X-Com – The Unknown Menace
Chapter Thirteen – Divine Wind
July 27th, 1999
Sea of Japan, Pacific Ocean
To every member of the West team who was seated
on the infiltration pod housed in the belly of the Super Valkyrie the trip
seemed to be endless, although the flight from Nevada to Siberia would only
take a few hours due to the plus Mach Six speed the plane could attain. But the
thrust of the Super Valkyrie's six Pulse Detonation Wave Engines was felt in
the bomb bay, adding vibration to the pod. On the contrary of other planes,
which burnt jet fuel to perform a reaction that propelled the plane, the Super
Valkyrie's PDWE engines performed continuous controlled detonations of liquid
methane to move the aircraft over hypersonic speeds. Both the pilot and the
navigator on cockpit were isolated from the noise, but the insertion pod was
not, since it had been only tested with dummies inside. Worse yet, the bay was
situated in the rear section of the plane, with the long air intakes at its
front and the bay located between the engines. And the X-Com troopers had to
wear oxygen masks close also since because of the possibility of a lack of
pressurization on the bay. At that altitude the lack of oxygen would kill any
human being.
Another handicap in the experimental pod was
also the absence of any communication or radio devices. The tactical radio had
been changed to be able to listen to transmit on military aircraft channels and
that had been the only way to talk to the President and tell him what had
happened with General Smith back at the base. He had found it unbelievable but
had agreed to Johnson's request that X-Com placed the USAF section of Area 51
at discrete surveillance and conceal the General's death from the personnel
there until they got back. The X-Com personnel back at Papoose had been already
forbidden to enter Groom without his authorization.
He looked around. At an altitude of more than
140 thousand feet the cold would kill any man, if the lack of oxygen didn't.
But the heat created by the friction of the plane on the atmosphere, while
doing its cruise speed of 8.7 Mach was nearly impossible to stand. The pod was
isolated, but still everyone looked as if they were standing in the middle of a
desert at noon.
A tap on the shoulder made him turn and he saw
Corporal White handing him the tactical radio headgear. He put it and said:
"Johnson here". The voice of the pilot answered him. "Five minutes Colonel. You
still can quit you know?"
"Get us there. Tell when". Johnson gave the
radio back to White and got up, Crossett immediately following him. "Everybody
get ready. Be sure to check your equipment triple time and when you are done
have someone do it for you. Five minutes". They all went going through their
parachutes and gear.
White brought his hand with the index finger
hand to Colonel. "One minute to start depressurization! Hurry it up!" As they finished they all stood up,
grabbing a strap connected to the roof with one hand and another one connected
to the floor on their left. Johnson finished checking Crossett's gear and did
the same.
As the bay came to a complete depressurization
the bay doors started to open. All X-Com members suddenly felt the cold coming
from the gelid atmosphere and it was nearly a thermal shock after two hours of
continuous sweating. Johnson ignored it and concentrated on the drop. The
mother of all rides was about to begin.
The Super Valkyrie had lowered its speed to a
bit more than Mach One and had gone down a bit in order to launch the pod. The
crew container had been designed with a bomb format because its flight path
would be similar to one and for better aerodynamics. They actually would still
have to travel nearly some 40 miles to the target but this time it would be
done falling and at an even increasing speed, due to gravity.
The targeting computer inside made its final
calculations, judging the wind and other factors. The algorisms built into its
software determined the best position to launch that would place the pod as
closest to Azamas 36 as possible. Then it released it when the plane reached
the position.
Every X-Com soldier on the pod started to fell
a grip on their stomach close to the one when riding a roller coaster and
afterwards they were raised upwards due to the inertia. Grabbing the straps
attached to metal pins on the floor they hold out to counteract the movement
but two of them reacted too slow and were throw into the ceiling. Johnson
looked at them and noticed that they seemed a bit shaken but didn't have any
major injuries. Then he saw around him and saw that the other men and himself
were floating in the air like astronauts going around in a spaceship on Earth's
orbit. Will we ever have to fight in such an environment, he asked, suddenly
realizing that no one yet back at High Command had ever considered that
possibility.
They would be experiencing a false loss of
gravity, the scientists had explained to him, originated from the fact that the
pod and its inhabitants were falling too fast for Earth's gravitational pull to
bring them downwards. Every one was trying to hold still but occasionally a
motion would carry someone's boot again another's mask. Johnson at his altitude
meter and saw it dropping behind one hundred thousands. About time to go. He
motioned the men at the ceiling.
They went to the center of the pod pulling
themselves with their arms and grabbing rungs attached to the metal ceiling. In
the middle there was a hatch and with a press of a button oen of the soldiers
made the small explosive charges went off, throwing it away from the pod and
exposing the night sky. One by one the X-Com troopers threw in the direction of
the hatch and were caught by the two waiting men close to it. Then they were
placed facing the open hole and were pushed outside.
Johnson saw Markovitch over along with the remaining
members of her platoon. Forrester's men went afterwards and his turn then
arrived. He used the straps to push himself forward and crossed the distance
that separated him from the opening. The X-Com squaddies caught him and placed
him over the hole. He gave them a thumb up sign and they carefully pushed him
outside the pod.
As soon as his head was out in the open he felt
himself being sucked by the air moving around the pod and his body immediately
followed. He quickly found himself moving away from the pod and out of the
turbulence it caused going through the atmosphere. Spreading out his legs and
arms, he slowed the speed at which he was falling, enabling him to join the
altitude level of several of his men. It was pitch dark, with only the stars lighting
their descent, but they all carried a pulsating flashlight to not being lost.
If any X-Com trooper became separated from the rest he would touch down miles
away from his buddies on hostile territory. If Snakemen didn't found them the
Russians eventually would.
The lights started converging and Johnson
checked the GPS attached to his pulse. All the squads had already reported on
his headset and they still were at a thousand. Time to get close to their
target.
2247 Zulu, Azamas 36, Siberia, Russian Federation
The West North American team had already
deployed their chutes and were doing the final approach. So far everything had
gone according to the plan but now come a tricky part, landing without the
enemy seeing you. Every team member had by now taken off his high-altitude
oxygen mask and put his night vision goggles but no one knew if an alien patrol
would be right below them.
Captain Markovitch had glimpsed what he thought
were the alien ships, landed in the middle of the city almost three kilometers
to the south, which seemed to be the focus of the alien activity according to
the latest satellite pictures. But those were already hours old and everything
could have changed by now. Looking on the other side, he could see the nuclear
power plant lights glowing at the distance, together with the imposing form of
the huge vent chimneys used to expel the excess heat and water vapor coming
from the cooling of the nuclear reactions boiling inside. She suddenly realized
that the plant was still operating and that the aliens hadn't bothered to shut
it down after taking over the whole facility. Another fucking hole in the plan,
great! She remembered the Chernobyl disaster and her gut turned cold. Maybe it
had automatic controls, she told herself. In any case, they were about to hit
ground and if the place hung together while they were in the vicinity it
wouldn't matter.
