Matthew said, “You may have wiped out the Russian Spetsnaz forces in the United States. There may be KGB left but the real shooters may all be dead.”
David and Matthew sat in silence at the loss of the Eden base. David thought, there is nothing to say that is going to make a loss of this magnitude any less shitty. As the silence lingered, the image of Tom’s bloody face came into David’s thoughts. The pain in Tom’s eyes was unforgettable for David causing conflicting feelings of disgust of betrayal and grief at the loss of the man Tom once was. David remembered Tom’s quivering right eye and his mouth trying to say something but no words coming out of it during his last few seconds of life. David reviewed that image over and over again in his mind and thought, the emotion in Tom was overwhelming visible from him realizing his miscalculation about abuse in the Arc Light program. It was like the old Tom I knew was reawakened just before his death and grieving the consequences of his treason. If I had just reached out to help him before his trauma turned into paranoia. David held back an overwhelming flood of grief. His eyes started to water and the emotional loss started to come forth for the life of this brother in arms wasted because he didn’t reach out before everything got out of control. David thought, it is easier to get lost than I ever knew.
Matthew looked around the plane and saw David and Matthew had no one around them. Matthew could see David deep in emotional thought but he had no choice to interrupt his moment.
Matthew leaned over to David and whispered, “Communication logs show a satellite call that transferred encrypted data occurred five minutes before an Arc Light backpack nuclear bomb detonated in Los Angeles remotely. The satellite phone could not be traced to anyone but the call location originated from your plane on the way back from the crater. I pulled up encrypted video feed inside your plane and it shows Ben using a satellite phone and laptop. My investigation by duty of my position has concluded a judgment in accordance with legal standards that he is guilty.”
David with no expression on his face said, “As his commander, I will carry out the sentence.”
CONFIRMED DARKNESS
V55 Jet 50,000 feet over Yellow Pine, Idaho
Chapter 7
The black Gulfstream V55 vertical liftoff jet was 50,000 feet over Idaho. David was done checking on his team and walked into the cockpit where Matthew sat in the right seat looking at the aircraft’s huge heads up display and adjusting the automatic pilot to maximize the jet supersonic speed. David could see there was a destination in the flight computer that was tracking a line on a map and radar in the center hud panel.
David said, “We have to assume all the Arc Light bases are compromised with Russian Spetsnaz .”
Matthew said, “I activated an emergency containment protocol. All new intelligence is locked down as need to know. Only you or I will have access to intelligence to give out on a need to know basis. The protocol released an emergency location for us to go to for safety. Its location was only known to the original Arc Light planners to prepare for an intelligence leak of this magnitude. Regardless I am going to assume it is compromised. We will setup a hide site several miles away and send in a UAV for a few days to observe the area.”
David waited for the rest of the informal mission briefing from Matthew but realized that was it. David could see the shock of losing the base weighed just as heavy on Matthew as it did on himself. David knew from countless mission debriefings in his past that this was a time for everyone to pause and decompress.
David looked out the cockpit window at the clouds passing by and just listened to the hum of the jet engines. He replayed the base being destroyed over and over in his head wondering if he made the right choice. After a few minutes David said, “The world is on fire… crumbling around us. That base meant everything for humanity’s survival and yet we as a species couldn’t get past killing each other to work together. It’s like humanity is committing self-inflicted suicide.”
Matthew said, “You and I have seen it before, people that are scared to death are in too much fear and pain. They’re vulnerable, in over their heads, they can’t think straight nor look beyond themselves to help others.”
David watched the clouds move by them one after one thinking about all the scared people he had seen in his past on the killing fields of his profession.
David said, “My wife tried to teach me that what I resist will persist and only grow stronger until I heal it. I got out of the military thinking I could wash away all the horrors I saw man committing against each other. Looking at everything burning around me in our world makes it overwhelmingly obvious that whatever my human nature did to contribute towards this event, I have to find a way to heal it.”
Matthew said, “Just between you and I, that’s why I studied to become a doctor. As a soldier, I got tired of cutting out the cancer by killing the enemy. I want to cure the cancer otherwise, I just keep on dealing with the symptoms and watching the same cycle of death. Let’s hope we are on the right path because cutting out body parts is not working.”
The sun moved from the east to the west in the sky as David and Matthew sat looking out the cockpit window silent in thought.
Matthew pointed to the open case sitting on the floor. David looked inside and saw a ruggedized laptop computer.
Matthew said, “We recovered a command computer. While you were checking on your team after takeoff I was able to use my security clearance to log in.”
David sat and waited for more information but Matthew sat staring out the cockpit window with a burdened look.
Matthew said, “The need to know top secret classified information is not good at all. The team deserves a full briefing but it may break them of any hope that remains in them.”
