Die Glocke

by M C Drake

  Reports were flooding into the command tower at Wright Patterson, a technician turned to Atlantis,

  "Sir a joint force of British and Chinese armor is attacking North of Washington. It looks like they might be trying to encircle the capital.”

  Atlantis laughed, "Looks like they aren't taking my warning seriously! "He stroked his mustache as he chuckled. "Ok, we only have to hold them for the next couple of days. Send in the men, I know they are itching for a fight."

  The technician saluted.

  “One more thing.” Atlantis powerful voice projected, “Launch the missiles.”

  “Sir” the technician turned to the console and initiated the launch sequence, “What are the target coordinates?”

  Atlantis smiled, “Hit all of the major cities at once.”

  It only took a few seconds for the target information to feed its way through the computers, finally, the button on the center console illuminated, it flashed a violent red. Atlantis strode forwards and pressed it without flinching.

  Outside the window, the missile's engines ignited and the rockets reached skyward with frightening speed. It took less than thirty seconds for the missiles to break through the lower atmosphere as they raced across the earth.

  The first sign of trouble came too late as one of the destroyer crews noticed streaks across the sky, it looked like hundreds of them. Admiral Moorer was alerted and he managed to raise the alarm back at Drakelow depot but it was too late.

  The first missile dropped over Cardiff it got to two thousand feet above the bustling city before it detonated. The explosion caused shockwaves loud enough to scare the local population into coming outside and looking into the sky.

  A vapor cloud several miles long drifted lazily in the afternoon sky, it mixed in with the spattering of clouds and turned them a bloodcurdling red. Slowly the red mist descended, birds fell from the sky and bubbled in a sticky mess where they landed.

  People in the city still were not sure what was happening, a local family who had rushed out of their two-bedroom town flat were still peering skywards when the first drops hit them. The youngest sister was only four and she looked at her hand in amazement as it turned a beautiful mercury color.

  “Look mum, I love this type of rain, it’s pretty.”

  “Yes darling!” the mum replied without even looking.

  One of the drops fell into her eye, it burned horribly and she cursed under her breath.

  The mist had fallen continually for a couple of minutes and people were starting to feel the effects. The middle-aged mum threw up over the sidewalk. The contents were a dark brown.

  “Shit honey, that doesn’t look good.”

  An off-duty ambulance worker trotted over to have a look, "We need to get you to the hospital miss!" she said after taking one look at the vomit.

  The ambulance worker reached out to help the mum over to their car but a horrible pain shot through her arm, she looked at her arm and in horror realized it was turning purple. She turned her it over and over and she screamed as it went from purple to black in an instant.

  The mum tried to help and she reached out and gripped the paramedic's wrist; it instantly turned into a turgid tar-like substance in her hand, she reeled away in terror.

  The paramedic stumbled as she let out a black stream of vomit that covered the mum’s chest, the paramedic looked down and realized that she was somehow sinking into the pavement; her legs were melting away in front of her eyes. She tried to scream but her mouth was full of a sickly black goo.

  All around the streets, people were melting away until just a terrible black sludge remained. The mum remembered one last thing, the image of her child vanishing before her eyes before the world around her changed into a violet red and then nothing.

  Atlantis watched with pleasure as his missiles successful hit all the major cities in the United Kingdom and China. The screens in front of him showed live satellite images of London and Edinburgh. The cities were deserted but on closer inspection piles of tar were evident on every street, in every abandoned car, and in nearly every house.

  The situation room in Drakelow did not know how bad the attack was but as they desperately tried to contact London the feeling of dread grew as they could not get an answer.

  Admiral Moorer knew they had to press home the attack, there was nothing to hold them back now as Atlantis had already fired his trump card. The Admiral ordered in a mass air strike as soon as was feasibly possible.

  Operation Freedom

  The Chinese and British tanks kept advancing until they came to a huge open expanse of dried out fields. The commanders left their vehicles as they peered through their binoculars.

  “Bloody hell.” The British commander Thomas Speering cried. The commander was fifty-eight and had fought in the second world war in his favorite tank, the Cromwell but he had never seen anything like what was sat before his very eyes.

  At the far end of the flat plain were rows upon rows of glistening tanks, most of them were either Tiger I or Panther tanks but every fifteenth tank was the monstrous Maus. The gigantic tanks turrets moved to lock onto their new targets.

  “Battle stations!” Speering yelled as he jumped back into his tank. His Chinese counterparts had already begun the attack.

  “Commander Xiu, will you rein your men back in, we need a coordinated assault on the Tiger I's, repeat ignore the Maus.”

  The commander received a message that he could not understand, “God damn it.” He said as he got on the radio “This is commander Speering of the 4th armored division. We have encountered a massive column of enemy armor, we are requested air support to grid reference 47, repeat reference 47.”

  There was a long pause, “Roger that commander, don’t you worry Admiral Moorer has a surprise in store.”

  The Chinese light tanks spread out and fired rapidly on the move but at the longer ranges, their shells were mostly ineffective. The Tigers were in their element though and fired from a stationary position. The powerful plasma rounds cut through the Chinese armor effortlessly.