Scanning the ever-closing ground below her, she
found that it appeared to be free of any hostile forces. She looked at the
Global Positioning System visor she had on her wrist. They were touching down
about one kilometer to the northeast of the location of the former command
center. Pulling the cords that came out of the chute, she reduced her airspeed
and prepared herself for hitting the ground.
On the other size of the landing zone, Trooper
Jones was seeing the ground fast approaching. His armored boots hit the
Siberian tundra and he quickly bended his knees to absorb the impact. As his
body started to come down he immediately rolled over to his left. Unfortunately
his parachute refused to make the landing perfect and it felt all over him,
covering the soldier with the artificial material.
Jones got up and immediately tried to get
himself loose of the fabric sheet that was covering him. Not good he thought,
the Lt. will sure get me on this. His radio started to go off with calls for
his name and he just told them that he was ok and turned it off for it not to
distract him. Going for his leg he removed a combat knife from there and
started cutting himself free. Suddenly he felt that another trooper was doing
the same from the outside, cutting through the fabric and helping him out of
the prison the chute had turned itself into. One final thrust finally uncovered
him and he turned to thank the other trooper: "Hey, thanks for the…"
He didn't finish the sentence. As he completed
his motion he saw a big black oily Chryssalid gesturing its sharp claws and
about to jump on him. As it crossed the space between them, Jones' training was
the only thing that avoided its deadly embrace. He moved his body to the left
while making a thrust with the tip of the knife at the creature while it passed
him. The blade hit and slightly penetrated the exoskeleton of the Chryssallid
but it didn't penetrate it. Instead as the alien moved it broke, leaving only a
shattered knife on his hands, while the alien landed on where he was standing
just a minute before.
The bug's antenna on the side of its head
flickered and the thing got itself standing up again, but Jones had already
dropped the knife and started to run away, screaming for help.
"Down Jones!" As soon as he heard the shout he
threw himself to the front, flying a couple meters on the air before hitting
the ground again, but this time hurting his arms in spite of the armour built
there. He felt the heat of a laser beam that had just passed too close while he
was falling and waited in expectation on the ground, almost pissing on his
pants from the fear he was feeling. After some seconds terrified by the wait to
see if the alien would get him, he suddenly felt the another presence close to
him. He looked up and recognize the figure of Sarge Hopkins holding a heavy
laser on his arms and looking actually amused and pissed at the whole
situation.
"Did…did you got it Sarge?" He asked as he
grabbed the hand the non-commissioned officer was offering him.
"Yeah, some of us caught it dashing towards you
as soon as you hit the ground. You are damn lucky for that shitty landing of
your since it saved your ass!" He then pulled Jones up to his feet. "What do
you mean?"
"I mean that was one of the worse landings I've
ever saw but since you got yourself all wrapped up in the chute the alien
couldn't get to you immediately which gave us time to go for our weapons
meanwhile".
Jones' mouth went open and the Sarge gave him a
hard push on the shoulder. "Close that stupid mouth of yours and get that radio
working again. We sure tried to warn you to lay low but no one managed to raise
you on the tac radio!"
2257 Zulu
As soon as all the X-Com troopers had finished
hiding their parachutes, the team assembled at a small taiga bush forest to the
northwest of Azamas 36. Fortunately no casualties had been suffered on their
descent, which was a blessing, considering that they had deployed on a most unorthodox
way.
After setting sentries to watch for alien
activity, Johnson was having a tactical meeting with his officers. Major
Patterson was the first of the crouched group to speak, almost in a whisper,
just a little higher than the necessary for everyone close to him to hear. "We
have landed inside the perimeter according to the GPS indications and the
satellite pictures. All squads are go. The barracks are one mile on that
direction". He pointed towards the south. Johnson calculated that they need
about an hour and a half to get there. Time was going to be critical on this
mission.
"Markovitch your platoon leads the way.
Forrester, cover our back. Be aware of the alien troops we have spotted to the
southwest. Move out". The three other officers got up and went passing the
orders to their platoons and squads. In less than half a minute the team was
already on their way to the command center with Markovitch's squad up front and
scouting the way.
Engels Air Base, Russian Federation
On the other side of Russia the two Tu-160
Blackjacks assigned to perform the nuclear attack on the aliens were being
serviced for the mission. One of the supersonic bombers had already been
replaced by another plane as one of his four jet engines had developed a
malfunction, but no other glitches were found after that. The Tu-160s were
already being refueled and the vehicle carryalls transporting the Kh-15 Short
Range Attack Missiles (SRAM) were waiting to be placed in the planes' weapons
bays.
The Blackjack was Russia's more advanced
bomber, having being designed as a close replica of the American B-1, with
swept back geometry wings, which would be controlled into several positions to
help the plane's aerodynamics. But more important was the ability to perform
hypersonic attack runs that would enable him to quickly enter and exit the area
after having launched his K-15 missiles. When the crews appeared fully equipped
on the hangars to board their aircraft, they had already been equipped with the
nuclear weapons. After the last preparations the pilots fired up their engines
and started moving their planes towards the kilometers long runway.
July 28th, 1999
0038 Zulu, Azamas 36, Siberia, Russian
Federation
The Command Center and adjacent barracks
located in the entrance to the civilian sections had been completely trashed by
the aliens. Large portions of the security fence were missing and the gates had
been thrown out of their hinges by explosions that had contortioned the metal.
The front of the concrete building had collapsed, exposing the rooms inside and
blocking the main entrance with broken concrete and steel beams. And all the
vehicles in the parking lot had been hit by alien fire, leaving only scarred
blackened skeletons of trucks and armored personnel carriers. And at the distance
After the forward platoon had given the all
clear sign on the radio, the rest of the X-Com troopers approached the facility
with Johnson looking at it in dismay. How could something be intact in the
middle of that destruction, he wondered. Patterson came near him and expressed
the same idea. "Let's hope High Command didn't made us get into this hole for
nothing".
"Yeah, I know what you are saying. Send pairs
to find out the location of the backup data banks. And get the remaining men on
watch. At the first sign that the aliens have detected us we get out of here".
Johnson started moving towards the ruins, hoping that the reserve data center
would be there.
0057 Zulu
Corporal White finished connecting the laptop
that one of the men had carried all the way through the jump. Somehow in the
middle of the indiscriminated destruction the aliens had ignored the closed
doors that lead into the backup computers containing all the research made by
the now dead Russian scientists. Since the front entrance was being blocked by
all the rubble, they had to use a side entrance to get inside. The command
center's room had been heavily attacked, with signs of gunfire and blood marks
all over the consoles and offices but the levels below ground had been found to
be pretty much intact. Most likely the aliens had only bothered to eliminate
the humans defending the place and didn't had yet time to make a proper search
of the facility. Who cares, White told himself, focusing on the computer in
front of him. A spare satellite radio was standing on the top of the table
where the laptop rested in one corner of a room occupied with rows and rows of
cabinets containing data storage electronical units. They had to blow the
locked steel doors to gain access but at least they had found that the
emergency power generator was still running. A group of troopers had already
finished installing the antenna at the top of the building while he had
finished connecting the databanks in front of him to the laptop.
