“Colonel,” Sumi broke in. “Colonel and Major Yamamoto were looking for survivors. They will report back shortly.”
“Well, Mr. Carter, I think that it would be best for us to wait and see what they find. Until then, these two ladies will take you down below, have all those cuts and bruises looked at.”
Malcolm shrugged. “I’ve had worse. But some cold water would be nice.”
“I’ll take care of him, Colonel,” Porsche said.
“Thank you, my Sister,” replied Malcolm. “You escaped from Cattle Country?”
“Yes Sir. Found a new home in Montana in the military. Until we take Georgia back.”
Malcolm gave her a serious look. “I’d like to hear your story while I drink that cold water.”
“Coming right up, Sir.”
“Call me Malcolm.”
As Malcolm Carter was taken to the large Trawlers day room, Malcolm looked out and saw the Spetsnaz troops approaching, a large group of women and children in tow. One Spetsnaz was Fireman Carried by another, an additional soldier had an arm in a sling. So there had been casualties. He did not see Abigail and Ichiro. He knew that meant they were staying back for a reason.
“SSgt. Wall, have the U.S. troops head out and replace the Spetsnaz in searching for others.”
“Yes Sir.”
Before SSgt. Wall could even formulate the orders, SSgt. Black was already walking by Torbin with his heavy sniper rifle slung at the ready.
“Going somewhere, Sergeant?” Torbin asked.
“I’ve got this feeling that the Avenging Angel can use me out there. What with a bunch of harvesters and others approaching.” His mouth formed his small signature smile. “I cut my teeth on harvester and battle robs, Sir.”
Torbin chuckled. “Far be it for me to disagree with the battle instincts of the Reaper. Go out and find them. Help get them back in one piece.”
“I aim to please, Colonel.”
Heavy fire was heard from the far side of the warehouses.
“Ah shit,” said Torbin. Sergeant Black began to jog into harm’s way.
As Torbin and company were discovering not everyone on the Tschaaa side was standing down, Andrew was overseeing the very unusual first-of-its-kind meeting of the male and female Tschaaa. So far, so good. The demand by Cassandra to recognize the Protocol of Order had started the new ball rolling, and it was picking up momentum.
Andrew stood up straight.
“No,” Andrew said out loud. “He would not be so stupid… I am wrong. He is. And evil.”
Andrew turned toward his fellow robocops. Via their computer link, he communicated.
“I will be back. Ensure this conference remains calm and productive.”
“Of course,” replied Andrew’s fellow cyborg named Jacob. “There is a problem?”
“I just noticed a message about the Minor Lord known as the Wizard. He refused to accept the Protocol of Order, threatened to resist any compromise with massive destruction. I think he has been infected with humanity’s more warlike desires and activities.”
“Can he accomplish this?”
“He is taking control of the mass drivers on the Asteroid Base One. He has been storing the debris and material from humanity’s various space launches and failed satellites he swept from near Earth orbit the past few years, since he was given control of Platform One. That material was never destroyed.”
“So, Andrew, he has rocks to throw.”
“Yes, my comrade. With many large ones available. I must go. Please contact me as things progress.” The cyborg turned to leave.
“Andrew, what is happening?” His former Lord, Neptune, called out.
“I am off to see the Wizard, and not the one from Oz. I need stop him from destroying our yellow brick road to a compromise in survival. I will return.”
Lord Neptune started to call after him, but Andrew was moving like the proverbial bat out of hell.
“Go with your God,” the now fallen Lord said to himself. “May He or She give you the correct guidance I could not.”
Andrew dashed out of the meeting chamber area, his Falcon already raising into the air answering his computer link command. As it rose, the access gangway began to retract, but not before a metallic tentacle shot out and grasped Andrew as he leapt into the air. With practiced ease, Andrew was pulled into the craft, the access door closed after him. In seconds, Andrew was in the pilot’s seat.
“Come, my beauty,” he said to himself and the aerial ship. “Time to make haste to outer space…”
Then he paused, as his mind was instantly flooded with additional information. “Not the Director and his family. I should have foreseen this insanity between Reverend Kray and this Lord Wizard. I was too full of myself.”
