The Crane War

by Graeme Rodaughan

  Arthur pressed his lips together and declared, “These vampires are like the road toll. If we don’t kill them tonight, we are signing death warrants for close to a thousand people every week forever. No one else is here to stop them. No one else could stop them. It falls to us to stop the spread of this evil. To cut it off at the root before it grows beyond this airport. Whatever else you may have achieved in your lives before this night, it will pale into insignificance when compared with what must be done tonight.” He tapped his nightglasses and offered, “Now look at this.”

  Arthur’s hidden sensor array activated and a virtual tour of Arthur Slayne’s airport opened up before Justin’s eyes. The rest of the team murmured in the background as they watched the same feed.

  Arthur continued, “I’ve just activated the primary sensor array at the airport. The secondary array has already been hacked and shutdown by Crane’s forces. It was a ‘lizard’s tail,’ designed to distract their attention. They will quickly realize that a new sensor array is in operation, but without the quantum processors of the Panopticon they have no hope of breaching my own encryption tonight. We will have dominant situational awareness on the ground.”

  Views opened up onto the hangers’ interiors and the massed vampires within them. Baring praetorians, no one in the combined team had ever seen more than four or five vampires in one location. The Ramp masters fell silent as the enormity of what they faced struck home.

  “No one’s going to be short of a dance partner tonight,” Peter quipped quietly.

  No one laughed.

  “We go in two teams, two minutes apart,” Arthur instructed. “The first team has to be the Mirovar team, as they are expecting us and we will be on our motorcycles. The second team will be,” Arthur swung his finger around the Blake force team, “you guys. We’ll draw the first attack, and possibly the second. You’ll have situational awareness from your Order nightglasses. Be ready to intervene and meet us in warehouse number two. We’ll use that as an anvil they can kill themselves on. Once their numbers are well down. we’ll cut through the tunnels, pick up the SAMs, take out the shadowstars in a crossfire and get the hell out of Dodge before they call in reinforcements. Now this primary array is operational, download the maze map to your nightglasses. That way you’ll never get lost down there.”

  Justin nodded. He’d heard worse plans in his life. He was going to have to stake the survival of his team on Arthur’s ingenuity and do his best to carry out the plan. They had some advantages, the key being the Order nightglasses, and Arthur’s sensor network, but having great situational awareness might just be a box seat to the show of watching the Mirovar and Blake force teams get wiped out.

  A sliver of dread pushed into his gut. No one had fought so many vampires at once. It was unprecedented in the modern history of the Order or the Red Empire. He struggled to recall what he’d learned of medieval and ancient history, but the only thing that came back to him were lots of images of people getting impaled and he wasn’t sure if it was the Order or the vampires doing the impaling or the dying.

  His team were already supplementing the weapons of the Mirovar force team from their own spares. In less than a minute, the Mirovar team would be on the move, and less than two minutes later so would his own team.

  Sam slapped Justin’s shoulder and whispered so only he could hear, “It’s like any battle, consign your soul to the care of God, and do what you have to do to win.”

  Justin grinned wholeheartedly and whispered back, “Amen to that.”

  They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment, and then broke contact and looked away at the same time. Would any of them see the dawn? Justin glanced into the feeds flitting over his Order nightglasses like ghosts. The vampire count was above four hundred.

  How the hell were they going to kill so many? He frowned, the only answers he had were hard ones.

  Justin’s lips pressed together into a thin line as the Mirovar and Blake force teams swirled around him. His gut was telling him a basic truth; this mission was going to be a real shit storm.

  He trusted his instincts; they had always served him well.

  * * *

  The other surviving members of the Mirovar force team bustled around the backs of the SUVs, outfitting themselves with new weapons from the Blake force team’s abundant stocks.

  Jay approached Patrick Wichowski, pulled him aside and asked in a tight whisper, “You’re an Order Traveler. Have you got Truther?”