When everything was ready he opened the link
between both computers and waited. A window immediately popped up with all
sorts of different symbols appearing. He spoke to the microphone he was
wearing: "Ultra, the link is up. Start doing your show, over".
National Security Agency, Ft. Meade, Virginia,
US
On the other side of the globe another man
seated by a terminal received the call and acknowledged it. The NSA's function
was to protect and secure the US's communications. But it also had a
technological system called Echelon, used some of the most powerful computers
available in the world to monitor every transmission being done in the world
and to crack the security codes used by them. Although the speed of the
satellite data link connecting him to Azamas 36 was terribly slow for the
technician's normal speeds, his first analysis of the security system that
controlled access to the data made him shrug his shoulders. The NSA had been
established with the Soviet Union as their most powerful enemy and its
computers had spent years analyzing their code systems. The one the Russians
were using was a variation of the systems used by the Communist regime. One of
their best, but still not enough. Not only had the NSA spent years around it
but also one defector had given them the complete algorithms used to cipher the
information and generate the access passwords. It took the Cray computers less
than fifteen seconds to penetrate the security, which annoyed the operator
since he was looking for a better challenge. Pushing the transmit button he
sent the access codes back to Corporal White's laptop.
0058 Zulu
Cyrillic characters had replaced the non-sense
symbols on White's computer already as the operating system started to apply a
Russian alphabet font. When the sequence code came from Ultra the whole screen
went blank for a second and afterwards a list of files started to emerge. White
then applied another piece of software, an automatic translator that replaced
the Russian with English. Turning on again the satellite radio he called this
time X-Com's HQ back in Germany.
"Goose, this is Dancer. We have gained access
to the system. I'm sending over the list of files available. Don't take too
long to choose your present, over". He copy-pasted the information into a
simple text file and sent it up the satellite. One of the problems with the
retrieval of the information was that the satellite uplink was no better than a
normal telephone modem. Maximum data transmission was limited to 28 Kilobytes
per second and he had seen that most of the files were several megabytes-sized.
With the prospect of a nuclear explosion on their heads in a few hours, they
had to carefully choose what information was more important and to reduce its
size as much as possible before sending it back to Mother One.
Right now the scientists back at the base would
be looking over the list of files to try to determine what information would be
most critical in attempting to reproduce the Russian particle weapon. White
fished a cigarette out of one of his pocket and lit it up. He was half-way done
with the smoke as the reply came after some minutes as an electronic message
came back, showing a list of files.
White transferred them from the databanks to
the laptop and used a compression program to reduce their size before sending
them upwards. When the sending status appeared on the screen he saw that the
first batch of fifty-five megabytes would take 36 minutes until transmission of
all the files was finished. And meanwhile the scientists back would start to
examine the received files and figure out what else they would need. Too much
damn work, White thought. He called the Colonel. "Sir, data transmission has
just started".
The reply came immediately: "Try to hurry up.
Any estimates upon the necessary time?"
"Depends on what more Mother asks". Looking for
an ashtray and founding none, he threw the cigarette to the floor and put it
out with his combat boot.
"Let's hope they don't get good excited. At
0430 we get out of here. Keep monitoring the transmission and let me know if something
comes up. Out". White looked at the laptop and got himself prepared for a long
wait.
0236 Zulu
The two sniper teams that formed Omega squad
had both placed themselves on the roof on alert for alien activity. Five
minutes ago King had issued an order to cease all activity after they had
detected the movement of enemy troops. Looking through the high-amplification
night-vision scope installed in top if his heavy laser rifle, he and Deschamps
were pressed against the ground and concealed, keeping a close tab to the road
almost half a mile in front of them. The aliens were using it to deploy their
troops around and a column of Snakemen was marching in a double line heading
right and in no doubt to prepare for the alien offensive. When the squad had first
spotted them on the horizon and determined their numbers they had exchanged
worried looks. Just this column was composed of more than eighty aliens,
according to King's count, more than the double of the size of the X-Com
troops. Still, the two teams were doing their jobs, with the spotter locating
the alien leaders in command and pointing them out to the snipers. Some old
thumb rules still applied when dealing with the aliens: take the enemy's
officers at the beginning of a confrontation and they will fight less
effectively afterwards.
0307 Zulu
Concealed in several positions in the rubble
overlooking the road, Jones and the rest of Gamma squad were finding the
waiting close to unbearable. Captain Forrester had forbidden any movement on
their part and all they could do was to watch as the aliens less than a
kilometer away from them passed by and hoping that none would remember to move
into the direction of the ruins. Alpha and Beta squads were also close by but
that thought gave Jones no rest as the twelve men facing the scores of aliens
could hope no better than to delay their approach before having to fall back.
And while the Sectoids and Floaters were unmenacing by now to the veteran
soldiers of the platoon, these new aliens sent shivers down the spine of every
men. The Snakemen reminded him of a sidewinder standing on its tail and
readying for an attack, with their lean bodies and reptilian heads that sported
wide fangs coming out of their mouths. And the gray things were even worse.
When the pre-mission briefing had focused on that matter, the orders stated
were clear: to shoot down every man impregnated by one of those monsters. The
reason that justified it was even more terrifying. It remembered Jones of the
Alien movies that he had seen on his teens, where the alien would also grow
into the victim's body until finally bursting out. Only on this case the thing
would be even more quicker to grow. And he could swore that he had seen through
the Lieutenant's binoculars some of the gray monsters focusing their attention
into their direction. The yellow figures in the night vision binoculars had
suddenly stopped and turned looking at his direction, with their antennas
raised. He had passed that information to the Lt. but no one else had reported
that type of movement on the part of the aliens. He hoped that it wasn't just
his paranoia and xenophobia affecting his perception. Looking again at the ugly
crabs, he wondered what sort of planet could had created such a living
nightmare like it had came out of a terrifying Sci-Fi movie. What would be
next, the Alien Terminator?
0359 Zulu
Looking at his watch, Johnson was slowly
getting more relentless in the data storage chamber. In a bit more than thirty
minutes they had to start moving or otherwise when the explosion occurred they
would be still in a high-risk area. "Can't you just leave it there now on
automatic?" He asked White, whose look both reflected a professional but also
hopeless feeling. "We had already two broken connections with the satellite, we
just can't risk it again at this moment. Batch number six is on its way and
should take more 36 minutes. Mother thinks they have gotten most of the basic
data by now but that there are still some concepts missing to them. After this
one I can put it on automatic and queue up enough files for it to be uploading
until the explosion. But now we have to wait.
"Putting us over the schedule. Isn't there any
way to speed up the process?"
"Only by using US military communications
satellites. But they would soon decipher the code we are using and have access
to the information".
