Red to Fade

by Red to Fade (epub)

  At the doors of the trailers there are Superdeal supply boxes. Behind the trailer doors and supply boxes are bags filled with cement powder. The agents are able to breathe inside the trailers with masks and oxygen tanks. The Superdeal trucks are on their way to a meeting point. The meeting point is the car park of a Superdeal supermarket that is currently under construction. Minutes later, the trucks arrive at their destination. They’ve planned all of this well. The drivers of the Superdeal trucks have a story prepared if they’re questioned by any authorities. If any of them are asked the question, “What are you doing here?” all the drivers have to say is, “We are delivering supplies to Superdeal supermarkets and I think we might have the wrong address.”

  *

  Minutes later Joel arrives, along with Edmund, Johnson and Charles in an R1LEV at the meeting point where the two Superdeal trucks are. Charles is driving the R1LEV. Joel, Edmund, Johnson and Charles are all wearing Sound Comms. Joel gets out of the R1LEV. Joshua and the two truck drivers see Joel and get out of the trucks. The names of the two truck drivers are Alex and Lewis. Joel walks over to Joshua, Alex and Lewis. Joel, Joshua, Alex and Lewis are now standing beside each other.

  Joel says, “Well done, guys, you made it. Here, take these.”

  Joel pulls out three Sound Comms from his jacket pocket and hands them to Joshua, Alex and Lewis. All three of them check that their Sound Comms are working. The three Sound Comms are working fine.

  “I need you to follow me now in the trucks. When we come close to the road that leads to the CSB-R1 base I will tell you guys to turn off the lights of the trucks. I don’t want anybody to see us driving towards to the base. OK, men, let’s go.”

  Joel gets back into the R1LEV. He waits for Joshua, Alex and Lewis to get back into their trucks. Everyone is in their vehicles now.

  Joel says, “Is everybody ready?”

  Alex, Joshua and Lewis say, “Yes, sir.”

  Joel says, “Follow me.”

  Joel tells Charles to drive to the CSB-R1 base and Alex and Lewis follow in their trucks.

  *

  In the concrete file hive building, Connor says, “Can the DC file be downloaded from here in this building?”

  Lanken says, “No, it can only be downloaded from the glacitone file hive and there is no chance in hell that anyone can download it from there unless they have security clearance. Let me show you the glacitone file hive; follow me.”

  Lanken walks to the elevators. Gragon, Dylan, Gabrielle, Connor and Tizer follow him. Lanken gets inside one of the elevators and presses the button for the ground floor. Minutes later the elevator reaches the ground floor. Everyone exits the elevator. Lanken walks down the hallway and Gragon, Dylan, Gabrielle, Connor and Tizer follow him. Lanken walks out of the back entrance of the concrete file hive building.

  There is a distance between the concrete and glacitone file hive buildings. Above the file hive structures there is a glacitone roof attached to the three-sided glacitone wall that covers the two file hive buildings, preventing any type of spacecraft from landing on the ground surface of the glacitone file hive. Lanken walks towards to the glacitone file hive. There is a guard right beside the entrance door of the file hive. They always have a guard standing outside. There are two tricadell steel doors locked magnetically inside the glacitone tunnel connected to the glacitone file hive building.

  Lanken says, “This is the glacitone file hive. You have to open two doors in order to get inside the glacitone file hive. When the first door is opened you will have access to the glacitone tunnel. When the second door is opened you will have access to the file hive. The two doors can be opened using an access card. The scanner scans the access card and then the door opens. The only soldiers who have access cards that can open the doors of the glacitone file hive are on battleship thirty-one.”

  The card scanners on the tricadell steel doors are covered with glacitone. This gives them extra protection from damage.

  Connor interrupts. “Are you telling me that no one on this base has access to that file hive?”

  Lanken says, “Yes, that’s correct.”

  Connor nods his head and is pissed off that nobody in the CSB-R1 base can open the doors of the glacitone file hive.

