Red to Fade (17 page)
Joel says, “Well done, guys, you made it. Here, take these.”
Joel pulls out three Sound Comms from his jacket pocket and hands them to Joshua, Alex and Lewis. All three of them check that their Sound Comms are working. The three Sound Comms are working fine.
“I need you to follow me now in the trucks. When we come close to the road that leads to the CSB-R1 base I will tell you guys to turn off the lights of the trucks. I don't want anybody to see us driving towards to the base. OK, men, let's go.”
Joel gets back into the R1LEV. He waits for Joshua, Alex and Lewis to get back into their trucks. Everyone is in their vehicles now.
Joel says, “Is everybody ready?”
Alex, Joshua and Lewis say, “Yes, sir.”
Joel says, “Follow me.”
Joel tells Charles to drive to the CSB-R1 base and Alex and Lewis follow in their trucks.
*
In the concrete file hive building, Connor says, “Can the DC file be downloaded from here in this building?”
Lanken says, “No, it can only be downloaded from the glacitone file hive and there is no chance in hell that anyone can download it from there unless they have security clearance. Let me show you the glacitone file hive; follow me.”
Lanken walks to the elevators. Gragon, Dylan, Gabrielle, Connor and Tizer follow him. Lanken gets inside one of the elevators and presses the button for the ground floor. Minutes later the elevator reaches the ground floor. Everyone exits the elevator. Lanken walks down the hallway and Gragon, Dylan, Gabrielle, Connor and Tizer follow him. Lanken walks out of the back entrance of the concrete file hive building.
There is a distance between the concrete and glacitone file hive buildings. Above the file hive structures there is a glacitone roof attached to the three-sided glacitone wall that covers the two file hive buildings, preventing any type of spacecraft from landing on the ground surface of the glacitone file hive. Lanken walks towards to the glacitone file hive. There is a guard right beside the entrance door of the file hive. They always have a guard standing outside. There are two tricadell steel doors locked magnetically inside the glacitone tunnel connected to the glacitone file hive building.
Lanken says, “This is the glacitone file hive. You have to open two doors in order to get inside the glacitone file hive. When the first door is opened you will have access to the glacitone tunnel. When the second door is opened you will have access to the file hive. The two doors can be opened using an access card. The scanner scans the access card and then the door opens. The only soldiers who have access cards that can open the doors of the glacitone file hive are on battleship thirty-one.”
The card scanners on the tricadell steel doors are covered with glacitone. This gives them extra protection from damage.
Connor interrupts. “Are you telling me that no one on this base has access to that file hive?”
Lanken says, “Yes, that's correct.”
Connor nods his head and is pissed off that nobody in the CSB-R1 base can open the doors of the glacitone file hive.
“The two tricadell steel doors are locked magnetically to an underground steel plate that is the width and height of a city skyscraper, so there is no way of digging a tunnel underneath the file hive to get inside from the ground surface. The glacitone file hive is operating every minute of every day and is powered by the Arolco power cell battery, which generates power for years and is also inside the glacitone file hive. The only way of turning the power off in the glacitone file hive is to turn off the Arolco power cell battery. Like I've said before, files from the servers that are inside the glacitone file hive can be downloaded manually but not remotely. Now I want everybody to move back. Tizer, when I say âfire' I want you to fire a grenade shell at the side of the glacitone tunnel.”
Tizer says, “Yes, sir.”
Lanken tells the glacitone file hive guard to move back and see's that everyone has moved to a correct distance away from the glacitone tunnel.
Lanken says, “Everybody cover your ears.”
Lanken, Gragon, Dylan, Gabrielle, Connor and the glacitone file hive guard cover their ears. Lanken sees that everyone is covering their ears.
Lanken says, “Fire!”
Tizer fires a grenade shell at the left-hand side of the glacitone tunnel.
BOOM!
The grenade explodes when it hits the tunnel. It doesn't even leave a black mark or a scratch on the glacitone material. Nobody in the concrete file hive building hears the explosion because the concrete building is soundproof.
