The Synchronicity War Part 4 (21 page)

Shiloh made his decision.

"Gunslinger, do NOT, I repeat do NOT
ram enemy ships or craft. Order your boys to jump away and head for Site B.
Protecting the timeship is now your number one priority. Don't take time to
acknowledge the order. Jump NOW...and thank you."

All the remaining fighters had jumped away
before he said the thank you. With no time to even think about Gunslinger's
speculation, Shiloh ran over to the Orbital Defense Weapons console.

"Why aren't we targeting their landing
ships?" he asked the tense officer manning the station.

"They haven't launched any yet,
Admiral!"

A look at the display confirmed that
statement. Shiloh was just about to say something when the officer said,
"My God, we're losing the X-rays! They must be firing on them!"

Of course! With the fighters now gone, the
motherships had switched their powerful lasers to anything in Earth orbit that
could possibly be a threat. There was no way they were doing this out of
instinct. Whatever was controlling the bug soldiers was highly intelligent and
understood military tactics.

"Target their laser batteries and fire
our X-rays while we still have some left!" yelled Shiloh.

The officer manipulated his controls and
within seconds all 155 laser drones had either detonated or been destroyed.
With the defensive drones now gone, enemy laser fire switched to other orbiting
targets, including the recon satellites that were the Ops Center's eyes. Shiloh
wasn't able to tell if some of the bug laser batteries had been knocked out. It
didn't matter. The display went blank alarmingly quickly. The noise level in
the room exploded as the men and women manning their stations gave voice to
their surprise and shock.

"QUIET!" yelled Shiloh. Everyone
shut up and looked at him.

"Com Center! This is CSO Shiloh! Can
you hear me?"

"Com Center here, Sir!" The voice
was ragged with fear and shock.

"Send out a planet-wide alert.
Invasion is imminent! Defense Ops is off line. Local defenses are to revert
back to local command. Repeat that back to me!" When the Com Officer
repeated it back correctly, Shiloh continued. "Good, now connect me with
the senior Marine Officer in the building, and do it fast, son."

"Major Symons here, Admiral. What do
you need?"

"Are you aware of the situation,
Major?"

"Yes, Sir. My people are suiting up as
we speak."

"Have you got a spare set of combat
armor and weapons for me, Major?"

"I'll make sure we find you a set,
Sir!"

"Very good. I'll be down to the Armory
shortly. Once your people are ready to go, make sure that the rest of the HQ
staff have access to the Armory. I want everyone with a weapon to get out there
and fight, even if it's just with a pistol. Shiloh clear."

Turning to the Ops staff, he said in a loud
voice. "We're going to the Armory to get weapons. Once you're armed, you
can leave the building if you have a family to protect. The rest of you will
stand a better chance if you join with me and the Marines. Let's go!"

With the Ops Center staff following him as
he made his way to the Armory, other HQ personnel noticed him and joined the
group. By the time Shiloh got to the Armory, he had almost a hundred people
with him. Major Symons led him to a room with various kinds of military gear.
On a table was a set of combat armor. The lightweight, bulletproof panels had
to be strapped on one piece at a time. An experienced marine could do it
himself, but Symons knew that time was of the essence and offered to help
Shiloh. Shiloh checked the time. Five minutes since the bug motherships emerged
from Jumpspace. It would take their landing craft a minimum of 20 minutes to
traverse the gravity zone and reach Earth orbit. As Symons helped him with the
armor, Shiloh explained very briefly what had already happened and what he
expected would happen.

When the armor was on, Shiloh looked at
himself in the mirror. He had never worn combat armor before and wanted to get
a better idea of the kind of protection he had. His torso, front and back, was
covered, as were the exposed portions of his arms, thighs and lower legs.
Marines also wore armored boots, but they were heavy and took time to put on.
He decided to stick with his Space Force issue boots. Symons handed him a
combat helmet with built in radio.

"My platoon and I have never served in
the field under an Admiral before, Sir," said Symons.

Shiloh looked at him and shook his head.
"I'm not taking command of your unit, Major. I know fuck all about ground
combat, especially the kind of urban warfare that we're going to be fighting in
a few minutes. Forget my rank. You're the closest thing to an expert we have
here. I'll be taking your orders. Got it?"

"I think that's a wise decision, but I
wasn't going to suggest it, Sir. Can I quickly ask what kind of opposition
we'll be facing?"

"They resemble army ants that are
waist high and three meters long. They move fast, and there'll be a lot of
them."

When Symons realized that Shiloh wasn't
joking, he said, "Sonofabitch!" After a quick pause he asked,
"What do you think our chances are, Sir?"

"Of winning? Zero." The stunned
look on Symons face prompted Shiloh to continue. "You're wondering why we
don't surrender, right?" Symons nodded. "Because the choice is not
life or death. Prisoners won't live long, and they'll die horribly. If I'm
going to die today, I'd rather die trying to take as many of these monsters
with me as I can. That's the only choice any of us have now. Time is flying,
Major. Give me a weapon and let's get out there."

Symons looked around and grabbed what
Shiloh recognized as an assault rifle that fired exploding bullets. When he
turned to hand it to Shiloh, he saw that Shiloh was looking in another
direction.

"What's that, Major?" asked
Shiloh pointing to the object.

