Chapter Ten: The Chaotic Heart of the Storm
"Shiva." It was a voice that she wasn't immediately familiar with nor were the arms that were holding her steady as the movements of a vehicle shifted and bumped while in motion. But those strange circumstances were effective in get her mind to stir and her memory to return.
"Sorry, Lt. Colonel.." She whispered as she remembered where she was and what she had been doing as she tried to rub the sleep from her eyes. ".. I seem to make a habit of falling asleep on officers."
"More than all right, I didn't mind, and it probably did you some good." He chuckled back to her as he rubbed her shoulders encouragingly. The smiling faces all around her were oddly reassuring as her mind cleared from the fog of sleep and her body readied itself for activity. "We are over the Antarctic sea on low approach to the shoreline." That would easily account for the increased turbulence of the rattling vehicle.
"I'll go make sure my people are ready." She agreed kissing his cheek out of gratitude and too tired to think about the gesture until she was exiting out the back door and pulling herself forward across the line of moving trucks. The now relaxed driver of their truck smiled at her when she slipped inside seeming amused as he asked about how well she had slept.
"Where have you been?" Isis demanded as she slipped into the rear cabin.
"The Lt. Colonel will be sending in observers to make sure his people know when and where people have slipped out towards the perimeter, I was briefing all of them.. and.. then I fell asleep." All of them relaxed as the giggles eased some of the tension. "We are almost in sight of the coast.. that means our job is about to begin." She added as she prepared her words carefully inside her head. "Someone has made a threat against our family.. they are the kinds of people who see Series 5 as just a bunch of tools, who can't acknowledge they used to be everyday humans with friends and families, who volunteered to do whatever they could to serve their fellow humans. And if we don't do something, if we fail to give these people our answer then they will try to do the very same thing to all of us and everyone still sleeping in Anslaw. This is our chance to show those evil people who would have turned us into their soulless tools and all those good people back at Digel base who want to stop them, who we are and what we are made of.." The powerful surge of anger and determination was not lost on her as she looked into all those watching eyes. "Don't hesitate.. we have already lost one family member to these.. bastards, when they killed General Winters. Because he was going try and make the lives of those of us on the outside better, and give all of you at Anslaw the chance to do the same. For your sakes and for the well being of our family.. if you are under attack or about to be attacked, do not Hesitate to strike with any weapon you control, because this isn't about just our lives any more this is about our Family, and I don't even want to think about losing someone else who I care about.."
"And neither do I." Ayla added taking over for her as the truck slowed and came in for a landing. "We are in this together and I want to be damn sure we get out of the same way. Now come on.. let's make sure that we ready for this.." They unloaded out the back into the cold crisp air of their rallying point. "Boys on the right, girls on the left!!" Ayla called out as Shiva followed the stragglers into the cold light of the early morning sun. There was a chorus of laughter from the gathered troops nearby, but even as that sound echoed through the cliffs of the chasm around them, the Lt. Colonel was telling them that they might as well go with flow and no few soldiers were shifting away from the masses.
With the polar shift of 2013, the Antarctic continent was by no means the giant ice cube that it had once been, but even after more than a century it was by no means a tropical paradise either. The brisk chilled winds of the shifted arctic circle still made it a place not all that pleasant to many forms of life and much of it remained a barren expanse of jagged rock and frozen lakes throughout much of the year. Even in its' summer months there was very little to appeal to the eye or attract much tourism. This stop-over was as much about insuring that the other arrangements that they had made were in place as it was about getting all of them up and active before the first wave was sent in. Considering the dangers each of them could and did represent the Colonel's troops were to spread out across the huge perimeter surrounding the facility, and while those heavily armed soldiers were dispersed to trap and guard all the surface exits of the far reaching tunnels. Shiva and the twins would be politely knocking on the doors of the surface facility ahead of the rest of their teams. At the same time Ayla would be leading her team into the tunnels at one of the major access points to strike at the main power station in the tunnels below. The rest of her family would move in once the three of them had opened up three of the facilities gates as the second wave. A third wave of combined forces should be by all rights already on the move coming from the opposite direction and would reinforce them and help to eventually mop up the chaotic mess left behind.