“As you can see the glacitone material is very tough and the tricadell steel doors are just as tough as glacitone. If you fired a grenade shell at a tricadell steel door it wouldn't leave a scratch. I've seen a spacecraft crash into a glacitone window and even that didn't even leave a mark. So you see, Mr Harper, there is no way anybody can get into that file hive.”
Connor says, “Well, thank you for that great security demonstration, and especially the grenade shell being fired in the tunnel. Man, that was cool. Look, man, I'm thinking that Joel has thought of ways to get past your security. All that I know is that he is going to attack the CSB-R1 base. I don't know how and I don't know when he's going to attack. I think that you should either be prepared for him to attack or stop him before he attacks. I would tend to try to stop him before he attacks; think of the safety of your men.”
Lanken pauses and is quiet. He thinks to himself,
Connor might be right. There's a possibility I'm being naive. If they know about DD-12, the DC file and the file hive they might also know how to get past our security.
Lanken says, “Tizer, I want six RBMs loaded with soldiers to find and arrest Joel Davis and the group of agents who are working for him. If they don't come quietly and they open fire on your men, I want your men to return fire, but tell them not to fire until fired upon. I also want nine RBMs loaded with armed soldiers in front of the file hive to create a barrier and stand guard. I want six soldiers guarding the glacitone file hive. You got that?”
Tizer says, “Yes, sir.”
Tizer obeys Lanken's commands. Minutes later there are nine RBMs loaded with armed Clandarian soldiers who are suited up in body armour in front of the file hive. Some Clandarian soldiers are armed with GD-7 machine guns, some with ZX-53 machine guns and some with BGL-34s. The nine RBMs in front of the file hive look like a barrier. Some of the armed soldiers get out of the RBMs to use the vehicles for cover. Some soldiers stay inside the RBMs to control their mini guns and grenade launchers.
The soldiers who were ordered to find and arrest Joel are in six RBMs which are stuck at the entrance doors of the CSB-R1 base. The doors won't open. The guards are trying their best to get the entrance doors to open, but nothing's happening. Gragon, Dylan, Gabrielle, Connor, Tizer and Lanken are back on the communication floor of the concrete file hive building.
One of the soldiers in one of the six RBMs informs Tizer by using a Balaxian earpiece mic that the entrance doors of the CSB-R1 base aren't opening. Tizer tells Lanken and Lanken sends a smart IT soldier to go down to the entrance doors to try to fix the problem. There's no way of blowing up the doors with a grenade shell or a rocket; they are made from tricadell steel.
Lanken orders Commander Maviral to order five pilots to fly five spacecraft into the city and go to Red 1 law enforcement precincts to get support from officers in finding and arresting Joel Davis and his agents. There are landing pads for spacecraft on the roofs of Red 1 law enforcement precincts. Commander Maviral is in a spacecraft tower close to the spacecraft hangar. Soldiers can fly spacecraft only when Commander Maviral gives the order. Commander Maviral obeys Lanken's commands. Five pilots exit the spacecraft hangar and take off one after the other from the runway in the CSB-R1 base.
The spacecraft the soldiers fly are called Windjets. WJ-41 is the name for the type of Windjet that is used in the CSB-R1 base. A WJ-41 looks like an F-117 Night Hawk Stealth Strike Aircraft. The WJ-41 is a grey colour and is a military Windjet. Windjets have four afterburners. Two afterburners make the Windjet fly forward and the other two can make the Windjet fly and hover in the same spot like the Harrier aircraft in the movie
True Lies
. Windjets can also fly into space. There are commercial and military Windjets. Military Windjets are armed with rockets and high-powered machine guns. Most Clandarian soldiers know that if enough gun ammo is fired at the afterburners of the Windjet, the afterburners will explode and the Windjet will crash. Minutes later the five spacecraft are in the middle of the city. All of a sudden,
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The five spacecraft explode and blow up into pieces, one after the other.
*
Joel, Joshua, Alex and Lewis have finally arrived at the road that leads to the CSB-R1 base. On the Sound Comm, Joel instructs all of his men to keep the lights of the vehicles turned off. Joel and his men are driving with their lights off along the road that leads to the CSB-R1 base. Joel tells all of his men over the Sound Comm to drive off the road into the Mars desert on the right-hand side of the road. Joel wants all vehicles to drive off the road because he doesn't want anybody to see him and his men driving on the road.