"Impossible. I've received particularly
specific orders from High Command on that matter. If any Earth country,
including our own, possesses that information the world's balance of power
would be completely altered, probably disrupting the effort towards fighting
the aliens". White moved uncomfortably on the chair upon hearing again that
explanation. Some of the troops had shouted interrogations and complains as
when they had been informed of it and Johnson understood their patriotism. But
he believed that the reasons that supported Commander Illyuschenko decision
were even more right at this time. And the fact that the man had chosen X-Com
over his countries seemed to strike a note on the troops, although he knew that
some of them still had their doubts. Still, he wanted to make them all
understand. But as the clock continued ticking his own doubts appeared. They
had rented a commercially run communications satellite and installed both ends
with a ciphering device hastily built that used the first alien algorisms
discovered on their computers. Their mathematics at first defied any known
calculus and it had taken months to understand their concepts. Whoever once it
was done, theX-Com's radio transmissions had been coded using them to secure
them from being listened by any nation on Earth. The security placed on this
operation was so much that the unit had a team at the moment in France to
monitor and secure that no traces of the information would ever be left into
the company's computers. And as a final measure, the satellite would be brought
down into the atmosphere and destroyed. That would make a huge dent on X-Com's
finances but Johnson had waken up to discover that Illyuschenko had managed a way
to get more money. When he asked him where all he got told was not to ask and
not to discuss it with anyone. That was strange and probably something illegal
was going on, but Johnson didn't bother since his troops were getting what they
needed now. Still, looking at the minutes going by, he wondered what good was
money if you couldn't buy time with it.
0432 Zulu
"Shit!" The fourteen men overlooking the
highway said at the same time. Up ahead another company of aliens had just came
from the city. But on the contrary of the others they had seen before, it
didn't turn into the right or the left, instead moving forward towards the
ruins of the command center. Captain Forrester got quickly his radio working
and spoke: "Attention everyone. A group of aliens has turned into our
direction, ETA seven or less". Johnson's voice came immediately back.
"Markovitch, status?"
Her voice came immediately: "Zeta, Kappa and
Phi report no alien movement. We have a wide open escape route". Patterson
looked at him and spoke what he was thinking. "We either go now or risk a
confrontation".
"I know damn it! White, what's the status?" The
communications technician looked at the monitor on the laptop and replied:
"Four minutes". Johnson stood silent for a moment, doing mental calculations.
Patterson guessed exactly what his commander
was thinking and replied even before the idea was stated: "A very risky one.
Markovitch can start clearing the escape route and covering our withdrawal
while we wait to be sure. But we gotta watch out for the aliens". Johnson
thought for a second, looked at Crossett, who seemed resigned with the
situation and then nodded. Patterson grabbed his mike and spoke: "Markovitch
get us an escape route. Forrester and Omega hold your positions and prepare to
buy us some time but only fire at my command". The acknowledgments came back
and all four men in the room placed down their helmets again and grabbed their
weapons.
0432 Zulu
It was a matter of time, King had already felt
it and now like always in snipping, time had proven him correct. The alien
horde that was approaching the military compound had gotten close to half away
when suddenly several of the crab monsters had started mad dashes towards their
direction. King didn't even waited for the call on the radio. Focusing on the
serpent figure on his scope he let go of a breath of air before squeezing the
trigger on the grip of his heavy laser. The barrel emitted a golden ray of
light that hit the creature square in the head, immediately killing the alien
leader. On the other side of the roof, he heard the humming sound of Private
Rumpole's heavy laser, but he didn't even bothered to look if it had hit. She
was the first female sniper he had ever seem but she was as good as him.
Searching with his scope and using the directions being told to him by
Deschamps he prepared for last shot before moving to another position before
the enemy detected his presence and used suppresive fire against him.
0434 Zulu
Several of the Chryssalids laid dead in the
ground already as Captain Forrester had ordered his platoon to first that down
the running monsters before they got to their defensive positions. But now the
Snakemen were starting to react, although in a disorganized way and the X-Com
troops had to be constantly on the move, taking cover behind the wrecked walls
and broken concrete to avoid being pinned down by plasma shots or the alien's
guided missiles. Jones got out of his concealed position behind a large cement
block and fired three bursts of laser fire after getting his target. A group of
aliens carrying more of those missile launchers had been spotted on the left
flank and he knew that they needed to taken down otherwise they would blast his
troops into a million pieces. He hit one of them, but a rocket, in no doubt
launched by Big Momma, did the most damage, cutting their scaled bodies into
pieces. The alien troops had figured by now that they needed to use suppressive
fire and were slowing their advance. Still, as Jones came out again of his
hiding place and supported the rifle's muzzle on the cement he considered if
that was a good thing as he saw Private Bryant from Alpha ahead of him getting
killed by several plasma shots as he tried to move into another position.
0435 Zulu
As the timer on the upload status window
reached zero, Johnson quickly spoke into the tactical radio to all his men.
"It's done! Go!" Right, afterwards all four men of Sigma squad immediately
headed out for the ground level.
Close to the front entrance of the center,
Forrester considered for a minute what he should do. Bryant and Holloman had
been killed already, someone at Beta also badly injured and two other light
causalities. Not adding to that list the burn at his ankle that he had managed
to stop the bleeding with his medikit but still restricted his movement. That
was an amazing piece of equipment he realized as he saw he remembered how the
X-Com designed personal diagnosis and medical treatment unit had immediately
released drugs into his bloodstream that sped up the healing process and
painkillers upon placement of it over his wound. However, it simply wasn't
enough to enable him to even walk again at a normal pace. The other two men's
injuries were light and wouldn't impair them but his and Wright's would slow
down the team. Slow realization of what was requested of him came to his mind.
The duty of slowing the aliens while not doing that to the team. And he would
die in peace, knowing he had came up to the Colonel's expectations.
"Alpha, Beta and Gamma, pull out. Hopkins,
how's Sharpe doing?"
"He's as good as dead if he doesn't receive
medical attention and he knows it. We can't stop the hemorrhage that the
missile blast caused on his chest".
"Me and him are staying behind to give you a
bit more time. I'm disabled also Hopkins and I will be a dead weight on the
team. Good luck".
The voice on the other side paused for a second
before trying to conceal the emotion on his response. "Understood sir. It…it
was a pleasure serving under your command. Good luck and goodbye Major
Forrester and don't worry, we will make it". A few seconds later Pershing came
up but instead of carrying his autocannon he was helping Wright. The man's face
looked bleached white to him as he put him behind the concrete block. Pershing
did a short salute and nodded to him before leaving crouched until he reached
deeper inside the ruins. Wright was laying with his back on the ground and
spoke in a ghastly voice. "If you don't mind Major, could you please put me
facing the aliens since the pain to do so by myself is too great?" He looked at
the medikit attached to his arm and wondered what sort of pain Wright could be
feeling that even the medical device wouldn't be able to lessen it. Moving to
the soldier's side he rolled him over until he was next to the end of the block.
Getting to the other end, he resumed his weapon's fire.
0438 Zulu
Looking at some hundred meters distance from
the main facility Johnson saw that Omega squad had nearly descended from the
roof using ropes and that Forrester's men were starting to evacuate the
facility through the rear section, which consisted of burnt and destroyed
barracks and warehouses. His own squad had already joined Markovitch's Zeta,
with the other two squads under the Captain's command already scouting more
territory ahead.
He counted troopers coming out of the facility
and painfully realized that the other ones would never come back. He called on
the radio: "Captain, what's the status?"
