Somewhere near the Salmon River Daryl Jones watched the news feed regarding the ongoing air battle with the aliens on his laptop. The sound of the truck’s small generator came on suddenly. “Damn cloudy weather,” he mumbled. The small solar collector on the roof of his pickup stopped generating enough current to run the laptop and to continue charging the trucks’ battery pack. Well, the batteries would charge quickly with the generator as it packed a huge wallop of current. Daryl hated using his scarce gasoline being out in the Salmon River wild lands. The nearest gas station was many miles away. Still, he had two more ten gallon containers in the back of the truck. He would be fine. The battle by GAF against the alien invaders had gone well. Daryl had to admire the GAF forces, although he hated them. It should be the good old US of A leading the charge, not those snotty GAF bastards who thought they were so superior to his countrymen. Of course, it escaped his notice that many of the GAF troops came from the United States.
In the past Daryl’s family had been part of the right wing militia in Idaho, believing that the UN and its black helicopters were bringing the US down. Well, they focused on the wrong culprits, thought Daryl. Same old story now, just different players and they had succeeded. Daryl and his collective group hoped to change that outcome. They were part of the new militia scattered across the United States. Their group proudly called itself RUSS, an acronym for Restore United States Sovereignty. It was pronounced with the oo sound found in kangaroo. They didn’t like Russia and didn’t want their name to sound anything like it. In their hearts they believed that Russia should have stood firm against the new governmental proposal put forth by Earth First. If Russia hadn’t given in, the United States could have prevailed with President Chung not wanting to go along, but being the lone country opposed didn’t cut it.
Well, enough of those shitty thoughts. Daryl put it out of his mind. He smiled at the real reason he was out here. He was hunting elk, which was strictly forbidden. Fuck those bastards, he thought. He also smiled at how RUSS had scored recently. They had broken into the GAF armory in Boise with a little help from one of their own who had infiltrated GAF and was posted there. They had managed to remove several pallets of the new armor piercing bullets with their Teflon coated titanium uranium slug combination cartridge. He was dying to try those big boys out on a few trees and animals. Someday his boys would take on the GAF troops with their own ammo thrown back at them. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Suddenly his attention was caught by a high pitched whine in the sky. He looked up and saw a stubby craft coming in low along the river looking for a landing spot. Daryl knew what it was, a damn alien Stubby. At least GAF and Russ could agree on one thing, kill the alien bastards. Daryl ran to the pickup and started the engine. He looked at the charge gauge. The generator had charged the batteries enough so that he could go along the dirt road following the river using the electric motor. They wouldn’t hear him coming. He would get to try that new ammo out on some live targets today. Too bad his buddies hadn’t come along. Most had decided to lay low after the armory heist.
Daryl knew where the Stubby would land. There was an area with enough width and levelness about two miles ahead. It was a great camping spot. He had planned on using it tonight. He was sure that’s where they would land. About five minutes later he approached the site. He suited up in his camouflage and grabbed the binoculars and his Barrett 50 caliber rifle. He silently walked down the road toward the river and angled toward the little knoll. At the top hidden in the shrubby growth, he blended in very well. He carefully scanned the area below and spotted the dark looking craft. There was no movement around it and the door looked closed. Damn, maybe they were all dead and he wouldn’t have his fun. Suddenly the door dropped down slowly. At first he saw nothing. Then one armor clad figure with a visor on his helmet walked out, looked around and then pulled out a device which he used to scan the area. Daryl ducked down behind the knoll. Damn aliens and their technology. He hoped the earthen knoll would block their scan and not give him away. It’s too late now for second thoughts, he thought. He waited silently for a few minutes, not hearing anything.