Joel instructs everyone to drive their vehicles side by side and not in front of each other in case they crash into the back of each other in the dark. Joel wants everyone to park their vehicles close to the CSB-R1 base, but not too close.
*
On the communication floor of the concrete file hive building, Connor says to Lanken, “I think you should tell everyone in your spaceships to send backup to the CSB-R1 base.”
Lanken says, “I would, but our communication systems are down. We can't contact anybody. Even our phones don't work. We can communicate with each other with our earpiece mics, but we can't communicate with anybody on the outside of the CSB-R1 base.”
Gabrielle checks her planet communicator and says, “Yeah, I know what you mean; I don't have any reception on my planet communicator.”
Connor says, “Can your earpiece mics communicate with anyone on the outside of the base?”
Lanken says, “No, they're designed to communicate on one frequency; all Clandarian soldiers communicate with each other on one frequency when they use their earpiece mics. Say, for example, if law enforcement cops were using earpiece mics in the city, it's not possible for us to communicate with them by using our earpiece mics.”
Gragon asks, “How often do your communication systems break down?”
Lanken answers, “This is the first time we've had this problem.”
Connor says, “I think that there's a possibility that Joel might have disabled your systems.”
Lanken says, “Really?”
Connor says, “It's possible, Joel has a real hard-on for this place.”
Lanken says, “Hard-on? What's that?”
Connor says, “It's when a man's penis goes erect.”
Lanken says, “Why would the file hive make Joel's penis go erect?”
Connor says, “It's just an expression to say that Joel really wants to get into the file hive.”
Gragon says, “Where do you keep your weapons?”
Lanken says, “Do all of you need weapons?”
Gragon says, “Yes.”
Lanken says, “Follow me.”
Connor, Gabrielle, Dylan and Gragon follow Lanken. Lanken walks to a weapon storage room, which is also on the communication floor. Lanken opens the door of the weapons storage room with a key and turns on the light. Connor, Gabrielle, Dylan, Gragon and Lanken go inside the weapons storage room. There are all kinds of weapons on shelves. There are morphian-manufactured assault rifles, handguns, magazine clips for all different types of assault weapons, grenade shells, machine gun/grenade launchers, grenades, body armour and many more besides.
Everyone takes a BGL-34. Connor, Gabrielle, Dylan and Lanken grab grenade shell belts from a shelf. Gragon still has his belt from earlier. Everyone puts grenade shells in their grenade shell belts. There is also duct tape on a shelf. Each person gets three machine gun magazine clips and duct-tapes them together. Each person then loads their BGL-34 with a grenade shell and a machine gun magazine clip that has two other magazine clips attached with duct tape. The reason why everyone has magazine clips duct-taped together and inserted inside a BGL-34 is because this allows them to reload their BGL-34s faster. If one magazine clip runs out of ammo, all the gun holder has to do is remove the clip and insert the next fully loaded BGL-34 magazine clip from the duct-taped backup clips. Dylan and Connor grab and wear grey-green torso armour.
Connor sees a stick of steel with an LCD screen and some buttons, which has a shape and length similar to that of a stick of dynamite.
Connor questions Lanken, “What's that?”
Lanken says, “It's a time bomb.”
Connor wants to know how the time bomb works. Lanken explains to Connor how the time bomb works. Connor grabs a few time bombs and puts them in his jacket pockets. Gragon, Connor, Gabrielle, Dylan and Lanken exit the weapons storage room. Lanken closes the door behind him and locks it. All five of them carry their weapons back into the area of the communication floor where they were before.
Joel's small army have their vehicles parked in the Mars desert, miles away from the CSB-R1 base. Joel and his army are close but not too close to the CSB-R1 base. The lights of their vehicles are still turned off. Joel is in an R1LEV, Alex and Joshua are in one truck and Lewis is in the other truck. Joel speaks into the Sound Comm and tells Alex and Lewis to open the trailers of the trucks.
