Die Glocke

by M C Drake

  Kammler was pleased.

  Disturbance in the air

  Gerhard Schwesinger stood at the control panel, he watched the readouts intently.

  “Ok Amtmann, turn up the power ever so slightly.”

  Amtmann nodded and pushed the level up carefully. The power surged through the wires into the large device. Xerum 525 slowly trickled into the clear cylinders.

  Kammler's foot tapped impatiently, "Is this it?"

  "Just wait Hans, we need to do this carefully. We don't want another blowout if we damage the transformers that will set us back even further."

  Kammler growled but he knew Gerhard was right.

  Amtmann increased the power another couple of notches, then observed the effect.

  “Power holding steady at 45%.”

  The transparent cylinders began to rotate slowly.

  “Look they’re counter rotating. But why would they be doing that?”

  “No idea Hans, just keep making notes. Is the video still working?”

  Amtmann nodded.

  "Increase the power to 50%," Schwesinger ordered.

  Electricity began to flow all over the object, it began to wash across the metal surfaces and as the cylinders rotated faster it started to form a vortex of energy. The air inside the confined area began to crackle as an electrical storm gathered in the immediate vicinity around the device.

  Kammler’s interest was peaked, he could not wait any longer, he pushed Amtmann out of the way and pushed the lever to full power.

  “You fool, what are you doing, this needs to be done scientifically so we don’t kill everybody in here!” Schwesinger shouted as he moved towards Kammler.

  Kammler pulled out his pistol and aimed it squarely at the scientists head. “Shut up and mind your own business.” He growled.

  The counter-rotating tubes quickly filled with a stream of red mercury as they span quicker and quicker. Power surged from the transformers along the wires and across the device. A web of blue, white lightning spread its jagged fingers all across the smooth metallic surface of the bell.

  Loud cracks and bangs crashed all over the room, sparks began to fly from several of the transformers.

  "Shut it down Kammler, I'm begging you! Otherwise, all of our hard work will be in destroyed." Amtmann screamed.

  Kammler ignored him and watched as the brilliant blue lightning was caught in the powerful vortex created by the device. The power levels started to fluctuate dangerously, smoke rose from multiple failing transformers.

  The device rocked slowly from side to side as a luminous purple glow began to emanate from inside the metal clad coating. The lightning turned from a light blue into a dark purple as the device shook more and more violently. The metal coating started to crack and pieces of the ceramic tiles crumbled off and floated skywards.

  Suddenly a domino effect of loud explosions rocked the room. The power level dipped and the electrically charged air slowly dissipates. Four transformers in a line had blown and the electrical charge can no longer be sustained.

  “Damn it Kammler!” Amtmann said as he pushed him away from the control panel, you have blown the transformers. It will take us days to repair them. God knows what damage you have caused to the device.”

  Kammler did not respond but instead, he watched as the electrical storm cleared the device.

  Amtmann hit the emergency power cut off switch and the electricity was immediately cut off from the device, the cables were cast clear and flapped aggressively in the weakening vortex.

  The power faded away but something was different, the transparent tubes were filled to the brim with red mercury and they were still rotating. The device pulsed purple, slowly at first but it began to pick up intensity.

  “What the hell is going on, this isn’t possible!” Schwesinger shouted.

  Kammler began to cackle, “Finally, this is it!”

  The device flashed a luminous purple then without warning levitated straight up eight feet into the air. It pulsed faster and faster, the metal coating was shredded into pieces and exploded off in every direction. Large pieces embedded in the protective glass screen and were stuck there; impaled in the cracking glass.

  A large explosion rocked the room as the roof caved in; the device flew straight up through the metallic roof of hanger 27 and floated in the air for a second. It fired a huge electronic pulse from its core that lite up the sky in a mesmerizing indigo hue, which blocked out the night’s sky for a brief moment.

  The device fell to the floor with such force that the tarmac cracked on the open road just outside of the Hanger. Airman first class Curtis Papa’ Perez and Airman First class Chester ‘Toff’ Marshall were on guard duty. They had been blinded by the flash but had instinctively dived to the floor as the object crashed to the earth.

  Marshall pulled Perez to his feet, “What the hell is that thing Papa?”

  The two men had a strange feeling of fear and did not want to approach the object.

  "I don't know Marshall." He said both men raised their rifles.

  Kammler coughed as he cleared debris from his chest. He slowly stood to survey the situation. The device was gone, it has smashed a large hole in the ceiling which had fallen and destroyed a lot of the equipment below. Kammler turned to see a pool of blood forming under a large piece of metal, a pair of legs were protruding out from beneath the mixture of metal and concrete; It was all that was left of Hans Amtmann.

  Kammler smiled.

  Marshal and Perez looked around, it was dark apart from the moonlight.

  “Look around, there aren’t any lights on!”

  "Power must be down," Perez said.

  The device flashed a deep purple, without warning the remaining ceramic tiles exploded out in a hail of tiny shrapnel, the two men covered their faces. After a second or two they looked up at the large glowing purple acorn that was in front of them.