  Commander Speering’s tanks had not advanced yet and he had successfully reined in the remaining Chinese light tanks, whose division had suffered heavy losses. Plasma rounds crisscrossed the area.

  The Vickers main battle tanks returned fire as best they could but their guns were unlikely to do much damage at the range they were fighting at.

  They Aryan forces had not advanced either, they kept up a horrifying rate of fire that the British troops could not hope to contend with.

  “Commander Speering, this is Commander Paul of the 5th Army.”

  “Good to hear you voice Paul; we are in some shit here. I have never seen so many tanks on a single battlefield before.”

  Paul laughed, “So I hear, we are cutting up from Baltimore to assist from the South. Try to keep their attention for as long as you can. We are setting up as much artillery as we can get our hands on.”

  "Roger that Paul, we will do our best. Godspeed."

  The skies had cleared in the early afternoon and Speering could just make out a rumbling sound in the distance. It was hard to hear over the constant noise of the battle but it was definitely there.

  “Commander Speering, confirm where your forces are?” A strange voice radioed through.

  "Identify yourself!" Speering replied.

  “This is Admiral Moorer, now commander please confirm your position.”

  “Yes Sir, we are on grid reference 48, extremely close to 47.”

  “Roger that Commander, Do not advance into 47, repeat do not advance into 47.”

  “Roger that Sir.” Speering knew what that meant; he could barely contain his excitement.

  The rumbling grew louder as masses of small black dots appeared on the horizon. They grew ever larger as they came closer. Vapor trails could be seen from the massive B52 bombers who must have been least forty thousand feet up.

  Speering’s crews let out a cheer as they watched the bombers fly overhead.<
br />
  The massive cargo bay doors on the bombers opened and tons of ordinance tumbled from the sky. The ground began to shake as the bombs hit; huge explosions rocked the area sending balls of fire and black smoke into the air.

  The B52’s kept coming in waves as the huge bombers exacted revenge for their fallen friends. The ground shook violently as if it was about to cave in under the pressure of a massive earthquake.

  A streak of plasma smashed into the side of a B52, it impacted just above the right wing and completely severed it. The helpless bomber tumbled from the sky, black smoke trailed from the open wound.

  The air filled with purple orbs that raced towards the mass of bombers. This time though the B52's did not split, they pressed home their attack. The superheated orbs smashed through the lightly armored bombers; planes started to fall from the sky.

  The ME 262's swooped in; they smelt blood as the easy prey was unprotected. The lead ME 262 opened up with his plasma cannon and the purple rounds streamed forwards like a swarm of angry hornets. The rounds hosed over the tail of a B52 which just disintegrated under the fire.

  The Aryan fighters plowed into the formation which still did not split, one 262 got too close to his prey and narrowly avoided colliding into its side, the pilot pulled the control stick as hard as he could and managed to spin away with only minor damage to the wing of his aircraft.

  The bombs continued to fall and a group of Panther medium tanks was completely destroyed, they disappeared in a cloud of black and purple smoke which dissipated quickly to reveal the smoldering hulls.

  B52’s were falling from the sky at an alarming rate now as the agile ME 262’s scored easy kills. Silver jets streaked in low over the heads of Speering’s tanks. The jets rolled and then pulled up vertically.

  A garbled Russian voice came over the radio but nobody could understand it. A B52 crew tried desperately to shake the enemy fighter from their tail but the rear gunner was killed by the burning plasma and smoke billowed from the damaged area.

  Suddenly the ME 262 disengaged from the bomber and rolled once as it tried to avoid a hail of bullets from below; It was too late though as the rounds tore through the wing and sent the engine into a massive explosion that looked like a miniature sun.

  The B52 pilot look around to see what had happened when he caught a glimpse of five Mig 21’s bursting into the battle, their cannons were blazing. The B52 crews never thought they would be so glad to see a Soviet fighter.

  Resource

  Atlantis stood in the center of the control tower with his arms folded; he rested his tall frame on one of the control consoles as he studied the situation maps. The allied forces had advanced quite far from their beachheads and were heading towards Baltimore.

  The large 1st Panzer army had stopped them in the large expanse of fields before they got too far. The army was made up of over three hundred tanks and was supported by two thousand infantry.

  The allied forces were outnumbered. Atlantis was pleased.

  On the Eastern battlefront, the Allies were struggling to maintain a beachhead, Atlantis had ordered in the heavy artillery so that they could be beaten back into the sea as quickly as possible.

  Finally, Atlantis turned to the large windows behind him; he strode over to survey the resource operation.

  "I want the gathering to be stepped up. Work the slaves to death. We need to get as many resources through the portal as possible."

  The Aryan officer in the room saluted and then radioed through the orders. Immediately the men below got to work. All available slaves were rounded up and ferried out from the base. They were to collect as many materials as they could carry. Anyone who was deemed too weary to get into the Lorries was shot on the spot.

  A ghostly blue glow periodically punctured the air as Die Glocke transported the precious materials through the gateway. The light could be seen from miles away.

