Surge Forward (Book 2 of the Sheffield Chronicles)

by Nate Castle

  “Kap, what are you doing down there buddy?” Thomas said. He was trying to lighten the mood.

  “The hell if I know! It was business as usual until suddenly I felt sick and passed out. I didn’t even have the strength to make it to one of the tents before I did so,” President Kaplan said.

  “From the looks of it, everyone passed out just like you,” Thomas said.

  “I gather that’s why you and that fine lady of yours are back here now?” President Kaplan said.

  “You guessed it. Logan called us saying there was a problem. Any idea where he is now?” Thomas said.

  “No, he was gone before I passed out,” President Kaplan said.

  “Hey, it looks like others are waking up too,” Sierra said and pointed towards a congregation that was forming near a row of sleeping tents.

  “Someone’s gotta have some answers,” President Kaplan said.

  They walked to the group that was standing fifty yards away.

  “Does anyone have information regarding what just happened? Or did you notice anything out of the ordinary take place in the last five hours?” President Kaplan said.

  No one from the group spoke up, but one guy appeared to intentionally avoid eye contact.

  “Hey, lockjaw, why don't you spit it out? I can tell you’re itching to reveal something to us,” Thomas said.

  The man stuttered before he could finally put a sentence together, “I was working security on the South Main Entrance. Five men approached the entrance. When they got here they greeted me and told me the reason they were here was to help with all of the rebuilding projects. They asked if they could join the team. Naturally, I said yes and told them to head to the check-in desk where someone would log them into our system. Before I passed out, my vision started to become blurry, but the last thing I saw was these five men walking towards the R & D tent.”

  “What did these men look like?” Thomas said.

  “Hard to describe, but what they all had in common was a lot of tattoos. They were also ripped beyond belief, as if they lifted weights for a full-time job. One tattoo that each of them seemed to have was ‘XR9’ on their forearm.”

  “So we’re likely dealing with prison inmates, they definitely fit the M.O.,” President Kaplan said. “One of you needs to go to search XR9 in our database to find out what that means. Are we positive those guys are gone? Is it possible that they got gassed too?”

  “I’ll take a few others with me to see if they are still here,” the man who had provided the description said.

  “Come with me, Thomas,” President Kaplan said.

  They left the group and headed to the Situation room in the tunnel. Peeking through the entrance window, they could see someone typing rapidly on one of the computer keyboards; it was Logan.

  “Logan, what’s the word?” Thomas said as they walked in.

  “I’m not going to lie, we’re in some deep shit. Did you get a chance to see the damage in the R&D tent?” Logan said.

  “No, I just woke up from my involuntary coma. Did you not pass out?” President Kaplan said.

  “No, I was with Carter, Hank, and Shelby in Langley. We arrived back here and then noticed all of the destruction,”Logan said.

  “Destruction?” President Kaplan said.

  “A few alien crafts were destroyed along with the computer systems and supplies that were in the R&D tent,” Logan said.

  “What were y’all doing in Langley?” President Kaplan said, acting like he didn’t even hear Logan’s previous answer.

  “We were escaping these psychopathic inmates who took Shelby and I hostage in Nantucket. To make a long story short, they are here now in the R&D tent, we figured maybe we could find a use for them at some point,” Logan said.

  “These can’t be the same inmates the guy was describing?” President Kaplan said.

  “No, the timelines of the two events don’t match, but let’s go see for ourselves. You lead the way Logan. By the way, what are you working on right now?” Thomas said.

  “I’m trying to track down Garrett, Noel , and Christina. I located the alien craft that they were flying. It appears to be parked on top of a skyscraper in NYC, but I have no way of knowing if they are in the area too,” Logan said.

  Logan led them to the R&D tent where Carter awaited with the prisoners. The prisoners were awake but couldn’t do much in terms of movement as they were restricted by the nets.

  “It’s hard for me to believe that humans could have caused this kind of damage in such a short amount of time,” Thomas said. He was referring to the destroyed alien crafts that stood in front of him.

  “Yeah they would have needed some ridiculous tools to tear these crafts apart like so. I don’t think two hours would have been enough time to make that happen, “President Kaplan said.

  “The explanation that comes to mind for me is that the aliens captured some humans and executed mind control on them. They sent the humans here to destroy the crafts. The humans didn’t have to think for themselves about how to do so because they were being fed instructions from the the aliens,“ Logan said.

  “Normally I would say you’re crazy or on drugs, but I think you're spot on with your explanation, “ Thomas said.

  “What are the next steps?” President Kaplan said.

  “You’re the President, you tell us,” Thomas said and gave him a little friendly punch in the arm.

  “For starters, I think we should quarantine the area; no one comes in or out without permission,” General Kaplan said.

  “You need to think bigger picture. The aliens destroyed the crafts here, so why would they come back? Now there is a craft in the machine shop across the street. We also need to find out if the craft Garrett was commandeering is still intact. If so, we should set up perimeters around the two crafts and fight off the aliens when they come to disable them, “Logan said.

  “How do you propose we fight them off? “President Kaplan said.