When Shiva went to check on their supplies she already found the twins and a few of the other telekinetics emptying the first truck as light weight armor and weapons were dispersed through the crowds. She could tell almost instantly that her unlocking of the encrypted databanks of Anslaw and all the research materials that had been stored in the vault had not gone without side-effects as strange items meant to increase abilities or do serious damage from a distance were passed into eager hands. The twins themselves were wearing huge curved blade like forms across their backs and Shiva's instincts were that her own weapon's research had not gone untouched, just by the feel of those unknown objects that pair wore as a point of pride. Some of the last objects to be unloaded with the three sleek super fast hover sleds that the three of them would use for the the first stage of the attack. If all had gone as planned their low level flight across the southern seas and the lack of tracking systems would leave the base ignorant of anything being amiss. The Lt. Colonel and his field commanders stood nearby and watched this unfolding scene as his own troops divided up into their separate teams and prepared to move out to their drop off points or move in on the surface facility.
"What will the signal be for the trucks to converge?" He asked as things began to settle down as people reloaded into their assigned vehicles. Shiva glanced back at the twins as they loaded onto their sleds and the strange weapons they carried.
"Colonel, you'll know it when you see it.. trust me." She assured him, he gave her a confused look before glancing to his commanders.
"Why am I suddenly reminded of those few minutes before a fireworks show." One of the commented to him, which made Shiva smile in a very evil sort of way and all of them started to laugh.
"Did you two do your training, like you were told to?" Shiva asked the pair behind her.
"Yes, mama!" The replied with stereophonic giggles.
"I see you got into my research." Shiva commented softly while the adults stood nearby with bright smiles on their faces.
"Everyone has tethers." Athena stated happily.
"We liked your knives." Isis told her close on the heels of her sister's words.
"We helped train them!" The added together in the next breath. Amused by their high spirits and reassured by their confidence Shiva easily guessed that Ayla had helped their training along more than a little and gave the older girl an accusing glare.
"Guilty as charged." She admitted in fine spirits herself. "Caught you with your barriers down." She added with happy laughter as she followed the last of her team inside the first truck. The surprised, but amused officers that stood by witnessing this with mostly contained amusement said nothing. Shiva fixed her gloves into position and swung her leg over the seat of the hovering sled.
"Colonel." Shiva murmured to him as she pulled her back hair and tied it under a black cloth.
"Ladies." He agreed with a small bow, as Shiva kicked on the throttle and sent up a cloud of dust as the powerful light-weight engine threw her into motion. The twins were half a heartbeat
behind her as they raced out ahead of the first truck and down the path of rock and gravel carved out of the dark stone by millions of years of flowing ice. Behind them trucks began to move out using the gorges and canyons around the outer perimeter of Hyperion base to obscure their spreading circle as the teams were dropped off to start their missions. Though in relative terms the sleds were much faster than the lumbering transport trucks, the sleds were only able to hover a few feet off of the ground while the trucks were not so restricted. While she and girls were forced to take an over-land route across the broken terrain, the trucks should have time make it to all the known bolt holes and exits that surrounded Hyperion's perimeter.
Once upon a time, Hyperion base had been an Alliance stronghold during the the war, but with the return of peace it had been down downgraded and 'underfunded' almost into non-existence. Mostly just for show and to keep the public from finding out the true purpose that it had served when it came to the affairs of Series 5 and the Lilith scandals, the once extensive surface facilities of the base had been cut back and drawn away from the sizable footprint of what had once been there. Publicly what remained of the once huge facility was used as a bone yard for antiquated equipment while in truth it was the stronghold of Series 5 and that 'outdated' equipment was kept there in case of another war and the slim chance that the base's true purpose might be known. The original base had covered 50 square miles of a broad rocky valley just on the far side of the mountain ranges at the edge of continental mass. What remained of the surface facilities was less than three square miles of territory nestled down in the heart of what had once been there. It was in the middle of a desolate landscape across a broad open space filled with piles of broken rock and the remains of broken building materials left behind by what had been torn down. The site of the former base and the labs beneath it were not a landscape that was by any means in their favor. Any vehicle would have approach across that immense broken landscape with almost no cover and virtually no way to hide. Perhaps what was even worse was that the immense size of the withdrawn facility had been underpinned by the substructures and tunnels that had interconnected the entire facility together, forcing their perimeter to be spread across a massive distance. While one could be countered with good intelligence and clever planning, the other could never be anything but an advantage for their enemy.
