Krieger Platoon

by Jay Ivanovich

  Ramirez shrugged again. “I don’t really care either way.” Willits was the only one so far that hadn’t thought his cavalier humor wasn’t funny. She wouldn’t even smile at his jokes! Damn he was gonna change that eventually. Who could resist him? He’s the joker!

  Cholius walked back into the security booth, just outside the doorway. “Hey, it’s time to go.”

  The two slowly moved to rejoin their team; Cholius waited for Ramirez to enter the elevator then stopped Willits just outside the door. “What did you see over there?”

  Willits shrugged casually. “A spilled coffee mug and what looked like dried blood on corner of that desk.”

  “No, I mean what did you see back in that hallway?”

  Cholius had lowered his voice slightly and stared at her, which only made it more difficult for her to answer. Did he think she was being jumpy? Willits turned her head away, slightly embarrassed. “Uh, I thought I saw something…like a figure…but it wasn’t anything, really…”

  Cholius thought about her answer then slowly nodded. “Very well…but if you think you see something…even if you think it’s nothing… I want you to report it, understood?”

  Willits nodded respectfully, if not a little dismissively, and walked onto the lift. “Yes Sergeant Major…”

  Cholius suspiciously stared down the dark empty hallway they had come from a final time, then walked onto the lift and keyed his radio. “Pierce, this is Two Bravo, just out of curiosity… What is this place and why is everyone missing?”

  Pierce responded a moment later, much to Cholius’ displeasure. “That’s classified.”

  The elevator began its long and slow descent down into the darkened shaft below, and the air became frigid but also strangely humid and close together, much like how cramped the team was now. The temperature was dropping fast too.

  Joe tried to stretch out his arm, but accidently bumped Wallace in the head. “Uh, sorry.”

  Wallace grinned back. “It’s ok, man.”

  Lee yawned loudly and leaned back against the railing. “How many floors are there? I should’ve brought a paperback…”

  Ramirez leaned forward to glance over to Lee. “Hah, man you’ve been so quiet this whole time, I almost forgot you were here!”

  Lee snidely remarked. “Yeah, thanks Ramirez… Just because I’m not a chatter box like you.”

  Ramirez laughed. “You’re just jealous!”

  Joe turned and shushed them harshly. “Hey…stay alert! Stow that morale until later!”

  The elevator slowed to a halt, and then opened its doors into a very long, dark, and frosty room; glowing ever so slightly from the hundreds of small blue LED indicator lights on the core’s equipment. The room was stacked to the ceiling with large and now very outdated servers and mainframes that ran several continuous rows all the way down to the opposite side of the room. Small corridors between the servers were the only real paths to be found, and they were just small enough to be a challenge for a fully combat armored soldier.

  The teams carefully exited the elevator, did a quick scan of the room, then began to groan and stretch as much as they could. The room was felt as close together as the air, and now it was so cold they could see their own breath! Ramirez shook and rubbed his gloved hands together. “Daaaaaamn, why is it so cold in here?”

  Kabir turned to him and smirked. “Because it’s the core, genius. They need to keep it cold or all this equipment will burn up.”

  Lee took in a deep breath and gently breathed it out his nose. The cold, damp air was a comforting, nostalgic feeling for him. “I love the cold. It reminds me a little bit of home in the winter… If there’s one thing I miss most being on this barren rock, its snow. Real snow.”

  Ramirez stayed quiet for an unusually long time for him. The comment had hit a little harder and closer to home than he’d expect. “That’s deep man… Got ME thinking about home now. Missing my momma’s enchiladas right about now...”

  Kabir sighed at the remark. What a depressing turn for that conversation. He didn’t want to think about that miserable stuff, especially not REAL food. “Man, shut up... You’re making me hungry...”

  Pierce came over the radio a second later, this time slightly more excited than usual. “Go all the way down the center to the other side of the room, there should be a large work station tied directly to the main server panel. Insert the data stub as you have done before, and I will handle the rest.”

