26 – CENTERPOINT CITY
The sun had not yet gotten over the western mountain when it came time for the members of Green Base to awaken. At 0800 hours precisely, everyone gathered in the radio room to prepare to go to Command. Nome was put to the task of radioing Green Command, since no one knew if the personnel at Command were yet over hearing how Skope had been sniped in the ass, and if they weren't then Skope would only be derided again if he was the one calling them up. A possibility the sniper was very vocal about avoiding.
The medic dialed in the correct number into the transceiver and was greeted with a slightly updated version of the voice recorded greeting from the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
"Hello, and welcome to the Green Command Hotline," a stylish voice poured out of the radio's speakers. Nome, always considerate, had set the radio to full broadcast so the whole group could hear. "This channel is for Green Army personnel only, so if you are from any other Army then please get off immediately. Also, I am a voice recording, so please refrain from responding until you have been connected with someone who is not a voice recording. Assuming you really are from the Green Army and not an enemy who has somehow managed to tune into this frequency, I thank you for using this hotline. You will now be connected with someone who is a real person."
After five more minutes of waiting through easy-listening fiesta muzak, someone on Command's end of the line finally picked up. Judging by the tone of his voice, he'd probably had several cups of coffee or an adrenaline injection. "Hello, this is Green Command. How may I assist you?"
Nome responded: "Greetings, fellow Green. This is the base in the south of Sector 18-Alpha. We have gathered valuable information that concerns the entire war and must come to Command to tell the Grand General about it immediately."
The person on the other end countered: "Whoa, slow down there, dude. First of all, 'fellow Green'? I'm not Marvin the Martian, bro. And second of all, the Grand General is the leader of our Army. Y'know, 'cause he's the Grand Fucking General? He doesn't speak to just anyone. You gotta, like, make an appointment or something. Cause he's busy leading us. And stuff."
"I understand, but we have information that greatly impacts the war at large," Nome stated. "It is imperative that we speak to him as soon as possible."
"About what?"
Nome paused, checking to see if the signal was secure. It was, and encrypted with Jess's personalized scrambler.
"Firstly, that at least three armies that were believed dead have returned. Secondly, that we have been to another universe and have recently returned from it. And thirdly, that we have in our possession a giant bomb that is capable of destroying at least all of the Halothrii Wilderness, if not much more. Is that enough reason for him to speak to us?"
"Uh, let me check. You got a name?"
"Yes. Medic First Class Nome Achentau-"
"Never mind, the computer just spat it out. Hold on a sec."
There was a long silence on the other end. Over the link, the sounds of hurried conversation and running feet could be heard. Eventually the words "Please hold" came through. This was followed by about seven minutes more of music, this time polka, which Kenny started to dance too until Skope smacked him upside the head.. At that point the person on the other end picked up again.
"Hey dues, I just spoke to the Grand General," he informed the Greens, sounding no less excited. "The Grand Fucking General! For real! Now, I don't know what the flying fuck you're talking about, or who you are, but apparently he does, because he really wants to see you guys. Hang on while I fire up the teleporter link so you can come on over. Have a safe trip. Over and out."
Nome pressed the button to shutdown the transceiver. "I believe that conversation went well, all things considered.
"So then, where exactly is our base's teleporter?" Kenny asked. "I didn't even know we had one."
"I believe Jess can be of assistance here." He nodded to the communications expert, who returned it. She tapped a few keys at a console, and a hidden wall compartment slid down to reveal a teleporter node, which activated seconds later.
"Here," Jess said as she pointed to the node. "We keep it secret for in case the base is taken. Can't have the enemy gaining access to Centerpoint City."
"Centerpoint City?" Kenny asked, mystified.
"It's the city where our central command is," said Skope. "That's why it's called Centerpoint City, because it's the center of all our operations. That, or someone read the Corellian Trilogy."
"It's located just outside the Wilderness, and is probably the last remaining true city on the planet, since nearly all others were wiped out during the war." Jess added in, quickly interrupting Skope's intended Star Wars rant. "None of the other armies have any idea of its existence, and that's the way we have to keep it secret."
"I see," said Kenny. "That makes sense."
Nome motioned to the teleporter. "Well, shall we?"
Skope did one final check outside to make sure that the audio recording for "Spiked Kittens" was still playing to keep Happy under control, then followed the others as they stepped through the activated teleporter. Master Chief shot past him just before he went through himself. Apparently the floating orb wanted to see Centerpoint City as well. That, or he didn't particularly like the idea of being stuck in the base with Happy outside.
There was a brilliant flash, and the Greens found themselves in a hilly area covered with trees, which looked to be in the trough of a shallow ravine. A river ran down the approximate center of the ravine, curving and twisting in a natural way, and everyone fell in step behind Nome as he followed it.
