Beyond Hades: The Prometheus Wars (5 page)

An enormous, ear shattering
BOOM!
exploded throughout the cavern and the lights flickered momentarily. He snapped his gaze around to the huge blast doors, noting the sand filtering down from the hidden roof of the chamber. Another explosion reverberated through the cavern and the center of the doors, the area reinforced with interlocking teeth, buckled slightly.

"How thick is that steel, Captain?" Talbot asked.

"Seven feet, sir; armor-plated and reinforced with titanium."

"Then why is it bending?"

Several rapid thuds followed and before Talbot knew it, the left door twisted inward like tin foil. A spectacularly huge gray hand groped through the hole. Gunfire and explosions echoed from beyond the doors, but it all seemed to have no effect. Whatever was on the other side calmly tore away at the thick steel.

Several military vehicles emerged from tunnels on the opposite side of the cavern to Talbot and Captain Benedict. Twelve HMARS - High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems - shot toward the center of the enormous chamber and screeched to a halt, rapidly taking up offensive positions in front of the huge doors. Marines broke from the odd transport and rushed to the assault area.

"We have to move now, sir!" shouted Captain Benedict over the squealing tires and shrieking metal, gripping Talbot firmly by the upper arm and propelling him swiftly toward the enormous football-shaped vehicle.

Gunfire erupted behind them, and Talbot glanced back, stopping in his tracks. Wrenching apart the doors stood a creature which defied all belief, even given Talbot's truncated briefing only moments before and what he had already glimpsed of the power of the gryphon which had attacked their Super Stallion.

The creature stood perhaps a hundred feet tall, corpse-gray, with gnarled lumps and irregular muscles pushing from beneath its skin. A startling feature dominated the bridge below a hairless cranium -

A single, lidless eye stared coldly from the center of its face above the wide nose. The bloodshot orb flicked from side to side, appearing to search the cavern for something -

"Get down!" roared Captain Benedict, pushing Talbot to the ground, only letting him back up when the staccato of gunfire resumed.

Lines of tracer bullets flew from either side of the destroyed doors just as the HMARS unleashed a coordinated barrage of missiles. The missiles zeroed in on the chest of the cyclops and exploded spectacularly, but did nothing but annoy it.

Turning, it casually tore a long strip of steel from a ruined blast door. With a sweep of its arm, the cyclops swung the steel in an arc, knocking all twelve HMARS aside like toys, flipping them end over end to smash into the concrete walls. It dropped the steel like a boring toy, the clang echoing deafeningly through the cavern. Stepping through the devastated doors, the creature stretched to its full height, glaring balefully at the only undamaged vehicle left in the cavern - the transport.

"Run!
Now
!" shouted Captain Benedict. Talbot needed no further encouragement.

Racing up the ramp, they were the last to enter the transport and the doors slid shut smoothly behind them. Captain Benedict rushed Talbot to the front of the vehicle into a control room. "Get us out of here!" he ordered the two drivers.

The men needed no further urging, swiftly hitting several buttons on the control panel in front of them. A narrow windshield of super-thick glass revealed the exit set into the cavern wall rapidly opening in front of the vehicle. Captain Benedict slammed Talbot into a chair behind the two controllers, quickly strapping him in before seating himself.

And none too soon. Once the exit had fully opened, the pilots hit various other instruments on the complex panel. The transport seemed to rise slightly, hovering, before an incredible force seized the vehicle, and they blasted down the tunnel so fast Talbot thought he might pass out from the intensity as the G-forces attempted to wrench him through the back of his chair.

They soon leveled out, and Captain Benedict rose, instructing Talbot to remain where he was while the captain returned to the main cabin to check on something.

Talbot sat silently for several moments, unwilling to distract the navigators as they casually flicked switches, constantly monitoring the seemingly endless gauges and instruments arrayed before them.

"What is this thing?" he eventually asked, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.

They glanced at each other, apparently unsure of whether or not to answer him. Finally one shrugged and said, "This is the thermo-carrier we use to travel swiftly between bases."

"How does it work?" asked Talbot, intrigued.

"It's very basic science actually," the controller explained, flicking a few more switches above his head. "Throughout the Earth there is a constant stream of heat which, when in a controlled environment such as this thermo-tube in combination with normal gravitational energy manipulated by the hull of the carrier, can be harnessed to propel a large transport at incredible speeds underground."

"I'm glad you said it was basic; I'd hate for every single thing you just said to have gone completely over my head." Talbot grimaced. "How does it deal with the friction on the wheels produced from travelling so fast?" He assumed the thermo-carrier sat on rails like a train or monorail. Travelling at such speeds would rapidly melt any moving parts, owing to the intense friction created.

The controller glanced at him quizzically, and then chuckled. "There are no wheels on the thermo-carrier. It works on a complete negative-polarity system of magnetic rejection."

"What does that mean?"

"The entire thermo-carrier is electromagnetic with a positive polarity; the tube around us is as well. The interior of the carriage is insulated against this, of course. The opposing energies push against each other like two magnets of the same polarity and we float in the middle. There were some initial issues with the carriage rolling, but they simply adjusted the magnetic power to compensate and keep the entire vehicle upright."

