Land of the Blind (Chapter 25)

Land of the Blind



Chapter 25



If there was absolute chaos in and around Jacksonville, it was controlled pandemonium at Chiang’s base.  The base defenses had been set and the personnel fully alert, just as the General had mandated through hundreds of hours of practice and punishment.  Chiang’s Praetorians were ready for anything.

Until Fox took over the missile systems and fired them at Cabal property.

Then, discipline faded.  While missile operators desperately tried to either regain control of their weapons platforms or initiate self-destruct, other base personnel became very uneasy.  Many had spent the last decade thinking that their technology was safe, thanks to the demise of Devereaux Marshall Fox.  After the blinding flash and ominous mushroom cloud that signaled the end of the floating complex, loyalty wasn’t worth too much anymore.

Only the almost maniacal loyalty and discipline of the Praetorians’ senior noncommissioned officers – most of whom had been handpicked by Chiang, Paulius, Robinson or Donat -- kept the lower echelons in line.  They settled their people into defense positions and waited.  Even so, their own loyalty wavered just a little when they saw nothing but smoke and flame on the horizon.

#

The center of Chiang’s base was dominated by a series of hardened buildings, made of two layers of the latest concrete, interlaced with super core lead rebar.  These were the administration buildings, as well as the barracks for the Special Elites.  Ringing them were twelve two-story structures fitted with turrets.  They held the corporate mercenaries who protected the Cabal members and formed the secret civilian elites who enforced Chiang’s orders against rival superpowers and lesser countries.

In the center of the complex was a three-story structure with numerous windows made out of a special kind of lexan not available to other Federation military bases.  It housed Chiang’s main headquarters.  More importantly, it housed his command bunker, some 300 feet below the ground, in a concrete/super core lead shell that could withstand at least five direct hits from a super-plasma warhead.  It also contained facilities for running the corporate mercenaries and, most importantly, the Special Elites.

At the bottommost level sat Chiang’s personal bunker, three levels below the operations center and two below the meeting spaces he used for his Cabal meetings.  The level just above him was empty, reserved only for use in times of dire emergency.  As indicated by the cacophony of shouts coming from the meeting spaces above, this time was a dire emergency.

Chiang had always prided himself on maintaining order among his people.  Right now, however, he was losing everything he’d spent 40 years building up.  His Cabal members were on the verge of mutiny and nothing he did could stop them from shouting and arguing with each other, except for the times they all banded together to curse the day they ever hooked up with him.

One moment, they had all been dining on the finest food; the next, they had an up-close look at a man they’d thought dead for 10 years.  It didn’t help that the command center had given Chiang updates on the damage Fox was causing via the AI where everyone could hear it.  So, the Cabal members knew that Paulius was dead and they heard the space cities reporting to the rest of the world about the fantastic blast that had destroyed the floating complex. 

Rather than deal in fruitless arguments with his suddenly unreliable Cabal, Chiang made an excuse to head to the command center.  He left the room and immediately sealed his Cabal members in, ordering the guards outside to keep them there.  He did make one exception for Lawrence Lightburn, who had rushed out of the room to catch up with him.  Chiang knew the man might be the only person who could save his life.

“Talk to me, Lawrence,” Chiang said as he strode purposely toward the nearest elevator.

“I’ll need to get to a secure comm link to be sure, Kober,” Lightburn said, his voice tinged with a hint of fear.  “But, I think this is pretty serious.  We saw the footage of Paulius dying, killed by a rocket right in the middle of downtown Jacksonville.  And, while we didn’t see it directly, we all felt explosion from that microwave burst that hit the floating complex.  So, by now, the entire world knows that we had super-plasma weapons, which are illegal as all get out.  There will be enough repercussions from that fact alone to potentially send us to prison for the next forty years.”

Chiang’s mind raced to absorb and interpret what it was hearing.  He knew he’d face awful consequences for the super-plasma, but he also he knew he still had powerful political connections that he could count on to counteract the worst of the effects.  What bothered him was that he knew that there would be more awful news forthcoming and he didn’t know where Fox would stop.  Actually, he feared that he did, indeed, know Fox’s endgame; he just couldn’t bring himself to admit that such a defeat was possible.

