Winds of War

by Dennis Morrow

  The general examined the weapon. “So this is standard issue for the aliens?”

  “Yes,” Jeremy confirmed. “Like Steve said, we’ll be outgunned.”

  ~~~

  “You gave them the weapon and the ammo,” Steve said. “What were you thinking?”

  “They needed to see what they’re up against,” Matt said. “And he needed something solid to go to the president with. We need to have their full attention as the war starts or there will be major loss of life. Besides, I made a copy for myself. I still have ammo and a weapon in my knapsack.”

  “Well, upward of two battalions have already been lost if General Small and the marines at Miramar have been wiped out,” Caroline said.

  “Two battalions?” Jesse asked.

  “As many as two thousand soldiers,” Caroline said quietly. “Haven wants to know what’s happening.”

  “Tell her everything,” Jesse said. “If she’s going to tag along, she needs to know.”

  Caroline signed an explanation to Haven, and when she told her about the soldiers dying, Haven began to cry. Jesse put her arm around her.

  Matt laid three small boxes on the floor of the barrack. He laid the weapon on the floor next to the boxes and made copies for all of the team members. Then he separated the yellow, blue, and red boxes and made enough copies so that each team member had ten of each color. “This should keep us safe for now,” he said. “In the morning, we’ll see what the decision is.”

  “Can you copy the weapons and ammo for the troops?” Caroline asked.

  “Of course,” Matt said.

  “We need leverage,” Steve added. He looked at Caroline and Jack. “You know as well as we do that they won’t give us free rein. To them, we’re ‘just’ teenagers. They have no idea what they’re about to face and how we can help.”

  “But we have to get the weapons into their hands right away,” Jack said. “It takes time to distribute and train on them. Tomorrow is Saturday. If the war is to start on Wednesday, that gives us only four days to get the weapons in the hands of our troops.”

  “We need to get some sleep,” Jeremy said. “Tomorrow will be a busy day.”

  Chapter 20

  Pirate’s Cove

  They’re not going to listen to us, Jesse thought as she walked outside of the barrack. Like Steve said, we’re teenagers. Steve was pretty animated this morning. He’s a risk-taker. Jesse was surprised that Caroline almost agreed with him. I’m not so sure we should go it alone. And Matt, he wants us all to have the new weapons strapped over our shoulders, just to make a point.

  “You’re thinking again,” Jeremy said as he punched Jesse lightly on the shoulder. “What’s on your mind?”

  “What do you think of Steve’s idea?” Jesse asked.

  “We both know he’s a hothead, but this time he might be right,” Jeremy said as the rest of the team came out of the barrack.

  “That’s a new one,” Steve said with a big smile. “So this time I might be right.”

  “Bathe in the sunshine of approval, buddy,” Matt said. “It doesn’t come your way often.”

  Ten minutes later, they were standing in front of the general with the new weapons strapped to their backs.

  “I’ve been relieved of duty,” General Wisecoff said. “Apparently my impassioned plea for your request cast a dark shadow over my psychological stability. I’m being replaced by tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I’ve been ordered to escort the Alpha-6 team off the base and strip you of all weapons.”

  “General,” Caroline began.

  “No, Captain Strong!” The general put up his hand to stop her from talking. He looked a little devious. “You’ll be escorted off the base at nineteen hundred hours. You will leave all weapons behind. In the meantime, carry on with your normal duties.”

  Caroline started to say something, but the general put up his hand to stop her.

  “Dismissed!”

  As they left the office, a colonel followed close behind.

  “That was strange,” Jack said quietly as they walked away.

  They heard a voice from behind. “I’m Colonel Smith. The general has asked me to help you before you leave tonight.” Of average height and weight and in his late forties, Smith walked and talked like a guy with high energy waiting to explode. “He suspects you’ll be needing supplies for your journeys. He also expects you might decide to leave before nineteen hundred hours, so he’s asked me to help you with anything you need. What can I do for you?”

