Overrun: Project Hideaway Read online

  Not even a third of the Bullet fleet had reached the safety zone. Many of those that had were obliterated by the weapons assault. Large areas of flame and shredded debris throughout the zone and directly in front of the open landing bay further impeded their way in. The deadly J.G.U. dome-killer transports followed closely behind. Their massive weaponry tore up the earth behind them.

  A few transports at the front of the assault were within a mile or two of the safety zone. Two of them rotated back around away from the dome and picked off the Bullet vehicles trying to race past.

  More Bullets appeared from the night behind the fire and smoke of the waging battle. Their engines screamed as they raced in between the mammoth transports trying desperately to reach the safety zone before the Death Wall was launched.

  "Bay Guard! Bay Guard!" Watch Tower yelled over his comlink to the landing bay crew more than thirty floors below. “Be advised. Those transports are right behind them. Prepare to slam the doors. There’s no more time!"

  * * *

  Bay Guard stared out at the first Bullet racer charging in. A large hiccup of air bellowed from the harnessing mechanism as it dropped across it and snatched it in one controlled motion into the air. The engine continued to rev with a loud high whine, and its wheels spun wildly as the machine carried it out of the way down the landing bay.

  Two more Bullets were nearly to the landing bay entrance. A missile whine followed by an explosion pounded the ground just outside the massive doors.

  "Roger that Watch Tower. We got 'em. They’re just starting to come in!” Bay Guard bellowed into his comlink through the exploding din.

  * * *

  "No, you don't got 'em." Watch Tower dropped his glasses to his chest and screamed into the communications link to the landing bay. "Those transports are ahead of some of the team! They're going to be shooting right fucking inside the longer you keep those doors open to let what’s left of ‘em in!”

  Red streaks of light sailed from two of the transports as Watch Tower shrieked. Fragments of three Bullet vehicles exploded into the air. Additional fiery missile streaks soon followed sailing over the fleeing land vehicles directly towards the dome’s outer walls. Watch Tower leaned against the observation rail and trained his glasses on what was happening on the ground almost directly under him.

  "Everybody hang the fuck on!" he screamed as the first deadly blow struck.

  The rockets pummeled the side of Dome 15 three hundred feet from the landing bay doors. Their impact reverberated throughout the entire structure and threw everyone on the observation platform hard to the deck. On the ground, a huge hole gaped open like a gunshot wound in the dome’s outer wall near the bay door. Fiery shrapnel from the blast incinerated two more racers, one of which was almost through the landing bay doors.

  * * *

  "Bay Guard! Bay Guard! Are you still with us?" he heard Watch Tower’s voice over the loud ringing in his head. He felt a drop of sweat or blood fall from the tip of his ear and slide down the back of his neck.

  "Roger that Watch Tower. Bays 3 and 6 are down. We're not going to be able to open those up again. Bay 15 is destroyed. But we still got some room and the door is still open. We can see them coming now."

  * * *

  Watch Tower picked up his extended range glasses and pointed them back towards the battlefield. Through the fires and mountains of dark smoke, he watched the land fleet race towards the landing bay. The J.G.U. transports chased close behind them spitting cannon fire and releasing hundreds of rockets with red flaming tails to further brighten the battle-plagued night.

  Watch Tower lowered his glasses one last time and pulled his wrist back to his face. “You guys are really going to have to hurry,” he said softly into his transmitter.

  Even from his perch high atop the observation post, he could still hear the tortured screams of the Bullet engines.

  Some exploded. Others stopped still as their pilots revved them past their limits trying to outrun the chasing transports and reach the safety zone before the Death Wall was lit.

  "Son, are you ready?" Watch Tower screamed behind him.

  "Death Wall ignition ready at your command, sir," the young sentry’s voice cracked.

  "Bay Guard! Bay Guard! How many do you have?"