"So that's why it's shaped like a football," said Talbot.

"Exactly," agreed the controller.

Talbot noticed a photo of a woman and young girl attached to the side of the control console, away from the myriad of gauges and switches.

"Is that your family?" he asked.

The controller looked at the photo and smiled, his grin seeming somewhat sad. "Yeah," he murmured. "I worry about them with what's going on out there." He seemed to realize his descent into melancholy and snapped out of it. "Sorry. You don't need to hear that stuff."

"Not at all; I mean, who wouldn't be worried after some of the things we're seeing out there? By the way, my name is Talbot." He extended his hand.

The controllers glanced at each other again, their expressions unreadable. The one who had spoken shook Talbot's hand uncertainly.

"We know who you are, Doctor Harrison. Everyone here does. At this point in time you're quite possibly the most important person on the planet."

Talbot sat back in his chair, stunned. The enormity of the man's words threatened to overwhelm him, and he could only think one thing. One overwhelming word summed up everything -

"Shit," he muttered.

***

The journey continued without incident, and Talbot eventually became bored staring through the windscreen at nothing and decided to explore the thermo-carrier.

The two controllers glanced around quizzically when he rose to leave, but Talbot didn't give them a chance to refuse him, quickly stepping back through the door into the main hold of the carrier. Arranged before him were seats in rows - similar to those on a commercial airline - all filled with people bearing traumatized expressions; some wept openly, others merely stared vacantly at the seat in front of them. Talbot wondered abstractly who they were and what they had done at the underground base. Perhaps some were family of soldiers stationed there, or maybe their roles were closer to the core of what had been going on. He'd probably never know.

Several of the passengers seemed to recognize him, making Talbot recall what the controller had said about everyone on board knowing who he was. It disturbed him to see more than a few of the glances cast in his direction were hollow, some even outright hostile. Perhaps the bearers blamed Talbot - or maybe his brother, Thomas - for the tragedy which had seen them arrive at this point.

It was obvious why they were all so unhappy; only a fool could miss it. Fear possibly formed part of the equation, but Talbot wondered how much opposition there had been to what had gone on, opposition which the general or his superiors had overruled. Judging from the stony gazes cast by quite a few of the passengers, the decision had been far from unanimous, and now these people were seeking someone to blame for their predicament.

And Talbot, bearing the same face as the man who had ultimately opened the door to Tartarus, seemed the perfect target for their animosity. He swiftly dropped his gaze and walked awkwardly between the rows toward the rear. Captain Benedict had been absent since the thermo-carrier had embarked, and Talbot was curious about his whereabouts.

Arriving at a solid wall, Talbot was confronted by two sets of stairs, one going up and the other descending. He took the set going down.

The steps were narrow and steep, like those on a ship, and he descended them backwards with care. At the bottom he turned and almost fell over in shock. Ranged out before him were rows upon rows of armored vehicles: fourteen HMMWV Humvees, five LAV-25s light armored vehicles, six HIMARS rocket delivery vehicles, and seven M1A1 Abrams battle tanks.

"Replacement vehicles for the ones they've lost at Base Bravo," said a voice behind him. Talbot spun around and saw Captain Benedict descending the stairs. "They're probably the last ones we'll be able to get out of Quantico."

"What's going on here, Captain?" demanded Talbot. "And don't give me any bullshit about protocol. I need information." Captain Benedict ran his shaky hand back through his hair, and Talbot caught a glimpse of how anxious he actually was.

"The truth is we're losing a battle against a foe we don't even know how to fight."

"But the United States has the best military force in the world, with the most advanced weapons. How can you be losing?" asked Talbot.

Captain Benedict raised haunted eyes and met Talbot's gaze. "The things we're fighting aren't from this world. They're immune to almost anything we throw at them. You saw that damn cyclops back there. It was only thanks to luck we were able to trap it the first time. Now it's loose again, and it'll destroy the entire base before coming after us."

"Come after us?" asked Talbot. "Why would it come after us?"

Captain Benedict's eyes flitted away. "They're drawn to you, just like they were drawn to your brother. We're not sure why."

Talbot's legs buckled unceremoniously, and he only barely managed to lean back against a Humvee, avoiding complete collapse by gripping the hood so hard it hurt.

"Your brother wasn't killed in a rockslide," continued the marine. "He died doing something else entirely, but leading up to that point, every single creature which got loose was hunting him. Like the gryphon attacking us midair - or did you think that was just a coincidence?"

Talbot thought about it. He hadn't had time to consider why the creatures were attacking them, he'd been too terrified. Thinking back, though, that wasn't real fear. What he was going through now was real fear. Right now he wished more than anything to return to that level of shock, the same as he'd felt in the Super Stallion. He was moved so far beyond it now, into pure, absolute terror that he felt sure he might suffer an aneurism at any moment.

"Once you're within proximity of these beasts, they'll lock on to you, just like they did your brother. And we can't stop them."

"Don't sugarcoat it for me," muttered Talbot, his voice thick with sarcasm as he moved away from the Humvee to stand unsupported once more, albeit on shaking legs.