Con-Red: Recourse (61 page)

Before he could even finish the inquiry
the ship’s now unshackled AI was already busy at work resolving that same question.  The tactical displays instantly changed to show the surrounding area and focused on a blinking area directly in front of the Rahias research station.  At the same time the large screen at the head of the bridge adjusted as well to show that same area from electo-optical systems throughout the fleet.  The admiral could easily make out the large complex they were here to evacuate.  Its multiple hexagonal sections and tremendous size of over three and a half kilometers in total diameter made it quickly recognizable and difficult to miss.  As the sensor feed zoomed closed he could see a pair of shuttles departing the facility with a fresh group of evacuees.

Suddenly, in the middle of the empty space separating Rahias from the defense fleet, a quick glimmer of light appeared.  “Enemy contact.  Ordinance separation detected.  Engaging,” Regela vocalized throughout the command deck in a calm cool voice.

Achyuta’s heart sank as he realized what was happening.  He opened his mouth to shout an order to the people and soldiers still inside the large research structure, but was unable to get out even one word when the entire station seemed to detonate from the inside.  A dozen singularities suddenly sprung up within Rahias and entire portions of the facility could be seen ripping away from their surroundings before being compressed into nothingness by the intense gravity fields within each vortex.  Almost as quickly and suddenly the enemy ship disintegrated itself under a salvo of hypervelocity slugs fired automatically by Regela from the
Regal
group’s escorts. No one on the bridge cheered at its destruction.

The darkness slowly faded as his eyes parted open and
tried their best to focus.  His whole body ached for reasons unknown to him.  Fighting through the new stiffness in his arms he tried to move them to in order to clear his eyes.  It was only at that point, with his fingertips moving through what felt like gravel and particles of other materials unknown to him at the moment, that he realized that he was no longer at his desk.  This realization came as a shock and threw him into sudden confusion.  The last thing he remembered was reading endless debriefing reports, when his eyes began to feel heavy and he allowed himself a mere moment to rest them.

With his head throbbing and his body seemingly weighing an entire metric ton, Jonathan Hallsworth slowly pushed himself up to his knees before rising from off the ground.  He blinked his eyes quickly, hoping that would help clear them and his mind.  It was so no avail, however,
as the dizziness he felt failed to subside even for a moment.  Jonathan focused hard and wondered why everything was so hazy to him.  Slowly he began to take in the world around him only to instantly wish that he could close his eyes to it once again.

All around him tall heaps of rubble rose up off the dirt covered street. 
Further beyond these great piles he could make out many different building or at least what now remained of them.  Every structure in his vision was burned out or half destroyed by what looked like heavy military ordinance.  Jonathan began to wonder where he was and what he was doing there.  In the back of his mind images of Destona began to creep up before fading away out of focus.  The same was true for the horizon which seemed to be a blur to him at the moment, adding to his disorientation. 

It was then that Jonathan noticed that the sky overhead was thick with dark gray rolling clouds.  He willed himself to take a heavy step forward and almost completely lost his balance, falling down to his knees as the world shook around him.  Whether the ground beneath him actually reverberated or it was just his extreme dizziness, Jonathan could not be sure
.  As he struggled to stand back up on his shaky feet a flash of lightning struck out, preceding the sound of thunder crashing overhead.  It felt so close to the ground that the bits of gravel covering the road under him actually vibrated.

Jonathan made it all the way up to his feet and stood up straight again just as the rain began to fall. 
A tiny voice inside his head, one from his youth, called out to him in an attempt to make to cease.  It wanted him to just close his eyes and curl back up into a ball so that hopefully when he opened them once more he would be away from this place.  He was no longer that scared little boy, however, Jonathan told himself.  Clinching his jaw in determination he finally took another breath and proceeded with another slow step forward. 

The thunder cracked louder this time an
d the rain began to intensify as soon as he put his foot down on the pavement.  This time Jonathan was more careful.  He knew what to expect and concentrated harder on keeping his balance.  Planted firmly now and with a little more confidence he took another step forward.  It was still a struggle at first, but each continuous step brought with it more confidence and so Jonathan moved on with the cold rain now drenching him from head to toe.

