Episode 35

Chapter 138

Kevin

Personal log (voice), Kevin, Captain of the Mary Ellen

9:35 pm, November 3^rd, 2006

3:35 am November 4^th, 2006 (local time)

Now it is time to really take this attack on the offensive. Until now we've only been an annoyance. Well, maybe a little more troubling than that. But leveling targets doesn't do much towards rescuing Jacob and crew. We're going to have to land our people eventually. I just hope I'm returning with the same number of people as I left with.

"Approaching secondary command and control." Melanie informed me.

So be it. Time to do it. "Al?"

"Yes?"

"Activate the cloak."

"Done."

"Melanie, descend to ground level."

"Right."

I watched the holographic projection as the Mary Ellen descended to the ground. It felt almost God-like to know I was there and they had no idea where I was. Mixed in with that was a dose of fear that they would get a lucky shot off while our shields were down.

"Ground level." Melanie reported.

"Mike, Thomas, are you ready?"

"Yep."

"Ready when you are."

"Ok guys. Here we go. Al."

"Yes?"

"Drop the cloak."

"Done."

Almost simultaneously the other two spoke.

Thomas was barely first. "Al, raise shields."

"Al, target all opposition soldiers. Minimum force necessary for knock out blows. Then take out all visible heavy weapons. Then give me a force three bolt through their blast doors. FIRE!!!" Mike shouted.

We all looked at him.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "I got carried away."

We watched as the shots started dropping Marines like dominoes.

The Marines returned fire of course.

Their shots and shells were pleasantly futile.

Shortly they were all down.

Then the blast door was blasted in.

"Now."

Thomas dropped the shields.

I hit the intercom. "Go get 'em!"

The dozen football players I was carrying rushed out. Four of what I'm calling the Geek Squad followed them more cautiously.

"They're out." Thomas reported. "Raising shields."

"Good. Melanie, move us to two hundred feet up."

"Right."

I waited until the ship was in position. "Mike, start targeting the primary command and control center according to what Valerie told us. Sam, I want you to patch into every communications device on this base."

"O.K."

"Al?" Sam inquired?

"Yes?"

"Patch into everything that can receive a signal."

"It will take three minutes."

We waited.

"Done." The ship's computer told Sam.

"All yours." Sam told me.

"To all people, of whatever rank, service branch or affiliation. This is Captain Kevin of the Density Ship Mary Ellen. I'm now announcing a no fly zone. Nothing man made may move in the base's air zone, or in an area of eighty miles surrounding it without the direct authorization of the Density Force. Violators will be shot down."

Mike looked up from his controls. "Targets decided."

"Great. Acquire targets and fire on my mark."

Chapter 139

Ashley

9:40 pm, November 3^rd, 2006

3:40 am November 4^th, 2006 (local time)

I watched the attack. Several ships like the one Jacob and I arrived in had been moving around in the sky. Other military craft attacked them. The battle was one sided.

Part of me was saddened to see American forces being defeated with the ease of a Nintendo game. I only hoped that they were sticking to the mission, and would not make a game of it. Some of the people helping up there were not like Jacob. That could get messy if their self control snapped.

Troublesome as that thought was, I had a more dangerous problem at hand. The rescue of General Smith. I looked out at the street from behind the large metal dumpster I was hiding behind.

The street itself was no problem. It was all the various Marines running back and forth on top of the street that was going to cause me some issues. Most of them were trying to respond to the confusing battle above our heads with hand help weapons. They'd fire, then move on.

They were having no effect whatsoever.

My problem was with the three squads of guards outside the General's house. They must have been posted after they moved the prisoners around. I guess they thought it would have made it harder for us to rescue everybody. According to Tiffany, they were nearly right. She had told me that they had one less group of people than she had targets. That's where my big mouth came in. I volunteered to rescue General Smith.

I pulled my head back behind the dumpster. I could look all night, it wasn't going to change the truth of the matter. There was no way I was going to be able to do this alone, whether the houses next to the General's were occupied or not.

The battle seemed to be concentrating somewhere behind me.

That's when I had an epiphany. Those houses on either side were empty. Why not have Tiffany blast one? I pulled out my cell phone and prayed any body who usually watched for stray signals was preoccupied. "Tiffany, I need you to do a scan of the house on the left of the General's house... Because I want to make sure it's as empty as I think it is... Just trust me..." I hung up and waited. No use giving anybody looking an easier job of finding me. A few minutes later my cell phone rang. "Yes... Great... Yes, there is a reason I needed to know that. Now I want you to hit that house with a blast strong enough to reach it's subbasement... No, I don't know if it has one, just blast it as if it did... I'll tell you why. It's going to be a distraction. A hoped for side effect will be it clears the street too... Thanks."

Again I hung up and waited. During this wait, I made sure to duck behind the dumpster as low and tight as I could scrunch against it.

Then the ground shook. Hard. Debris flew over and around the dumpster. Some hit the dumpster. The blast wind blew it, and me, three feet.

Then there was a moment of silence.

I stuck my head up.

There was nobody left standing.

There was a big crater where the house was. Bits of the house were flung outward as though from a meteor strike. Those bits seemed to have shredded the houses around the crater.

I got up and ran across the street.

Anybody still alive out there had bigger problems than me.

I listened carefully for any noise from the pile of rubble. A few minutes later I thought I heard something. Five minutes of anxious digging yielded a dust covered arm moving around. I took a closer look and saw it was trying to move debris out of the way. "General Smith?"

"I'm down here. Who's calling?"

"I'm Ashley Cork. I'm here to rescue you from Colt's men."

He hesitated, then he accepted my help to pull himself out. "Some rescue. You nearly killed me."

"Opps, that is my fault. I called for a distraction attack on the house next door."

"You mean the V.I.P. quarters?"

"Who cares? I thought rescuing you was a Very Important idea."

"True. Now what?"

"We hope that they think you're dead. That way they won't be looking for you."

"They wouldn't be far wrong. I repeat, now what?"
"We stay here while I contact Tiffany."

General Smith built something in the rubble. "O.K. There."

I crawled in. "Good. Everybody's going to be too busy to care about us. And if nobody's looking for us, we should be safe here."

"We may be, but I worry about those Marines that are just following Colt's orders."

"That's no defense. I learned that in history class."

"Maybe. But that's also simplistic. What if they don't know any better? As far as they know, they're under attack by an enemy force. They don't know what caused the attack."

I thought about what he said. He had a point. The shame was, we were both out of it. There was little we could do to affect either side at the moment. I shook my head sadly. "All we can do now is pray that as many innocents survive as possible. The Force will sort that mess out when we get to it."

Now the General glared at me. "What do you mean by that?"

"These are, I hope, Jacob's friends up there."

"Who else could they be? Who else would have the nerve to do this??" Only his recent encounter with death kept him from shouting.