Instead another voice came to him, of
Lieutenant Jerrel. "The Captain stayed behind together with Wright sir. Both
were too injured to walk". Jesus all mighty, Johnson told to himself while
trying to reach Forrester. He gave up after three unanswered calls, spoke a
silent prayer and started organizing the retreat of his team. "You have proven me
right Captain", he said to no one.
0439 Zulu
Up on the other end of the security center,
Forrester noticed how the aliens had resumed their suicidal attacks with the
Chrysallids in no doubt after realizing that the defensive fire had lessened in
volume. While the monsters charged the Snakemen appeared to have halted their
fire and moving forwards, in no doubt realizing that the humans facing them
would have to deal with the death wave in front of them.
He and Wright kept firing and succeeded in
bringing down a couple more of the terrifying aliens but the Chrysallids
quickly covered the last hundred meters that separated them from the concrete
block. The one in front of the horde made a terrifying jump as Forrester
showered him with laser fire at close range. The thing flew in the air and over
the gray block until it finally landed behind the concrete ruin and both X-Com
troopers. Wright tried to turn in the ground but in his condition he only
managed to let go of a shout of pain. Forrester moved his rifle to deal with
the threat, but his three shots missed as the Chryssalid ran into Wright's
direction and landed upon him. "Nooooooo!" He shouted and pointed his rifle at
the thing quickly firing it. One of the red beams hit the crouched alien on the
head and it dropped to the ground. But it was too late.
Amazement came to the Captain's mind as he saw
the gravely injured trooper came up slowly to his feet but then flashes of
warning came to his mind, reminding him of what Wright had just turned into and
of what he should. But his finger on the trigger of the laser was a second too
slow as a large claw suddenly cut the rifle's barrel into two. Then something
run into his left side and he felt himself falling. Until he found himself
inside a dark, painful hell.
Mother One, Black Forest, Germany
All scientific personnel currently engaged in
Elerium research had been recruited for this mission to help determine what
information would be more essential in reproducing the Russian weapon and, more
important, the electromagnetic fields used to contain and direct its power. At
first they had picked the files whose names were too obvious to miss, but even
then they had came up into some dead ends later upon conferring the information
upon them. While it would take them many weeks of hard work to compile together
all the data and then fully understanding it, right now they could only hope
that they had everything they need as they couldn't order any specific file
anymore. The system would be sending information until the explosion or a loss
of connection, but if they found later out that they need anything else it
would be too late. Dr. Chevereux turned to Commander Illyuschenko and reported:
"We have everything we think we need. Will they make it on time?" Looking at
the time display in one of the command center walls, Illyuschenko simply asked:
"Are you a religious man, doctor?"
0627 Zulu
After crossing most of Russia in a flight that
included an aerial refuel, the flight of Tu-160 Blackjacks finally prepared
their attack run. The second bomber was kept as a reserve in case something
happened that prevented the first one to release its missiles and it was
circling the area. Meanwhile the first bomber moved in and the power engaged
the afterburners for full speed in the attack. When first bomber managed to
finally reach the Kh-15 missile maximum range it had already to dodge several
plasma volleys shot by the UFO who had gotten up in no doubt to face the plane.
When the targeting computer confirmed at lock on Azamas 36, the weapons systems
officer alerted the pilot. The attacking Tu-160 opened then his twin weapon
bays and fired both missiles. Then, the pilot rolled his plane until they were
almost flying the opposite direction, going away for sanctuary in the form of
distance and the flights of Russian Air Force fighters waiting for it in the
blue sky.
0628 Zulu
Running like madman in the barren ground, the
X-Com tried to put as much distance as possible from the city. They had lost
visual contact with the aliens after a series of rearguard confrontations that
had been costly to the extraterrestrials. But they had even further delayed the
team although now even the faster Chrysallids were to be seen anywhere. Since
the Snakemen were too slow to accompany the other aliens or even the humans
pace, they were being left behind, allowing the squads to take down the
Chryssalids with unopposed long-range fire, since the things didn't carry any
plasma weapons.
The team since then had went through a steeper
pace trying to get away from the nuclear blast that was eminent upon them.
Johnson kept checking this watch to see how many time they had left. Every
military safety procedure was being violated on this escape but that didn't
bother all the men and women on the team. Finally when there was only half a
minute he shouted: "Time's up! Get some cover!" Everyone immediately dove for
any depression on the ground that could cover them from the radiation, shock
wave and the heat that was about to come. Johnson looked back and saw that an UFO
was getting airborne, in no doubt trying to escape the area. They all tried to
dig themselves to the ground as deeper as possible, closing their eyes and
keeping their faces turned to away from the city.
0629 Zulu
Both SRAMs dropped several dozens of meters
below the Tu-160 after being launched, right before their solid fuel engines
started propelling them at a supersonic speed. It would take the missiles less
than four seconds to cover the ninety-kilometer distance to Azamas 36 and
detonate together in a nuclear blast.
However, a bit more than a second after their
launch, the two missiles encountered a wall of plasma shots and the alien's own
missiles. Then one of the mini-suns used by the aliens exploded close to the
missiles and threw them off course, sending one of them to crash harmlessly to
the ground and throwing the other one into the middle of a plasma beam that cut
into two parts.
0643 Zulu
After some minutes of waiting that more seemed
like a lifetime, Johnson signaled Corporal White who was covering in the ground
close to him: "Something is wrong here. Get HQ online to see what has
happened". The trooper took out the communications pack off his back and
immediately begun the task of preparing it for a satellite connection. He
produced a foldable antenna and opened it, afterwards connecting and preparing
the radio. He finally gave Johnson a headpiece. He grabbed it and spoke:
"Magic, Magic, this is Dancer, over". After
some seconds the reply from Area 51 came.
"Dancer, Magic up and listening to you. What's
your status?"
"Didn't manage to clear the area on time but
the explosion didn't go. You know what happened?"
"Word is getting to us from Mother that the
enemy managed to take out the attack missiles as they approached the site".
"They what!?!"
"They used antiaircraft fire. What is the enemy
up to?"
"We are seeing large movements of aliens
leaving the city. Will the Russians try again?"
"Can't tell right now. Are you clear?"
"We are ten clicks northwestern of the city.
Will the Russians still try to advance?"
"Unlikely since they were counting that the
blast decimated the aliens' ranks"
"Shit!"
"Yeah, get some cover and stay put. We are
still deciding how to retrieve you since we can't use the Skyrangers".
Johnson replied and went to gather the senior
officers on his command. They all grouped in the middle of the defense
perimeter set by the X-Com troops, with Lt. Jerrel as a substitute of the
deceased Captain Forrester.
"This is the situation: the aliens shot down
the nukes. Most likely the Russians won't make another attempt at this time and
will try to hold out the alien offensive, leaving us stranded here since the
Rangers would be shot down trying to cross their lines. High Command is trying
to sort out this mess, but right now we are right behind enemy lines with no
prospects for extraction. Any ideas?" All the other officers looked down in
resignation while Johnson tried also to think of a possible way out. After some
tense minutes where everyone kept trying not to get on despair, Markovitch
raised her head and spoke: "Why don't we blow the fucking nuclear reactor?"