He decided to risk another look and carefully raised his head above the knoll top. There were now two aliens and they were wheeling something on the dropped door which served as a ramp. What the hell is that, he wondered. His mind answered quickly, nothing good. He focused the binoculars carefully on the device. He noted many protruding tubes; in fact, several rows arranged one above another. Each tube seemed to have some pointy device in it. His mind ran wildly, thinking about small nuclear missiles or maybe plague carrying missiles. Boise would undoubtedly be one of their targets. He thought of his family there and panicked. Carefully, he took some deep breaths and focused. He chambered the first of the 50 caliber cartridges pilfered from the GAF armory. He raised the rifle carefully and looked through the scope and adjusted it for distance. He was a good shot, having poached many elk along the way. As he exhaled slowly and calmly, he pulled the trigger. The rifle kicked hard against his shoulder.
He watched the unfolding events in slow motion. The alien fell to the ground and did not get up. The second alien pulled some type of pistol looking thing from the belt around his armor and aimed it in his direction. A bright beam lanced out and the dirt and shrubs just below his position erupted in a tongue of flame and flying debris. Rocks and gravel rained down on him. I’m OK, he thought, as he pulled the trigger before the alien could get off a second shot. The alien went down hard. Damn, those new GAF ammos are something else, he thought. Only then did he look down where the laser blast had hit. There was a huge glassy crater. He had to have that weapon. The RUSS boys could copy it somehow and RUSS could become a much better fighting machine. Just to make sure, he fired a few more rounds into the aliens on the ground, watching their bodies bounce up and down with each hit. GAF, look out were his thoughts as he walked down the knoll carefully, with his rifle aimed at the craft’s door, just in case any more were inside.
General Straub watched in horror and fascination as the events unfolded. He saw the hatch drop down and watched as the armor suited aliens wheeled out the device. He recognized its purpose immediately. It was a multiple rocket launcher similar to ones used for ground warfare in previous wars on Earth. He could only guess that the warheads were either nuclear or contained some deadly biological component. He watched horrified, knowing that the Blackhawks would not arrive in time. Suddenly he saw the alien drop and the other alien fire his laser pistol. Munger panned the satellite rapidly to see smoke rising and debris falling at a nearby knoll. Suddenly General Straub saw the second alien fall. Whoever you are we owe you big time was his first thought. He then noticed the man in camouflage clothing walking toward the downed aliens and firing a few more body shots. Then he saw him cautiously peer inside the craft and return to the alien bodies. Good, thought General Straub. He got them all. Then the next movement gave him pause. The man bent down and scooped the pistol like weapon off the ground and proceeded to walk away rapidly.
“Munger, pan the field to follow that man.” General Straub watched as the man ascended the knoll. “Try to get a freeze frame of his face.” “Sorry Sir, I have not been able to do so the entire time. It’s almost as if he knows he is being watched. His cap has a long bill and he always keeps his head down.” “Captain Hauser, your orders are revised. The alien vessel has been neutralized by an unknown male wearing camouflage clothes. He is walking away, but has stolen an alien weapon. I suspect he is a member of RUSS. We must recover that weapon and apprehend the individual. First, I estimate your arrival is now less than one minute. Have four of your choppers land and secure the site. No one is to enter the perimeter until reinforcements arrive. They will have containment gear and will decontaminate the area, if any threat is present. Your soldiers are to go in with protective biological gear and must not touch anything. Do not go any closer than 30 feet. Any animal entering the inside perimeter or leaving it is to be terminated. We don’t know yet what we
are dealing with.”
“Your other two choppers are to track the individual who is currently on foot. Wait, the individual is entering a camouflaged pickup truck with no license plates. It has a solar array on the roof. Use extreme caution in apprehending him, as he is heavily armed with the alien laser pistol and has some type of long range heavy caliber sniper rifle with our armor piercing ammunition or something like it, given he took down the armored aliens. The alien weapon must be recovered at all costs. As a last resort, you are authorized to terminate the individual.” “Yes, Sir; we are closing in on the area right now.”
General Straub turned to Munger. “Notify our base containment unit to launch reinforcement troops to the vessel’s site by the fastest means possible. Have them follow up with air cargo transport of the heavy containment equipment. I want that site secured, decontaminated, and that Stubby vessel with the rocket launcher brought here to Area 51 ASAP. We are going to reverse engineer that mini-wormhole and everything else we can. For once we got a lucky break, thanks to that individual who neutralized the aliens. Make sure the unit knows that this is a possible Bio-Rad level red and to prepare properly. They must not take any chances. We don’t know what’s in those rockets. You can brief them and provide the GPS coordinates to the unit. Keep me informed of their progress.”