He had command of the most powerful military force on the planet.  His Special Elites and corporate mercenaries alone constituted the world’s fifth most powerful army.  Yet, his ace in the deck – the heretofore suspected super-plasma warheads – were now gone just like a large chunk of the Atlantic Ocean sea floor.  He had no one to count on, now that Paulius was dead.  He guessed that even Peter Donat was most likely dead, as he could not envision the man surviving what his own AI had described as a cataclysm equal to the hydrogen bomb tests of the 1950s.

“…not the worst part, Kober,” Lightburn droned on.  “Kober, are you listening?”

“Yes, yes, I was just contemplating,” Chiang snapped, as the pair boarded the elevator.  “What’s the worst part?”

“The missiles that are taking out our assets,” Lightburn said.  “Fox commandeered them from this base.  This base.  He’s wreaking havoc throughout most of northern Florida.”

“So what?” Chiang asked.  “The losses are pretty things for the news, but hardly make a dent into the full capacity of the Cabal.  Buildings can be repaired and people replaced.  What Fox is doing is cosmetic.  I believe he is making a feint to draw Federation military resources away from him.  If that’s true, then we need only maintain our tight defenses here.  He has never taken on a large military force before.”

“I hope you’re right, Kober.”

“Of course, I’m right,” Chiang lied.  “By the way, why aren’t you so sure?”

“Because it’s not a feint,” Lightburn replied.  “At least, I don’t think it is.  If even half the reports are true, there has been serious damage to Cabal property, namely the administrative cores that would house the most important data and people.  Fox knew exactly what to hit.  In the chaos, military units will move in to restore order and I have no doubt that people like Anna Velasquez and Nia Mavromichalis will find treasure troves of useful information.”

Chiang inhaled sharply.

“Furthermore, we still don’t have control of our missile systems,” Lightburn continued.  “That tells me that Fox has infiltrated our computers.  Again.”

“We can isolate ourselves this time, though,” Chiang countered, walking through the elevator’s open doors, ignoring salutes and heading down a hallway past personnel rushing to and fro.  “This bunker has the most sophisticated system in the world.  I had it designed so that, if an enemy were to breach the system, we could cut the affected part off, like an infection.”

“I don’t think you understand the ramifications of what I just said,” Lightburn insisted.  “The Federation isn’t going to stand by idly and let those missiles continue to destroy the city.  They’ll retaliate, if they already haven’t.  You’ve got to look at the big picture.”

At that moment, the pair entered the command center and saw the big picture.  Comm links and computer screens showed nothing but burning buildings, smoke and fire everywhere.  It was almost overwhelming.  Every single person in the center was heavily occupied, to the point that no one noticed their commanding officer enter.  Junior officers just barely had any resemblance of order and it looked as if more than half of the personnel were seconds away from full-blown panic.

“That’s what I’m trying to get across to you, Kober,” Lightburn whispered fiercely into the general’s ear.  “The Federation will not stand for what’s happening.  They’ll take out our missiles, radars and other systems to stop the carnage.  Don’t you see, Kober?  Fox has forced the Federation to do the one thing it has desperately wanted to do for the last ten years – take us out.”

Chiang blanched as the reality of Lightburn’s word hit him.  And he knew them to be true.  He knew Fox always did his machinations with a bigger goal – that of supposedly helping one group or government, either directly or indirectly.  Today, it looked as if Fox was helping Chiang’s own government do the one thing it could have or should have done a long time ago.  The general had exploited and manipulated people with Parliament, Congress and the Pentagon to get the most benefit to himself in his scheme to get the Federation out of its doldrums and back into the leadership role he always knew it should have had in the world’s affairs. 

But, it had come at a high price, as he had come to realize in the last few years.  Now, Fox was making the Federation call in its markers to force Kober to pay up.  Thanks to the underhanded methods of Chiang’s Cabal, he had avoided the consequences.  That he had continued the behind-the-scenes corruption of his own country through the efforts of his Cabal had been a small price to pay or so he had convinced himself.  Now that the ugly truth was rearing up before him, he really didn’t know what lay in store for him.

“We only have one chance, Kober,” Lightburn said.

