"When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb." -Julius Robert Oppenheimer
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Jackson Wellington
Greenweld Technologies
Tennessee, United North American Continent, 2372
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Jack Wellington leaned back at his desk and sighed, the remnants of his lunch scattered about him. ‘It’s been two years since they stopped making those Chinese food containers and they are still using them for take-out. How many did they stock up on before the environmental regulations kicked in?’ he mused poking at the carton in question with a fork. He was interrupted by a flashing news bulletin on the holoscreen in front of him.
He tapped it to expand what was being said and a new reporter in front of the UN building flashed up. While the sound was muted, the subtitles showed what needed to be known. The talks between China and Russia over the newly expanding Siberian oil fields had broken down, again, the same story for the past few decades.
The trouble started a hundred and seventy years before, when the Islamic State in its quest for freedom had stolen a nuclear warhead from a Pakistani military base. The stolen plutonium was used to make a dirty bomb, since they couldn’t activate it normally. Deciding to use their new weapon to make a statement, they used several operatives to smuggle it into Saudi Arabia, intending to strike one of the United States’ airbases there. What they didn’t know was that when they made the bomb, it slowly went mass critical as they were shipping it.
Thus it ended up in a premature fireball 200 miles away from the nearest US base, and the mission was a complete failure. However, the bomb went off in the middle of the most productive oil field the Saudi’s had, and turned thirty percent of it into melted iron and steel. An additional forty percent of the field became too radioactive to work in, or even salvage, which cut in half the amount of exports Saudi Arabia could produce in the span of a single afternoon.
The resulting shock hit the world hard, and sent governments scrambling, as the world’s biggest oil supplier suddenly went dry.
‘At least it provided us the kick in the ass we needed to get off foreign oil, though it was more like the oil itself was turned off.’ Jack thought. He remembered learning how they coped with the aftermath in school. How the United States and Canada formed a union much like the old EU, to better trade the oil from the Athabasca Sands and create a united energy front for research. France finally got the support it needed to get ITER, the first fusion reactor, online from the international European community, alleviating most of its power needs overnight. Russia had the best result from the Saudi disaster, they found vast oil reserves in the uncharted forests of Siberia, and eventually became the top supplier. In twenty years or so, the major powers of the world had created various sustainable energy programs, had their oil needs filled from elsewhere, or a combination of the two. That is all the major powers except China.
The oil fields the Chinese expected to find in their western provinces never panned out. Instead they were forced to watch as the Russian Bear got stronger while the Red Dragon withered, choking on the high costs of imported oil. This caused them to look north to the thinly defended border of Siberia with covetous looks.
‘At least it was thinly defended at the time,’ Jack inwardly chuckled, ‘now a-days it makes the Korean DMZ look like a kid friendly petting zoo.’
The past century had been brutal to the area, with twelve incursions by the Chinese that the Russians repulsed every time. Russia used their newfound wealth to build the largest defensive network the world had ever seen. Along their entire border with China, and several of the smaller countries the Chinese were not shy about rolling over, a massive defensive belt was created. Laser Point defenses guarded against air and missile attacks. The tips of the newly developed railgun poked out of bunkers, capable of throwing tungsten darts at near the speed of sound. The Chinese continued to grow their juggernaut of a military, hoping to one day throw enough bodies at the line to break through or ease their problems. However it wasn’t enough, the slow disintegration of order in China as the stopgap measures failed to live up to demand continued and the Party was cracking under the pressure.
The Great Energy Revolution, similar to the Cultural Revolution decades before, eliminated much of the dissent, but it wasn’t enough. The ramblings of a man in a little red book only meant so much as the lights went out and necessities couldn’t be paid for due to transportation costs. The United North American Continent, as the union of the United States and Canada was termed, began to worry at the growing desperation of the Chinese government, and their general instability. They began to sink vast quantities of time and money into projects that would help fight the red tide, a tide that numbered in the tens of billions. This kind of technological race hadn’t been experienced since the Second World War so many years before.
‘And that’s why I’m sitting here in this lab today’ Jack thought as he finished reading the report on the holoscreen.