David nodded his head and left the cockpit walking to the passenger section. He saw that Jason was sleeping. Ashley and Ben were cleaning their weapons. The Ex-Secretary of Defense was locked in the small soundproof prisoner detention compartment at the back of the plane.
David said, “Wake Jason up. Prepare for a top secret intelligence briefing. It is not good news.”
Ashley woke up Jason. As she looked at him, there was a concern of fear building up in her. She knew the world was in bad shape but for David to prepare them for bad news meant to assume the worst especially when the bad news was in the form of top secret intelligence. On top of that she thought Arc Light only dealt with the world’s most dangerous threats. Ashley started to prepare herself mentally for staying in the fight for the next mission. She started to shut out her thoughts of love and concern for Jason to let her focus on sharpening her strategic mindset.
David sat down as Matthew came out of the cockpit with the top secret classified command computer. He linked the encrypted computer to the display screens on the command center computers on the fifteen foot communication station.
Matthew said, “The following briefing is classified need to know top secret. The Arc Light program created five detection protocols to determine in a chaotic world crisis if the world population was in danger of an extinction event where the population would cease to exist. The protocol had to be fool proof for the President to have strategic certainty before declaring an extinction event which is the most serious classified mission activation in the world because it would force Arc Light to risk exposing all of its deepest top secret assets. This is no normal military briefing, protocol in this situation demands any question on your mind is spoken immediately because there must be no doubt in your mind about these extinction conclusions when I am done with the briefing.”
Jason was just waking up and emotional numb from just surviving the destruction of the Eden base. Jason looking down at the floor of the plane asked, “What does an extinction event really mean?”
Matthew said, “In less than thirty days an asteroid will impact in the Atlantic ocean with will cause tidal waves 1 mile high to sweep over the entire globe surface killing all land plant and animal life. With the asteroid strikes and with the infection spre
ad throughout the world with no protections there is not enough of a healthy gene pool to repopulate the human race. Even if there was, it is projected the infection would affect what little of the next generation that would exist…”
Jason interrupted asking, “But we are not infected?”
Matthew said, “Medical research facilities before they fell showed the infection was dormant and it was unknown why but the uninfected are at risk of getting sick at any time.”
David to get the briefing back on track asked, “What did each of the five protocols show?”
Matthew pointed to the large computer screen which displayed a chart of infection percentages and said, “The first protocol measures population ending infection rates. The latest mathematical models show the pandemic infection rate is climbing beyond all critical levels of recovery at a global level. The Arc Light program medical indicators expected a week ago for projections to get worse. As of today, they are disastrous.”
Matthew pointed to a screen with an image of an infrared satellite image of Russia.
Matthew said, “This is an infrared scan from a group of low earth orbital satellites that continuously counts the world population of all significant target cities using an advanced analysis of heat signatures of human bodies. This capability was perfected by the NSA in the Afghanistan conflict to count enemy troop movement. The low orbit infrared and radar combo satellite technology allows the detectors to pierce most buildings with a radar technology. A week ago the scans started to detect literally a handful of survivors in the city. Per protocol, the computer model diverted the satellites to secondary targets where it was projected most survivors would escape to. The scans had picked up no organized group of living people.”
Ben commented, “People could be hiding underground in places like command bunkers in Russia or Cheyenne mountain.”
Matthew said, “All of the major known military bunkers have been confirmed by deep cover Arc Light recon teams and NSA'S top secret signal gathering to have gone dark of human occupation. A side effect of the infection rate protocol technology is you have to detect the current world population to calculate the rate of infection. What the technology discovered in its last week of constant scanning is less than ten thousand human life signs have been detected in its global scan.”
David had heard casualty reports from past battles but never on a global scale. There was nothing to prepare his mind for the reality that humanity was almost gone. Billions had been lost to the infection like a firestorm overtaking the world. The depth of loss started to awaken within him as he tried to grasp the global scale of crisis.
The computer screen changed to now show a helmet camera video clip of an abandoned medical facility with the words displayed at the bottom of the screen saying Switzerland Sonnenberg Medical Research Command. A few seconds later another video clip started showing a reconnaissance team fighting the undead in an infected medical facility labeled at the bottom of the screen of Damascus Syria Underground Medical Facility.
Matthew watched the video clips along with everyone else in concern. He said, “Second protocol measures the likelihood of developing a cure to the infection fast enough to make a difference. There were hundreds of Arc Light human reconnaissance teams deployed at the beginning of the outbreak to help secure critical and backup medical research facilities throughout the world. All recon teams before dying, reported all major and backup medical research and medicine manufacturing facilities have been rendered ineffective across the globe. Outside of the Arc Light program, Sweden had the world’s most advanced medical bunkers with chemical and biological protection but it is now gone along with all the other facilities. There were over a thousand reconnaissance reports. The key medical research personnel is dead or infected.”
Ben asked, “What about secret military medical facilities?”