Inside each truck Alex and Lewis use a radio communicator to let the agents inside the trailers know that they're opening the trailer doors. Alex and Lewis also tell the agents to turn off the lights that are inside the trailers. The agents inside the RBMs receive the radio messages from Alex and Lewis on their radio communicators in the RBMs. Alex and Lewis open the trailer doors using a button control panel inside their truck.
The trailer doors open like the hatch at the back of the Superdeal spacecraft transport ship. As soon as the trailer door of each truck touches the ground at an angle and stops opening, the trailer doors become like a ramp, allowing the RBMs to exit the trailers. Lewis, Joshua and Alex get out of the trucks and remove the bags of cement and Superdeal supply boxes that are behind the trailer doors so that the agents and the RBMs can get out of the trailers.
The agents in the trailers remove their oxygen masks and also help to remove the supply boxes and bags of cement. The bags of cement and supply boxes are tossed to the sides of the trailers, making a clear path for the RBMs to reverse out. Now that all of the boxes and bags have been tossed to the sides of the trailers, the RBMs can drive out.
Lewis, Joshua and Alex tell all of the drivers of the RBMs to reverse out of the trailers quietly and gently. They do so. All of the RBMs are now out of the trailers. Joel, Charles, Edmund and Johnson get out of the R1LEV. Joel goes to the back of the R1LEV and opens the boot. There is a black briefcase inside.
Joel tells Edmund to turn on his laptop and leave it in the boot of the R1LEV. In the light shining from the laptop screen, Joel can see inside the boot and can see what he's doing. Joel opens the black briefcase. There are loads of Sound Comms in the briefcase. Joel instructs each agent to take one Sound Comm from the black briefcase. One agent after the other goes to the boot of the R1LEV and takes a Sound Comm.
Joel gets everyone to do a sound check to check that the Sound Comms are working properly. All of the Sound Comms are working fine. All of the agents are in a group in front of Joel. Charles, Edmund and Johnson are behind him. From the boot of the R1LEV, Joel lets the light of the laptop screen shine on his troops so that he can see them.
All of the agents are suited up in black body armour and each agent is armed with assault weapons. The agents took the body armour and the assault weapons from the steel boxes that are also inside the Superdeal trailers. Some agents are armed with the Robinson Arms XCR assault rifle and some are armed with the Ares Shrike light machine gun with belt feed, short assault barrel and add-on M203 grenade launcher. Some agents store magazine clips for their assault rifles in the magazine clip pockets that are part of their torso armour.
Joel asks, “Has everyone got a Sound Comm?”
Everyone responds, “Yes, sir.”
Joel says, “OK, men, this is it. We've been reading over the plans for this mission for months, we know what we have to do and we know where we have to go. After we have downloaded the DC file, we will then proceed to escape from the CSB-R1 base. Once we have escaped I will tell Edmund to lock the CSB-R1 base entrance doors so that nobody can follow us. We will then drive the RBMs back here and get inside the trailers of the Superdeal trucks. The trucks will take us to Skystone.”
Skystone is a private spacecraft station. In Skystone, spacecraft can get refuelled. Skystone also have hangars to hold spacecraft in protective storage. The Superdeal spacecraft transport ship that brought the Superdeal trucks loaded with RBMs is now in Skystone. Joel got some agents to make arrangements for his Superdeal spacecraft transport ship to be refuelled and kept in protective storage.
The transport ship that brought the Superdeal trucks loaded with RBMs flew to Skystone after it dropped off the trucks and departed the planet transport station of the first built glacitone dome. The Superdeal transport ship flew to Skystone to get refuelled and ready for its next departure and is now refuelled and ready to make a quick getaway. Employees in Skystone think that Joel's Superdeal spacecraft transport ship is legitimate. They see Superdeal ships getting refuelled and departing all the time. They think that the Superdeal spacecraft transport ship will fly back home after the Superdeal trucks make all of their deliveries and come back on board. They don't realise that the Superdeal spacecraft transport ship is owned by a corrupt federal agent, and is also a getaway plane for agents who are going to commit a horrible act.
“We will then board the Superdeal spacecraft transport ship with the trucks. The Superdeal ship will then fly us to PTS-R1. Once we have reached the planet transport station we will then take off from there and fly back home. Are there any questions?”