He was working at a lab out in Tennessee called Greenweld Technologies. It was a boring name that caused people to think of Greenpeace worthy technologies and concealed its true nature as a development lab for the UNAC military. Greenweld was concerned with making cybernetic enhancements to the military, trying to create the modern day super soldier. Jack’s project was no exception and suited his background in Mechanical and Bioengineering. They also wanted to tap into his combat experience as a Captain in the 82nd Airborne Division, and create something that would actually be useful in the field not just the lab.
The project Jack was involved with was to create a system of nanites that would live inside the soldier, augmenting his abilities. A couple of the programmer s of the project had nicknamed them “The Zerg” a reference to a game that was in its 5th sequel. Jack was involved with making sure the little buggers could thrive inside the human body, and provide the augmentations as needed by the host. One version of the serum was designed for combat capabilities, the other for a more of a support role, at least in theory. They both were still in the design and testing phase. It was challenging work but worth it and he was interested in the support serum especially. Jack was a Combat Engineer, and having a field assist would be extraordinarily handy in his line of work. Working at Greenweld was a temporary assignment, a political assignment.
The next few minutes were spent answering emails and avoiding a budget meeting that was going to be particularly nasty. The bean counters never seemed to understand how expensive Nano-scale centrifuges and assemblers could be, even with the pictures drawn out for them on the PowerPoint slides… Jack had just grabbed his mug to refill his iced tea, the state beverage of Tennessee besides bourbon, when another researcher poked his head in his office. “Hey Jack, we’re going to try Tank III again in about fifteen minutes, meet you downstairs in ten.” The man said this in an excited voice and then quickly vanished out the door again. Jack laughed at the retreating figure, another Bioengineer named Nate Horning, and how enthusiastic he was about testing the various serums of Zerg.
Leveraging his willowy frame out from his comfortable chair and scooping his mug from his desk, Jack left his office. He walked into a steel gray corridor that was lined with doors, most of them closed. He turned left just as his shut with a soft hiss and thump from a pneumatic pump. He walked to the break room, acquired some tea that the kitchen staff prepared that day, and made his way to the elevator. ‘It sure is nice to have your own in-house cafeteria, staffed by people who could actually cook. This is in stark contrast to army and university life.’ Shuddering at the thought of the generic chow, the elevator arrived. Selecting one of the lowest level ones Jack sipped at his tea during the high speed ride, knees slightly buckling at the deceleration toward the end.
Tightly gripping his mug, lest it join the countless others that had been claimed by the high speed elevator and negligent riders as it slowed, he waited for the doors to open. They revealed a corridor, carved more from the Appalachian Mountains than built by man, lit by banks of recessed lights. “The evil mad scientist bunker is complete, time for experiments to commence…” he muttered as he briskly walked down the corridor, white lab coat fluttering behind him.
Passing through a heavy blast door, he entered into the control room that oversaw the Zerg production and storage. Inside a holo-display was showcasing the new 3D structure of Zerg, which looked like a mechanical hornet. They had done several tests on different forms and found small wings acted as airfoils that could ride the small currents inside the bloodstream of the host. Keeping with the naming theme, the holo-display showed a royal purple colored Zerg, but the test batches they had created were a dark gray, not that you could see them anyways once they were in solution.
Jack noticed Nate standing in from of the large glass window that overlooked the storage and testing site. Walking up to him and looking down into the cavern below, he saw the current two batches of Zerg swirling around in their respective glass tanks, which were large enough to fit a man inside. One batch was blue while the other crimson in color. Noting the difference in color, Jack asked Nate “weren’t they the same color this morning? What did you guys do to them?” Nate laughed as his confusion responding “After eight or so hours one of them will change color, we have no idea why at this point, but it seems to be which serum type it’s based on. It’s just another thing to add to the list.”
The list in question was displayed in the back of the room, showing the various questions and partial solutions the team had come up with over the past five months. They still had a long way to go, but at least they had a working prototype. That and their lab didn’t blow up like the guys who were working on the exosuit project, they were let go after trashing a half of a billion dollars of hardware. “Hey guys,” a relaxed voice from behind them prompted them both to turn around, “we’re about to start the second round of testing for the third batch made this week.” The voice belonged to a tall, scruffy man, who looked about 25 years old. His name was Kanis Ja’heed, his family immigrated after the Saudi Disater, and he was the youngest member of the team. Kanis was a computer engineer and in charge of several of the programs that enabled Zerg to interact with various cells in the human body, mainly the muscle and nerves as they required the most care.