  Patrick stared at him for a moment, and then said, “Sure.”

  Jay tightened his grip on Patrick’s arm. “When we exfil, I need you to do a Truther inquisition.”

  “On who?”

  “That doesn’t matter for now.”

  Patrick nodded. “It’s your team.”

  “Thanks,” Jay replied, and let Patrick go.

  He’d get to the truth about Chiara one way or another. He owed Yvette, Juliette and Francis nothing less.

  * * *

  The command drone’s cabin was lit by multiple displays of the battle space lining the curved walls and ceiling of the cabin.

  Chloe would have preferred to come to grips with the Mirovar and Blake force teams face to face and blade to blade. However, such an outcome was momentarily denied her by Crane’s current tactics. However, tactics invariably changed as circumstances evolved - so, there was always hope.

  “Let these worthless vampires spring the trap,” Crane declared, staring at a display of cool gray blobs massed throughout the airport hangers. “This is why I favor having a small number of long-lived vampires and slow turn-over - stability. Look at these new vampires, imagine the chaos if they were suddenly let loose upon the world. Why would they imagine we would value something that can be created in five minutes?” he shook his head, “and now they are hot to fight the Order and they have no idea of what they face - unbelievable.”

  Chloe arched an eyebrow and stated, “I always begin with the premise that humans are irrational, it works for me.”

  Crane grinned in derisive agreement.

  The command shadowstar drone circled the airport at a height of two miles. It was flanked by the other three drones carrying the remaining twelve praetorians of Crane’s North American forces. The command drone’s sensor arrays blanketed the site. It networked with the other three shadowstar drones to produce a comprehensive view of the airport out to a radius of ten miles around it.

  Chloe studied the feeds and the disposition of forces. A red light started flashing in the middle of the admin building. Metadata scrolled through a window next to it. There was a second Order sensor array and it had just become active. She dialed James’s number. He picked up the call and she inquired, “Have you seen this new sensor array?”

  “Yes. Running penetration algorithms now.”

  “Have you got an estimate on how long it will take to bring it down?”

  “No,” James answered. He paused for a second. “It’s got a bitch of an encryption layer.”

  “Keep trying, we need it -”

  Crane interrupted and snapped. “Bring it down Haley. If need be, go in there and rip it apart.”

  There was a moment’s silence. James replied, “Yes, Sir. I’ll reposition the Osprey to the Administration building parking lot and access the array directly.”

  “Be quick about it,” Crane added. “When this battle starts, it will move fast. Now, take out their damn eyes.”

  “Understood, Sir. Firing up our engines now.”

  Chloe pursed her lips. James was her asset; it wasn’t for Crane to reach past her and order him about. But there was nothing she could do about it. The Osprey II drone and the chameleons would be closer to the action then she’d like, but behind the admin building would still keep them out of the direct line of fire.

  Crane asked, “Have the vampires been fully assigned to waves?”

  “Yes,” Chloe answered. Unlike James, she could get away with not saying ‘Sir.’ “First wave is thirty-seven, seco
nd wave is sixty-two, third wave is a hundred and sixty, and the fourth wave is two hundred and fifteen.”

  “Excellent,” Crane enthused, “The aim is to exhaust their weapons, get them to expend their silver rounds and deplete their capability to Ramp. Each wave will be bigger, until they fall. Then we swoop in and take back what is ours. Then we stand off and pound this site into rubble with hypersonic cruise missiles.”

  Chloe didn’t bother to answer. The silence stretched. The scopes displayed the Osprey II drone taking off and swinging low over the airport toward the parking lot behind the administration building.

  A set of six yellow markers appeared on the screens. Motorcycle riders were passing through the main entrance of the airport and riding in two files down the singular road into the airport. They would ride directly past the main carpark behind the admin building.

