Dulce Base (The Dulce Files Book 1) (13 page)

“Now!” Mark shouted, and turned the X-22 to the right just as they were about to enter the Dulce Base port.

It was a sight, a huge floor with a command building of some sort dead center, row upon row of small, triangular…fighter craft was all Turn could think of them as…lined up all across the port’s floor. The walls looked made of concrete and metal and stretched more than a hundred feet up to the ceiling above them. But what really had Marks’ attention, Turn could tell, were the pair of mounted-laser guns on the wall ahead of them.

Mark swerved to the right, putting the alien UFO between them and that gun while putting the second right in front of them. He pushed a button, unleashing two Hellfire missiles right toward that mounted laser as it began to swivel toward them. It’d made it a few inches before the Hellfires blew it to pieces.

“Woo-hoo!” Mark shouted, and Turn almost expected him to reach up for a cowboy hat that wasn’t there, waving it about in glee. Instead he cut the speed of the X-22 dramatically by tilting the thrusters and bringing them down. In the same motion he re-aimed the missile guidance system, hit the button unleashing two more Hellfire missiles, and took care of the other mounted laser just like that.

“Goddamn!” Andy said from the back of the X-22, and beside him Billy nodded, wide-eyed.

“Not so fast,” Mark said from the cockpit, and turned them about quickly. The men in the back couldn’t see it, but the alien UFO that they’d rode in on was trying to turn about in an attempt to get out of the now-compromised entry-port to Dulce.

SHOOM! SHOOM!

“Shit,” Mark said as two lasers fired what looked to Turn to be just inches above the X-22’s glass cockpit canopy. They didn’t seem to faze Mark too much, however, for he just re-angled the X-22 and fired off another Hellfire, then gave it a little pitch and yaw and fired off another.

Turn didn’t know a thing about flying hovercrafts, but he was pretty certain he knew what another two mounted lasers being blown to hell sounded like.

~~~

“Goddamn, there ain’t gonna be nothing left!” Aaron said from the helicopter that was now just a mile from the still-open Dulce Base blast doors.

“Better find some wood to knock on,” Moses said beside him, “because I have a feeling there’ll be plenty.”

He angled the Puma downward and just a dozen feet from the desert floor and they covered the remaining distance to the Dulce port quickly.

“Bring ‘er down easy,” Aaron said beside him as they flew into the port.

It was a rectangular port, really nothing more than a large underground parking lot, this one just for UFOs. There were several lined up in ‘parking spots,’ lighted-off areas that almost seemed to conform to the shape of the ship sitting in them, and the area could obviously afford much larger craft, for the ceiling was more than a hundred feet off the floor.

“There!” Aaron said, pointing out the window to a clear spot on the floor, just before and below where the X-22 and the alien transport craft were still hovering, and turning about it looked like.

“Got it,” Moses said, then brought the bird down.

“All right,” Aaron shouted, ripping off his headset and jumping back to the other men, “let’s hit ‘em hard!”

26 – Making Entry

Dulce Port (Level 1) – Dulce Secret Base, New Mexico

Thursday, May 24, 1979

The attack was textbook, with the CAT-3 forces blowing an entry into the port and taking full control of their landing zone within 55 seconds of the X-22 breaching the port. Hovering, the X-22 continued to use its rockets and guns to rake any enemy weapons in the port area, silencing them before the Air Force helicopter piloted by Moses Cochrane started to enter the open port doors. 

Moses brought the bird in fast and put her down on the main floor of the chamber where the troops would have the cover of a nearby disk as they ran for the passenger entry hatch. Mark knew it was time.

“All right, you bastard!” he said, his teeth gritted but his smile wide. “See how you handle this!”

Turn’s eyes were wide as he watched the alien disc-shaped craft begin to move forward, most likely trying to dart out of there. Instead Captain Richards brought the X-22 forward and then jerked left on the controls, something that caused the left wing of the X-22 to slam downward toward the alien ship. At the last second he kicked the props into a full downdraft, nearly flipping the UFO over onto its top.

“Ha!” he laughed, but all the while he was struggling with the controls. “Hang on boys!” he shouted back to them next.

“Shit!” Turn said, then grabbed onto the hand-straps and braced himself.

Mark managed to straighten-out the X-22 but he was coming down, and would have to land the vehicle. It’s tires hit the port’s pavement hard and they bounced a bit, but once again they were lined-up perfectly with the alien craft, enough so that Mark could unleash two Hellfires toward it. The craft managed to dodge one but the second hit it straight on and it fell a good forty feet, and right on top of a few triangle-shaped craft that had been sitting there.

“Woo!” Mark shouted again. “Took out two fighters with that one – woo-ee!”

~~~

“And…she’s down!”

Command Sergeant Major Aaron Haney looked from Moses in the cockpit to Jerry by the helicopter’s large bay door, and nodded.

The door was already thrown open by the time he yelled ‘open ‘er up’ and Sergeant Paul Carson jumped out, his M240 leading the way.

BOOM!

Paul looked over as the alien UFO Captain Richards had tailed-in on crashed down atop some other type of alien craft. He quickly directed his attention back toward the HUB doors, which were the main entryway into the base from the port. If those were closed to them then the base was effectively sealed off. What’s more, they still had to secure the small port facility command post, the one that housed the may well house the sonic controls for the entire base – he wasn’t convinced they were only on the lower level. It was a lot of shit to handle, and Paul let off his frustration by bringing the machine gun up and firing at a Gray coming out from behind the side of the command post, the first he’d seen yet. The thing had obviously been expecting something to happen that didn’t, for its body seemed to slink down and it was just trying to back off when Paul opened-up on it.

