Far Cry 5: The Collapse
Chapter 28: Gears of Bureaucracy
Dr. Wilson Barley looked at the seismograph readout that one of his interns had plopped on his desk first thing when he got in on a otherwise unremarkable Monday morning. The young man had been adamant that the computer system had flagged this as a 'weapons based seismic event' thus as part of procedure it had to be brought before the seismology lab head I.E. him as soon as possible for confirmation.
At least the intern was smart enough not to follow the procedure to the letter where he would have called him at home or even brought the printout to his home.
'Damn out of date Cold War era procedures.' He thought even as he thought back to the three times in his youth where he had done just that when ever they had detected the Soviets testing weapons.
'Of course back then we didn't have the computers to help make the judgment call as the event was happening, still would it kill the USGS to change the policy? Or for University of Washington to throw a little bit of its weight around and consider asking the USGS to even consider a modernization?' He asked himself again as he sipped his morning coffee.
"Well can't put this off any longer." He said to himself as he pulled up the chart for comparing the estimated profiles of known and suspected nuclear weapons on his desktop. Instantly he could tell that what was on the readout and what was on the chart was vastly different in magnitude as far as man made weapons go but it clearly didn't fit anything natural either.
'So someone has come up with something new and powerful.' Barley thought as he decided to dig further, his curiosity now peaked. He brought up a specialized simulation program that had recently been rolled out that normally was used to simulate the effects of a given magnitude of earthquake and among many other features some working, others in beta, and others still in the early 'Alpha' prototype stage it actually offered the ability to reconstruct an event from the recorded seismic readings.
It had been used mostly to reconstruct earthquakes and volcanic eruptions from the earliest days of seismology when there weren't as many places with the proper equipment to record such events. With it you could through the combined power of massed cloud computing locate the epicenter and even the depth of where the event occurred.
The software was still in its early stages but its potential was growing by the day in his opinion and using it for this was just one more use that probably no one had considered before. He plugged in the data and hit the 'Simulate' button then leaned back in his chair as the combined computing power of 5,000 server farms across the world crunched untold numbers as it figured out what happened from just a few seconds of vibrations through the earth.
The program flashed 'Complete' and showed what it believed to be what happened. It showed a large nuclear weapon detonating in the southwest corner of Montana several hundred feet underground in fact it was deeper than any previously listed nuclear weapons test.
"What in God's name..." He started to say as he ran the test again and saw the same end result. He switched to a different function of the software that basically reversed the process and allowed him to simulate what a natural or in this case man made seismic event would look like.
'A 20 kiloton bomb barely shows on the sensors at that depth! So what the hell is someone in the middle of fucking nowhere Montana doing with a 150 kiloton nuclear weapon of unknown make and detonating it underground?' He wondered as he kept simulating different weapons just to try and narrow down what he was seeing to no avail.
It was time to make a phone call to Homeland Security.
.
On the other side of the country Vincent Yeller was once more sitting in a meeting that could have been handled by one of his aides but in his quest to get the 'proper authorities' to look into what had happened to Roger Rook and the rest of Hope County he had quickly realized that the bureaucrats in the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security were amazingly adept at blowing off or avoiding anyone else he sent to inquire about what was being done.
"Ok so that takes care of the last agenda item unless anyone has anything to bring up." A young-ish especially compared to him Latino man said as he addressed the other men and women sitting at the long conference table.
Ben Alvarez was one of the deputy undersecretaries in the upper echelons of the DHS and the bastard running this near pointless meeting. He was also the bastard that had left all twelve emails sent to him unanswered and dodged no less than four phone calls made directly to his desk phone and cell phone by claiming to be forever 'heading into a meeting'.
'Well now I'm in the damn meeting you son of a bitch.' Yeller thought as he raised his hand before speaking more out of trying to be at least somewhat polite.
"We do have..." He started to speak before the much younger blonde haired man across from him huffed loudly.
"For the love of God Yeller, no one is buying your 'Rural Cult Insurrection' bullshit."
Terry Winox was again one of a number of high level undersecretaries in the DoJ and while he had taken each of his calls and answered all emails sent to him, they all were rebuffed in the shortest terms as 'baseless wastes of department resources and unworthy of being followed up on.'.
"Vincent, Terry does have a point. You have spent the last few weeks pestering my people as well about this 'cult' which by our records is insignificant not to mention out of your jurisdiction in the first place. Just what in the hell is the CIA so worried about a cult with only a few dozen members and no major known incidents to their name?" Ben asked wearily.
"As I have said in all of the emails and phone calls to you gentlemen and your staff who have been taking said calls, I have an asset on cooldown in the area. A few weeks ago I get a video call from him describing the breakdown of law and order in the area and shortly there after I get a upload of the cult's last known roster. That roster contained over 10,000 members including many that normally would have triggered the red flags in the national cult surveillance system. However because of a bad actor in the form of a senior field agent who tried to blackmail his way into the CIA Directors position he manipulated the data in the system to show the result that you are all referring to."
Yeller said as he leaned back in his chair and caught his breath. He was seriously not used to having to work this hard to make his points but he was increasingly left with little choice in this instance.
"Now Ben as you just pointed out things that happen on US soil are not in our wheelhouse under most circumstances. Hence why I have gone to the effort trying to reach out to your departments so we can at least send someone over to the area to find out just what is going on in Hope County, Montana. I'm not asking for you to mobilize more than a plane or better yet authorize me to aim a spysat at the area." He said in closing as the disinterested looks increased around him.
