Overrun (23 page)

Sky Angel staggered to the end
of the deck. The heat from the ground was so intense he was sure the air was
eating away his skin and scorching out his eyes.

Next to him, one of the sentries
gasped for breath and struggled to bring himself up from his knees. He pulled
hard at the burning metal of the outer rail but still was not able to stand.

Two of the other sentries pushed
past Sky Angel and ran from the platform. Under the protection of the metal
overhang near the dome's side, one punched at the controls to the elevator
while another screamed and clutched his eyes.

"If you don't completely
stop them when you fire, we'll never recover from the energy loss!" Sky
Angel screamed into the transmitter he clutched tightly to his mouth. "It
will be our last and only shot! After that they're going to come right
in!"

"What the hell do you think
they're doing now?!" Dome Leader's transmitted voice raged back at him
through heavy bursts of static. "Nothing's stopping them. This is it! The
land fleet is gone. I'm cutting power to some of the lower level systems that
are gone. That should give us at least a little more power to recharge those
guns!"

Only one lookout remained on the
swaying melting platform. He leaned up against the flames licking against the
outer rails and stared across the land that had become completely engulfed in
roaring fire.

Sky Angel moved next to him and
brought his glasses back to his eyes. Heat across its metal seared painfully
across his face.

"They're still
coming!" the sentry screamed to him.

"Dome Leader!" Sky
Angel screamed into the transmitter in his fist.

"Plates dropping now!"

The platform swayed and rocked
more furiously under their feet. Both men leaned over the rails to see the
massive rectangular steel protective plates rip themselves from the dome's
sides and disappear into the fire across the ground. Before they had completely
fallen away, the awesome shapes of the dome's blast cannons had already slid
through.

The tips of the massive weapons
quickly rotated around and came to bear on the attacking land fleet. While they
were being primed and readied to fire, smaller rockets streaked away from the
ports next to them into the J.G.U. onslaught.

"Charging complete," a
faint voice tried to break through the static of Sky Angel’s transmitter.

"Fire it! Fire everything
now!" Dome Leader responded immediately back.

The recoil from the first blast
knocked Sky Angel off his feet away from the outer rail. He landed hard on his
back across the platform deck. All lights across the observation deck dimmed at
the sudden rerouting of the dome's power.

Three more shots ripped from the
blast cannons. The recoil from the massive release of destructive energy caused
the observation platform to sway violently nearly tearing it from the
facility’s side and toppling it into the fire.

Still sprawled on his back
across the hot metal of the platform, Sky Angel watched the first
superstructure, barely visible through the fire, disintegrate in a bright white
flash to absolute nothingness. More than twenty vehicles nearby were also
destroyed by the gargantuan blast.

For a brief moment, from what
could be seen through the massive smoke and raging flames, the J.G.U. assault
appeared to stop.

"Fire everything,"
Dome Leader screamed. "Fire everything now!"

Sky Angel staggered to his feet
and stared across the charred earth. Flaming wreckage littered the vast area
like an exploded garbage dump. Shredded pieces of the Bigfoot team could be
seen scattered throughout.

Every armored defense plate
across the dome dropped with men firing from every port. Bolts of energy
streaked in a furious eruption of weapons fire from the facility’s side.

Sky Angel managed to drag
himself to his feet and clung desperately to the swaying platform's outer rail.
With his free hand, he trained his glasses across the ground.

The J.G.U. force continued to
come. He helplessly watched the completion of the battle being lost before him.
Additional rockets and cannon fire roared from the dome’s side and chewed into
the already wounded earth. The course of the J.G.U. invasion remained
maddeningly constant and did not halt.

"We've got one coming in,
sir," screamed the only sentry still standing with him on the platform.
Immediately following his words, a large weapons blast threw both of them from
the rail into a pile across each other on the deck.

Sky Angel rolled himself over
and watched the missile's smoke trail approach.

In an instant the lookout
platform was gone, obliterated to nothingness along with its crew. More than
half of Dome 26's overhead structure was ripped completely loose from the
blast. Its exterior walls toppled in on themselves and fell downward.

Thousands died in an instant.
Falling debris buried countless more. Rockets and missiles continued to fire
from along the ground and the sections of the dome that continued to stand.

The J.G.U. force continued to
advance slowly across the demolished battlefield. Until about a quarter mile
from the dome's outer walls, all the vehicles finally stopped. Bombarded by
some of the heaviest firing from Dome 26 yet, the remaining vehicles assembled
closer together. Many were quickly obliterated beneath the flashes, flames and
destruction from the facility's defensive fire.

