Alien Storm

by Ken Bebelle

  “Right, maximum property damage. Hey Boomie, give a fella a hand?” His dazzling smile lit the room again.

  Boomie sighed but shook her head, giving Ace a small smile. “Come on, Trig. We shouldn’t be here when they go off the res.” She grabbed Trigger by the arm and hauled him to the far door.

  Ace flashed Sasha a shrug and sauntered off.

  Bull took a step closer to Sasha. “What is it exactly that you all did up in Vancouver?”

  Sasha took his curiosity as a good sign. “We used the V-10’s and blew up a bunch of the iceboxes. Also, we tactically acquired some Ringhead tech for the squints.”

  Bull’s ugly face wrinkled up in thought. “Reno’s just a hop and a skip. I reckon I could get there and back before anyone notices.”

  Sasha looked at the homely pilot with new appreciation. She liked this zoomie’s attitude. Sasha gave him a broad grin. “You’re damn right about that and my team appreciates the lift.” The two of them exchanged a knowing look and something inside Sasha relaxed. She couldn’t convince everyone, but even one more Raven could make all the difference.

  Bull started walking to the hangar, his boots heavy against the paneled flooring. “Guess we better load up my girl then.”

  Between the three of them, they made quick work of looting grenades and Torches for the two Ravens. The noises outside continued to escalate and Sasha wiped her sweaty palms on a towel some mechanic had discarded. Another blast rocked the building, the rattles impossibly loud. Shit, hanger was going to collapse around them at this rate.

  Three sharp raps rang out on the hanger doors. Sasha dashed over and slipped open the doors to see the familiar tall silhouette of Mack and a shorter man. Kekoa. She’d spoken with him a couple of times up in the Yukon center but they’d never had a mission together. The pair rushed in and behind them, Sasha saw frost spreading like moss over the tarmac. Shit.

  Kekoa grumbled as he came in, rubbing his arms and chest. “It’s fucking freezing out there. Might as well be back in the Yukon.”

  Sasha gave him a friendly punch in the arm. “Your blood’s thick enough. You’ll be fine.” Kekoa looked over at her, his gaze sliding over Ripper’s gleaming hand. He smiled. “I see you got an upgrade, Kennedy.”

  Sasha shook her head at the euphemism and let out a chuckle. Between Mack, Kekoa and herself, they had three of their original legs, a five organic arms. A fucking cyber army.

  Before she could respond, five more people pounded across the tarmac. One of them was enormous. Box. That meant Lee was with him. Thank god. Lee was organized in all the ways Sasha wasn’t. She needed him to make Operation Hotbox work. As they piled into the hangar, Sasha counted them off. Lee, Simmons, Akins, and Carmichael. More importantly, Lee was holding the Torch. They were going to need that.

  Sasha fist bumped Lee. “Two Ravens loaded and ready for us. Where’s Linc and Blake?”

  Lee shook his head. “They’re a no go.”

  Sasha’s lips drew down in disappointment. She’d known a lot of people would feel like Boomie and Trigger, but she’d been hoping her whole team would show up.

  Lee looked her dead in the eye. “LT, they’ve got kids. They can’t afford for Landau to boot them or dock their pay.”

  “Yeah. I get it.” There was no time for hurt feelings or anger at Landau. Sasha shoved it down and turned away to thump Box on the back. “We’re going to need that can opener.”

  He grunted. “It’s a battle axe, LT.”

  Sasha rolled her eyes and then whistled loudly to get everyone’s attention. “This is Bull. He has kindly agreed to escort some of us to Reno.”

  Bull took a short bow.

  Sasha pointed at Lee. “Sergeant Lee will break you into two teams. Designation Whiskey and Victory.” She pulled one of the holo displays over and called up an aerial map of the base and its surroundings.

  She frowned, looking at the map. “I wish we had Landau’s map. Ace and Bull will drop us into Reno-Sparks--here, and here. We’ll work our way back to each other to Highway 80, clearing a path for the nice folks from Fallon.”

  Nods all around. Sasha continued. “Lee will set our rendezvous points, expect our comms systems to be out of commission while we are on the ground.”