One of the agents enquires, “When do we activate the Space Drill rockets?”
Joel answers, “The Space Drill rockets won't be activated until the manufacturers in the Space Drill station can build their first bit of glacitone and their first RB-7 robot; by the time that happens we'll all be safe back on Earth. Guys, if we succeed in this mission we'll all be millionaires. I want everyone to get into their RBMs and wait for my signal to attack.”
Eric promised to give Joel and his men millions when they get the DC file.
All of the agents get into the RBMs. Joel gets inside the front passenger seat of an RBM. Charles is in the driver's seat, while Edmund and Johnson are in the back. Joel dials a number of a colleague on his planet communicator. The colleague answers the Balaxian cell phone.
Joel says, “We're ready. Now it's up to you.”
Joel hangs up the planet communicator after making that small statement. There are two earthling Windjet engineers who work in the spacecraft hangar of the CSB-R1 base. The two Windjet engineers are called Victor and Deacon. A Windjet engineer makes sure that all Windjets are operational and safe to fly. Victor and Deacon are in the spacecraft hangar of the CSB-R1 base. Victor goes inside one Windjet and Deacon goes inside the other.
Victor and Deacon start up the Windjets and make them move onto the runway. The runway is huge; there's enough space that two Windjets could take off beside each other at the same time, but the commanders of the CSB-R1 base allow only one Windjet to take off at a time for safety reasons. The two Windjets that have been moved by Victor and Deacon out of the spacecraft hangar are side by side on the runway. The two Windjets thrust forward at the same time and start to build up a lot of speed on the runway.
The two Windjets have built up enough speed to take off. Both of the Windjets take off and fly into the air. From the spacecraft tower, Commander Maviral is surprised to see two Windjets taking off together.
Commander Maviral turns around and says to another officer, “What's going on? I didn't authorise those Windjets to take off.”
The two Windjets are at a distance from the CSB-R1 base now. Victor and Deacon set their Windjets to autopilot. They have turned their Windjets around and are now hovering in a single spot. From their cockpit windows Victor and Deacon have a clear view of the CSB-R1 base. Victor pulls out a remote-controlled detonator from his pocket and presses a button.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The three remaining Windjets in the spacecraft hangar explode into pocket sized segments.
*
Everyone on the communication floor of the file hive building can see the explosions in the spacecraft hangar.
Connor sees the explosions and says, “What the hell?”
Lanken picks up a pair of binoculars from a desk. With the binoculars he can see a close-up view of the spacecraft hangar. Lanken sees that the remaining Windjets have been blown to bits.
Lanken says, “The Windjets; they've all been completely destroyed.”
*
Victor and Deacon are Windjet engineers, Windjet pilots and spies working for Joel. A while back Joel had arranged a meeting with them and asked them to work for him. Joel made them an offer they couldn't refuse. Victor planted three remote bombs in the three Windjets that blew up in the spacecraft hangar. It was also Victor who planted and detonated the remote bombs in the five Windjets that blew up in the city earlier, as he was ordered to remote-detonate any Windjet that flew out of the CSB-R1 base. Victor and Deacon disabled the remote bombs that were planted in the Windjets they're flying in before boarding. Joel ordered Victor to make sure that all Windjets were destroyed except for those two.
Joel wants the two remaining Windjets to be used as weapon backup. He supplied Victor with remote bombs, a remote detonator and Sound Comms. Joel was able to communicate with Victor by the planet communicator while the communication system of the CSB-R1 base was down because Edmund used his hacker software to give Victor's phone network coverage, allowing him to make and receive calls.
Victor and Deacon are now wearing and using the Sound Comms, and are able to communicate with Joel and his crew.
Victor says, over the Sound Comm, “Deacon, let's do this air strike.”
Deacon responds, “Roger.”
Victor and Deacon fly over the CSB-R1 base and drop bombs on the two rows of buildings along each side of the road that leads to the file hive building. Victor drops bombs on the buildings on one side of the road and Deacon drops bombs on the other side.
KABOOM!
Two air strikes at the same time.