And Kober knew what that chance was – time.  He needed time.  Time not to just think of some fantastic solution that he knew Fox would never allow to come to fruition, but time for the only solution possible.  He needed to face the music, but in his own way, with access to his powerful political connections who might be able to lessen Chiang’s punishment or spare his life in return for not having their roles in his machinations revealed.  With luck – and Kober thought he had always been lucky – he might live long enough to rebuild his life and maybe even his power base.  It was a long shot, to be sure, but the only one he had.

He pushed past a colonel, surprising the man and took over the master switchboard.  He punched a single button and then ordered his AI to respond.  Almost instantly, every image on the various screens switched from what was happening in and around Jacksonville to a live image of Kober Chiang.  Comm links not directly connected to base personnel were severed.  All the personnel in the center turned to look at Chiang, their faces seeking discipline and direction.

“People, we have an obvious crisis here,” Chiang announced in a firm and resolute voice.  “It is one unlike any we’ve faced before, but not one that we haven’t trained for.  If this had been a Russian or Occidental invasion, we would be in pretty much the same predicament.  I would expect the best out of each and every one of you.  I would expect you to remember your training and do your jobs.

“Major Waltrip, I need a full panoramic sweep of the immediate airspace.  Captain Morvan, have we gotten control of the missile launchers yet?  No?  Then completely cut them off.  Shut them down.  Alert the Special Elites and have them use the corporate ranks to beef up security in the inner perimeter.  I’ll expect most of your reports to be filtered through Major Waltrip or Captain Morvan, but if there is an immediate danger, pass it straight to me.”

Personnel moved into quick action, smoothly doing their jobs and coordinating their actions.  Comm links were reopened and the cacophony of panicked noise that had once dominated the room was no longer evident.  This made Lightburn feel a lot better and it certainly helped Chiang who suddenly looked as if he had learned how to breathe again.

“The most important thing now is to establish Fox’s location,” Chiang said to a tall, slender woman with the name “Waltrip” on her uniform name tag.  “Is he still using the jet copter he had when he murdered Paulius in cold blood?”

“We believe so, sir,” Waltrip replied.  “But, we think he’s flying below radar.  It would be dicey for anyone to fly that low with all those buildings around, but if anyone can do it, Fox can.  Excuse me, sir, but I think we should also deal with another more immediate problem.”

“And that would be?”

“Fox somehow cracked our systems, sir,” the colonel replied, a concerned look on her face.  “Outside of the command bunker, we have hit-or-miss control.  Fox has us recognizing every object as friendly, most likely to allow him onto the base without being shot down.  I propose we dump the IFF and set up mobile units with localized control.  We can connect them with comm links to coordinate.”

“How long would it take?” Chiang asked.

“No more than ten minutes, sir.”

“Do it.”

Chiang looked at Lightburn, whose face said it all.  Had the command center staff not been so panicked, they might have thought of that option before, he surmised.  He could only blame himself because he had left that aspect of the command structure entirely up to Paulius.

A sergeant interrupted Waltrip, who then called Chiang over to one of the control boards.

“What is it?” the colonel inquired, as she leaned over the sergeant’s left shoulder.

“The detection system is acting funny, ma’am,” the sergeant replied, as he pointed to the screen.  “I’ve got a lot of snow on the screen.  The system should never do that.  But, all I see is are hundreds of dots, possibly thousands.”

“Colonel, prepare to isolate the affected system,” Chiang ordered.  “We need clear detection and comm systems if we’re going to have a proper defense.”

“Uhm, General, I-I don’t think that’s snow on the screen,” Waltrip said and Chiang could sense the rising tension in her voice.  “My God, those are missiles.”

Chiang had been about to reprimand the colonel for losing her discipline, only to lose his.  He stared at the screen and saw that Waltrip was right.  The radar was working and those dots – those thousand dots – were solid bogies.  Somewhere deep in the recesses of his subconscious, a thought arose that seemed totally appropriate.  The destruction of the floating complex had been Fox’s answer to having the Boraton bomb dropped on him at Area 51.  Now, it seemed that Fox was about to show everyone his answer to the brazen missile attack on the Panama Canal.

Waltrip pressed a button and sirens wailed throughout the base, but Chiang knew that it was a useless gesture.

#

“Anna, are you seriously going to work with Fox?”