Suddenly Straub remembered the unmoving alien vessel near the moon. “Munger, is the blip still there?” “Yes, Sir, No changes whatsoever.” Damn, thought the General. Could it be another lucky break? However, this one won’t be so easy to secure. Earth First would have to finance a major excursion for the recovery mission. He doubted that they would balk. This effort could turn the tide in Earth’s favor. Fast would be the key word. It was anybody’s guess as to whether the aliens would return soon or know that one vessel hadn’t been destroyed. However, given that no vessels survived, maybe they didn’t know at all. Could the aliens send a communication through a mini-wormhole? Only God knew and he wasn’t talking. Straub smiled at his bit of humor. As he looked around and assessed the best way to launch the recovery plan and how best to proceed, he mused a bit. So much for retirement, he thought. Looks like a few more years down the road now. “Munger, after you finish the recovery communications, arrange for a video conference on the encrypted channel with Chair Minkov. Tell her it is the highest priority. I’ll be in my office, if anything else turns up.”
Daryl heard the choppers coming in. He didn’t have to see them to know who they were. No one else had choppers around here. He started the pickup. Good, he still had enough charge to leave quietly. He knew that a few hundred meters down the road was one of their escape trails to avoid visual detection. “General, he has turned off the road. RUSS has many roads hacked out throughout the forested mountainous terrain. While we have lost aerial reconnaissance, we’ll be able to follow him using the infrared sensors. Yes, we have him now. He’ll hopefully come out into the open somewhere. If not, we’ll take the truck out by targeting the engine with a heat seeking small explosive charge missile. He won’t get away.” Daryl knew that the choppers would be able to pick up his truck’s heat signature. The boys had recently figured out a system for just such eventualities. His truck was one of the first retrofitted with the defensive cooling system. He switched to gasoline mode as he approached a straight-away in the forest road. Some noise was unavoidable, as the compressor would need more juice than the batteries could provide. The compressor roared to life and sent coolant throughout the tubes embedded in the roof and hood of the truck. He waited a few minutes, stepped out and threw an ignited flare package attached to one of the 10 gallon gasoline containers, and then leaped back in and gunned the engine for all it was worth. Daryl knew what would happen once his truck’s heat signature suddenly seemed to remain stationary. “General, the signal has vanished. Wait, we have a stationary heat signature. We are firing our smallest heat seeker missile now. We have an explosion and flames; truck is neutralized. We’ll land in the first flat area and hike in and retrieve the pistol.”
Daryl smiled as he saw the explosion in his rear view mirror. The blast wave rocked his truck a little, but no damage was done. He smiled. The GAF boys weren’t invincible. They could be tricked. He figured by the time the troops reached the blast area, he would be long gone and assimilated back into civilian life. Colonel Jeb Brody was going to be very happy with his special package. Once the RUSS engineers and machine shop reversed engineered this pistol, the odds would tilt more toward RUSS. Should be worth a promotion and some additional perks, he thought. “Sweet,” he said as he drove ever further away.
“Shit,” explained Captain Hauser. They had just hiked into the area after a 40 minute hike. It was hot, humid and miserable. The mosquitos were everywhere. “Shit, shit and shit.” They had been suckered. There was no truck debris of any sort, just one big crater in the road. The General was not going to be happy. Better call him right now.
Munger called the General. “Sir, I have Captain Hauser on the line. I’m still arranging with Chair Minkov. I think we’ll have the setup ready in one hour.” “Thank you. Put Hauser on. General Straub here; Tell me something good.” “Ah, Sir It is not good. Somehow the individual faked a truck heat signature and got away. There is no debris, no body, and no alien weapon. I’m sorry, Sir. RUSS has become cleverer than we could imagine. We need better intel out here. Do you have any orders, Sir?” “Resume aerial search for the truck. Let me know how things go.” General Straub hung up. He knew how things would go, badly. “He called Munger back. “Have Colonel Lanzo report to my office immediately. If he has any excuses, tell him it is a serious intel matter requiring his immediate attention.”