  “The two tricadell steel doors are locked magnetically to an underground steel plate that is the width and height of a city skyscraper, so there is no way of digging a tunnel underneath the file hive to get inside from the ground surface. The glacitone file hive is operating every minute of every day and is powered by the Arolco power cell battery, which generates power for years and is also inside the glacitone file hive. The only way of turning the power off in the glacitone file hive is to turn off the Arolco power cell battery. Like I’ve said before, files from the servers that are inside the glacitone file hive can be downloaded manually but not remotely. Now I want everybody to move back. Tizer, when I say ‘fire’ I want you to fire a grenade shell at the side of the glacitone tunnel.”

  Tizer says, “Yes, sir.”

  Lanken tells the glacitone file hive guard to move back and see’s that everyone has moved to a correct distance away from the glacitone tunnel.

  Lanken says, “Everybody cover your ears.”

  Lanken, Gragon, Dylan, Gabrielle, Connor and the glacitone file hive guard cover their ears. Lanken sees that everyone is covering their ears.

  Lanken says, “Fire!”

  Tizer fires a grenade shell at the left-hand side of the glacitone tunnel. BOOM! The grenade explodes when it hits the tunnel. It doesn’t even leave a black mark or a scratch on the glacitone material. Nobody in the concrete file hive building hears the explosion because the concrete building is soundproof.

  “As you can see the glacitone material is very tough and the tricadell steel doors are just as tough as glacitone. If you fired a grenade shell at a tricadell steel door it wouldn’t leave a scratch. I’ve seen a spacecraft crash into a glacitone window and even that didn’t even leave a mark. So you see, Mr Harper, there is no way anybody can get into that file hive.”

  Connor says, “Well, thank you for that great security demonstration, and especially the grenade shell being fired in the tunnel. Man, that was cool. Look, man, I’m thinking that Joel has thought of ways to get past your security. All that I know is that he is going to attack the CSB-R1 base. I don’t know how and I don’t know when he’s going to attack. I think that you should either be prepared for him to attack or stop him before he attacks. I would tend to try to stop him before he attacks; think of the safety of your men.”

  Lanken pauses and is quiet. He thinks to himself, Connor might be right. There’s a possibility I’m being naive. If they know about DD-12, the DC file and the file hive they might also know how to get past our security.

  Lanken says, “Tizer, I want six RBMs loaded with soldiers to find and arrest Joel Davis and the group of agents who are working for him. If they don’t come quietly and they open fire on your men, I want your men to return fire, but tell them not to fire until fired upon. I also want nine RBMs loaded with armed soldiers in front of the file hive to create a barrier and stand guard. I want six soldiers guarding the glacitone file hive. You got that?”

  Tizer says, “Yes, sir.”

  Tizer obeys Lanken’s commands. Minutes later there are nine RBMs loaded with armed Clandarian soldiers who are suited up in body armour in front of the file hive. Some Clandarian soldiers are armed with GD-7 machine guns, some with ZX-53 machine guns and some with BGL-34s. The nine RBMs in front of the file hive look like a barrier. Some of the armed soldiers get out of the RBMs to use the vehicles for cover. Some soldiers stay inside the RBMs to control their mini guns and grenade launchers.

  The soldiers who were ordered to find and arrest Joel are in six RBMs which are stuck at the entrance doors of the CSB-R1 base. The doors won’t open. The guards are trying their best to get the entrance doors to open, but nothing’s happening. Gragon, Dylan, Gabrielle, Connor, Tizer and Lanken are back on the communica
tion floor of the concrete file hive building.

  One of the soldiers in one of the six RBMs informs Tizer by using a Balaxian earpiece mic that the entrance doors of the CSB-R1 base aren’t opening. Tizer tells Lanken and Lanken sends a smart IT soldier to go down to the entrance doors to try to fix the problem. There’s no way of blowing up the doors with a grenade shell or a rocket; they are made from tricadell steel.

  Lanken orders Commander Maviral to order five pilots to fly five spacecraft into the city and go to Red 1 law enforcement precincts to get support from officers in finding and arresting Joel Davis and his agents. There are landing pads for spacecraft on the roofs of Red 1 law enforcement precincts. Commander Maviral is in a spacecraft tower close to the spacecraft hangar. Soldiers can fly spacecraft only when Commander Maviral gives the order. Commander Maviral obeys Lanken’s commands. Five pilots exit the spacecraft hangar and take off one after the other from the runway in the CSB-R1 base.

