ALICE Space War

by Charles Lamb

  “I had thought, twins and all, we should do something associative?” Jake suggested.

  “What, like hand and glove or sock and shoe?” Sara asked sarcastically.

  “No, like Amber and Jade. They are both precious and beautiful,” he replied earnestly. The reply brought a tear to her eye as Sara reached out for Jake to hug her.

  “I think that would be amazing,” she whispered in his ear.

  Chapter 17

  With Jacob and Gemma married and off to Iceland, Sara settled in Nevada with the twins, and the Chinese and SAS on their way to the edge of the Solar System, Jake thought it might be a good time to take a look at the New York situation. He arranged to get Abby and a small contingent of the 10th and had them rendezvous in Maine, as it was the closest ALICE facility to New York.

  ALICE-5 was initially established as a medical facility before the attack, a role that was now considered less essential when compared to weapons manufacturing. While they did continue to make medicines and other medical supplies, the majority of the staff were there to learn. Designated as a recruitment training center, a large percentage of those in residence were new recruits getting a basic education before being sent to specialty training.

  “Welcome Jake,” Five announced as he set his fighter down in the main hangar area. Nearby, he could see the hovercycles of the 10th lined up neatly in a row. Five in all, it confirmed Abby and one troop had arrived as requested.

  “Thanks, where are the kids?” Jake replied with a tinge of humor.

  “Abby and Troop B of the 10th Cavalry are in the level 3 dining hall. They asked to be informed when you arrived,” the ALICE system replied.

  “Please have the five of them wait for me there and I will join them shortly,” Jake replied as he dropped his helmet on the seat and descended the ladder. Around him the hangar was far less crowded than most, with only small transports and helicopters nearby.

  Passing into the facility from the main entrance off the hanger, he was able to locate the office that had his research packet waiting. Before leaving Nevada, Jake had asked for a work-up on the areas of New York, specifically around large concentrations of people.

  The ALICEs tended to track the world population by default, a function they had perfected after the fall. More of a busy work activity, Jake had called upon it several times since his awakening to help decipher situations in the cities.

  “Good to see you, Colonel,” Abby announced as she and the other four troopers of the 10th rose from their table.

  “Sit,” Jake replied as he waved them back into their seats while taking one himself.

  Dropping the packet he had picked up on the way in, he pointed to the collection of photos and papers.

  “I asked ALICE to get us everything they had on the Central Park area of New York. It looks like you stepped into a bit of a mess there?” Jake explained as the five began to sort through the contents.

  “How so, sir?” one of the new troopers asked.

  “It appears that one of the old gangs in New York have taken control of the area around Central Park. As you can see in some of the photos, the gang colors and markings are distinct. ALICE believes this particular group was once related to MS-13. What they call themselves now, we have no idea, but they have similar tattoos,” Jake finished while pulling particular images out for the group to see.

  “Why would they care if we removed the stuff from the museum?” Abby asked.

  “They probably don’t. I suspect it’s more like a turf thing. I haven’t decided how to handle this yet, but what I do want is more Intel. That’s why you are here,” Jake said with a smile.

  “From the observations ALICE provided, we suspect that they are holed up in the buildings along Museum Mile. That entire area was once a High Rent district, with fine accommodations for only the best,” Jake commented sarcastically.

  “Ok boss, what do you need?” Abby said with a broad smile, her red hair pulled back in a ponytail so her face full of freckles lit up at the prospect of action.

  “Here is how I want to play this,” Jake replied as he leaned in on the group and outlined his plan.

  ----*----

  Edwin Banks was sitting in the pilot’s seat of the Phantom as they headed out to the edge of the system. Although not visible to the naked eye, the screens on his console indicated there were three Lanai transports ahead of them, holding the Chinese strike force. He was well aware they were headed to a rendezvous with Kola.

  With him in the navigator’s seat was Leftanant Atkins, more for company than anything else as the man was not flight trained. Everyone else on the SAS strike team was either in the galley or below in the main hangar. The ship was still configured in the same layout as it had been from the last mission, something that Edwin found fortunate.

  “Everyone settled in?” Edwin asked Daniel as he continued to scan the console before him.

  “Yes, Sir. It was most fortunate that the ship was ready to transport an assault force. The delay in reconfiguring the ship would have been maddening,” Daniel replied to Banks query.

  “We can thank Colonel Thomas for that. I understand some members of that action are still aboard Kola?” Banks asked as he turned to face the younger man.

  “Yes, Sergeant Carson is training with a small contingent,” Daniel replied.

  “Perhaps they might like to join us?” Banks said with a smile as he did the math on the number of SAS troopers below decks.

  “I shall inquire,” Daniel responded as he turned to open a communications channel with the space station ahead.

  ----*----

  Robert and Colonel Bo had decided to travel separately, each in one of the three transports headed to meet Kola at the edge of the solar system. It was Robert’s understanding that they had already transferred a number of ships and personnel from Kola’s hangars to the space station’s control in order to make room for his ships.