The dizziness still threatened to overwhelm him at times and the ground under his feet continued to move, as if he was on a ship drifting through rough waters. 
After a few moments of acclimation, though, he was able to walk more steadily and at a faster rate.  Everything around him felt strange.  Even the rain and thunder overhead was not as he could remember it.  Still not knowing where he was Jonathan moved further down the street, hoping to see something more over the horizon.  With each new step the horizon still remained foggy and unobtainable, confusing him even further.  Seeming nothing changed throughout his surroundings as he ventured further into what he could only assume was a city.  Similar appearing piles of rubble and debris continued to appear around him, blocking every side street Jonathan tried to turn into.  It looked as if he was being herded towards something.

An increasing number of destroyed and abandoned buildings appeared on either side of the street as he proceeded deeper. 
For some reason several of these structures looked familiar to him, but Jonathan knew he couldn’t stop to investigate.  With much effort he sped up is walk, becoming more and more stable with every passing moment, until he was finally able to break into a wavering jog.  Soon his heavy feet pounded the wet pavement, his lungs ached in protest, and his body became thoroughly soaked to the core, but he did not waver in his advance.

It was then that
the ground beneath him heaved and threw Jonathan off his feet.  He landed on his stomach as the sound of thunder reached him and rolling over his now prone body.  Instinct told him it wasn’t thunder, it sounded much more sinister.  It was a distinct sound he recognized from many years of service.  It was the sound of artillery shells detonating.

He pulled himself back to his feet from the ground and pushed forward through the heavy rain.  The sound of the explosion had come from somewhere in front of him so he moved in that direction.  While others might have turned back Jonathan was determined to figure out
what was happening.  Half jogging, half dragging his still unbalanced feet over the uneven puddle covered street Jonathan willed himself on.  If the Army had taught him anything it was that quitting was never an option for its men and women in uniform.  You trudged ahead braving whatever came your way until you couldn’t, and once there you dug inside even deeper to push ahead farther.

Pushing his way ahead Jonathan began to see the landscape around him begin the change.  The buildings began to grow taller and the devastation
increasingly became more prominent among them.  Finally, after what felt to Jonathan like kilometers of travel, he came upon actual people, all dead.  At first they were just individual sightings, but within a few blocks scattered groups of bodies appeared on the dirty streets.  All seemed to have been huddled together and shot in the back while fleeing.  Among them were bags and even crates of what could only be luggage and other personal belongings.  There had been no discrimination.  Men, women, and children had appeared to have all suffered the same fates together.

Trying his best to look away from these unfortunate souls Jonathan
continued to follow the growing sounds of war.  He kept himself to one side of the endless boulevard close to the ravaged building walls for stability.  Every so often a powerful blast would go off in the distance and shake the ground like an earthquake and threatened to knock him back off his feet.  It became harder to keep going with each new block passed.  The deafening thunder overhead, the constant explosions in the distance, and the horrible dizziness inside him combined together like an enemy force trying to overrun him.

Something caught on his dragging right foot as he made his way across an abandoned store doorway and caused him to almost trip. 
Stopping suddenly he gazed down to see what had caught on his foot.  In surprise Jonathan saw that it was an infantry helmet and his foot had apparently gone through its shattered faceplate.  For some reason he thought he knew who the helmet belonged to, but couldn’t quite put his finger on it in the confusion that was his mind at the moment.  Looking back up sternly and with his right hand still on the wall to steady him, Jonathan kicked the helmet defiantly back through the doorway and shuffled onward.

More dead bodies resolved in front of him, this time in even greater numbers.  Among them, however, were new figures clad in gray camouflage powered uniforms and armor.  Ea
ch of these dead had the emblems of the United Planets Federation Army on their right shoulder and helmet.  At around the same time new silhouettes became visible through the haze covering his vision.  Slowly they cleared and Jonathan recognized them instantly as Centaur armored vehicles.  They all lay on either their sides or backs, burnt out and still smoking from what seemed like a recent engagement.  Strewn around them in various positions were more bodies of soldiers.