  James motioned over to the rest of his team, began to carefully squeeze past the servers, and found what looked like the panel in question. Joe squeezed through another set of servers a moment later, data stub already in hand. He slid the data stub home and was about to press the power button when Cholius suddenly appeared from between the servers and stopped him with a bark. “Wait! This entire situation is in Pierce’s favor, and we still don’t know what it is we are actually doing down here. Don’t do anything yet.”

  Joe recoiled his hand and removed the data stub from the port, and glanced back at James. “Yeah… he has a good point.”

  James nodded in agreement, then keyed his radio. “Pierce, I want to know what exactly we’re doing down here, and I want to know NOW. You don’t tell, then we don’t do this.”

  Pierce was silent for a moment. “You are granting me access to the core, so I can reverse the lock down.”

  Cholius shook his head not believing the words for an instant. Pierce was obviously hiding something. He keyed his radio. “And what does access to the core mean? What EXACTLY is this place?”

  Pierce sighed, clearly annoyed now. They were on the right track then. “This facility is part of our extended national defense network, and granting me access to the core will allow me to bring the system back up to operating conditions. Can we get on with it now?”

  James stared down at the data stub in Joe’s hand for a moment, then replied. “Yeah, and what does this national defense network do?”

  Pierce was silent for a good thirty seconds, he was increasingly agitated. “If you must know…this is an automated failsafe system. In the event that the nation is compromised or if the system detects a large scale attack, it will activate and respond to all immediate threats.”

  Cholius smiled. He could tell by how pissed off Pierce was that he was ACTUALLY answering the questions. He keyed his radio again. “What do you mean it will respond to all immediate threats? How exactly?”

  Pierce sneered his answer. “By any means necessary, Sergeant Major. You saw the horrible state of Crystal City on your ride in, correct? This will prevent the rest of our nation from suffering that same fate! Now, we can sit here and play twenty questions all day while you slowly freeze to death in the core, or you can finish the job, protect your country, and return home! Please make up your mind sooner rather than later.”

  Cholius sighed and shrugged at James. “Think we should?”

  James sighed and checked the temperate readings on his wrist coms, it was 4 degrees Celsius. Damn… Joe began to rub his arms together to stimulate warmth. “Sir…we can’t stay down here for much longer…This is our only way out, I think…”

  James tilted his head back and sighed loudly in frustration. “Yeah we really don’t have any other choice… Alright Joe… Do it.”

  Joe reinserted the data stub, the three carefully shielded their eyes from the anticipated blast of light, and Joe held his finger against the power button… 5 seconds…10 seconds…20 seconds…but nothing happened. James carefully unshielded his eyes and shrugged at him, confused. “Did you press the right button?”

  Joe made sure he’d put the data stub in the right port, and that it was securely in, then shrugged back just as lost. “Yeah…I thought so. It was the same button I pressed before.”

  Bright white LED lights flashed on and lit up the server room a moment later, temporarily blinding the whole team. The work station began scrolling lines of code, then rebooted itself with the electronic clicking and whistling of a dozen energized serve
rs, and displayed the words ‘Hydra Initiated’ on the monitor.

  Pierce keyed in once more; the calm and cockiness of his voice had returned. “Very good, you accomplished a simple task without incident. Now, leave the same way you came in and make sure you don’t touch anything… Some of that equipment is worth more than you are. I’ll be in touch soon…’Command’ out.”

  He added that last part just to annoy them. Cholius wasn’t thinking about that though, he was staring curiously at the monitor. “Hydra…that’s interesting.”

  James grunted in frustration. “Let’s move out…I’m sick of this damn place.”

  The teams made their way up the maintenance lift, back into the now activated security section, and out into the brightly lit hallway. Willits straggled behind for a moment, curious to recheck the scene of the spilled coffee she had found earlier. Something about it was nagging at her.

  Ramirez yelled down the hall to her. “Willits! Come on! Not this shit again!”

  Willits ignored him, and found an overturned box of pens… Nope, that’s not important.