The Falcon rose straight up in the blink of an eye, then halted some five thousand feet above the Sea Platform, hovering.
“That is the solution. I need Torbin Bender and others to help for I cannot be in several places at once. First, Savannah, then Key West, then outer space. My fellows must stay on Earth, make sure there are no more Lord Wizards hiding in the wings.”
The Falcon accelerated, setting off a loud sonic boom.
Ichiro and Abigail had tried to swing around the back of the dock warehouses, only to run into a harvester rob and two Krakens. Abigail’s fantastic marksmanship took out the two Krakens, but she and Ichiro had to combine their firepower to defeat the harvester rob with their relatively light .223 assault rifles. Then, more of the enemy showed up.
Hunkered down behind a piece of rusting farm machinery which had never made it off the docks, Abigail began, for the first time in Ichiro’s memory, to curse and swear profusely, in all the various languages in which she was fluent. Which were many.
“No! I will not allow this to happen! The Squids and their minions were supposed to stand down, acquiesce. This is not acquiescing to anything.”
Ichiro fired a couple of rounds of his rapidly depleted rifle ammunition. He then turned to Abigail and spoke in Japanese. “Abigail, we must back off, look for another way or retreat to the trawler. We lack the firepower to defeat all these Krakens and robots.” A burst of automatic fire from a harvester, now battle rob, seemed to punctuate his statement.
A tear of rage ran down Abigail’s cheek. “Red and others are out there. Even if the Tschaaa don’t, these Kraken abominations will kill and eat them. We cannot leave them.”
Ichiro looked at his wife. He straightened his back a bit, then spoke. “Then we must decide if we fight until we die.”
“This is unfair!” Abigail screamed. “My God in Heaven, where are you when I need you?”
There was a loud report from off to their left, a bit behind them. Followed by another. Then another.
An enraged Abigail snuck a peak around their metallic cover. There was another loud report, answered by human yells and automatic fire.
“What do you see, Abby-san?”
“My Lord Jesus. It is the Reaper. He has drawn their fire.”
Benjamin Black did not use the usual tactics of precision snipes. He did not set up prepared locations with secure rifle support or a stand to help hold his weapon steady. Instead, he used temporary and fleeting positions, using whatever was available as a stationary rifle rest. He was very quick in this. He fired and moved. He had developed and battle tested his methods during his long retreat to Malmstrom Armed Forces Base years ago. The man now known as The Reaper had refined them ever since.
He was deadly.
First he took out the nearest harvester and battle robs with his special penetrator rounds. Even these mechanical monsters could not seem to deal with his quick shoot and move. Then, Krakens had their heads exploded, or their torsos penetrated with high velocity .338 Lapua rounds. They shot at where he had been, not where he was at.
Finally, the two Soldier Class biped warriors came up and began to rake the area with their electromagnetic bolt guns. For a moment, it seemed as if this would be the end of him.
<
br /> Benjamin Black crawled beneath a truck trailer with flattened tires which lowered the machine closed to the ground. He peaked around a wheel whose tire was almost gone, exposing the large metal interior wheel.
“Eenie, meenie, miney, mo, shoot an alien in the toe…” He pulled the trigger on his rifle. The right foot of one of the artificial creatures disappeared in a spray of bluish blood. The Soldier toppled over.
“If he is not dead, shoot him in the head.” The creature’s head exploded as it tried to rise. Bursts of fire came from around SSgt. Black. The rest of the American contingent had arrived and were on target. The remaining Soldier Class Warrior staggered back under the weight of the fire, then toppled over in a spasm. It twitched violently, then lay still.
Benjamin Black crawled out from his hiding place and stood up. He saw Abigail and Ichiro about a hundred yards away and whistled, waved. They waved back, then dashed over to his location under cover fire from the other Americans. The few Krakens still alive seemed to be melting back into the lengthened shadows of the setting sun.
“Sergeant Black, we owe you our lives,” Ichiro expressed as they stood behind the cover of the truck trailer.
