by Jim Roberts
UP ABOVE the APC, doing his best to control a device he'd until recently never knew existed, Whisper managed to spin the jetpack in a complete one-eighty. He was unarmed, having no time to grab anything offensive back at the fortress. He knew that Joe would have to do most of the fighting from the APC. Using the HUD within his suit, he increased his vision to three times the regular magnification. The image beamed into his brain showed two air vehicles: one helicopter and one of those obsidian-colored VTOL aircraft's that had attacked them two days ago. He thought he recalled one of the Centurions back at the outpost calling it a Hyperion.
Whisper increased the magnification tenfold and looked into the pilot seat of the Hyperion. Sitting on the passenger side, her alabaster skin as perfect as ever, was Agrippina.
Whisper smiled to himself. Round two huh?
He activated the comm and spoke hurriedly, "Joe we have two bogies: one Russian-model MI-35 gunship and one Hyperion VTOL. What do you want me to do?"
Joe's voice came back loud and clear, "We'll handle the Helo, can you try to mislead the Hyperion for a few minutes."
It would have been easier if Joe had asked him to cure cancer.
Whisper sighed, "I'll try to create some angles between them and me. Give the comm back to the Doctor; I'll need his advice on the suit."
"Be careful Danny."
Whisper turned off the comm and checked the jetpack controls. Time to see what this baby could do.
JOE PASSED the Bluetooth comm underneath the APC to Doctor Yune, yelling, "Keep in touch with Danny, Doc. He's gonna need your help."
"I'll do my best," shouted Yune above the roar of the APC. Joe positioned himself on the turret, swiveling it to the rear of the vehicle. Come on you suckers! Just give me a clear shot!
The helicopter was coming in ahead of the Hyperion, moving to intercept at a lower altitude. Joe finally saw the aircraft up close: a matte brown colored MI-35 gunship (or HIND-E) Russian helicopter. Joe could see the weapon pylons attached to the aircraft's aerodynamic wings: fully loaded most likely with rockets and anti-tank missiles. Definitely more than enough to blow them completely off the map. Joe knew their only chance was to use the mountainous crags to their advantage, as it would be difficult to maintain a radar lock in such obtuse terrain. They would probably rely on their autocannons to knock them off the road. The APCs armor could take a fairly large bullet, but if the Helo chose to use the rockets, it was hasta manyana.
Joe swiveled the Dushka, bringing the massive machine gun to bear on his enemy. He opened fire. Some intelligent Olympus shcmuck had had the foresight to load the weapon with tracer ammo; not particularly useful during the day, but every bit helps. The HIND banked to the side, trying to get a bead on the APC with its autocannon.
"Oh hell!" Joe said out loud.
The Helo opened fire, a stream of autocannon gunfire bursting from the side mounted gatlings on its wings. Joe dropped inside the APC to avoid the bullets that were smacking full force into the APC's ablative armor. Remarkably, the armor held solid; the autocannon rounds making loud clank-clank sounds against the exterior shell of the APC.
Suddenly a loud pop reverberated from under the APC and the vehicle swerved unnervingly to the right. Up in the driver seat, Krieger desperately tried to regain control.
"What happened?" asked Joe, checking to make sure Yune was okay.
"They blew out tire on right side! Hard as hell to control!"
"Keep this thing moving as fast as you can and stay close to the mountainside. One well-aimed rocket and it's all over."
"Hey if you want to drive, come up and take wheel! Harder than it looks you know!"
Joe shook his head before going back up the turret. He spotted the helo—the aircraft had slowed suddenly and was decelerating to gain a better firing line. Joe had to act and act quickly. He gripped the Dushka and fired for all it was worth. The tracer ammo licked the sky, following a trajectory that made its way to the helicopter. Joe saw the 12.7mm rounds tear into the helicopter's thick armor. A spread of steam began to spew from the underbelly.
Joe affected his aim, moving it towards the back of the Helo at the tail-rotor.
Come on! Hit damn it!
He watched triumphantly as the tail rotor was blown apart by the tracer gunfire. The HIND began to bank heavily and spin wildly end over end. With no trailing inertia to steer the eight-ton spinning engine, the crippled helo twirled like an out of control toy kite. Joe roared with glee as the helicopter rammed into the mountains on the opposite side of the gorge and burst into flame, showering wreckage throughout the ravine.
