Rainbow Over Sunnydale Chapter 4
Disclaimer: Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters. Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. Anyone else belongs to me. I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.
Spoilers: Buffy to present. Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.
Authors note: I am adjusting the Buffy time line slightly. Never Leave Me happened just before fic started.
Thanks to all that reviewed. Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.
"Oh Lord, please be speaking metaphorically." George Winston prayed.
"'Fraid not George." Tony said grimly. "It's a real place, and from what Colonel McCloud has told me, and from the little bit I have read it may be possible for him to do it. If he succeeds the results would be apocalyptic."
"Where is it?" Ryan asked. "Can we get people in there to defend it?"
"It's in California Mr. President, a small town called Sunnydale." Said the Colonel. "As far as being able to defend it one of the Initiative teams apparently did not run. The CO of the team, a Riley Finn was with the Initiative when they were deployed in Sunnydale from 1999 to 2000."
When he mentioned Sunnydale both Pierre Alexander and Dan Murray's faces lost a little focus as if they were trying to remember were they had heard that name before.
"Why didn't the General take this team along with the other teams." Ryan wanted to know, then realizing that he did not even know how big one of these teams were so he asked. "Speaking of which how many people are we up against?"
"There are…or rather were three Initiative teams operational. General Billingsly took Teams One and Two with him when he bolted. Both of those teams where made up by him of hand picked people that were completely loyal to the General. Team Three was put together by Riley Finn when he rejoined the Initiative in 2001 and was made up of people who survived Sunnydale. Each team is made up of ten people drawn from the various Special Forces Commands."
"When you say survived Sunnydale, I take it that the initial experiment did not end well?" Robby Jackson queried. "How bad was it?"
"We took 100% casualties of field personal. 60% were fatal." The Colonel said quietly to the shocked listeners. He went on. "Any questions about what went on in Sunnydale should wait until the Finns show up, they are on their way in right now and should be here soon."
"Okay we will give them a couple of minutes, then if they are not here you can give us an overview of what went on." Ryan agreed. "What happened after Sunnydale?"
"The Initiative was shattered. Dr. Margaret Walsh who was the initiator of a lot of the control technology that was used was killed earlier and most of the technicians and other scientist that she trained were killed in the last battle. So there was no one to really carry on the research. The Oversight Committee decided and President Durling agreed that the research end of the organization should not be rebuilt and that instead the Initiative should be rebuilt into a group of search and destroys units. He believed that at a later time when things had quieted down and certain researchers became available it would be possible to restart the science end and find a non-lethal way of dealing with these creatures, but until then we needed to protect people from them."
"So you just kill them?" Pat Martin, the Attorney General, asked.
"Yes sir." Seeing the look of shock and disgust on the Attorney Generals face he went on. "Please understand sir, what we are fighting are not things that can be reasoned with. We were dealing, in many cases, with what amounts to a rouge bear or a mountain lion."
"Margaret Walsh, would that be Maggie Walsh?" Dr. Alexander asked.
"Yes Sir, did you know her?" Colonel McCloud said.
"Yes her death in that auto acciden…" The Surgeon General began, "I guess she didn't die in a car crash did she?"
"No she was killed by something that she was working on." Colonel McCloud said. "Again, Agent Finn was present when she was killed so he would probably be the best person to answer specific questions. As for what she was working on, just before her break down Sue Elliot had authorized Dr. Walsh to begin an experimental program to see if she could make a "Super Soldier" utilizing parts from demons, technology, and human remains. She apparently succeeded, but when it woke up the first thing Adam did was kill Dr. Walsh."
Robby Jackson looked disgusted and said. "Adam huh? Kind of egotistical you think."
"That would described Maggie Walsh just about to a tee." Dr Alexander said shaking his head. "I never liked her much but I can forgive a lot if the person knows what they are doing." Looking at the VP the Surgeon General Said. "Maggie Walsh was one of the best behavior modification people out there. She had too be she didn't have much by way of people skills."
"You mean if you can't do, teach?" Mary Pat asked.
"Actually her cover at the UC Sunnydale was as a psychology professor." Colonel McCloud said. "We chose UCD because it was possible to cover a large group of young/fit men as grad students and teaching assistants. Plus the campus itself gave us access to computers and labs."
"Why was Sunnydale chosen?" Ryan asked. "Did you know about the Hellmouth going in?"
