“What was that?” Miller asked.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Jackson said.
“Over there, behind that tree.” Miller dropped to one knee and raised the WW2 era M-2 Carbine to his shoulder. The rest of the men took cover behind trees.
“There, see it!” Brown hollered, while pointing at some moving brush.
Snap turned to where Brown was pointing and saw a figure darting between trees about 20 feet out. The figure was hard to make out; it was almost translucent, as if light were passing through it making it difficult to see. Then, it disappeared into the green jungle.
Shit. We are up against something with invisible armor. I have no armor, and a sniper rifle. I should have grabbed a machinegun.
Davis, Miller, and Moore clutched their chests at the same instant, and silently fell over, like dominos, faces first into the dirt. Snap could see a light trail of smoke reaching up to the sky from a grapefruit-sized hole in Davis’ back.
Shit. That fucking alien.
“Where did that come from?” Snap yelled, while crouching behind a tree.
“I don’t know,” Ryan Taylor replied.
“It happened too fast,” barked Jackson.
Snap saw the translucent figure running toward Anderson, who was facing the wrong direction, staring into the woods. Snap switched off the safety, dropped to one knee and aimed the 25-pound anti-material gun toward the blurry creature.
I can’t get him in my sights. He will be on Anderson in a second. Too Late.
The nearly invisible, creature jammed a sword through Anderson’s back and lifted him into the air like a rag doll. Anderson slid down the sword like a human shish kabob. The creature slung him off the sword, and Anderson’s lifeless body hurdled through the air, slamming into a tree.
Snap pulled the trigger as the bones in Anderson’s corpse broke against the tree trunk. The sound of the BMG round exploding caused his ear to start ringing instantly.
Miss. Shit. Four rounds left.
The eight-foot-tall beast was gone, blending perfectly with the thick, green leaves. Seconds later, it reappeared directly in front of Brown. Brown dropped, clutching his neck as blood sprayed through his fingers. Snap squeezed the trigger again. Miss.
Three rounds left.
Through the noxious haze of gun smoke, the creature looked directly at Snap and charged. The heavy sniper rifle was difficult to lock onto a target in such close quarters. Snap felt the creature’s clawed hand close on his neck. The creature arched forward in pain as thirty rounds from an M4A1 carbine slammed into his back. It was not enough to kill the beast, but enough to make him release Snap. The creature’s attention was diverted for a second; a shard of light shot from its breastplate and cut down the carbine-wielding Smith.
While the creature was still focused on Snap, who was scrambling behind a tree, Jackson fired the Magnum Research single action revolver into the beast at point-blank range. It screamed. Jackson fired the hand cannon a second time; a copper-colored fluid burst from the beast’s armor. The creature leapt toward Jackson, knocking him down. Snap came from behind the tree and fired the 50-caliber rifle at the beast on top of Jackson.
Dammit. How’d I missed again? Just too close for this rifle.
Thomas stepped up and swung the battle ax down on the beast while it was still on top of Jackson. The beast leapt up, revealing a mangled Jackson, and the incinerator weapon on his chest glowed blue. Another flash of light, and Thomas’ battle ax dropped. Snap charged, raising the GM6M, at 11 feet away, he pulled the trigger. The beast dropped. Then, there was a blinding flash of light and Snap was violently thrown to the ground.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Granite Peak Installation
Once again, Snap was back in the training room on Level 15. Slowly, the room stopped spinning, and Snap forced himself to stand up. All his men were alive and shaking off minor aches and pains. Anderson, who a few minutes earlier had been impaled by a sword, was checking out his stomach and chest with both hands. In a couple of minutes, they were all standing in the training room.
“Told you it was a hologram,” said Tim Moore.
“Bullshit. No way it was a hologram,” Brown argued. “You can’t feel a hologram. I felt that shit. I felt it for real.”
“Quiet,” Snap ordered. The men stopped talking and looked toward Snap and then at the eight-foot-tall beast they had just been fighting.
“I am Ater Velens. This is my base. You will follow my orders while you are here. Do you understand?” Ater towered over them. He was no longer wearing his battle armor, but he appeared to be wearing form-fitting, translucent suit.
“How should we address you?” Snap asked.
“I do not stand on ceremony or titles. You may call me Ater.” As Ater moved, the colorless suit reacted to the movement by changing to different hues of a translucent blur.
“Ater, could you explain what just happened to us?”
“Half of your squad was killed by one Ondagra,” he hissed with a hint of disgust.
“Ondagra?” Jackson asked.
“Ondagra is the name for my people; like you refer to yourselves as humans, we refer to ourselves as Ondagra. My kind, the Ondagra, come from Botacoure, a planet that is located thousands of light years from Earth.”
“How did you transport us to a jungle?” asked Snap.
“Major Slade, I did not transport you anywhere. You never left this room. This room is one big holographic projector. The tiles on the walls, floor, and ceiling are each able to project millions of holographic images at once. Combined with that black dome above us, they create an alternate reality that will trick the eye and mind.” Ater pointed at the hexagon-shaped tiles on the walls and floor.
“Not possible,” Snap said. “We felt the rain on our faces, the trees, the ground and the impacts of your weapons. You can’t feel a hologram.”
“Almost true, Major. You don’t feel the holographic projection. In this room, you are surrounded by billions of flying nanobots. These nanobots interact with the hologram, and when they detect that you are about to come in contact with an object in the holographic world, millions of them contact your skin in the appropriate location with the appropriate pressure so that you think you are touching an object, a tree, rain, or a weapon.”
“I picked up a weapon and fired it. I felt the pistol grip in my hand; I felt the recoil.”
“You saw a holographic image of a weapon. When you went to grab the handle, you really grabbed a hand full of nanobots that applied the correct amount of pressure to the palm of your hand to make you believe you were lifting a weapon. The nanobots are too small for the human eye to see; each one is controlled by microchip that is 1,000 times smaller than a white blood cell. This is a training room. Everything that happens here is recorded for later review,” Ater said, as he waived his hand toward the wall.
Instantly, an image appeared on the plain white wall. “Replay last twenty minutes,” Ater commanded, speaking to the projection on the wall.
“That’s us in the jungle,” Ryan Taylor said in surprise. The wall-sized video display showed a perfect image of the squad sorting through the crate, examining the weapons in the jungle.
“This is a video replay of the simulated attack on your squad. We use the replay as a training exercise, to help you learn what you did wrong. I like running this simulation on new recruits before they are aware of the holographic technology. It gives me a true understanding of each of your strengths and weaknesses. I find soldiers become braver after they realize they are in a simulated hologram,” Ater said, as he crossed his huge arms over his muscular chest.