"Have you tried making a phone call? Local police, fire department, uh... animal control? You seem to know how to work a phone just fine old man." Terry mocked to the not so muted laughter of those around the table.
'Bunch of fucking overpaid desk warmers.' Yeller thought as he controlled his temper.
"All lines of communication have proven to be cut off. All local government offices, the local gun store, and even the local bar all came back with a disconnected number message. Even our attempts at pinging the servers for the National Park Ranger's office have all failed. So now here I am asking for your departments to do the bare minimum in response to a potential issue on US soil!" He said.
No one else got a chance to speak as a young woman dashed into the conference room with a single sheet of paper as she marched up to Alvarez and whispered something into his ear before leaving just as fast as she entered.
After a brief pause Ben looked up from the paper given to him at everyone gathered as they looked to him to explain the interruption.
"Uh... it would seem that... at 0812 Mountain Standard Time Sunday morning... yesterday... several seismic monitoring stations across the US run by the USGS and... it would seem also around the world. Have picked up an anomaly in Montana." He said in a shocked state.
Someone else sitting at the table then spoke. "What do you mean an 'anomaly'? Also why are we worried about the USGS? We don't deal with earthquakes."
Yeller hid his smile with practiced ease. The USGS wouldn't send a FLASHPOINT message which is what Alvarez was just handed unless it was a geologic event that would effect a part of the national defense apparatus like knocking out a radar station or disabling a missile silo for example. The only other thing beside that was a indication of a nuclear weapons test or use by a foreign nation that it wasn't informed about.
Ben spoke again. "It would seem that we have what is believed to be a nuclear detonation in the neighborhood of 150 kilotons of TNT... the source of the blast is... in Hope County, Montana. They thought it might have been a misreading hence why its taken this long to send out a FLASHPOINT message."
Terry went wide eyed at the name. "Bullshit!" He yelled as he turned to Yeller. "You old bastard, this is your doing!"
Yeller didn't say anything as he let the massive amount of 'I told you so' soak into everyone else in the room.
Alvarez spoke again. "Terry it doesn't matter at this point. We can find who is to blame later, but right now we have no less than ten different countries including the Canadians, Russians, Chinese, and Japanese all asking just what the hell did they just detected within our own country's boarders. I'm willing to bet that the Russian's already are seriously considering moving one of their satellites to look at the area if they haven't done so already. So Yeller it looks like you are going to get your fly over after all."
.
War Wagon 1 was the call sign of the C-130J Super Hercules that was on a simple transfer flight from Whiteman AFB to Fairchild AFB when they were diverted while flying over Wyoming to investigate something at the request of the DHS.
In Washington Vincent watched with increasing intensity as the little dot on the main TV in the conference room moved bit by bit towards the little spinning cross both representing War Wagon 1 and Hope County respectively.
Others within the room in addition to the DHS and DoJ being represented they were joined by representatives from the Air Force, NSA, State Department, and even FEMA as the scope of the incident increased, and more government bodies started getting sucked into having to finally pay attention to what he had been trying to say since his Reapers had last contacted him.
That was also something that bothered him more than he had let on. It had been weeks since he had contact and all attempts at contacting either Marcus or Roger from his end had been met with dead air. Neither man was the sort to go quiet without good reason or he felt was more likely outside interference.
"Command this is War Wagon 1 closing in on fly over zone in two minutes." Came the pilots call as he neared the mountains that surrounded Hope County.
"Watch this be a load of nothing." Terry muttered a bit too loudly drawing eye rolls from some of the other people around the table. He had constantly offered that what Yeller had been proposing and this latest development couldn't be related.
So far however as time passed fewer and fewer of those in the room were placing stock in his words, if anything it was becoming clear that if this was as serious as Yeller had proposed then it would be the DoJ with the most egg on its face since it was its database that had been manipulated. The US Marshals would also be next up on the hit parade as it had been found out that no one had followed up on the disappearance of one of their men sent to arrest this Joseph Seed character.
Their representative now sitting in the room with Yeller had claimed that Marshal Burke had requested time off right after serving his latest warrant, conveniently his supervisor had also gone on vacation shortly after the man had left for Hope County.
'A lot of heads are going to roll after this but exactly how many remain to be seen.' Yeller thought as he fought off the minor headache of going over the sheer amount of ball dropping when it came to this on going fiasco.
"Command this is War Wagon 1 we are now entering Hope County. There is definitely signs of some sort of massive explosion... wait one." The pilot said as a alarm sounded in the cockpit.
"We're being lased and radar locked! Evade..." The men in the conference room heard before the sounds of a explosion was heard clearly over the radio.
"Mother of God..." someone said as the panicked conversation between the pilot and co pilot continued.
"Lost right elevator, and engines 3 and 4. This is War Wagon 1 we are going down. Mayday! Mayday!" Was the last call before the line was cut.
The room was dead silent for a few heartbeats before Yeller brought out his phone and thumbed one of his contacts. "This is Yeller. Get a Oracle Sat over Hope County and keep it on station I will be in the C&C within the hour, I also want a chopper on stand by to get me to Fort Brag as needed."
Alvarez was the first protest. "You can't authorize the use of a CIA Oracle over US territory without approval...!"
"From the Department of Homeland Security unless there is a plausible threat to national security at which time actions that are intended to gather information to further refine the details of said plausible threat are authorized. Don't fuck with me Alvarez I know the regulations, I was there when they were being written when the DHS was formed!" Yeller said as he pushed himself up from the table.
