Chapter 58 - Aftermath
The Commander's arm hurt, he had banged it pretty bad, it might be fractured he thought, and as he got his bearings, he heard the other vehicle crewmen telling everyone to get out, then a hand taking his good arm to help him up. He didn't remember much that happened, he had seen the flash instinctively then dropping back into his vehicle, closing the hatch behind him, his armored crewman reflexes taking over at the sight of danger. Then there was the noise, and something like a fist hitting his vehicle, and finally the rolling until he found himself here. Now once out of the vehicle, the full extent of what happened hit him and overwhelmed him, never in his life had he seen so much destruction in one small place.
His vehicle was on its side, its surface blackened, the tires surface charred, the vehicle had saved most of them, as his crew slowing limped out, the only person noticeably missing his radio man, who his sergeant quickly told him was dead. The second vehicle that was with him was 10 yards away on its roof, its crew now out of it the Commander quickly noticing a couple its crew visibly missing too. The rest of his unit was not so lucky, the Commander noticing the next vehicle only 50 yards away, well half of it, and that half was burning like an inferno, it had been over a couple hundred yards closer to the thing, so the blast had blown it back at them. The Commander now stepped to a place where he could see better and saw that all his vehicles were nowhere were they had been originally stopped and none of them was in one piece, they were all just parts of vehicles and all those parts were burning. That would be very disturbing if the Commander didn't know his soldiers where walking to the thing when it happened and now, as he looked out, he saw not a single intact body.
-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-
"Howard!…..Howard!" Leonard talked into the SATCOM radio before his mind told him without the backpack Howard had no power, and could not respond. Leonard just then looked at the satellite picture trying to will the display to clear up, the thought running through his mind that he had just killed his friend. He looked at the Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, sitting near him, the man's face said it all, it was a sympathy look, he didn't think Howard had survived at all. Leonard turned back to the screen, the sense of dread now filling his soul, how would he tell Bernadette, how would he tell her he killed her husband.
In the Pentagon control room the SECDEF just shook his head, this was not what he wanted to happen, but at least the technology was not captured. He turned to the Four Star General, "How long will this set back the program, loosing this man?"
Turner's head shot around, staring at the politician in disbelief, starting to say something until he felt the hand grab his arm. The words were gentle and caring as they were whispered to him, "Not Now, later we'll mourn." the Four Star told him as he let go of Turners arm. Turner just looked at the man and nodded.
The room was very quiet, until the Air Force liaison officer broke the silence, "Gentlemen I have a communication from aircraft overhead the area." Then into the radio, "Strike 1, go ahead." The Four Star General then nodded to the Major to put the SATCOM radio transmission on speaker.
The room filled with the radio communication from the F-15E crew as it came over SATCOM, "Roger Crystal Tower, connecting now." There was silence for a few seconds.
"Crystal Tower, this is Tin Man, over." Howard's voice came over weakly.
Leonard almost had a heart attack, "HOWARD!"
-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-
The explosion had left Howard stunned, sore and almost deaf, he could even feel the small trickle of blood from his broken eardrum on his left side. He still couldn't believe he survived, the experience was so unbelievable, plus unbelievably loud, and he never wanted to go through it again. The memory of it was engraved in his mind, the sudden shock as he was pushed into the wall, hard, then he felt the suit compress, he thought it was going to crush him, but just when it got almost unbearable it stopped and slowly the pressure decreased until the sudden realization came to him he was still alive. The freaking suit had saved him, Leonard had been right, but now that it was over Howard had no power, he was just hundreds of pounds of dead weight.
It was then Howard remembered the battery back up system he put in, it was in the front of the suit, to purposely separate it from the backpack and it have been between the suit and the rock, he wondered if it survived. He moved his head, in the helmet, and hit the switch to the side, with his chin, and watched as the little blinking light came on, he had power, so he just waited for the backup system to boot. The process took longer than normal, and Howard knew it was damaged, when the reduced display said he only had 70 percent power to start, but it was better than nothing and as Howard tried to move he knew he now had other problems. The left leg would not bend at the knee and Howard was barely able to turn around with the stiff leg, he knew now he wasn't going far and suddenly his sudden hope all vanished as he leaned the suit back against the rock to steady it. He tried to think what to do, he had lost all the SATCOM communications capability with the backpack and only had a emergency radio, like pilots used after bailout, in the backup part of the suit. He was scared to turn it on, but did he have any other choice, if they were going to rescue him they had to know where he was and all his locating equipment went up with the backpack. "Computer, radio on." Howard watched the little radio symbol come up and after accepting what he did, started to relax.
