“Yeah, well, next time don’t piss off your wife would be my suggestion.”
“It’s so cold I feel like there’s a Special Forces team of miniatures in my mouth pulling teeth!”
“Don’t give Leon any ideas,” Ariel replied, giving the towers one last glance before shaking her head. “We might just have to keep calling in more Nautili from other timelines until we have enough to throw a shield around the entire planet. Not like we have the time to come up with anything this last minute, and this short-handed.”
“Don’t sell me short,” Natty said. “That’s what got my wife lusting after Leon. You don’t want to go lusting after Leon, do you? The guy can crush you just by rolling over you in his sleep.”
“Hey, I can’t get my assault rifle to work!” piped up one of the teens on Alpha Unit. “I think the cold’s jammed it.” The rifle went off in his hands, shooting down a piece of one of the Tesla towers. Natty and Ariel stared at the youth in disbelief, shaking their heads slowly in tandem.
“Where the hell is Omega Force?” Natty asked.
“There are just two cloned teams on earth, and one of them is currently on the moon. The remaining one will be beaming in and out, as needed. They’ve got a lot of black sites to cover, not just this one,” Ariel explained.
“And if we need them here at the same time they’re needed somewhere else? The Kang aren’t going to ignore this place forever.”
“The Nautilus has given them the ability to be in multiple places at once, in such instances, saves time and resources printing up more clones. Something about supercharging their energy bodies and keeping hellacious amounts of chi flowing through them.”
Natty nodded. “That’ll do it.”
“On me!” Ariel shouted to the rest of Alpha Unit. Alpha Unit, their hi-tech equipment in hand, folded down inside silver suitcases, commenced their march toward the installation and the nearest open door leading to shelter from the cold, which Natty was fairly confident was frozen closed. Alpha Unit was used to taking orders from Patent, but it wasn’t like any of them wanted to be in command, so they weren’t about to contest Ariel taking charge. The teens just wanted something to do to turn this living hell at the edge of the world into something more like a fun videogame.
Natty might be able to help with that.
***
Alpha Unit, with Natty in tow, made their way down the steps and through the eerily lit halls of the largely underground HAARP compound, only to arrive at the nerve center of the complex, a room filled with monitors and strange equipment, buried a good two hundred feet below the surface. Natty had to admit, the place looked pretty bombproof—but still not up to sustaining a direct hit from an asteroid.
“Who’s in charge here?” Ariel asked.
“Ah, I am, I guess.” He appeared to respond more to her uniform than anything else, going over it, trying to make sense of the patches and insignia. “You’re Special Forces?”
“Space Fleet,” Ariel said, scanning the room.
“We have a space fleet? I mean, thank God! You’re the ones responsible for the energy shield keeping those asteroids from pummeling us into mush?” They felt the room shake from the latest impact of one of them hitting the energy shield over the towers on the surface.
“Yes,” Ariel said. “We’re here to boost your installation’s capacity so you can throw a shield around the entire planet to make us impervious to asteroid impacts.”
“Ah, that’s impossible. We’re not nearly so… Actually, we’re not anything,” he dissembled. “We’re just beaming Led Zeppelin to the universe in hopes of eliciting a desire for peace amongst any potential adversaries.”
“Can the shit, Doctor,” Ariel snapped. “Just show me where you’re at with your technology so we can start improving it. We’ll figure it out on our own without your help, but the seconds you save us might just save your heads. That shield over this station won’t last forever.”
The tall scientist in the white overcoat that wore like a trench coat sold by some store with zero-fashion consciousness, stood, frozen, not sure what to do. Clearly he’d received orders to convey that a bunch of scientists were gathered underground at the edge of the world mostly to play dominoes. “Yeah, okay,” he finally gasped out.
“Save your breath,” said Satellite. He and the rest of Alpha Unit—about eighteen cadets in all—had been combing over the strange equipment all this time with their scanners, then opening things up and taking a peek under the hood, when the scanners weren’t enough to answer their questions. “They can knock a few missiles out of the air with their shield, a few 747s too, but that’s about it, much as we expected.”
