Raid on Kahamba

by Peter Lok

  “What the hell just happened?” Willie called up the pilots.

  “Don’t know, sir. Looked like an EMP from the direction of the laboratory. We lost systems temporarily but they’re okay now. Everything looks normal. No sign of radiation. Should we still jump?”

  “If it’s clear, then yes. We still got a job to do.”

  “Roger that. Depressurize and drop the rear door,” ordered the pilot. The loadmaster depressurized the troop compartment and started the door opening to reveal the darkness beyond. It was still an hour to sunrise.

  “Everyone still okay here?” Willie then asked.

  There was a resounding chorus of yeses. “Ready for jump then. Link suit navigation. Night vision on.”

  The red light jump light switched to a green. “Go! Go! Go!” yelled the loadmaster.

  The team members trotted forward and began leaping off the back ramp. Angie watched nine men and women jump in front of her through the greenish night vision display of her suit. She took a slightly nervous deep breath and also made the leap into dark void outside the aircraft. Behind her, Willie jumped last, making sure his charge was okay.

  ***

  The darkness was broken by flashes from sparking electronics and cables that cast weird shadows in the smoky air. Shani coughed, the acrid smell of burning electronics filled the air in the analysis lab. Other than the sparks, only a faint amber glow from the alien artifact illuminated the burned out CT scanner in its chamber. Panicky yells from guards and scientists added to the general pandemonium. The amber glow from the artifact dimmed more and more as moments passed.

  Shani had been monitoring the CT scan along with instrumentation about temperature, radiation emissions, and magnetism. In the middle of the scan she had realized that radiant energy levels were rising in the artifact. She had yelled at the technicians to stop the scan, but it was too late. There had been a brilliant flash of light, one that was even visible through the shielded windows of the scanner chamber. This was followed by the popping of electronics and lighting as they overloaded, then darkness. The world had seemed to tip or twist for a brief moment - she still felt slightly nauseated. She was at least reassured that the displays she had been watching had not showed any lethal radiation before everything failed.

  The battery-powered emergency lights finally flickered then came on, their dim light barely illuminating the room. Scientists grabbed fire extinguishers and began putting out a few small fires that had started.

  “What happened?” Colonel Kybera asked. The man was more stunned then angry.

  “I think the artifact released a large electromagnetic pulse - an EMP,” Shani replied. “Thank God, there was no other radiation.”

  Colonel Kybera barely took in her statement as the full extent of what happened sunk in. “You should have been more careful!” he yelled. “We could have been killed!”

  “But…” Shani protested.

  The big man slapped her across the face hard, stunning her with his ferocity. He was about to strike her again when he realized that he had learned something.

  “Clean up this mess,” he ordered. Shani meekly nodded, still holding a hand to her stinging cheek. “Guards, secure the artifact in the vault. This proves that it is very powerful indeed. The President will be pleased.” With that he left the room with his bodyguards.

  ***

  Grand Master Jk’shth, in her formal ceremonial draping, trod down the main way of the Congo Colony with her retinue of priests, heading towards the Central Dome. Very little traffic was on the street at this late hour. The high priestess had been roused from her sleep in the middle of the night by an urgent summons from the military leader of the colony.

  These cities on Earth were very different from the grand mounds of the home world. The cities were young and followed the same urban patterns, but they seemed so different at the same time. To Jk’shth, they just lacked a certain presence from the home world, and felt more like the environment of a colony ship. Perhaps it was the newness, or the air they were breathing, or the light from the sun of this new planet. The only place that really did remind the old Grand Master of home was the replica of the Great Shrine back in the Brazilian Colony, deep in the Amazon rain forest. She missed the shrine, but it was necessary to visit all of the colonies and keep up her people’s faith. The place for the Shre’lor in the Great Shrine was empty, but it would eventually be recovered. Jk’shth could sense that the mother egg still existed. It wasn’t just faith. She had communed deeply with it in her time and touched its presence with her mind.

  Like others of her species, Jk’shth was slightly larger than a human with a more slender build reminiscent of a newt or salamander. She moved along on her four rear limbs, walking like a centaur, her two grasping limbs held in front of her. If she needed to Jk’shth could stand higher, rising on her rear limbs so her middle two limbs could be used for lifting and holding. When she did this her vestigial tail came into play as a counterweight.

  Jk’shth’s head resembled that of a frog, its flattened snout bearing a single horizontal nasal slit. Two large round eyes faced forward, in front of a domed cranium that contained a very intelligent brain. Her large mouth contained rows of small, sharp carnivore teeth. Her smooth, dark bluish skin glistened with moisture, drinking in the warm humidity of the African night. Descended from an amphibious ancestor, her species were at home in water or land, but did most of their daily living out of water. Humans knew her kind as Blue Newts, but they called themselves the Sh’thimori or the People of the Water.

