Weapon - Blooming
#4 of Weapon
More coming, this is the meat of the story right here :)
"Yes, get out of here, enjoy the city a bit, damn it I have to put up with these secret service goons, you might as well have a quick break. This mornings meeting is only preliminary anyway, nothing will be decided by the Secretary of Defence until tomorrow." The General ordered me, "Now GO!"
"Ok Sir, but I don't have to like it." I replied.
"Go for a tour of the city, meet some people, just... stop being a soldier for a day. Ok?" He pleaded.
"Ok ok!" I left the apartment telling the secret service guys they could go in, poor bastards look so wound up and tight, guess it comes with the job.
I jumped in the car and typed 'tour' into the GPS, it gave me a ton of tour operators, I closed my eye and stabbed out at random, the GPS started giving directions. "Hold on, hold on, not even started this damn thing yet."
I would like to say it was a nice drive, but with the influx to the cities population, sections of the city being cut off due to the talks AND it being a Monday, well, traffic sucks.
Eventually reached the tour operator and was told the next bus was leaving in a half hour, I opted to wait.
Some people were gathering and we were just about to board the bus when it happened.
A bright light lit up the morning, much brighter than the sun, and a fraction later the sound hit, louder than you could imagine, it almost knocked me off my feet.
People were screaming around us, no one knew what was happening, but when I looked toward the centre of town, the mushroom cloud was a dead give away.
"Oh fuck no." I heard myself saying, running to my car, I tried to start the thing but it was dead, quickly checking a hunch, so was the GPS.
The fact I wasn't dead and the rest of the city flattened was an indication that this was a strategic weapon. Throwing that fact with the likely-hood that whoever did it wanted to get all the eggs in this basket I realised there would have to be either further bombs or teams on the ground to round up strays.
Looking around I spotted what I was after, an old Volkswagen van, still belching its nasty black diesel. Obviously a diesel.
Running over there was a guy in the front seat, "Sir, I need to commandeer this vehicle." I told him.
"'The fuck?" He replied, but I already had the door open and was pushing him across the seat.
"US Army, I need-" And suddenly I realised I had absolutely no idea how to get back to the apartment. "Look, I need you to help me get to the army apartments west of the air-force base?"
"I, I know the place. What just happened? Why do you need my car? Uh, just what are you?" The questions came fast, I started driving.
"Some high level government and military talks just got bombed. This is the only thing that will be able to run because of the EMP blast. And, I am an officer of the United States Military, I need to find my commander, he can sort things out." I fired back to him.
"Uh, left here." He said, "Then strait down this road.". I was weaving around cars and using the pavement rather liberally, it wasn't a smooth ride, but it was faster than walking. "Hey, you were that soldier from the testing thing a year ago or so ago weren't you? I remember that. Shit well if its this bad ma'am I am glad to help out. Names Rick by the way."
"Nice to meet you Rick, mines Anita."
The drive was going smoothly, figuratively speaking, I recognised the area, we were a block away.
I could just start to hear the automatic weapons over the sound of the engine. "Shit, is someone shooting down there?" The guy asked.
"Yeah, don't worry, I got this." As I pulled up half a block away, I saw a van idling out the front of the apartment building. "Ok, you stay here with the car, please don't drive off, we will need your car again soon." I told him, I considered taking the keys, but didn't want to stop the car, in case it wouldn't start again.
I advanced down the road, removing my sidearm from my bag. I just noticed the guy with the machine gun around the corner of their van in time. I left him where he dropped, and checked the vehicle, it was empty.
Advancing on the premises, I heard further gun fire inside, first the full automatic staccato of sub-machine guns, then some blasts of pistols. Obviously the secret service guys were not just there for their looks.
Moving quietly up the stairs to our floor I found two more assailants, one pointing his gun down the hall at our door, the other preparing a grenade.
Waiting for the man with the concussion grenade to pull the pin, I removed his hand from the wrist, the grenade dropped to the floor still cradled in the man's severed grasp.
I ducked back to avoid the effect and came back after the blast, finishing off the injured guy and disarming his companion.
"Sir!" I yelled down the hall, "Was this it?"
"Yes Walters, there were two out there." The secret service guys left the doorway glaring down the sights of their guns at me.
I breathed a sigh of relief when The General followed them out.
"I have secured a civilian vehicle, we could take theirs, but that would be a little conspicuous." I told him.
"Hold on Colonel." And he ducked back inside returning with the briefcases he had brought, opening one he pushed his papers aside and removed a pistol, which he holstered. Opening the other revealed a stripped down M4A1 with its SOPMOD kit. "Take your pick Walters."
"Aww Sir, you really know what to get a girl." I said with a grin, assembling the rifle and attaching the front hand hold, sound suppressor and a laser sight from the goodies the standard field kit provided.
Grabbing the magazines that were in the top half of the case, I pocketed three of them and drove the fourth home. "Ok, you two keep close to The General, I will take point, if you see anything unusual, yell. The vehicle we are heading for is a rust and brown coloured VW van, the owner is in it, he is alone. Lets move."
