Revolution of the Gods: The Battle for Sol Book Two (3 page)

When Osborne stepped out of the elevator he was no longer wearing his NAU uniform. It had been replaced with a black armored tactical suit. Some of the command level soldiers, quickly recognizing him as the colonel, passively watched Osborne walk to Bracken’s office without discerning him as a threat.

As Bracken pulled up the incoming message, the screen displayed a live feed of Dr. Leroux’s lab with the hostages positioned near an explosive device. The general was filled with simultaneous fear and rage when he heard the knock at his door.

“I suggest we sit down and discuss the relinquishment of your command,” Osborne said as he locked the door behind him and drew his weapon on Bracken.

“What the fuck Osborne?” Bracken barked, realizing Osborne had taken his family hostage.

“As I said, sit down! Your efforts to protect your family by bringing them here to Dugway made it that much easier to exploit your weakness. Your family will be safe as long as you do what you are told. Did you really think the C7 would let you retain provisional command of this facility without their personal oversight and ultimate control?”

General Bracken sat down as ordered, grabbing underneath the right arm pad of his desk chair and pressing an emergency command transfer button.

“Know this…command of Dugway has just been transferred to General Kirsch,” Bracken declared, initiating a protocol he had anticipated to use against Director Lindherst.

Colonel Osborne became visibly agitated with the maneuver and shot the general in his right bicep. Bracken recoiled forcefully backward in his chair, grabbing toward his wound. The colonel reached into a his vest pocket and removed what looked like a short silver pen.

“Bracken, it makes no difference to me if your family dies,” Osborne coldly revealed just before soldiers began beating on Bracken’s office door.

The colonel walked in front of Bracken’s desk and looked down at the general who was hunched over to his right, applying pressure to his arm.

“Tell them to go away, or that lab disappears,” Osborne warned as he held the detonator across the desk closer to Bracken’s face.

“Stand down!” Bracken yelled to the soldiers attempting to break through the door. “You will have to let me key in my clearance code to order a total force stand down,” he told Osborne.

Sitting down in front of Bracken, the colonel held the pistol steady on his wounded former commander as the general pulled himself back up to his desk.

“If you try anything, both you and your family are dead,” Osborne warned as the general painfully keyed in a series of numbers on his monitor.

“You may kill me you son of a bitch, but not my family!” Bracken spat, while completing the sequence to enable the laser positioned above Osborne’s head to fire.

The colonel sensed the activation of the weapon as he looked upward. As he returned his gaze back to Bracken, Osborne triggered the detonator just before the laser shot through the top of his head and came out the bottom of his jaw. His entire body shook violently with sparks flying out of the top of his skull.

That’s not supposed to happen,
Bracken thought, as he got to his feet and hurried around his desk to the view the smoldering corpse on the floor.

The general had imagined that his defense protocol would most likely be required for Director Lindherst, but it served its purpose brilliantly nonetheless. After grabbing the detonator, he looked down at Osborne’s exposed brain and noticed the nanotube circuits.

He’s a damned S1!

Bracken swiveled his desk viewer around to check the feed from Leroux’s lab. The bomb had exploded and everything in the lab was obscured by a thick gray smoke. “No! No! No!” the general cried out.

Barely interrupting Bracken’s reaction, the desk viewer flickered and Dr. Hauer’s image appeared.

“General Bracken, your family and Dr. Leroux are safe with me.”

“How?”

“I was coming to see Dr. Leroux’s laboratory here on Level 181 when I discovered she and your family were restrained inside. I established a force field between them and the explosive device utilizing the lab’s containment protocols. Here, let me switch to the lab camera,”
Hauer informed the relieved general, switching the view from his data pad to the lab camera view.

Cathy, his two boys, Dr. Leroux and Riggs were standing next to Hauer looking at the smoke roll and puff on the other side of the force field.

Thank God they are alive!

“Dr. Hauer, thank you,” the general imparted. “I will dispatch a squad to your location for increased protection and restrict all levels below 120. Colonel Osborne is dead. Turns out he was a SETH.”