  A small reception line awaited Jk’shth and her retinue on the steps of the Central Dome. A larger male Sh’thimori in a differently patterned leadership draping of the military caste stood in front. His high-pitched raspy voice sounded out. “Our apologies for interrupting your slumber. We welcome her Holiness, The Grand Master Jk’shth.”

  Jk’shth stopped in front of the awaiting leader. “It is good to see you, again, Nest Leader Kr’shl. May the Shre’lor bring its blessing on your life and endeavors.”

  “Always polite, wise Jk’shth,” Kr’shl rasped back with a hint of sarcasm. “The blessing is much appreciated.”

  Jk’Shth would not be provoked. “We may oppose each other in the Grand Council of Leaders as to how we deal with humanity, but we remain united as a people, despite our different castes. All life is one under the Shre’lor.”

  As if he had been waiting for this moment, Kr’shl spoke clearly. “I may have news about the Shre’lor.”

  “What! Has it been found?” Jk’shth could not help but raise her hopes. She had still been a little sleepy, but no longer. Her middle limbs did a little nervous tremble that underscored her excitement.

  “Not yet, but we may have a good chance of recovering it. As you know we have focused our efforts at recovery on this continent where much of the wreckage from the mothership fell. We have not found it yet, but it is only a matter of time.” With a sneering shrill, he added, “We have even used these pathetic humans. They betray their own race for money.”

  “Yes, yes,” Jk’shth prodded, ignoring the other Newt’s attitude.

  “We have detected a gravity wave consistent with that emitted by the Shre’lor. It only lasted a moment, but we have a general location. It is in human territory, in the region they refer to as Tanzania. The humans must be examining it, the foul desecrators.”

  Jk’shth reacted quickly. It would be a grand day if the Shre’lor was retrieved. There would be great rejoicing. “We must try to retrieve it, but we do not want a new war with the humans. So many died in the last one on both sides.”

  There would be no war right now, Kr’shl thought to himself, the time was not yet right. “We have border skirmishes with the humans fairly regularly. It is quite a nuisance. This area is not fully claimed by the humans of the PAA, so we should be able to strike without provoking war.”

  “That is good.”

  Kr’shl found himself reacting more eagerly to the thought of fighti
ng than he expected. “As this is an offensive operation, do I have your permission to attack?”

  “You have my permission. Do not be too eager to cause damage,” warned Jk’shth.

  “Very well.” Kr’shl turned to an assistant and ordered, “ Launch the new Zr’prihl Hunter units on my command authority. This will be an excellent test, and they can arrive within hours using the new booster units.” This was turning into a most auspicious morning despite the early hour. If the Shre’lor was recovered he would gain great prestige. “Grand Master?” he asked with great politeness. “Please accompany me to the Command Centre. We can observe the proceedings from there.”

  ***

  “Are we set for low altitude parachute extraction, X?” Joshua asked his mecha’s AI. This AI had been with him since he had piloted his first HARM unit into combat. Some pilots gave their AIs real names, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that. His AI, whatever its upgrades, would always be X, named after the X-14 prototype he had piloted.

  “All systems are green,” the AI replied in its synthesized voice, “this mecha is in aerial deployment mode. I am ready if you are.”

  His AI had developed a dry sense of humour some years back. The techs said it was okay, and might have happened because the AI had been running so long. Joshua didn’t mind, so the humour had stayed.

  “Unit One, ready.” Joshua called out.

  “Unit Two, ready.” Penny called out.

  “Roger, that,” the transport pilot replied over the intercom. “Loadmaster, drop door.”

  Motors began to whine and the large cargo ramp at the back of the plane began to lower. The converted stealth bomber was flying low, around 50 metres off the ground. They were running in stealth mode and were next to invisible right now, but the low altitude made it safer for dropping the mechas within. The plane might be invisible to radar, but the HARMs were not.

  “Standby,” said the pilot. Moments passed, then the red drop light turned green. “Over drop zone,” the pilot announced.

  “Locks off,” called out the loadmaster. “Drop one!”

  He pushed a button to release a drogue chute attached to the back of Joshua’s HARM unit. The chute trailed out behind the plane, opened, and Joshua’s HARM was jerked backwards right out of the cargo compartment.

  A few seconds later, the drogue chute for Penny’s HARM unit opened and jerked her mecha out of the aircraft too.

  Once clear, each HARM unit blew the explosive bolts attaching its drogue chute. Falling quickly, they shifted from their kneeling configuration into a crouched landing position, firing their jump rockets to land safely in a cloud of dust in the African bush.

  “Unit One, down,” Joshua announced. He unlimbered his primary weapon, a coilgun that fired electromagnetically accelerated projectiles at hypersonic velocities.

  “Perimeter scan is clear,” announced his mecha’s AI. “It does not look like we have been detected. A small herd of large animals is half a kilometre to the northwest.”

