There was a rumble as the ground trembled. A siren blared out from somewhere on the sleeping base. Barton bolted upright and tossed the covers off. He wasn’t able to really sleep, not with the warning that Myles had left them with. By the time that he was dressed and out the door the siren had quieted.
He shared glances with the others in the hallway, wondering where to report to when it happened. There was a popping feeling followed by pain that blacked out his vision. Before Barten realized it he was leaning next to the wall. While the others in the hallway were lying prone on the floor.
With a shake of his head the pain left as quickly as it came. Given the quick setup of the base he didn’t even know where the headquarters or battle command would be located. So he went for the roof instead. Once Barten stepped out on it instead of the gravel that he had expected was a thick layer of foil. He only paid it a passing thought and when he looked he gasped at what he saw.
In the distance there was a floating object like the one that Myles had shown the squad. It slowly rotated in place as it hovered there emitting a reddish light. It almost looked like something had appeared from a hell dimension. Invaded the world with no good intentions and glowed in an evil light.
It was time to find someone who knew what was going on.
20 minutes of harried searching was all it took to find a place that looked like it might be an impromptu command room. Several prone soldiers that he hadn’t met before were there along with Sergeant Myles. Barten rolled him over and tried his best to rouse him. “Myles, come on, wake up please,” Barten said as he helped Myles sit up.
“Wha- Barten?” Myles asked and shook his head. “That was unreal. Echo Base should have been warded against the psychic attack. Did it feel like this back then?”
Barten shook his head. “Don’t remember. What should we do now?”
“See if you can get the Commander Gale up next,” Myles said and steadied himself on a desk. “She was explaining the plan to us when the pulse came.” With Myles' direction Barten found the Commander and tried to get her to come around.
“What? Who-” she punched at Barten and he grunted when her fist landed on his ribs.
“Commander Gale, you’ve been disabled by the enemy's psychic attack. The whole base has been,” Barten said.
“What? Damn it,” she said and washed her face. “Who else is awake?”
“Just Sergeant Myles and myself so far,” Barten said.
Commander Gale sighed. “Try to rouse the others first. I’m fine,” she said and slumped against the wall. “Head’s full of spaghetti. Ugh.” One at a time Barten moved his way through the room. Some of the soldiers roused right away. While others didn’t seem to no matter how much he tried.
There was a scrape at the door and a group of soldiers walked into the room. “Private Yin reporting. I’ve managed to wake my squad and have left several members behind to help with rousing everyone in the residential building.” She was rather stern looking and her hair was cropped short.
“Ah, good Yin. Thank you,” Commander Gale said. “Please work together, get everyone up. And take those that don’t to the Medic.” Yin snapped a quick salute and she and her squad disappeared. “Barten is it? Can you go to the hanger and work with the techs there? Once they are up they are to work on prepping a chopper to get some recon on the enemy,” she said and looked out the window. “Assuming that they give us enough time for morning to come.”
Barten saluted and then made off across the cracked and broken tarmac towards the hanger. Ducking through the door he was surprised to find that they even had pilotable vehicles on base. If anything he had been feeling somewhat out of place without something to fly.
Though he was somewhat disappointed when what he found was a pair of decommissioned helicopters. While they once had been armed with weapons, all that remained of them were empty mounts.
What was more surprising was that everyone Barten found was already up and running around. After some asking around he found someone who would be able to help with Commander Gales orders.
“Commander Gale wants what?” Fred asked. He was the head technician on the base. Grizzled with age and with white stubble on his face.
“She wants one of the choppers ready to go come first light for some recon,” Barten said.
Fred shook his head. “It would have been nice if they gave us something worth sending up into the air. Not many are going to be able fly one of these old things,” he pointed over his shoulder with his thumb.
Barten shrugged. “I’d be happy to fly again. The last few weeks have been the longest since I’ve flown something.”
Fred laughed. “Well, we’ll see what we can get for you. And the birds are already ready. Hells, been ready since the second day we got here. Not much else to do around here. Probably why we didn’t get hit by the pulse.”
“What do you mean?”
Fred pointed at the roof. “While the main buildings only got one coating. There was enough left over to hit the hanger roof twice. And since we were bored.” He shrugged. “Happy little coincidence is all.”
Barten shook his head and left to report back. Only he found himself waiting around. Everyone was either up or taken care of. The cooks had food ready and he managed to get a meal in him at least. When the call finally came to him to get ready to fly he was both relieved that there was something to do and excited to fly again.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
***
Being in the seat of an old chopper like that brought out some feelings of nostalgia. The first base Barten had been assigned to had a number of older vehicles that they trained with, though not as old as the helicopter that he was currently in. There was something nostalgic about how they did things in a more analog age. Compared to the touch screens and buttons the newest gear and vehicles seemed to use.
“This is Private Barten, ready for liftoff and waiting for orders,” he said into the mic. He shot a thumbs up behind him to his two passengers. Smith had somehow found out that he was going up and got himself assigned as a cameraman. The other was the taciturn Yin that had appeared with her squad. She had a tablet in her hands along with a number of recording equipment that the techs sent along with her.