The massive superstructures
stood tall and still against the flaming night sky and slowly rotated to their
sides. The other remaining J.G.U. vehicles lined up just behind them and the
protection offered by their gigantic armored walls.

Weapons fire smashed across the
tops of the superstructures, but nothing penetrated their heavy steel. In
unison, both structures dropped their side arsenal plates and brought their
rocket assemblages to bear. The heavy firing around them lit up the darkness
with vicious flashes of orange, red and white light.

In the same instant, both
structures fired. Hundreds of rockets broke from their sides and streaked as one
solid rushing force towards the exploding facility.

When they reached the dome, some
sailed through the open defense ports while most of the others impacted across
its side. The blast crumpled in its steel and left a giant twisted wound
similar to a fired bullet having entered flesh. More than a third of it toppled
over and buried itself into the fire-ravaged ground.

A small group of J.G.U. jeeps
slowly entered what was still standing of the smoking twisted skeleton of the
damaged facility. Small trucks and additional superstructures rolled around its
perimeter to the back of the dome firing occasionally at escaping survivors.

Once inside and out of the
fires, troops pounced from still-smoldering vehicles and swarmed inside the
dying dome. A large team headed directly to the command center and entered
hastily through its exploded walls.

Quickly and efficiently, the
J.G.U. accessed the command terminals and information network. Data was
transferred to small portable network devices and beamed directly to overhead
satellites. Any and all relevant technological information was seized along
with location coordinates to the other hidden U.S. domes.

When the information network had
been completely accessed, copied and transmitted, the masked J.G.U. troops slipped
back through the swaying flaming metal. Tanks and jeeps turned around and
retreated back through the blast hole as quickly as they had come.

A handful of soldiers remained
to detonate the large explosives that had been set about the dome’s perimeter. Once
the vehicles had completely cleared back out, they armed the detonators and
sprinted towards two jeeps that had remained behind.

The J.G.U. force rolled slowly
away from the broken wreckage of the first dome to fall in the war.

When they were a safe distance
away, the J.G.U. force reassembled and headed deeper into the countryside with
the precise location of three more United States domes plotted into their
navigation systems.

Dome 26 stood silent and
destroyed behind them. Except for the tall licking flames and the black
billowing smoke swirling through the wreckage, there wasn’t any movement to be
seen.

The air was still and the night
was quiet when the largest blast yet finally came.

In the wake of the retreating
J.G.U. force, Dome 26, along with its more than one million massacred dead,
left the world in a flash of blinding light.

President Ford pulled himself
closer to his desk and leaned his elbows across. His advisors sat ahead of him.
All three looked as if they hadn’t rested in weeks.

Ford took another long sip of
the slightly warm coffee near his arm. He ignored its foul taste as it went
down and set the mug back on his desk. He tried to control the noticeable shake
in his hand. Without even looking in a mirror, he knew his eyes were bloodshot
and red.

"As you know gentlemen, the
war is not going as we planned," he started softly. "It's become
something more than any of us have ever prepared for. The J.G.U. are pressing
inward at an unexpected and alarming rate. Nothing we've done so far has been
effective in containing their advance. The Vulture ambushes are not
working."

The President raised his head
and watched Baldwin's skin fade to a pasty white. War Minister Faulken shifted
his weight slightly next to him in his seat.

“Troop and aircraft losses have
been phenomenal, way more than anyone ever feared." Ford paused for a
moment and waited for the echo of his words to settle throughout the large
room. "More than half of our Vulture troops are already gone."

"Mr. President," Faulken
held his hand up to interrupt. "These numbers are high, yes, but…"

"One of our domes was
recently located,” Ford cut him off. “Located and destroyed. Everyone inside
was lost.”

Faulken sat back like he had
been slapped in the face.

"When?" Baldwin asked.
His hoarse voice barely escaped his throat.

“Yesterday. We lost contact
yesterday. We feel that was at least when they were attacked. We don’t think
distress signals ever went out. It happened that quick. Their network was
accessed and everything contained within has been compromised."

"Oh, my God…," Baldwin
choked.

"Sir, this is something we
shouldn't be surprised to have happened," Faulken raised his head and
confidently spoke. "Even if the network was accessed, that doesn't mean
any of the information they obtained holds any value to them. It’s all
completely encrypted. Everything is. It’s been standard practice at those
facilities for years.

“Only network administrators at
each specific site would be able to access anything. And if these men are
dead…" his cold voice dropped off ominously.

"If these men are
dead…?," Baldwin began to repeat irritably.

"The fact these men are
dead is of no importance, War Minister," Ford cut Baldwin off. "Not
even you can deny the fact that the J.G.U. are becoming aware of our
strategies. They know what's been done and what we plan to do. That dome was a
target. Our forces were baited in Boston. They caused us to initiate our
demolition launches early. And this is the end result."