I lead the way down the stairs, watching for any further threats. It seems either all the other tenants were out or were lying low to avoid what was obviously a bad situation.
Back out on the street, I saw the van still idling down the road, I made to lead us to it when my reflexes took hold. I deflected the snipers first bullet, realising now my error in not putting a scope on the damn rifle. "Move!" I yelled.
"But there's a sniper out here." One of the men said. But was overruled by Ruggers who was already doing as I said, I am glad to be working for smart people.
"Keep together and move, I got us covered." More shots were coming toward us and the bullets were travelling faster now, the guy must have switched to supersonic rounds.
"This is fucking insane, he won't keep missing forever." The black clad guard said.
"He will if I have anything to do with it." We were just at the van and the general was in, I climbed in behind him. "Hey Rick, you do the driving, I got to concentrate here."
"Where we going ma'am?" He asked.
"Just get us to Andrews, we can work out what to do from there." The General said, the guy looked at me, so I just nodded trying to keep track of the direction of the sniper to deal with any 'small problems'.
We reached the base to find it in a mess, no one seemed to know who was in charge.
"Sir." The senior duty officer, a Lieutenant Colonel Ricks started, once we had identified ourselves, "We got no idea what's going on, all senior officers are at the talks, we are on skeleton crew. Hell I am the highest ranking officer here, err, until you arrived, Sir."
"First things first, did the 89th get off the ground in time?" The General asked him.
"What, I don't..."
"Did the 89th get Airforce One off the ground soldier?" He repeated.
"Sir, the President never arrived, we don't know what's happening." The out of his depth officer told us.
"Fuck." One of the secret service guys said.
"Ok then, get me a line to the White-house bunker, and I need satellite images of the city as of the last ten minutes. NOW SOLDIER!" He ordered, yelling when the man didn't move fast enough.
"You got this?" I asked the secret service guys, indicating the protection of Ruggers.
"Yeah." They replied. Tight arsed bastards or not, they had done their job.
"Good, I am going to see what I can do to smooth things along."
Stopping to ask some MPs where the comms area was, I let myself in.
"Who the fuck are you?" One of the men inside asked me.
"Colonel Walters, US Army. General needs some satellite images of the city just after that blast, can you get me anything?" I explained.
"Sorry sir, I should have recognised you, Yeah we can get that." He reached over and grabbed a tablet, punched a few buttons on his terminal and unplugged the device from his console. "Ok, this has it all, you know how to drive it?"
"Yeah, thanks" I replied, leaving.
"No problems Sir."
I made my way back to where General Ruggers was by following the debris of chewed out soldiers.
Finally catching up with him I handed him the tablet. "Thanks Colonel."
I saluted, "No problem Sir."
"Find yourself a uniform, or at least some fatigues, can't have you running around like that all day. Its going to be a long one, might want to try and scare us up some coffee." I know he hated to ask me to do that, but I knew he was also somewhat distracted and needed something to help him focus. Thankfully I didn't have to try and hunt down a pot, a Lieutenant handed us both a cup. "Good work soldier." The General told the young soldier.
"Sir!" The man turned, about to return to his duties.
"Wait, what's your assignment at the moment?" I asked him.
"Uh, Sir, I on kitch-" He began.
"No your not, you have been re-assigned. Follow us around, and anything you think might help, let me know, there's so much shit going around we could cover every propeller in the country." I told him.
"Sir!" He saluted.
The General was just finishing up a hurried phone call, "Ok, I need an immediate press conference, I want the major networks told it will be required to go live on every station. I need sweep teams to check any other dignitaries last known locations. And soldier?" I finished, turning back to our 'new recruit', "If you find me another cup of that I will promote you on the spot."
"Sir!" The man was already running, smart kid.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Citizens of the United States of America. Today a tragedy has been inflicted on our country. At approximately ten forty five am, a small nuclear weapon was detonated near the White-house. Those responsible simultaneously attacked other high ranking officials all over Washington and the United States.
Now I realise the action I am taking is unprecedented and, by our constitution, unlawful. But I cannot in all conscience allow this act to succeed in beheading this nation. Until a more senior officer or a member of the senior cabinet I will be heading up our response to this action.
Intelligence has revealed that this was not the act of a single nation, but a coalition of several hostile terrorist groups.
Consider the 'war on terror' to be escalated. I will not cease until those responsible have been dealt with and their supporters punished.
I think we can all agree that this is not an ideal situation, it is certainly not one I intend to have continue for very long. In three months time, unless a civilian chain of command has been re-established, I will stand down and a full election will be held.
Thank you for your time. Know that I will not let this country fail."
"Ok, we are done." The camera man said.
"Well fuck, that's the hardest speech I have ever been called to give. Colonel, I want you drawing up plans and strategies for the known locations, you will not be a part of them, but consider yourself completely free to use any resources our armed forces contains, baring nuclear weapons, of course."
"Sir." I said, realising I would need a whole lot more coffee myself and that sleep was going to be a rare thing over the next three months.