“General I would like to return to my lab once your men get here. I suggest we perform an autopsy on Osborne. It may be possible to glean some valuable information,”
Hauer advised.

“Very well. I will have his body transported to your lab. Lindherst has suffered catastrophic losses on the surface and I anticipate this initial attack will wane very soon. Let my family know I will be down to see them once the surface is secured,” Bracken requested.

On the surface, Lindherst was watching his forces get torn apart by superior numbers of US aircraft and tanks when he made the decision to retreat to the Dulce underground facility. He ordered the four cruisers to swing wide of the battlefield and recalled his remaining Griffins and Condors to fly protection for the retreating convoy.

General Tucker ordered the US aircraft to stand down pursuit outside of the perimeter to prevent the loss of their full spectrum force capability. The general knew that his forces would be headed to Dulce soon enough.

After Lindherst’s retreat, Bracken and his inner circle were seated back in the conference room with the other RMC leaders on the main viewer. The general’s arm was bandaged and rested in a black sling.

“Men, as you may know Director Lindherst and the C7 attempted to commandeer the facility. We successfully repelled the assault, taking minimal overall damage. Although our force easily outnumbered the C7 in this engagement, such an advantage may not necessarily be the case moving forward. And we certainly have lost a certain degree of strategic advantage without the element of surprise.

“All of our facilities, bases and assets are to be put on highest alert. We are not changing our mobilization or assault schedules but I want you all to keep your people vigilant. A S1 infiltrated our base and ended up taking hostages during our confrontation. He apparently was a long term mole; observing us for more than a year most likely. Colonel Osborne was never privy to the details of Operation Goliath but we cannot discount the possibility he transmitted sensitive information to the C7,” Bracken warned.

C
adan had spent the better part of their trip explaining to Mykah how their fathers were direct descendants of the original Torahnossians and the details of the events that were currently unraveling. By the time they had reached the outskirts of San Bernardino, Mykah was briefed on the true nature of her mission and purpose in bringing the case to the facility at the Salton Sea. The Hopi Prophecy that Kele referenced before her departure was now understood in a different context by Mykah.

The Blue Star Prophecy is actually the appearance of the Kadingir wormhole!
She realized.

Taon had regained consciousness a few minutes earlier and learned that the two people in the front seats were ordered to protect him until they reach their destination. Cadan had also checked his communications, receiving another update regarding the Dugway battle and its outcome.

All three of them were now on the lookout for a place to get another vehicle. They exited off I-15 onto University Parkway
, scouting the parking lots for any feasible solution. The limousine ran out of gas in front of a large industrial park of shipping warehouses about a mile from the interstate. Cadan exited the passenger seat and looked around for any type of transportation. As he scanned the warehouses, he saw a door quickly close about 200 yards away.

“There…I saw someone go in that building,” Cadan said while pointing in the direction of the movement.

“Let’s check it out,” Mykah suggested as she put on her backpack.

“What is this place?” Taon asked as he climbed out of the back seat shirtless.

“It looks like some type of warehousing complex,” Mykah responded, looking over at Taon with her first unobstructed view. “I do not think you are dressed for the occasion,” she remarked.

“Here you go Taon.” Cadan removed his oversized flight jacket and handed it to Taon.

“Thank you.”

“Taon, do you remember Dr. Hauer?” Cadan inquired.

“Yes. But, I am not certain what happened to the doctor after I escaped,” Taon worried.

“Ironically, I believe he and General Bracken have been discussing how they can help each other in our cause. I believe Bracken may ---”

“I feel like I have a huge gap of my memory missing,” Taon interjected. “I am not clear about what you call our
cause
.”

“Once we get to the facility, all of your questions will be addressed. Your development and training will also resume and hopefully be completed,” Cadan revealed as they approached the door to the warehouse.

Mykah backed up to the outer wall of the warehouse and gently sidestepped over to the door handle. Cadan pulled out his weapon and aimed it as Mykah twisted the knob and flung open the door. Nothing happened and Cadan lowered his pistol.