"Uh, guys, are we in the right place?" Kenny asked, looking around.
"Yup," said Skope. He wondered if the weapons specialist could possibly make any more obvious the fact that he was the only one of the four of them who hadn't been to Centerpoint City yet.
"This is Centerpoint City?" Kenny asked as they walked. "Are you sure? This doesn't look like a city."
Nome shook his head. "We are in the right place, but this is not the city." Before the medic said anything else, they came to an awesome sight which explained everything.
The ground dropped away to reveal a sea, and in the distance was a grand spectacle. A durasteel city rose from the water on a great cylindrical pedestal supported by huge rods that stuck out into the hills surrounding it. Massive towers carried the top of the city even higher. If there ever were buildings that deserved the title of "skyscraper", they would be them. Height included, the city looked as though it might be larger than the Wilderness itself. A fitting location for the center of operations for the Green Army, certainly, for they could see dozens of monorail cars carry personnel back on forth from the city over the water via the metal supports.
"That is Centerpoint City," said Nome.
Kenny was still gawking at the sight.
"We have all teleporters take us just outside the city," Jess explained. "That way, if any enemy does gain access to the teleporters, the city can still be defended because we can secure a perimeter. The only way in and out are those monorails and by air."
Skope opened up his tacpad and hit a key. In the distance, a monorail car began making its way towards them from the city. "I always enjoy the rides to and from the city," he told the others. "The sights can't be beat."
Kenny was still gawking at the city. Master Chief was staring at it as well, though the orb seemed surprised for some reason, because it kept looking back and forth between the forest and the city.
The monorail soon arrived at a terminal near the Greens. Kenny was forced to stop gawking (via a yank by Skope) so that he could get on the car with the other Greens and Master Chief.
"I can't wait to see this place," he exclaimed. "If it looks as good on the inside as it does on the outside then this is gonna be awesome!"
The monorail's doors closed, and the car began its journey back towards the city. As it pulled away from the ravine, the Greens could see that, indeed, the teleporters to the city actually surrounded it, because monorails were coming in from all compass directions. Jess had been correct that the teleporters were a "perimeter" around Centerpoint.
Then the monorail took them inside the city, and Kenny became slightly disappointed. Most of the structures in the city looked like office buildings, though impressively tall. Understandable, considering the amount of logistical work required to run an army as big as the Greens. But as they neared the center of the city it became apparent that something had gone wrong. Smoke and fire billowed from some places, and certain buildings had been partially destroyed. Centerpoint looked as though it had just been subject to an attack, but not from outside. Judging by the damage density, it looked like the attack had come from within the city's perimeter and expanded outward.
"What the heck happened?" Skope asked, voicing everyone else's thoughts. "Why does the center of the city look like it got blown up?"
"I hope this isn't what the Grand General wants to speak to us so adamantly about," Jess said nervously.
However, the monorail was taking them to the direct center of the city, where the destruction looked to be most concentrated. They were now near a couple of damaged buildings in what looked to be a construction yard. Bare soil made up the ground off of the road, and a crane was in the middle of putting some road sections on a ramp that had been destroyed. The repairs here had a long way to go, however, for a flaming Falcon was embedded in one of the buildings several stories from the ground and pieces of fallen stanchion were everywhere. Also, at some point a large transport ship had obviously taken fire over the site; a still-sputtering jet engine lay on the repair walkway just below the crashed Falcon. It was undoubtedly the most wrecked place in the whole city, yet apparently it was also where the Grand General was waiting for the Greens, as this was where the monorail lowered to the ground and opened its doors.
The Greens cautiously stepped out and into the road. On the road's northern side a pair of soldiers stood waiting, who walked over to them as soon as they exited the monorail car. "Are you the members of the Base in Sector 18-Alpha?" one of them asked.
Nome nodded. "Yes, that is correct."
"Good," the second soldier said. "The Grand General is waiting for you. Follow us."
The soldiers led the Greens into the structure nearest them, a twenty meter high building that looked in the best condition of all other buildings in the area. Metal posts lined the doors, installed recently by the looks of them, and a well lit lobby room with a large stairway that spanned most of the width of the entryway. A short climb later, and they had found the Grand General.
The Grand General was staring out through a doorway at the rest of the ruined buildings in the area. He turned when he heard the Greens approach, and the Greens were able to see his full armor.
Kenny would later refer to the Grand General's outfit as "kind of like a puffer fish". To say that he had large chest plates was an understatement. To say that he had a big helmet was also an understatement. His armor took up so much volume, in fact, that it could easily be described as a rather large, though admittedly badass and lethal looking, fat suit. The Grand General approached the Greens, who all snapped salutes.
