by T. J. Mines
The driver keeps on going, slamming into the wrecked tank on top of the ramp. The weight of the vehicle pushes the hunk of useless metal forward a bit. Unfortunately for the driver, it is not enough to take the turn and drive the rest of the way up. The Humvee is stuck.
One soldier of the Du Bois forces lobs a grenade towards the vehicle, missing the large hole in the middle. The grenade bounces onto the hood and explodes, sending shards towards the dig site. The windshield withstands the blast and the occupants survive for now. A shout from within the cab and another soldiers pops up. Just as she grabs the handles of the mounted machine gun bullets from several Du Bois guns hit her. She drops down into the armored vehicle. Now multiple grenades are thrown and more than one hits it's mark. Shouts of the people inside precede the explosions. After that the revving engine idles and the brake lights dim. Gravity takes over and the vehicle starts back down the ramp. Gaining momentum the front wheels turn and it slams into the side wall, scraping to a stop. It now sits halfway down the slope.
Ismael takes a peak around the low wall. The adrenalin rush dulled the pain in his heel, but he knows he's useless right now. Still, he can look and help with the tactics. He sees the Humvee sitting there, making it a perfect cover for his men to start the assault. Further down is a mess of dead and wounded. His RPG did a lot of damage. Most of the victims are burned, as if they'd been inside a furnace. A trail of blood runs up the ramp, showing where the driver of the armored vehicle ran over his fellow soldiers to get up here. It looks like a rogue action. Especially with the result it gave in the end.
The live soldiers try to get the wounded away and regroup. Some sort of hierarchical structure is re-established. There is method to their movements. Ismael can see it's now or never to minimize their own losses. He ducks back behind his cover and looks at the Captain.
We need to act now. Use the car as cover and start the assault, he types.
The Captain nods in consent and sends the command.
From behind Ismael the first group moves into position behind the vehicle. A few shots from below hit a soldier or two, but most make it to cover. They start firing at the enemy below, picking off the ones out in the open and able to move. The wounded are no thread so the don't waste ammunition on them. Next are the gunners nests to the sides. They can deliver the most damage. The constant hammering of bullets into the sandbags and above keeps the enemy at bay.
A person stands up behind one of the remaining vehicles. His shadow clear in the floodlights from behind. His arm moves back into a swing. Chitra, wielding an assault rifle, fires and gets lucky. The person falls back behind the cover of the car. The other enemies there get up and start to run back. Moments later an explosion drops the stragglers to the ground.
One by one the drones go down the ramp. Some are hit and crash but most make it, giving the techs a good view of the battlefield below. Most enemy soldiers have fled the scene. Some are stubborn or foolish enough to stay. With the help of the techs the last resistance is disposed of.
Now the second team, led by team Alpha, moves in. They run past the stranded vehicle and rush the gunners nests. There they take over the machine guns and create a cover for the first team to join them. Each wounded soldier still at the battlefield is killed. One bullet to the head is better than an undetermined time of suffering before help arrives. Also, the forces can't take the risk with those still able to wield a weapon. The tables are turned and the available cover is used to create a new base of operations.
Techs now send their drones off to map the second level of the parking garage. They find the same layout as the first level, with columns down the middle keeping the ceiling up. Husks of old cars line the walls, all of them pushed out of the middle to create a clear path for working equipment. Halfway down two more gunners nests are spotted. These, manned by teams of six, mow down the drones they see or hear but not before the layout towards the middle of the floor is mapped.
While the fit guards gather information to get the job done, Ismael and the other wounded get help from the medics who came with the reinforcements. Ismael helps out wherever he can together with the other guards still able to function. The number of wounded is low, but most of them are in critical condition. They lost five good guards to the Humvee gunner and that number would likely rise within the next few hours.
Two medics come running from the tech rig with a stack of stretchers. One by one the wounded get moved back towards the entrance and up out of the garage into the waiting support trucks, now outfitted to move the casualties.
The Captain and the squad leaders come together to assess the situating. They see it's imperative to finish the job now before reinforcements can be called for. In the back they can already hear dirt bike engines, just like the one they found up top, leave in an unknown direction.
The goal is clear, make sure the garage is cleaned of any enemy soldiers. The method is simple: move forwards along the car wrecks at the side and shoot all living people on sight. The resistance is minimal until they come within range of the machine guns. A few squads have snipers with them and twelve careful shots later the way is clear.
The squads continue their march down the well lit garage. They see no more ramps, so they assume this is the lowest level. Every few cars a soldier pops up to shoot at them. One even tried to get an RPG fired. He was downed by three Du Bois guards before he got to aim the cumbersome device. The closer they get to the back of this level, the heavier the resistance is.
Close to the end a camp comes into view. A large central structure clad in tarps is surrounded by tents ranging in size from single person to a full on command post. As they come closer and kill off anyone who dares to show himself, the size of the central structure becomes clearer. Behind the cladding a large circular device is revealed. The sides are open and show machinery unlike anything they've ever seen. Techs, intrigued by what their drones show them, buzz around the apparatus, much to the annoyance of the squads they're assigned to. A few rebuttals later the techs fall in line and help mop up the stragglers.