"No sir. Sunnydale was chosen because its death rate was so high to be statistically improbable. It was concluded that it would be an area rich in HST's." The Colonel explained.
"HST's?" The President wondered.
"I am sorry sir, Hostile Sub-Terrestrials. Its what we called the various demoniods."
"One thing I don't understand." Pat Marten wondered. "What does the General hope to accomplish by opening this Hellmouth? Wouldn't that end the world?"
"I think I know the answer to that one." Robby Jackson said quietly.
"Go on Robby." POTUS directed.
"Hollywood mostly gets it wrong. They portray the Anti-Christ as this horrible monster out to destroy the world. That isn't what his job will be. The Anti-Christ first and foremost is a seducer. He will try to get as many people to follow him to damnation as possible. I think that General Billingsly has decided that the war is lost so he is going to limit the devils victory."
"Looking at Gotterdamerung's outline I think you may be right in that assessment Mr. Vice President." Colonel McCloud agreed.
Pat Marten was quiet, everyone was, as he or she all just sat back and absorbed what they had just learned. "Okay," President Ryan said into the quiet. "Ed, John and Ding are in town right?"
"Yes, they are attending the Anti-Terror Round Table they are having over at Fort Meade." The DCI replied.
"Okay get in contact with them and have them stand by for a deployment. I know we have to go through NATO to get Rainbow but I want them ready to go."
"Do you want them to report here?" Foley asked.
"No have them report to Andrew's and wait there. When we finish the briefing we will send the Finns along to them and then send them on their way."
"Tony, I'm sorry, I know we have some good people in the Special Operations Command, but Billingsly has been recruiting from that pool, we don't know if he has left any moles behind, and this is too important to take the risk." Ryan apologized to SecDef.
"I understand Mr. President. Personally I was going to suggest that we either use Rainbow, or if they weren't available then to use the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team's." Tony Brentono said to his CIC.
"Thanks Tony. We are going to need Scott Adler to make the request for a Rainbow activation, bad week for him to be in Mexico. I want to keep this information at the top level only so Tony could you Tap-dance a message down to Scott in Mexico and have him send the request to The Hague for
Rainbow? I think one team should work, but leave the option open for the second one as well."
"Tell Scott that we well send the Information to the NATO Security Council by Courier but we need the teams immediately." The President said.
"Do you have some one that we can use as a courier for this info?" He continued.
"Yeah, Joe Spano, he is bring in the Finns right now." The SecDef replied.
"Okay brief him in then set him up with a briefing packet and send him to The Hague." The President ordered.
"Sure Jack." The SecDef said as he got up and left the office.
Jack Ryan turned and said to the Secret Service Agent in the Office, "Ben could you ask Andrea Price to join us in this meeting?"
"At once Sir." The agent replied, then passed on the request to the command center across the street.
Ryan then pressed the intercom on his desk and said, 'Ellen could you ask Dr. Goodly to come down to my office please."
"Yes sir." The secretary replied.
As they were waiting for the rest of attendees to arrive President Ryan said to Colonel McCloud while he nodded at the TV set. "Who was he?"
"The Vampire?"
"Yes."
"He was Airman Second Class Thomas Price. He disappeared during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was a perimeter guard at an Atlas missile silo near where he eventually perished. At the time and given his discipline record it was thought that he had deserted. It is still possible that he did and was turned at a later time."
"Does he have any surviving family?" Ryan wondered.
"Some distance cousins only sir." The Colonel responded. "His immediate family were killed in a house fire about 2 months after he went AWOL. It is just about standard operating procedure for a vampire to kill his family and friends."
"How can they kill their own families?" George Winston asked.
"When some one is turned, it is no longer the original person. From what we have learned, the Siring process prepares the body to be inhabited by a demon, this demon has the person's memories, and usually some of their personality, but it is not them. Families and friends make easy marks, it's easy for them to get an invite in." Colonel McCloud explained.
"Invite?" Dan Murray asked.
"Yes one thing that Hollywood and Bram Stroker got right is that vampires may not enter a house unless invited. This is one of the reasons that we think they go after their loved ones. If you think about it makes sense, if your son or daughter, husband or wife, or even a good friend showed up at your door would you think twice about asking them in?"
Everyone in the room shuddered when they thought about the number of times that they had done just that.
The Secret Service Agent broke the silence when he announced, "The Finns have just arrived at the back gate."