  "None alive, Watch Tower. Repeat. None secured alive. Rocket fire tearing them apart before reaching the bay. We've still got a few more in sight. They're coming in fast. We're firing everything we’ve got to give them some cover. "

  "They’re not coming in fast enough!" Watch Tower screamed. "Get ready to close those fucking doors!"

  Through the smoke and fire, he could only see five or six Bullets within the safety zone and twenty of the dome-killers transports gaining ground behind. And then from somewhere behind the harsh flicker of the raging flames, another fifteen Bullets streaked into view racing for the landing bay. Watch Tower could hear the strained scream of their engines even above the sound of the blasts.

  Smaller J.G.U. vehicles also appeared from the darkness alongside the larger transports. Large bursts of cannon fire roared from their sides chasing the Bullet team further from the night.

  "Wall ignition in ten seconds," Watch Tower spoke quietly into his wrist.

  Very few of the land fleet had reached the protective zone which would offer them harbor from the blast. The dome-killer transports trailed doggedly behind the ones that had managed to make it close.

  "Land team acknowledge," Bullet Leader's voice came back. "Transports close to breaching the perimeter…" A loud burst of static temporarily drowned out his voice. "…don’t wait for us to get in…ignite when ready…"

  "Five seconds," one of the observation sentries said quietly next to Watch Tower. Two others lowered their glasses and turned away.

  And then what he saw next made his heart almost stop and his blood run cold.

  "Oh, sweet mother of God," Watch Tower said lowering his glasses and grabbing his comlink.

  "How many you got? Say again! How many...!"

  "Only five harbored!" Bay Tower's shrieking voice pierced through the crackling comlink. "We've only got five! More than fifteen in sight, Watch Tower! They're almost here!"

  "Soldier, stand by!" Watch Tower barked over his shoulder. The three young tower guards sat tautly behind him at the controls awaiting the final order to launch.

  Below, five of the killer transports pivoted to their sides and dropped their panels revealing an arsenal of large rockets leveled straight at the dome.

  "There's no more time! Light it!" Watch Tower screamed. The hands of the tower guards flew across the controls.

  Only a handful of the vehicles had reached the twenty-mile boundary guarding the outside of the dome. Some entered the zone riding the red tails of fired rockets and exploded into flames once within.

  "They're not in!" Bay Guard's voice screamed through the comlink. "We've only got a..."

  "Close the doors! Close them now!" Watch Tower's voice bellowed.

  "They're out there! They’re coming!” Bay Guard screamed back. “They’re right fucking here. We’ve almost got em’! We can’t close them now…..!"

  "Close those bay doors, or we're all going to fucking die!"

  As if in slow motion, trails of red fire began to detach themselves from the sides of the J.G.U. transports and streak over the speeding Bullet team.

  “Ignite on this mark,” Watch Tower whispered into the comlink and then dropped his wrist. “Ignition now. Burn the fucking thing.” When the final command left his lips, he lowered his glasses and closed his eyes.

  He wondered briefly if the doors had even been sealed. Regardless, the guard crew was most likely dead. Even if they had sealed the doors, the concussion shields most likely wouldn’t have dropped in time. They were probably all incinerated in one fiery instant.

  Watch Tower knew it was too late to wonder about that now. Following his command, as if God was standing at his side, the darkness of the wounded night seared with a brilli
ant light.

  The initial blast rocked the observation platform and threw everyone down hard to the deck. Watch Tower pulled himself from the tangle of fallen bodies and leaned against the rails.

  With more megatons than previous world armies combined, he watched the shield of fire erupt from the detonation of special large-scale missile explosives embedded deep within the earth almost twenty miles away.

  A massive thermonuclear blast designed to blast up and explode out, the Death Wall threw a mammoth shield of white flames away from Science Dome 15 towards the small town of Beuford.

  Towering walls of ferocious fire licked into the sky and blasted a deadly apocalyptic ring around and away from the dome. Its destructive force enveloped everything not within the twenty-mile safety zone.