"What?" Baldwin
questioned incredulously.

"They sent small shadow
forces into the city," Faulken spoke again. "They knew exactly what
areas we monitored with satellites and even where the dome lookouts would
observe them and alert us to an invasion force going in. They feinted an attack…and
we went for it.”

"Knowing all along that
dome was there," Ford added gravely. "The small shadow force went in,
and we destroyed it with the planned responsive Vulture attack while a sizeable
force of cloaked ships waited it out at sea. When it was over, they landed the
ships and drove right on in."

"What about precautions
against something like this happening?" Baldwin stared accusingly at
Faulken. "You don't just blow a port city without running oceanic
detection scans or launching blasts out toward the water. What the hell is
going on out there for Christ's sakes?!"

"Even the preciseness of
this plan can be altered by the unpredictability of the human element,"
Faulken answered him slowly his words laced with the feel of sharp ice.

"Altered by the unpredictability
of the human element?!” Baldwin’s voice almost screamed. “What we are talking
about right here is the end of life as we know it. The J.G.U. have breached the
perimeters of our countryside. After overrunning that dome and accessing its
information network, they now have exact locations of our troops, weapon
placements and other dome facilities. And the only cause to which we can trace
any blame is the unpredictability of the human element?!"

"Lower your goddamn voice
when you talk to me," Faulken warned coolly.

Baldwin leaned back slightly in
his chair. His anger whirled through the room with every blink of his eyes.

"This wasn’t anything
unexpected. Probabilities for scenarios like these were all considered and
outcomes calculated way before the onset of this war. Misguided human action
and emotion caused Dome 26 and the city of Boston to be prematurely destroyed.
Human actions affected by a horrific war. That is all. As in all wars fought on
this planet before, it is something that is going to happen.”

“With the fate of the country
and this planet hinging on every action that is made out there, that is your
explanation, your justification for what has occurred?” Baldwin asked
scornfully.

"Vulture leaders do not
report in to a home facility for authorization when they finalize their launch
on a city. Decisions were made in the field. Launches went fast. They took the
bait and unleashed the attack at the first sign of coming forces before
properly scanning what was out past their port.

“These actions were ill-advised
at best. Ill-advised but not unexpected in the least. Something like this was
bound to happen. A perfect war cannot be fought. Not when you are at the mercy
of the actions of men.”

"Ill-advised actions?”
Baldwin questioned again flatly. “This is blatant negligence. Do you realize
what we have lost in just that quadrant of the war theater alone? And with a
dome finally gone, what now could probably occur?”

"Like I said, this is not
something unexpected," Faulken finished. “Similar situations will present
themselves again. How we react and move forward is what is of importance now.”

"This ill-advised act may
have just triggered the death of this country. How do we move as a nation
forward from that?"

"Gentlemen," the
President said forcefully to end the escalating debate.

Ford stared at Faulken whose
hands gripped the arm of his chair so hard his knuckles were white. Faulken’s
eyes raged with a fury that he himself had not yet been able to feel. Since
Plan Zero was launched, all he had felt was a distant defeat. But as this
conversation progressed, the sentiment seemed much closer and more foreboding
than it did before.

"Gentlemen," Ford
uttered again, this time more quietly.

His advisors became silent. The
echoes of their raised voices slowly lessened and disappeared from the vastness
of the room.

“Dome 26 is lost. Divisions and
accusations now will not bring those people back. We must concentrate on what
is still at hand. It’s the other coast I am concerned about. Our most prized
scientific resources are hidden out there. This is where this war could be
ultimately lost. Are the scientific domes in Four Quadrant still
threatened?"

"Sir, everything in this
country is now threatened," Baldwin responded coolly.

"Vulture forces have been
dispatched to most of that area," Faulken ignored Baldwin's last
statement. "Much has been decided and secured within the last thirty-six
hours. The J.G.U., especially near Domes 32 and 19, have lost sizeable forces
in both areas."

"What about Science Dome 15
right along the coast, Mr. Faulken?" the President’s voice became suddenly
harsh. "That's where we house the Beam Cannon Hardware, is it not? I
believe it is in this region, then, that we should assess the severity of this
country's threat."

"We've not been able to
implement any aspect of Plan Zero in that region, yet, sir."

"So discovery is still a
danger?"

"Discovery is a
danger."

"How much of a
danger?" Baldwin asked sitting higher in his seat.

"Yes. How much?" the
President queried again. "War Minister Faulken, I know I needn't remind
you of the severe danger and perils involved should the J.G.U. successfully
overtake another of our domes."

