Cascade box set 2, p.68
Cascade Box Set 2, page 68
“But you said they are immortal? What about their err… consciousness?” said someone from the crowd.
“This is beyond our means to destroy. We should focus on what we can actually achieve.”
“And if we ‘achieve’ this, then the Hulathen will leave us alone?” said Trow.
“I believe so yes. At least for a few millennia.”
“Where will the cube gate take us?” said Zach.
“The first point will be the staging post, which orbits the earth. You and Fiona have already been there. From there we—”
“We?” said Zach.
“Yes, I will be making this trip as well.”
“We can’t ask you to take this risk for us,” said Trow.
“I appreciate as you would say the sentiment General, but unfortunately your people will not have the technological expertize to use the navigation controls to get to where you need to go.”
Trow nodded.
“So from the staging post, we will then go through the larger gates, which there are three. They are positioned roughly halfway between this planet and what you call Mars. They appear as three large black discs in the night sky to you. That will take us one hundred and nine light years to a star system where the Hulathen have a facility where they create the hosts for this part of interstellar space.”
“And getting back?” shouted Michael from the back of the room.
Klept hesitated before talking. “Getting back might be… difficult.”
“But there’s a way back right?” said someone else closer to the front.
“In theory yes. But should we make it to the Hulathen creation facility and achieve our mission, the Hulathen will be sure to have learned of our presence by then, and might have shut down the gates.”
“Meaning we will be stuck a hundred and nine light years from earth…”
“That is correct.”
The room fell silent as everyone absorbed the ramifications.
Zach stepped forward. “Everyone here has been selected because of their expertize and the courage they have shown since the Cascade started. But this mission is strictly volunteer only, and we only need eight people. So—”
Before Zach could finish, people in the room started to raise their hands. It wasn’t long before all had theirs held high.
*****
The radar operator at the outpost put down his mug of coffee and leaned closer looking at the screen in front of him. The contact points were on the move. As his heart rate increased he waited a few seconds for the display to update. When it did he took in a sharp intake of breath.
He turned around to Lieutenant Shaw seated behind him. “We have contact movement—” He looked back at the screen. “—On… the north… west… yes, all sides. All moving towards the outpost, sir.”
Shaw clicked on his radio and relayed the information to Major Hoxted, who was with Brad and Abbey upstairs in the seating area adjacent to the kitchen.
“Looks like it’s on,” said the major to them.
Abbey took a deep breath and readied herself. Leaning down she grabbed a scarf and some goggles from her backpack, wrapping the former around her face. “I better get going.”
Brad got up and hugged her. “Good luck.”
She nodded, as did the Major, and they all walked to the large porch outside.
Abbey slid her goggles on and looked up at the gray sky. She felt her backpack, then raised her arms above her, bracing her joints against the strain that was about to be placed on them, and was ascending in an instant. The house, then the compound began to shrink below her as she flew higher and higher, being held aloft by Mo’s powerful wings.
She shifted her weight to the northeast and Mo responded by banking in that direction.
Hundreds of feet below, Brad and the major looked up, wiping the rain from their eyes, trying to make out the woman and her creature against the uniform cloudy sky.
“How sure are you this is going to work?” said Hoxted.
Brad started to walk back into the house. “I’m not. We should get all non-essential personnel into the reinforced hanger.”
Elsewhere. A mile to the north of the outpost, Captain Cruz listened to the report from his radio that the enemy was on the move. He studied the landscape in front of him, lying low on the roof of what was previously a bank. He clicked on his radio. “This is it people, just got word they are on the way.” He looked to his right. “Barber, you seeing anything where you are? Over.”
“Nothing on this side of the town. Over,” replied a female voice.
He then looked to his left. “Tate? Anything on the west? Over.”
A gravely male voice responded in the negative.
“Remember the plan, let them move into the town before you open up and each of you sound off about which of the heavy armor you are targeting so we don’t all pummel the same tank. Over.”
A number of soldiers acknowledged.
Within the outpost soldiers and other personnel ran in all directions, some going to the wall and lookout towers, others going to the large concrete covered hanger which housed what remained of the military vehicles.
Brad ran up the small staircase to the attic of the main house with his binoculars, his rifle, a radio and a backpack. He pushed open the window, pulled his hood over his head, then carefully stepped out onto the damp roof. The rain was falling harder, and was bouncing off the tiles. Gripping onto the wooden frame of the outside of the window, he stepped around the arched roof to be able to see to the north.
Holding his binoculars to his eyes, he surveyed the area. From his position he could see above the trees and the warehouses and office buildings of the town, and at first wasn’t seeing any movement. But then shapes and colors that were not natural moved amongst the gaps. He clicked on his radio. “Think I’m seeing movement on the main road into town from the north. Over.”