"You must be the ones who've been to the other universe," he said to them.
The Greens looked back and forth among themselves, wondering how in the hell he could possibly know that.
"But forgive me, I've forgotten to introduce myself," the Grand General digressed. "I am Grand General Richard Face, Commander and Chief of the Green Army."
"We all know who you are, sir," replied Skope with as much honor as he could stuff into his tone. "Richard Face, also known as the 'Face' of the Green Army. It is an honor to meet you in person, sir." He reached out to shake the Grand General's hand, and he returned it.
"Wait, Richard Face?" Kenny interrupted. "If you substitute 'Dick', the short name for Richard, as the first name, then-"
"You should stop right there," the Grand General interrupted forcefully, turning to face Kenny. "I recently demoted my second in command to Junior Class Private for making that same distinction."
"Um, never mind then!" Kenny exclaimed. "I said…nothing. Absolutely nothing!"
"I thought so," said the Grand General. He then changed the tone of the conversation to a more urgent subject, and addressed all of the Greens. "Now then, I've heard that you've been to another universe. Is this correct?"
"It is indeed," said Nome. "But if I may ask, how do you know this, sir? We have not yet spoken of this at all, aside from what I told the operator when I requested our meeting. But you seem like you know more than just that."
"I do know much more. We have been aware of this other reality for some time," the Grand General replied. "In labs we've been able to capture brief split second glimpses of it. However, we've never been able to actually travel there…until you, apparently. How did you do it?"
Nome briefed the Grand General in detail about everything that had happened over the course of the last five days. When he mentioned the room in Red Base where they'd fought Steve and fallen into the abyss, the Grand General nodded, mentioning that he'd seen labs in the city set up in a similar fashion for the Green Army's own extrauniversal experiments.
Elaborating a little further than that, the Grand General said: "The Reds must have technology far better than ours, if they're actually able to open a stable portal to the other universe. We haven't been able to do that yet, and we need to know how they are. We need that tech for ourselves."
Nome continued telling the Grand General what had happened in the other universe, particularly about their discovery in the center of the Abyss of Absentmindedness that the Reds might once have been a tribe who lived there. But he also told of every other event as well, such as the tower with fusion coils and a speaker at the top, their encounter with Master Chief, and the circumstances under which they met Happy the Giant Bomb. The Grand General nodded with every sentence, taking everything in.
"So the bomb is back at your base," said the Grand General after Nome had finally finished. "Probably a good choice, if it's as powerful as you say. But where is this orb entity you call Master Chief?"
On cue, Master Chief floated down from the ceiling, where it had been watching the conversation from, in between gazing out at the city. It dropped right in front of the Grand General's face. In the blink of an eye ten assault rifles were pointing at it. The Greens jumped out of surprise at the ten soldiers who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The Grand General waved a hand at them, and they lowered their weapons went back into their places of hiding. "That was my Elite Guard," he explained. "I apologize. Any unexpected encounters must be taken care of, as standard procedure." He motioned to the orb. "And this must be Master Chief."
The orb nodded.
"Can it talk?" the Grand General asked.
"We do not believe so," Nome replied. "However, we have seen it levitate objects many orders of magnitude above its own mass, and even create just as massive objects seemingly out of thin air. I have seen it create blocks of all sizes, and even vehicles as heavy as Scorpion Class tanks. It was invaluable at defending us from the Reds during the battle at the center of the Abyss of Absentmindedness."
"I see," the Grand General replied. "A worthy asset, no doubt. And one necessary for you to complete the mission I have for you."
"Mission?" Skope asked.
"I'll get to that," said the Grand General. "But first, I need to make sure you know everything you need to. You already know that there are six armies at this point in the war, not just three, and that the latter three, the Reds, Purples, and Oranges, emerged only recently. Not something terribly worrying. I doubt any of you have been on the front lines long enough to remember, but there was a time when new armies would appear almost every week. The Orange and Purple Armies were defeated a few years ago, the Purples at Roster Teth and the Oranges even earlier, back at the Battle of Earth. The Yellow/Blue alliance finished them off, I believe. The Reds are the only exception, because until recently we have never seen them before."
"And if we suspect from our journey in the other universe is correct," said Nome, "Then the Red Army was once a people who lived in the forest at the center of the Abyss of Absentmindedness, but was recruited into a fighting force by persons we do not yet know about."
"Well said," complimented the Grand General. "Furthermore, these three armies have been fighting their own private war on the other hemisphere of the planet. A war our three armies has missed due to our own problems. And I think that covers all but one of the facts you should know."
"And…what don't we know?" Jess asked.
The Grand General sighed. "I am sure you saw outside the remnants of the attack that happened here just a few hours ago."
