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CLEA
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Vasa tapped a few switches, looked at the screen, and then looked at us, “The clock agrees with you. Four hundred goddamned years I’ve been on standby.” He glared at the screen, “Okay, let’s see if I remember how to do this…”
“Uh,” I said quietly, “I know exactly what the avatar program is…and how it worked, Vasa.”
He looked at me, then nodded, “You have other things like me?”
“Hardly. When the Pox was released, we lost almost everything we had left, from the Hivers’ response, and Mara isn’t a thing, and neither are you.”
“She knows?” he flicked his eyes toward Katrina on the other side of the room.
“Only if you want to tell her. Most of our people don’t know about the Duchess; keeping her as a pure human is useful.”
“You sound kind of like a spook.”
“A what?”
“A spy.”
“Oh!” I laughed, and Katrina looked over. “That’s because that’s what both of us are. Scouts and spies.”
Now he laughed, “At least you’re honest about it. There are a lot of broadcasts coming from the north…Communications, air search radar, possibly ground surveillance radar as well.”
“It would be great if we could get into that base and see exactly what’s going on.”
“Spies…” he sighed.
“Spies,” I agreed.
“So, how are you going to do that?”
“I’m not sure. I’m going to call my superior and ask her how the attack on our base went. She might have some ideas.”
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“You found and activated a BRUTUS?”
“His name is Master Chief Petty Officer Vasa Olesa.”
“And he’s a squid?”
“I heard that, dogface,” Vasa said. We had set one of S-21’s directional antennas to aim directly at one of the tight beam receivers we had set up and had ‘called home’ as Vasa put it.
Mara laughed, “That’s fair. What type of facility is S-21?”
“Replenishment and minor depot work. I was attached as heavy security.”
“A supply bunker? Oh, thank God.”
“You running low?” Vasa asked.
“We engaged some Orbitals last night. They’ve been neutralized, but we’re worried about a response, and we may need a lot of beans and bullets.”
“Duchess,” I spoke up, “Vasa’s picked up a lot of radio signals from the Guensey base. I think I need to get in there.”
“Can you?”
“Probably…Wait a second, you say you fought them off?”
“Only one shot was fired, and the only casualty was one of their Blower’s recon drones. Ten captives, and they didn’t even get a distress call out.”
Distress call…
“Duchess, what would have happened if they did get that call out?”
“Their home base would scramble SAR,” Vasa said.
“Search and rescue,” Mara translated. “Yes, usually some kind of extraction would be attempted.”
“What kind of effect would that have on a base? I know what happens if a patrol gets ambushed.”
“It would get their attention, and everybody would be worrying about their people.”
“Can we fake a distress call?”
“Possibly…They would send out some kind of backup to check to see what the situation is and to orbit the area to provide cover when the SAR team went in.”
Vasa nodded in agreement, “It needs to look good enough for them to try to land. Pity we can’t blow up something.”
Now I smiled, “Well, what if there’s an explosion and fire in some trees that set the woods on fire…and pieces of a drone scattered nearby…It just needs to look good enough to get their attention, as three brave souls enter their facility while their attention is elsewhere.”
“I’ll need to get access to the Blower’s communication security…but that’s easy enough. We can police up the drone parts and scatter them…It’s a good thing the wind is still blowing. I’ll let you know when it’s ready.”
“Thank you, Duchess. Countess out.”
The connection ended, and I looked at Vasa, “So, do you have any maps of this facility, including the part that’s across the river?”
“I believe I do,” the big man replied, “So, is this a private party, or can anyone join? They dropped a rock on my tama and tina in Pago Pago, and I’m still holding a grudge.”
“We’d love to have you…There wouldn’t happen to be any Ceedo weapons in that warehouse, would there?”
Vasa smiled.
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HARI-9
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“It’s all ready to go,” Michael’s voice came over the comms as HARI-9 sat in the Howler, Bonchance in the front seat. The Gut carrying the logging team and the Ape was already gone, with the wind already filling up its tracks with the driving snow. “The Duchess said it’s on your order.”
“We’re ready,” Clea replied. “Go now.”
HARI-9 fired two AP Incendiary rockets into the stack of green pine that exploded and burst into smoky flame. “Go ahead, Bonchance.”
The mechanician activated the commset, which had been encoded with the new security keys, and began speaking, his voice being transformed into a perfect equivalent of Captain Riggins, “Mayday Mayday, this is G31, calling Mayday!”
“G31! This is Command! Where have you been?”