The F-15E's arriving over the area, immediately picked up the signal, they had seen the blast from miles away on their approach, so the emergency radio beacon coming on was a surprise. "What do you think, it is transmitting on Guard?" the weapons officer asked the pilot on the aircraft intercom.
"I don't know, but it is one of ours, the codes come back good." the pilot thought for a second, "Make it a low power transmission."
"Okay." the weapons officer adjusted the radio then spoke, "Strike 1 to emergency transmitter on guard, over."
Howard smiled. "Strike 1, this is Tim Man, over." he didn't feel alone anymore
-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-
The Pentagon control room was in chaos, the status of the rescue helicopters now a high priority again, as Howard's rescue being the most important thing at the moment. "Sir they are regrouped now and have split up, the Rangers are now being picked up, while Tin Man's ride is 5 to 7 minutes out."
"Good…..good." The Four Star repeated, finally something was going right, at least he thought so.
"Sir, I have men moving to Tin Man's position." The Major looked at the General with concern.
-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-
The Commander had been looking at the thing with his binoculars when it moved, it moving again made him just angry. He could not believe it was still even there, and he thought there was maybe something still to salvage from all this disaster. However it moving was also a shock to his mind, after all this destruction it had done, and the destruction of his unit, the Commander could now only feel hate. As he watched it move and he could tell it was hurt, very hurt, it had already stopped and was leaning against the rock wall, the Commander was tired and mad, he just wanted to kill this thing once and for all. He turned to his men, ordering them to retrieve their rifles and then with his remaining 10 men started to walk towards the source of all his troubles, Tin Man.
-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-
The Four Star General watched the men move towards Tin Man, he couldn't believe after all that had happened the enemy was still after him. The General turned to the Air Force liaison, "Those aircraft are armed, right?"
"Yes sir, but the targets are close to our man." The Air Force officer responded.
The Fours Star looked at Turner who nodded, picking up the phone, "Leonard we are about to bomb around Howard, will the suit take it."
Leonard had been sitting quietly, relieved about Howard being alive, and thinking about what he was going to do when he saw his friend again, when Turner's voice through his head set brought him out of his thoughts. Leonard quickly looked back on the screen and saw the spots representing soldiers moving toward Howard, "How big of bombs, Sir. The suit is probably not as strong as before, I'm not sure it can handle anything big."
Turner turned to the Air Force officer, "How big of bombs, there is a concern."
The Air Force Liaison looked at a clip board, "They have sub munition canisters, basically like hand grenades, hundreds of them, will those be okay."
Turner nodded, "Leonard, hand grenades, hundreds of them."
Leonard thought for a second, "Okay, but let Howard know."
Turner turned to the Four Star, "Bomb them Sir." The Four Star then turned to the Air Force officer and nodded. "Strike 1 is authorized to use CBU-103s on the target." the officer then confirmed, finally looking back at the Four Star, "On their way sir."
The lead F-15E crew swung their plane around for a bomb run, their wingman tucked in to the right of them slightly above them, the lead plane would be the only one dropping weapons. The weapons officer locking the target area with his targeting pod and feeding the coordinates into the electronics of the bombs, they would be dropping four of them to blanket the area. The computer and man's training made everything go quickly, so as they entered their bomb run he had a few seconds to warn Tim Man. "Strike 1 to Tin Man, over."
Howard welcomed the radio contact, it made him feel better as he waited for the helicopters they told him were only a few minutes out. "Tin Man here, go ahead Strike 1, over."
"Tim Man we are bombing you position, over."
"WHAT!" Howard yelled, "I mean, Strike 1, repeat, over."