"We just heard and watched a United States Air Force plane get targeted by both laser and radar guided weapons and subsequently brought down over US territory. So that strongly suggests that we have a hostile force with anti-air missiles and the willingness to use them thus combined with the fact that some sort of large explosion occurred in the area that was enough to at least mimic a nuclear weapons test means that there is a clear potential if not actual national security threat. I will be in contact with you all in the coming hours." He said as he stormed off leaving a room of shocked looks in his wake.
.
Roger and Joey had decided to just skip breakfast fully as they simply snoozed and lounged in bed together. It was first truly private quiet time they had gotten in several days and neither was really looking forward to rushing out of bed unless it was absolutely needed.
"Roger?" Joey muttered into his neck.
He replied with a simple "Huh?".
"What was that message Casey gave you last night?" Joey asked a bit more clearly.
"Well it turns out Dad found more of Joseph's war chest. Five big ass safes full of cash, diamonds, and ingots... you know the good things in life. He split one safe among the Grey's and the gave the other four to me. He called it 'Hazard Pay'." He said as he caressed Joey's backside.
"Funny, I got only a single small safe for my 'Hazard Pay'. Still more cash alone than I had ever seen let alone the value of those ingots." She half moaned.
The sound brought a smile to him as he continued. "Well I can safely say that once this war is over you and I can go to Hawaii and live it up on me. New clothes for me and I haven't forgotten about at least taking you out for lingerie shopping either."
"You just like seeing me in skimpy underwear, you've never changed in that respect." She teased.
"Like? No, I love seeing you in skimpy clothes of course... no clothes is even better." He said as he brought his lips to her own.
They didn't get far until a muted thud of a large explosion could be heard outside making them bolt up out of bed just as their radios went off.
"Roger? Joey? This is Kim, we just saw a big four engine aircraft fly over the mountains just southeast of our place before it was hammered by a bunch of peggie missiles! It tried to turn away but it has crashed and is on fire." Kim Rye said as the two deputies started getting their clothes and armor on.
"Fucking hell I had hoped the government would have cheaped out and used a spysat instead of the expense of diverting a plane. Poor bastards must have been heading in this general direction when they got looped into this mess." He said as he threw on his uniform shirt.
"This is Lorna's truck stop, that plane just crashed outside our outpost. Looks like a C-130 Hercules of some sort, everything is on fire so we are working on putting it out now as best we can. I don't think we will find many survivors." The man at the outpost said.
Roger now dressed grabbed his radio. "Roger here, save who you can but don't take unnecessary risks. Can you give me any ideas on identification on the plane?"
"It's a US Air Force plane after that I can't tell you more." came the reply.
In the next fifteen minutes they had pulled up to the crash site and could really only watch as the mass of aluminum and steel burned. The cockpit was a mangled knot of twisted metal only made worse by the heat of the fires, and the sight of which made even Roger feel a bit guilty that they would likely be unable to at least retrieve the aircrews remains. Still though visible enough to make out were the words 'United States Air Force' painted on the fuselage and that meant that someone outside of the county likely was investigating or was soon enough going to be investigating what was is going on in the county.
"I take it you really didn't expect for this kind of collateral damage." Joey asked as she too looked upon the flames and the handful of firetrucks pumping water from the nearby Henbane river and hosing down the plane.
"I thought it would be rather remote that they would send a plane out here. The Air Force wouldn't normally want to spend the extra fuel and personnel time of sending a plane out here on what could be a wild goose chase. They might have sent a drone or better yet a satellite both of which would likely be cheaper from a budgetary stand point. These guys I guess were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and got asked to just divert a bit and do a quick fly over." He said as he looked into the flames once more before speaking again. "Stuff like this makes me feel like I am too close to becoming a traitor like Willis Huntley. Too quick to spend my own countryman's lives to get what I want."
They were quiet for a moment before Joey broke it once more. "Well Roger the difference between you and Willis is that he plans on spending American lives and doesn't feel bad for doing so. You work to avoid it and actually still feel remorse even when it happens by chance. You might be a monster in some people's eyes but even you have standards."
It took a few hours to get the fires under control and put out but by then the deputies had left for Fall's End once more. They made themselves useful in helping with the counting, sorting, and cleaning of the massive variety of small arms pulled from Faith's stockpile in the backroom of the General Store that now served as the Resistance's Armory.
In doing so Roger's spirits were raised once more as even he managed to pull more than few rare relic weapons that he could only wonder at how the cult of all groups managed to get a hold of.
"Oh wow... a Fusil Porfirio Díaz Sistema Mondragón Modelo 1908, this is one rare bird indeed. The Mexican government only received a handful of these from Sig before the Mexican Revolution happened." He said as he carefully laid the rifle over with some of the other choice guns he had claimed as salvage.
"Uh Roger there's actually two others, one of them has like three drum mags tied to the sling with a note to not remove them." Joey pointed back to the open wooden crate which caused him to rush over and quickly poke through it giggling madly all the while.
It was a sight not unlike how Joey got when she was younger and had found a new cave to delve or a new mineral for the collection. Roger finally found the rifles in question and his mad giggles turned into mad laughter.
"Oh Joseph I might need to keep you alive just to find old guns for me!" He exclaimed as he brought them to Joey to see his find for herself.
"So the rifle with the drums is a WWI German air force model after the army said that these guns were too easily fouled in the ditches so they gave them to the guys who were as far away as possible from the mud and muck. The other rifle is a later Swiss rechambering, this one even still has the case catcher still attached." He said as he showed her their features.
"Rook at some point you are going to have to build yourself a museum to house everything you have been skimming from the salvage." The Sheriff said from the doorway to the store front.