  A fast moving inferno thundered across the J.G.U. transports and then swept further out incinerating as much as the eye could see. In an instant, much of the town of Beuford and the land before it erupted into a fireball. The heat seared at Watch Tower's eyes and pounded hard across his chest.

  Massive roaring flames tore through the dome-killer transports and consumed the straggling members of the Bullet land fleet. The few Bullet vehicles that had crossed into the zone were tossed into the air by the force of the blast and thrown towards the base of Science Dome 15. Their small frames crashed end-over-end along the ground. Many exploded. Others lay smoking and still.

  The hungry fires of the Death Wall devoured the advancing J.G.U. convoy lying in its path while leaving the dome undamaged in its protective wake.

  In an instant, the ten or more transports that had almost breached the safe zone were gone.

  But the Death Wall’s awesome might was not able to stop the rockets that had already been launched. Many had long since streaked past the safety zone perimeter an instant before it was lit.

  More than thirty rockets ripped into the walls of Dome 15 tearing gaping flaming wounds into its massive structure. Beams collapsed and metal twisted in on itself. Glass exploded and fell through the air like rain. Screams and the sounds of death tore across the complex.

  Two missiles found their marks near the base of the observation deck. Their impact and detonation created a fireball of destruction that spit shards of rubble and debris into the air. Small pieces of twisted metal sailed across the observation platform embedding themselves into the flesh of the tower guards. Their bodies tumbled down hard around Watch Tower's feet turning his ankles and knocking him to the ground on top of them.

  "Bay Guard! Bay Guard!" Watch Tower screamed as he struggled to stand. He slid away from the bodies of the men who had just lit the Death Wall and now sprawled motionless across the deck of the destroyed observation post. “Bay Guard are you still there?!”

  The body of one of the sentries pinned his leg against a tangled beam preventing him from standing completely up. When he was finally able to pull away, the searing heat from the roaring Death Wall kept him from raising his head over the observation rail and looking below. "Tell me you’re there! And what do you got?"

  "We’re here…," came the sullen reply. "We got a few, Watch Tower. Had to close on some that weren't in yet. They impacted against the doors. The shield drop crushed a few more. But, we got a few."

  Watch Tower glanced down briefly at the bodies of his own dead crew and then quickly turned away.

  "Roger that, Bay Guard," he said and switched off his comlink.

  Watch Tower hooked his arms again on the observation rail and struggled to pull himself up. Resting his weight on wounded feet, he trained his glasses across the flaming carnage below. Through the disarray and confusion on the ground's surface, a large movement caught his eye through the thick smoke. His hands shook as he adjusted the glasses for a better look.

  Many of the massive dome-killer superstructures were intact and still moved on the ground after the blast. They continued to push steadily through the roaring flames towards the flaming dome.

  Watch Tower stared in horror at the sight. More than fifty dome-killer transports lunged through the fiery aftermath of the Death Wall pushing past the safety zone perimeter. As if coming from Hell itself, they appeared from the deepest parts of the monstrous flames that consumed the surrounding land for as far as the eye could see.

  The massive structures moved quickly and steadily before slowing to a stop a few hundred yards from the dome’s base.

  Watch Tower knew then that the end for both himself and Science Dome 15 had finally come.

  The transports lined up along the damaged dome lumbering mercilessly across the wreckage of those already destroyed by the battle. The scorched metal of exploded transports and flaming ruins of the doomed Bullet land fleet were ground into the earth beneath their wheels. Several more of the structures appeared from behind lining up next to them and dropping their panels to their sides. Thousands of rockets extended from their interiors into the blasting heat of the outside.

  As one they launched. Their destructive force thundered without mercy into the sides of the dome.

  The blast ripped the observation platform from its base and lifted it in a fiery oblivion towards the sky.

  By this time, Watch Tower was already gone. His body, long since crushed by raining debris, laid still with the rest of his observation crew. In another quick instant, they were all lifted by the flaming destruction into the battle-ruined sky.