Jonathan said a small prayer for all of them, which instantly drew another clash of thunder from the dark clouds above him and sent a bolt of lightning into a neighboring building. 
Determined not to be distracted further he began to walk faster along the street.  Amazingly nothing stopped him for what must have been three more devastated blocks until the blurred horizon unexpectedly cleared.  It was as if a fog had lifted and a towering skyscraper materialized in front of him stretching out towards the heavens, surrounded on all sides by other high-rise structures.  The building’s distinct design caused Jonathan to freeze completely.  His heart and spirits sank instantly as he comprehended now where he was.  It was like part of his mind was now set free and his pulse quickened along with his breathing.  Just then, as if on command, the entire upper half of the massive tower exploded outward in all directions.

He wanted to yell out, but no sound escaped his lips as Jonathan watched the shattered debris r
ain down towards the surface of his home planet Rhodena.  These large heavy chunks of transteel and syncrete tumbled through the air and slammed into the encircling buildings below.  One of these large pieces of rubble hit the roof of one of the lower buildings and Jonathan watched in horror as the upper floors of the housing structure collapsed on themselves.  This was another building he knew all too well.  It was the building in which his family lived.

How he sprinted towards the building so fast he could not understand.  All he remembered was flashes of firefights all around him as he somehow ran through the middle of a downtown warzone. 
He remembered blurry images of soldiers fighting and dying around him.  Opposite them were towering alien forms.  Creatures he remembered laying siege to Destona, only these seemed much larger.  They were decimating the Federation forces as he moved between them.  When his focus returned Jonathan found himself in the lobby of the Army Housing building, which looked entirely different now due to the debris and rubble that had fallen throughout.

Still breathing quickly he took a look around seeing that there wasn’t anyone else there besides him.  The gravlifts were of course offline so he rushed towards the opposite side of the atrium where the stairwell was located. 
Jonathan rushed through the open entrance and began to rush up the stairs, somehow controlling the nausea and dizziness swelling up inside him.  As before on the street he reached the twentieth floor in record time with no recollection of the other nineteen.  With his heart ready to explode from his chest Jonathan smashed his body against the stuck door impeding his progress and grabbed the edges, forcing it open with superhuman strength. 

The obstacle finally gave way and slid back into the wall, causing him to stumble out into the dark hallway that he had walked hundreds of times before.  He barely recognized it now with the
damaged flickering glowpanels barely illuminated the wreckage throughout it.  Parts of the ceiling had buckled and fallen, exposing the floor above.  Jonathan made his way through this debris with determination.  Not even the heavy support beams blocking the corridor seemed to impede his progress for more than a moment.

Finally he reached the darkened end of the passage and spent a long second looking at the closed door with his
unit number on it.  He knew the keypad was nonfunctional, but slapped his hand against it nonetheless.  When it didn’t work he reached below it and slid open another hidden panel.  This one equipped with manual buttons, which he punched in a certain sequence, causing a red emergency release handle to appear under that pad.  Gripping it tightly he pulled down hard and heard the bolts that held the apartment door shatter internally.  He quickly stood back up pushed the now free door to the side.

The door
opened without any further resistance to expose the seemingly untouched interior.  Seeing this actually brought some hope back.  The housing unit still looked exactly like he had left it except for the lights being off.  Jonathan took a step forward and tried to call out to his wife Ashley and his son Martin, but no sound would emanate from his lips.  Even so he made his way further inside.  To the left off this main hallway was one of their bedrooms.  The door was still open so he held his breath and looked inside.  There was only mild relief when he found it empty and continued on.  He could see their main living room window ahead showcasing the nightmare that the capital of Rhodagrad had now become.  As far as the eye could see buildings were on fire or in the process of collapsing, sending up huge plumes of dust and smoke.

Time seemed to slow for him as Jonathan took slow steps forward.  None of the furniture had m
oved since his last time at home.  The one of the couches was still directly in front of him facing the window, while the second was to the right of it turned towards the entertainment center inside the left side wall.  His heart pounded so loudly in his ears that it drowned out the sound of thunder and war outside.  Each step he took grew heavier and heavier, at the same time exposing more of the Velier rug that covered the center of the large room. He began to notice more of this brown rug appear over the top of the couch’s back.  Moving closer Jonathan’s heart speed up once again and saw that something had indeed changed.  The rug’s color had now changed to a new shade with an irregular pattern.  A pattern he recognized from his years of service and combat experience.