“Just doing my job, Sir. Colonel Bender wanted to be sure you two were each still in one piece.”
“Well, we are,” Abigail answered. “We still have to look for survivors.”
They heard a yell of warning, then felt an odd electricity in the air. A Falcon appeared over the trawler.
“I think serious trouble just arrived,” the Reaper said.
CHAPTER 45
KEY WEST, FLORIDA
Director Adam Lloyd sat at his desk in his Key West office when his desk telephone rang. He had been sitting, running over a checklist in his mind for the bug out. Chief Hamilton was en route with a couple of vehicles to transport himself, his wives and his children to the pier berthing the Admiral’s large Hatteras fishing boat/yacht. Adam did not expect a good outcome from the meeting of Tschaaa Lords on the sea platform. The Admiral had offered Adam one of his day fishing trips as a cover for a trip to Cuba. The dark-skinned Cubans who still harvested sugar cane for Lord Neptune had created a sanctuary in the mountains as payment for being saved from the butcher’s block by Adam and the Chief.
Adam picked up the phone. “Director here.” The line went dead. Adam frowned as he stared at the hand set, then replaced it in its cradle.
Heidi Faust sat in the outer office, doing Mary’s job as she and Kat were getting the kids from the medical clinic. Adam had sent everyone to get a last once over exam before lighting out for Cuba. It may be awhile before they could see a real doctor.
There was no shots of warning, just the racket of large bodies coming up the large entrance stairway from the first to the second floor. Heidi yelled and there was the sound of hand to hand fighting. Adam grabbed for his Glock Pistol but his office door burst open before he could get to it.
“Freeze, fucker.” A very large Kraken was pointing an equally large pistol at his face. Adam froze, trying to process what was happening. Another large individual came around the desk, pushed him back in his chair, and ransacked his desk drawers for his pistols. Then he stood behind him.
A slender Kraken with an air of command walked in, as Adam heard Heidi yelling and cursing in the front office.
“Don’t kill her, damnit. Bring the bitch in here with her boss.”
Adam looked at the man. “And you are?”
“Ray Sparks. Deputy Commander to John Talbot. You are now the prisoner of the Most Reverend Kray, working in concert with Lord Wizard from the Space Platform.”
“What happened to Lord Neptune?”
Ray Sparks almost spit on the floor. “That piece of cowardly Squid shit. He and the other Lords have decided to make some deal with some Breeders and humans. Goddamn Robocop Andrew has something to do with it. The Wizard had us standing by just in case something like this happened from that meeting. So, we got a call a few minutes ago that it was time to take over.”
“And how, pray tell, Commander Sparks, are you going to do that unless the other Lords agree?
Sparks grinned. “Rocks. Lord Wizard is taking control of the mass drivers on the Asteroid.”
Icy fingers ran up Adam’s spine as two more large men dragged a protesting Heidi into the office, and pushed her down onto the sofa. Her mouth was bloody.
“Sorry Boss. They got the drop on me.”
Adam gave her a slight smile. “Not your fault. I should have foreseen this.” He looked at Sparks, who had a satisfied look on his face.
“You know if the Wizard starts throwing rocks around, all hell will break loose. We may be all bombed back to the Stone Age.”
“Who cares? We’re all going to be taken to the Asteroid, set up a nice colony in all that extra space up there, since a lot of the Tschaaa left to go home. Any Tschaaa that die down here are worthless, weak cowards. They may make good sushi, but that’s it.”
“Let me guess. This Wizard is going to have his own Breeders, create his own Crèche up there.”
“Already started. The Lords down here are too fat, dumb and happy to even notice. And now they just surrendered. So, the weak die. We and the Wizard will be the apex predators.”
“What’s to stop them from eating you?”
“Why, Director. You and all the others will help provide enough meat. We Krakens will help harvest surviving dark meat, set up breeding pens on the asteroid. Like I said, lots of extra room now.”
“What will you live on, Sparks?”