The success was short-lived. The Hyperion VTOL must have seen its companion go down and had revved itself to catch up with the APC. Joe remembered vividly the kind of firepower one of those monsters had. He spun the Dushka toward the approaching transport and fired. He watched his bullets fly underneath the aircraft; it was coming in too high for the machinegun to reach.
A door on the side of the ominous VTOL opened. Joe saw a woman step out onto the side of the wing. She was dressed in a bizarre suit similar to Whisper's.
Is that this Agrippina everyone's been talking about?
The harlequin-like woman leaned down, focusing her body weight to the correct degree.
She's going to jump onto the APC!
In a heart-stopping moment, Joe watched as the cybersuit wearing woman leapt off the VTOL and landed with unerring accuracy onto the back of the APC.
Joe yelled down to Krieger, "We have a visitor Krieger! Shake her off!"
Krieger yelled back, "First you want steady, now you want shaking! Make up mind, idiot!" The Russian did as he was asked, forcing the APC back and forth as they drove down the treacherous path through the Pamir Mountains.
Agrippina had to drop to a knee and grab the APC with both hands lest she be jostled off by the constant swerving. Joe yelled down into the APC, "Doc, give me a gun!"
"What?" shouted Yune.
"A gun! Give me a gun!"
"Just a minute!"
Joe scoffed. Sure, I've got all the time in world here.
Agrippina pulled herself upright and slowly started edging forward on the roof of the APC.
"Anytime Doc!" yelled Joe desperately. He felt a tug at his pant leg and reached down. Yune was passing up his AK. Joe hoisted it up and took aim. With lightning speed, Agrippina drew a blue-tinged machete-like weapon from her backpack and slashed at Joe. The AK broke apart in two neat pieces in his hands.
"Oh...shit." said Joe.
Agrippina smiled and pulled her arm back, preparing to decapitate her defenseless foe.
From below, Yune's voice called up, "Joe, Danny says to duck!"
Without hesitating, Joe dropped back into the APC, narrowly missing a close haircut from the woman's knife. As he dropped, the roar of a jetpack screeched overhead as Whisper piloted the unwieldy device in an unstoppable headlong rush towards Agrippina. The woman barely had time to gasp when Danny ran headfirst into her with the rocket pack; the force yanking her completely off the roof of the armored transport.
Joe stuck his head back out, trying to get a grip on what he'd just seen.
THE FORCE of Whisper's near suicidal rush into Agrippina had completely knocked the wind out of her. It had not been what you would have called a well-thought-out decision, but it was all Whisper could think of at the time. The addition of another person's weight began to jar the flight pack sensors and it abruptly began to go off kilter. As the two struggled, the jetpack rose uncontrollably into the air, propelling its occupants to the top of the mountain chain.
Agrippina's Parang knife had fallen from her hand after the attack, but she could still fight. As she hung onto Whisper, she tried to punch him in the helmet, succeeding only in bruising her hand. Danny needed to ditch his passenger as quickly as possible; her thrashing would certainly kill them both. A proximity sensor in the suit HUD flashed. The Hyperion VTOL had located him and was flying in to intercept.
There was one chance and one chance alone at ridding himself of both nuisances at once. Whisper arched the jetpack towards the Hyperion and cranked the throttle. The pack roared forwards at over two hundred miles an hour directly at the Hyperion's cockpit.
Agrippina looked Whisper straight in the helmet, screaming, "You lunatic! You'll kill us both!"
Whisper thrust a hand against Agrippina's throat and tore the Inuit Charm from her neck.
"You're right," said Whisper, hitting the strap release clip at the last second, "You steer!"
He slipped out of the jetpack and fell to the ground fifty feet below. Agrippina continued on, frantically trying to reach the jetpack control panel. She barely had time to look at the Hyperion before plowing into it at full force. Her final scream echoed through the mountainside. The jetpack exploded into a fireball that engulfed the cockpit of the VTOL. The jet spun end over end before careening into the ravine below.
