Hoover Dam, Nevada
October 28th, 2007 10:43 AM
Two Hours Before
Two days ago, Captain William Lennox could have said that he'd seen a lot of shit in his days. But, what he'd experienced in less than twenty four hours ate the cake.
A flash of blinding light consumed the room in white for an instant.
Even with the blackout goggles over his eyes, dots speckled his vision for a few moments before he could see again the batshit crazy Nokia whose smoky remains lay confined in the center of the room.
When he'd told his recruiter that he didn't want to comb files through the network and correct the format of confidential emails for the rest of his officership, he didn't expect to be thrown in a Ridley Scott film with aliens whose remarkable aptitude for battle far surpassed his own.
Unexpectedly, the room dimmed to black, clearing his mind. In all this chaos and close calls, it became harder for him to stay focused and Lennox couldn't imagine another time where he had to remind himself that this wasn't about him.
The lights powered back on, supported by the backup battery power. On cue, Secretary Keller cleared his throat and the simple sound captured the attention of the room.
"Gentlemen," the politician began, "they know the Cube is here." As frightening as were his words, even more was his unwavering aplomb as he announced them.
Honestly, Lennox didn't think it could get any worse until he heard Sector Seven's Director speak urgently into a console on the wall.
"This is Banachek: what's going on?"
"Sir, we've undergone an electrical surge! NBE-1 hangar has lost power."
There was an explosion at the end of the line.
As the director heard the response, his eyes widened and his face drew into a scowl. "Do not let NBE-1's cryo status deteriorate. Cut all operations!"
"We'll risk the Reconnoiter team—"
The connection abruptly ended.
Lennox locked his jaw. He knew the implications of NBE-1's escape. He looked around the room, many faces he hardly knew and as panic bit in he wondered why he was still here. Crossing the room in several quick strides, Lennox appeared at Banachek's side. "Do you have an arms room?"
The director looked conflicted, as though Lennox's question hadn't registered.
"Director!" Lennox snapped. "Where is your armory?"
Banachek hesitated. "You'll have to return to the upper decks," he provided.
Lennox didn't miss a beat.
"Show us."
-.-.-.-
Hoover Dam, Nevada
October 28th, 2007
1110 hours
"Get everyone to the NBE-1 chamber now!" Director Banachek's order reverberated off the walls of the tunnel.
Lennox's men navigated to the Upper levels as fast as they could. Epps jogged alongside him, not nearly as breathless as he was.
"How'd they find us out so fast? I thought Banachek said the Cube couldn't be detected from any alien on the outside," Epps said.
"Then maybe one of those bastards made it inside."
As they slowed to a march, he noticed the flurry of men filing into the armory.
Another rumble coursed through the ground under them.
Lennox immediately sought for the nearest gun hanging in the racks, finger hooking over the trigger guard. He felt a little safer cradling a firearm. Then he remembered what they were up against and the relief died.
"40 millimeter sabot rounds on that table!" Someone yelled.
Lennox fed his weapon a sabot clip. He ignored the tremors in his hands as he chambered the rifle. When he was finished, he unholstered his pistol and ejected the empty magazine, inserting ammunition one at a time.
"Captain, what happens when that Mega-thing wakes up?"
After filling the last bullet, he looked up at Fig.
NBE-1 did have a name, Lennox remembered. Megatron.
Life would've made much more sense if they were fighting Russians or North Koreans or jihadists. That's what he trained for. Not aliens. Not Megatron.
Megatron.
It even sounded stupid.
Lennox slammed the magazine into place as he looked at Fig.
"Do you want to find out?"
"No."
"Okay then."
The room erupted into sudden commotion.
"We do not know what will happen if it gets near this thing!"
Agent Simmons was sputtering in rage. For some reason— no— for a lot of reasons, Lennox didn't like that man. He'd come off as a condescending bastard. Lennox hated condescending bastards.
"You - You know. But, I don't know. No one is getting near that Cube!"
"So, you wanna wait here and see what happens?" The teenager retorted. "Megatron is defrosting in the next room and you think your bullets are going to stop him from getting to the Allspark?"
The men in the room exchanged hesitant glances with each other. Lennox figured they'd rather not have heard that.
