by John Conroe
The second tracer lanced out and hit the kneeling ogre in the head, punching through and into the gut of the ogre immediately behind him. The effect of the tracers and the sudden death of the head tosser was having a decided impact on the ogres to either side, all of them staring at their dead and wounded comrades. “Nice shot!” Mack said.
“I got lucky,” she replied. He didn’t really buy it. His sister was a really, really good shot.
“Firing,” Mack said, his gun going off immediately. His second shot came one second later and two ogres to the left of Jetta’s targets both went over backward.
Then the Sutton kids started continuous fire, walking their rounds down the lines to either side of the initial ogres. “They’re pretty tough,” Mack said. “They stay upright for a bit.”
Jetta snorted. “So do white-tailed deer, and these things have to go three hundred pounds or more. Plus the tracers aren’t as damaging as the 168 grain match rounds that are…” she fired, “next.”
“Yup, that’s the ticket,” he agreed. By now, at least ten ogres were down or wounded and running amok, while the rest roared in anger and fear. One gut-shot ogre ran right at the fort, looking confused. Immediately, the ones around him started to charge as well.
Jetta put the wounded one down with a single shot to the chest. “Mack,” she warned and he turned his attention from the line to the charging pack. Their combined shooting stopped the charge cold, killing or wounding at least fifteen, his rifle firing twice for each of her rounds.
“Reloading,” Mack said when the bolt on his rifle locked itself open. He waved Iona closer and snagged two mags from the vest, locking one into his rifle and putting the other down at his sister’s feet. He started firing just as she ran empty. “At your feet,” he said, punching out two quick shots.
Jetta reloaded and got one round off before the surviving ogres turned and ran deeper into the forest.
“They’re gone,” Mack said, lowering his smoking rifle. He turned toward his sister, only to notice the three spear points in his face and the two at Jetta’s back.
Clacher, looking fiercely elated, pointed at their guns. “Render your thunder bows safe,” he said.
Mack froze. Jetta was watching him closely, expression determined. Mack thought about it. Not the rifle, which hung in his left hand. It was too far from the close action that would be necessary. But the little Charter Arms .44 was still tucked under his arm, under his dragonskin shirt. Set the rifle down slowly, sneak the revolver out, twist and swipe at the spears with his left hand while his right delivers one round for each guard. Help Jetta, if she needs it, with her two. Reload while she holds them off with her little .22 magnum. Jetta could, and would, head shoot every guard near them, and her gun held an unbelievable thirty rounds.
Sergeant Kellan stepped up behind Jetta, grabbed her with his left arm, and held the blade of his big bronze seax against her throat. She startled but kept herself from reacting. Mack watched her expression change from expectant to resigned. He, himself, took a moment to meet Kellan’s eyes. The big man-at-arms looked calm and ready. He held Jetta tight but looked deceptively relaxed. Here was a man, raised from birth to wield edged weapons, ready to lay Jetta’s throat open to the spine. A trained, experienced killer. He had no problem meeting Mack’s angry eyes. Just another day at the office.
Mack relaxed and gently, slowly removed the magazine from his M1A. Then he cleared the chamber and snicked on the safety, more to confuse anyone handling the rifle than for safety’s sake. He handed it to Iona, who hovered nearby. Then he slowly took Jetta’s rifle and did the same thing.
Kellan watched him for a few seconds before finally pulled his blade away from Jetta’s neck, leaving a thin red line with a bead of blood welling up. Mack decided Kellan would die before this was over.
“Take them back to the storeroom,” Clacher ordered.
Jetta met his eyes as they were led away but said nothing. Nonetheless, Mack knew his sister well enough that words were unnecessary. Their time would be soon.
Chapter 20
Chris
Mainz, Germany, Earth
Omega was right about the locations, except the enemy chose to open both… at the same time. The closest portal started to cycle at twenty-three hundred hours, German time. The GSG-9 troopers guarding it hit the alarm as soon as the mirror film formed over the blank stonewall of the ancient temple, although Omega had alerted us a few moments earlier. His drones could now detect the rising levels of particle emission that preceded portal activation.
We were on site three minutes later, as our quarters were just outside the old temple structure.
“Mirror surface fully formed thirty seconds after initial activation,” the GSG-9 officer reported. “It settled out to uniform flatness one minute and forty-two seconds ago.”
The blank reflective surface suddenly rippled and a greenish object the size of a mango shot out of the gate.
I started to yell out but Tami had already raised her hand and the green slug froze in mid-air. “Burn it?” she asked, a hint of eagerness under her tone.