"Well when I finally get too old to be a solider that might be a good way to spend my golden years be sides writing books on firearms history and theory. Anyway is something going on sir?" He asked his superior and the man nodded in turn.
"Just came to let you know that the we got the plane fire put out and we managed to... pick out the crews remains and bag them. We can't do much besides put them in the truck stop freezer but I thought you would want to know. Beside that there's nothing we can see that could be used to get a signal to the outside world." The Sheriff said solemnly.
Roger nodded and let out a long breath. "Well I can't say this is surprising to hear given the fire and thank you for going to the effort of taking care of the air crew. I hadn't expected the powers at be to send a manned aircraft out here and those men sadly died because of what I had thought would have been a slim chance."
"Well it's getting late so how about you guys join me and the family for dinner. Ed and Jessie are just over the moon with their new guns and you guys are their personal heroes, so it would mean a lot to them."
"We would be happy to come." Joey answered for them both.
.
Meanwhile within the confines of the high security briefing rooms of Fort Bragg 12 men waited for their briefing to begin when a Lieutenant Colonel and a particularly ancient looking man in a suit entered the room and walked briskly to the front.
"At ease gentlemen we really have no time for the niceties this time." The light colonel said as he walked up to a podium off to the side of the room and tapped away at the laptop there before bringing up a map of Montana on the massive screen beside him and zooming in on its southwestern corner.
Lieutenant Colonel Derick Archer had a reputation for skipping 'the niceties' even in casual meetings so none of this was surprising however the way his statement was said spoke volumes about the seriousness of what was going on. As if the sudden orders to report for a 'Top Secret' level briefing that night then followed by an immediate deployment following that briefing weren't red flags already.
Archer gestured to the old man in a suit beside him. "First off again everything you hear in this room is classified as 'Top Secret' next is that the first part of this briefing will actually be given by 'Black Cardinal' here."
Yeller nodded at the mentioning of his cover before he traded places with the colonel and began the briefing proper.
"At 0812 Mountain Standard Time yesterday morning multiple seismic monitoring stations around the world detected what is believed to be a underground nuclear weapon detonation in the range of 150 kilotons in Hope County, Montana." He said as the map zoomed further and showed the mountain encircled county in full detail.
"At 0935 this morning once the DHS got a FLASHPOINT message revealing this event, an air force C-130 on transfer from Whiteman AFB to Fairchild AFB was deemed close enough to divert and investigate for obvious signs of a massive explosion of some kind. However the aircraft was shortly targeted by laser and radar based anti-air weapons and was brought down shortly after entering Hope County's airspace." He tapped at the laptop again and brought up the live feed from the Oracle Reconnaissance satellite that was now parked in low earth orbit over the area in question.
"This is a live feed of what is there now. In the southeast corner of the county we have clear signs of a massive explosion likely what we have detected yesterday morning. However upon comparing the area to Google Map imagery we have noted several other major changes in the area that suggest some form of intense localized violence."
He moved the image around to focus on the remains of what was a statue then pulled beside it the two year old image from Google. "This statue of whom I can't say has been explosively toppled recently by a powerful enough explosion to wreck the mountainside that it was built upon suggesting another subterranean explosion. West of this..." He went on to shift over to the wreckage of a large 'Hollywood' style sign and also pulled up its original image.
"This sign saying 'YES' for whatever reason as been destroyed by an aerial weapon most likely a pair of American Mark 83 1,000 lb bombs given the dimensions of the craters. Besides these signs we have seen countless numbers of impaled bodies lining the roads throughout the southwest and southeastern parts of the county." He finished as he watched the gathered operators for any signs of reaction and saw only rapt attention to the images on the screen.
"Now all attempts at contacting anyone within the county has failed. However there was a single brief window of contact made via video link from equipment taken from a rogue CIA agent by two other CIA assets in the area one on stand by and the other on cool down. Codenamed Grey Reaper and Black Reaper both names that some of you might have run across in the field elsewhere in the world, they informed me personally that a cult by the name of Project at Eden's Gate led by this man and his extended family..."
He with a few taps pulled up a single photo showing Joseph sitting his chair looking towards the heavens as his brothers stood behind him one of which was armed with a large bullpup .50 cal sniper rifle the other holding a white book. At the base of the photo was a brunette haired young woman draped over Joseph's lap looking rather strung out.
"Have taken over the county and cut off all communication and transport ties including as we have seen establishing anti-air defenses. Pictured here is Joseph Seed the cult leader center with his younger brother with the book John Seed and his elder brother Jacob Seed. The woman is apparently Faith Seed however facial recognition pulled up several drug related arrest records painting her as actually Rachel Jessop a born and raised local of Hope County. We currently aren't sure of just how this occurred but at this time these people have a cult that from what data was managed to be passed on from the Reapers exceeds 10,000 members among them are several key members from various US nuclear research facilities. With those red flag members and the fact that such a massive explosion was detected we have reason to believe that the cult could be at least attempting to produce nuclear based weapons." Again he paused as the word 'nuclear based weapons' got the gathered soldier's attention to flutter a bit with shock.
He continued. "Your mission will be to parachute into the area near the largest town in the area called Fall's End, I will highly recommend that you ask for 'Rook' as they will be able to give you a full brief of what is going on the ground. After that your next action will be to bring online the extra communication equipment you will be carrying so we can reestablish contact and figure out on our end what needs to be done. In order to address the possible nuclear threat a NEST team will be parachuting right behind you with their own orders. They may ask for assistance and if so help them by all means. Besides that you will at some point likely also be tasked with supporting any sort of local resistance that seems to have emerged." Yeller finished before looking at the slightly bewildered looks on the men around him.