"We need to get out of here!" The boy insisted. "We need to leave with that Cube and get it to Optimus Prime. He's the one who can fix this!"
"I have people's lives at stake here, young man!"
Lennox raised a brow. And to think that this kid was dragged into the troubles of warfare because he was related to the man who discovered E.T. What shit luck.
After holstering his pistol, Lennox vaulted over the table, landing behind Agent Simmons. his hands shot out like vipers. The entire room witnessed him pin the agent to the table.
"Take him to his car!" Lennox barked.
On impulse, every man equipped with a gun raised his arm. With one hand, Lennox tugged out his own from his hip and swiftly positioned it at Simmons.
Lennox felt the the S7 personnel closing around him.
"Drop it!" The captain dared them.
"You drop your weapon, soldier." Simmons retorted, though Lennox didn't budge and the agent's hesitation was felt between them both.
"There's an alien war going on, and you're gonna shoot me? I'm ordering you under S7-"
"-Don't exist," Epps interrupted loudly, weapon drawn at the S7 security personnel currently flagging his captain.
Lennox pressed the barrel of his gun roughly into Simmons' chest and narrowed his eyes.
The man didn't look so certain now. "I-I'm going to count to five-"
"I'm gonna count to three." The captain said, his face grim and his words, careful and clear.
"One...Two..."
"Enough!"
Everyone turned to Secretary Keller. His voice was still remarkably calm. "Gentlemen, the last thing we need is an alien invasion to turn us against each other." He neared Lennox and peered over his shoulder at the man below him. "Simmons, get your head out of your ass and do as the man says."
For a moment, Lennox could hear his pulse in his ears, loud like thunder.
The agent relaxed in his grasp and Lennox released him before he stomped away.
"Alright. Okay. You want to lay the fate of the world into the kid's Camaro, be my guest."
Lennox turned to the older man. "Thank you, sir."
He was returned with a nod.
"As for the rest of you," the Secretary of Defense said to the men in uniform, and pointed at the Captain. "You follow this man from here on out."
-.-.-.-
Hoover Dam, Nevada
October 28th, 2007
1125 hours
Once Agent Simmons freed the alien, the group entered into NBE-2's cavern through an adjoining tunnel.
A violent quake under his feet shook him from his train of thought. Specks of rocks and dust floated down from the ceiling and scratched at his face. His eyes searched about the perimeter of the cavern cautiously, landing on a raised platform where S7 technicians thronged.
"This cube is as big as a house. How are we supposed to get that thing out of here?"
The remark sailed over his head as Lennox identified a line of chrome containers resting on their largest faces. Machines surrouding them pinged and beeped and a dozen technicians in white lab coats pushed buttons and made notes on clipboards and exchanged grim looks.
"Aww man, he about to do somethin'... " Epps said, eyes wide at something he'd seen.
Lennox turned as the yellow robot placed its hands on the corner of the artifact closest to the ground. The cube's surface gleamed and every carved line alit in an electric blue as though a switch had flicked it on. Bright energy crackled between the Cube and the robot's fingers.
Then, the artifact folded into itself — its symbols and hieroglyphics disappeared as segments turned inwards like a rubix cube whose square parts could collapse into the other.
When the robot turned back to face them, in its hands was the artifact that was only moments ago as large as the chamber that held it.
That solved one problem.
Lennox called for the director's attention. "Are there any vehicles here?"
Banachek acknowledged him. "Yes. What are you thinking of?"
"Mission City is several miles away. It's the only place we have a chance at holding off the opposition," he said, "But first, we'll need to find a way to contact the outside. We need the Air Force."
"Fine, I'll have someone get you there." The director waved one of the S7 guards to proceed with Captain Lennox's request and guide them to the garage whose waypoint was located on the other side of the chamber.
Lennox intended to follow until a female researcher appeared at Banachek's side, strands of hair sticking out wildly from her bun.
"Director Banachek — they're in danger."
An obnoxious alarm reverberated above their heads in addition to the one that alerted them of Megatron's rapidly failing cryo-state. An automated voice crept into his ears.
"SYSTEMS BREACH. LIFE SUPPORT DIMINISHING."