They slowly entered the windowless warehouse with the door locking in the darkness behind them. The space was cold, dusty and completely black until Mykah’s light switched on and revealed a cavernous structure several hundred cubic yards in size.

“Do Not Move!” a deep voice ordered beyond the range of Mykah’s light.

“We are not here to harm anyone,” Mykah replied.

A circle of lights formed around the trio and began closing in on them. When they got close enough, the stranded travelers could see it was a group of men holding flashlights.

“Who are you?” a voice in the darkness asked.

“We are not with the NAU or C7,” Cadan informed the armed inquisitor. “We are just trying to get somewhere and our car stalled nearby,” he added, deciding truth would pay the higher dividend with this particular group. “I saw someone enter this building and we decided to see if we could get some assistance.”

“Assistance?” a man laughed loudly with the others joining him. “You are lucky that you are not dead right now. Why should we assist you?”

“Our mission is in the interest of anyone that opposes the C7,” Cadan responded with a hunch.

“How so?”

“It would be foolish of me to discuss such a topic at the barrel of a gun,” Cadan asserted, hoping that his suspicion was correct about this group being part of the underground movement against the NAU.

The man shined his light one more time at Mykah and Taon, then back to Cadan.

“Follow me,” he said, turning around and heading toward the center of the warehouse.

After walking about 300 yards in the dark, the group came to a halt and one of the men activated two large doors in the floor. The heavy metal doors folded open, exposing a wide staircase descending one level. They walked down into the former engineering bay which had been converted to a small underground base, housing approximately fifty people.

The apparent leader of the group stopped at what looked like a small command area, turned around and extended his hand to Cadan.

“My name is Jael Davenport,” he disclosed. “If you oppose the NAU and the C7, then you are in good company. Have a seat.”

Stepping into the light and removing his hat exposed Jael as a tall, broad shouldered man with wide eyes the color of varnished wood. His long, wavy brown hair was worn in a ponytail, fully exposing his well-trimmed beard and moustache. Jael’s rough tan complexion extended to his domed forehead giving him the appearance of a man older than his thirty-eight years.

“My name is Cadan, this is Mykah and Taon.”

“And you say your mission is in opposition to the NAU?”

“That is correct,” Cadan responded.

After carefully examining the bottom half of Cadan’s flight suit and his pistol, Jael decided he believed the visitors’ story.

“So where are you people headed?” he asked.

“About eighty miles south of here. Do you think you can help us find a ride?”

“Hold on a sec,” Jael said as he gestured one of his men to come closer, whispered in his ear, and received his acknowledgement. “I can have a working car here in a few minutes. But tell me Cadan, why should I offer you such a valued asset?”

After Cadan whispered something to him, Jael looked over at Mykah and Taon.

“Fortunately we have an infirmary that is unoccupied at the moment. If you two want to get some rest on clean sheets you are welcome to do so,” Jael suggested, pointing in its direction.

Using the half hour Mykah and Taon were away, Cadan made a good friend in Jael, giving him information that served to provide new hope for his group and the thousands like them. He let Jael know that the Residential Occupation Centers were about to be disbanded. Although this was only the tiniest slice of what Cadan knew of the coming events, it served to be sufficiently abundant for Jael.

“Cadan, we need to get back on track,” Mykah said as she and Taon arrived back from their brief respite.

“The car is outside,” Jael declared. “Follow me.”

The four of them exited the lower level with two of Jael’s men leading the way.

“Tomorrow may be a great day,” Jael supposed after a couple of minutes of walking, reflecting on Cadan’s disclosure.

“Tomorrow will certainly be a day that everything changes,” Cadan declared.

When they arrived at the door, one of Jael’s men tactfully opened it, pointing his thermal-scoped weapon outside to check the area. The man jerked back and signaled them that is was clear. They all exited single file from the warehouse with Jael’s men in the lead, staying close to the wall and heading back to University Parkway.