"Let me add one last thing gentlemen, remember that this isn't some Islamic hellhole where most of the people you meet are just as likely to kill you as invite you for tea. These are American citizens on American soil being pushed to defend themselves and have been cut off from the rest of the world for weeks now. Expect some of those people to doubt that you will be of any help to them, you must therefore prove to them that they haven't been forgotten and that you are there to help. That is where Rook will likely be most useful."
He nodded at the light colonel who took over the briefing.
"We will be wheels up in no more than 3 hours..." He went on as Yeller took a seat to rest in. This whole incident was highlighting why he normally stayed either at his office or at the C&C center in the same building instead of running around the country meeting with the soldiers face to face like he had when he was a much younger man in a world that was far less connected then.
Two hours and fifteen minutes later a pair of MC-130J special forces configured cargo planes took to the skies racing westward.
.
Captain Foley was a dark skinned and even darker mannered veteran of more operations then what the majority of men in SOCOM could claim to their name, but even in all of his years of service across the world never would he have thought that he would be strapped into the jump seat of a Herc preparing for a combat drop within the boarders of his own country.
The very idea that a religious cult within the US could possibly be arming themselves with nuclear weapons of some form was beyond ridiculous yet he had seen the live feed from the CIA satellite and the destruction to the landscape that could only have come from such a class of weapon.
"Hey Captain, do you think the spook was referring to Major Rook when he told us to ask for 'Rook' for help?" his lead team gunner asked from across the center isle over the noise of the 4 turboprop engines keeping the plane aloft.
"I doubt it Martin, last anyone has heard of him was over a year ago. The spook could be referring to a man whose codename is the chess piece. Anyway he reportedly showed up for duty back from being on loan to the CIA when one hour later a bunch of suits show up and pulled him for another tour of 'problem solving'. Only a handful of people saw him on base before that and no one has heard from him since. That's the difference between Special Operations and true Black Ops, once you dip your toes into that side of the world if they accept you in the first place you are pretty much destined to remain in that world." Foley said as he looked around the compartment casually inspecting the rest of his men for the thousandth time it seemed.
"Have you ever been pulled for Black Ops?" Martin asked.
Foley shook his head. "No never have and if I had been I doubt its something I could even mention." The Latino man beside Martin laughed before he cut in.
"Maybe they didn't like your sunny disposition sir. The Major was something of a brick both literally and socially speaking."
He frowned at the attempt at humor from man. "Sergeant Ramirez you will stow that terrible sense of humor. Besides that 'Brick' had saved your own hide a few times if I remember correctly."
Ramirez looked backed at him with his hands held up in surrender. "Yes Captain. Sorry Captain. But yeah I haven't forgotten, never realized until the first save that I would be thankful for a man that hauled around a gun older than he was."
That was a lie of course as the Major had somehow convinced the brass above to allow him to be issued a new production M60E4 that he then kitted out to his taste and to better suit the kind of combat they were experiencing at the time. Later on he even got his hands on a newer M60E6 from apparently a contact at U.S. Ordinance and more convincing of the powers above, all likely helped by his natural skill with the weapon and some of the feats that went above and beyond what was already expected of anyone in Special Operations.
"I wonder how the Major would have reacted to this cult business?" Martin asked as he noted the plane slowly gaining altitude once more.
Foley could only shrug. "Can't say but probably little different than anyone else who makes themselves a threat to the nation. By Barrett or 'Pig' anyone who threatens American lives will find themselves facing one of the best marksmen in the world. At least that's my two cents."
"Ten minutes! Ten minutes to drop!" the load master said as the men started to do a final check before they would get the call to stand and check their buddies parachute and pack.
"Listen up! We are going to be HALO jumping from 20,000 feet just outside of the town. It's high enough that any MANPADS that might be in the hands of this cult shouldn't be able to reach us. In case you people have forgotten I will remind you that we are not to engage until we can make contact with the local population. These are our own people down there. Once we touch down and secure the area the NEST team will jump in behind us and we can move on to locating whoever this 'Rook' winds up to be and then see if there are any nuclear weapons to report back on. Any questions?" Foley said as he stood up and hung on to one of the stowed cargo nets lining the interior of the plane.
"No sir!" Came the combined reply. Despite lacking so much information and the possible nuclear threat the men seemed more relaxed than normal. Even Foley had to fight to temptation to relax himself which was an alien feeling to say the least.
'Probably because we are jumping on US soil. We don't have the usual language and cultural issues to deal with and this is for now at least a fact finding mission with a dash of guard the nuclear eggheads. Still... something is bound to go tits up...' He thought when the pilots came in over the general frequency.
"We are about to enter Hope County airspace so far no signs of AA."
The lighting in the cargo shifted from white to red as a signal for the men to stand and begin their final checks before jumping.
Foley went and gave each man's gear a final check before he had Ramirez check his own pack. The rear bay door opened exposing the men to the full unmuted volume of the wind and engine noise as the full moon gave them enough light to see the mountainous landscape rush past them.
One particularly steep set of mountains raced up to almost meet the plane coming probably little more than a 1000 feet below them. "We are in Hope County now, 30 seconds til jump point..." The pilot said until from below them one then rapidly followed by dozens of missile launches started coming from all across the mountain side.
"WE HAVE MISSILE LAUNCH! WE HAVE MULTIPLE MISSILE LAUNCHES!" Came from the NEST team's plane.
