by Tony Teora
“Yes, sir, I’ll work with Major Mahan.”
“Good.” Manpower looked at his comm. There was a secure text message.
It read:“MANPOWER: Code @39#1001A: We’re stuck in some kind alien tractor beam, ALT: 5.6 km and dropping fast … few minutes to structural integrity breach … take out the aliens with the nuke and see if you and the men can hold out somewhere on the planet … GateStorm should send in reinforcements from Earth, the timeline is four months try to hold out until them … tell Melissa I’ll miss her … actually I love the damn girl, but please don’t tell her that—it’d make things worse … I’m gonna miss you guys … have a beer on me when you get back. GodSpeed.
“Oh fuckin’ laser shit beam up the asshole!” cursed Manpower under his breath.
Manpower couldn’t believe the SATCOM-1 text message. How could Karr lose their damn ship? It was their ride home. This was a “fucked up beyond all repair” deal. A complete fubar. The only saving grace was that he had a chance to take out the whole damn compound in one blast. He had the thermo-nuke. Oh Karr, I’ll make these bastards pay!
***
In a dark, underground ally, hidden from robots working, Ivan finished connecting up a miniature, high-power wireless router. He connected it into a local power line. He’d already connected three other devices earlier. With the special network in place, Hiro, or the folks on the Aurora, would be able to control Mr. Tin man via an encrypted wireless connection. After testing the wireless comm, Ivan adjusted settings on the robot’s chest. He closed a front panel and tightened the final screw.
“Yes Yogi, I fixed up the robot. His voice circuit is now working with our new codes and will follow our instructions … no, he’s not hungry, and yes, he’s well-oiled.” Ivan smiled at Yogi and affectionately patted the head of teddy bear sitting on a drum. “Now I’m turning off Hiro’s transmitter circuit … want to talk private.” Ivan shut off the tachyon pod used to communicate to shuttle. “Okay, Mr. Robot is all fixed up. Tin Man, can you hear me?”
“Yes, Master.”
“Good, now I have some new instructions for you. You listen to me and Yogi, okay?”
“Yes, Master.”
“Good, because when I done, me and Yogi need go find our friends Kiya and Jimbo.”
“Yes, Master.”
Ivan instructed Mr. Robot to approach the alien robot worker section, wire up the underground reactor to explode, and then proceed to a manufacturing facility that they’d spotted earlier. Ivan was sure that was the best place for the tin man to hide out. Yogi told the robot that he needed to stay there, as that’s where the owner of the other robots worked. Once he got there, Mr. Robot would talk to the other robots for information. Ivan explained the instructions twice, to ensure he was understood.
Ivan smiled. “Okay Mr. Tin Man, you go on your way … you may listen to Hiro now, but as long as it do not conflict with my instructions.” Ivan turned back on Hiro’s communication line and the waved good-bye. He then proceeded to an elevator shaft that went up to the west side of GEN-6. He somehow knew he had friends who might need his help.
***
“Kiya! I can’t believe I found you!” Big Jimbo rushed into the lab and gave Kiya a big hug.
“Jimbo,” said Kiya, looking worried. “We don’t have much time. I found an open comm line that had an incoming signal. The Aurora is planning to nuke the place. Less than an hour.”
“We gotta get the hell out of here. I got a map,” said Jimbo, pulling an e-map out of his shirt pocket.
“First I need to download some bio codes. I think I have a way to negate the alien virus.”
“Make it quick.”
A door opened in the far corner, the metal hinge clanging as the door shut with a lock. Tucker entered, followed by four shiny robots. These models were military type, one arm with a gun attached, the other with some kind of round multi-finger probe. The heads looked like silver Chinese woks with their lids on too tight. A curled, moving antenna stood on top.
Tucker stopped with the robots standing in military formation behind him. “Good to see you two again. Don’t try anything funny, because you’re out numbered.”
“I actually think you’re outnumbered, asshole,” said Jimbo, taking the safety off his 50 millimeter Beowulf assault rifle. “Our people are coming back. This place is gonna blow.” Jimbo looked at an incoming message on his comm. He read it while keeping one eye on Tucker. Kiya continued to quickly type away at her console.