  Lee stepped up and proceeded to square everyone away. Sasha walked over to Ace and when the two teams were sorted, Lee had lined up Mack, Akins, and Carmichael by Bull. Simmons and Kekoa stood before Sasha and Ace.

  Sasha nodded in satisfaction. “Mount up.”

  Behind her a familiar voice hollered, “Belay that.”

  Sasha pivoted to the hangar doors. Gunny limped in, assisted by a smaller blonde man.

  Sixteen

  A New Plan

  Sasha

  The newcomer wore a nondescript dark suit and tie. As he eased Gunny into a chair, Sasha noted the new guy had a small gun case chained to his wrist. He also wore a large rectangular case across his back.

  Gunny groaned as he settled into the chair. The shredded remains of his left pant leg dripped blood on the floor. Looked like Gunny hadn’t been as successful dodging that shitstorm of hailing debris outside. His breath hissed as he used his hands to straighten the leg out. He twitched aside the torn fabric, revealing a bloody wound. “Heh. Had better days, me.”

  Sasha’s eyes widened at the sight of the wound. “Jesus. Akins, patch him up best you can.”

  As Akins hopped to, rummaging around in the med kit, Gunny looked up at Sasha. “Looks like you’re about to run afoul of the rules, soldier.”

  “Situation is fluid, sir. Seemed appropriate to prepare for extravagant contingencies.”

  Gunny’s bark of laughter was cut off with a curse as Akins pulled a jagged shard of metal out of the wound.

  “Sorry, sir. This is going to hurt some more.” Akins aimed a can of tissue sealant at Gunny’s leg and hit the nozzle.

  “Gahfuck! Grrr...This is exactly why I push a desk now! Dammit!”

  Akins started wrapping his leg, his movements sharp and precise. “Doesn’t look like the bone is broken, but you need to get to medical.”

  “Thank you, soldier. But what I need to do first is make sure some people don’t go flying off half-cocked.” He looked at Sasha again.

  Sasha looked around and behind her. Then back at Gunny. “Me?”

  A guffaw burst from Gunny. Ace suddenly seemed to be very interested in his fingernails.

  “You finished, Akins?” At the soldier’s nod, Gunny waved him off. “Ok, Lee, take everyone else and finish detailing the Ravens. Wheels up in five.”

  That left Sasha in the room with Gunny and the quiet blonde man.

  “All right Kennedy, I’m giving you new marching orders. And by the way, thank you for leaving me two Ravens with which to coordinate base defenses. That was mighty considerate of you.”

  Sasha’s temperature went up a notch and her collar started to feel a bit tight.

  Gunny gestured vaguely at the blond man in the suit. “This is Agent Harding. He will be joining you for this mission.”

  He cut off her protest before it even left her mouth. “You will not be expected to babysit him.” Gunny turned to look at Harding. “I have a feeling he is more than capable of taking care of himself.”

  That raised a small smile on Harding’s thin lips. He arched an eyebrow at Gunny.

  Gunny continued, his commands shooting out like a bullets. “You will take your teams into Reno proper. Lee will command the main strength of your force and break up the beachhead that’s been established.

  “You and Agent Harding will find and rendezvous with Lt. Flynn with all haste. After locating Flynn, operational control will fall to Harding.”

  “What!?” Sasha couldn’t help herself from blurting out. If anything, she’d expected to cede the op to Keenan. Who was this joker?

  Gunny bulled on, ignoring her outburst. “Agent Harding possesses alien tech that may turn the tide for us. Lt. Flynn is vital to our plan to utilize that tech.”

>   Behind Gunny, Harding pulled up his sleeve to glance at his gauntlet. He looked bored, like he was waiting in line at the bank. Sasha wanted to plant Ripper right in his mug.

  Sasha opened her mouth to protest again but stopped when she saw the look on Gunny’s face. Gunny never talked this much. Sasha owed it to him to keep her mouth shut.

  He shook his head. “Lieutenant. Pay attention. If he could have been here, the old man would be telling you this. You have to see the bigger picture. We can’t win this today. Not the way we’ve been doing it. The higher ups have known this for a long time. The only advantage we have, the only advantage we’ve ever had, has been our numbers. Enough boots on the ground, and we can take them down one at a time.”