Moments later both planes were dumping flares and countermeasures from their belly and side mounted dischargers leaving the tell tale 'Angel Flare' trails behind them.
Most of the missiles at least the heat seeking ones went after the burning clumps of white phosphorus however among the mass of heat seeking Stinger, Strela, and Igla missiles there were a few manually guided British made Shorts Blowpipe missiles. These radio guided missiles ignored the flares and continued streaking toward the sharply maneuvering aircraft with terrifying speed.
"Jump now! Jump now!" Foley yelled as he and his men were tossed around as the aircraft tried to outrun the burn time of the missiles. One by one the 12 men jumped into the night at a far lower altitude than they had intended but they could adapt to that at least.
Above them one of the missile struck home on the right wing of the Hercules as it now struggled to maneuver. Foley could hear over the radio the pilots mayday call. "Mayday! Mayday! Stork A is going down, we will try to make for one of these local air strips."
Foley couldn't pay anymore attention to the downed plane as he pulled his chute and felt the expected sharp jerk upwards as it fully deployed. To his right he could see several of his other men gliding in a rough line formation beside him showing that at least half or more of his men survived the first part of the jump.
However over in the distance the other plane by the call sign of Stork B could be seen diving toward the ground. The pilots in Stork B had seen what had happened to the first aircraft and had to deal with their limited options in very short order.
They could either try to turn around toward the mountains where the missiles were fired from or try to dive away and use the terrain as much as possible to make tracking them harder. With only the latter option not leading them directly into the line of fire and considering their much heavier cargo load of scientists and their equipment they dove for the ground as they dumped the last of their flares. Out of the mass of missiles that were sent their way a single lone Stinger managed to ignore the balls of fire and focus solely on the roaring hot exhaust of the number two engine.
The explosion cut the fuel lines for the number one engine and wrecked the bulk of the left wing ailerons. Now wounded with half of their power gone and a severely damaged wing the pilots of Stork B did the only thing they could do, a controlled ditching into the field around Sunrise Threshing.
They dropped the landing gear to absorb what they could of the impact forces but there was nothing that could be done to save the damaged wing structure from snapping off on impact followed only moments later by the right wing joining it as it was ripped off from the sheer amount of stress being placed on it as the plane bleed off its momentum finally coming to a sliding stop just before the road that ran between Sunrise Farm and Sunrise Threshing. All things considered the plane was mostly intact save for the wings and while most on board were moaning in discomfort from the shock of the impact in seconds of stopping they were alive and seemingly uninjured. In short order most of the men were up and with a few staggering steps exiting the aircraft or beginning to check the state of their equipment.
.
The flares and explosions in the night sky didn't go unnoticed as everyone in the Spread Eagle were first plastered against the front windows trying to see what was going on then followed by a rush to get outside.
When Roger got out and saw the bright flaming trails of not just one but two large cargo aircrafts he desperately grabbed for his radio.
"Dad we got two more Hercules crashing outside of Fall's End!" He called as he turned to Joey.
"Joey find Dr. Ferguson or one of his nurses and let them know to get ready to receive possible injured!"
Marcus had already been on his way back in the direction of Fall's End to drop off Nick at his place first when everyone riding in his truck saw the distinct sight of a full load of missile countermeasures being dumped by two planes. Followed shortly by both being hit by cult missiles.
"Oh my God one of them is trying to head for the airfield! He's damaged enough he could hit the house!" Nick panicked as Marcus hammered on the accelerator.
"Then that's where we will go first!" He roared over the shrill scream of the turbodiesel. He heard Rogers warning as the fireworks they were now looking at became visible from the town.
"Roger looks like one bird is going down outside the Rye airfield but first we have to secure Kim and Carmina. You get to handle the bird going down to the east of town." He said as drove past Kellett Cattle.
In Fall's End Roger and Joey hopped into their 6x6 and followed the Sheriff who had taken one of the Sheriff department trucks led the way to the crash site at Sunrise Threshing, his emergency roof lights flashing in the night at the head of a growing train of Resistance trucks.
The sparse guard at Sunrise Farm was slowly approaching the back of the crashed plane when the back up from Fall's End arrived. The rear cargo door dropped and three airmen came out with carbines in hand when they saw the approaching crowd of fighters.
"Stand down! Stand down! We are the local Resistance, I'm Deputy Rook! Hope County Sheriff's Department." Roger said as he held his hands out to show that he wasn't immediately armed.
From within the plane a small Asian woman likely of Japanese decent by his reckoning came out dressed in a Army green BDU and pushed past the aircrew that had begun to lower their weapons.
"You're 'Rook'?" She asked her brown eyes widening when she saw just how he towered over the others around him.
"I am one of them and you would be..." He trailed off waiting for an answer.
"Dr. Yuriko Niwa of the National Nuclear Security Administration, I'm heading up this NEST team. I was told that you would be my best contact according to what the CIA passed on to us."
Roger nodded his head as the airmen lowered their weapons. "Yes, but first things first do you guys have any injured people? We have somewhat limited medical capacity but we will do what we can to help."
"Just some bumps and bruises. Nothing more serious when we asked." Said one of the pilots.
"Well we know that your other bird went down to the west side of town so once we figure out what state they are in we can move on to what I guess is the reason why you guys are here." He said as the Sheriff approached.
"Roger they got a lot of people and more importantly a lot of equipment here. I think it be best if we set them up in St. Isidore." He recommended drawing Dr. Niwa's attention.
"Is there enough space for us to setup a field lab?" She asked.