Now that all enemy resistance has been eliminated the Du Bois guards can take in the operation they set up. From what they can tell the whole project had been underway for some time. The amount of weapons and ammunition and the machines involved are impressive. The tube like machine at the back of the second level around which the camp has been erected is the largest by far. One of the techs found out the name of the old world machine, a tunnel boring machine, or TBM. A long time ago, before the ice came, it was used to create tunnels underneath seas, urban area's or mountains. This time, a group of insurgents hell bent on taking over Du Bois used one to get into the forgotten parking garage unnoticed. The engineering ingenuity is unprecedented in current times. The amount of research and preparation is mindbogglingly.
Ismael, patched up as best as possible for now, joins the Captain in the enemy camp. All around them Du Bois guards are dragging away the bodies of the dead. The city guard wounded have been hauled away. The whole operation has been a success, even if they lost nearly a squad worth of good people. All in all they defeated the enemy and the city is again safe, for now.
The Captain turns to Ismael as he hobbles over.
"Shouldn't you be in the infirmary by now?" the Captain asks.
"I feel fine," Ismael answers, "they gave a some sedatives and bandaged my foot, see?" Ismael holds up his leg for the Captain, swaying on his crutches.
"You're on some heavy medication, Ismael," the Captain says.
"I know! Isn't it great?" Ismael answers with a big smile.
"Are you clear enough to be of any help?"
Ismael drops his grin and adopts a serious look.
"Sure, I'm just playing," he says, "I asked them not to give me too much. I need to be clear to find out who is responsible for all this."
"You're not the only one around here who can do that."
"I know, but I am the best." Ismael says it without any arrogance. The Captain knows i
t and is happy Ismael didn't get hurt too much in the fight. He can use all the help he can get solving this puzzle.
"So, what's that?" Ismael asks pointing at the TBM.
"That's what they used to get here," the Captain explains, "at least that's what the techs came up with."
"It does fit the perfect circular hole behind it," Ismael remarks.
"That it does," the Captain says, "so let's go with that assumption."
"You know this could only mean one think, don't you?" Ismael asks.
"I guess so, but we can't jump to any conclusions yet."
"No, no, we shouldn't. At least until we reviewed all the evidence."
Ismael looks around at all the guards stomping around the camp site. The command tent has been cordoned off and is guarded by two men.
"I see you protected the main treasure trove?" Ismael asks.
"I did," the Captain smiles, "we can't expect every one of us to be careful around here."
"Is the leadership still alive for interrogation?"
"No, they either fled the scene into the tunnel or fought till the end."
"Did you send guards into the tunnel?"
"I did, but they used bikes and cars to get away."
"Damn," Ismael stomps his crutches into the floor, "I'd like to have talked to at least one of them."
"I know," the Captain says, "that would have been for the best. They did leave a lot of paperwork behind."
"Didn't they try to destroy it?" Ismael asks.
"No," the Captain shakes his head, "and I wonder why they didn't."
"Let's go and see what they left."
At the command tent the two guards let the Captain and Ismael through. Both give Ismael a respectful nod, as thanks for the heroic act with the rocket launcher before.
Inside three sides are lines with tables laden with papers and writing utensils. In the middle is a large table with a map. The map is held down by pins and a projector hangs above it. The projector is connected to a computer in the corner of the tent. From there power cords run to the now dead generator.
"We need that to work," Ismael points at the computer.
"Do you think it'll show anything?" the Captain asks.
"We don't know until we try it."
"I'll go and put some techs on getting the generator to run again," the Captain offers.
"Thanks," Ismael says, "I'll go and take a look at the analogue stuff."
The Captain leaves Ismael alone to rummage through the papers left by the enemy command. Most papers are written in Arabic, giving a clue to where the people here came from. Ismael picks one and reads the contents. It's a page from an instruction manual on the Humvee. It has been copied by hand and includes some drawings on how to fix the electric windscreen wipers. For Ismael's investigation it's useless, but for the techs it's a valuable piece of information to get that vehicle in top working order, if they get it out of here at all.
He looks through more papers, most of them from manuals on the machines used in the operation. The largest portion are about the TBM. The techs are going to have a blast with this. The amount of paper is too much to look into in any detail here. So Ismael turns back to the guards and asks for boxes to put the papers in. He'll look at every one of them back in town so that he'll be sure he missed nothing of importance.
From elsewhere in the garage a motor starts and the lights in the tent brighten. They must've run on battery power until now. Ismael hobbles over to the computer. There are no lights on. He looks over the front face of the case. There is only one button Ismael can push, so he tries it. The lights come on and a soft whir sounds from the back. He turns around to the map table. The projector above it is also humming now and a blue screen is laid over the map. Then it disappears.
"So? Anything yet?" the Captain asks while he enters the tent.