  A purple mist billowed out of the device. Perez squinted as he thought he saw movement in the mist. Suddenly out of the haze a figure dressed in an all-black combat suit appeared, it wore a black helmet and appeared to be carrying a machine gun.

  ‘What the hell!” Marshall shouted, “Freeze, Identify yourself!”

  The figure just stood completely still, then another figure appeared and then another, they kept coming until Marshall and Perez could no longer count them.

  "Hold it right there, you are in a restricted zone, drop your weapons and put your hands in the air, slowly so we can see them. Do it now!" Perez ordered. "Marshal get us some backup."

  Marshal nodded and went to call on the radio. Nothing happened, it was not working, the radio was dead.

  “Damn it!” He shouted.

  A figure appeared from the mist, this one was different, he was not wearing a full face helmet. He was tall, at least six foot and he was blonde with large streaks of gray hair. The man was about forty-five and was sporting a thick blonde mustache.

  The figure took one look at the two airmen in front of him, he just casually nodded at them. The figures opened fire all at once, brilliant purple flashes flew towards Marshal and Perez and before they could react that felt an intense burning sensation wash over their torsos.

  They fell to the floor, Perez looked down and could see blood oozing from open wounds on his chest, he felt weak and all he could smell was burning flesh. He looked over to see Marshal's lifeless corpse looking straight through him. Perez turned his head to look up at his adversary, a barrel of a gun was pointed at his head, he saw it flash; that was the last thing he ever saw.

  Inside the Wire

  Senior Master Sergeant Warren Hall had been asleep in the mess hall when the explosion and subsequent shockwave gave him a rude awakening; the lights immediately went off, shrouding the rest of his squad’s poker game in darkness.

  “What the hell was that?” Tom ‘Looney’ Cox shouted. “Earthquake?”

  “Sounds like the fuses have blown. Get your flashlights! I’ll give the control room a call.�
� Hall said as he reached for his radio. But he could not raise command, so he tried Perez, still nothing, ‘were the radios dead?’

  Airman First class Alan Perry and Glen Owens had checked out the fuses, but had to walk back to the mess room to tell Hall.

  “Sir, is your radio working, ours are dead.”

  “They’re all dead Perry.”

  "The fuses are fine sir, whatever that was it knocked power out to the entire base, I had a quick look out the windows and the searchlights are out as well." Owens said.

  “Maybe it’s the Commies!” Hudson said excitedly.

  "Keep it down Edgar, I'm trying to think." Hall shook his head.

  A couple of technicians were carrying out spot checks on a grounded F4 Phantom when the power went out, they had grumbled when they witnessed the flash and after much deliberation had decided to investigate when their radios were not working.

  They chatted to each other loudly as they rounded the corner of a hanger. A group of people wearing full body, jet black combat gear were jogging towards them. The two men froze. “Who the hell are you guys?”

  The figures raised their weapons and fired, pulses of purple light raced forward like tracer rounds. The two technicians did not have time to react as the burning lights hit them square in the torso. They both fell dead before their bodies hit the floor.

  The guards at the rear entrance to the base had repeatedly tried to raise the control room but had no luck. They had a jeep with a .50 caliber M2 Browning machine gun mounted on the rear, but the engine had cut out when the explosion had rocked the base and they struggled to get it started again.

  A group of twenty figures rounded the corner silently, it was only by luck that one of the guards thought he had seen strange purple flashing from that direction.

  “Hey!” He shouted, “Who the hell are you guys? Identify yourselves!”

  This alerted his other colleagues, they raised their rifles at the sudden intruders.

  The figures spread-out and opened fire, purple rounds of superheated light flew down range and started to impact on the jeep.

  “Shit, return fire.” The senior guard shouted. His men returned rounds but the volume of fire was far too heavy for the outnumbered guards.

  The senior man was hit straight in the face, the round exited the back of his head, creating a large exit wound that was cauterized around the edges, the smell of burning flesh and hair made the guard next to him throw up.

  The Guard managed to clear his throat enough to order his mate onto the .50 before he was hit in the gut. He fell to the floor with an agonizing wail, the smell of burning pork reached his nose and as he looked down he could see his stomach was open, with a trail of bubbling black intestine slithering out of the wound.

  The third man jumped up onto the .50, pulled the locking clip back and pulled the trigger, the reassuring thump of the powerful machine gun thundered out, the whole base would surely be alerted to the attack.

  The first of the figures reacted slightly too late and the rounds impacted on his body armor, which cracked and splintered under the powerful rounds and the figure was forced to the floor. His teammates reacted with lightning quick, almost superhuman reactions and rolled and dived out of the way, they laid down covering fire.

  The hanger to the left of the strange figures disintegrated as a huge object plowed straight through it. The guard swung around the .50 and let out a stream of bullets towards this new threat.

  "Shit, you have to be kidding me!" He shouted in disbelief as the rounds pinged off harmlessly.

  The huge object rotated its massive turret and pointed a monstrous cannon straight at him, the barrel glowed purple and then spat out a dazzling thunder ball straight at the jeep. The jeep exploded into a hundred pieces and the guard was vaporized.

