Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  Since the day they took the shuttle and the training crew to the Mars Station, they had been extremely busy running transportation back and forth between Earth and Mars. It was a great way to train the new shuttle pilots and crew and a perfect way to develop a good relationship between the Earth astronauts and scientists and those from Verron and Grnardo. As soon as the crew had returned to NASA Headquarters with the word of an alien nation inhabiting Alpha Centauri and that several of them were working side-by-side with Verron on Mars, a team of scientists was assembled to join the team on Mars. The first positions were offered to those who had been in the original Mars exploration that went bad. Within a week, 2 French, 2 American, 2 Japanese and 2 Russians were shuttled to the Mars Station. On their way home the shuttle stopped off and picked-up a satellite and returned it to Earth for repair and updating. Two weeks later it was returned to orbit, all at a fraction of the cost it would have been to replace it with a new satellite launched from the Cape. Those at the Cape were in awe when the Shuttle departed on schedule while tropical storm Nathan blew in off the coast with 60 MPH wind and torrential rains.

  Pavel, Cali and Hon were the most experienced pilots and responsible for the training of the pilots selected to fly the new ship. Camil and Ina worked with the ground crews and flight engineering on how to operate the ship and satellite recovery system, maintenance on the ships gravitational system and the onboard machine shop and service center. Before long, the shuttle would be able to retrieve a satellite and do the required repair and upgrades right in the Shuttle service bay. NASA was ready to make upgrades to the Hubble Telescope and training a crew to go on a flight with the Shuttle team. Telecommunication companies and even allied military were beginning to make inquiries into contracting the Shuttles service. New housing units were under contract with Verron by France, Japan and the U.S. These would soon join the small city being erected in Valles Marineris. By the beginning of the following year the little town of Valles Station would house over 100 residents. King Verron was looking at the possibility of doing the same thing on Mars that had been done on Molnar, enclosing the entire city in a domed forcefield would protect it against the occasional meteor shower and provide an atmosphere outside the buildings and tunnels where people could have a little room to move, or even plant a garden. It would require transporting a much larger whitematter reactor to Mars than they currently had on site. It required tremendous amounts of energy to power a forcefield that covered almost 50 acres and could maintain a breathable, temperature controlled environment.

  Several of the dooms-day types were predicting an invasion of the Godless Aliens and claimed that they should not be trusted with Earth’s secrets. These people were too stupid to realize that the secrets being given to Earth were far more valuable than anything Earth had to offer. Technology was a one-way street and Earth was learning fast how to use equipment and to do things they had never imagined possible.

  While Tala and Brad were having their ordeal in Nevada, Katelyn was in Tennessee visiting Emily, to discuss the possibility that she join her in the fight against gangs and drugs, Bart was obsessed with trying to decide on exactly how he should deal with his new revelation about Major Katelyn Verron, Hunter was in Afghanistan systematically targeting village after village filled with Taliban, and Amber was making plans for Robert to come home with her for his Thanksgiving break and trying to determine how many of her Academy classmates were going to join her on Verron, Freidal Ungar and his group of 30 highly paid mercenaries were traveling from various points around the East Coast and Southeast with a coordinated arrival time of 10:00 PM Sunday night at a rented warehouse on Merritt Island, Florida. This group of Russian, West German and Ukrainian mercenaries was a highly skilled organization assembled by Freidal with one goal in mind; kidnap the aliens living in Florida and delivery them to the Russian research facility hidden deep under the Caucasus Mountains. He had already been paid half of the $20 million Euros for the job and was dreaming of what he would do with his share after the mission was over.

  Russian and German genetic researchers were anxious to get their hands on these specimens. His mission was to deliver them alive, but if he had to kill them, he would still earn half of the remaining 10 million for the bodies. His men had been studying everything they could about these aliens and others from Verron. He had even been allowed to see Russian satellite footage of the Verron body armor at work in Iran. He knew that the typical armed attack would not work. Bullets had little effect on these aliens, but he was certain that by this time tomorrow he would have five aliens safely tucked away in Russia.