  Chloe remarked, “James, the Mirovar force team is entering the airport.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” he replied. “I’ve got them on my scopes now. Rising out of range of small arms and RPGs.” The Osprey II rose in the air. The metadata numbers beside the image on the screen rising rapidly as the craft climbed vertically under full power. The Mirovar force team rode past the administration building without slowing down and turned left as a group toward a trio of widely spaced warehouses on the western side of the airport.

  Crane declared, “Only the Mirovar force team is visible. Send in the first wave. Let’s see who we can draw out of hiding.”

  Chloe sent the command. The first wave of vampires would originate from a hanger almost eight hundred yards opposite the administration building. They would come upon the Ramp masters from their right rear flank. The hanger doors swung open. The thirty-seven vampires blurred from the building. It would take them a little under thirty seconds to cross the open space to engage the Mirovar force team.

  The battle was about to begin.

  * * *

  The deserted two-story administration building loomed on the right. Beyond it were a pair of runways and a number of hangers. On the left, three large, rectangular warehouses stood in a row to the north.

  The Mirovar force team followed Arthur past the administration building and into a left-hand turn toward the warehouses. Anton had joined the rest of them in stowing his motorcycle helmet on the back of his motorcycle. Having full visibility of his surroundings was more important than retaining the limited protection of a helmet. The whole airport was well lit with flood lights. The nearly full moon added to the illumination. Anton’s Order nightglasses rendered the available light into a world that was crisply delineated and sharply visible.

  Anton had joined Jay on rearguard duty at the back of the team. Jay rode to his left. On Anton’s right, a nearly north-south runway ran for a mile in parallel with the access road. A second, longer runway ran northwest to southeast. The northern and eastern runway legs were flanked by seven large hangers on the opposite side of the airport.

  Hangers that Arthur’s sensor array revealed were swarming with vampires.

  The team had rearmed themselves from the stores in Justin’s SUVs. Anton had picked up a now familiar H&K 416 assault rifle with a strap around his neck and shoulders. He wore a bandolier with six spare magazines of fifty-round caseless ammo, every second round was silver, the others were all lead hollow points designed to maximize damage against unarmored targets. He wore the Blue Dragon strapped over his back, the handle jutting up over his right shoulder.

  Even though Anton had his head on a swivel, Arthur saw them first. “Heads up, hostiles at five o’clock.”

  Anton looked over his right shoulder, there were thirty plus vampires blurring across the tarmac and grass between the hangers and the warehouses. Their origin Hanger was at least eight-hundred yards away. They were covering a hundred yards every three seconds. Watching them run toward the team was strangely disconcerting. The vampires seemed to be taking too long to close with the Mirovar force team. He was used to praetorians; they would already be shooting at him by now.

  He grinned; they were too far away to stop the team reaching the fortress-warehouse that Arthur had prepared. All they needed to do was accelerate to escape them.

  Arthur started slowing down. The riders in front of Anton began slowing as well and spreading out. Anton feathered his throttle to avoid running into the back of Li’s motorcycle.

  Anton’s head snapped to the left. There was a second posse of vampires twice as large as the first rushing across the airport toward the middle warehouse. They were going to cut them off.

  Arthur shouted, “Make for the warehouse. We have to cut through them. Follow me.” His bike leaped forward, racing away toward the second warehouse. The second group of vampires advanced, blurring to cut the Mirovar force team off.

  Anton twisted his throttle, his motorcycle’s engine roaring in response. The bike’s tires bit into the tarmac and he rushed forward after the others. Jay was in front of him and pushing further to the left. Anton was on the back-right corner of the team. He glanced behind him. Damn, the vampires were fast across open ground - any hint of slowness had vanished. They had already halved the distance between them to four hundred yards. One of the leading vampires pointed at Arthur and shouted something lost amongst the sharp thunder of the motorcycle engines.

  Anton’s heart sank. They must have seen the P-Case strapped to Arthur’s bike. He leaned forward, shifting gears, the bike accelerating to catch up to the team. But the rest of the team were already moving faster. They had drawn an easy twenty yards ahead of him.