“Damn!” Johnny said as he jumped down beside Paul, his sawed-off Remington shotgun up and aiming in the direction the Gray had been. “You split that one’s head clean in half!”

“Happens,” Paul said matter-of-factly, and a moment later Jerry and Lewie were down on the concrete of the port as well.

“Let’s secure this facility!” Aaron shouted from inside the helicopter, his two Uzis held at his sides, just aching to be used.

“What about the others?” Paul called out as Aaron jumped down.

“They’ll wait ‘till we secure the area then work their magic.”

Paul smiled. “Then it’s time for me to work mine.”

He started toward the port command post fifty yards away, the other five men fast on his heels, guns a’ blazin’.

27 – The Battle for Command

“Go, go, go!” Jerry shouted, his arm waving as Johnny, Lewie and then Aaron all rushed past. He put his AR-15 assault rifle to his eye, or close enough as his large, black-framed glasses would allow, and fired.

Coming just around the bend and raising up what looked like a pen was a Gray. Jerry’s shot took it in the shoulder, but since its frame was so small and the force of the gun so much, the blast took of the thing’s whole side. Blowing out his breath in relief that the alien hadn’t gotten the flash gun up in time, Jerry started forward.

“There it is,” Paul was saying when Jerry got up against a parked alien UFO of some sort, another one beside it so they had some cover.

“See it,” Aaron said, emptying out the clips from his guns and then re-inserting them again, a nervous habit he had.

“How are you gonna–”

Lewie’s words were cut off as a laser or weapon of some sort blasted right into the UFO near their heads.

“Sombitch!” Jonny said, those large black lips of his quivering in anger. He grabbed hold tightly of his shotgun, jumped up, and fired a shot off in the direction the laser blast had come, then another and another before falling back down.

“They’re movin’ in,” he said, his eyes darting this way and that.

“It’s alright,” Paul said, his voice level and calm, like always, “we just have to get to that door, get it open, and that’s that – the controls to the sonic and all the rest of Dulce are in there.”

“The sonic – that’s down below on Level 7!” Jerry shouted.

Paul shook his head. “It’s in here, too – I know it.”

“Then let’s move,” Jerry said, narrowing his eyes at him, and started to rise up, “you men move and I’ll cover the rear – get that door open!”

The others didn’t have much choice in the matter – Jerry jumped up and began firing his machine gun rapidly, those thick glasses of his obscuring his eyes, but not the wicked grin on his face.

“Move!” Aaron shouted, and the others took off, Lewie charging forth across the open floor toward the command center thirty yards away, Paul and Johnny and then Aaron behind him.

“C’mon,” Aaron shouted once they’d moved a bit and Jerry was still behind, shooting at the Grays behind them, “we can’t get too far from Paul!”

Aaron kept back-stepping as he said it, and within another moment he was already ten yards from Jerry.

“Jerry, c’mon!” he shouted again, but it was too late. Paul was far enough away now, as well as the protection his mental blocking ability afforded. One of the Grays somewhere in the distance or firing upon them from afar, sensed this, and began to work its mental muscle.

“Paul!” Aaron shouted, and ahead of him Johnny and then Paul turned about.

“Damn!” Paul said under his breath, the first that any of them had heard him swear. Ahead of him Jerry was struggling, his AR-15 beginning to move back to point at his head, his arms fighting a losing battle to prevent his body from unintentionally killing itself.

“Fuck this!” Johnny said, and grabbed one of the grenades fastened at his belt. He lobbed it up and over where Jerry had been shooting, and a few moments later it exploded.

BOOM!

Not waiting to see if that did the trick or not, Johnny rushed forth and started firing into the smoky area past the parked UFOs where the alien fire had been coming from.

“Got him!” Lewie shouted, and Johnny looked over his shoulder to see Jerry down on the ground, and once again under command of his own faculties. Paul was near.

“Let’s get to that door before this happens again!” he shouted at them, although it sounded more like the way an average person talked.

It was clear that what Grays there were in the port area of the base hadn’t been expecting an attack, and were now scurrying to play catch up. What’s more, already several of their number had been gunned-down, the initial Gray by Paul and then the one by Jerry, not counting however many Johnny managed to blow to hell or whatever version of it the things had. It was for that reason that the five special forces soldiers managed to race across the thirty yards of open port hangar floor to reach the small command facility building set square in the center of the large space. No further shots came, and within seconds Johnny was fiddling with the controls.

“C’mon!” Lewie shouted, looking around nervously, his two Colt .45s held up and at the ready.

“Blow it!” Jerry shouted a second later.

“We need this building secure,” Paul said calmly, giving the two men an even look.

“Got it!” Johnny said a moment later, and there was an audible click, hiss of air, and then the door opened. The men rushed inside.

~~~

“They’re in!” Eddie shouted, clapping his hands together. He and the other main scientists, engineers and astronauts of the FAT Team were still in the helicopter, which was still just sitting out in the open.

“They’ll have it secure in a minute, two at the most,” Stan said, his eyes sparkling with a mischievous from under that large mustache.

Ronnie smiled at him. “Then let’s get to work.”

The men bolted from the helicopter and out toward the three lines of parked UFO fighter craft on the other side of the hangar.

“No…hey…shit!” Stu said from his spot in the helicopter, then held up his hand to stop Eddie from trying to rush after them. “No, let them go – they know what they’re doing…I hope.”

~~~

“What the hell is all this?” Lewie said once they were inside the command center.

“Never seen a computer before?” Paul smiled at him, what Lewie figured was the closest he’d ever come to a laugh.

“No, er…yes, er…you know!”

“These are complex systems, devised to keep unwanteds out and the better-not-seens in,” Aaron said as he huddled up to one control console and began looking at numbers and dials and knobs and readouts.