While hundreds of attack strategies had been discussed only a few had really made sense, while the one they would be following was the plan that had contained the most risk it was the only one with a hundred percent certainty and without the promise of a massive numbers of casualties. The other plans had been variations on wide scale bombardment from orbit that would have killed the people who worked in the official capacities of the surface facilities and who might be innocent of the crimes committed by the command staff. And that plan left no certainty that the deep tunnels would even been rattled by such an assault unless the entire valley was turned into a crater half a mile deep. As part of the attack plan there as a convoy of trucks on approach from the south across one of the few overland routes. Set to 'resupply' the base on schedule, the information provided by the earlier arrests also stated that this convoy was also to take away the next 'shipment' of 'merchandise'. While the resupply was originally official enough and had been done with regularity for many years, that shipment of goods had been changed over to platoons of commandos who would hopefully be able to take the southern gate and enter the base with perimeter security switched off. During that time Shiva and the twins would strike from the North, East, and West and punch an opening for the rest of their team. When Ayla and her team struck through the ventilation shafts and hopefully took out the main power station, the main security systems would also go down, while Shiva and the girls moved in on their secondary targets. If all went according to plan another force from Military Investigations and the Advocate General's office would be sweep inside the perimeter created by the Lt. Colonel's forces and start arresting those who did not try to escape out through the tunnels. The biggest 'if' of the entire plan was how many platoons of Series 5 soldiers would be awake and active, while it possible to drive off or force the normal troops to either flee or surrender, the Series 5 troops would fight to the last man. The biggest risks would perhaps come when it came time to secure the tunnels below the surface facility where automated security, armed Series 5 soldiers, and close quarters made things even more dangerous.
"This is mother goose to the wolves." The Lt. Colonel's voice called over their headsets, despite the situation his voice betrayed his deep amusement at the code names.
"This is big wolf, I read you." Shiva replied smiling to herself.
"Little red riding hood confirms she's on her way to Grandmother's house." He told her giving them the confirmation that the resupply convoy was within sight of the southern gates and the perimeter defenses were going down. She and the girls were right on time topping the edges of the valley and approaching the long steady slope filled with mounds of broken debris.
"Copy mother goose, the wolves are in position to blow her house down." Shiva confirmed. Knowing that was their signal, Isis and Athena accelerated up to full speed, shot past Shiva and broke into the tangled paths as they got ahead of her to circle on the two sides of the base. "And the baby wolves are eager to met her." Shiva kept her steady pace rather annoyed by the minor delaying tactic which was a necessity to allow the girls to get into position until she was within insight of the perimeter wall.
When at last that anticipated sight finally came into view, she hunched over the body of the bike she pushed the throttle up to full and prayed that they hadn't been heard over the radio or seen approaching across the valley as she prepared herself for whatever the next few minutes might bring. The perimeter defenses did not open fire, the walls remained unchanged, nothing came through the gates over the walls to get her as Shiva charged dead on, right down the middle towards the immense reinforced steel barrier that now stood between her and the interior of the fortifications. The instant she was in range Shiva unleashed a massive telekinetic explosion of force that ripped into those doors and cracked two ten tons chunks of steel right from the mounts and mechanisms that moved them. Sending the massive caved slabs launching straight ahead and into a collision with something large and explosive crushing some type of vehicle between the flying steel and the buildings beyond. The instant she passed inside the wall she launched upward and away from the fast moving sled, which exploded in the next heartbeat as two operational mechs opened fire with their pulse cannons at close range. For just a heartbeat Shiva almost seemed to float as her backward momentum slacked off and she lingered in the air overlooking the scene. With a sharp angry hiss that no one else could hear her twin swords were sped into the open with a flash of reflected light. The blue gems that formed the hilts pulsed against her senses as the blades took on a burning bloody light as Shiva's body was dragged back down towards the earth beneath her feet. She landed in a low crouch even as her blades smacked through the air coming straight down and straight through the immense armed machines that stood guard over the entrance. With their pilots dead and the hydrogen fuel cells pierced the scrapping of her blades against the concrete as they launched back to her hands sent up a stream of sparks which ignited two simultaneous explosions. Shiva stood firm against the twin concussive force that ripped through the area and sent burning blue fireballs racing up into the sky.