"Oh yeah," said Kenny. "I think there's a Falcon still stuck inside that one building. You should probably send some guys to take care of it before it falls and hurts someone-"
A screeching, rumbling crash sounded from outside, followed by a loud metallic crunch, cries of shock, and the sound of a woman screaming "No, my baby!"
"Never mind," Kenny corrected.
The Grand General motioned to one of the soldiers who had escorted the Greens to him. The solder saluted and ran outside to take care of things. Not knowing what else could be done, the Greens all turned back to face the Grand General.
"So, who attacked us?" Skope asked.
"Tactically speaking, the Orange Army is still attacking us, from underneath the city," the Grand General replied.
"What?" the Greens shouted in unison.
"The Orange Army is attacking us from under the city," the Grand General repeated. "Somehow, they gained teleporter access to the large underground bunker which used to be Green Command before we moved up to the city. It is completely abandoned. Or rather, was completely abandoned, until the Oranges showed up there somehow and decided to launch and air strike on us."
"An air strike?" Skope asked. "But um, didn't you say that they were attacking from under the surface of the planet?"
"They bored tunnels large enough to fit Pelicans through by using explosives on preexisting access tunnels," the Grand General explained. "And they managed to open the few aircraft tunnels and VTOL pads that were already there.
"They launched an air strike from underground," Jess thought aloud. "Nuts."
"And it worked," said Kenny. "What the fuck?"
The Grand General gave a frustrated sigh and explained: "The city was designed to be defended from the inside against the outer perimeter, because that's where all the teleporters to get here are located…except the one underneath the city that we'd basically forgotten about until now. When the Oranges attacked us, we were caught completely by surprise. Our forces were stationed on the perimeter, not in the center of the city. That included AA weaponry. We were caught with our pants all the way down. That goddamn bunker's the perfect place to unexpectedly strike at us from."
"Wait...We may already have been in that bunker," postulated Nome to the other Greens.
"Oh?" replied Jess.
"Do you remember when we had gone through the light portal in the Abyss and come into the large concrete chamber?" Nome asked. "Just before we made our second jump?"
"Oh, yeah!" said Kenny. "Those dudes! Wait...they were in orange armor!"
"Yeah, and one of them said something like 'I thought you said this place was supposed to be abandoned' and then another guy said 'It is, I thought the Greens had left here a long time ago' and then a third guy said something else," Jess added.
"And then they all started shooting at us and we went back through the portal again and finally got back to our real base. Yeah, I remember all that shit. Intense stuff," Kenny finished.
"Sure thing," Skope commented. "But I think the important thing to remember about that is that it looked underground and the Oranges said that our Army had left it a long time ago."
"Indeed," said Nome. He turned to the Grand General. "You see, it would seem we have already been to the underground bunker of the Oranges, if only for a very brief period of time."
"Excellent," the Grand General said with a tone that raised hairs in the Greens, while clasping his hands together. "This is perfect. Here is my mission; you, along with the orb, will go down to the underground bunker, and you will use the orb to take out all of the Orange soldiers you find down there. That is your first objective. Your second is to find the teleporter or device or method they are using of getting into the bunker and take it out, so that they cannot attack us from under the city again."
"What?" the Greens repeated in unison.
"You want the four of us to go down there...against who knows how many Orange soldiers?" Skope stated.
"With the orb as your main weapon," the Grand General confirmed. "Though you will of course have access to the best weaponry we have to offer as well."
"On second thought, I'm really starting to like this plan," said Kenny.
"It's suicide!" countered Jess.
"It is also the last hope for the city," said the Grand General. "And furthermore, if this orb really is capable of so much, then you should have little trouble. But just in case you do, I have a squad of eight men who will travel down there with you. All among our finest."
"So now it's slightly less suicidal," said Jess. "But what choice do we have now? The General's right, the city is in danger."
"I smell promotion..." Kenny muttered to himself.
"Let's just hope the guys we have to fight with aren't jerks," said Skope.
The Greens heard a crowd of footsteps on the stairs, and turned to find the eight soldiers the Grand General had mentioned coming up to meet them. As soon as they reached the top, they formed into a practiced line and unisonly shouted: "Reporting for duty, sir!"
The Grand General stepped forward to the leftmost soldier in the line. "This is Colonel Moran. He will be leading this operation."
"Permission to speak, sir?" Colonel Moran asked the Grand General.
"Permission granted," the Grand General replied.
To the Greens, Colonel Moran asked: "Are you the guys from Sector 18-Alpha?"
The Greens nodded.
"Well then, which one of you is Lieutenant Christopher Skope?"
"I'd prefer if you'd just call me by my last name," said Skope.
"How about if I call you Sniperbutt?"
"Ah, fuck!"