Cold War
by Warringer
Chapter Nine
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Franklin was horrified as the 4x4 of the Sanchez drove through the rubble that had once been a good sized city. Everywhere he could see Narn digging through the rubble and trying to help the injured. Now that they got closer to the Space Port, he could also see more and more Narn with burnt faces who were bleeding from their eyes as they had been literally cooked while looking at the fire ball from the detonating nuke.
Thankfully the 4x4 hadn't been damaged and they were able to make good time towards the Space Port. At least until a group of uninjured Narn stood in front of the vehicle and David had to stop.
Franklin couldn't really help but stare at the weapons of the Narn. Sure Kalashnikov's were pretty wide spread since the Soviets started to sell them, but to see six Narn with AK-74 particle rifles and red armlets printed with hammer and sickle.
"In the name of the workers, this vehicle is confiscated."
David cursed and shot a glance at Franklin.
"-The glove compartment,-" David said over the wireless comm that was standard for all cybrains,"- You know how to use a weapon?-"
Franklins face didn't change as he moved his hand towards the glove compartment to open it, grateful that the Narn weren't able to really look into the passenger cabin of the 4x4.
"-Of cause I can,-" he answered on the same way,"- I was in a gang for six years.-"
The glove compartment opened and a pair of caliber .50 Dessert Eagles fell from it. Franklin took one of the large handguns and armed it, while giving the other to David.
The Narn outside was getting impatient and pointed his AK-74 at David's head.
"Get out of the vehicle."
"Let me think," David said and surprised the six Narn," I'm in a city that was nearly destroyed by three nukes, want to get to the space port and am held up by six communists with weapons. What do you think we should do Franklin?"
"Lets get the hell outa here," Franklin said and pulled up his Dessert Eagle so that the Narn next to his door of the 4x4 could see it before it blew his head apart, while David mimicked his motions.
He gunned the motor of the 4x4 and raced straight through the four Narn that stood in front of the vehicle, squishing them underneath.
Through all this Dao was sitting on a rear seat, not really noticing anything of this, still in shock and not noticing anything.
Now as they drove towards the Space Port at a faster pace and Franklin looked at David.
"Now it is time you tell me what the hell is going on here."
David didn't take his look off the way he was driving the 4x4 as he answered.
"The Narn are getting a serious communist problem."
"What?"
The vehicle left the city and after some hundred meters drove onto the reinforced concrete of the Space Port.
"The KGB has inserted agents and advisers into the Narn Regime. There is a communistic underground movement that grew in the last years. It looks like they are now making their move. No doubt with the help of the Soviets."
Franklin just stared at David.
"The nukes were soviet nukes. 20 kiloton catalytic warheads, detonating as groundbursts."
"Shit."
David just nodded.
"Yes, shit."
Most of the buildings on and near the Space Port had been blown apart by the shock wave and weren't much more than heaps of rubble. Narn shuttles and smaller space ships had been thrown around like toys and were lying around like a giant kid had forgotten to clean up its room and had decided to set them on fire.
Franklin swallowed as they drove towards the place where the Sanchez had landed. He didn't had the illusion that the ship had survived the nuke. And he didn't had the illusion that anyone had survived this near Ground Zero.
On their way towards the Sanchez, they passed Ground Zero, crater of a hundred meter diameter, still glowing from the heat of the detonation. David was glad that his sensors only measured a radiation of around a half Rad, too little to be deadly and thanked that it had been a clean nuke. But that didn't lessen the destruction.
Finally about five hundred meter distant to Ground Zero, they passed a pile of rubble that had once been a warehouse and the 4x4 stopped with David and Franklin staring.
The Enrico Sanchez was standing there, seemingly undamaged from the outside. They only thing that seemed to be damaged were the four fusion drives of the 75 meter long freighter.
"Well, I'll be," David said silently," The Pallas class can take a lot."
Franklin shook his head clear after hearing David talking and his mind already started to look for the damages of the ship. The warehouse seemed to have shielded the ship from the majority of the nukes blast. The only thing that hadn't been shielded were the four main drives, completely destroyed by flying rubble and the heat blast. There were also a few antennas missing, but the rest of the ship seemed to be in peak condition.
"Damn," he finally said," Even the atmospheric engines are intact. But I doubt that she will ever see the free space again. Not without a few says in dock for new engines."
"-Franklin?-" he than heard a voice with a latino accent over his comm,"- That you?-"
"-Yeah, Cap. You okay?-"
"-A bit rattled, but everything seems fine. What the hell happened?-"
Franklin looked at David who had to listen in with his mil spec cybrain. David just nodded and continued to drive the rest of the way towards the freighter.
"-A longer story, I guess.-"