  “We had a feeling he couldn’t support our request,” Caroline said, “but we didn’t mean for him to lose his command.”

  “Once another general sees what he has seen, he’ll be vindicated,” Colonel Smith said. “He’s not worried. What do you need?”

  “We have two objectives today,” Matt said. “First, we need to get the Osprey fueled and supplied. We need all weapon systems loaded and ready, as well as food and medical supplies on board.”

  “And second?” the colonel asked.

  “I need to supply you with weapons, lots of weapons,” Matt said. “It’ll take most of the day. I’ll need your complete logistics crew here as soon as possible.”

  “Done.” The colonel left and was back in two minutes. “You work with Master Sergeant Barr. I’ll go with the others to prepare the V-22.”

  “Okay, here’s the plan,” Matt began. “I need you to build two wooden crates, one for ammo and one for weapons.”

  Matt took his weapon from over his shoulder and laid it on the ground in front of the twenty or so airmen waiting to help. He made a copy, and two weapons lay on the ground. The airmen gasped. He copied again, and there were four. The airmen started to clap and cheer. He copied again, and there were eight. Once there were thirty-two, he stopped.

  “I need you to create a wooden crate to hold an appropriate number of these weapons,” Matt said. “I want the crate to be sturdy for shipment, and once loaded with the weapons, light enough for easy handling. Take the weapons and create the crate.”

  Half a dozen airmen grabbed the guns and left.

  “Now I need a simple crate created to hold the ammo,” Matt said as he started to copy the small yellow box. Once he got to 256, he stopped. “Create a shipping container that will hold these boxes. Make sure it will be easily shipped and handled. When you return, bring three cans of spray paint: yellow, blue, and red.”

  Another half a dozen airman gathered up the yellow boxes and left.

  “I’ll need one sturdy pallet and a forklift,” Matt said.

  The remaining airmen scurried off.

  While they were gone, he created 256 blue boxes and 256 red boxes. The airmen brought a pallet, and Matt copied the pallet three times. It only took half an hour to get the small crate back. It was packed with four across, twelve down, and four deep, for a total of 192 boxes per crate.

  Matt had them dump the boxes out on the ground and created three duplicate crates and had them painted yellow, blue, and red. They packed the crates with the colored boxes.

  Matt started with the yellow crate. He created forty crates and had them stacked on one of the pallets. Once the yellow pallet was loaded and strapped down, he did the same for blue and red. He had the forklift move the three pallets next to each other. Matt climbed on top of a nearby Humvee to get a better look, and Matt doubled the three pallets to six and then to twelve. He had them stacked and continued doubling until there were 12,288 pallets.

  The crate with the weapons inside was waiting when Matt came down from the Humvee. They were able to put ten weapons per crate. The routine was set. Matt began copying crates of weapons, and twelve crates were stacked onto a pallet and tied down. Matt doubled the pallets sixteen times and finished with 12,288 pallets.

  “Chief Master Sergeant Barr, get these distributed to all of the military at the thirteen domes,” Matt said. “They need to be there tomorrow to allow for training.” Then he created another pile of weapons and ammo for Travis AFB.

&
nbsp; ~~~

  It’s six thirty, Jesse thought. We have to leave before seven. We just made it. The trip might be a waste of time, but they had to try every option. If Torron attacks before we’re ready, we may never recover.

  Caroline turned to Jeremy, who was sitting in the copilot’s seat. “Why are we going to Seattle?”

  “We want to look up an old friend,” Jeremy said. “Actually, we want to look up his family. We knew him from Africa back in 1865. I’m sure he’s dead by now, but his family might still be there.”

  “Who is it?” Caroline asked.

  “Mr. Hill,” Jeremy said.

  “T-Bone!” Steve yelled from the back.