  Over the past couple of decades, both the Russians and the Australians used sleeping gas in a hostage situation. Neither worked as planned, in both situations hostages died along with the kidnappers. However, the Russian biological warfare and genetic research center did not give-up on developing a better and more efficient weapon. They studied the deaths of their hostages and continued their testing on prisoners in Siberia until it was perfected. Instead of trying to pump this new product into a ventilation system and slowly putting their targets to sleep, giving them time to don gas masks or kill the hostages, they had developed a much faster working formula and a far more efficient delivery system. The COX23 formula can be delivered by missile, artillery round, mortar, RPG or hand-thrown canister. The extremely fast acting sleeping agent is combined with an oxygen eliminating compound. While the oxygen is removed from the immediate area surrounding a target, the intended target reflexively inhales in gasps to get air into their lungs, instead, they inhale larger quantities of the sleeping agent, thus by combining the two, an almost instantaneous reaction takes place, rendering a person immobile in seconds for up to three hours. Freidal Ungar had acquired enough COX23 RPG and hand-grenade sized personnel units to take-out the six-man Marine security team and launch an RPG round through every window and door in the home being rented by the Verron contingent training the people at NASA. There were exactly 30 windows and doors in the beach-house, Freidal had exactly thirty RPGs. He was hired for the job because those in Russian intelligence knew he would practice and drill his team to perfection. He had considered every detail and every contingency. It was 0100 and the kidnapping team was in place, their escape helicopter was circling nearby and the Gulfstream G650 was standing by for the arrival of their precious cargo.

  If everything worked as planned, the six Marines would wake to find an empty house. Freidal had no intentions of killing anyone unless necessary, but his men were well-armed with suppressed Uzi mini-subs, night vision goggles for when they killed the power to the house and gas masks. He looked at his watch and at precisely 0115 – 30 RPG rounds filled with COX23 fired simultaneously as planned shattering the windows and glass doors to the beautiful white stucco home. Immediately following, four grenades were tossed at the four Marine perimeter guards. The other two had been in the kitchen on break when the air was sucked out of the room to the sound of shattering glass. The unsuspecting aliens from Verron were taking every precaution, even wearing their forcefields to bed, but none of them was prepared for the sudden gasping for breath then blacking-out before even getting out of their beds. The kidnappers moved swiftly to the house carrying stretchers for their victims and heavy straps to confine them to the steel frames. Freidal was feeling a sense of pride when he entered the kitchen to find the two Marines lying on the floor and then entered the living-room where the two goat/monkey creatures had been snuggling on the sofa watching the James Bond movie Skyfall. Everything was going perfectly, except that Shapeshifter clones do not require oxygen and can live on a gas-ball of super-heated acid mist if required.

  Camil was not happy to be woken by a wall of shattering glass covering her bed. She jumped-up immediately and looked through the adjoining bathroom at Cali slumped half in and half out of her bed, unconscious. In seconds Camil shifted herself into a hard-shell form covered with spikes and long razor-sharp claws on her feet and hands. She shifted her vision to thermal imagi
ng and stepped into the hall.

  When Freidal heard the screams of terror from upstairs he wondered what had gone wrong with his plan and raced up the stairs with eight other men, weapons ready. Before they were halfway up the stairs, dismembered bodies came sailing over the upstairs banister rail and two of his men tumbled down the stairs disemboweled. There had been 10 men upstairs and none was responding to Freidal’s call. Then, suddenly, at the top of the stairs, appeared a blood covered creature that looked like a nightmare. Standing almost seven feet tall and covered with long spikes extending from every inch of its thin metal frame, blood and flesh covered claws for hands and even pointed spikes protruding from the tops of the things feet, it stared for a moment at the armed mercenaries and actually smiled with a set of blood covered fang-like teeth. In a flash, the thing was slashing, kicking and even biting its way through the men at the top of the stairs. The rest of the men began to retreat as quickly as possible, firing round after round of magnum powered ammunition with no effect. It never slowed a bit as it began to increase to unbelievable speeds and systematically mutilate every member of the assault team in its path.