Alpha Unit started cracking their steel suitcases, taking out some toys of their own.
Natty could tell there were at least a few computer printers in there prepared to spit out whatever tech he engineered for them, along with whatever Alpha Unit could engineer on the fly.
“Time to get to work, Natty,” Ariel said. “I’ll check in with Laney to see how far she’s gotten with her asteroid-eating-nanites idea, to see how quickly we can saturate the planetary shield with them.”
“Get me a look at her prototypes,” Natty said, “and get them projected up on these big screens. Sorry, guys, but you can get back to knocking down Russian and Chinese surveillance planes when we’re all done, assuming you can still be bothered.”
The rest of the scientists in the room were too shell shocked to put up much of an argument. They were mostly standing around looking helpless. Some were inspecting the Alpha Unit toys. One said, “Christ, this shit is more cutting edge than our stuff.”
The lead scientist, the tall guy, about 6’ 6” Natty figured, finally got around to asking, “Since when do we have a space fleet, well, that amounts to anything?”
They’d obviously heard of the intention to form a Space Navy, announced publically by America some years back, and didn’t think much of it, knowing as scientists do, that the technology just wasn’t there yet to protect against much of anything. “Since when do we have a planetary shield defense system?” Ariel replied.
The scientist sighed. “Touché.” He unrumpled himself and his sagging shoulders at the sight of the images going up on the big screens. “I’m…I’m…”
He sounded as if he might well have forgotten his name the instant he saw the images being thrown up on the big screen monitors.
“You’re Indafi,” Ariel said for him, getting all of their names and their countries of origin off of her multipurpose scanner—one purpose of which was hacking their computers. For all practical reasons, the people around her could have been part of a United Nations gathering; practically every race and nationality was represented.
“They’re communicating with that UFO we’ve been tracking,” said one of the HAARP scientists in the room.
“That’s us,” Ariel said. The Swahili scientist who had relayed the last bit of info gulped.
“What kind of nanotech is this?” Indafi, the tall East Indian man, asked. He was reaching out with his hand to one of the big screen monitors as if to feel the edges of the various nanites, enlarged many times just so they could be scrutinized by the naked eye. “It looks alive, but there’s no way anything could survive that high in the stratosphere, especially one that’s been electrified by the HAARP towers.”
“They feed on electricity,” Natty said, smiling, and nodding with understanding at Laney’s handiwork. “Nice move, Laney. And they’ll use the extra juice supplied by the HAARP towers to repopulate so there are more of them to consume matter passing through the shield.”
“You mean like the bacteria and viruses we’ve only recently identified, specialized to feed off electricity?” Indafi asked. He shook Natty’s hand, suddenly glad to meet them. Maybe his shock was wearing off faster than with the other scientists.
“Yes. And I’m Natty,” Natty said.
“Actually, that’s my specialty,” Indafi replied. “I mostly tweak the bacteria o
n the Tesla Towers to keep the cold from compromising their functioning.”
“Well, speak up when you have something useful to say,” Natty said, commandeering a portable work station for himself—that Alpha Unit had brought. Techa forbid he use any of the terminals in here. He craned his head briefly back to Indafi, “Sorry,” he said. “I can be rude, belligerent, condescending, and a complete ass. And that’s the short list, in the interest of time.”
“No need to explain. We’re all geeks here. Your EQ appears higher than most.” Indafi was already hovering over Natty, seeing what he was up to.
“Ariel,” Natty said, “Why don’t you get to work with Indafi on some nanites that can grow us new Tesla Towers to expand their little farm out there?”
She winced and nodded. Evidently she agreed with him on the value of such an undertaking, but was contemplating fitting it in with the rest of her tasks. Honestly, he’d forgotten what they were.
She called out to some of her team members. “Al, Sphynx, Spectre, help me get Laney’s UFO weaponized in preparation for the Kang’s arrival. Knowing Patent, it already has everything it needs, and we just need the access codes.”
“Yeah, sure,” Spectre replied, as the other two nodded, all three closing in on her location.