  ~~~

  “I know, I know,” Jeremy said. “I’m looking it up on my iPhone. There are a thousand Hills in Seattle, but there’s a restaurant named Pirate’s Cove. I looked it up on the Internet and found that the restaurant chain is the oldest in Seattle, established in 1867. It’s over a hundred fifty years old.”

  “That’s two years after we left T-Bone in Africa,” Matt said. “He said he would open a restaurant when he got there. That must be his.”

  “The restaurant has six locations around Seattle and is privately owned by the Hill family of Woodinville, Washington,” Jeremy added. “It looks like their corporate offices are at that location in Woodinville.”

  “There must be a shopping center in Woodinville,” Caroline said. “I’ll have a Humvee waiting for us there.”

  Chapter 21

  The Alliance Dies Tonight

  It was nine thirty and after store hours when the Osprey landed in the Woodgate Mall’s parking lot. The main headquarters for Pirate’s Cove was only a couple of blocks away from the mall.

  The look of the Pirate’s Cove began in the parking lot. Light posts, guardrails, flags, and the building itself all looked like a pirate’s cove. Even the pirate flag was a copy of the one Captain Greyhawk flew over the cove on Four Peaks Island.

  The restaurant was busy. The line at the door proved the success of the establishment. It was no surprise the décor on the inside was as authentic as that on the outside. The big surprise was the four life-size pirate statues in the entryway. Although dressed like pirates, they were exact replicas of the Alliance.

  “Well, we’ve come to the right place,” Jesse said, seeing the statues.

  “They’re here,” announced the hostess. She picked up the phone and made a call. “Mr. Hill will be here in fifteen minutes. He’s been waiting for you. Please follow me.” She led them to a room at the rear of the restaurant reserved for private parties. “I’ll get the food and drink.” Without taking an order, she turned and left.

  Surprised, Jesse said, “Look at this.”

  A steady line of waiters and waitresses started loading the three tables lining the walls with everything on the menu. An assortment of drinks was set up on a fourth table.

  “How did you get this ready so fast?” Jeremy asked one of the waitresses.

  “Oh, Mr. Hill placed the order half an hour ago,” the waitress answered.

  “Please help yourself,” the hostess said. “Mr. Hill will be disappointed if you don’t eat while you wait. He’s told us you have little time and must make the most of every minute.”

  Caroline was busy signing to Haven while they ate. Steve and Jack were having an intense conversation, and Matt, Jeremy, and Jesse sat quietly in the corner of the room. All were eating a great meal.

  “Oh, my,” Jesse said. “I don’t believe my eyes.” She jumped up from the table and ran to the door. “I was about to say you haven’t aged a bit, but you’ve always looked old. No offence.”

  “None taken,” T-Bone said. His wrinkled, sunbaked skin hadn’t changed, and he was still a little on the chubby side, with a salt-and-pepper short-cropped beard and hair pulled back in a ponytail.

  Jesse gave T-Bone a big hug and held on to him.

  “That was great,” T-Bone said. “Thanks for the hug. I haven’t felt this good in years.”

  Slatel followed T-Bone into the room.

  “You haven’t aged a bit in the last hundred fifty years,” Jeremy said.

  “Yeah, that makes me more than four hundred years old,” T-Bone said. “I’ve lost track.”

  “When you were in Africa, you had no potions or elixirs,” Steve said. “How did you stay alive?”

  “Good question. I knew Torron wouldn’t let me bring all of my notes, formulas, and elixirs with me to Africa, so long before the war in Africa started, I made copies of everything, including samples of all the elixirs and potions. I placed them in a false bottom of several rum kegs. The kegs were sent to Africa as part of the army supplies. Once the rum ran out, the kegs were tossed in a pile of trash and left behind when the Torron army left. Luckily, I recovered them after you left. I continued to use the life-extending elixir, so . . . here I am.”

  “How did you know we were coming?” Jeremy asked.

  “Slatel found me today around noon,” T-Bone said. “I have a private airstrip at my compound and have radar available. Once I spotted you on the radar, I called in the order. Do you like the food?”

  “It’s great,” Matt said. “It tastes somewhat familiar.”

  “Yeah, it’s the same recipe I’ve been making since I was on the Charlotte with Captain Forthnight,” he said with pride.