  The base looked like a ants nest with activity going on in all sectors, the medical staff was ordered to turn as many of the population into living batteries as they could manage. Any person who was deemed not of the correct physiological standard was to be executed immediately.

  Vehicles crisscrossed the tarmac as they transported the resources into the conveyor belt next to the large golden acorn. A large group of Aryan soldiers then quickly inspected each package and once they were satisfied they sent it through the portal.

  Chinese Blue

  A squadron of Xian H-6 bombers flew in above the low cloud cover across the San Francisco Bay. The Chinese heavy bombers were loaded with high explosive bombs. They were being called in to assist the beleaguered ground forces that were in danger of being overrun and losing the beachhead.

  The ground troops were being cut to shreds by the 11th Panzer division which was mainly made up of the Maus super heavy tank. These tanks were supported by mobile infantry that held key positions across the city.

  The 3rd Army had so far been unable to break out and as the day drew on they were close to collapse.

  A small formation of Patton medium tanks was holding back an entire flank but their numbers were steadily diminishing.

  "Where is that goddamn air support? We are getting our asses kicked out here." Commander William Leete bellowed through the radio. He looked to his men and told them to lay down as much suppressing fire as they could muster.

  The Browning machine guns on the tanks' turrets spewed another six hundred rounds at the advancing Aryan soldiers; the few that were caught in the open were cut down quickly but there seemed to be no end to their numbers.

  The rumble of engines could be heard from somewhere above them and then the distinctive whistle of bombs falling could be heard above the whine of plasma fire. The bombs hit their targets and explosions rippled through the area.

  The first Patton tank to be hit went up in a plume of grey smoke, the infantry supporting the tanks were killed instantly whereas a few men that were slightly further back we burned to death.

  The bombs continued to fall and all around him, Commander Leete could hear the screams of his dying men.

  “Hold your fire god damn it, blue on blue in sector 62, repeat hold your bombing runs blue on blue in sector 62.” But it was too late the Chinese bombers overhead had been disorientated by the low cloud and were sure they were on target.

  By the time the chain of command had got the message through to them the destruction they had caused was terminal.

  William Leete had taken shelter in his Patton tank when the bombing had begun; he lay there for a good few minutes after the bombing run had finished. He finally plucked up the courage and opened up the cupola to survey the damage, his bald head peering gingerly over the top.

  What he saw sickened him to the pit of his stomach, the charred remains of his men lay scattered around the area. Houses had collapsed and crushed some of his support staff, a burnt limb pointed out from the rubble.

  Burning tanks were smoking where they lay, the men inside had been cooked alive. Leete sunk back into his tank and got onto the radio. He tried to signal any survivors but the frequency was dead.

  The flank was now undefended so Leete slowly moved his tank back through the devastated buildings towards the fallback position near the docks. Leete fully expected the enemy to be pursuing him but no fire came in his direction.

  "Maybe they were taken out by the bombers as well," Leete said to himself, he thanked the lord for that small saving grace.

  A technician turned to Atlantis, “Commander the 1st Panzer army is requesting Kugelblitz support. They believe the enemy has changed tactics and the huge waves of bombers are causing problems for our ground forces."

  “What about the 262’s?” Atlantis growled.

  “They are being engaged by fighter escorts sir, a lot of them. They are Mig 21 and Mig 19’s and they are proving themselves to be flown by skilled pilots in close quarter battles.”

  Atlantis smiled, "Ok permission granted for five Kugelblitz divisions to be sent to the Wester
n front."

  The room went quiet, “Five sir?”

  “Yes lieutenant lets inflict such great losses that they will not be able to mount another assault.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  Atlantis watched the situation map change in the East, his units were pushing hard.

  “Lieutenant order the 3rd Panzer army to withdraw from San Francisco.”

  “But Sir they have nearly crushed the scum.”

  “Just do it.” The commander barked.

  “Sir!”

  Atlantis had something special in mind for the American Pacific fleet. "Send three Kugelblitz divisions to the East. I want the Chinese air force destroyed. Those vermin do not deserve such technology."

  “Yes Sir, that will leave us dangerously light of anti aircraft divisions here.”

  “I am well aware of that Lieutenant but we have one division in reserve and keep the 1st air force on standby. But I doubt we will need them.”

  The Aryan commander was impressed that the vermin that inhabited this planet could work together so quickly and effectively. Although he only needed another twenty-eight hours to gather the remaining resources; Atlantis had decided he was going to teach these scum a lesson that they would not forget.

  ‘Then they will fear me and when the time comes for me to return and finish the job they will not dare oppose me!’ he thought to himself and then let a sickening laugh escape his normally calm demeanor.

  Serum

  Brooklyn Jnr had just received the green light to land at an abandoned airfield barely five hundred miles north of Dayton. The talented pilot eased the heavy Phantom down onto the dust-covered runway and powered down as he gently taxied to the refueling area.

  The airfield had been swept by paratroopers several hours early and had been reinforced by chinooks dropping over a small division of Chinese type 62 light tanks. The airfield had been abandoned several weeks earlier.