Everyone looked at her as if she was crazy.
Patterson replied: "Blow the reactor?"
"I don't know how, I've just remembered. The
thing is also nuclear right? If we set some explosives on it or mess up the
controls and get out of there on the double, the whole thing could go off and
do the role the nukes were supposed to". She threw her hands up and Johnson
faced her. "And how are we going to do that Miss Rocket Scientist?"
"Get on the radio and talk to HQ. The nerds
over there will sure come up with a solution. Otherwise we are screwed and
Russia will never contain this toilet who is about to overflow with shit".
"That's insane Markovitch". Patterson replied
shaking his head.
"Piss off Mike. Do any of you have any better
ideas?" No one answered her question. Johnson looked at them and spoke: "OK, we
will pass that idea and see what they tell us. Meanwhile keep your eyes sharp
for alien movement. We can't risk being discovered at this time". He got up
and, still crouched moved towards White's position.
Mother One, Black Forest, Germany
Eva Johannes was still wondering what could be
the emergency situation that required her immediate presence when she entered
the operations room. Commander Illyuschenko was there, along with Colonel
MacTaggert, Dr. Chevereux and other senior officers, all grouped around one
table filled with maps and sheets of paper. The X-Com commander raised his head
and spoke. "We need quickly some technical information on nuclear reactors
Doctor and Dr. Chevereux told us you are the person here more familiar with the
subject".
"Well I did some work on the area before,
Commander. What do you need to know?"
"To put it simple: can a nuclear reactor be
rigged to explode as an atomic bomb?"
"Impossible. In a bomb you have a concentrated
amount of nuclear fuel that is quickly joined together and bombarded with
neutrons at the same time so that the reaction consumes the available uranium
and releases all the energy contained on it on less than a millisecond. In
nuclear reactors the fuel is separated into rods isolated from one another and
the process is closely controlled through the use of neutron absorbent
materials. Even when those are removed the heat will blow the plant first
before it explodes". Every officer shook its head and Chevereux said: "I told
you so Commander". Illyuschenko looked hopeless and but still asked, out of
curiosity: "But what if the control mechanisms were removed? What would
happen?"
"There on each rod the fuel isn't concentrated
enough like a bomb, so the neutrons have to fly further which due to the
neutron physics won't be enough for an explosion". The scientist started
stating what he had just said before, to make sure Illyuschenko had understood
it. "The most that you could achieve would be an overheating of the fission
materials that would lead into the melting of the reactor's core and the
release of huge amounts of radiation. Essentially the same that happened in the
disaster at Chernobyl".
The reference to mankind's worst nuclear
accident in history brought a strange look to Illyuschenko's face and Johannes
realized that the Commander probably had been personally affected in some way by it. "Chernobyl…." He started mumbling
but turned to the French scientist after some seconds of reflection. "Dr.
Chevereux, if something like that happened in Siberia, what would be the
effects on the aliens?"
The scientist looked puzzled but started
recalling the information he had on the aliens biology and metabolism. "Well,
most likely the radiation would cause mutations upon the alien's genetic
structure. In the case of the Chryssalids those changes would even be more
important due to the fact that they have a fast cell division rate. In humans
radiation greatly affects the marrow and reproductive tissues, due to the fact
that both of them are quickly generated and the cells don't have enough time to
conduct repairs upon the DNA before they divide, with the genetic errors being
carried to the next generation of cells. It would also greatly affect the
Snakemen, since they carry a lot of eggs. Most likely their ability to
self-reproduce would be severely constrained, not to mention other side effects
from short and long-term exposure to radiation since the alien's bodies doesn't
seem more shielded than ours".
"Commander, you can't just order the
destruction of a nuclear power plant! The environmental damage would be
horrendous, not to mention the possibility that the radiation would be carried
into civilized areas!" Johannes was shocked at the possibility. Illyuschenko
cut her off.
"Miss Johannes, I've had family and friends
affected by Chernobyl so I know that are the effects of such a disaster.
However, the situation here can turn out into something far worse and I need to
consider all the possibilities we have got left. If the aliens push their
attack my country's forces will be unable to restrain them to a confined area
and judging from their rate of multiplication and the possibility of receiving
reinforcements, the whole of Asia and Europe could be lost to them in months or
even weeks".
"You military are all the same, aren't you
Commander? Life is just like a bullet. Something to be expended if there's a
need to it and all with the justification that without the sacrifice further
losses would occur". She shook her head.
"I won't get into this discussion now, Miss
Johannes. What I need is that you and Dr. Chevereux tell me how it can be done.
If your conscience forbids you to do so, you can always resign the unit. In any
case I expect that this matter doesn't get out of this room".
0712 Zulu, Azamas 36, Siberia, Russian
Federation
All of the commanding officers had gathered
again upon Johnson summon. He still felt uneasy about the orders received from
Commander Illyuschenko, but there was nothing he could do since they seemed the
last hope available. "In five minutes we head back to the facility and approach
the nuclear reactor to make it blow. Looks like your idea was useful after all
Markovitch". She looked back at him, shocked. "I didn't know it was possible!"
"From what I've been told, it isn't. But when
we get there we will tinker with the reactor's controls to hopefully create
another Chernobyl, although we will be long away from it before it happens". He
still felt very uncomfortable at the whole prospect of making what could be the
worst nuclear contamination in history but had decided to leave those thoughts
for after, when they all managed to get back to safety.
Lt. Jerrel showed his fear on his voice: "But
even if we are far away from the reactor when it happens, what about the
radiation? Tactical nukes are far 'cleaner'. On this case we are going to
release massive doses through an large area around the reactor".
"This whole mission had taken that into
consideration. The body armour we are carrying is made out of alien materials
and we could only get better protection if we were wearing a lead suit. We will
have to make a complete clean up of any radioactive particles when we reach the
Russian lines but they will have the necessary equipment. The Red Army has been
equipping the forces around Azamas 36 for NBC (Nuclear, Biological and
Chemical) warfare for the past days so that they can fight in such
environments. As long as we keep in cover while the wind carries the particles
around we should come out with no problems".
"Shit, we all will be glowing in the dark for
the remainder of our lives". Markovitch spat.
"You're not coming to the reactor with the rest
of us, Markovitch". She looked at him in surprise as he continued. "The
scientists have taken all the necessary information from the backup computers.
But we can't leave any trace of our presence here or allow that the Russians
access again that information. I want you to go back and retrieve our communications
gear and destroy the data stored there". All officers threw interrogatorial
looks at him.
"I know what you are thinking. The Russian team
also divided themselves and they were crushed. But if we want to savage the
entire operation and don't turn into worthless all the deaths that have already
happened, we need to do this". She shook her head in concern. "Are you sure you
want to do this Colonel?"