“We were attacked by Ares and had to go to ground…” HARI-9 had no idea who Ares was but had thrown that into the script to confuse the issue. “The storm hid us, but them as well,” Bonchance started coughing, “ and they ambushed us as soon as we started moving…We’re on fire and trapped and need SAR immediately. ELB is active; Lowen’s dead, and so is Tommy. Send help…” Bonchance started coughing again.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
“G31, we have your signal…Is it a Hot LZ?”
More coughing and more interrogations until Bonchance cut the transmission, leaving nothing but the Emergency Locator Beacon placed by the now roaring and smoky fire and the scattered drone parts.
“So, Mara,” Bonchance asked as she turned and, flying low to the ground, was returning to the bunker, “Do you think it worked?”
She couldn’t help but smile, “I think so; hopefully, Clea will be able to use this opportunity.”
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CLEA
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Swimming across a river in the winter is terrible. Even if you’re equipped with Old World technology and are an Arctic Adapted, it’s still incredibly cold. Vasa seemed impressed that I could keep up with him, “Not bad, but you’re a mod, aren’t you?”
“Arctic.”
“That would do it.”
With power back on, we could use the warehouse’s inventory and were now equipped in ‘photochromatic camouflage’ which shifted its color to attempt to match the surroundings; Vasa had a very large weapon he called an assault gun, that looked like it should be attached to some sort of vehicle, while I was carrying both a pistol and a submachine gun with those suppressors attached. I had seen submachine guns in the Rock Republic, but they were notoriously inaccurate and uncontrollable unless they were much larger than the one I now had.
Katrina had her big rifle and was high on the bluff overlooking the base. There were hangars with aircraft in them and people using various pieces of equipment to remove the snow drifts, as well as patrols in light trucks driving around the perimeter inside the large fence.
We all had helmets, of course, even though Vasa probably didn’t need his, but if we were seen, a helmet wearer with phenomenal accuracy would draw less attention than a non-helmet wearer.
The river had been covered with a sheet of fragile ice and slush, and, as I said, it was cold. We waded as far as we could and then swam the rest of the way, Vasa crushing a path so I could follow more easily. On the other side, after opening my visor, I opened a pouch of the orange and sweet-tasting powder from one of the meal bags and poured it dry into my mouth before following it with warm water from the insulated canteen.
“Now jump up and down to mix it,” Vasa said with a smile, his visor open as well. “Man, that joke was old four hundred years ago.” Closing his visor, he spoke over the comms on a very low power setting, “Overwatch…you with us?”
“Of course, Master Chief,” Katrina replied. “Countess, did you enjoy your snack?”
“I’ve had better…Where are the patrols?”
“The closest is a vehicle to your northwest…about half a mile, traveling next to the river bank and heading straight toward you.”
“Well then, I believe it is time to cause some worry. Overwatch, switch to relay mode.”
There was a click as my comms were now directed through Katrina’s helmet and into the tight beam antenna sitting next to her.
“Duchy, this is the Countess.”
“Countess, Duchy receiving,” Michael’s voice was weirdly toned but clear enough.
“Are we ready?”
“It’s all ready to go,” Michael replied. “The Duchess said it’s on your order.”
“We’re ready,” I said calmly. “Go now.”
“And they’re going, Countess.”
“Lovely, Overwatch, switch back.”
There was the click.
“Well?” Vasa asked as we stayed pressed into the snow drift.
“Now we wait and see…Overwatch, any change?”
“Nothing so far…Nothing…Oh! They’re rolling out something big from a hangar.”
“What’s the patrol doing?” Vasa asked.
“They’ve stopped and are watching, too. Another big thing has been moved out…”
At that moment, I could hear a loud whining roar building up.
“I know that sound…That’s a Mastodon Heavy Lift Quad. I’ve ridden in enough of those,” Vasa added.
It changed to a deeper pitch, and then a thumping was added. Rising over the snowbank was a large insect-like vehicle with pods on the ends of four arms. The pods began to rotate to the horizontal, and it started moving forward and away. Following it was a vehicle like a larger Howler with stub wings, which quickly passed the Mastodon and was soon lost to view.
“And they’re off…” Katrina said. “Patrol is heading back toward the main base area.”
I looked at Vasa, and he nodded as we rushed up and over the snowbank and across the trail around the perimeter. Once on the other side, Vasa and I began searching through the brush until we found the concrete slab with a hatch in the center. My tablet unlocked that, but the hatch was stuck shut.”
