by Paul Phipps
“Very good then.” Mitchell stood up and shook hands with Finn and escorted him from the office.
On the Susannah, Snowball was reviewing the audio-visual of the meeting between the two men. With a slight grin she passed it on to Captain Fuller with the comment that phase one of the retrieval of the Master was now initiated.
Monday, April 5, 2027
Admiral’s Staff Meeting.
“Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen. As we had hoped, the last two weeks have been reasonably quiet with no unanticipated events occurring. This week however is going to be climactic in several ways. Our Intelligence indicates that the IUR military forces are now in position to attack the Companion and attempt to destroy or at least damage her.
The rescue attempt for the Master is in its final phase of training and is going to occur at the same time as the attack on the Companion. The Quarn-Slaves worldwide are converging on Indonesia. This is being done under the cover of four different International conferences scheduled for this week.
We have not been in communication with the Quarn Mother since Command Chief Cavendish’s final meeting with her avatar. We have also backed off from our anti-piracy patrols. However Captain Fuller’s people have managed to get local police forces to stop two different shipments of Children to her and there was no hint of the TSN being involved whatsoever. So many Kudos to Captain Fuller and his Intelligence teams!” A wave of hand clapping ensued and Captain Fuller graciously accepted the compliments.
“Now then let’s get on with your reports. Commodore, you’re up.”
“Thank you sir, as of today there are five hundred and ten thousand full members of the TSN and an additional three hundred and seventeen thousand four year members. Of these numbers nearly half are still in basic training or in advanced training. Our Marine forces as expected are the ones most lagging behind as there are now ten thousand two hundred and thirty two Marines available for duty. Nearly a third of those are in an advanced program or assigned to duties that preclude them from being in the active fighting battalions.
Recruiting as expected is also declining sharply as we appear to have tapped out the well of qualified TSN candidates who are also interested in the TSN as a career.
Now on to our current forces, we instituted a complete person by person examination for the Zombie Drug influence. The results were not pretty, nearly one tenth of all TSN members were under the Zombie Drug influence. Interestingly though it appears that influence goes back to American second Civil War and to those unfortunate to be incarcerated in the FEMA camps. All of those affected were transferred to the M1 moon base and are either in the program to develop safe methods of removing the Zombie Drug influence or are waiting for those methods to be developed by doing necessary work in the various fabricating shops.” Ansel concluded.
“Thank you Commodore, Captain Johansson?”
“Good morning Admiral, all TSN Oil production, garbage and reclamation are functioning at or near peak performance, our cash influx is nicely balancing our cash outlays so we are not adversely affecting the world economy at this time.
Next up, our advanced flight schools are now in their second week of operation. I’m pleased so far at their efforts and we should see our first graduates in another three weeks. The major sticking point is the requirement for Interstellar and Inter-dimensional jump training and the practical exams required. Since we only have records of such jumps and no actual experience doing so, our instructors and A.I.’s are justifiably cautious in performing them.”
“I understand that, but it is necessary for our Evacuation and Colonization efforts.” Admiral Webster remarked.
“Yes Sir, we all realize that. It’s the doing that is going to be a bit touchy to begin off with. We’ll do the best we can until we get that Stargate concept working. That will help out tremendously especially in the inter-dimensional jump role.”
“Any Idea when they might be functional Captain.” Asked Ansel.
“No Sir. It could be a month or it could be several years or more. The concept is an old one and the math says it’s quite doable. The problem is that the Gho’ L’Gamesh’s records don’t show that it was ever done. So that means we are creating that technology from scratch instead of having a guiding hand as usual.
Next up the second and final Redhawk was delivered to Edwards Air Force Base. The tooling that was developed for their construction will be delivered to the U.S. Fabrication facility next month. They are going to be surprised I believe when we make similar deliveries to our other allies in the coming months.” He said with a smile.
“Thank you Gunnar, keep up the good work. Captain Thomas?” Admiral Webster said.
“Good Morning Admiral, Our gene collection project is moving along quite well. Well that is, the clandestine side of it. The official side that is being directed by the Ecologic Institute is moving very slowly. There appears to be a lot of political dealings involved. So that means that we just bypass all of that and use our stealth technology to gather up the samples we do need. I expect that Ark #3 will be ready to move to the Heliopause in two months and Ark #4 will be ready shortly thereafter. Ark #1 and Ark #2 are still being used as showcases for the Institutes efforts.
Moving on now to the Fukushima TEPCO reactor site, we are doing quite well there and our recovery efforts of the radioactive materials is at 82%. The Japanese are going to be a bit surprised though. The amount of material we have removed so far has dropped the surface level nearly eleven feet in comparison to the surrounding terrain. There has turned out to be a quite significant amount of contaminated material. Estimated completion date is now April twenty-second.