She's afraid? Johnson asked himself, not
believing that she ever would have admitted it in combat. But as he realized of
what she was afraid of he become speechless. She and her men could be trapped
and killed like it had happened with Gerasimov's platoon. And if that happened
Johnson would never be able to forgive himself and Markovitch would be dying knowing
that. He looked at her eyes and said: "I'm sure Sheila. But I trust you and I
hope that you feel the same about me". She closed her eyes for a moment and
afterwards got up. "There might be some sort of explosives left in the
barracks. Two squads, one to take guard while the second rigs the place. I
won't need more men". He nodded to her "go" and faced the other officers "Let's
start moving".
Mother One, Black Forest, Germany
Dr. Chevereux unfolded a large blueprint over a
lit table for all the scientists around the table to see. Printed on white
lines and letters, the technical schematics of a nuclear reactor were
recognized by all after some seconds. "This is the Soviet built RMBK nuclear
plant. Science should serve mankind, but in this case we need to discover how
we can make it wage destruction. Basically what we need is to provoke a short,
massive release of radiation from its core.
One of the scientists, a former East German,
turned to him and said: "That's the same type of reactor responsible for
Chernobyl, Dr. Chevereux. I did studies on those in my youth and even worked in
one as part of scientific personnel exchanges. If you open the hell contained
inside one of them, it will take a lot of work to close it".
"Your warning is noted, Dr. Schmidt.
Unfortunately there are more things at stake here right now. If you know of a
way who, please tell us so?"
The man thought for a second and then pointed
to a group of conducts on the left and right sides of the reactor. "There's one
way to do it. First you increase the power level until the coolant water
becomes so hot so that even the high pressure can't help it from turning into
steam, dramatically increasing the heat inside the reactor since there's no
coolant anymore and provoking an explosion. Even though this type of reactors
suffered security modifications, we can bypass the automatic safeguards. We
then program the control computers to slowly raise the power and at a point to
cut down the heat transfer mechanisms. The central core will melt in seconds
due to the excessive heat".
"Can the team do it?" The German scientist
thought for a second and replied: "I doubt it. Too many things can go wrong and
you would need a trained specialist that knows the system. Not to mention the
fact that everything should be in Russian and it would take anyone who doesn't
know the language too long for it". Dr. Chevereux looked in dismay.
"However there might just be another way. If we
destroy the control system and provoke leaks on the cooling conducts the
reaction should increase enough to provoke an explosion. Basically one of the
flaws in this reaction system is the positive void coefficient. That means that
if some refrigeration water is lost the nuclear reactions will actually
increase, on the contrary of the majority of the reactors where they
automatically stop. That's one of the design flaws that caused Chernobyl and if
the system that deploys the control rods automatically to reduce the fission
reaction is down the whole thing will go up".
"The team still has some demolition explosives
left. Let's start looking over these prints to where to place them". As Dr.
Chevereux finished talking all the scientists gathered more around the table.
0937 Zulu
The nuclear reactor's compartment was a large
building attached a larger but lower rectangular one. On its top a cooling
tower released the excess water vapor caused by the heat exchange mechanism
that refrigerated the reactor and provided heat to be transformed into
electricity. High-tension power lines connected the electrical generator to the
rest of the facility. The X-Com team had found it to be once again deserted of
any people, which sent brought uneasy thoughts to all the troopers after they
had finished their sweeps under the still illuminated rooms and corridors. So
far Azamas 36 had proven to be completely empty of any former inhabitants,
although it was reported to have a population of several thousand military and
scientific personnel plus their families and other inhabitants. The thought of
what had happened to all those people troubled Johnson and he wished that they
all would be dead by now.
Using the indications given by Mother he had
sent demolition teams to several points in the reaction. Since the spare radio
had been left out at the backup database to beam the research to the satellite
they had to use the only one they had left. But it didn't matter. Nothing else
mattered. His men were setting up the detonation system, using wire taken from
the walls to connect the bombs to the explosives that were being set in
different places of the facility.
What have I done, Johnson asked himself.
Everyone on the team was starting to show signs of fatigue after hours of
running around. How much further can I push them?
He decided to step outside the room and get
some air. Moving out the door he paused to see the morning Sun and decided to
find out a near toilet to take a piss and water his face. Crossett started
following him but he dismissed the soldier after finding a public toilet down
the corridor. As he was pissing he immediately felt more relieved. When he
finished he went to the sinks and tried the taps while looking at his face in
the mirror and noticing how tired it looked. Water immediately flew out of them
and he washed his hands and afterwards brought his head down and watered his
face. As he got up again he stopped in the middle as he saw a black thing
coming from the corridor behind him.
Jumping to his left side, he barely managed to
dodge the charging Chryssalid, who tried to hit him with its claws right before
it crashed into the sink, breaking it and the mirror in the process and falling
down on the ground. Johnson was already there and was trying to get up, but the
fountain of water coming of the broken taps was making his combat boots skittle
in the floor. He reached for his laser pistol but as the alien got up there was
a crack sound. The Chrysallid's body immediately became full of small holes,
making it stumble backwards. However it quickly regained its balance and lunged
forwards again. Meanwhile Crossett reloaded his shotgun and fired another shot
at it while Johnson also discharged his laser pistol several times.
A strange liquid started to came out of the
locations where it had gotten hit again and it dropped face forward to the
ground. Crossett quickly reloaded and filled its gray body with several more
shots until he felt assured that the thing was dead. After that he went to see
the toilet cabinets in the corridor from where the alien had appeared when he
came back Johnson had already gotten to his feet and several other X-Com
troopers had appeared. He merely spoke: "Found some human remains back there
and an open ventilation grill. The guy must have been impregnated and when the
alien popped up it must have decided to nest inside the ventilation system".
Johnson thought it strange but left it to the
xenobiologists back at the base to think of what it meant. Despite being shaken
from what had happened he remembered however to bark a warning to any trooper
regarding enemy stragglers.
0954 Zulu
As Markovitch and her men were exiting the
backup system she let go of a deep breath, considering that they had managed to
clean up X-Com's tracks and destroy the data contained without a glitch. They
had used the lasers first to cut through the information banks and afterwards
placed grenades into them before setting the whole place on fire using whatever
combustible materials they could find. Sergeant Krenon had found a couple of
intact half-full petrol barrels in the remains of the wrecked motor pool and
those had been moved inside and their contents spilled over everything. After
they had set fire into it and cleared the underground room, a couple of
explosions greeted them. They then moved away, before the aliens decided to
send a team there to investigate and headed towards the rendezvous point with
the rest of the team.
1129 Zulu
Johnson kept looking at his watch. They were
waiting for Markovitch for ten minutes now and she still hadn't appeared at the
rally point and they couldn't wait any longer. No further incidents had
occurred at the reactor station and they had successfully rigged the place.
However they had no way to contact Markovitch after leaving the radio back. She
had used the spare to inform them that she had been successful and was heading
backwards but that had been thirty minutes ago. He looked at Patterson and
spoke: "Mike, they can't be that far". The other officer simply closed his
eyes.
1141 Zulu
The reason behind Markovitch's delay had been
that her squads had stumbled upon a Snakemen patrol as they were close to their
destiny. As she gave the order for everyone to hide she realized that it would
be useless as the plasma fire was starting already to come from the aliens,
together with grenades. Holding her laser rifle tighter she saw as her point
man, Corporal Shaw was suddenly cut down by heavy plasma fire, falling dead to
the ground as he was trying to get more cover. She immediately spotted the
alien responsible for it and sent it reeling to the ground with two well-placed
shots into its head and torso.