"No, sir, that is not
something that needs reminding," Faulken's words rasped from his mouth
like he was choking on pointed knives. His face and skin glowed dark red from
his rage.

"Especially one sheltering
one of the most premiere scientific communities in the country," the
President continued. "If the J.G.U. acquire the beam cannon technological
hardware, then this war may as well be over. If both countries possess the
power to create artificial ozone layers, there will be nothing left to fight
about. Everyone will be equal. And the world will never change."

"Sir, our first launch into
the area was less than successful," Faulken recovered himself slightly.
“J.G.U. ground teams were somehow already in the area and ambushed the Vulture
personnel. All insertion aircraft were destroyed before any deliveries could be
made.

“We weren’t able to get anyone
in. Either by air or humping in on foot. Since that time, the J.G.U. have
locked the area down. We haven't been able to slip anything in or out. They
know they have something there, sir, but they don’t know what. So as of this moment,
the dome is still not threatened. The main concentration of their forces is
massing within Beuford."

Ford settled back into his
oversized chair as if waiting for the war minister to continue. When after a
few minutes he didn’t, Ford leaned back across the desk towards the two men
sitting across from him.

"I want to know what is
behind what I’ve been hearing about military personnel already being inside,”
Ford said icily. “What in the god’s green fuck is going on over there? Why are
we having this conversation at all?"

"Sir, like you said, the
security of this area is of great and serious importance to the outcome of this
war."

"So why has this city not
yet been destroyed?” Ford’s skin now turned a bright blazing red. “Especially
if we already have people inside. From what I hear, for some goddamn time! Why
are more lives being jeopardized and lost by sending in an assassination
team?!”

"Insertion of an
assassination team was deemed necessary in Beuford, Mr. President."

"I don't believe that for a
goddamn second," the President responded coolly back.

Baldwin turned in his seat to
look at Faulken. Faulken returned a wicked glare from tired bloodshot eyes.

“I want bombing units in there
today,” Ford spoke again. “And I want them in soon.”

"Mr. President, factions
are growing against us on the outside. They’re growing at alarming rates. Much
faster than we ever expected. Many are escaping the city demolitions. They are
getting out and spreading what knowledge they have of the domes and their
locations. It’s why these facilities have started to fall."

Baldwin stood and stomped
heavily across the room. He stopped near the large table at its center and
rummaged through a thick set of papers he pulled from a locked case. Not
speaking and with his footsteps creating quiet echoes through the chamber,
Baldwin returned and tossed them in a heap across the President's desk.

"Holovid transcripts,"
Baldwin said levelly before Ford could ask. "You will find in them, Mr.
President, the reason we are even in that area. You will also find the reason
an assassination team was sent in. And you will also see that right now the
bombing can be accomplished. It could be taking place as we speak. But as of
now, it is not."

"Mr. Baldwin…!"
Faulken's voice raised further in pitch while the President sifted through the
pile of papers in front of him.

"It’s a complete disaster
over there. We are in more trouble than we thought. If you read close enough,
you will also understand the great many reasons, like the people don't have
enough already, why the people are escaping. Why there is a great danger of an
internal revolt. One that may kill us all before the J.G.U. ever do."

“These are top priority message
transcripts from high level Vulture military," Ford said raising his eyes.
"Who are these names…?"

"Those names…,"
Faulken began.

"One name is Commander John
Kirken," this time it was Baldwin's turn to raise his voice. "He is
the reason Faulken personally called for an insertion team to be sent in. As
you go further, you will find that he is active dome military trapped inside
Beuford. And the only reason he is there at all is to rescue his children. He
is not in there leading factions or inciting revolts. He is only there to get
his children out. It is the only reason he is there.”

"Kirken has been deemed a
threat. He should have been retired, jailed or banished years ago as an outside
sympathizer," Faulken said tightly.

"He is also the reason
you've been able to get into that city. Especially after the Vulture
crash!" Baldwin returned angrily.

"What in God's name does
this have to do with an insertion team?!" the President's own strong voice
added to the fierce echoes reverberating about the presidential chamber. “You
are risking the very outcome of this war by withholding an attack.”

"Kirken could very well be
aiding the J.G.U. and constructing an organized revolution. We need to ensure
he does not escape. We have to know he’s dead."

"He's not organizing a
rebellion!" Baldwin shouted. "He opened up the city enough to get a
bombing team in. He is doing exactly what you're telling him. And despite the
fact he is out there on his own, so far he has survived. And he has survived,
because you are strong-arming him with threats against his daughter.

“And to ensure his compliance,
you sent in the insertion team. You dispatched assassins after a little girl.
It’s people like you that are the reason this country is in this kind of
war."