"Tim Man we are bombing your position, sub munitions, grenades, over."
Howard, relaxed a little bit, but just a little, "Roger Strike 1, understand, over."
The weapons officer finished his programming, the computer would actually release the weapons at the right time, the weapons officer turning over the final control to it.
The computers took over the actual release, as the F-15E came over the programmed release point, the computer fired the ejector racks in a predetermined sequence, allowing four of the CBU-103s to be released from the aircraft. The bombs had a guidance system in them, that through movable fins, guided the bombs to the perfect position in the air, where they activated, there serrated outer cases now opening up like flower peddles, slowing the weapons and spinning the bombs as all the sub munitions were dispensed from its bomb body. Each bomb had over 200 hundred antipersonnel grenades, so over eight hundred of these antipersonnel weapons fell down towards the earth, enough to cover 4 football fields, each spinning to arm themselves.
-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-
The F-15E dropped their weapons at 5000 feet to allow plenty of altitude for the bombs to activate perfectly, so the Commander didn't hear them till too late. He was about to order his men to seek cover, when he noticed the cloud of sub munitions coming down at them, it was too late and he knew they were all dead. Those were his last thoughts as hundreds of grenades went off around him and his remaining men, thousands of pieces of shrapnel flying through the air, ending the last threat to Tin Man.
-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-
The helicopters landed 5 minutes later outside the blast zone after the F-15Es made sure the ground threat was neutralized. The men practically running to Howard, after the landing zone was secured, one of Howard's technicians with them. The helmet was removed and Tin Man was laid down on a net sling with six men on each side, carrying him to the helicopter, Howard looking up to see Lieutenant Parsons holding up the corner himself, smiling back down at him. "Didn't think we leave you Sir." he chuckled, "SEALs don't leave men behind." Howard suddenly felt safe, for the first time in hours.
-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-
Leonard came up to the door of the hospital room and looked in, seeing Penny laying there staring, her eyes red from crying, it broke his heart and he moved quickly as she could on crutches to her. It took Penny a second to realize he was back and she tried to get quickly up, to go to him, but was only sitting up in bed when he reached her, sitting down on the side of the bed and taking her into his arms. The fear Penny had inside her came out in one big rush as she sobbed on his shoulder, her body trembling uncontrollably as Leonard rubbed her back to calm her. It was a few minutes until she calmed down enough he could talk to her.
"I'm fine Honey, I was never in danger, I just went to a room to talk to someone." Leonard tried to soothe her.
"I was so scared Leonard," Penny's voice was cracking from her crying.
"I'm sorry, but believe me there was no danger. They just need some information from me and they needed it fast, that is why there was all this drama, that's all."
Penny nodded on his shoulder, the tears now stopped, "I'm sorry Leonard, I'm sorry I'm like this, but so much has happened, I've watched you almost die several times and I don't think I could take it again. Leonard I need you and I need this." she gave him a tighter squeeze.
Leonard felt bad, "I need you too." he squeezed her back, holding her for a few minutes, then finally pushing her off he shoulder so he could look at her. "Honey, I have to call Bernadette and tell her Howard is okay."
Penny looked at him, "Howard?" she suddenly understood Leonard's departure had something do with Howard, Leonard's nod only confirmed that. Penny also knew if she were Bernadette she would be a bigger basket case than she was now, so she reached over to the nightstand and got her phone for him. "You better call her now." Leonard smiled and nodded, taking the phone and hitting the speed dial number on Penny's phone.
Bernadette almost jumped when her phone went off on the nightstand, she wasn't asleep but she was still deep it thought and worry. Seeing it was Penny calling her and knowing that last time she talked to Leonard it was on Penny's phone, both made her excited that he would have news about Howard and scared her that it would be bad news. "Penny….Leonard?"
Leonard could tell by her voice she was still very upset, and he didn't waste her time with meaningless conversation, so he told her immediately what he knew she wanted to hear, "Bernadette, I talked with Howard just a few minutes ago, he is fine and will be home in about 36 hours."
"Oh My God, Howard is okay, Oh My God, thank you Leonard." Bernadette had tears dripping down her face, her emotions all coming out again.