  Freidal radioed the two helicopters to evacuate the remainder of the team as he raced toward the boat ramp behind the house where they were to rendezvous. When he approached the pier, one helicopter was loaded and taking off with as many men as could fit in it, while what was left of his team anxiously waited for the next bird. From behind him Freidal felt a hot ball of flame flash by just inches above his head, the escaping helicopter exploded in a flash of superheated light. Freidal dove in the water to the side of the pier as the alien demon slashed its way to the end of the pier, killing everything in its path and ignoring round after round of gunfire. Then Freidal knew any chance of escape was over when a second fireball incinerated the other incoming helicopter. Freidal peeled of his gear and desperately tried to disappear into the dark water of the river, diving beneath the murky water and swimming as far as he could underwater. He suddenly felt himself being stopped and pulled upwards, then floating inches above the choppy water beside one of his only remaining men.

  Drifting in the air across the water towards the pier, Freidal and the one surviving member of his team knew that it would soon be over. Twenty-nine of the best men he could find had just been killed in minutes by this hideous looking thing that now had them completely under its control. When they were floating in the air over the water inches from their death, Camil clamped down on their wrists so hard she broke the bones underneath and they heard a gravelly voice say, “Come with me.” When Freidal looked around his surroundings he was inside a brightly-lit room and listening to a big man with a Russian accent speaking to several others around him. Freidal heard the beast say, “Vlad, we need an emergency team at the beach-house immediately.” The man turned and didn’t even appear phased by the appearance of the monster breaking his wrists and holding his comrade, who had passed-out, easily over its shoulder. Then, before his eyes, the thing transformed into an attractive 20 year-old woman, and said, “These fools attacked us, everyone else is unconscious or dead.” She laughed, “Their gas doesn’t work on me. These are the only ones left, can I interrogate them?”

  Vlad turned to the other people in the room and commanded, “Lock these two up for now.” Turning back to Camil, he continued, “We better tell King Verron and get back ASAP for the others.” Vlad had Lucy connect to Paul Verron, who was in a meeting with General Zarman and General Hall. He gave him a summarized report and in minutes Paul and the two generals were walking through his door. Although Camil had shifted back into a normal looking human, she was still covered with blood and body tissue. Paul took one look and asked, “The others?” Camil replied, “I think they are just knocked-out, but we better take a medical team just in case.”

  At 0145 a contingent of 30 Verron Marines accompanied King Verron, Vlad, both generals and a dozen members of the medical staff entered the family room of the bullet riddled, glass and body covered rental home. Ina and Pavel were lying strapped to a stretcher. Hon IV was face down on the floor next to a stretcher and mutilated men in black commando uniforms were strewn all over the house. The Marines in the kitchen and outside the house were bound and gagged, although unconscious. While doctors examined Ilna, 99 and Hon, another group hurried upstairs to find Cali. They were pretty disgusted by the time they wadded through the pools of blood and human remains on the way to Cali’s room at the end of the hall. It was quickly determined that the members of the Verron Shuttle team were drugged but had good solid vital signs. Regardless, Paul had them returned to Verron for a complete examination and close observation until they were coherent enough to return to their activities. After looking at the carnage, Vlad asked his star undercover asset, “What did you use on them?” Camil transformed back to her demon form and smiled. Paul and Vlad actually cringed at the hideous image. Paul shook his head, saying, “Go home and clean-up and please floss. There is still meat between your teeth. We’ll interrogate the two survivors first thing in the morning.” Camil vanished back to her apartment on Verron. Paul looked around at the disbelief on the faces of not only the Marines, but of his generals and the medical team. Dr. Meese asked, “Camil did this by herself?” Paul nodded his yes. Meese looked around and commented, “She always seemed like such a gently girl. Remind me to never make her mad.”