  “I hate to break up the reunion, but we have pressing business to take care of,” Jeremy said.

  “We didn’t know what to expect when we came here,” Matt said. “Our hope was that maybe, just maybe, your expertise had been passed down from generation to generation. And if so, just maybe your family could help us defeat Torron. To find you here gives us great hope. She’s here to win. She has new technology, new weapons, and a huge army.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been watching on Fox News,” T-Bone said. “Nothing penetrates the domes, and when the domes are attacked, the result is catastrophic for the US forces.”

  ~~~

  “We found them!” General Haflyf exclaimed as he barged into the queen’s private quarters. “They’ve flown back into the Seattle area. They landed a few minutes ago in a little town east of Seattle. We sent six Nectorians to check on them. The report will be back here in a few minutes.”

  “That’s real good news,” Torron said as she walked out of her bubble bath. Her clothes replaced the bubbles, and she motioned for them to go. “We’ll watch the attack in the Mega-Crystal. We must defeat the Alliance before the war begins. If we’re successful, there will be nothing to stop us. I will rule over Earth.”

  They entered the control room, and the queen sat down on her throne to watch.

  “The Nectorians have reported,” the general informed the queen. “The Alliance and several others entered a compound in a Humvee about an hour ago. The compound is on the north side of a small town. They’re currently in the mansion located in the center of the compound. Only one of the six Nectorians returned. The other five are still there. If there’s any change, they’ll report it.”

  “Send three Oar-7s and completely destroy the entire compound,” Torron said. “I want nothing left standing. Nothing! The Alliance dies tonight.”

  ~~~

  An airman burst into General Wisecoff’s office at Travis AFB. “Sir, we have activity at the dome. The one at the lake. There’s major movement inside.”

  “Send up ten F-18s, have them stay five miles from the dome, and let’s see what happens,” the general said. “Do not engage unless ordered. I want four drones up. Keep them over the dome so we can watch the action.”

  They quickly went to the command center.

  “The four reconnaissance drone pictures are on the big screen,” one of the airmen said.

  ~~~

  It was 1:00 a.m., and the F-18s were patiently circling about five miles away from the dome. The small drones hovered a thousand feet above the top of the dome, which was two miles high.

  The pale blue dome was lit up by the light within. Two red arcs
of light appeared on the north side of the dome, about a hundred feet long. The lower one was curved upward, like a smile; the higher one was curved downward, like a frown. The two arcs began to move toward each other until the tips of the arcs touched. The shape created by the two lines turned deep blue. Three Oar-7s flew through the deep blue opening. Three of the F-18s engaged the Oar-7s. There was a short dogfight at first, with both sides dodging and flying around as they tried to take each other out.

  One of the F-18s got one of the Oar-7s in its sights and launched a missile. Right on target, it exploded, and the Oar-7 was engulfed in a huge ball of fire and smoke, but an instant later it came out of the burning cloud unscathed. All three Oar-7s shot north at supersonic speeds. As they left the area, a pale blue translucent barrier surrounded each of them. Another barrier formed behind the Oar-7s—a pale blue wall that followed them. All six F-18s turned to follow the Oar-7s. The first F-18 to hit the barrier exploded in a ball of fire as it crashed into what seemed to be a solid wall. The other planes either turned straight up or to the side and narrowly missed hitting the barrier.

  “The barrier is about a mile in diameter,” one pilot reported. “We can go around it and catch them on the other side.”

  ~~~

  “The military thinks they’re fighting against another conventional army,” Jeremy said. “They’re not. They aren’t listening to us at all.”

  “I wouldn’t say they don’t understand,” Caroline said. “They know they’re fighting aliens from another planet. They also know their technology is much more advanced than ours.”

  “Yes, but they refuse to listen to us,” Steve said. “They’re a bunch of idiots. We know Torron, and we will be the ones to figure out how to defeat her.”

  “Patience,” Jack said. “Together we’ll figure it out.”