Well, that explains one of her other assignments, Natty thought. He put his mind back on the big screen monitors and how the hell to bolster that shield, building on what Laney had accomplished so far.
“You HAARP scientists,” Ariel instructed, raising her voice again, “if you’re up here without military support, I gather that means you have an automated defense system.” They looked at one another with that “time to play dumb” expression on their faces again. She merely added gravel to her voice. “Show me how to access it now so we can improve on it enough to repel an alien invasion. Or do you think it’s up to doing that on its own?”
The other scientists glared at one another a bit longer, before one of them, the Moroccan, said, “Have one of your people follow me.”
Ariel turned to another set of three musketeers—for some reason Alpha Unit liked to do things in threes, as opposed to sixes, the usual Special Forces numbers—Astro, Blaster, Stick, you’re with ‘Mr. I Confess, We are Weaponized’ over here.” They followed him, their suitcases snapped shut again and in hand, without further question. Astro and Blaster were the females, Stick was the male, leaving Natty to wonder how he’d earned his name in that threesome.
Natty tried to pull his mind back on point. He didn’t do well with distractions, which was why he usually worked alone in his lab on the Nautilus, which was kind enough to soundproof it for him. There was something in his wife’s designs that needed tweaking, he just couldn’t put his finger on it. Shit, he wasn’t like these military guys, he hated thinking under pressure. And more and more that seemed to be the new normal.
The installation shook violently.
Another asteroid impacting the shield? No, this was something different. Even Natty could feel it, and Ariel definitely could.
“That’s not an asteroid. That’s the Kang. Work fast, people,” she said into her in-ear COMMS. “Omega Force isn’t going to repel those guys all on their lonesome for long.”
What was that Natty was thinking about working under pressure?
TWENTY-SEVEN
THE MOON
THE ARTIFACT CHAMBER
Patent got one look at the giant Kang punching a hole into the chamber with his bare fist, which, apparently, was harder than moon rock. And even this far down, the moon dust comprised largely of carbon that had been turned into diamond when the sand hadn’t just been turned into glass, from all the meteor impacts over time, making that one friggin’ hard wall to punch through. Patent couldn’t help but be impressed.
“God, you’re one ugly looking son of a bitch. Permit me to improve your appearance for you.” He picked up a weapon that looked a bit like a Tommy Gun, only with a much bigger barrel that held only four cartridges. He figured four giant Kang aliens were about all that was going to fit down here. And he fired. The hole left through the center of the giant didn’t seem to impress him much. At least not initially. “Now I can enjoy the view on the other side of you to help me cope with the shock and awe of your ugly countenance.” The Kang giant keeled over shortly thereafter.
He was already being used as a blind for the smaller caste of Kang, swarming in like bees returning to their nest. Patent figured his last remarks were all the ad lib he was going to have time for.
He dropped his Giant Killer and raised the assault rifles slung over both shoulders, one in each arm. Before he could get off a shot, the Kang drones had lanced him through and through in about a hundred places with their laser-pulse rifles. He gazed down at himself, then shook it off. “Appreciate the acupuncture treatment. Was feeling a bit stiff.” He let loose with the assault rifles. As fast as the bullets discharged, he had the weapons repositioned for the next Kang drones, making sure just one bullet per customer—thanks to his nanites reinforcing his reflexes. Just in case his body’s nanites failed him, the smart-ballistic-bullets fired all at once were hive-mind-arrayed, their nanotech keeping them from colliding with the same targets, following the same one-per-customer protocol the smart-rifles had programmed them with, taking their instructions in turn from Patent’s mindchip.
Owing to the Kang’s bulletproof nature, Patent had had no choice but to improvise a workaround. The shells, exploded on contact, releasing the armies of nanites trapped inside them, all programmed to devour Kang flesh. The trickiest part of their design was keeping them from devouring the moon afterwards, as Kang flesh was so rocklike. Let’s hope you got those calculations right, Patent.
He waited to see the reaction. That was the thing about prototypes. Sometimes they screwed the pooch royally.