"It's single largest school in the county, you'll have an entire high school gymnasium for your big stuff and if you can make use of the classrooms then by all means. Hopefully if anyone survived the other crash we can set them up there as well." The older lawman stated.
Dr. Niwa sighed in relief at the news that she and her people would at least by the sounds of it have a proper roof to sleep under soon enough. "Ok we'll take it." She said as the Resistance fighters radios sounded off.
"Black Reaper if you would come by the shop please, we got some guys here pretty much asking for you by name." His father said.
The night was still young as Roger turned to the Sheriff who spoke before he could even begin to speak. "Don't worry Roger, I'll get these folks settled in you and Joey see what your old man has gotten into now." He said with a smile.
.
Meanwhile Stork A was having to deal with not just massive wing damage but the shrapnel had played hell with the rudder and right elevator making both control surfaces sluggish to respond. The only saving grace was that since it had been carrying only the Delta team it wasn't anywhere as near as heavy as Stork B so they at least had more time aloft but with half dead controls there was little to no hope of lining up on the Rye's airstrip for a proper landing but they could at least try to get on the ground before having to deal with the grove of trees ahead of them.
To that end they landed firmly in the last 200 feet or so of the Rye airstrip as the damaged bird pulled relentlessly leftward and came off of the runway and somehow managed to weave the main fuselage between the trees enough to only have both wings sheered off leaving long flaming trails of burning fuel in the plane's wake.
Past the trees was a small dirt road whose shoulders acted like a ramp tossing the plane back up in the air momentarily before it slammed down in the middle of a field as the plane slid forward bleeding the last parts of its momentum before coming to a stop beside another dirt road at the edge of the field.
Above them Foley and the rest of his men guided themselves to land a few hundred feet away from the crash site in the surrounding field. The Captain dumped his chute and did a quick look around him, all of his men were accounted for and were in the process of either landing or dumping their chutes. The light of the burning puddles of fuel gave additional illumination as he could make out the figures of the three air crew managing to walk out of the still open rear ramp.
"Form up on me. Let's grab the aircrew and get clear of this plane." He ordered as his men spread out into their normal formation each man watching his assigned sector.
"Holy shit did you see how many missiles they sent up at us? Even the fucking Taliban don't dump that many missiles in one go." Ramirez said as they closed on the plane.
"Got to admit I thought thing's were too simple, but if these nut jobs have that level of firepower in case of aircraft what the hell could they have on the ground?" Martin asked back.
"Ramirez! Martin! Check your sectors!" Foley snapped at them as they met with the aircrew. "You guys hurt?" He asked them to the shaking of heads from all of them.
"Sir! Got a vehicle in coming!" Martin called out as the squad raised their weapons cautiously.
"Hold your fire these might be friendlies." He called out even as he started to tense up in preparation.
A large one ton dually Ford with a twin mount .50 cal on the back and a lot of armed men pulled off of the road at high speed and came to a skidding stop two dozen feet in front of them.
'Well at least they aren't shooting at us with those .50's.' Foley thought as he watched the driver step out and stand silhouetted in his own headlights even as those riding in the back spread out on either side of them.
"I have a rough idea who you might be but if you would be so kind as to identify yourselves. You clearly aren't the cult given the big grey plane you're flying." Marcus asked as he looked towards the Captain.
"We're here from the Government and we're here to help." Ramirez said getting a laugh from the other men that had gathered around behind Marcus. Marcus for his reaction just raised his eyebrows before smiling not that they could likely see it in the glare of the headlights.
"Master Sergeant that is probably the worst line to open with out here." He said laughing as the Captain held his tongue since everything seemed to lightening up.
"We're with the U.S Army sent to investigate the large explosion in this area and the first plane that was shot down this morning. I'm..." He started to say before the older man cut him off.
"Captain Jason Foley, Delta Force, A Squadron, under Lieutenant Colonel Archer who is also filling in for your troop leader who has been reassigned elsewhere for sometime." Marcus rattled drawing shocked looks from the soldiers.
"Who are you?" Foley finally asked.
"I assume that Black Cardinal told you to ask for 'Rook' most likely... I am one of them. Colonel Marcus Rook, I'm the Grey Reaper." Marcus said letting the revelation hang.
"Holy shit... you're that 'Grey Reaper'?" Martin asked as the men started relaxing.
Marcus smiled "Yeah Martin by the way good to see you made First Class, that stunt you pulled off in you-know-where Afghanistan last year was both insane and admirable. Good to see that the powers at be decided to entertain my recommendation for promotion for a change."
"If you are Grey Reaper then where is Black Reaper and what is the status of the other plane?" Captain Foley inquired letting his rifle hang on its sling as everyone gathered around.
Marcus got on his radio before answering. "Black Reaper if you would come by the shop please, we got some guys here pretty much asking for you by name."
A moment passed before Roger's voice could be heard on the other side. "Copy, moving."
"Sir if I may ask but just what the hell is going on around here? Some CIA spook tells us that some cult is possibly building and testing nuclear weapons next thing we know as you can tell we flew here and where shot down with a ridiculous amount of firepower not normally seen even from proper military's. The spook said you could fill us in on what we just crash landed in the middle of." Foley said as the sound of a large diesel engine could be heard roaring in the distance.
"Well Captain the cult is in fact building not just warheads but the means to launch them however they have yet to test them. That explosion was for lack of better term a large chemical explosion meant to mimic a kiloton or so nuclear detonation according to our rough math, as a means of signaling to the outside world that we need help or at least someone to pay attention to us." The elder Rook said.