  Joshua took a quick look at the night vision data. “Elephants!” he exclaimed. Welcome to Africa, he thought to himself. “Too bad there’s no time for sightseeing.”

  “Unit Two, down,” Penny spoke over the radio. “We’re going to miss the safari.”

  Bringing up a map on his cockpit display, he selected the route to the Kahamba Mine. “Penny, form on me.”

  ***

  Alpha Team had regrouped after the parachute landing and was holding on a small rise that was barely higher than the tallest building in the Mine. Angie had landed a little roughly, but was fine.

  “You’re right, this is almost too easy,” Mitch muttered. Scanning the mine site with his electronic binoculars, he zoomed in on the visual feed that displayed via his helmet’s HUD.

  “It looks like the power is out for the entire mine and the lab, ” Willie added. “There is some emergency lighting on and the guards look totally disorganized.” Even as he watched, half of the floodlights on the perimeter fence came on, then flickered back off. “Looks like they’re having electrical problems.”

  “You think the EMP knocked out all the power?”

  Willie looked at his second in command. “I’d say that was probably it. Too unlikely to be a trap. Let’s see what our spy says about this.” He waved Angie over. “You think that alien artifact might have caused that EMP?”

  Angie thought for a moment. “I don’t know. It’s possible. No other alien artifact recovered does this, but we haven’t seen anything that looks like the egg. This is going to cause a problem though. It probably means we have no way of contacting Shani. Cellphones and communications in general are probably fried.”

  “That’s just great,” Willie casually commented, as if he almost expected this to happen. “I guess the free ride is over boys and girls. We’re going to have to break our way in the hard way. Mitch, your section takes point. We’ll work our way around the main lab building and come in from the rear.”

  The team carefully crept down to the perimeter fence and cut through it. Mitch’s section split off while Willie’s section stayed behind. A stealth entry always took patience. There was peeking, sneaking, and waiting. It took almost ten minutes for Mitch’s section to reach the laboratory building. They had to take care of two roving guards and a sentry taking a leak, but everything had run smoothly.

  Mitch fired the tranquilizer gun. Phht, went the compress air rifle. The trailing guard slapped at his neck and collapsed in a heap. Switching targets, he then shot the lead guard before the first hit the ground. Phht. The lead guard went down moments later. His section rushed the final distance to a service entrance at the back of the lab. They grabbed the unconscious guards and dragged them off into the shadows where they were not likely to be found.

  “Cathy, the door,” Mitch ordered.

  Cathy, the team’s security specialist, checked the back door and opened it by just turning the door knob. “Door is unlocked, Sarge. The electronics are fried so all the mechanical safeties have kicked in and released the door locks.”

  “How convenient.” Mitch and the rest of his team entered and checked the interior hall and a few rooms to see if it was clear. He then went back outside and signaled for Willie’s section to advance.

  Willie’s team had been covering the approach to the main building from some outlying sheds. They dashed across the open distance to the rear entrance. Their raider suits had power assist and boosted every running step until they were running in quick bounds that quickly ate up the distance.

  Willie conferred with Mitch and Angie inside the building. “The lab is on the third sublevel along with the vault.” Willie was walking them through the map via their visor displays. “We’re going to need to pass through this office area and then work our way down the stairs. Elevators will all be dead.”

  “What about retrieving the doctor? We don’t have any idea where she is going to be and communications are out.”

  “I think she’ll be near the artifact,” Angie guessed. “She’ll know that communications are out and that we’re on the way. Hopefully she’ll have her son with her.”

  Willie caught Angie’s eye. “That’s a pretty big assumption.”

  “Shani is smart. My money is on this scenario.”

  “Okay,” Willie agreed. “Then we’ll get the artifact and the doctor at the same time. If not, we’ll have to split a section off to round her up from the residential area, but time will be very limited. Mitch, secure our exit route, and we’ll take the main access.”

  The two sections carefully worked their way through the office area then split up. Willie’s section headed down, while Mitch secured the upper levels and the exit to the garage.

  ***

  Unit One and Unit Two arrived on another low rise near the research facility. They were crouched down in the cover of a copse of acacia trees, their active camouflage making them look like an extension of the wide canopy. A couple of curious birds even perched on them, not sure what to ma
ke of these mysterious intruders.

  Their overwatch position viewed the research facility from the side. They had covered the entire commando advance, including Willie’s team darting across the open to enter the building. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be much enemy activity so far. Joshua refocused his attention on the security barracks and headquarters buildings at the front of the facility near the main gate. There were two platoons of army regulars stationed here, with one platoon on duty at any time. More importantly, there were four armoured personnel carriers and two H2 first generation Chinese HARM units parked in the motor pool by the barracks.

  When the commandos exited, Penny and he would have to destroy the APCs and Chinese HARMs with their coilguns, then cover the egress to the air strip.