WHISPER FELL nearly fifty feet, landing only a few paces from the sharp edge of the mountainside. Any further and his fifty-foot drop would have been three-thousand feet. True to Yune's word, the suit's leg compensators sucked most of the shock from the landing out and made it feel like a small leap. Danny hoisted himself up and jogged to the edge of the cliff, peering down. He watched as the flaming VTOL spun faster and faster until it crashed into the bottom of the ravine. The obsidian aircraft exploded in a volcanic rain of fire and smoke.
Whisper let out the breath of air he had been holding for nearly an hour (or so it felt like). He held up the Inuit charm for a moment. His heart felt full again: like he had found a piece of his soul he had given up for lost. Activating a small compartment in his suit, he placed the charm inside it for safe keeping.
The comm buzzed and he answered. Joe's voice came through, sounding worried, "Whisper come in, are you all right?"
Whisper put a finger to the side of his helmet to respond, "Affirmative. All clear here."
"We saw the explosion...what happened to the woman?"
Whisper smirked under his helmet, "She...had a bad flying lesson. Where are you guys now?"
"Where are you?" Joe countered.
"Umm...On the mountain peak about three-thousand feet above the VTOL crash."
"Christ, how'd you get...never mind. How are you going to get down?"
Whisper looked around. It was a near two-thousand-foot drop straight down to the road the APC had been driving on. There were no walkways down.
He was stuck on the top of a mountain.
"I hadn't really thought that far ahead."
"Well, we need...wait a sec, Yune wants' to talk to you." The sound of the comm being transferred rattled over the line for a moment before Yune's accented voice came through.
"Mr. Callbeck, in the left compartment of the thigh is a set of mountaineering tools."
Whisper thought of the command 'Open Left Thigh Compartment' and sure enough, a small container in the thigh area of the suit sprang open.
Yune continued his instructions, "Pull out the grapple and attach it to something that won't move; a boulder or large tree."
"I'm on the top of a mountain Doctor. There are no trees up here."
"Look closer Mr. Callbeck, there must be something."
Whisper sighed, looking around. He spotted a decent-sized rocky slab sticking out from the ground. Pulling the grapple from the thigh compartment, he looked at it closer. It resembled a fishing reel, but with a cord made of ultra-tough Spectra mountaineering weaves. He lashed the front end around the slab several times. Making sure it was taught, he gave it a sharp tug. As good as it's worth.
"Alright Doctor, I'm connected. Now what?"
Yune answered, sounding excited at the prospect of testing something he hadn't tested yet, "On the side of the reel is a digital read out. Do you see it?"
Whisper saw it.
"Input twenty miles an hour into it and snap the reel to the back of your belt."
Whisper did as he was instructed, "Done."
"Now just jump off the mountain," said Yune, matter-of-factly.
"Okay...WHAT?"
"Jump off. The reel will hold you and unspool at a rate of twenty miles an hour, allowing you to run down the mountainside vertically."
"Doctor...are you sure about this?"
"Absolutely not, but the theory and designs are sound."
Whisper heaved an earth shattering sigh.
'Spirits of my fathers, hear my now...please don't let me die without throwing that lab rat off the side of this mountain! '
"Alright, I'm coming down."
With that said, Whisper leapt off the mountain. The reel pulled taught immediately and Danny landed perpendicularly against the cliffside; anchored tightly by the reel. After a few seconds, the reel loosened. Whisper began to run, vertically down the sheer side of the gorge.
Yune's voice came through the comm, quite unwanted at the moment, "How's it going Mr. Callbeck?"
"I think I have it. Please stop talking and let me concentrate."
He had made it down two-thirds of the length of the mountainside when he felt a strong give in the rope.
"Doctor, I think t..."
Whisper had no time to finish. The reel behind him snapped and Whisper slid down nearly six-hundred feet. The suit bounced and clanked as Danny tumbled all the way down before a delightful thirty-foot sheer drop onto the road.
"Mr. Callbeck, come in! Are you okay?"
Whisper couldn't answer. The suit had barely managed to absorb the shock enough to halt his bones from breaking, let alone all the air in his body from being pushed out.