The man shrugged. “We’ll take some supplies with us, though some have developed a taste for Long Pig. The vats they developed on the Space Platform One are beginning to grow some better meat products among other things. So we should do fine if everyone else kills each other.”
Sparks’ cellphone rang. “Sparks here. Okay…what? I thought I told you people to be careful with the merchandise. I don’t care what they did to you, asshole. Just get over here. Now.”
Sparks began to curse. “Good help is hard to find.”
“Where’s Talbot and Reverend Kray?”
“You’ll know soon enough. Now, just sit there, relax. Fix yourself a drink.”
Adam did that, had the Krakens hand some ice in a towel to Heidi, and fixed a drink for her. He noticed none of the Kraken security personnel made a move to partake of any of the alcohol. Sparks had them on a short leash. It was about ten minutes later when Adam heard another group of people approaching. A bruised and bloody Chief Hamilton was shoved into the room, then pushed down into a chair. Following him were Professor Joseph Fassbinder and a woman it took a moment for Adam to recognize due to the battering her face had taken. It was Jolene from the Roach Coach, one of the Admiral’s daughters.
“This is it, huh?” Sparks asked.
“They killed them, Adam,” the Chief blurted out. “Jane Grant, Jeanie and Jamey. They shot them all.”
“The stupid bitches tried to stop us from taking the kids…” one of the large Krakens began to say.
Adam let out a feral scream and launched himself across the desk, trying to get to the Kraken who had just spoken. It was a short and nasty fight, with Adam winding up on the carpet, seeing stars, and one Kraken on his knees, holding his testicles, with another one cursing as he nursed a gouged eye. Heidi was still wrestling on the sofa with two of the Krakens when Sparks held a gun to the Chief’s head.
“Keep it up and he dies also. I didn’t want those deaths, but it happened. So, we have to deal with it.”
Adam slowly rose to a sitting, then a standing position. A Kraken maneuvered him back into his desk chair, and Joseph Fassbinder spoke up. “They took Sarah, Mary and Kat, plus the children. Major Grant, Jeanie and Jamie tried to stop them…”
Tears began to run down Adam’s face. “Where are my wives and children?”
“Reverend Kray and Talbot are taking them up to airfield on Marathon. A Falcon the Wizard has will pick them up, take them to the Asteroid,
Base One, as special guests. We have plans for them.”
Adam ground his teeth, tried not to explode again.“What plans?”
“Why, they have proven their worth as Breeders. Plus, your children are the first of a line of modified humans. They will be raised, studied as future improvements are considered. At least that is what the Reverend says.”
Sparks’ cellphone rang again. “Sparks here. The Admiral is approaching? Yes, send the crazy fool up. I think the Reverend has some use for him.” Sparks cut the connection.
“You killed the security downstairs also, didn’t you?” Adam asked.
“And at the Main Gate. We have some people watching the other security personnel on base. So far, no one is kicking up a fuss as since everyone now knows there is a big fuck up going on at that grand meeting. Most everyone seems to be waiting to see what’s going to happen, whose side they want to be on.”
“Ever think, Sparks, that you could be on the wrong side?”
Sparks shrugged. “Kind of hard to change horses in midstream, as they say. But so far Talbot’s been good to me, and the Rev and the Wizard seem to be keeping their promises. Plus, they have more plans and guts to go with them than all the others.”
“Guts with no morals can create huge problems.”
Sparks laughed. “Yeah, you should know. Playing toady to Neptune as they slaughtered people a state away. How can you claim better morals when you stand by while they eat other humans, even if they are dark-skinned? I don’t hide behind fake morals, or make excuses. You get what you see.”
Now the Admiral’s voice could be heard resonating form the outer office.
“What is all this fuss going on? Where is the Director? Oh, there you are.”
The Admiral made his typical ‘grand entrance’, all bedecked in his potentate uniform with all its flourishes and Naval Officer’s Dress Hat to match. He walked right up to Adam’s desk as if no one else was in the room, Sharon and Susanne walking a little behind him, one on each side.
“I heard you called a meeting, Director Lloyd, but neglected to invite me. Not very nice nor correct in matters of protocol.”
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