  Wind scattered what remained of the observation post across the advancing forces of the J.G.U. ground team. Steam rose from the pieces of jagged metal that fell from the night and pierced the ground.

  The dome-killer transports kept rolling relentlessly forward over the shredded flaming battlefield.

  Their guns and rockets continued to fire. Their ferocious and brutal advance did not cease.

  Chapter 2

  Ten minutes prior to Death Wall ignition

  Science Dome 15 Command Center, Meeting Room 26

  "Veer left! Veer left, Ground 2!"

  A trail of fire blazed after two Bullet land fleet vehicles racing back towards Science Dome 15. A giant burst of flame gouged a hole twice the size of the two vehicles combined deep into the ground beneath the rear of the one furthest from the landing bay. The blast rocketed its frame into the air and hungry flames devoured it before it hit the ground. The fiery debris rained across the path of the lead Bullet causing its pilot to swerve into the path of another J.G.U. rocket that ripped it into nothingness.

  The steel from the exploding vehicle seemed to shriek briefly before shredding into oblivion, and then no further sound came from the battle monitor.

  "As everyone has been notified, the security of Dome 15 has been compromised," the tall figure of Lt. Commander Dome Leader Steven Corrado loomed ominously at the head of the large meeting table. Taking a half step to his right, his large frame blocked the large holovid screen displaying the battle being waged outside on the sun-battered terrain.

  "A defense land fleet has been dispatched and are heavily engaged. They are only a few miles out." Corrado hit a button on the panel to his left raising the lights across the meeting room slightly. "We are here to address rumors and discuss possible scenarios and solutions as they relate to this dome attack and the security of Mission Hideaway."

  A series of explosions flashed across the holovid causing the dozen or so gathered members of the Hideaway science team to glance away from Corrado back at the screen. Two more of the Bullet land fleet burst into flames and were gone. Their fiery destruction jabbed bright light across the still dimly lit room. A thin cloud of smoke hovered in the air from cigarettes clutched tightly in the nervous fingers of many of the people sitting around the table.

  "How far away are they?" Dr. Katie Rone, head of the Hideaway Pilot Research Program, questioned the speaker.

  "The command to light the Death Wall was given about five minutes ago," Lt. Commander Corrado answered her. "They're very close. And as I know I needn't remind anyone, the Death Wall has always been considered a last resort."
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  The room fell deathly silent. Only a soft sound of explosions from the monitor and the quiet sucking from deep drags on cigarettes could be heard.

  "Do we wake them up?" Corrado questioned the group. "This is one of the most difficult decisions this facility has ever faced. I know that. But people…, we have to decide this fast."

  "Of course we wake them up," Rone answered him. "If the Death Wall is the last resort, then we have to bring them down to Earth. Right now. While we have time."

  "There is no time," Dr. Robert Kobus, a member of her personal research team and the man seated directly to her left, answered curtly. “This decision should have been made many days ago. It should have been made when we first heard we were going to war. But now, the war has all too quickly come to us.”

  Rone tried, as she always did, to control the red-hot poker-through-the-eye emotion she always felt when discussing anything with her colleague, Kobus. She had always considered him a bickering and argumentative man since the day he had come to work for her. He was someone that she had never really liked very much and each day wished would leave the research team. Their views on how to interpret the Hideaway crew never seemed to coincide.

  But the focus of their research was by far too intriguing for either of them to ever leave the team.

  The ship was sent up into space loaded with some of the most prized technology ever created on the planet. Updates and supplemental data resources for this technological equipment was uploaded from Science Dome 15 on a continuous daily basis to the ship’s vast array of storage equipment.

  The two pilots had rocketed a secret course away from Earth with orders to conceal the ship. Simply keep it hidden from anyone that wasn’t directly linked to the science dome. Once safely away, the pilots found a dark remote region on the far side of the moon away from the furthest reaches of any detection system on the planet. There, they set an automated stationary course and put themselves into an extended period of suspended animation.

  Their mission was to wait. Wait until sometime called upon.