The Kang drones continued to pin-cushion Patent with their light sabers, outrunning his nanites’ abilities to fill all the holes in real time. He was starting to leak, surprised his blood still looked red with the countless nanites saturating him.
He thought of ducking for cover behind the artifact, but that would have left Skyhawk exposed. Right now, Patent was the human wall between the Kang and him, and he was getting rightly pissed at himself for putting a few too many windows in that wall, leading straight to Skyhawk.
But then the caste of Kang drones just turned to piles of dust on the floor.
In time for the next wave of Kang to come running through.
This time, Patent didn’t have to fire a shot.
The “piles of dust” were nanites discharged from Patent’s rifle continuing to proliferate a mile a minute, using the food stock of the Kang bodies. Patent’s nanite “bee hive” was royally pissed for finding their warren invaded by yet another wave of Kang. As it turned out, hive-minded nano-scale, crab-shaped and octopus-shaped robots were every bit as territorial as the kind of bees Mother Nature whipped up.
The next wave of Kang drones fell to his sentient nanite dust before Patent could decide on what prototype to field-test next.
But it turned out those drones were just a distraction.
In the next moment, the caste of giants came charging in, in force.
With all the tunneling they’d done at their end, the cavern could suddenly hold a lot more of them. And there was no way Patent was keeping them all off of Skyhawk, with just three shells left in the Giant Killer.
He rested his hand on Skyhawk’s catatonic shoulder. “Don’t you stress any, son. I got this.” He was being sarcastic. As usual, Skyhawk was beyond appreciating the humor. Patent had been training this kid to be a soldier for over a year now. Maybe he was just losing his touch.
What the hell was Omega Force doing outside? Sleeping on the job?
***
THE SURFACE OF THE MOON
PROXIMATE TO THE ARTIFACT CHAMBER
Before Clone Team One had moved on to the Atacama forbidden zone, Leon had done what he could to secure the moon artifact. There wa
s no point stationing people here indefinitely for an enemy that might never come. Far less making them a target for the Earth’s exploratory satellites, raising the question of what the hell they might be safeguarding on the moon. And who the hell it was that was doing the safeguarding.
Still, he was glad he’d done his due diligence.
The artifact’s automated defenses had taken a while to kick in. But then the AI would have known to properly assess the threat before showing its hand. Gemina was the name Leon had given her, and she was nothing like the Nautilus’s Mars war god, but she wasn’t anything to shake a stick at either. And Leon had treated her real nice.
Outfitting her with ZPEs—Zero Point Energy weapons.
Leon didn’t know what he’d be facing off against here, just that they had to be prepared with the best tech they had. And while he hadn’t envisioned anything like the Kang, he was imagining spaceships with protective shields no less impenetrable.
The space cannons in the fully automated space station, working in concert, had popped out of the ground once the AI was finished with its assessment, and were taking out space-borne Kang, refusing to touch down, and the ones on the ground as well.
When the Kang had decloaked this time, they’d come with their dragon ships.
Seeing the giant birds of prey just hanging there in the sky, flapping their wings in the complete lack of atmosphere, was a psyops game in its own right—one the Kang were winning.
They were intimidating vessels, not built exactly to imply peaceful, exploratory missions of space. More like conquest.
It took three ZPE shells, each comparable in size to the ones the Bismarck’s 15 inch SK C/34 guns used—the fifteen inches stood for the diameter of the gun barrel—to take out one of the dragon ships. The shells themselves barely lodged in the hull’s exterior, failing to penetrate, despite the nextgen railgun technology the Nautilus had at its disposal and had outfitted the moon base with. The ZPE explosives themselves did the trick. When they went off, they released an explosive force so great, it humbled an atomic bomb. One would have been enough to take a dragon ship out of commission. But without the coordinated explosions of all three shells, those ships were just too big to let fall out of the sky atop their heads. Even the smaller shrapnel that rained down on them was no joke. And the Kang, just out of blast radius of the shells, were happy to hit the ground running. It wasn’t like those dragon ships pampered their crews with a self-contained atmosphere; the Kang drones were exposed to space.
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