Anna looked up at Nguyen and nodded.  She looked back out her window and watched another dozen jet transports form up around her squadron that now numbered close to three hundred planes, ranging from small to large troop carriers and medical evacuators.  She had requested them from Mavromichalis to answer Fox’s request and had gotten them since none carried weapons and, thus, weren’t needed for immediate combat concern.

“What makes you think you can trust the guy?” Nguyen asked as he moved to get out of the way of Warrant Officer Cobra and others rushing back and forth in the aisles.

“Because he’s doing the job that we should have done years ago,” Anna replied.  “We wouldn’t be in this mess if we hadn’t let Chiang manipulate the system.  In fact, Fox is making us do what we should have done.  But, he has taken great pains to avoid needless casualties.”

“What about that steam cloud then?  Can you imagine what all that salt will do to the land?  It will be an environmental disaster.”

Maria came back into the cabin area and whispered something into Anna’s ear before taking her seat across the aisle.

“I just talked to General Mavromichalis,” Maria said.  “To answer your question, Steve, we’ve been duped by Fox.  We all saw the fantastic explosion at the floating complex and we detected the steam cloud moving toward the Azores and toward the Florida coast.  The Pentagon ordered fuel-air explosives to try to burn it off, but we all bit on the ruse.”

“What ruse?” a clearly confused Nguyen asked.

“Fox knew that we would send up jets if there was even a remote chance of that salted cloud hitting arable land,” Maria replied.  “But, though the salt content was being propelled by the force of the explosion, it was still subject to nature.”

“Nature?”

“What happens to salt water when you boil it?” Maria asked.  “The water evaporates, but leaves the salt behind because salt doesn’t bond with water.  Ocean water has always evaporated, whereupon it gathers over land until it’s too dense to remain lighter than air and it falls to earth as rain.  Not a trace of salt. 

“Same thing here.  We’d already fired dozens of fuel-air warheads when the ocean monitors aboard weather planes detected the salt falling back into the ocean.  At the rate it’s going, it will be totally out of the cloud long before it reaches us.  We’re just in for a warm and rainy afternoon.”

“And Fox gets to fly into Chiang’s base without fear of being shot down by one of our Federation fighters,” Nguyen surmised.  “Either he’s just plain brilliant or we’re just plain lacking in common sense.”

“I suspect it’s a little bit of both,” Maria deduced.  “I’d applaud if the situation wasn’t so dire.  Speaking of which, Anna, I think we’re about as ready as we’ll ever be.  Do you want us to break hover and head in?”

“Not just yet,” Anna replied.  “Fox said that we would need to wait for the smoke to clear first.  Then, we’ll swoop in and take Chiang’s airfield.  Make sure you and Cobra secure the entire field.  I don’t want any of those corporate bastards thinking of this as a coup.  There’s no telling what kind of orders the general had laid out before Fox made his reappearance.  Remember that he was originally preparing for a visit from us.”

“I’ll make sure it happens and that Hasagawa will have the fields set up for evacuation or medical triage,” Maria said.  “One thing puzzles me, though.”

“Just one thing?”

Maria smiled at the inside joke.

“Fox would not attack the base or let us take over the airfield unless he had eliminated all possible escape avenues for the general,” Maria explained.  “We both know that General Mavromichalis will be here within the hour and the base will be surrounded with enough firepower to destroy a modern city.  Why in the world would Fox walk into such an obvious trap?  There’s no way he could escape without causing the very type of Federation casualties he’s, thus far, avoided.”

“I think you’ve totally missed the point, Maria,” Anna retorted.  “On paper and, depending on what CubanZuela does or doesn’t do, Chiang had the fifth or sixth most powerful military force on the planet.  Yet, Fox has destroyed more than half of it and, aside from a few pot shots from Paulius’ bodyguards, no one has been able to even try to stop him.  That means that, horrible as it may have been for us, our experiences in Fort Worth and at Area 51 were instances of extreme benevolence by Fox. 

“And don’t forget the Boraton attack.  Fox’s explanation about reversing the effects of the boron-amplified super-plasma fits our assumptions almost perfectly.  The entire planet should have been destroyed.  Fox could have ducked into that netherworld of his and gone to who knows where.  But, he didn’t.  In retrospect, this attack is a drop in the bucket.  That we’re even here to talk about the attack tells me we should trust Fox.”