  Ramirez walked into the room and sighed loudly. “Willits, seriously! You aren’t a detective…”

  Willits passed him an annoyed expression and continued searching around. Ramirez sighed and crossed his arms. “I can’t leave until YOU do. We have to leave as a team, remember?”

  Willits began to open up random desk drawers and searched through their contents, finding mostly sticky notes and pens.

  Ramirez sighed again, this time intentionally louder, but then his voice became very serious. “Come on Willits… Oh damn… Willits, look at this!”

  Willits grunted in frustration and continued looking through the drawer. “I’m not joking around, Ramirez.”

  Ramirez grabbed her and turned her toward the camera feed monitor. “Look at camera 9…”

  Willits jaw dropped as she focused in on the video feed. “Is that…what I think it is?”

  “An inter-planetary ballistic missile…” Cholius walked in silently next to the two, and stared at the camera feed intently. This is exactly what that snake Pierce wanted from the start, and he used Krieger to do it. “The pieces of the puzzle are coming together.”

  Ramirez stared back at Cholius, now very troubled. “Aren’t those illegal? Nukes are illegal, right? We wouldn’t ever use them again, right? Not after Earth…” The possibilities of another nuclear war suddenly became a horrifying reality to him.

  “Ramirez, I think we may have just set ourselves up to do exactly that.” Cholius didn’t hide the gravity behind his words, as he keyed his radio. “Krieger Command, this is Two Bravo, do you read me ov-“

  The cold steel barrel of a side arms pressed up against the back of Cholius neck, stopping him dead sentence. A cold and hauntingly familiar voice followed. “No sudden movements, Sergeant Major.”

  Chapter 17 – Oh, it’s like that!

  Bag continued to cycle every frequency he could possibly tune into on his wrist coms, frantically trying to re-establish communication with anyone what so ever. “One Alpha! Two Alpha! Command! Anyone! This is Krieger Actual!” Bag secured the radio and growled out in frustration. “Damnit! If Pierce has ANYTHING to do with this…”

  Matt sighed and leaned up hard against the wall. “Still nothing?”

  Bag dropped his face into his hands and slid down the wall into a sitting position, Jon, who seemed just as pissed off as Bag, moved over and sat down next to him. “I’ve tried everything and the fucking elevator still won’t open! Don’t worry, when we get back we’re going to tear that indoor sunglass wearing piece of shit apart!”

  Bag took his helmet off and set it on his knees. “That’ll be a start…”

  The radio had a momentary burst of static, followed by Cholius voice clear as day. “Krieger Command, this is Two Bravo, do you read me ov-” But the transmission abruptly stopped.

  Finally! Bag quickly keyed his radio to reply. “Cholius! Cholius, do you read me?”

  James came over the radio instead. “Bag! Man, it’s good to hear you again! That CIA guy blocked our coms when-” A loud indecipherable noise came over the radio before the feed went silent.

  Oh, not again… Bag keyed his radio wildly. “James? James are you there?!”

  James came back shouting. “Shit! We’re getting shot at and the elevator won’t respond! Fuck!” The radio went silent with the sound of automatic gun fire.

  “James?! Damnit, who is shooting at you?” Bag snarled in agitation, then snapped his head over to Matt. “Blow the door! We need to get down there, now!”

  Matt furiously dug through his satchel for his explosive paste gun, then rushed over to the elevator door and began to putty the entire door frame. Bag and Jon began checking their weapons and equipment, and Bag keyed his radio again. “Valor, are you there?”

  Valor responded laughing a moment later. “Hah! Shut up, Alighten! Oh, Sorry Bag. What’s up?”

  “I need you to have your guys back here and ready to move out in 2 minutes.” His voice was suddenly calm and professional again.

  Valor cheered with excitement. “Oh yeah boss, we’re ready now! Yo, we heard James call in, is everyone ok?”

  Bag sighed. “We’re going to find out as soon as we get down there. Just be ready man.”

  Matt finished the line of paste and placed a small radio detonator onto the bottom of the door. “Everyone back!”

  The soldiers took cover around the corner, and Matt held his thumb above the detonator button just as the elevator doors dinged open happily. The three exchanged curious glances and slowly moved forward, weapons at the ready, toward the…very empty elevator.