"That? You don't want that, Sir.
That's a flamethrower. You could easily end up burning yourself to a
crisp."

Shiloh heard a tiny voice at the back of
his mind say 'take it'.

"I'm taking that instead of the rifle.
Help me get it on." Symons helped him get it on and showed him how to
operate it. The weight felt good, but Shiloh realized that he wasn't going to
be running anywhere very fast. As the Major led him back out of the Armory,
Shiloh saw that all of the Space Force people now had some kind of gun. When
they saw him with his combat armor and flamethrower, most of them looked frightened,
as if they were only now realizing what they were getting into. The reaction of
the marines when they saw him was quite different. They smiled, nodded and
voiced their approval.

Shiloh heard one female marine say to
another, "A Space Force Admiral with a flamethrower? You can't get much
more badass than that!" Shiloh couldn't help wondering if he was giving
off some kind of glow. If the situation hadn't been so desperate, he would have
laughed.

Symons quickly took charge and led the way
to the main entrance. When they were outside, Shiloh looked at Symons, who was
standing several meters away, and was surprised to see the Major looking
directly back at him. Symons pointed to his combat helmet. Before Shiloh could
react, he felt someone touching his helmet, and suddenly the radio came to
life.

"—radio's not switched on."

"It is now," said Shiloh.

"Good. My gut says we should try to
find as much cover as possible so that we don't get caught out in the open. Do
you agree, Sir?" asked Symons.

"I very definitely agree, and forget
the 'Sir'. Call me Shiloh, Major."

"Roger that, Shiloh. Okay, everyone.
We stay close to buildings, and if possible keep something over our heads.
Don't bunch up. Somebody with a radio tell the Space Force people what we're
doing." 

They didn't have to go far to find a part
of the Space Force HQ building that had an overhang. Around the corner of the
building, across the street, was an open area with trees and grass.
Big
enough for a couple of their landing craft to set down,
thought Shiloh. The
Bugs had the same thought.

Within minutes, Shiloh saw two specks that
rapidly grew in size and kept growing and growing. By the time they touched
down, one was behind the other, and each one covered the park from one side to
the other.
God those things are big!
Huge sections of the hull in the
nose swung up, and the bug swarm emerged. Shiloh knew what to expect, but he
was still shocked by their size and speed. They would cover the intervening
distance in a matter of seconds.  Most but not all of his Space Force people
turned and ran in panic. He couldn't really blame them. To his surprise, a few
of the marines ran as well.

"PICK YOUR SPOT AND OPEN FIRE!"
yelled Symons over the radio.

The marines behind Shiloh ran past him and
crouched down in front of a low concrete wall they could fire over. Shiloh
looked around and saw a concrete pillar a few meters away. He needed to stand
in order to use the flamethrower. He ran as fast as he could over to the pillar
and used it to prevent the Bugs from seeing him. Looking around the pillar he
saw Symons firing his weapon just before his head exploded. Some of the other
marines were down as well. The Bugs were only a few meters away now. Shiloh
checked to make sure his flamethrower safety was off, flipped his face shield
down to protect his face from the heat and stepped out from behind the pillar.
Raising the nozzle he pulled the trigger and two jets of liquid shot out at
high speed. When the liquids came in contact with each other, they burst into
flame. Shiloh couldn't believe how hot it felt. He heard the hissing sound of
the liquids emerging from the nozzle, and then he heard another sound that was
rapidly growing louder. It was so high pitched that it hurt his ears. Suddenly
he knew what it was. The burning Bugs were screaming. His hands felt like they
were on fire too, but he held the trigger down and moved the nozzle back and
forth.

Suddenly a truck hit him. At least that's
what it felt like. He was on his back with the wind knocked out of him. As he
tried to inhale, he felt a sharp pain in his chest that was very quickly
threatening to become unbearable. Whatever had hit him had also dislodged the
nozzle from his hands. That meant the nozzle was no longer firing flaming liquids,
which meant there was no longer an expanding funnel of flame blocking his view.
The Bugs were climbing over the concrete wall. All of the marines were dead or
dying now. With the pain in his chest preventing him from taking a breath, he
began to feel his vision fading. He was losing consciousness and just in time
too, because a drooling Bug was almost on top of him. He felt the blackness
embrace him and carry him away from the pain and horror.

                                                  
* * *

Kelly was concentrating on eating her meal
while she listened to the banter from several of her officers as they sat
together in the Officers' Mess. She smiled in all the right places but said
nothing. Her thoughts were of Victor, wondering if he was still alive. The
fleet was receiving periodic data updates via a chain of carefully placed
message drones that would not give away the fleet's position, but two-way
communication was not possible. The distance between them was just too large.

"Vixen to Fleet Commander."

Without any warning, the voice coming from
her implant made her jump, which caught the attention of those around her.

"Go ahead, Bridge," she said.

Now the others stopped talking too.

"Long range sensors have picked up a
spike in radiation and EM band emissions coming from the general vicinity of
Earth. The intensity would correspond to the simultaneous detonation of all 15
Mark 6 warheads, Admiral. I think we should assume that the Insectoids have
arrived and that they're causing the warheads to detonate prematurely. That's
the only theory that would explain all 15 exploding at exactly the same
time."