Matthew said, “We had surveillance through top secret NSA video feed and listening devices on China’s, Russia’s, and Syria’s secret medical facilities. As those countries started to fall we got deep cover Arc Light recon teams into all those facilities and the reports were the same. Either they were all dead or the facilities were overrun by infected. The bottom line is all the medical programs in the world to find a cure have failed. To make things worse, there are no more operational medical research facilities let alone medical manufacturing facilities. Our last medical research report from Tracy on the infection showed the pathogen randomly mutated too fast to create an antiviral or antibacterial countermeasure.”
Matthew pulled up a video of the Arc Light top-secret medical facility in Alaska that showed an air sealed clean room where people in contained suits were being decontaminated.
Matthew said, “Third Protocol is effectiveness of protection against infection. All means to protect against the infection has failed. You are seeing footage of the most advanced clean room system in existence, the Arc Light advanced top secret medical facility in Alaska. They manufactured their own oxygen. The facilities were totally contained from the outside world. All research was done in triple ringed clean rooms. This was the safest place on the planet and everyone was not exposed to an airborne, water or bite induced pathogen and still got infected.”
Jason asked, “Did your information say anything about why we are not affected by the infection?”
Matthew said, “The Arc Light research facility studied closely the handful left alive in totally projected facilities where literally those standing next to them got infected without being exposed to the pathogen. Those left uninfected showed no trace of the pathogen in their system that mysteriously appeared in others. Blood from the uninfected was unsuccessful in creating a cure. No one has figured out the true source of the infection for those unbitten, they have not found a water or airborne pathogen.”
A map of the continents appeared on the screen with all of them blinking in red.
Matthew said, “The fourth protocol measures the efforts of our allies and enemies to establish a continuity of operations of their government. This is then used to determine the risk of war against us. Four weeks ago the United States participated in a major rescue mission of Russia which was the first major country where the infection spread. The United States sent in CDC, military medical units, and medical researchers to try and help until we had to pull back all resources to the United States to help in our efforts to contain the pandemic. As you can see on the map, all of the governments are in red which means they are non-existent. All organized government efforts have ceased to exist. There is no radio traffic, no military and no organized emergency services. The analysis does not think there is a risk of war because of a lack of surviving foreign armies but Special Forces and covert survivors from Russia are still a threat.”
Matthew pulled up a video on the screen showing a satellite image with the date and time and the location of the Russian city of Ekonda population one hundred and forty two million. He paused the video.
Matthew said, “These past few days have been a blur where we have been cut off from the main intelligence gathering capabilities of the NSA and our internal Arc Light program assets. The following video shows news of how bad it got in Russia.”
Matthew took the video of the Russian city of Ekonda off pause. A few seconds later there was a nuclear explosion.
David looked at the mushroom cloud in disbelief. A nuclear explosion had occurred and no one new. No one was left alive to spread the news.
Matthew said, “Space command nuclear detonation detection satellites picked up a nuclear explosion in the Russian city of Ekonda. Trajectory shows it was from Russian which decided to nuke its own city’s in an attempt to contain the infection in the Eastern section of Russia from spreading towards Moscow.”
Ben asked, “Was that the only nuclear strike?”
Matthew said, “Yes it was the only one detected, space command picked up no other nuclear strikes. Analysis showed the infection spread too fast and too much infected to contain the pandemic in Russia. T
he west coast of the United States may get some of the residual radioactive fallout from atmospheric winds.”
Jason sat with a sadness for the world. He thought, how could a leader launch a nuclear weapon against their own country? That means they have given up hope for their survivors and were now only concerned about their own survival. How fast man reverts to his individual survival at the cost of forgetting about their humanity and sacrifice for others. They no longer choose to believe in something greater than themselves.
The computer screen changed to show a satellite video of hundreds of asteroid strikes on cities in North America. The next video showed a huge asteroid impact on the Atlantic ocean which looked massive even from the height of outer space.
Matthew said, “The fifth protocol measured space-based threats. It is projected that asteroid strikes will continue which will put surviving infrastructure at high risk of being destroyed. Video analysis of the asteroid strike rates all over the world and Space Command’s last scan before going offline projects continued impacts will destroy all the key infrastructure and then the earth will be hit by the killer asteroid which will destroy everything with one mile high tidal waves .”
Matthew waited for questions but all he saw was looks of shock on the faces of battle hardened veterans. They were no longer in denial that humanity was entering an extinction event.
David asked, “What is the estimated magnitude of individuals that have been reported to have disappeared without explanation?”
Matthew said, “There is a research protocol bucket where all unpredicted factors are studied. Each new threat is given a letter label. The unknown energy was named A or Arc Light and was being researched as one of the primary missions of this program. The disappearances were given the code name Bright Star. There were teams assigned to the Bright Star research protocol mission but there was no intelligence on this command computer about that mission because of its need to know top secret classification.”
Forces of Destiny Page 11