Operations of the Comfort and her carried vessels are at similar levels to my last report. The Elizabeth Rich has no new data on the Quarn Slaves or the Zombie Drug. They are still plugging along. They do report that the Mass mind on the former Observation deck has apparently died though. There had been enough animal protein supplied and that was being readily assimilated by the Quarn. The on-going theory is that the Mass mind unit just ran out of Life Force. Visually it resembles the remains that were discovered by the Gho’ L’Gamesh on the various earth analogues that the Quarn had totally absorbed and had died off.
She paused to wait for questions and when none came she handed off the brief to Commander Fuller.
“Good morning Admiral, the Companion is at 100% readiness. All weapon systems and power reactors have been tested and are now on a full readiness rotating schedule. We have through our communication intercepts and in-situ ‘bugs’ obtained a good understanding of the IUR’s attack plan. The only thing that isn’t fixed at the moment is the T-0. The local General commanding the IUR forces has been told that he will be notified of the time as it is to be coordinated with a separate event for maximum effectiveness.
Unless circumstances change the only flying assets we will deploy are assigned the task of shooting down any missiles launched from the Peshawar missile base that are carrying the Shaitan’s Breath Bio-weapon.
Unless directed otherwise our goal in the upcoming engagement is to destroy material with a minimal loss of life. This has the downside of allowing the Companion to be more vulnerable than usual as we will be dropping our defensive shields. The upside is that once we are done the IUR military will be a hollow shell for years to come.”
“Thank you Commander, Colonel Cottrell how are the Marines doing?”
“We’re doing great Admiral, under the latest plan though we are just bystanders unless circumstances change radically once the Master gets Evac’ed to Indonesia. We have several contingency plans made up and have been practiced by the troops in simulation so there will be some familiarity in what is to be done by them.
The only unit that is scheduled to do something actively is Capt. Tufuga’s. He has transshipped his company over to the Marine Attack Transport Inchon, his company has been detailed to capture the Quarn-Slave Imam Al-Quds once the Companion and her forces have stopped the scheduled attac
k on her. According to TSN Intelligence, the Imam is scheduled to be the sole Quarn-Slave left in the IUR once the Master and the others have left on the Redhawk.”
“So you will be watching alongside the rest of us, eh?” Ansel said with a smile.
“Yes Sir, watching and hoping that we can do something to end this little nightmare the Quarn have arranged for us.” The Colonel said soberly.
“If we do get to do something, I know you and your people will be ready Colonel.” Admiral Webster said approvingly. “And now Captain Fuller, what riches do you bring us from the depths?”
“Good Morning Admiral Webster. Hmmm, riches you say?, The Captain said musingly, “Well I do have a few nuggets anyway. Let me reach into my basket here and start pulling some out.
First off then, The Master is now at a residence near the airstrip planned for the Redhawk evacuation attempt. He has six Quarn-Slaves in attendance with him and we are assuming that the rest of his people are all under the influence of the Zombie drug. It appears that only his three personal bodyguards and the Quarn-Slaves are to go with him and the remaining staff will stay in the IUR. His associates have also brought with them four vials of the ‘Shaitan’s Breath’ Bio Weapon.
With those in addition to the two bio-warheads that are to be launched from the Peshawar site into the upper atmosphere over South east Asia and Europe accounts for all of the known remaining stocks of ‘Shaitan’s Breath’. Fortunately for us and unfortunately for them we have used our sterilizer weapon on the spores and believe them to be as dead as a doornail at this time. In any case we should still treat them as live and as a threat no matter what, until proven otherwise.” He said sweeping his eyes across the room.
Now then, the Imam Al-Quds will be remaining in Tehran and is pulling every string he can to coordinate the attack on the Companion with the scheduled arrival of the Redhawk. As of this time that is scheduled to occur 0630 Tehran Time. The sun should be directly in the eyes of the Companion and that is hoped will provide some assistance to the IUR forces attacking her. The Redhawk should land about 0645L and with a quick refueling of distilled water along with embarking her passengers should find them back in the air by 0715L
Any questions?” After a few moments Captain Fuller continued.
Moving on then, we are watching and coordinating our efforts on all kidnapping attempts. If anything is reported, no matter how short a time the child has been missing, we are on it. Mostly as a background support to the local police forces for now, we are deploying our IGD’s and using our ‘sniffer’ technology have done very well so far in finding the children before any harm comes to them.”
“Excuse me Captain, ‘Sniffer’ Technology?” Colonel Cottrell asked curiously.
“Well yes, that’s what we call it, we get a sample of the child’s smell from any clothing that is available and then we ‘sniff’ for it, just like a bloodhound in many ways. We also provide portable units that do the same thing to any police department requesting them. It’s a good public relations thing too. As it becomes more and more talked about in the media we expect kidnappings of any sorts to drop to inconsequential numbers.” Captain Fuller said confidently.
“I see, excellent! I can think of a few battlefield uses for that too.” the Colonel said musingly.
