Captain Forest wasted no time. She pulled her silenced pistol from a thigh rig and fired a circle of shots into the glass. Next, she un-slung the small but heavy satchel around her shoulder and flung it against the center of the circle she had cut in the glass with her bullets. That weakened slab fell inwards and the satchel tumbled into the computer room. The two shocked technicians scrambled for cover; Nina dropped to the floor and covered her head.
The charge exploded not with shrapnel but a blast of sound, flash, and concussion. Several banks of the Cray computers toppled like dominoes. What remained of the glass wall shattered. One of the technicians-a woman in brown coveralls-flew against the far wall and suffered a fatal head injury. The second tech-an older man-rolled across the floor and came to rest a few paces from the primary upload console, known to Nina Forest as the mission objective.
She walked into the computer room with her eyes fixed on the CD drive at the upload console. Her shoes cracked and snapped over broken glass.
The older technician lay flat on his face, moaning and wiggling. Nina casually popped one round into the back of his skull with a dull thwump.
She knelt in front of the upload console, pulled a disk from her belt, and slipped it into the drive. A moment later a monitor confirmed UPLOADING FILE BRUTUS. EXE…
…Midnight duty in the Operations Tower meant two less technicians and a junior officer running the show instead of a senior one. What did not change, however, was that that officer would be a Witiko Skytroop officer.
Human specialists manned the bank of monitors at the front of the tower, using the electronic devices to search for potential threats that could then be dealt with via automated turrets and computer-controlled anti-air missiles.
"Sir," one of the specialists called for the officer on duty. "Something is wrong."
The Witiko hurried to the man's position and glanced over his shoulder. Sure enough, the perimeter infrared system flickered then went dead. The same occurred at the radar station, visual monitoring station, and motion detector console.
"Check with the computer room."
"Sir," another technician shouted. "There's no answer from the computer room."
The Witiko officer ordered, "Send a security team down there," as he grabbed a red phone from a bank of telephones along the wall. That line called directly to the main gate…
…With the virus fully uploaded, Nina pulled the CD from the console and snapped it in two. Her mission complete, she walked toward the smashed glass at the front of the computer room. She heard the sound of running boots; shadows flickered from a side passage.
She held her pistol in one hand, took a breath, then ran forward. She jumped through the smashed plate glass and hit the marble floor, sliding across like a baseball player diving head first into home plate.
Eight California Cooperative security personnel approached with assault rifles raised. As she slid, Nina fired from her silenced pistol, hitting one of the men in the forehead, another in the leg. Both dropped, one would never get up.
Her bold maneuver surprised the enemy. Nina took advantage of that surprise, rolling around a corner then standing. When on her feet, she raced away retracing her steps from earlier. As she fled, she used her free hand to reach to her pack and grasp the collapsed frame of her 'little buddy.'
Without looking, she tossed it into the air at the same time releasing a spring. The unit tumbled end over end. As it did, three short legs flipped open. The metallic device landed upright on the marble floor, standing two feet tall on three legs. At its top, a round orb and a short barrel.
The security personnel pursued around the corner.
The 'little buddy' wobbled side to side emitting an electronic whop whop wh o p and fired small energy bolts to cover Nina's escape. Those bolts hit kneecaps and bellies knocking more men to the ground with third degree burns and forcing others to retreat…
…At the main gate a human sentry answered the buzzing phone in the guard shack while two more heavily armed men strolled along where the road entered the complex.
The sentry sighed as he raised the receiver to his ear. The voice on the other end-a Witiko voice-spoke in a monotone dialect, "We are experiencing sensor failure. Have you seen anything unusual at your post?"
The sentry turned his attention away from the gate and threw his eyes toward the control tower fifty yards away and fifty feet in the air. He focused on the tinted windows there as if trying to make eye contact with the officer to whom he spoke.
"No. Everything is clear down here."
Behind him, the night itself appeared to move but neither of the patrolling guards took notice until a line of strangely dressed commandos materialized at the gate. The pair of armed sentries could do nothing other than raise their hands in surrender.
The man at the guard shack hung up the telephone with an air of disgust, only to turn and face a gun barrel pointed directly at his eyes.
One of the strangely dressed commandos raised a Javelin rocket launcher and fired. The missile slammed into the Operations Tower. Glass and bodies fell, a cloud of smoke billowed out.
After a moment, three objects came from the tower flying out through the debris cloud: Witiko Skytroops.
Two did not make it far. Sniper rounds from Oliver Maddock and Carl Bly hit the moving targets. They dropped like dead birds.
The third Witiko officer pushed his booster pack to full throttle and arched toward the south of the base, avoiding carbine rounds from the strike team. He landed on the wall of the building Imperial Intelligence had identified as 'the pen' and fired the slaver device mounted on his arm into that open-roofed building.
Something big roared…
…Trevor removed his mask and hood as he strolled through the main gate of the complex. His team spread through the facility to secure the relatively small garrison; a task made simple now that the sensors and automated defenses did not function.
The whole place radiated a smell of metal and electricity burning. All controlled, of course, but the Witiko knew much about electronics and rocketry. Trevor felt certain that-like the chameleon suits-captured Cooperative equipment could be assimilated.
Yet despite all the high tech gadgets and captured technology, he knew the victory they won that night came not from wizardry but the skill and reflexes of Nina Forest.
As much as it might cause him pain, he hoped to catch sight of Nina. To tell her…to give her his congratulations on a job well done.
To his left-the south-one of the Eagles came in low over the fence now that the defenses of the base had fallen. It moved slow in support of the commando team with the energy turrets beneath the nose cone swinging from side to side in search of targets. The other ships would arrive soon as well, to provide tactical air support and surveillance.
Regardless, the operation proceeded without a hitch. So much so that Trevor allowed himself to whisper, "Well, that was easy."
The ground shook. Trevor turned to his left. The thing-the giant-marched into the parking lot from around the corner of a building to the south; thirty feet tall and seemingly made of boulders strung together by red tendons. Its two big legs plodded hard on the paved lot between the main gate and the cluster of buildings. On top of its wide shoulders sat a round rock of a head with two eyes glowing like searchlights and a circular orifice that could swallow a compact car whole.
Trevor noted a Witiko Skytroop hovering over the shoulder of the thing. Suddenly he regretted removing his hood and helmet as the Witiko recognized humanity's champion.
The walking mountain-thing stepped forward and punched-literally punched with one of its two hands of stone-the hovering Eagle air ship. That craft flat spun over Trevor's head with engines roaring. The rear landing gear dragged into the fence tearing it down before the ship itself skidded into a grassy slope beyond.