  As big as Kola was, almost three miles in total length, the Lanai transports and combat patrol ships tended to require a significant amount of floor space, even within her two massive hangars. In addition, the need to place them in stasis bubbles while in FTL required them to offload any equipment needed in transit, as well as all the on board crew.

  While there was no risk to the people should they be placed in stasis while traveling in FTL, most found the option not to their liking. Besides, the last-minute preparations for an attack usually required a final briefing before dropping out of FTL and that meant they needed to be available.

  As it was, they would need to drop out of FTL just before arriving at the jump off point to restock the transports beforehand. The goal was to arrive at the edge of the desired system and launch the attack force immediately, reducing the time the NeHaw had to prepare.

  So, with that in mind, both Robert and Bo had their people training the entire four days to the rim. The end goal was a force honed to perfection. So why was Robert so worried?

  ----*----

  It was very dark as Jake wandered the streets of New York. Riding behind Abby on the way in, he had been dropped in Central park just after midnight, not terribly far from the MET. Once Jake was on the ground, Abby had her troopers spread out as per the plan, all hovering just above the building tops and with their night vision and infrared enabled.

  Besides the visual equipment in the helmet of each rider, each of the hovercycles had Jake on a tracker. As he made his way into the buildings east of the Museum, they could follow in hover mode. Spread out in all four compass directions, their main function was not to track Jake, which was Abby’s job. Their function was to alert everyone of any possible hostiles as he moved through the buildings below.

  In support of the 10th, ALICE had both satellite and drone coverage of the area. At this time, Jake suspected there was not another area on Earth with more scrutiny. Carrying a suppressed submachinegun and sidearm, he was not really interested in killing anyone. He just wanted to verify the threat and possibly gather a little I
ntel around who ran things here.

  Moving up to East 81st street, the tall buildings on either side assisted him as they blocked what little light was making its way to the ground. Sticking to the shadows, with his combat suit doing its best to camouflage him from prying eyes, he caught the occasional flicker of light from above. No more than candlelight in strength, he had little fear of it exposing his movements.

  “Jake, that building to your left has quite a few heat blooms inside,” Abby whispered in his ear. While he was positive no one could hear what was being said into his helmet, everyone had a tendency to whisper at times like this.

  “That building faces the park. I bet the apartments here were pretty pricey in their day,” Jake replied as he studied the recess where the entrance was. He imagined a doorman standing outside, both assisting the residence and shooing away unwanted visitors.

  A movement inside the windows confirmed the entrance was likely guarded still, now with guns. Scanning the outside of the building, Jake could see a decorative ledge, running crosswise to the structure and looked into the fifth floor windows. Moving further east on 81st, he passed the entrance undetected and then crossed the street until he stood at the southeast corner of the building.

  With one leap, he managed to catch the edge of the ledge and slowly pulled himself up until he was standing on about 2 feet of stone fascia extending out from the building. He stood there quietly for several minutes, waiting to see if he had been detected before he started moving west along the ledge, back towards the park.

  “Jake, just so you know, we have sentries moving on top of the building,” Abby confirmed.

  “Searching or just moving?” he replied as he froze in place.

  “Looks to be just moving, wait, he stopped at the edge over you,” Abby replied.

  As Jake stood motionless, he suddenly detected a stream of liquid from above, passing him by thankfully.

  “Jake, you are not going to believe…” Abby started before Jake cut her off.

  “He’s pissing, yeah, I know,” Jake responded.

  Jake held his place, for fear the sentry might be looking over the edge as he relieved himself. Luckily, it stopped soon enough and he got the all clear to move once more. Using both night vision and infrared, Jake located a window where there were no indications of life on the other side.

  Slipping the pane up was easy as it wasn’t locked, being the fifth floor and all, he slid inside the room and closed the window. Doing a quick sensor sweep he found no indications that the rooms in this particular apartment were occupied. Silently, he moved to the door to the hall and again, tested for any bodies beyond. Once he had the all clear, it allowed him to open the door and check the empty hallway.

  One particularly handy setting Jake had picked up in his helmet was a small display window inside his facemask heads up or HUD. While he was seeing the world in an enhanced Night Vision/Infrared mode, he had a small pane showing what the actual conditions were. In this case, enhanced, he could clearly make out both ends of the hall, while an unenhanced occupant would see total darkness.

  Slipping into the hallway, he made his way past several doors before he found the stairwell. Again, he found the stairwell in complete darkness, and empty of any occupants. Entering on the fifth floor, Jake had counted a total of twelve floors from outside the building.

  On his approach from the park, he had seen several dimly lit windows on the top floor of the structure. Unsure if it was nothing more than squatters, the high concentration of occupants in the building gave him the sense of a place of importance.

  As he ascended the stairs as quietly as possible, he heard noises from above indicating someone was coming down. He thought he heard two voices in hushed conversation as they continued to come closer. Telltale candlelight indicated someone was holding a candle, lighting their way down the stairs. Quickly checking the door on the eighth floor, he slipped inside a darkened, empty hall as he waited for the two to pass.

