memories of this grandfather were dim, he had absorbed all that they had to offer. He still, to this day, reread his grandfather’s journals, written to preserve all he had learned before the Great Collapse.

  As such, he estimated he was probably the greatest surviving military mind on earth. It was those thoughts that were driving his sense of urgency in unraveling the mystery of the craft before him. He held no illusions that this was the only one of its kind and that the former owners would ignore the loss of such a valuable resource. That owner was also not a mystery to him.

  He had recognized the flag patch on the shoulders of the four combat troops he now held in the basement of the building behind him. His grandfather had described the uneasy relationship China held with America over the many decades before death rained from the sky.

  At first, his grandfather had assumed it was the Americans, which had delivered the undeserved devastation laid across China. Later, he acknowledged it was likely not the case as the restoration of limited communications indicated a worldwide blackout. The implications of such a global catastrophe spurred him to preserve Chinese tradition and culture during his lifetime.

  Ju needed to get the craft operational and hidden before another came looking, as he doubted just camouflage netting would be sufficient to hide its presence. While he assumed his current forces were more than enough to repel anything that could be quickly mustered, he took nothing for granted.

  The weapons taken from the four were nothing special. While his forces used traditional brass cased ammunition, as opposed to the caseless rounds found in their rifles, they were still projectile firing devices. The craft itself seemed to possess no weaponry at all. Ju was more concerned and fascinated by the uniforms each had protecting their bodies.

  Once subdued, his men had attempted to remove the helmets and jackets, only to be thwarted by the apparent bonded garments. Attempts to slice the material had been just as useless. The uniforms appeared to be impervious to impacts as well, the blows his men delivered dissipated at the point of the impact.

  A commotion behind him brought his attention back to the present, as his men brought the leader of the group to stand beside him in the square. Turning, he was again suspicious that the entire group was female, their small stature in comparison to Ju’s own men, the only indicator as the faceplate only reflected Ju’s image.

  “You will tell me how to operate this craft?” Ju asked the woman, her
hands bound before her and with a soldier on either side, holding her in place.

  “No,” she replied, in what Ju assumed was a translated version of her own voice. The Hanyu she used was without dialect and reflected Ju’s own language preference as opposed to the national Mandarin.

  With her response, Ju drew the pistol from its holster on his belt. Pointing it at her left thigh, he fired.

  “Ouch!” She blurted, flexing slightly at the impact, but returning to a standing position as the flattened bullet dropped to the flagstone paving at their feet.

  Ju’s first instinct was to shoot her faceplate, but restrained himself as he considered the predicament.

  “Gather wood,” He shouted to the men around him before turning back to the prisoner.

  ----*----

  Jake had been in his office by himself, working through the last pieces of this plan when he was interrupted by Patti.

  “Jake you need to come out here and see this,” she said via the audio system.

  Not liking the tone of her statement, Jake rushed out of his office and into the command center. In the center of the room, the holograph had the square in china still under surveillance. Jake could make out the Chinese General they suspected as the leader there, and one of his people standing next to him, hands bound in front.

  “Is that Sandy? I don’t see any rank insignia on the uniform,” he asked

  “Yes sir. The suits ID reports it’s hers,” someone in the room replied.

  Sandy had always refused rank, her rationale being she was a diplomat. Jake never argued the point, as she was not really military material, and he felt it was safer for her and everyone else if she wasn’t in the chain of command. Unfortunately, the image before him was a reminder that he had been in a fool’s paradise. She hardly needed rank as one of his personal relationships.