"Save them," Banachek ordered the researcher.
The woman nodded and nudged past Lennox to an area where he could see the arrangement of containers that sat on a elevated platform surrounded by a waist high railing.
"What's going on?" Lennox asked Banachek.
"Our people are trapped," he answered.
"What?"
The man ignored him, avoiding eye contact as he followed the lab coats.
Impulsively, Lennox was on his heels and they were both skipping up the stairs of the platform to the nearest container.
The first thing he'd seen was a shiny metal nameplate welded to the front, four lines of information imprinted on its surface. And a glass window revealing the face of an unconscious man inside.
"What's their status?" He heard Banachek say to a technician over Lennox's own question of "What is this?".
"Excuse me, what are you doing up here?" an S7 worker questioned Lennox, but his voice had fallen on deaf ears.
"Director!" he heard the yell. It was from his own voice.
Instantly, Banachek and Lennox locked eyes.
"What are people doing in there?" he asked the question of the hour.
The man's eyes looked pleading and Lennox had seen it, from one man to the other, to the very depths of his soul: distress.
"The container's are airtight. If they stay there any longer, they'll suffocate."
A little LED bulb in the center of one pod flashed. He flicked his gaze to the others down the line and noticed that five of them had changed to red when seconds ago they were white.
For a moment, as Lennox stared down at the containers something in him involuntarily snapped.
"R-5: FAILING. SYSTEMS ARE CRITICAL."
People are dying in their sleep, he thought.
Lennox's squad had come to a stop and the alien standing several yards away cocked its head to the sound of the automated voice blaring over the speaker. The captain's eyes flashed to the twelve containers despairingly. Why humans were kept in pods that spell out their death, he probably would never know. But he didn't care. Knowing would change nothing.
"Hey, you!" He shouted at a technician fussing at the pods maintenance console. "Open these containers! Open them now!"
"The override code isn't working. When the p-power cut off, the pods went into power-saving mode to expend it's final energy on life support," the technician stammered. "You have to manually disable the chambers."
"How do you do it?"
"Th-there's a panel on the side that you have to screw off and pull the lever which will unlock the seal."
"R-6: FAILING. SYSTEMS ARE CRITICAL."
When he looked to the side as the technician instructed, he'd seen the half-inch carriage bolts fastened into the square metal panel. Just like the technician said. But he didn't have the tools to unfasten the bolts. Lennox did not look to Banachek's direction again. He didn't need his permission. Thus, without a single thought he sprinted to the next pod that was without a red light and panned his rifle, angling the muzzle at one of the chamber's hinges.
"Don't shoot! You'll engulf it in flames!" Banachek cried.
Lennox had already pulled the trigger. A spark popped atop the surface of the container from the bullet escaping its barrel. The uranium pellet ricocheted, creating a jot of light as it quickly deflected off the surrounding metal surfaces. Everyone cowered.
Noting that the gunshot had done nothing to the casing, left not even a dent, Lennox raised his rifle above his head and slammed the butt against the glass window repeatedly. But, to no avail.
A shadow fell over him and he paused and turned. He leapt out of the way of a gigantic hand lunging towards him, a spectacular symphony of metal pieces working in accordance with the other. Then, the yellow robot's fingers wrapped around the hatch of the container, crushing it, straining the the metal in ways it was not supposed to contort until the lid simply popped open.
Lennox pushed the lid up.
He looked at the occupant whose face was covered in a lower face mask which covered both her nose and mouth.
Then, the sirens blared.
"ALL SECTOR SEVEN PERSONNEL, EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. FACILITY COMPROMISED."
Emergency lights spun on their axles and many technicians fled for the exits. Those on the platform were short of giving up on the rest of the containers to follow their coworkers.
Lennox nearly flinched when Banachek grabbed his arm. He'd looked at the man who only moments ago looked utterly hopeless. The adrenaline seemed to have kicked into his system because his face was hardened with purpose now.
"All of you need to go." Banachek gestured at the open container. "Take her as far away from here."
Lennox clenched his fist. He'd open all of them right now. He had time. "But what about the others? They're still trapped."
"They're dead, Captain."
"But—"
"They're dead."