"North gate is open, securing bridgehead now." Shiva murmured darkly as she rose slowly to her feet and cast about for her next target. She barely heard the twins confirm much the same in the next moment as the monster within her was growling inside her head looking for vengeance, seeking blood that could soothe Raymond's soul. So when a half dozen men leapt up to the machine-gun nests on the roofs of four nearby buildings, she was no longer in the mood to play nice with the other boys and girls. Her mind snapped out to the two nearest guns almost on its' own crushing the men a
rming the weapon even as the guns themselves yawed around and opened fire on the two further emplacements, before her slow steps carried her within range to crush all four sites raining down shattered concrete and twisted metal to the street below. As her steps carried her into the first intersection just inside the gate it was to the sound of distant mechanical rumblings of heavy tracked vehicles moving towards her. As she peered to the left and then to right the first tank was already bring it's gun around to fire. The tether to her right snapped out ahead of her as the massive explosive shell was launched in her direction. The tether magnified the barrier forced into it and the intense explosion and the wash of fire ripped into the fronts of the two buildings on either side of the street, but did not even make the air warm closer to her. Even as she was aware of second tank rolling into position in the opposite direction Shiva was spinning towards the first and throwing into motion three tiny orbs of metal coated in blue crystals. The first tank fired in nearly the same second, launching a second shell right down the middle of the road. Shiva's spin carried her out of it's path and she could practically read the serial numbers on the side of the bullet shaped projectile as it slashed across the space where she had been standing. An instant later the telekinetic propelled fusion grenades she had launched struck the side of the tank and opened it like a burning melon. The tank's second shot reached its' true destination a half heartbeat later and second tank followed the fate of the first.
Shiva's spin finished with her facing straight ahead as the huge 50 ton mech loomed into view no more than 150 feet down the road in the middle next intersection and was already turning slowly to bring its' massive weapons into position to strike her down. The blades she had let go of while dealing with the tanks had remained hanging in the air behind until that moment. They came arching around her in twined burning red streaks of light as her full abilities were poured into them making that once soft glow flare into a blinding light that would have scorched any eye looking directly at them. The two blade flipped around to bring their points perpendicular to the ground at her feet and were slammed together with a tremendous force that cracked across the landscape like thunder. All that focused energy impacted together and unleashed a massive telekinetic force that rippled with an unimaginably loud thunderclap of sound even more intense than the collision of the two blades. The action sent out a burning wave of energy straight down the center line of the roadway ahead of her ripping into the concrete surface in a contained telekinetic shock wave that ripped up and into the mech, shredding armor, structure, ammunition and fuel packs and opening that massive mechanical beast from crotch to head. As the wave struck across it the explosion split the machine straight up the middle lifted it clean off it's feet in the instant before the internal mechanisms exploded sending the two burning halves in either direction. The shock wave of that explosion collapsed four buildings and sent of plume of dust, debris, and smoke hundreds of feet upward. Leaving her blades to hang there, Shiva tossed away a dozen more grenades in either direction, and a moment later two nearby buildings exploded collapsing the two empty structures down over top of the nearest tunnel exits.
"Bridgehead secure, roll the truck." Shiva murmured just loud enough to be heard over the echoes and the sounds of roaring fires. "Proceeding to secondary target."