“Burn it,” I said. She smiled and the slug started to smoke, hanging in free space. It withered and shrank, the green turning to brown and then black, finally turning to dust. Erika stepped up next to her roommate and waved a hand, the dust blowing back at the mirror.
“Ready your men,” I said to the officer, who broke off his startled stare at the girls long enough to speak to his men rapidly in German. Weapons came up and aimed at the mirror just as six of Omega’s new dog-sized drones split apart into the smaller two-piece versions and shot through the mirror.
“Drones out and beyond blast zone. Clear to fire,” Omega said.
The officer looked at me and, at my nod, spoke one word. All ten troopers fired. Five had US SMAW-NE thermobaric weapons, which looked kinda like bazookas to my eyes, and five fired Russian GM-94 thermobaric grenade launchers, like massive 43mm pump shotguns.
All ten fired at once, then the five with the GM-94s pumped their actions and fired again, and then again, and finally a fourth time. The rockets and grenades disappeared through the looking glass and were just gone. There was no explosion, no noise, nothing.
“All rounds have exploded. Results are… impressive. I will provide playback of gathered intelligence shortly. It would be best to show all interested parties at the same time,” Omega said.
“How did it go in Israel?” I asked.
“Very similar, although in that location, the bio weapon hit the ground before Zuzanna destroyed it,” Omega answered.
Erika looked smug while Tami’s face stayed impassive, which seemed to be her default expression.
The military secured the portal by having a squat underground mining loader use its heavy bucket to shove a massive steel and concrete barrier up against the stone wall of the inactive portal. Engineers began fastening the barrier in place with giant bolts set into predrilled holes in the structure. The mining loader was the only heavy equipment that we could fit into the underground temple. German troops began to set heavy weapons and area denial weapons in place while my team retreated to the surface. Topside, the girls headed to breakfast while I was led into a command and control trailer.
Inside, I found a bank of monitors showing live views of the United Nations emergency council, the White House situation room, NATO Command, the Kremlin, Beijing’s analog, and a rather important feed from Israel that showed me my vampire… and her grandmother. A final extra-large screen was currently blank but powered up.
“Here is a composite feed from three of the drones that entered the portal in Mainz, along with a split-screen view of two drones that penetrated the portal in Israel,” Omega said.
The blank screen lit up with two side-by-side videos that ran simultaneously. The initial view in both was a blur as the recording drones shot through the portal, swirling in a dizzying manner as they rapidly climbed in altitude above the exit point.
Both scenes w
ere dim, like a cloudy, stormy day on Earth, yet the ground appeared to be dry rock and dirt and the light had a reddish hue to it. Figures could be seen briefly as the drones zipped out into the sky and away from the portal. Moments later, shocking flashes of light washed out the camera feeds in what must have been the munitions exploding.
“Seen at a greatly reduced speed, you may notice certain details,” Omega said.
The footage replayed and now blurry figures could be seen close to the portal. There appeared to be two kinds. The larger were familiar, black and glossy but bigger than a normal human. The second, smaller figures were grayish, with oddly large heads.
“Stop please,” my vampire said.
The scenes froze instantly. “Does anyone else think that looks like the gray men from UFO folklore?” Tanya asked.
“Hard to tell, Tanya, but it certainly fits that shape,” Nathan Stewart said from the White House situation room, where he was sitting two places to the left of the president.
“There is a definite similarity to the various descriptions noted in unidentified flying object encounters, specifically those aliens that have been collectively nicknamed ‘grays’ by the UFO society, although my own analysis indicates the smaller aliens come in several colors besides gray. The other individuals resemble infected humans utilizing the diamondoid armor, but twenty percent larger in size than an average human. Unfortunately, the speed required to achieve safe operating distance from the blast zones precluded a more detailed image capture. Here are live feeds from both locations.”
Both views now showed large craters, with smoke and small fires. In the one designated the German portal, a massive block of formed stone was pitted and cracked in several places. The Israel view showed a similar block, but this one was more shattered, with one whole corner split off and slumped onto the rocky ground. The screens split again, the German one going to three windows and the Israeli one going to two.
More devastation, more smoke, and lots of small fires. Then something moved in the Israeli shot. A blackened lump shifted amid the rubble and started to pull itself upright. Then something moved in the German scene, a dark shape, humping itself across the ground.
“Thermobaric weapons appear to be approximately eighty-six percent effective against the infected bioweapons. One hundred percent effective against the smaller, dominant life forms.”