  Kammler knew the sound of chaos when heard it, he looked around but could see the power was out and he immediately knew he had nowhere to run. The lab he stood in was a mess, German scientists got to their feet and dusted themselves down, while the American lab technicians had regained their awareness and we checking to make sure none of the red mercury was leaking.

  A smattering of debris fell from the broken roof and the dust landed on Kammler, causing him to cough. As the dust cleared the elderly German looked up. Stood at the edge of the hole was a man grinning wildly; a man he instantly recognized.

  “It can’t be, you’re dead!”

  The man laughed and then spoke in a German accent but in perfect English, “I would have been had I stayed with you, you and that incompetent leader Hitler… I see you buffoons lost the war!”

  Anger flashed across Kammler’s face.

  “Time has not been kind to you my old komrade, now tell me, how far up the Americans ass is your tongue?”

  That was it, Kammler lost it, “Listen here you insubordinate little shit, I do what I need to do to survive! But I do not work for these Yank fucks… Now I demand you get me out of this hole and explain to me what is going on and how the fuck you don’t look any older!”

  The man who was wearing an immaculate black uniform with black knee-length boots just stood there and laughed, "Nice to see you still have that fire in your belly."

  He turned to the figures stood behind him, “Destroy the data they have collected, retrieve the Red mercury and then kill them all!”

  As soon as he spoke, twenty ropes flew over the side followed immediately by figures that slid down with ease.

  “No!’ Kammler shouted, “You can’t do this to me!” He protested but the man stood beaming down at the entrance just shook his head as he turned away.

  Kammler opened the tube of Pervitin and took them all, he chewed them as quickly as he could then he pulled his Luger P08 pistol out, he began firing it at the armor-clad figures. Kammler, despite his age, was still a good shot. The small arms fire had no effect though and just bounced harmlessly off of the body armor.

  Kammler fired until the clip was empty.

  The figures advanced and fired, a stream of superheated rounds stuck the old man in the chest. He felt no pain though as the amount of meth he had taken had dulled all of his senses, a mixture of death and the Pervitin flooding through his system made him feel as though he was watching it happen to someone else. Kammler died at peace with himself.

  The figures acted as an execution squad and soon finished off the remaining scientists and technicians in a hose of fire. They then went about the task of collecting the red mercury which they tied carefully to the ropes then had their colleagues pull up the container. Finally, they planted charges all over the laboratory.

  After the last soldier had left, the entire lab was instantly vaporized in a bright fireball with a pinkish hue. Kammler, the other scientist’s bodies and all their work ceased to exist in an instance.

  The sound of gunfire and then another explosion had jump-started Warren and his squad into action, they collect their weapons and ammunition. They gingerly made their way to the entrance to the canteen, they stayed low as they got to the windows. They watched and they waited to gauge how bad the situation was.

  What they saw was a war zone, firefights raged around the base, exchanges between red tracer rounds zipping out and the return fire of bright purple lights filled the night's sky. It was clear that the soldiers at Wright Patterson Air Force base were getting overwhelmed by this unknown enemy.

  “We have got to get out there and give them some support! They’re gettin their ass kicked.”

  Hall held up his hand, “Not yet lads, keep observing, see if we can spot a weakness.”

  “Yes, Sir,” they whispered but the tension in their voices was clear.

  Soldiers screamed and shouted as they tried to stay alive. A grenade was thrown into a group of enemies, it exploded dead on but to Hall’s amazement they kept advancing and firing.

  "It didn't affect them at all, the shrapnel just bounced off their armor," Hall said in disbelief.

  A huge tracked behemoth rolled into view, shor
tly followed by another one and then another one. Streams of purple fire poured from the gun housed on the turret. The fire put down a group of Airman who had barricaded themselves into the entrance of a hanger.

  The huge turret turned and then an angry bright bolt of purple fired from the huge gun, the round flew into the barracks where Hall and his team had been a few minutes earlier. The second and third vehicles fired and the barracks evaporated in the superheated explosion.

  “What the hell, who the fuck has weapons like that?” Cox whispered.

  Hall just shook his head, he fiddled with his radio but it still was not working.

  “We are in trouble; we can’t coordinate our defenses.”

  “What are we going to do Sir.”

  Hall thought for a second, “We need to get the word out that we are under attack, we need to get to Dayton, get a call for backup out.”

  Hall could see his men were hesitant to leave the fight. "We can't help them here, the enemy has overwhelming numbers and equipment, it wasn't a fair fight from the start."

  They nodded.

  The squad moved slowly and carefully, they hoped they could jump into a couple of jeeps and get out of the base but when they arrived at the hanger where the vehicles were kept, their optimism soon vanished; none of the vehicles would start.

  The door behind them crashed open, they swiveled with their weapons raised.

  The figure had a fellow soldier slumped over his shoulders, he tried to raise his hands.

  “Staff Sergeant?” Hall said relieved.

  The man let out a huge sigh of relief, “Good to see you Sir.”

  “You too Billy, who have you got there?”

  Billy Jonson let the man down and laid him out on the floor near the door.

  “It's Miller Sir, he’s unconscious can you get someone to look at him?”