He turned, being careful not to slip and moved over the rest of the roof to look towards the south. This time he saw the movement of military hardware instantly moving across a field. He also saw the outpost’s own light tanks, turreted Humvees and soldiers hidden against the trees and farm buildings in a defensive cordon, beyond the walls. “Movement to the south as well, looks about six miles out. Over.”
“Looks like they are tightening the noose. Over,” replied Hoxted. “To all units outside the walls, do not engage unless you are fired upon, or I give the—”
Before the major finished an explosion came from the east of the outpost, earth and part of the road there flew through the air raining down upon the walls. Then another explosion, this one tearing into part of the east wall, leaving a smoldering hole. Soldiers ran for cover into the nearby buildings.
Brads radio came alive with conversations, but he wasn’t able to catch what was being said. As he looked to the south more flashes of light visible through the gloom of the heavy rainfall, heralded more shellfire. He crouched not knowing where they would land. They exploded one after another around the periphery of the outpost, destroying walls and lookout towers.
He held his radio to his lips. “They’re taking away our defenses! Over!”
A mile to the north a battle raged. Three heavy tanks sat burning at a junction, while streams of neon flashed back and forth between buildings and rooftops.
Cruz, with three others, peered through smoked glass windows of the bank they were just on top of. “The wrecks have jammed their way through, but they’ll just find other ways south.” He clicked on his radio. “Tate, sitrep! Over.” Only static came back to him. “Damn it.” He held his radio up again. “Barber? You out there. Over.”
The clatter of gunfire came from his radio’s speaker. “Still here Cap, just. Over.”
“Sitrep. Over.”
“We got one casualty, few walking wounded, and we’re out of missiles. Got one of their tanks though. I think they have broken through at tango. What’s the order Cap? Over.”
Cruz hesitated. He could hear the fury of explosions to the south, the direction they were meant to escape too. He shook his head. “Stick to the plan. We need to head away from the outpost. It might lead their forces away. Everyone meet up at the rendezvous point. Over.”
“On our way. Over.”
In an unguarded building within the hailstorm of fire that was raining down upon the outpost, a large man laid, his head covered in bandages, a machine beeping monotonously just off to his side. As flashes of orange lit the walls of the hospital ward around him, the beeping suddenly increased and Clovis sat upright. He looked around then ripped the wires and cables from his arms and swung his feet around to the cold tiled floor.
He stood a little uneasily and grabbed hold of the bed to stay upright. Once steadied he walked calmly to the door, peering through the small glass panes to the corridor outside which was empty.
He pushed one of the double doors open, letting it swing shut and slowly walked along the hallway, until he arrived at the deserted lobby area. He could hear the fury just outside the wooden doors and smiled. He then walked through them, not being affected by the collapsing walls just tens of yards away, or the smell of smoke or heat from the burning towers.
Turning he walked up to the main house and without pause opened the main door. He stood, looking into the hallway and on seeing there was no one there, walked inside, opening the door to the basement. A cacophony of noise drifted up the stairs which he steadily descended, until he walked into the main operations room of the outpost, which on seeing him fell silent. He pulled out the chair at his end of the table, sat and put his feet up on it. “So, shall we talk terms of surrender?”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
A number of soldiers around Hoxted raised their side arms, and pointed them at the relaxed man, sitting back in his chair just a few feet away.
“Do you hear that?” The man who looked like Clovis held his hand to his ear.
Hoxted realized that the bombardment had stopped. Her radio suddenly came alive with Brad’s voice saying the same.
Clovis pointed to it. “Why don’t you tell him the good news? That there will be no more death, well mostly no more death, and you’re all going to lay down your arms.” His head twitched and he looked off into the distance. “Actually some of your forces are still fighting. Do I need to continue the attack Major? Or are we done here? And—” He looked around. “—Where is Abbey?”
“She’s not here,” said the Major. The soldier’s eyes flicked between Clovis and the woman in charge next to them.
“Snuck away did she.” He sighed. “That’s… that’s disappointing. Getting down here was not easy. What with them—” He pointed upwards briefly. “And some of the animals around us not being so, shall we say accommodating… Well let’s just say Abbey was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And now I hear she’s not here.” He lowered his feet to the floor. “You can tell your men to lower their weapons. I’m not actually here. I’m talking through this fool, who has just enough brains left for me to control him. So even if you shoot me, I’ll still be alive. Except I’ll take it as a sign of bad faith and my artillery will finish what they started.”
Hoxted looked at the soldiers next to her, and they lowered their guns. She then looked at the man puppet.
“So this is Erin I’m talking to?”
“Yes!” He shook his head. Blood started to trickle down his face, which he dabbed with a finger, then licked it. “Hmm tastes like strawberry.”
Hoxted’s stomach turned but she resisted showing it on her face.
Clovis got to his feet suddenly, making everyone in the room but Hoxted step back. He walked slowly forward until he was just a few feet away from her. “Do you have a way of contacting her?”