“Those things can survive thermobaric charges?” a general at the NATO center blurted incredulously.
“They are incredibly resilient, General Dubois. The infectious biologic nano structures are very efficient at scavenging all useful nutrients and proteins for reconstruction of the infected entity. I am still researching just how this efficiency is achieved.”
“What’s the rest of the area look like, Omega?” I asked.
“The majority of my drones are in reconnaissance mode and are spreading out across the terrain. I have sent one to high altitude to gain an image of this world’s star fields.
Based on those readings, I surmise that this world is most likely in the TRAPPIST-1 system, although I do not yet have enough data to extrapolate which of the three planets it actually is. TRAPPIST-1 is approximately forty light years from Earth. It is located in the Aquarius constellation. The system’s sun is a red dwarf. The planet appears to be larger in mass than Earth.”
Video feeds had changed while Omega was talking, splitting into a total of twelve different views, including one high altitude shot of space. The lower shots showed rocky, reddish terrain with clumps of black and dark brown vegetation.
“Any signs of additional aliens?” President Polner asked from the White House situation room.
“Initial observations indicate that enemy activity was clustered around the portals. I have observed no roads, but there does seem to be aerial traffic, currently far removed from these locations. It would be best if my scout units remained undetected. To that end, I am destroying the survivors of the thermobaric blasts,” Omega said.
Five of the screens closed in on the few moving black-armored figures near the gates. The five views suddenly became three as four of the smaller units combined back into the dog-sized versions and began to fire their particle weapons at the enemy.
There was no visible beam but the effects were immediately apparent as the wounded zombie-like things began to shimmer with heat, the black armor splitting and crumbling apart. One by one, the surviving enemy units stopped all motion and quietly burnt away to ash.
“Incineration units will need to recharge for approximately the next eight hours and seventeen minutes, based on current light levels. I will secure them in less obvious locations.”
One of the drones was watching the big dog unit at the German gate, and one watched the Israeli drone dog bot. Both units moved into hiding, the German one digging into the broken, rugged terrain just beyond the damaged gate while the Israeli gate bot crawled into a mass of what looked like black shrubbery near its gate.
The remaining feeds kept changing, with some screens disappearing as Omega likely combined units, while others continued to move at high speed over the terrain.
“I am able to triangulate the positions of each drone from the others and have determined that the two gates are approximately seven hundred, ninety-three kilometers apart. So far, I have not detected any other enemy units between them. My outermost drones are now almost fifty kilometers from the gates in all four directions.
There is no detectable activity in that area.”
A Chinese official spoke rapidly in what I guessed was Chinese, definitely asking a question. Omega answered.
“Yes, General Liu. I have detected aircraft at the far edges of my sensor capacity. All of those observed units are traveling at speeds in excess of one thousand kilometers per hour. If my units are detected, they will not have sufficient speed to escape.”
General Liu spoke again, still in Chinese.
“The general is asking how this world compares to Fairie. Perhaps, General Liu, it would be best if we all spoke in English,” Omega suggested.
“Agreed,” Liu said, “As long as your American masters allow you to answer the question.”
“We have no more control over Omega than you do, General,” President Polner said.
“No? And yet the computer is assisting you with your other extraterrestrial endeavor, or do you deny this?” Liu asked, arching one eyebrow.
“What other endeavor?” one of the United Nations people asked. He was a tall, distinguished-looking older gentleman with dark skin and gray-white hair. I felt like I should know who he was.
“If you’re asking about the Earth citizens currently on planet Fairie, they are not our representatives, Secretary-General Bakshi,” Nathan Stewart said.
“It was our understanding that all portals to Fairie were closed. Who is there and why? And why were the nations of Earth not told?” Bakshi asked.
“Portals are never fully closed, Secretary-General. We reported that all portals to Fairie were secured, which is still accurate. However, the agreement that returned Earth’s children included unlimited gate passage for Ashley Moore, her father Ian Moore, and anyone she designated as a member of her party,” Nathan said.
“Ah yes. The so-called Dragon Speaker,” General Liu said. “Who, despite being of Chinese ancestry, is claimed by America as one of their people.”
“It’s called citizenship, General,” President Polner said. “It occurs when an individual is born in the United States. This particular individual was born of two US citizens.”
“Convenient,” Liu said.
“This girl is representing United States’ interests on planet Fairie? This is unconscionable,” Bakshi said, rising to Liu’s bait.
“Ashley Moore is representing the Dragons of Fairie in negotiations with the Winter and Summer Realms of Fairie. Earth is not involved in these discussions,” Tanya said.