"Jesus Christ.." Someone whispered in her wake probably not even realizing they were on the line. With the beast only growling for more Shiva launched away and began to dart back and forth across nearby area collapsing buildings, destroying weapons, crushing any armed force or machine moving towards the gate and otherwise destroying any attempts at organized resistance as she moved slowly in the direction of her next official target and as she waited for the twins to get into position. The streets were quickly starting to fill with screaming panicked people, too smart or too scared to pick up weapons themselves as they sought out any shelter from the spreading destruction. In the next moments the main generators gave one last belch of power and then everything around her went dark and lifeless.
"Second team is proceeding on target." Tolli called out as the truck arrived and the rest of the team started to disperse and clean up anything Shiva had left behind. She was just reaching her secondary target dropping down onto one end of the mile long corridor of the main storage area, a line of machines and heavy equipment lined up along a corridor of warehouses and depots. Planes, tanks, shuttles, trucks, strike vehicles, artillery pieces, fighter crafts, mechs large and small all filling the spaces in nice neat little rows extending into a distance too long for Shiva to take in at one time. And the far end was the secondary power facility, the last barrier to the second wave as it was the last source of electricity for the surface facility. It was just kicking on in those seconds she got before all at once the twin's presences were suddenly burning into her senses even at the immense distances separating the three of them.
Their telepathic scream was far too powerful for her not hear, and how they had done it was something she might never have understood. However the 'they' that had been referred to came sweeping in like twined figures of death ripping down through the sky were two burning discs of blood red light racing straight at her. The scythe like double blades that had been folded into one length when glimpsed at the rallying point, but when extended they spanned nearly four feet across were perhaps even more lethal in the twins control than Shiva's swords were in hers. The two objects were bearing down at her at a frightening speed and Shiva had to snap out with her full strength to catch them and heave their burning mass around and before throwing them back into motion like the most destructive game of frisbee ever known. Aimed straight and true down the corridor of machinery, Shiva shot them away with all her strength launching them down either side of the corridor of machinery, and watched in amused amazement as that burning wave of explosions ripped away from her. As the blades passed through everything in their way the exploding machines set off a chain reaction that destroyed or burned anything inside that corridor. Even as Shiva watched surprised for the very first time in a long time, she felt the twins catch the rapidly retreating blades and throwing them even further down the remaining distance and straight through the massive towering forms of the secondary power station. That strike set in motion an explosion so powerful that it very nearly took Shiva from her feet and sent a shock wave across the entire valley that deafened everyone in the area as a mushroom cloud poured up into the sky.
"Secondary objectives complete." The three of them announced on the same breath the very moment the echoes began to rumble out across the barren landscape beyond the perimeter.
"GOD DAMN!!!!" Lt. Col. Riggs screamed across the radios much to their delight of the three of them and given the response of the giggles and cackles of the Series 6 children who chorused back at him.
"Little red riding hood, this is the big bad wolf, do you copy?" Shiva called as the laughter died down and she moved away from the billowing smoke of the burning vehicles. The unknown commander confirmed in a moment later as Shiva collapsed a building onto the troops who had been trying to reach the vehicles. "Call in the woodsmen, and you are free to raid grandma's cookies while the kids proceed towards primary target."
"Roger that." Came the reply.
"Woodsmen in route." The commander in charge of the teams of MI and Advocate forces agreed in the next moment. With the power now dead save for the emergency systems down in the tunnels, their teams were now to crush any resistance in their path as they aimed in on the central shaft that the main access point for everything below their feet. It meant that things could only get messier and more complicated from that point on.
"Command staff captured at bolthole 16." Someone called as Shiva did her best to clear out any resistance that was in the way of the rest of her team as she lingered at the fringes of the massive building waiting to see if masses of Series 5 soldiers would come pouring out of the tunnels. This made her curse, it meant that something might be h
appening below them.
"Surface teams, move in, NOW!" Shiva screamed as the first of her siblings began to arrive on the heels of the transport truck. She launched towards the central building and reached the large open space just ahead of the twins.