  After the medical team had left with Cali, 99, Ilna and Hon, and double checked to make certain that none of the body parts in the house was still alive, Paul made a decision. He didn’t want an international incident, nor did he desire to have the killing field that used to house his team photographed and investigated by every State and Federal Agency on Earth. He was going to simply destroy the house, but then he still had the mess in the yard and all along the pier to clean-up. He decided to remove every trace of the kidnapping gone bad. He had Lucy contact Daniel and Chase and instruct them to bring a containment bomb to the rental property. He hoped the owner had good insurance, he would be sure the man who lost his rental property was well compensated. After setting the charges at the four corners of the property and including the pier, they moved Hon’s Four Play and the fishing boat out into the river. In a bright flash that could probably be seen in Miami, the property vanished and water rushed in to create a nice deep boat harbor for the surrounding homes. Paul dropped anchor for the fishing boat and they all climbed into Hon’s new toy. Racing up the Banana River, Paul created a gateway and was instantly headed up the Crystal River for his friend Bill’s boat manufacturing facility. He wanted Hon’s boat decontaminated before it had free run of the clean oceans of Verron.

  Freidal woke in a cell with his arm in a cast. Food had been placed on the table by his bed. He had just finished eating the scrambled eggs and sausage when the door opened and three people entered the room. He remembered Vlad from the night before and began speaking Russian to him. To his surprise, the other two, a man of about 30 wearing a gray commando uniform and a cap with a red dragon on it and an attractive woman that looked a lot like some movie star he had seen, yeah, she looked like Uma Thurman, but he realized when he heard the voice it was the demon from the night before. The woman removed a syringe from a small container and without saying a word, slammed the needle into his sore arm and injected the contents. In an instant he felt a tremendous euphoria sweep through his body. They all smiled as the man in the red dragon cap told the woman, “He’s all yours. Save a little for us, we’ll go next door and see his friend.”

  Camil began to ask questions, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not help but give her anything she requested. She had been interrogating the man for about a half hour when the door opened and one of the goat/monkey creatures entered the room. Camil, and for that matter, no one, had ever seen 99 angry. It was not a pleasant sight. He looked at the man in the chair and punched him square in the face, breaking his nose and shattering his teeth and jaw. He then smiled at Camil and declared, “I hope you had all the information you needed, he
may have a little trouble speaking now.” He looked the bleeding man in the face and informed him, “No one harms my wife and gets by with it. I would kill you right now if you weren’t being protected by King Verron.” He turned to leave and changed his mind. He spun around and kicked the man in his right knee. Camil thought the crack could be heard even in the room next door. Pavel then left the room to return to the hospital and his still unconscious bride.

  After a lot of discussion and planning, it was decided what would be done in retaliation. Freidal knew exactly were the secret Caucasus research facility was located. That is where he was supposed to deliver the captured aliens. Paul had no problem in recruiting volunteers for his plan. Pavel and Hon both agreed that since they looked the most alien of the group, that they would allow themselves to be delivered to the genetic research center at gun-point by Freidal and his very cooperative comrade. A medical team did a quick patch-up on Freidal so he could walk on his broken leg. The next day a Gulfstream G650 landed at the restricted air-strip in the valley next to the research center. Two dozen armed guards greeted the wounded heroes who had managed to return with two live aliens for testing. Exiting the Gulfstream in cuffs and shackles, under gunpoint, Hon and 99 were quickly escorted into the underground facility. The elevator under the mountain went down a dozen levels before reaching the bottom floor where the two aliens were to be studied thoroughly and eventually biopsied and studied cell by cell. Once in the medical center and surrounded by the very staff of scientists and doctors who hatched the kidnapping plan, Hon and 99 easily broke their restraints and looked directly at Freidal and his lieutenant and simply said, “NOW!” and made a gateway out of the facility. A very cooperative Freidal and his companion opened their jackets to reveal four plasma rounds each. Those in the room tried to escape and soldiers raised their rifles to shoot the two would-be bombers. In a flash of heat and light as hot and bright as the Sun itself, twelve floors of reinforced concrete and steel disintegrated. The mountain above crumbled to fill the huge hole left by the explosion. The buildings and small military outpost sank into the deep hole and were covered instantly by the landslide that followed. Only two sentries who were patrolling the outer perimeter survived to tell the story of what they saw happen. Russian chemical and genetic research would not have any need for alien specimens. It no longer had a chemical and genetic research program.