Hoxted shook her head. “She’s gone and we don’t know where. She just took off.”
“You’ll never find her,” said Brad from the bottom of the stairs.
Clovis whipped around. “And who might you be?”
“Someone who knows you’re a coward.”
Clovis walked unsteadily across the room until he was face to face with Brad. “You’ll soon see how much of a coward I am old man.” He then turned back to Hoxted. “So are you—”
The loud bang rang around the room. Everyone ducked while raising their guns back into the air, although not being sure what to point them at.
Clovis fell to the ground dead, a large red hole in the back of his head.
Brad lowered his handgun then looked at Hoxted. “We better get ready, he’ll be coming.”
*****
Zach looked up at the blue skies that were fighting for space amongst the rain clouds above the Core’s parking lot. A cool wind blew past him.
No weather in space.
He placed his backpack on the ground, checked his rifle’s magazine and the few spare ones he had, then looked at the trees and fields that surrounded what used to be a popular tourist spot. His mind took him back to when thousands of people were using the cold concrete to camp out on, and the Core was one of the last refuges against the onslaught from the Hell fire gang.
Come a long way.
He couldn’t help but feel that the journey he was about to go on, would be the final chapter. Either they would defeat the Hulathen or the aliens would wipe out humanity, there wasn’t much room for compromise. He was going to do whatever he needed to, to make sure the people of earth were still around in a year’s time, and the Hulathen were just another footnote in human history.
A noise made him turn around.
“Thought you’d be first here,” said Fiona.
Zach smiled. “And I knew you’d be next.”
She walked forward, laden with her combat gear, dropped her pack onto the ground and breathed in a lungful of air.
“Looks like summer isn’t far away,” said Zach.
“Yeah, it has been a while since I’ve experienced one of those.”
Zach nodded.
“Any news from the outpost?”
He shook his head. “I tried before I came out, but we couldn’t get through. Appears comms is down up there…”
Fiona put her hand on his shoulder. “There’s no way Erin is going to get the better of her, or Brad. And they got a whole company up there. Once we get back from Epsilon 566b or whatever it’s called, we’ll be on our way to Kentucky.”
Zach nodded and she stepped back.
“How was it yesterday? You saw Stephanie?”
“Yeah, I finally managed to get to bunker four. She’s fine. Growing. She’s same height as me.” She smiled.
The entrance doors opened once again. A woman appeared, her long brown hair in a ponytail. She walked timidly forward to Zach and Fiona.
She smiled without saying anything.
Zach had already been introduced to Agatha, the Cascader that never spoke. Nobody knew her surname, and most just called her Aggie. “Good to have you with us, Aggie.”
She smiled and nodded.
Next came Sam with Mary.
“And you got enough water, right?”
“Stop fussing woman, it’s not like I’m going into space or anything!”
She smiled, slapping him on the back.
Her expression then changed to one of emotion, and she threw her arms around him. “You have to come back.”
“You really think I’m going to miss telling Isaiah about what space is like for the rest of his days?”
They both smiled.
“Talk of the devil,” said Sam looking back at the main doors as Isaiah appeared on crutches. “You know I have to go to space to get away from you right?” He said to the big man.
Isaiah smiled then hobbled forward and put his arm around his friend. “You gotta come back. I want to know if all the sci-fi shows I watched as a kid are true.”
Sam laughed. “I’ll take pictures.”
The doors clattered again and Sean appeared, complete with combat gear. With him was general Trow and some of her officers. Just behind them came the last human member of the team. Michael. Fiona went to talk to him while Trow walked forward to greet Zach.
“Still no word from the outpost. We’ll keep trying and when we get through I’ll let Abbey know you have left. The C-130 left an hour ago and should be touching down with the platoon and supplies in another hour,” said Trow.
“Thanks. So I guess I’ll see you when I see you.”
Trow stood to attention, as did the other offices and she saluted, Zach did the same in reply.
Two Humvees pulled up and the six person team got into them and left.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The room around Hoxted shuddered as another shell hit the house above her. One of the soldiers was visibly shaking. She put her hand on the young woman’s shoulder. “This basement has steel supports, even if the house collapses on top of us, we should be fine.”
One of the comms officers looked over his shoulder. “Ma’am, we have lost all comms with the outside world, they must have taken the radio towers and radar dishes out. We should still have local comms though.”
She nodded and clicked on her radio. “How’s it looking to our south Wallace? Over.”
Crackling then a fury of noise came from Hoxted’s radio. She pulled it slightly from her ear.
“Still fighting, major! We’ve lost both of the light tanks. We’re down to a few Humvees and small arms. We’ve stopped the bastard’s progress. They are about a mile from our position. Captain Cruz is still fighting to the east, but is retreating. Over.”