"Nope," Ismael answers, "I asked for boxes so that we can take everything back to town. I want to be sure I didn't miss anything in the papers."
"What is on all those papers?"
"Instructions on how to handle and maintain the machines used in the operation. All hand copied as far as I can see."
"Okay, so nothing we can use to find out who send them and what their timetable was?"
"No, we can speculate at the timetable, but I know who send them," Ismael says.
"How can you be sure?" the Captain asks.
"Well," Ismael says and takes a piece of paper from a stack, "it's the same seal as the orders we found with the scouts up top."
"So Al Bari it is," the Captain concludes. He shakes his head.
"Why did they invest all this time, money and intelligence into an operation like this?" he asks himself, "we can't possibly be that much worth to him?"
"Who knows?" Ismael says, "Their leader is supposed to be a power hungry maniac. So why shouldn't he do this? You of all people knows he's been trying to get Du Bois for decades."
"Yes," the Captain nods, "but those were minor skirmishes compared to this. The biggest attack from them had been with five tanks and a couple hundred infantry. That's easy to orchestrate compared to this here."
Ismael leans back on the map table.
"Look, Ismael," the Captain says pointing at the map.
Ismael looks around. His movement must've triggered something because now the map is augmented with projections from above. A sophisticated display of light shows the whole town of Du Bois in 3d. The details are incredible. Every structure, above and below ground level, is shown as if all the architects responsible for building the town over the past hundreds of years themselves put the visual together. Next to the town is the parking garage as it is now. The TBM is inside and the tunnel it created snakes off of the map. Markings of the troupes show where they found resistance on their way here. The last update had been before they breached the battlements at the bottom of the ramp. The wasted tank is depicted at the entrance to the first level, but the Humvee is still in formation on the second.
"Something is off," Ismael says, looking at the projection.
"What do you mean?" the Captain asks.
"I don't know," Ismael walks around the table. "The town is different."
"I don't see anything." The Captain takes a closer look at the town. He squints to get the best out of his old eyes.
"Here, look at this," Ismael says pointing at the farm. "Why are there two wings added to the top floor?"
"I'll be damned," the Captain utters to himself, "this can't be."
He walks towards Ismael and grabs his arm.
"These," he says to Ismael, "are the new additions they're planning. The plans have just been approved by the Council. How they got these plans even before the construction started is beyond me."
"There's only one possibility," Ismael says, "we have a mole."
The Captain and Ismael finish packing everything from the command tent into boxes and crates. They seal them off with special tape. That way they know for sure the evidence isn't tampered with. They take all the electronics too and send the table with the map, as it stands there, along with the rest of the contents. A group of guards get the order to take everything into the secure vault in Du Bois to await further investigation.
"So, what's next?" Ismael asks the Captain.
"Next, we plug the hole," he answers.
"How?" Ismael looks at the Captain, "and how sure can we be this won't become a problem again?"
"The first is simple," the Captain explains, "we collapse the tunnel. The second could be a problem. I've asked Xabier and his people to look into possible safeguards."
"Good thinking," Ismael rubs his hands with a big grin on his face, "shall we proceed in the explosive actions?"
The Captain pats Ismael on his back and walks out of the tent. Outside guards and techs are busy packing up everything they might need or can use. The bodies of the dead enemies have been carted off to be buried or cremated, depending on their religion. Ismael suspects there will be a lot of burials in the coming days. Pro
tocols state that they should wait for at least 2 days for the next of kin to claim the bodies, but that never happens. So they try to give the dead whatever their religion needs for them in case there is a relative looking for them later on.
The camp around them is bustling with activity. They walk over to the tunnel entrance where a full squad is standing guard. They have taken the sandbags and machine guns from further back up to the circular hole in the wall. Ismael looks down the tunnel. It is lined with concrete plates secured by metal bolts. The pattern is like brickwork, each ring shifting half a plate, to create a sturdy arch supporting the soil above and from the sides. It must've been hard to cut through the frozen ground where they are now.
"Captain," the squad leader salutes.
"Michael, isn't it?" the Captain salutes back, "What's the status of the tunnel?"
"It's empty sir," he reports, "any stragglers have been taken care of."
"How many did escape?" Ismael asks.
"We're not sure Ismael," Michael answers, "we spotted at least five dirt bike trails. We found one of those in a heap further down the tunnel, with the rider crumpled next to it. He probably crashed. He didn't survive."
"Hmm," the Captain scratches his chin, "so at least four to report back the defeat."
"Yes," Michael agrees, "what do you want to do next?"
"Collapse this thing and be done with it."
"Shouldn't we go see where the tunnel leads?" Michael asks, "At the least we could collapse it there and make sure no-one will enter it."
"We could, but the risk is too high," the Captain says, "we don't know all the variables and they could've booby-trapped the tunnel themselves. I don't want to create more casualties. Anyway, if we close it off here they won't come back in unless they have another one of these beasts."
"And," Ismael joins in, "if they travel down the tunnel only to find that we closed it off from here, they've got to travel all the way back. I wouldn't like that if it was me."