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Both of the men walked over to his console and watched as the commands were sent to begin the test. Right as the start button was to be pressed, the blast doors opened again. A petite woman entered with fiery red hair. Her eyes seemed to spark and sizzle as she seized up the three men. “You idiots were going to run the experiment without me, again!” she exploded. “How am I supposed to do my job properly if you three won’t even tell when you start!” The voice tore through the control room with the force of a grenade. With his eardrums ringing and being disoriented Jack stammered “Nate told me! I figured he mentioned it to you as well!” The glare sent from his right, where Nate was standing, could have melted steel. Jackson endured it though and watched in amusement as the woman started walking in that direction starting a new tirade against his coworker. Looking back at Kanis, whose eyes were still spinning from the entrance, he muttered “Andrea the human flashbang, it’s a pity we couldn’t sell that skill to the army.”
After a while Andrea ran out of steam. Breathless the biochemist said to the other two “I feel much better now, let’s start the trial.” Nate staggered over, looking like he was run over by a tank. “If you ever do that to me again, I will throw you in the next batch of Zerg,” he said. Jack defended himself with the simple phrase “you dug your own grave there buddy.” Looking back at Andrea and noticing the head of steam building from the delay, Jack hurriedly said “Kanis, start the trial.” A few button clicks later they all went to stand by the window to watch.
Two self-propelled carts containing a slab of beef floated in from the freezer next door. Once in front of their respective tanks valves were opened allowing a single drop of Zerg solution onto the slab. A bright flash erupted from the left one, in front of the crimson tank. The slab of meat had caught fire from the Zerg solution being dropped onto it. The one on the right, in front of the blue one had been flash frozen to a temperature close to absolute zero, according to the readout on that side. “Well that’s a new one,” Nate busted out laughing as the ash remains of the meat were wheeled out of the left side. Enduring a withering look from Andrea he turned around and looked at the List. Written in bold letters at the top was the line “Why the hell won’t it bind with anything organic???” This was the major hitch in the project so far, the nanites worked fine in augmenting the different cells. This was shown by numerous test and simulations. The issue is that they augmented them so much that they caused strange reactions, as shown by the spontaneous combustion earlier. As they pondered this new result a resounding crash from below came as the second frozen slab slipped from its cart and shattered.
“Clean up on aisle three,” Nate quipped. Jack shot back with “I got it, I like frozen TV dinners anyways,” glad for the chance to do something with his hands. He entered the airlock that separated the control room from the testing chamber. They had been working on some pretty nasty stuff on a prior completed, stuff which is banned by international law, and he had been told to forget about it after he arrived. Donning the lime green hazmat suit Jack made his way down the metal catwalk toward the floor below. “Test, test, can you hear me Jack?” Andrea’s voice came through the speaker inside the headpiece, this time at a reasonable level. “I gotcha loud and clear,” he replied back. “Good, try not to catch fire or freeze to death down there, I don’t want to be left with these two.” Suppressing a grin he teased “Thanks for worrying, Mom.” Getting a huff in his ear Jack continued down the catwalk to the main floor of the chamber. He really enjoyed working with the team, their quirks made going to work every day bearable. Then again it wasn’t what he signed up to do, but he’d been spared a court martial to come and work here, and would be released from the sidelines after this project was up. He looked forward to getting back into the field.
Activating the automated cleaning bots stored along the back wall took a few minutes after he reached the bottom of the catwalk. While they were booting up, he spent the rest of the time inspecting the Zerg system for any leaks. ‘Yea we don’t want it eating through the floor now do we? We’re two stories above the fusion reactor that powers this place, if that goes off it would make the Middle East look like a firecracker.’
As he was walking around to inspect the rear of the containment system, klaxon alarms began blaring all over the place. Jackson jumped up in surprise, bashing his head on the valve above the one he was inspecting. Grimacing in pain, he called upstairs “What the hell is going on?” There was no reply from above. A bright red exclamation point flashed in visor screen. “Show message” he grunted, as he slowly climbed over the maze of pipes forming the Zerg System. The message read:
The Peoples Republic of China has launched a full-scale offensive against the UNAC and Russian Federation. All civilians are to remain indoors at this time. Military personal are to report to their assigned stations and await further orders.