“We’re aware of your futile attempts at control. You will fail. You can both ascend or die. Either process is quite painless.” Tucker held a syringe filled with the viral worms while the robots pointed guns.
From a side door, Ace rushed in. “Sorry, I’m running a little late, had some issues with spiders, robots, and general assholes. Speaking of which, nice to see you, Tucker.”
Tucker looked over. Two robots now pointed guns at Ace. The other two robots had their guns pointed at Kiya and Jimbo. “Glad to see we found our biggest troublemaker,” said Tucker, smiling as coldly as a shark looking at a minnow. “So, it’s all your choice, ascend or die.”
Ace looked at his comm. In ten seconds, C4 would explode behind Tucker. Earlier, Ace had connected to Jimbo’s comm and knew of the ambush, so he planted the timed C4. “Kiya, did you get what you needed? We need to ‘ascend’ from here shortly. Do you read me?”
“I just got the message. And yes, I can read you,” said Kiya, reading Ace’s thought that a bomb was about to be exploded.
Ace looked at the comm; there were three seconds remaining. “Tucker, you and your robot friends can ascend to fuckin’ hell.”
The door exploded behind Tucker. He and the four robots blasted forward onto the floor. The room filled with dust from blasted concrete. Ace turned on his infra eyes and scanned the room. Tucker got up and pulled his gun and ran toward Kiya. It was a mistake. She read him.
Kiya kicked the gun out of his hand and then clobbered him with a second kick to the face. Tucker fell back into a rack of glass vials.
The four robots rose and adjusted their gun arms. Ace cursed. “Jimbo, take out the robots!”
Jimbo started shooting his 50 millimeter rounds. They were designed to take out light armored vehicles. In less than three seconds, he unloaded a half a pound of lead into the wok-head robots. Metal exploded along with glass and concrete from the wall. Ace took on a robot that jumped over a table, extending its weaponized arm to take a shot at Kiya, but Ace grabbed it and smashed the barrel against a wall. Sounds of gears grinding erupted with misfires of bullets. Part of the arm started to steam and smoke.
Mr. Wok-man used his other spider-like, multi-finger arm to rip a heavy water pipe from the wall and smashed it at Ace. Ace blocked with the pipe cutting into his arm. Memories of fighting the M10 robot Krill flashed into Ace’s mind. The only difference was, no one could tap out in this fight.
Ace pushed back the wok-man robot into an air conditioning unit. Steam spewed. The wok-man kicked Ace in the stomach, then a blast erupted as the wok-man robot’s head blew off. Wires and gears now stood out at the torso of the missing head. Jimbo smiled— he’d used his last fifty millimeter round to blow it off.
“Nothing like losing your head over a situation,” said Jimbo.
“Funny. Thanks, big guy.” Ace barely completed his words when he saw Kiya knocked over by a punch from Tucker.
“You fuckin’ piece of shit!” Ace picked up a metal pipe and threw it at Tucker. It hit him in the back. It sounded like a bone broke, but it didn’t faze the alien-controlled body.
Tucker casually turned. “You’ll find that there are some advantages on evolving with ascension. No pain. Eventually, you’ll see the light.”
“No pain usually means no brain,” said Ace, moving toward Tucker. Ace threw a punch and knocked Tucker into a wall. Tucker got up and picked up the broken pipe Ace had thrown and swung it at Ace.
Ace backed away. Nearby was an electrical outlet that had a tw
o-inch-diameter broken pipe sticking out the wall. An earlier blast had cut the pipe. Ace coaxed Tucker near the wall and rushed in for a fight. Tucker swung his pipe again, but Ace lunged in with a football tackle and pushed Tucker’s midsection into the broken pipe. Tucker stood tacked to the wall, the broken pipe protruding out of his navel.
Ace pulled a three-inch-thick electrical cable from a nearby panel, the wire shooting out electrical sparks. “I think you’re right, Tucker. We need to see the light, and on Earth, that requires some electricity.”
Ace stuck the cable into the pipe. Tucker shook uncontrollably as electrical sparks shot from his body out into the metal pipe. He looked like a rodent shorting out on a power line. The lights in the room dimmed, then went out. A backup electrical generator kicked in, emergency lights turning on. Tucker’s body was limp; his face was swollen and blackened like a large, over-grilled pot roast. The room stunk of burned human flesh.