Maria took a deep breath and counted her blessings.  She had to admit that she’d let the scope of Fox’s attack get the better of her judgment.  She was used to discipline and strength.  To see Fox so easily and thoroughly destroy a modern military force was something she was having trouble contemplating.

“General Velasquez,” the pilot’s voice interrupted over the AI.  “Vampires at two o’clock.”

Anna knew that “vampires” meant positive missile sightings.  She’d been expecting this and looked at her window, past where the other planes in the squadron hovered high above the ground, much higher than should have been necessary.  She’d expected a lot of missiles, but what she saw made her eyes go wide with a state of surprise that surpassed everything she'd seen so far this day.

The air was filled with thousands of missiles, of every size.  She could only imagine that the Navy, Air Force, Army and Marines in the area had depleted at least half of their supplies for this monstrous response to the missiles coming from Chiang’s base.  She shivered and said a prayer for everyone in the path of this oncoming wave of death.

#

For the personnel at Chiang’s base, they’d heard the warning sirens and had hunkered down.  However, they had been expecting an appearance by Fox, not the wall of death speeding toward them.  A few ran, but most just ducked and prayed.

Roars filled the base as dozens of short-range surface-to-air missiles left launch rails, a wholly inadequate response.  None of the missiles connected because their IFF systems, activated once in flight, recognized the targets as friendly.  The launch crews immediately switched to a safer launch mode, such as heat-seeking and launched again.  They scored some hits, but most never got off a shot.  The incoming missiles had keyed in on their unit fire control systems and had taken them out, getting the missiles and their crews in the process.

Every jet copter at Chiang’s airfield launched and fired defensive missiles in heat-seeking mode, taking out two or three dozen.  They then turned and fled for safety.  It didn’t matter, though.

The oncoming missiles had more than one function.  If fired upon or if their targets turned off their radars, they could switch from anti-radiation mode to one that selected targets of opportunity.  Thus, they went after the aircraft, not having to worry about IFF.  Every jet copter and fighter was destroyed.

Even worse, Fox had implanted a special command into the base’s AI systems.  The AI sent a signal that caused every radar system outside of Chiang’s inner circle, from vehicle-mounted to large-scale, to light off, even among the jet copters and jets in hangars or mobile radars in the motor pool for repairs.  Within three minutes, every system was wrecked and burning.

Most of the incoming missiles that were destroyed were taken out by the systems of Chiang’s inner circle.  Missile batteries, their radars isolated from the rest of the base and, thus, from Fox’s corruption, shot down more than two hundred targets.  Then, they ran out of ammunition and resorted to old-fashioned guns with 30-millimeter slantium rounds that got a few more rounds.

Missiles, deprived of primary targets that had turned off their radars, switched to secondary mode and hurled themselves at the bunkers and weapons platforms.  The barracks of the corporate elites exploded or were gutted enough to make their heavy weapons platforms on their roofs collapse into the basements or first floors.  Platforms on the ground were immolated, fireballs sweeping out and claiming personnel vainly trying to run for non-existent cover.

The last three waves of missiles struck Chiang’s main building, blasting every inch of it that was above the first floor.  Only the fact that the first floor and its access ways to the lower bunkers were hardened against super-plasma attack kept open the one means of escape.  A flurry of older missiles with large warheads that could not withstand modern defenses had, instead, been sent to remote parts of the base.  They exploded with proximity fuses that directed their 1200-pound high-explosive warheads downward, taking out camouflaged missile and gun platforms.  The blasts were more than enough to destroy the hidden entrances and exits to the bunkers’ escape tunnels.

Wreathed in smoke and flame, Chiang’s base was deaf, dumb and blind.  Surviving personnel could only wait for the inevitable face-to-face confrontation with Fox.

#

“Now, you know why I didn’t give the order to land,” Anna said to a stunned Maria.  “Alert the first wing to swing around and take the airfield and the second wing to secure the apron and approach.  Then, broadcast the message from all planes still aloft so that every one has a chance to hear it.”

#

In the command center, Chiang pulled himself to his feet, with a hand from Lightburn.  Normal lighting had failed and he could only see with the emergency lanterns that bathed the center in an eerie red glow.  All around, personnel struggled to regain their feet or their seats.  They tried to get their systems going again.  Those that couldn’t, turned to assist injured personnel.