"Trap!" Poe yelled to her as she lingered at the fringes. Shiva acknowledged her over the radio as three large bags lunged from the truck to follow her.
"Stay back!" Shiva ordered as the twins homed in on their entry point and others moved to open the door. They quickly backed off even as the twins lunged in to either side of the door to punch the reinforced hatch through the frame, Shiva pulled the cords on the red bags and launched the them inside on the heels of the door. Not two seconds later the bags loaded down with high explosives and ball bearings unleashed a tremendous shock wave spraying the massive open chamber inside with lethal projectiles. They were protected by the combined force of the twins and the barrier they created over the opening as the thick gray smoke filled the darkness. Shiva was the first one to go through with the twins at her heels and the three of them only too well armed with a near unlimited supply of ball bearing they used used sweep the area clean of living people. Within two minutes everyone save the three of them were dead and they had secured the chamber as their siblings flooded inside.
"They might have set the self destruct sequence, team one proceed with the twins, I'll get the core and stop it." Shiva announced over the radio to those inside and outside the building. The massive chamber housed the main elevator, a immense contraption that could move 500 men or three full size and loaded transport trucks in a single descent or ascent from the spaces below. It rested in the center of the room with the massive shaft that dropped a half mile into the earth right below it. The main shaft was protected by multiple massive steel doorways spaced out every two hundred feet below them. "Zeus, get this elevator working!" She ordered one of the boys with electrokinesis named so for his fondness of tossing around lightning bolts. "Tanya, get to work on the blast door controls." She add other electrokinetic, who nodded and looked a little pale as she stepped over one of the shredded bodies as she went to computer controls.
"Shiva Don't Do Anything Stupid!" The Lt. Colonel yelled back into her ear.
"Too late." Shiva called back as she ripped open an access hatch for the underside of the elevator and dropped out of radio range and into the immense drop below her feet. As had always been a possibility, the command staff had decided to retreat rather than defend their position, closing off the series of five feet thick blast doors that lined the inside of the shaft. Starting at thirty feet below the elevator, Shiva starting slicing with her blades almost instantly before punching through the remaining distance to free the circular plug to fall to the space below. Even with her blades it was still fifteen very long minutes before she hit bottom. With the rage now burning with the anger of being so slowed down from her goal, Shiva didn't so much explode the doors inward but shred them as the massive chunks of steel struck the floor it spread a sickly red smear across the chamber beyond. The Series 5 soldiers that were missed by the imploding doors were quick to share the fate of the others as the massive chunks of steel became her arsenal.
Shiva was almost disappointed to not find more targets who died so nicely in the face of her rage, instead she was forced the punch through security door after security door over a course of nearly a mile of tunnels, all the while destroying an endless series of automated guns. So many of them in fact that she was panting and sweating by the time she reached the entrance to the central core of the computer and barely had the strength left to take out the last half dozen guns or cut her way into the computer room. With eyes blurred by near total exhaustion she discovered that not only had the self destruct sequence failed to begin, which would have locked down the computers and made her job much harder, the delay had been because the were trying to download the secure data storage to a ship in Earth orbit. With their command codes still lingering in the computer's memory, with a half dozen minutes she was able to end the destruct sequence, switch the data transfer to just random digital trash, and set up a tracking signal. But only after she which she flip-flopped the friend and foe systems of the automated defense systems over to start attacking any Series 5 tracking signals and ignoring anyone else.
"Colonel.." She whispered, patching her signal through the stronger transmitters connected to computer core.
"Are you all right?" He murmured urgently.
"I'm tired, the floor was in full lock down mode. But I've got computer control.. I need you to contact someone in charge, there is a ship at coordinates.. 432:679:32:109 in Earth orbit. They were trying to download the protected memory.. that ship got about half of it." Shiva murmured to him.
"Roger that." He agreed and she heard him murmuring to someone nearby.
"I've got the friend or foes systems switching sides, if you can send more people in.. there are pockets of resistance I can't reach.. and if you would.. get someone who knows this stuff better than me down here.. I am just about toast.." He chuckled back to her as he agreed.