  The spacecraft the soldiers fly are called Windjets. WJ-41 is the name for the type of Windjet that is used in the CSB-R1 base. A WJ-41 looks like an F-117 Night Hawk Stealth Strike Aircraft. The WJ-41 is a grey colour and is a military Windjet. Windjets have four afterburners. Two afterburners make the Windjet fly forward and the other two can make the Windjet fly and hover in the same spot like the Harrier aircraft in the movie True Lies. Windjets can also fly into space. There are commercial and military Windjets. Military Windjets are armed with rockets and high-powered machine guns. Most Clandarian soldiers know that if enough gun ammo is fired at the afterburners of the Windjet, the afterburners will explode and the Windjet will crash. Minutes later the five spacecraft are in the middle of the city. All of a sudden, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The five spacecraft explode and blow up into pieces, one after the other.

  *

  Joel, Joshua, Alex and Lewis have finally arrived at the road that leads to the CSB-R1 base. On the Sound Comm, Joel instructs all of his men to keep the lights of the vehicles turned off. Joel and his men are driving with their lights off along the road that leads to the CSB-R1 base. Joel tells all of his men over the Sound Comm to drive off the road into the Mars desert on the right-hand side of the road. Joel wants all vehicles to drive off the road because he doesn’t want anybody to see him and his men driving on the road.

  Joel instructs everyone to drive their vehicles side by side and not in front of each other in case they crash into the back of each other in the dark. Joel wants everyone to park their vehicles close to the CSB-R1 base, but not too close.

  *

  On the communication floor of the concrete file hive building, Connor says to Lanken, “I think you should tell everyone in your spaceships to send backup to the CSB-R1 base.”

  Lanken says, “I would, but our communication systems are down. We can’t contact anybody. Even our phones don’t work. We can communicate with each other with our earpiece mics, but we can’t communicate with anybody on the outside of the CSB-R1 base.”

  Gabrielle checks her planet communicator and says, “Yeah, I know what you mean; I don’t have any reception on my planet communicator.”

  Connor says, “Can your earpiece mics communicate with anyone on the outside of the base?”

  Lanken says, “No, they’re designed to communicate on one frequency; all Clandarian soldiers communicate with each other on one frequency when they use their earpiece mics. Say, for example, if law enforcement cops were using earpiece mics in the city, it’s not possible for us to communicate with them by using our earpiece mics.”

  Gragon asks, “How often do your communication systems break down?”

  Lanken answers, “This is the first time we’ve had this problem.”

  Connor says, “I think that there’s a possibility that Joel might have disabled your systems.”

  Lanken says, “Really?”

  Connor says, “It’s possible, Joel has a real hard-on for this place.”

  Lanken says, “Hard-on? What’s that?”

  Connor says, “It’s when a man’s penis goes erect.”

  Lanken says, “Why would the file hive make Joel’s penis go erect?”

  Connor says, “It’s just an expression to say that Joel really wants to get into the file hive.”

  Gragon says, “Where do you keep your weapons?”

  Lanken says, “Do all of you need weapons?”

  Gragon says, “Yes.”

  Lanken says, “Follow me.”

  Connor, Gabrielle, Dylan and Gragon follow Lanken. Lanken walks to a weapon storage room, which is also on the communication floor. Lanken opens the door of the weapons storage room with a key and turns on the light. Connor, Gabrielle, Dylan, Gragon and Lanken go inside the weapons storage room. There are all kinds of weapons on shelves. There are morphian-manufactured assault rifles, handguns, magazine clips for all different types of assault weapons, grenade shells, machine gun/grenade launchers, grenades, body armour and many more besides.