Lightburn coughed as dust filled the air from the cement that had been blasted down off the ceiling.  He stifled a curse when a computer bank sparked and sent hot embers onto his hands.  He looked around at the mess, almost stumbling over the prone form of Captain Morvan, who had a large pool of blood coming out of his head.

He looked at Chiang and shook his head in despair.  Chiang had told him that the bunker could withstand five super-plasma warhead strikes.  Yet, he and the others in the command center had clearly felt the strikes of the anti-radiation missiles.  That made him doubt the general’s boast and rue whatever shell company the Cabal had used to build the place.

“System check,” Chiang called out.

“We have no systems, sir,” Waltrip replied as she stumbled out of the dust, holding her hand to her forehead to staunch bleeding from a small cut.  “Everything’s gone.”

“Everything?” Chiang asked, incredulous.  “But, those were ARM missiles.  For basic and fire control radar systems.  How could they…”

“Sir, they went after everything with an electronic signature,” Waltrip explained.  “They traced signals back from satellites to this building.  I think we took at least a hundred direct hits.”

Chiang tried to hold back his rage.  He just couldn’t imagine a single person destroying everything he controlled.  Even worse, he imagined what Fox had in store for him personally and that kept him going.

“Alert the airfield to prepare for evacuation,” he said. 

“Comms are out beyond this bunker, General,” Waltrip countered.  “We have internal comm links only.”

“So, we can’t even call for help from the outside world?” Lightburn interjected.

Chiang ignored the man.  The question was moot.  The outside world already knew what was happening at the base.

“Alert the Special Elites,” he ordered.  “Have them move the Cabal out through the secret escape tunnels.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but the tunnels are blocked, too,” Waltrip said in a flat voice.  “Elevators are down as well.  We have personnel clearing the upper staircases to the first floor, which seems to be mostly intact.  We can still go out through the front door.”

Yeah, right into Fox’s waiting arms, Chiang thought morosely.  So this was the culmination of forty years of meticulous planning, he said to himself.  He’d believed himself to be cold and cunning enough to pull it off.  Now, he had met his match in a man who was better than cold and cunning; Fox had been brutal and focused.  Chiang surmised that Fox – most likely fearing his own powers – had let the general, along with Paulius, Donat and Rickholts, get away with a lot of things in the name of maintaining the status quo.

He wondered if the stories were, indeed, true, that Fox was from a parallel universe.  Had the man encountered a similar situation in this other world?  Had he received a better response from this other world?  Was that why he’d let the governments of Chiang’s world handle things instead of doing it himself?

“Kober, what the hell do we do?” Lightburn whispered fiercely.

“Get back down to the conference room and check on the others,” Chiang said.

“And then what?”

“What else?” Chiang said, somewhat dejectedly.  “We wait.”

#

In the conference room, tempers died down when the lights went out.  Everyone felt the missile attack, but thanks to being two floors below the command center, they only got the shaking and not the damage.  About the same time, they lost communication with their various headquarters in and around Jacksonville.  They had been monitoring the extensive damage, hoping against hope that enough of the right people survived to remove or destroy valuable and incriminating data.  Now, they had no way of knowing what was happening and that cowed them into submission.

For Kavi Singh, the fear was more localized.  It was true that he had lost new chemicals for his operations, but he wasn’t worried about them.  He was worried about himself and what Chiang had in store.  He’d heard Fox’s mention of the mental rape of Elise Chiang, something he’d long suspected from the moment she’d signed on to help him develop the locks for the Boraton warhead.  If the man was willing to do something so vile to his own flesh and blood, there was no telling what he’d do to the Cabal to guarantee his own safety.

That thought kept him from succumbing to the sickening thoughts that threatened to overwhelm him.  He had had concerns about the Boraton warhead, but had let himself be fooled by Elise Chiang’s expertise.  Realizing that those locks had worked only in simulation and not at Area 51, a failure that should have ignited the atmosphere of the entire planet, only made it worse.  He’d built up very successful careers, academically and in the business world and, yet, for all his sacrifices, if he lived, he’d be forever known as the man who almost destroyed the human race.