  “Hank has a few tricks up his sleeve,” Logan said. “Also, I have reason to believe that the chemical substance that Hank used to subdue the prisoners in Langley is the same substance that was used here to put everyone to sleep. That verifies that it’s coming from the aliens.”

  “Hank had an alien chemical?” Thomas said.

  “Yeah he said he found it in one of the crafts a few months ago,” Logan said.

  “We still haven’t seen evidence that these aliens are violent in nature. If they wanted to kill us, they had the opportunity, but they simply knocked us out for a couple hours so that they could have a window of opportunity,” President Kaplan said.

  “Who is this?” Thomas said, as they spotted a red sedan coming towards them from a distance.

  They could see three figures in the car, but couldn’t identify them.

  “It must be Garrett,” Logan said and starting running towards the car. Garrett put the car in park and got out. He opened the door for back door for Christina and Noel and now all three were standing facing Logan and the others.

  “I take it you had a few setbacks in your plan, judging by how you drove here instead of flew in on the alien craft?” Logan said.

  “Yeah it wasn’t the best case scenario,” Garrett said, “We have two problems. One, the alien craft is parked on the rooftop of a skyscraper in New York City. We can’t for the life of us figure out how to move it. Second, I’m pretty sure the aliens have deployed bots. A bot is the best way I can describe it. To make a long story short, we had to run like hell and throw some debris in the path of the bot, so that we could find a car and escape the situation,” Garrett said.

  “Why can’t the craft be moved?” Logan said.

  “I accidentally put it in a mode that won’t allow it to fly, and I couldn’t figure out how to get back to its normal mode,” Garrett said.

  “One thing we did discover about the craft though is the extremely powerful cameras on the exterior. They can spot anything within let’s say a 20 mile range. That’s why we par
ked the craft on the skyscraper in the first place, so that the view for the cameras would be optimal. Then, we could spot anyone or anything coming into the area before they arrived,” Christina said.

  “Another reason why we need to get protection teams guarding the two alien crafts; the more we learn about them they more they become assets for us,” Logan said.

  “Oh look it’s the man of the hour,” President Kaplan said, as Hank entered the tent.

  “Logan and Hank, y’all deliberate for a couple minutes and when I get back, I want to hear a full fledged plan,” President Kaplan said, “I’m going to get a quarantine initiated on the area. Nobody comes or goes without a the permission of a high ranking official.”

  “Are you sure about this quarantine?” Thomas said, “It could create a lot of headaches for us.”

  “Yeah, after what just happened with the prisoners entering the grounds and gassing everyone, we can’t let something like that happen again,” President Kaplan said.

  “This is just my opinion, but if the aliens want to gas us again, they will find a way to do so, regardless of if we are in a quarantine or not,” Thomas said.

  “I respect your opinion, but this time I have to go with my gut,” President Kaplan said.

  Logan and Hank walked out of the tent to discuss a plan, away from the others.

  “How’s the bullet production coming along?” Logan said.

  “It’s better than expected, I was able to rig up some machines to produce the gas dart bullets. I have enough to feel comfortable taking the guns into battle now,” Hank said.

  “That’s good news, because we’re going to need them real soon. Also, to throw in another monkey wrench, Garrett informed us that the aliens have deployed motherfuckin’ robots too. Like we don't have enough on our plate as is, now we also have to figure out how to fight these bots,” Logan said.

  “That one could get bloody. We won’t know how to defeat the bots until we get in a confrontation with them at least once,” Hank said.

  “Ok, let’s talk short-term for the moment. I think we need to send protection teams to the craft in the machine shop across the street and also to the craft on the roof of the skyscraper in NYC. Are you down for that?” Logan said.

  “Hell yeah, I didn’t make these weapons for nothing. It’s a tough decision, but I think you and I should go to the craft in NYC. Especially because there are bots in that area. I don’t want to put this mission in the hands of some of the other jack wagons,” Hank said.

  “Done. Let’s tell Kaplan what’s going to happen, and then start loading the supplies and weapons we need into a humvee,”Logan said.

  They made their way back into the tent and discussed their plan with the others while they waited for President Kaplan to return back to the tent.

  “Just a thought, but would it be better to fly the alien craft from the machine shop to the tower in New York, so that both crafts are in the same location? It might be easier to protect them that way,” Garrett said.

  “We have to look at the pros and cons. One thing that scares me is if the aliens come to disable the crafts, they can do it all in one shot, and we won’t have any crafts left in our possession,” Thomas said.

  “I’m an all or nothing kind of guy, you’ve all witnessed it,” Garrett said, “In my mind there are two scenarios that could play out, either we defeat the aliens or they defeat us. When I say they defeat us, that entails them disabling our crafts and killing us in the process. I’m going into this expecting to defeat the aliens though, so it won’t matter that both crafts are located in the same place; they will still be there after this is over.”

  11

  Ace In The Hole

  “Sir, we’re receiving calls from Omaha, Reno, Boise, Eugene, and Olympia. There are a group of people on a slaughter rampage, killing other humans,” Carter said to President Kaplan.

  Carter was in charge of coordinating transportation but would also dabble in the communications department at times of need.