Jimbo laughed and coughed “This room stinks. Damn, you’re a fuckin’ crazy bastard. Glad you’re on our team.”
Kiya ran over and hugged Ace. “I knew you would come back! I knew you saw my thoughts.”
“Ace, where’s Ivan?” asked Jimbo.
“He’s under the base working on a special project. Look, we need to get the scientists out of here. The Beta-Ray is coming to pick us up. We don’t have much time.”
“They’re waiting on the east side,” said Kiya. “I spoke to them earlier today and told them you were coming.”
“How did you know?” asked Ace.
“I could read your mind, too. I had some help.”
Ace looked over at Jimbo. “I thought you were dead. What the hell happened in the reactor room?”
Jimbo shook his head. “Long story, but I suspect some of my new body parts from my repair job at FAR protected me from the radiation. I also had a dream that said I couldn’t die just yet. I gotta job to do.”
“Well, that you do, big guy. Let’s get outta here. We don’t have much time.”
“What about Ivy? We can’t leave him,” said Jimbo.
“We’re not going to. He’s somewhere in the basement level. I can’t comm him from here—there’s too much interference in this room. We got a shuttle outside, but we don’t have much time. Ivan’s got orders to go to the secondary pick-up site. Manpower’s men will rendezvous with him. Let’s get to the shuttle and get back to Manpower. It’s getting dark. We need to go.”
“That should give Ivan some cover,” said Jimbo, surprised to find himself missing his little buddy.
***
Ivan left Mr. Tin Man and looked at his partner, Yogi, and smiled. He walked in his hot, sweaty robot suit and tried to look natural while passing other robots. The other robots all walked in formation, looking like they were military. The underground base reminded Ivan of an old American 2-D movie called Star Wars. The robots here acted like storm troopers but looked strange, almost funny. Their bodies were shiny, like an electrical appliance, but they had some kind of Asian flavor to them.
Looking at the wok-shaped silver heads, Ivan was convinced they’d work well for cooking chicken legs. If he could, he wanted to bring back a head and clean it out so that he’d have a nice frying pan. It could act as memorabilia and something useful. Something useful … now that was an old Russian concept. The new Russia, like the rest of the world, had become a cog in the wheel of Earth Command.
Earth Command had turned the masses into a boring, controlled lot. They lived in either Model A, B or C homes—that was unless, of course, you were military or government. Ivan knew he could never fit into an A, B or C model. None of his military friends could go back to that life. With the work he was doing, he could go back and settle down to a more normal life with Sonja. Once the job was done, they’d have enough military credits to get a non-attached home, a home maybe a hundred meters from another home. Less than 1 percent got to live like that, but there was a cost. Ivan looked at Yogi. “No Yogi, I will never forget the cost.”
Ivan stopped in a dark corner, took off his helmet, and pulled out his water canister. He drank, thinking of the cost of his job. “Yogi, I remember my friend.” Ivan thought back to the time he and his team were sent to an alien world, a place where he met a dying alien named Dael D’leihs. The alien gave Ivan a DNA cube containing his memory configured in a string of DNA. Ivan didn’t know it then, but the alien wanted to pass on his whole race’s knowledge. But the transfer wasn’t perfect.
It infected Ivan’s brain, giving him a dual personality; some would call it a multiple personality disorder. It created another person, the alien conscience—which in turn became “Yogi.” Ivan knew Yogi was real, and he had the alien’s knowledge in his head, but it was confusing. It was deep in his subconscious and bubbled up like a hot spring to sometimes make Ivan smarter, more aware than most realized. But there was one side effect of having multiple minds and alien knowledge. It made him appear bat-shit crazy. And since most folks thought Ivan was crazy before the DNA cube infection, well … that didn’t help with making new friends, outside of Ace and a few others.
“Yes, Yogi, we gonna look for our friends. We need to take care of them because we don’t have too many.”
***
Manpower and a group of his men huddled in a communication tent, preparing for the delivery of a nuke on GEN-6. But unbeknownst to them, a group of ten transformed Nomads controlled by a group of three alien robots had circled part of the temporary base camp.