  Gunny looked her square in the eyes. “They’ve been toying with us, Kennedy. This whole fucking time, just playing around while we’ve been struggling to stay alive. But today, it looks like they’ve finally showed up in full strength. Landau knows it, that’s why she’s locked down the base. She knows we don’t have the numbers to take the fight to them, so she’s going to fall back and defend.”

  Harding scoffed, shaking his head. Sasha didn’t want to agree with the fucking new guy, but she shared his sentiment.

  Gunny glared at him, then turned back to Sasha. “He’s right, though. She can delay them at best, but we’ll never outlast them. Getting this package to Keenan is our ace in the hole.”

  Sasha swallowed, her throat dry. She’d always wondered what it would be like to be a fly on the wall in Phillips’s office.

  Lee walked back into the prep room. “Green across the board, LT.”

  Time to move to the next level.

  She pointed Lee back to the hanger. “Get everyone repacked. Kekoa comes with me and the spook in Ace’s bird. You take everyone else with Bull. Briefing in the air.”

  Sasha took a deep breath and turned to face Gunny. A fine sheen of sweat stood out on his forehead and he looked bone-tired. “You gonna be alright, sir? Where’s the Colonel?”

  Gunny waved her off and slumped into the chair. “Don’t worry about me or the old man. We’ve got this. Call medical, tell them to come get me. You have your orders.”

  Sasha snapped off a salute. “Anything else, Sarge? Perhaps I can bring you back a pizza?”

  He grimaced. “See? And you wonder why Landau hates your guts. Get going.” Gunny tapped his gauntlet. “Check in every thirty minutes. I’ll be in CentCom directing traffic with Landau.”

  Sasha grinned and turned for the hanger. “C’mon, fucking new guy. Let’s see if you can keep up.” She sprinted for the waiting Raven.

  She couldn’t believe the FNG was wearing a business suit. A suit for fuckssake. Sasha snapped out Gunny’s orders verbatim to Victory, somewhat gratified to see Kekoa’s shocked face when she got to the part where Harding took operational control.

  “After rendezvous with Lieutenant Flynn, we will deliver the package, and Agent Harding will call the shots thereafter.”

  With a cool Sasha couldn’t help but admire, Harding removed his blazer, folded and tied it down. He unbuttoned his shirt sleeves and rolled them back, precise and and even. Sasha watched in fascination as the agent cuffed his sleeves three inches wide, ending a couple of inches above the elbow to reveal a tattoo of a black horse with the words GET SOME scrolled underneath on his inner forearm.

  Her eyes widened. Fucking Third Battalion. They’d been gone since the Great Quake of 2088, after Pendleton had fallen into the Pacific Ocean. Holy shit. She looked at Kekoa and sure enough, his mouth had fallen open. Well, well, well.

  Kekoa cleared his throat. “Nice ink.”

  Harding quirked an eyebrow. “Relax, soldier. I’m just the delivery guy.”

  The spook turned to Ace and made a whirling gesture. Ace nodded and said. “Wheels up.” Ace engaged the controls and the bird slid out along the ceiling beam to the tarmac.

  Sasha tilted her head toward the case locked to his wrist. “So what’s so important that it needs special delivery?”

  Again the barest hint of a smug smile at the corners of his mouth. “I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of this case to you, Lieutenant. But, if I were just spitballing, I would guess that we somehow liberated some very promising alien tech that we can use as an exploit to disrupt their networks. If I were spitballing.”

  He lifted his wrist with the cuff. “Beyond that, there’s no guarantee it works. But in our current situation, if such a device existed, I would move with all haste to get the device to the one person who might have a chance of operating it. Flynn will be the star of the show, we’re just the backup singers.”

  The tension in the Raven’s interior dropped considerably. Sasha had huge respect for Keenan and she knew Kekoa was tight with him. They could get behind a plan like that, 110 percent.

  Harding turned Sasha, “We need to restore enough comms to get a hold of Flynn. Gunny informed me that he left Flynn and Chan in Reno earlier.”

  Sasha’s eyebrows drew together in concentration. She reached over and engaged the Raven’s comm system. “Whiskey-1, this is Victory-1, you will take out the first set of iceboxes and we will drop drones behind you. Sending coordinates now.” Bull acknowledged and Sasha turned back to Harding.