  “You’ve gotta be kidding me!” President Kaplan said, “As if aliens attacking us isn’t enough, now our own kind is too. Did they give a description of the people?”

  “Yeah all of the callers said the ten men had distinct tattoos, the kind you might get while in prison,” Carter said.

  “Okay, let’s be smart about this one. Maybe we can draw up a plan that involves sending out the prisoners that y’all captured in Langley onto the front lines to take down the killers,” President Kaplan said.

  “What about getting a whole arsenal of prisoners to hunt these men down,” Carter said.

  “You mean like going to a prison and rounding up more recruits?’ President Kaplan said, “That can be risky, that might come back to bite us. Prisoners are hard to control, they don’t handle taking instructions well. I think there will be enough people from the White House camp that will volunteer to go on the mission. After all, a lot of them must be going nuts waiting around here, and not being able to leave the premises because of the quarantine.”

  “You’re right, I’ll go see if I can put a team together, and also gather more information from the callers,” Carter said.

  Yosemite National Park—Zyrgian Headquarters

  The Zyrgians were displeased with their efforts to disable and destroy all of the crafts that the humans had in their possession. There was a malfunction in some of their software which is why they didn’t discover the craft that was parked in the White House machine shop. As far as the craft parked on the New York City rooftop, the aliens sent bots to target that one for two reasons. First, since the Zyrgian’s landed on Earth one year ago, they discovered they had a low tolerance for underground power. When power lines were underground, like they were in NYC, the aliens would feel fatigued after only about 15 minutes of exposure, for unknown reasons. Once fatigued, a Zyrgian couldn’t perform normal functions until it recharged. The Zyrgians don’t sleep, they just recharge.Yes, they could have found the source and shut off the power grid for the city, but instead decided to try the bots. If the bots didn’t get the job done, then they would fly in with a few crafts; one group would deploy and then fifteen minutes later a new group could relieve them. This process would continue until the craft was destroyed.

  The concern that the Zyrgian’s had was that the humans were planning to heavily protect both crafts. This intel had been gathered by one of the Zyrgian spy crafts. The Norytypoxal serum that would knock out the humans for two hours was low in supply. They were in the process of brewing more inside of the crafts. So, they needed to create a major distraction to shift the human’s focus. This was achieved by sending out the ten who were disguised as San Quentin prisoners into populated areas and killing a few people in the area before moving onto the next area. If it was just one isolated attack, D.C. might not pay too much attention, but if it was a series of attacks, it would draw more attention from the humans. Also, they intentionally had to leave survivors so that the news could be reported back to D.C.

  The ten were dropped off in Omaha, Nebraska first, a half mile from a Marriott Hotel and Event Center. This is where the majority of Nebraska’s surviving population had been living for the past 4 months. The ten aliens needed to go into the situation armed with human weapons, but when they checked a nearby Guns and Ammo shop, it was empty. They assumed that many of the humans in the event center would be armed, so their play was to catch them off guard and disarm some of them and then use the human guns to execute a few unlucky ones. Assuming there were no hiccups, they could take the weapons to their next target location.

  The first execution mission was successful, but the Zyrgians were now a man down. One of the aliens got shot during the process, which didn’t seem like a big deal, but they didn’t take into account that it was a human body that got shot, not an alien one. The human body couldn’t handle the gunshot wound and was rendered inoperable. Normally, the alien , which was still in the form of a small slug lodged inside the human’s brain would be abl
e to slide out of the brain, but this was a freak accident. The bullet struck the human brain in such a way that it trapped all exit points for the slug. The Zyrgians could adapt to whatever environment they were in; so for example, when they were on Earth, their bodies adapted to breathing oxygen rather than the gas they were accustomed to. When the brain of the human caved in, it caused oxygen deprivation and the alien slug died. This was a point of weakness that the aliens had to be weary of in the future.

  ——-

  “I can say with a high level of certainty, that these slaughter events are the work of the aliens, not humans,” Carter said.

  “How do you know?” Hank said.

  Hank, Garrett, Logan, President Kaplan, Carter and Thomas were standing in a circle bouncing ideas off of one another.

  “I called everyone back who reported an incident. I asked what time these incidents occurred and they told me. When I put together a timeline, it just didn’t add up. I asked myself, how could an attack occur in Omaha and then another one occur in Reno ten minutes later, if it was the same group attacking at both places? And from their descriptions, they sound exactly like the guys who gassed everyone on the White House property.” Carter said.

  “So much for the aliens not being violent,” Garrett said.

  “I’m sticking with my belief that they aren’t unless necessary. I’m not yet sure why these killings are happening, but there is for sure an underlying reason. Maybe they are trying to distract us somehow, get us focused on something else besides protecting the crafts, “Logan said.

  “You’re a real dreamer you know that? How does this stuff end up in your head?” President Kaplan said, “Some of your hunches have been right in the past though, so I can’t totally ignore them.”

  “I’ve got a team together on standby, 15 people including the 4 prisoners and myself to fly them there,” Carter said. “Are we moving ahead with the original plan?”