“In any case the numbers of children that are being kidnapped for the purpose of feeding the Mother Quarn are going to keep on being reduced. I’m sure she will counter in a different way but for now this appears to be a good stride in the right direction.
Very well then, Indonesia…” Captain Fuller said quellingly. “A very tough nut to crack, The Mother’s influence is now total over that nation; she also influences Malaysia and Singapore. The really bad news is that there are NO children left alive on the main island now. And the population of human adults is now decreasing too. From data and communication intercepts we believe that this is not deliberate on her part, her biology is such that she MUST ‘consume’ life force, in this case human life force in steadily increasing quantities. Unless she and her children are stopped there will be no Humans alive on Earth E15714 within twenty-five years.”
With that statement the participants at the staff meeting were left momentarily speechless.
“You’re positive about that, Albert.” Admiral Webster asked.
“No, not positive Admiral, that’s actually a median number. The A.I.’s assisting my Intelligence section are more optimistic at thirty-five years and my human staff members vary between fifteen and twenty years. The differences are explained by the supposition of human panic reactions and the death and destruction that accompany that. The A.I.’s believe that the human populations will be more orderly especially if total Media control of information is achieved.”
“Thank you for the clarification, please continue.”
“Yes Sir, as I have briefed before there are no less than four major international conferences occurring in Indonesia this week and next. These conferences have been in the planning and development phase for several years now so moving them wasn’t an option. Well it appears that it was less an option than I thought now that we are monitoring the participants. The participants are, to be blunt, the political leadership, political advisors and the “power behind the throne” types of the various nations and international bodies that rule or help make the laws and rules for the rest of the worldwide civilian population. The Mother wasn’t exaggerating in the least, if you count political power, the Quarn already control this planet.
As an aside there are NO TSN vessels within five hundred miles of Indonesia and that includes orbital assets too. We have no IGD’s there either. What we do have is something that was initially developed by the United States, China and France. We have a bug swarm, literally millions of cybernetic insects and their ‘mother’ units have been released on the area. The bugs look like ants, butterflies, dragon flies or even cockroaches. The ‘Mother’ units appear to be birds or snakes for the most part. Individually each one can’t do very much but put them all together and we have the entire area wired for sight, sound and even smell.
That bug swarm has allowed us to keep track of all of the participants to these four conferences. One of the things that is very evident is that there are so many Quarn-slaves present that even the human nose can smell the combined exudate they release. Because of that we believe that every Quarn-Slave in the world that can possibly get there is going to be in Indonesia this week.
Now then the important information that has been acquired is this; The Master is going to fly into the local airport on Weh Island on Wednesday on the Redhawk. I’m not sure what will happen immediately after that. BUT on Friday there is supposed to be the ‘Ceremony of Joining’ between him and the Mother. What that’s supposed to accomplish I have no idea. But it’s going to be a BIG DEAL! All, that is EVERY SINGLE ONE of the Quarn-Slaves is going to be in or as close to the Mother’s lair as they can be.
Theories in my shop are totally varied between a telepathic conference that will set up their roles for the upcoming conquest of this planet to a marriage between the Master and the Mother. We just don’t know… and we are going to have to be on our toes to deal with whatever comes out of it.” Captain Fuller concluded.
“Thank you Captain,” Admiral Webster said gravely, “your people are doing great work and we all appreciate what they do.”
“Thank you sir, I’ll be sure to pass that on to them.”
“There’s not much more to be said.” Admiral Webster then said to his staff. “We all know what we are supposed to be doing so let’s get to it. Dismissed”
Wednesday, April 7, 2027
Redhawk #1
The Redhawk was skipping across the upper reaches of the Atmosphere heading for the target airstrip in the blockaded Iranian Unified Republic. The skipping profile was designed to be the most fuel efficient as well as the stealthiest. At the moment they had just passed beyond the territorial waters claimed by the United States and were now over th
e Atlantic Ocean. Their current ETA was 0642 Tehran Time, Only three minutes later than the original time specified in their mission profile.
“Colonel Mitchell, we are now ‘feet wet’ sir. Two hours and seventeen minutes to touchdown.” Lt. Colonel Finn told his sole passenger.
He had been surprised and dismayed when the unit’s Executive officer had boarded the Redhawk and buckled himself into the passenger bay. The Redhawk’s design was such that it could carry several mission specific modules from Weapons to cargo or passengers. That design philosophy also meant that the Crew compartment was totally separate from the mission module. And as Lt. Colonel Mitchell thought smugly to himself, ‘It also kept the Flight crew from knowing who their passengers were. And what they didn’t know, they couldn’t talk about.’
* * *
Earlier that morning:
“Master, the Redhawk will be at your extraction point in six hours and twenty minutes.” The Lt. Colonel’s voice was heard over the heavily encrypted Satellite Phone connection.