“What’s going to happen to us?” Vashon asked, her voice on the edge of panic.

“Most likely a long prison sentence,” Santha Bouthavong replied, even though he sounded as if he didn’t believe his own words.

“Speak for yourself, Comrade,” Mara Sverdlov interjected, angrily.  “We all know that, in exchange for our manipulations, that Chiang was protecting us from a whole host of enemies.  I doubt severely that those enemies would let us live for very long in prison.”

“One thing is clear,” Michele Pernier added.  “The general has abandoned us and after all we’ve done for him.  I mean, most of the corporate elites came from our ranks and he’s most likely using them to protect his own hide.”

“The general would not abandon us,” Van Sant defended weakly.  “He stands to lose more than us.  He’s probably in the command center where he should be in a moment like this.”

“Hold on a minute, vendejos,” Chiagas shouted.  “All is not lost, amigos.  We’ve got an ace in the hole.”

Everyone looked at him and then to where he motioned.  They saw Elise Chiang getting very uncomfortable.  They looked back at Chiagas.

“Fox himself said that Chiang mentally raped her,” he explained.  “Remember, Kavi, that he told you to check that device on her ear.  I don’t think Fox would paint her as an innocent victim and then let her die with the rest of us.  If we keep her here, our chances of survival increase dramatically.”

“And that means we cannot let Chiang take her away from here,” Ondale added, smoothly.  “It may mean that we must fight the guards outside the door, so prepare yourselves.”

No one said anything.

#

While most of the base personnel who were not wounded or dead rushed to help the injured, tried to put our fires or attempted to salvage equipment, 500 men and women manned the defenses at the front gate.  Nestled in among the administrative welcome center (not that too many people were welcomed at the base), the guard barracks, the defense blockhouse and the armory, they kept watch with machine guns, heavier Gatling guns, rocket launchers and mortars.  Sitting on the road between the armory and the administrative building, two armored cars swiveled their 40-millimeter chain guns back and forth looking for targets.  Neither had sensors; those had been ripped out to avoid being destroyed in the earlier missile attack.

Behind them, two large semi trailers rolled up and stopped.  Men and women immediately unloaded cases of ammunition which were taken either to the armory or distributed to the gun positions directly.  The trailer handlers explained that, with the loss of primary power and communication on the base, there would be no way for the defenses to call for extra ammunition.  The defenders didn’t think that was good news.

“At least it’s better than hearing those jet transports telling us to make our way to the airfield for evacuation or medical assistance,” a master sergeant complained bitterly.  “We’re all supposed to be on the same side.  Bastards.  But, by God, my people will do their duty.”

“Incoming!” someone called out.

The master sergeant looked up to see a low-flying jet copter barreling straight for the front gate.  He ordered his people to fire and they lit up the target.  Thousands of bullets struck the copter, causing it to shake.  Then, three anti-tank rockets struck its shield and it dropped like a rock.  Five hundred soldiers felt like cheering when they saw the copter slam into the pavement of the two-lane road leading to the front gate.  They watched in awe as its jet manifolds crumpled, while the copter bounced like a rubber ball.  Then, awe turned to outright fear as they saw that the copter was bouncing toward them!

They ran from their positions and dived for safety.  Fortunately, the wreck of the copter bounced just high enough to clear them all.  But, it wasn’t a reprieve.  Only the master sergeant realized that the trailers with the spare ammunition were still parked behind the armored cars.  He didn’t have his wits or wherewithal for long, though, when the copter slammed into those trailers.

As explosions went this day, the one that hit the front gate was nothing spectacular.  Still, it completely obliterated every building for a thousand yards around, vaporized most of the fencing and gouged a massively wide and deep crater that blocked anyone from getting in through the front gate with anything other than a bridge layer.  The bodies of the 500 dedicated soldiers were never found, while nearly a thousand other personnel within a half mile were either killed or gravely injured by the shock wave.

Soldiers brave enough or coherent enough to go to the front gate saw nothing but thick, choking black smoke engulfing it.  They knew there was nothing they could do.  They knew that no one could have survived.  They could only wonder what further horrors were in store for them.

They got their answer.

A lone figure walked out of the smoke, his right eye glowing bright blue.

Devereaux Marshall Fox had finally arrived.