Cursing under his breath Jack began to move through the maze of pipes at a much brisker pace. Breaking out into the main section of the cavern his eardrums nearly burst as Andrea was screaming at him to get his attention. “Stop yelling! I’m here! The pipes must have blocked the signal. What the hell is going on?” He roared as she took a breath. Not wasting time explaining she opened a video link to the main monitor in the control room. A Chinese spokesman was standing at a podium addressing the assembled reporters at the UN.
“The People’s Republic has always advocated peace, however the world has not,” he began his speech. “We will show that we are not afraid to do what we must to ensure our survival. This decision did not come lightly; we will show you the error of your ways in disrespecting the Red Dragon. Your military bases, cities, and research institutions that secretly feed your military with new hardware will burst in the light of a new dawn.”
As he finished his speech he looked skyward, the camera following. A dark smudge was visible in the air before bursting into light. It showed the beginnings of a mushroom cloud before a static snow replaced it. Jackson shut off the link and threw himself up the catwalk, desperate to make it back inside the control room. However, at that moment, the earth began to tremble and cracks stared to appear inside the cavern.
A massive chunk of earth smashed down from above missing him by inches, but destroying the catwalk back to the airlock. The shaking dislodged the bolts holding the catwalk to the wall sending him vaulting into space, holding onto the handrail for dear life. Before he entered the billowing dust cloud below, the glass from the control room blew out as the ceiling above collapsed in. The shards ripped through his suit, creating a large gash across his chest as he fell below. Jackson hit the ground and blackness enveloped him.
Slowly Jack clamored back into the world of conciseness. In front of him, behind the dust cloud he could see through the cracked visor there was a hissing and sloshing sound. As he took stock of his surroundings he noted the dust had help clot the large slice on his chest. Painfully he eased himself up, only to immediately collapse back down as he tried to take a step. His right ankle gave out, and he judged it to be fractured or badly sprained. Gasping from the pain he managed to splutter “Andrea? Kanis or Nate? Is anyone up there?” but only received hissing static in reply. “Great, best job I ever had, totally worth getting sent here. Visor show thermal mode” he ordered the battered piece of gear.
It flicked once or twice before settling into a vison of blue and light orange. After further investigation, he noted the light orange came from the shattered cleaning bots. Deciding them to be of no use he looked forward toward the hissing and froze. The Zerg solution had broken loose of its holding tanks. They had been cracked open like eggshells by the falling debris.
The visor showed a sea of bright red, representing high thermal activity as the Zerg solution rapidly ate through the mess of pipes that surrounded it. He watched in horror as it finished vaporizing the metallic piping and then began to make its way through the rocks damming it on that half of the chamber. Scrambling to his feet and finding the leg of a destroyed cleaning bot to use as a makeshift crutch, Jackson made for higher ground. Using some of the bots as leverage, he climbed onto the pile of rocks spilling out from the control room. Halfway up the earth trembled again and he felt a sickening lurch. The rock dislodged and he was thrown down into the combined, purple colored Zerg solution. As he went under he was assaulted by the burning sensation all throughout his body, it felt as if his nerve endings were on fire. The mask that covered his face began to leak purple drops through the cracks in its face. They slowly widened as the serum ate through the glass as well, etching it. Another crack resounded against the back of his head as the current swept him along, allowing blackness to embrace him again.
News broadcasts around the world were in a frenzied state. They aired the destruction of New York again and again as well as the sites of other attacks. Washington D.C. , Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle, Chicago, and Los Angeles were all destroyed. Many of the military bases and installations had been hit as well, Cheyenne Mountain taking a barrage of eight missiles. However, the damage was not as severe as it could have been. The Chinese launched an attack on both Russia and the UNAC at the same time but didn’t have enough resources to destroy both. The two former Cold War enemies turned their respective arsenals against mainland China, rendering it unfit for habitation for the next few thousand years.
In the midst of this chaos and ground war that erupted against the scattered remains of the Chinese army. many of the smaller research institutions that were hit were overlooked. Greenweld was no exception. The only ones who mourned their loss were the families of the departed and the UNAC military who lamented the loss of several billion dollars of funding. The site was closed off to the public. Greenweld and its’ 1700 former employees faded into obscurity, their only grave maker a large sinkhole formed when the building collapsed. The site vanished back into the Tennessee backwoods, only a few short miles from the old Oak Ridge site, the cause of its demise.
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Thanks for reading. If you find any mistakes, let me know.