However, the situation wasn't getting any
better. She had estimated more than fifteen Snakemen and she now was reduced to
seven men, which didn't make for terrific odds. In any case they needed to pull
back or do something else, since they couldn't call in for help.
1150 Zulu
As the final Snakemen was cut down by a round
of armor piercing shots fired from Pershing's heavy cannon, the men of Gamma
and Sigma squads quickly moved forwards, followed on the flanks by Alpha and
Beta and covered by Omega's snipers. When they reached the alien's line they
went to check that everyone of them was dead. By then the survivors of Zeta and
Phi squads had started to come out of their cover positions among the ground.
Looking for Markovitch's figure, Johnson didn't spot her in the three soldiers
who were know approaching him and feared the worst. He recognized Sergeant
Krenon and went over to him, asking almost in a panic: "Where's the Captain?"
The trooper made a weak smile and pointed with
his thumb backwards. "Over there. She suffered a concussion from an alien
grenade that exploded too closely but she will be all right in a little while.
Prune also got injured and Camay is back there taking care of both. Too bad
Shaw and Freyuth didn't made it but thanks for the save, Colonel". Johnson
immediately placed a hand over the non-commissioned officer's shoulder and the
man nodded to him. He stayed there for a minute until he headed towards the
group of injured troopers.
Markovitch was lying on the ground with a
medikit close to her side but trying to get up, in spite of the objections
being made by Private Camay, the female soldier strictly ordering her officer
to lie down. As she suddenly noticed him, she immediately said: "About time you
decided to show up!" Looking at her commander, Camay decided to let him deal
with her and went to check on Prune's status.
He moved closer and replied: "Thanks for
keeping them into a straight line. You made them exactly into place for us to
ambush them as we were approaching". He offered her a hand to get up. She
grabbed it and answered back: "Well, next time don't wait too long". As she was
almost up he used the momentum to push her closer to him and hold her in an
embrace. "I won't," he said. Markovitch become surprised but didn't step away,
the feeling of him suddenly justifying everything.
While both officers stood there the two
privates on the ground had dropped their mouths to the ground in complete
surprise, looking at the entire situation for some seconds until they wisely
decided in silence to ignore it and act as if they hadn't seen it. She started
moved away from him and spoke. "Before anything else, you still have to get us
out of here". Taking conscience again of the situation he said: "I will. Can
you walk?"
She smiled. "I can run if I have to. Wanna race
me?" He shook his head. "Get your troops running. We are leaving this wasteland
this minute". He looked at the sky. Even in the middle its short summer Siberia
looked as desolate as ever.
1606 Zulu
The X-Com team had finally managed to reach the
vicinity of the Russian lines and contacted Colonel Boronin on the spare radio
retrieved by Markovitch. When radio contact was finally made he gathered his
team and went to pick up Johnson and his men and lead them through the Russian
lines. When finally both teams encountered themselves in the no man's land
between the Red Army and the aliens, Johnson simply nodded to Boronin when both
men encountered and the Russian officer gave an ordered to his radioman. No
word was spoken afterwards as they went back and crossed the lines at a
different point than the one Boronin had left so that the Russian troopers
wouldn't notice that he was returning with far more soldiers. They immediately
headed for the Skyrangers, with Johnson noticing how all the Russian camp had
turned into a hectic confusion as the radiation cloud coming from the now blown
power plant was detected by the radiation meters. He looked at Azamas 36 at saw
that the early afternoon sky now seemed to have a pinkish hue coming from the
city. Johnson wondered if the radiation would be actually visible, but then
decided not to think anymore about it. Now it was the Russians time to deal
with all the mess they nearly had gotten everyone into it. Getting into line
for the decontamination showers he got ready for the chemical shower that would
clean his armor of any radioactive particles attached to it before boarding the
planes.
1625 Zulu
The X-Com Russian trooper carrying the radio
merely took it down and deployed its antenna, selected an unused frequency and
pushed the transmit button. The small electronic umbrella sent a short radio
burst up the sky, towards the communications satellite that then beamed it back
to Siberia. The satellite engines then made a short burst, making it starting
to fall back to Earth. But before it re-entered the planet atmosphere and
burned up into pieces the artificial machine executed its orders in space
completely unaware of the damage they had caused or what would happen to its
own fate.
Many kilometers below the satellite, three sets
of explosives all rigged together to the radio receiver went off at the same
time inside the nuclear reactor as their detonators were triggered by the
transmission. One of them was placed against the conducts that transported
cooling water to inside the reactor, cutting them and immediately flooding the
room with water so hot that when it came outside the ruptured tubes it
immediately went to steam. The temperature rose immediately but in a few
seconds it was quickly surpassed by the one of the reactor. The loss of the
cooling liquid had immediately raised the temperature of the fuel rods several
thousand degrees and increasing the number of nuclear fission reactions taking
place inside them. The automatic control system would detect such an event and
immediately deploy control rods, which absorbed neutrons and stopped the
nuclear reactions, avoiding a disaster. But the second and third explosions had
taken out both the system and the electrical power to the engines that operated
the rods. Without any force left to constrain its growing power the number of
fission reactions increased quickly until the heat generated was too great for
the water still circling in the refrigeration tubes, making it explode and take
out the cover of the reactor and also the roof of the building that housed it.
The blast ejected into the outside a cloud of
highly radioactive materials from the now melted fuel rods and the reactor
itself, including uranium, cesium, strontium and the highly toxic plutonium.
The level of radiation in the vicinity of the reactor immediately went up
several thousand times, making it dangerous for a human to stand in the area
for even minutes wearing a protection. And the reactor wasn't dead yet, still
spilling out his deadly entrails away to the wind. It would continue to do so
for many more days.
2049 Zulu
Some hours after the explosion the Red Army
soldiers begun to see groups of aliens trying to break their lines but in a
disorganized fashion. The Snakemen and the Chryssalids seemed more preoccupied
in escaping the area than to actually perform an attack, which made easier the
job for the tanks and the soldiers. The wind had spread the death area now so
that it included most of Azamas 36 perimeter, including large sections of the
city. For thousands even millions of years the city would become inaccessible
to any human, due to the radiation emitted by the radioactive fallout. The
Russian High Command had already determined the cause of the explosion and was
moving more men and equipment to stop the release of radiation of the reactor
core as soon as all alien opposition was defeated.
They didn't had to wait too long as six hours
after the explosion the UFOs took off their positions near the city and headed
permanently for space. But Earth's victory was a phyrric one. It would take the
Russians many months to contain and seal the open radiation core, even with
assistance from all of X-Com's funding nations and the technical assistance of
the organization. But unlike Chernobyl the casualties from the clean-up crews
that built the coffin to contain the
radiation were lower than in that incident, due to the usage of anti-radiation
suits made by X-Com and using the alien alloys. Still, the whole explosion
created huge public health problems as the radiation cloud traveled through
Siberia and Russia.