  Jon laughed bleakly. “Great timing. Secure that charge, Matt.”

  Matt placed the detonator back onto safe and put it in his satchel. “Should my team wait here?”

  Bag nodded, as Jon and himself entered the elevator. “Yes. We need you to hold this area until we get back. Expect a quick departure.”

  Matt passed him them thumbs up. “You got it.”

  Jon pressed the button for sub-level 7, and leaned against the back wall and stretched as it began its descent. “So… Go in guns blazing and all that shit?”

  Bag shrugged indifferently. “Yeah, if it comes to that. If anything is out of the ordinary, I plan on shooting it until it’s fixed. I’ve had enough of this bullshit.”

  Jon burst into laughter. “Hah, good enough for me.”

  The elevator doors opened a moment later, and a burst of automatic fire dented the center of the elevators metal plating. Jon and Bag dove to the deck and carefully avoided the rest of the oncoming fire, to which James shouted over. “CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE! Who’s that in the elevator?”

  Jon snarled out. “It’s Santa Clause… Who the fuck do you think it is?!”

  “Sorry Jon, we thought you were more hostiles! It’s safe to come out…just stay down, shots been coming from down the hall on the left.”

  Jon and Bag carefully crawled out of the elevator and over toward One Alpha, who were all barricade behind overturned chairs and tables and anything other thick objects they could find, with their sights aimed down the hallway they had taken earlier. The lobby was now riddled with bullet scarring and the hallway in question looked like a tornado had gone through it; doors were blown off the hinges and the fire sprinkler system had been activated.

  James grunted loudly in frustration as Bag and Jon crawled over. “They came out of nowhere, literally... We were walking back to the elevator just as Cholius cut out. A few moments later we were ambushed from down that hall. I think there was about…four? The only way to see them is on thermal…and even that’s difficult… but the sprinklers help outline them.”

  Bag carefully glimpsed over the barricade. “Any communication with Cholius or the rest of his team?”

  James shook his head bleakly. “No... The hostiles tried to rush us right before you got here…but now everything’s quiet…”

  “Hostiles�
�? Who exactly?” Jon glanced over the barricade and stared carefully at the destroyed hall.

  An eerily familiar voice yelled out from down the hall, silencing the conversation. “Colonel Kirovich, is that you? Oh, and I know that isn’t Colonel Reverent! Oh I apologize, I forgot you like to be called Jon.”

  Jon and Bag exchanged equally shocked and concerned expressions. “There’s no way…”

  A figure moved out from around the far corner of the hallway, restrained and limping badly. Oh no…it was Lee! He was stripped of all his equipment, including his boots. Lee walked forward about 10 steps, then was forcibly dropped to his knees by…someone they couldn’t see.

  Kabir growled loudly. “Those fuckers got him! We need to do something!”

  James shouted out. “Everyone stay cool, alright? HEY LEE! DON’T WORRY SOLDIER, WE’RE GONNA GET YOU OUT OF THERE SAFE!”

  A pure black, heavily armored figured materialized behind Lee, pistol already pointed at his head. It appeared to be powered armor from the mechanical joints and the entirety of it was plated with small armored scales that flexed easily with the figures every movement. The helmet seemed like an old Kevlar variant that had been sealed for space, and with dark grey tinted glass face shield that joined into the helmet base.

  That technology was beyond anything seen from even before the last war… It was supposed to have been lost, but that wasn’t the only issue now. The voice behind it was much more of an issue; it spoke again with the same terrible amount of smugness. “I knew when I saw Cholius that the rest of you would be around somewhere. Who are all these new faces I see? Did the Army finally replace all the soldiers you sent to an early grave?”

  Bag let out a long drawn out, and now frustrated sigh. “Sempra…”

  Sempra removed his helmet and smiled deviously back at them. “Oh, and here I was worried that you wouldn’t remember me!”

  Bag, Jon, and James exchanged very startled expressions. How the hell did he hear him say that? Bag had whispered it!