Colonel Lanzo sat at the conference table in Straub’s office. He was not happy to be there. Lanzo was rankled that the General had insisted that he interrupt his busy schedule. However, after listening to Straub’s detailed description of the theft of an alien weapon by RUSS, he soon forgot his pique. “So, Colonel, we need intel right away to procure that weapon before it becomes part of RUSS’s armory. How soon can we get intel?” “General, I regret to say that we have no moles in RUSS. Our intel is very limited. RUSS does not admit newcomers. They depend on locals who have a family history of activity in the earlier militia groups. To date we haven’t considered RUSS as a serious threat to GAF activities, especially beyond Idaho. Basically, they bite ankles, so it hasn’t been a high priority.” “Make it a high priority now. I don’t have to tell you that if they manage to duplicate this weapon, their bite will be much worse. If you need more GAF resources, troops or cash, let me know. I want results ASAP.” “Yes, Sir, I understand. I’ll get on it right away.” After Lanzo left, Straub shook his head. It seems like he just got rid of the threat posed by Reverend Cooper’s zealots and now another group of zealots had taken their place.
Just then Munger came to his office door, having just seen Colonel Lanzo walking out. “Sir, I have Chair Minkov ready. She is standing by. Just tap the video-conference app on your P-Com. She’ll appear on your wall screen. Munger waited until the image appeared and an audio connection was established. He then turned and left.
“Chair Minkov, we have a golden opportunity to deal the aliens a devastating blow.” “General, you have already done so. We have been following the events. You achieved total victory over the invading fleet. How could it get any more devastating?” “Good point, Madame Chair. What if I told you we have an opportunity to take the fight directly to wormholes when fleets come again, as you know they surely will. We were lucky this time. If even one vessel gets through, God knows what kind of ravishing plague they’ll unleash. We barely stopped one Stubby from doing so this time.” “You have my attention. Continue.” “We have recovered the Stubby and its deadly cargo. But this isn’t just any old Stubby. This one is new. It seems to have the capability of generating a mini-wormhole.” “Fantastic, General. I assume you need more resources in engineering and a larger budget?” ”I need way more than you can imagine. There is one other
event that I suspect you know nothing about.” “Really, General, and what is that?” “One of their main battle ships, the kind that consists of four joined Wedgies failed to self-destruct. It is near the moon. If we recover that ship and reverse engineer its worm-hole generator, weapons system, and propulsion unit, we can take the fight directly to the aliens in our solar system, and perhaps someday, to their home planet. Of course, I need not mention our increased ability to explore and find new resources anywhere in the Universe.”
For several seconds, Bariska Minkov was stunned into silence. “General, this clearly must get priority resources. I will convene a meeting of the Earth First Council. You will attend and provide a detailed report of your needs and some type of funding estimate. I’m sure the Council will go along, but make it good. We will have to do global publicity on the project to get by-in from member countries and their citizenry. By-in will be very important, as their monetary contributions will need to be increased. It will give everyone new hope and a goal. I’ll get back to you with further meeting details. Thank you, General. We are proud of you. Ride the coat-tails while you have such good fortune.” “Thank you, Madame Chair. Until then.”
Straub imagined that a space station would be necessary for the recovery effort. Could they move one there? Too bad they lost the one closest to the Moon. Still, there were others up there. Would there be a compelling reason to build another one? If not, could we move one and renovate it to meet the new purpose? Timing could be critical, the sooner the better. The return of the aliens was always a threat. General Straub called the Head of Engineering at the base. “Colonel Takahashi, I have an extremely interesting project for you. Come to my office now and I’ll explain. I assure you it is an Engineer’s dream.” Straub knew that Hito Takahashi would come up with an excellent package for his presentation to the Council. His work with recovered alien materials and innovative armor and lasers had already been excellent. The RUSS matter stung less now, but it would not go away.
The Manhattan Incident Page 46