Joe's voice came through the comm, very worriedly, "Hang on buddy, we're on our way."
Whisper finally found enough air to breathe, "Take your time, I'm not going anywhere."
Chapter 14
Stuck in the Middle with Yune
THE APC rolled up in front of Whisper, and Joe and Yune leapt out. Krieger stuck his head out the driver side hatch, shouting, "Nice fall, my friend! Must be world record or something!"
Whisper had begun picking himself up. The suit was registering multiple failures in structural integrity. The Outer skin layer was ceasing to operate and the Accretion Device was also malfunctioning. Worst of all, the helmet had powered down. He was blind again.
Joe ran up and grabbed Whisper by the arm, hoisting it around his neck, "Gotcha buddy. Are you OK?" Yune ran to grab Whisper's other arm. Together they hauled him back to the APC.
"I'm fantastic," groaned Danny.
Yune apologized profusely, "I'm so sorry Danny, the reel hadn't been fully tested to my rigid demands as of yet."
"Don't worry about it Doc. I suppose it's only a matter of time before something else in this suit does indeed get me killed."
Together, Joe and Yune managed to haul the extremely heavy armored soldier into the back of the APC. The two men stretched Whisper out on the passenger seats on the left side.
Krieger powered on the engine and turned the APC around; back towards the south.
Yune was about to remove the helmet when Danny stopped him with a gesture, "No Doctor. This is who I am now. I'll be alright. Just get us back home."
Yune looked at Joe, who shrugged in response, "If that's what he wants." Joe leaned over to yell at their Russian driver, "How are we for fuel, Krieger?"
"Not great, but should manage my friend. Don't worry. Afghanistan will be like nice vacation spot compared to that hellhole!"
Joe sat back in the seat. He closed his eyes, taking the first opportunity he'd had in the last few days for a real time-out. Then he remembered something. He reached into his fatigues and pulled out the strange disc Whisper had given him, "Doc, what the hell is this thing?"
Doctor Yune looked over at the piece of plastic in Joe's hands. His eyes went wide in recognition and he grabbed the device and began flipping it back and forth in his hands, examining it.
"It's...it's the Code!"
Joe was puzzled, "What, you mean
the Code? The one Dante kept talking about?"
"Yes, if this is it! How did you get it?"
"Ask Danny, he's the one that found it."
Yune held the disc in his hand, thinking quietly to himself. Joe had to nudge him to make the Doctor snap out of his own thoughts.
"Doc, do you know what this thing is?"
"No, not really...it's complicated." The doctor continued to turn the disc over in his hands, studying the intricacies of its construction, "I'll explain what I know when we get back. But trust me when I say that Olympus is going to want this back. At all costs."
For two hours the APC made its way through the mountain range. They stopped once to refuel from the external diesel tanks attached to the rear of the vehicle. It sincerely felt like they were driving blind. The general plan was to push the APC as far as it would go and once it had run out of gas, to get out and walk.
So far they had been lucky. Besides the two Olympus vehicles that had chased them, they had seen no other aircraft or ground vehicles, for that matter. It was looking as if their breakneck escape had finally eased down. Joe had checked the cabin of the APC and found a small survival kit. Inside were several tinfoil packages of Russian Army rations. The tasteless bricks of protein matter were hardly palatable, but it was all they had and they were grateful for it. They were, however, out of water. Joe judged they would be okay for another day, but by then had better be in Afghanistan, or find a water source somewhere close by.
No one had much to say, especially Joe. The last few days had been so harsh, so painful, that he was left feeling vaguely empty. The thoughts of his lost unit - the five men he had failed to intercept at the fortress; all weighed heavy on Joe's mind. He swore that no matter what, he would go back and get his men. His failure in leading his unit would not doom them as well.
By four o'clock in the afternoon, Danny was doing better. Yune had switched the suit's remaining power to medical priority. The suit had administered morphine and begun auto-suturing any exposed wounds Whisper had. Joe marveled at the invention, half wanting one for himself.
For the past half hour, Joe had been fiddling with the radio, an almost antique heap of junk attached like an afterthought underneath the steering column. After getting every manner of static possible, he tossed the receiver to the side in desperation. So much for that.