  Everyone takes a BGL-34. Connor, Gabrielle, Dylan and Lanken grab grenade shell belts from a shelf. Gragon still has his belt from earlier. Everyone puts grenade shells in their grenade shell belts. There is also duct tape on a shelf. Each person gets three machine gun magazine clips and duct-tapes them together. Each person then loads their BGL-34 with a grenade shell and a machine gun magazine clip that has two other magazine clips attached with duct tape. The reason why everyone has magazine clips duct-taped together and inserted inside a BGL-34 is because this allows them to reload their BGL-34s faster. If one magazine clip runs out of ammo, all the gun holder has to do is remove the clip and insert the next fully loaded BGL-34 magazine clip from the duct-taped backup clips. Dylan and Connor grab and wear grey-green torso armour.

  Connor sees a stick of steel with an LCD screen and some buttons, which has a shape and length similar to that of a stick of dynamite.

  Connor questions Lanken, “What’s that?”

  Lanken says, “It’s a time bomb.”

  Connor wants to know how the time bomb works. Lanken explains to Connor how the time bomb works. Connor grabs a few time bombs and puts them in his jacket pockets. Gragon, Connor, Gabrielle, Dylan and Lanken exit the weapons storage room. Lanken closes the door behind him and locks it. All five of them carry their weapons back into the area of the communication floor where they were before.

  Chapter Seven

  THE RED WAR

  Joel’s small army have their vehicles parked in the Mars desert, miles away from the CSB-R1 base. Joel and his army are close but not too close to the CSB-R1 base. The lights of their vehicles are still turned off. Joel is in an R1LEV, Alex and Joshua are in one truck and Lewis is in the other truck. Joel speaks into the Sound Comm and tells Alex and Lewis to open the trailers of the trucks.

  Inside each truck Alex and Lewis use a radio communicator to let the agents inside the trailers know that they’re opening the trailer doors. Alex and Lewis also tell the agents to turn off the lights that are inside the trailers. The agents inside the RBMs receive the radio messages from Alex and Lewis on their radio communicators in the RBMs. Alex and Lewis open the trailer doors using a button control panel inside their truck.

  The trailer doors open like the hatch at the back of the Superdeal spacecraft transport ship. As soon as the trailer door of each truck touches the ground at an angle and stops opening, the trailer doors become like a ramp, allowing the RBMs to exit the trailers. Lewis, Joshua and Alex get out of the trucks and remove the bags of cement and Superdeal supply boxes that are behind the trailer doors so that the agents and the RBMs can get out of the trailers.

  The agents in the trailers remove their oxygen masks and also help to remove the supply boxes and bags of cement. The bags of cement and supply boxes are tossed to the sides of the trailers, making a clear path for the RBMs to reverse out. Now that all of the boxes and bags have been tossed to the sides of the trailers, the RBMs can drive out.

  Lewis, Joshua and Alex tell all of the drivers of the RBMs to reverse out o
f the trailers quietly and gently. They do so. All of the RBMs are now out of the trailers. Joel, Charles, Edmund and Johnson get out of the R1LEV. Joel goes to the back of the R1LEV and opens the boot. There is a black briefcase inside.

  Joel tells Edmund to turn on his laptop and leave it in the boot of the R1LEV. In the light shining from the laptop screen, Joel can see inside the boot and can see what he’s doing. Joel opens the black briefcase. There are loads of Sound Comms in the briefcase. Joel instructs each agent to take one Sound Comm from the black briefcase. One agent after the other goes to the boot of the R1LEV and takes a Sound Comm.

  Joel gets everyone to do a sound check to check that the Sound Comms are working properly. All of the Sound Comms are working fine. All of the agents are in a group in front of Joel. Charles, Edmund and Johnson are behind him. From the boot of the R1LEV, Joel lets the light of the laptop screen shine on his troops so that he can see them.

  All of the agents are suited up in black body armour and each agent is armed with assault weapons. The agents took the body armour and the assault weapons from the steel boxes that are also inside the Superdeal trailers. Some agents are armed with the Robinson Arms XCR assault rifle and some are armed with the Ares Shrike light machine gun with belt feed, short assault barrel and add-on M203 grenade launcher. Some agents store magazine clips for their assault rifles in the magazine clip pockets that are part of their torso armour.

  Joel asks, “Has everyone got a Sound Comm?”

  Everyone responds, “Yes, sir.”