“Rust…” Vasa sighed. He grabbed the handle, braced his feet against the concrete, and pulled. I actually saw the thick metal of the handle starting to bend when, with a grinding crunch, it broke free and turned. Standing up, Vasa jumped into the air and came down on his elbow in the center of the hatch; the metal slab dropped six inches with a clang.
“I think you broke it free.”
“I think so,” I knew he was grinning from his tone of voice.
Sliding it open on its rails, we saw a ladder going down. It was going to be a tight squeeze for Vasa, so I descended first.
At the bottom was a door, the tablet unlocked that as well, and I made sure to have my pistol out as Vasa climbed down behind me.
“That was not easy.”
“What you get from being a big boy.”
He laughed.
Opening the door a crack, I saw nothing but darkness on the other side, even with the light intensification I had used while climbing down. Switching to Infrared with the emitter in the helmet, I saw that underground roadway with a mass of dirt and stone in the way on the side and the water on the riverside.
“So the passage is across the road,” Vasa said as he pointed at a panel set in the far wall.
“So that large crater on the surface caused this?”
“It does look like a Mass Driver shot,” he agreed. “We are very lucky it hit to the east side of the old runway and not the west.”
Crossing the roadway, we were at the panel, and this one, even though it was also slightly rusty, opened far easier than the surface hatch, revealing a narrow tunnel filled with pipes and other things. It was much warmer in here.
“Can you fit?” I asked.
“I can manage…There’s a reason I was never a tunnel rat.”
“So this is what you…Vasa…looked like before?” I asked. I had never even considered that with Mara, previously.
“Mostly. They tried to make the avatars match the original source. Vasa Olesa wasn’t this big, obviously, but he wasn’t much smaller.”
“Where was Vasa…where were you from?” I asked as we squeezed down the maintenance corridor
“American Samoa. Pago Pago. My tama was a tuna fisherman after he got out of the Navy. I was going to do the same, but…some people up in space got pissy. You?”
“My father was a lumberman, and my mother was the camp cook up in the edges of the Rock Republic. I got into this after serving my term as a conscript.”
“You have as much of an idea where and what Samoa is as I have of this Rock Republic, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I admitted.
“This world…this goddamned world is all different.”
“That’s what I understand.”
There was a hatch to one side, and I opened it. As it cracked open slightly, light poured in.
“I think we’re here.”
Opening the hatch a little further, I saw it had been buried under the earth that had collapsed from above, so I had to dig a path and that the roadway ended in an underground storage area about one hundred yards ahead, similar to the garage on the bunker’s SURFACE level, but much much larger. It was clear that this area by the roadway seemed to be generally ignored, for there was an assortment of broken machinery and other scrap stacked in heaps in this blocked-off stub. I slipped out, Vasa squeezing out after me with a stream of mild cursing as a chorus, and we crouched behind a wrecked four-wheel vehicle.
“Well, we’re in.”
“We are. We are here for information primarily, so where would we find it?”
“Commander’s office or Ops,” he replied promptly. “This is the main hangar area. The vehicle lifts are those big platforms marked with the red and white lines…” he pointed. “…while over there, that looks like maintenance. That red door to the left is munitions storage for rearming the birds. Most bases generally also keep their small arms stores in there, too. Those are the tie-downs,” he pointed at a line of larger Howlers and two more of those Mastodons, along with a group of three strange vehicles all in a row and hooked to charge cables.
“What are those?”
“Blowers…limited lift vehicles, I don’t recognize that particular model. Those look like utility or transport because I don’t see any real weapon hardpoints on them, just the two pop-up turrets. This place is a forward operating base. Heavy transport, infantry support with those Yellowjackets,” he pointed at the larger Howlers, “and ground support. I wonder how many troops they have available?”
I had to shake my head, “How have they managed to hide this for so long? My job was to find stuff like this; searching for Old World technology was a big part of it, and I know every other realm besides mine was looking for it, too.”
“How do you know they haven’t found it and just haven’t told anybody about it.?”
Nodding, I had to agree, but it felt like there was something more. Maybe some of the answers were here.
“Usually, the pilots’ ready room is going to be either close to the lifts or on the surface. Ops and the Commander’s office will be near it.”
“They’ll stick it underground; they’ve been trying very hard not to be noticed, which is why this place is being used. This area of the frontier is very empty, but we think they have enemies with the same kinds of equipment, so they might get away with a vehicle patrol or two, but repairing and maintaining the surface buildings would draw attention.”
He nodded, “Then they’ll be over there,” he pointed at some doors past the lifts.