  “What the hell?” Anton muttered. He was getting left behind.

  Arthur called out over the tactical link. “Justin, go now. We need you. Everyone else, keep them off me at the entrance to the warehouse so that I can get us in.”

  “We’re already on our way,” Justin replied.

  The two groups of vampires and the Mirovar force team were converging on a wide swathe of pale tarmac in front of the middle warehouse.

  Anton unslung his assault rifle and held it in his left hand, gunning his bike with his right hand. His grandfather’s voice came over the tactical link, “Save your ammunition, wait for them to get close.”

  The vampires were swarming in from two directions.

  “How close is close?” Peter quipped.

  “Last hundred yards.”

  Anton pursed his lips. A vampire could cross a hundred yards in less than three seconds. He scanned his Order nightglasses, tiny red dots were converging across his lenses. Vampires moving like high speed ghosts within his heads-up display. They would be within range in seconds.

  This shit was about to get real.

  * * *

  Chloe had already committed the second wave of sixty-two vampires to cut off the Mirovar force team before they reached whichever warehouse was their objective. It had to be one of the three western buildings. There was nothing else beyond the third warehouse except unkempt packed dirt and tough Nevadan weeds.

  The second wave of vampires were on course to intercept them before they reached the middle warehouse. However, the Mirovar team were accelerating - it would be a close thing as to who would arrive at the warehouse first.

  “There’s a second team on the move,” Crane snapped. “Two vehicles coming fast down the main entrance from the west.”

  Chloe glanced at the screens surrounding the cockpit. Multiple text messages from the coven leaders were running across the screen. “The Panopticon P-Case has been spotted. Arthur Slayne is with Mirovar.”

  “Kill the second team,” Crane ordered. “It’s Blake.”

  “Dropping Hoffman’s drone into range. We’ll use the 30mm cannon. The targets are too close to the Osprey,” Chloe said, sending a command to the nearest flanking drone. The craft immediately peeled away, diving down toward the airport.

  She glanced back at Crane. He looked hard at her and asserted, “Surely, the Blake force team is a bigger prize than Haley’s life.”

  Chloe couldn’t ri
sk either James or the chameleons. She’d invested too much time and effort in both assets. Together they were an edge she’d not willingly surrender. The Osprey II drone parked in the administration building parking lot was too close to the main entrance roadway and the approaching Blake force team to risk a cruise missile attack. However, she’d be damned if she was going to apologize for her tactical choices in the middle of a battle. She asked archly, “Do you want me to skin this cat or not?”

  Crane frowned, his gaze flicking back and forth between the displays and her face. “Do what you must before we run out of time.”

  She contacted the praetorian commanding the shadowstar drone. “Hoffman, targets have been designated. Fire at will.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” he replied.

  Chloe glanced at the screen displaying the two SUVs racing along the main road into the airport, and whispered, “Mr. Blake. Welcome to hell.”

  * * *

  Arthur screamed over the broadcast link, “Get out, Justin! Get out now!”

  Justin’s Order nightglasses had picked up the descending shadowstar drone. Now it hovered a mile above the airport in the sweet spot to use its 30mm cannon against a ground vehicle. He shouted to his team, “Blur.”

  He ramped hard, pushing explosively against the front passenger side door. It spun away in a squeal of tearing metal, flying into the night. He followed it as fast as he could.

  Light flashed a yard in front of the Chevy Suburban. The tarmac vaporizing under the hellish blows of 30mm cannon fire. The storm of metal reached the front of the car, evaporating it with a thunderous roar.

  Justin’s boots hit the ground and he accelerated away. To his right, Patrick and Max were at most a yard behind him. He glanced back. The storm of fire ripped through the SUV’s cabin. The Chevy fell apart, two smoking halves falling left and right. The fuel tank exploded with a whip crack, a plume of flame and smoke rising into the night sky.