The explosions of the two air strikes create a wave of fire through each row of buildings and look similar to the air strike explosion shown in the movie
Apocalypse Now
. Joel sees the explosions. The air strike explosions are the signal for Joel to attack the CSB-R1 base.
Joel shouts over the Sound Comm, “
Let's go!
”
All of the agents driving the RBMs put the pedal to the metal and drive fast towards to the CSB-R1 base. All of the agents driving the RBMs now have their lights on.
*
The two rows of buildings that were attacked by bombs are on fire. A lot of injured Clandarian soldiers come out of the buildings, coughing. Some emerge screaming and on fire.
Clandarian soldiers are trying to put out the fires on other Clandarian soldiers. A soldier informs Lanken that the RBM storage facility has been completely destroyed. The only RBMs the soldiers now have are in front of the file hive building. Everyone on the communication floor of the file hive building can see the two rows of burning buildings and the soldiers coming out of them.
Lanken uses an intercom and says, “This is an emergency. I want everyone to get weapons and body armour from the weapon storage room and exit the file hive building immediately.”
Lanken wants everyone out of the building because he thinks that the two Windjets that dropped bombs on the two rows of buildings may try to take out the concrete file hive building. Everyone in the concrete file hive building hears and obeys Lanken's orders. Lanken orders a soldier who has keys for the weapon storage room to open the room. Soldiers go inside, grab and don body armour, quickly arm themselves with assault rifles and proceed to exit the concrete file hive building.
*
Joel and his army are at the entrance doors of the CSB-R1 base.
Victor speaks into the Sound Comm and says, “Joel, don't open the entrance doors yet. There is a group of soldiers and RBMs at the entrance doors.”
Joel responds, “Take them out.”
Victor says, “Deacon, we're going to take out the RBMs at the entrance doors of the CSB-R1 base.”
Deacon replies, “Roger, proceeding to the entrance doors.”
Deacon and Victor fly over to the entrance doors of the base. As they do so, armed soldiers in the watchtowers and on the ground nearby fire at the two Windjets with their machine guns. Soldiers in the RBMs also fire at the Windjets by using the mini guns of the RBMs.
The windscreen of the Windjets is bulletproof. The ammo being fired from all of the soldiers' guns bounce off the windscreen and pierce through the body structure of the Windjets. The Windjets open fire on the soldiers with machine guns and rockets. The gun shells fired from the Windjets make small detonations of remains on the ground and impale some of the soldiers, killing soldiers in the watchtowers and blowing holes in the watchtowers that are the size of basketballs.
Some of the watchtowers explode into wee scraps from the impact of the rockets fired from the Windjets. All of the soldiers who are at the entrance doors of the RBMs are getting slaughtered by bullets. One of the Windjets fires rockets at the RBMs that are close to the entrance doors of the CSB-R1 base.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The explosions make the RBMs fly in the air.
Victor says, “Joel, you have a clear path at the entrance doors; you can open the doors now.”
Joel says, “Edmund, open the entrance doors.”
Edmund responds, “Yes, sir.”
Edmund uses his laptop and computer hacker software to open the entrance doors. The doors start to open. All of the RBMs loaded with corrupt agents drive into the CSB-R1 base after the doors have been fully opened. All of the RBMs are now inside the CSB-R1 base. Joel tells Edmund to close and lock the entrance doors again. Edmund closes and locks the doors using his laptop and computer hacker software.
The reason why Joel wants the entrance doors of the CSB-R1 base to be closed and locked is because he doesn't want any soldiers to get out of the base and go for help or backup. Some of the soldiers who ran out of the two rows of buildings that were hit by an airstrike are armed with machine guns. Joel and his crew open fire on the soldiers with the mini guns of the RBMs.
Some of Joel's crew wind down the windows of the RBMs, aim their machine gun/grenade launchers and assault rifles out of the windows and open fire at the soldiers. The soldiers return fire with their machine guns. Most of the soldiers are getting decimated by weapon rounds. The RBMs drive onto the road that leads to the file hive buildings. The corrupt agents in the RBMs pass watchtowers, burning buildings and Clandarian soldiers as they drive down the road that leads to the file hive buildings.