The robots assembled up on a hill and silently communicated orders. The radioactive emissions give away Manpower’s location. A Boss wok-man robot looked at an internal scanning device and confirmed the nuke’s location at Manpower’s camp. It nodded to the other robots and the crazy, armed Nomads.
The Nomads spoke something unintelligible and ran down like a pack of rabid dogs toward a row of fuel trucks at the edge of the camp. They fired, exploding one of the three fuel trucks, which then triggered a second tank, and then the third.
Manpower ordered his men to return fire, and personally took out three Nomads. The soldiers quickly killed the Nomads, but in the confusion, two robots entered from the back of the communication tent. They opened fire, cutting down three soldiers with strange slicer bullets, their bodies shredded, blood splattering the tent.
Manpower grabbed a nearby heavy weapons gun and fired at the robots. The robots put several slugs into Manpower, but he didn’t stop until the robots fell down, broken to bits. Manpower stumbled as other soldiers arrived. He looked at the men. “Tell Archer to blow up this base! Use the thermo-nuke!”
Manpower’s eyes rolled back into his head and his body fell limp. The two young soldiers looked at the blood-splattered room and shook their heads.
The Beta-Ray landed an hour later. Ace, Kiya, and Jimbo exited first. Then eight of the remaining healthy scientists anxiously appeared out of the rear, the men wearing month-old beards and the women looking like they wanted hot showers. Ivan was missing from the crew. No one knew his whereabouts.
Marine Captain Savage said, “Captain Archer, you are now the officer in charge of the operation. Colonel Manpower is dead.”
“What happened?”
“We were ambushed, sir. They were going after the nuke.”
“Where’s Ivan? Did you get men out to Ivan’s rendezvous?”
“No, sir, he’s on his own. We lost too many and his LZ is swarming with robots.”
“Shit! We’ll go get him. I want you, my team, and the commanding officers assembled in five minutes.”
“Yes, sir.”
A few minutes later, Ace, Jimbo, Kiya, and three officers were standing around a table looking over a holo-map. Ace stared at an elevator shaft near the center of the city. “If we can drop the bomb there,” he said, pointing, “it should take out GEN-6 and destroy or entomb the underground Dream Land base on the north side.”
“That area’s too hot, sir. We’ll need the Aurora to take out enemy positions. There’s a slew of rob
ot’s in that area,” said Mahan.
“Ah, dammit,” said Ace, looking at the latest recon. “Flying in there, even with a remote drone, will be tough as nails. Looks like there’s lots of energy weapons. You’re right, we’ll need the Aurora.”
Jimbo nodded. “I took out a couple laser cannons, but they got something there that I couldn’t shut down.”
Savage spoke. “I guess you probably haven’t heard. There is no Aurora. The crazies pulled it down with some tractor beam. It burned in the atmosphere. It must be that device you’re talking about.”
All the faces were in shock. Mahan opened her mouth, her eyes starting to water. “But I was just on the line with them. They used the rail guns to take out that last position. What do you mean it was pulled down?”
Savage looked upset, too, but spoke unemotionally. “It looks like they got caught with some unknown weapon, and I know this sucks the big one, but Manpower’s orders were to blow GEN-6 and then stake out some territory. The GateStorm will get back to Earth and tell the Space Navy to send in reinforcements, or at least give us a ride home in four months. I’m really sorry, but we just lost Manpower and Captain Karr. It’s not a good day, sir …”
Ace tightened his tone. He spoke slow and intently, his anger showing through. “No it’s not, but we can all mourn later. We gotta kill these bastards. We gotta do it without Manpower and the support of the Aurora. Jimbo, you and I can fly the scout. We can get it in.”
“I’m going with you,” demanded Kiya. “I have information from an alien about the base’s weaknesses.”
Mahan cut in. “Sir, I’m the pilot of that DARPA shuttle. I should be flying, not either one of you.”
Ace shook his head. “I’m a Big Gun, and part of my training was in the DARPA X-Vulture squadron. Did two years off the coast of Africa, one during the War of City Pyong-Majung. We dropped a thermo at their WMD facility, right before the Chino-American conflict. I know how to fly a DARPA shuttle in combat. Plus, my Big Gun enhancements might come in handy. Sorry, I’m going with my Big Gun team, and there’s not enough room for two pilots. The decision’s made.”