  Pushing the larger weapon to one side as it hung from its strap, he drew his suppressed sidearm. At this close range, should they enter the same hall, he could press the muzzle against the two in quick succession, insuring additional suppression and quick kills.

  The candlelight under the door was as bright as day to his night vision as the two men reached the landing for the stairs on eight.

  “I tell you I saw something in the sky. It was floating above 83rd, north of here,” one of the men said to the other as they paused on the landing.

  “Dude, there is no moon, how did you see shit?” the other replied as he stopped. Jake’s helmet sensors told him someone had just lit a tobacco product nearby.

  “Hey, you got one more,” the first man replied. Jake presumed he was asking for a cigarette. As he waited, he heard noises of movement beyond the door.

  “The stars, man, they flickered,” the first replied after making the distinct inhaling sound of one drawing on a cigarette.

  “Stars flicker, you asshole, that’s what they do,” the second man replied as they continued their trek down.

  “Not like this,” the first replied. From that point the two men had descended past the point of Jake’s concern.

  “Abby, you copy that?” Jake asked, wondering if she had heard his audio pickup.

  “Everyone, add five hundred feet to your hover,” Jake heard in response on the tactical net.

  “Copy,” came the uniform response.

  With that Jake continued up the stairs uninterrupted until he reached the 12th floor. He did a quick recon to verify that the last level opened up onto the roof. Slipping back down one level, he found the door to 12 locked. In addition to the door handle there was a deadbolt for extra security on the steel fire door.

  “Abby, can you scan the roof and the top floor. I’m looking for an empty room,” Jake asked as he considered his options.

  By now he was fairly certain they had happened upon a gang house. That made sense, considering the significant amount of fire they had taken once discovered working the Museum across the street. His only quandary was, did he go in shooting or ghost in and out as originally planned.

  “Jake, I still have two warm bodies on the roof. Every room I can scan on 12 has occupants, but from the vitals I think most are sleeping. Either that or they are almost dead,” Abby replied.

  The response gave Jake an idea. Slipping back up to the top of the stairs, he checked the roof door and finding it still unlocked, he slipped onto the roof undetected. With his night vision, he could see both sentries at the opposite ends of the roof, each looking out and away from him as they scanned for threats.

  Long ago, Jake had enhanced the combat suit he used for such excursions. Slipping silently around the edge of the structure where the stairs exited onto the roof, he quietly approached the first sentry. Grabbing the man by both shoulders from behind, he sent the equivalent of a Taser shot through the man. It was only Jake’s grasp that prevented him from dropping to the ground.

  Placing him silently to one side, out of view of the other, Jake repeated the process on the second man.

  “Ok Abby, come down here,” Jake instructed.

  Once she had set down in an open area on the rooftop, Jake proceeded around to the rear of the hovercycle and rifled through the storage box until he found what he was looking for.

  “When I say go, drop these down those ventilation shafts,” Jake commented, handing her three of the grenades he was holding. Walking over to the center of the structure, Jake looked down to see the open central section of the building, where the interior was open all the way to the first floor.

  “Now,” Jake said as he pulled the pins on two of the grenades he held and dropped them into the open void. Turning, he was in time to see Abby finish the last of her three.

  “Follow me,” Jake said while motioning for Abby to follow. Pausing just long enough for her to grab a suppressed weapon identical to the one he carried, the two descended to the 12th floor landing and waited. />
  “That should be good enough,” Jake commented after several minutes. His suit sensors had alerted that they detected the gas he had just deployed seeping up from below.

  Placing the muzzle of his weapon near the door lock, he proceeded to demolish the deadbolt with two shots. A swift kick did the rest, leaving the door wide open. Wandering from apartment to apartment, the found the entire floor unconscious.

  “What are we looking for?” Abby finally asked after following Jake through several rooms.

  “The leader,” Jake replied. After a knowing grunt from Abby, the two split up and continued the search. After an hour of searching, they had selected three likely candidates. One by one, he called in one of the remaining four troopers. The subject was restrained and confined unconscious to the rear seat of the hovercycle, where they would be held in place until released.

  After the last of the three possible gang leaders was secured, Jake left a communicator and a note in one of the rooms. Then he returned to the roof and took his seat behind Abby as they shot northward to ALICE-5.

  Chapter 18

  The morning following their snatch and grab of the suspected gang leaders, Jake was awakened by the ALICE-5 command center communications tech with an urgent message.

  “Colonel, there is someone screaming obscenities at us from the communicator you left in New York?” the young woman explained as the reason for waking him.

  “I am sure there is,” he replied with a chuckle before asking her about the prisoners.

  “Anything from our guests?” He asked sleepily.

  “If you mean the three detainee’s pounding on the cell doors, more of the same language as the New York source,” she replied flatly.

  “Let’s let them all stew a bit then. I’ll reach out to you later with instructions,” he replied before going back to bed.

  ----*----

  Jason knew the most dangerous part of this type of mission was the time when you knew the end was near but you just had to wait. People became complacent and anxious for the mission to be over. Then they got sloppy and that's when bad things happened.