  Harding gave a grunt of approval then continued to brief the team. “This device makes it to Flynn. All other priorities are secondary. He is our only shot at activating the device and disrupting all of the Ringhead cylinders. If we fail, he fails, and all of the Green Zone is lost. I don’t care what we find when we get to Flynn. He must get this. I don’t care if you have to cut my arm off to get it to him. Do it.”

  Seventeen

  The Package

  Keenan

  In the casino’s employee lot, they’d finally hit paydirt. Keenan hotwired an ancient beater that hardly had any computer interface to speak of. The battered pickup truck had seen better days, but today it was the best thing on four wheels. Bells paced the parking lanes while Keenan fiddled under the hood. Sporadic impacts still sounded from further away in the city. Flashing emergency lights flared past them, going in every direction.

  The engine coughed, sputtered, then roared to life, the entire car trembling like an old man. Keenan slammed the hood down as Bells climbed behind the wheel. Keenan hopped in.

  She threw the truck into gear. “About fucking time. We’re going to be late to the party.”

  Keenan checked his gauntlet again. Still no comms, no network. “Head for the airport, let’s see if we can get past their signal jamming.”

  The truck groaned and creaked as Bells steered it out of the parking lot and onto the main road. Keenan kept his gauntlet open, his eyes searching for any signal. After a few miles his gauntlet pinged.

  <>

  Keenan’s heart rate sped up. Finally! He pinged Kekoa immediately. The urgency to do...something, anything, pressed in around him. He hated being out of the loop like this.

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  The backwash from the Raven hailed gravel and debris on the windshield as it landed. Against the darkened skies the Raven was near impossible to pick out. Dim red light spilled from the rear hatch as it popped open, disgorging three figures running with heavy packs. As the figures ran towards the truck, the Raven cycled up again and lifted off in a swirl of dust, obscuring Keenan’s view.

  A metallic tapping sounded on the driver’s side window. The dust settled and revealed a petite woman in combat gear, sporting a cybernetic arm. Keenan got out and looked up towards the retreating Raven. In the beams of the truck’s headlights Kekoa opened one of the packs and began pulling out extra sets of gear. Crap.

  “Kennedy. I thought you were our ride back to base.”

  She ran her cybernetic hand through her dirty hair. “Yeah, I got good news and bad news for you, Flynn.”

  Kennedy dropped her own pack to
the ground, pulling out weapons. “The good news is, we brought kits and gear for you both. Get suited up now. We got places to see, aliens to kill. ”

  Bells had her gear half on already. Keenan picked up the heavy chestplate. “Ringheads. Here.” The words dropped out of him like lead weights.

  “Yep. They’re here and they’ve surrounded the base. Landau locked down the base before we left.”

  It would be tough to do better than Kennedy if they were headed back into Ringhead held territory. The woman was fearless to the point of recklessness, but her record proved her worth.

  Keenan hefted the chestplate, his shoulders aching just looking at it. With a sigh be began strapping on the armor. “You mentioned bad news?”

  The third figure stepped into the light. Keenan recognized the bland, expressionless eyes under the helmet.

  Kennedy sighed theatrically. “The bad news is now that we’ve found you, this asshole is in charge.”

  Even in the spare and unheated interior of the Raven, the alien rifle still chilled his arms to the bone. He shifted his right hand, the energy tingling across his palm and fingers, an itch just below the surface of his skin. Outside, flurries of snow obscured their view through the windows, reminding Keenan of bad weather in the Yukon. Keenan had intuited what was in the large case before Harding opened it. Just as he understood immediately what must be in the smaller case, and what Phillips was asking of him.

  This was it, the Hail Mary pass. Keenan swallowed hard. He’d asked for this--begged for this chance. It’s all we’ve got.

  Ace called out. “Thirty seconds!”

  Sasha herded everyone to the doors. Harding might be in charge here, but he also seemed content to let Sasha handle the basics.

  The Raven plunged through the blowing snow and wind, and just like that, Keenan and his crew were back on the ground. The weather bit and hammered at them like the Yukon, but the terrain was all concrete and straight edges.