“You are cleared for takeoff. Commander sends the reminder to not approach the object.”
“Roger.”
Barten took the chopper off of the ground and flew low along the runway before heading into the skies. The only thing that could have gone down the runway was a chopper or something that was already in the air. He really wanted that feeling of build up, of gaining enough speed to take wing. But with the chopper that was the closest that he could get to it.
With the sun up it was easier to the object floating in the air. The red light that had been clear in the dark was no longer noticeable in the sunlight.
First they flew to the west, circling around the object at a range of 90 km. Which was 3 times the distance an Earth SAM could have landed on a target. And while Barten wanted to get even closer, he would rather follow orders than not come back at all. There had been several researchers that turned up on base who warned that not only was the object dangerous, it was also a giant unknown.
“Alright, I think that I've taken enough pictures,” Smith said. “It’s all kind of uniform to me. But I’m sure they might get more out of it.”
“Give me a few more minutes on the reading,” Yin said. “They want so many different ones it’s unreal. And half of these metrics sound fake to me. What the hell is a MMDGC? Ugh.”
Once he finally got the go ahead Barten flew around to the north of the object. They passed over a forest that became more sparse as they flew. And it was as they were coming around to the west that something started to bother him. Though it wasn’t until Smith said something that it clicked into place, “Anyone else think that the earth being turned up like that is strange? I thought that I saw something like that in the fields as well. What should have been growing food had tracks through it.”
“Are we sending the data back real time?” Barten asked.
“Yeah I think so, see if you can get them to take a closer look.”
“Base, this is Barten. Smith has reported seeing something strange. Is it possible to get someone to take a closer look at the photos we have already sent back? There are sections of upturned earth and paths existing here and there that seem strange.” A moment later came the response that they would look into it.
Before they heard anything back however they discovered what was causing the paths. A large car sized object was peeling away at a tree at the side of the road. From what Barten could see there was a clear path leading back to the object.
“What the hell is that?” Yin asked.
“It almost looks like a giant black pill bug or beetle. But not, cause it’s the size of a van. Is it eating the tree?” Smith asked as a large multi jointed arm appeared from the beetle that pulled down limbs of the tree. Bit by bit the limb disappeared into its mouth.
“Uh, Base, this is Barten again. Smith should be sending back some alarming photos. Please advise.”
“Barten, please fly towards the city. If there is something out there eating trees then there might be something moving towards it,” came back the reply.
“Wasn't the city evacuated?”
“Reports came in that 80% made it out before the pulse. As always there were holdouts it seems. Please fly by and then come back to the base.”
“Roger,” Barten said as he turned the chopper towards the city.
When the city came in to view the thing that they were hoping for was dashed away. There were many trails leading onto the road going west towards the city. But none going away from it. And once the first buildings came into view they knew that things were already going badly.
Smith was taking pictures, the lens of the camera whirling as he zoomed in and out. “It almost looks like they are dismantling the buildings. I can’t tell if they have come into contact with any people yet,” Smith said. Barten wanted to get a better look at the city, but from what they were able to see the beetles were still only at the very edge of it. Chewing away at the buildings as they moved slowly inwards.
“Do you think that people would wait around for those things?” Yin asked. “Even the hold outs would have to know that something bad is going on should they see one.”
Smith shook his head. “People are stubborn. Whenever we did evacs before there were always some who didn’t care, didn't want to leave, or just went against the pack. That’s assuming that they are even awake yet.”
Barten circled around once more and then headed back to base. “This is Barten, confirmed hostiles at the edge of the city. No civilians spotted.”
“Echo Base here, okay. We are looking through the pictures now and might have something else for you later. Return to base for now.”
“Roger.”
Luckily there weren’t any signs of the beetles making their way towards the base. And it was a smooth trip, though one of silence as they processed the sights that they had seen. Once Barten landed the chopper the techs ran out to start with the maintenance and Sergeant Myles was waiting for them. And pulled them into the meeting room with the others.
“Things aren’t looking good out there,” Myles said. This time he didn't bother with setting up his laptop.
“Um, yeah,” Conners said. “Where have you been?”
Myles shook his head. “No. I mean everywhere. Each of the objects that we have been monitoring woke up. Along with several others that we didn’t know about. We knew about the beetles before they were reported. And in other locations there are reports of them attacking humans. It’s… well. It’s not a nice sight. One of the other sergeants lost their breakfast when the photo popped on screen.”
“So this is happening everywhere at once?” Monroe asked and slumped down into her seat. “Is there anything that we can do? Sitting here like this is killing me. Just put a gun into my hands and I’ll show them how humans fuck around.”
“Traditional munitions aren’t enough to deal any noticeable damage,” Myles said.
“But that’s only traditional,” Smith said. “Does that mean that there is something else for us to use?
“There is. But it’s on another base maybe an hour away from us. How about it Barten? Feel like making a supply run?”