All amongst those gathered who weren't already aware of this looked at each other in shock and awe which was saying something given the years of experience between them all. Ramirez was the first to break the silence as a second pair of head lights accompanied by a roaring diesel from a heavy 6x6 truck joined the smaller Ford.
"You mean you used something that was on par with a nuclear weapon... to call for help?" He asked.
"Yes Ramirez, though for once it wasn't my idea, that credit goes to Deputy Hudson." The man climbing out of the new truck said.
"No way..." Martin muttered as the massive armored form of Roger Rook walked in front of the headlights.
"Jesus Christ... Major... you... you're huge... sir." Ramirez blathered finally.
"So the ladies keep saying much to their pleasure. Martin good to see that your promotion came through, had a hell of a time writing the recommendation and getting it back stateside in time." The giant lawman said. Joey chuckled for the briefest of moments before biting her tongue and doing her level best to not smile too much.
"Major Rook... I guess I should have believed in Martin's guess when we were told to ask for 'Rook' once we landed and made contact. Not to mention you're the 'Black Reaper' too? Jesus Christ...you've caused all kinds of hell back in DC." The Captain said with a outstretched hand.
"Yeah well... I had to get creative and the explosion took care of several problems at once. Getting back to the here and now, the other Hercules crash landed with no major injuries. The Sheriff is moving the NEST team to the local school since it has both bunking space and space to set up their equipment, if its ok I'll take you guys and the airmen to the school to link up with them and then we can worry about communication with the outside world." He said shaking the old friends hand.
Foley sighed and gave Roger a rare for him smile. "Sounds like a plan sir. It's good to be working with you again."
.
The men loaded up into the back of the truck for the drive back to St. Isidore. The massive four story red brick school had replaced the old four tiny classroom wooden structure that had once been the sole school for the entire county since its founding. But with the population boom that came after the first world war the old wooden school was demolished and a two story brick one put in place with at the time all the latest innovations, this process was repeated when a third floor was added after the second world war and another one shortly there after when the missile silos came online until it finally reached its current massive size.
"My God... its still here." Roger said to Joey as they pulled up and found a parking space. Even as the soldiers fell in behind them he ignored them all as he pulled open the door and entered the school once more.
Given the population density of Hope County I.E.: Not very high, St. Isidore served every grade level from preschool to senior high school. Walking through the sparsely lit halls hit him harder than he honestly expected as decades old memories came back.
The room where his 5th grade teacher Mr. Vespin had died at his desk doing end of the school year paperwork. The closet that some kid got locked in and the janitor's key had broken off when he tried to unlock it. It would be the first real world use of his lockpicking skills.
Of course there were other memories as they approached the hallway leading to the gymnasium. This hall contained the decades upon decades of sports related awards.
"Holy hell Major... just how many of these are yours." Ramirez asked as he could easily spot the Rook name on many of the awards.
"Just about every shooting competition save for the shotgun disciplines I took gold in. Hudson here dominated the shotgun related activities. It looks like all my weightlifting records still stand as well. Besides that you can see my father's track awards and my grandfathers football and wrestling awards." He said as Joey finished the explanation.
"The Rook's are one of the oldest family's in this area even predating the founding of Fall's End, the main town that we passed through on the way here."
The gymnasium itself was littered with open Pelican cases and folding tables with various instruments brought by the NEST team. In a separate corner was an cordoned off area for the sleeping arrangements that the Sheriff had managed to drum up.
"Rook, Hudson are these the only survivors from the other plane?" The Sheriff asked as he looked up from the map table that Dr. Niwa had also been bent over.
"This is the plane's entire complement. Sheriff Whitehorse I would like to introduce Captain Foley and his team. They're my old Delta Force team sent by Black Cardinal." He replied.
"Nice to meet you Sheriff. Dr. Niwa did you loose anyone or anything?" Foley asked.
"No, somehow we managed with only bumps and bruises. Do you have the comms equipment? We have our own but your equipment is much higher powered and is more likely to get past these damn mountains." She asked.
"Ramirez, break out the satcom gear and lets touch base with Black Cardinal." Foley ordered.
In a few minutes Ramirez was putting the finishing touches on setting up a similar satellite uplink to what Agent Willis had originally.
'Good thing that there won't be any more 'defectors' coming within a mile of this thing.' Roger thought as the Sergeant brought up the attached computer just as his father and his men joined them.
"Nick is back with the family and his airfield didn't take any damage thank God. Ready to give up command?" He asked his son.
He didn't answer his father at first. That was in a way a down side of pushing to reestablish communication with the outside world, before this moment between him and his father and to a lesser degree the other key figures within the Resistance he had full operational control. If he wanted to do something then he could pretty much just do it so long as he could justify it, but now he would have to start considering once more the greater effects of his actions outside of the county.
Then again though besides maybe being ordered to try and take Jacob alive and maybe not mount so many peggies there likely won't be anything he would be asked to do that would trouble his efforts against the cult.
"It shouldn't be too bad honestly. So long as they still allow me to keep killing peggies wholesale then that will be enough for me." He finally said as Vincent Yeller among some other men in a familiar darkened command center appeared on the screen.
Yeller was joined by Archer and for the sake of inter-agency relations Ben Alvarez. The last two hours were stressful to say the least as they watched from orbit and heard over the radio how the insertion went to hell in a hand basket. But seeing the Delta Team and Dr. Niwa on the other end of the link made loosing two more aircraft more bearable, then there was seeing Marcus Rook and his men in the background another good bit of good fortune.
But seeing Roger even shocked the old spy as he could see just how the man now towered more than ever everyone around him. His body armor was no less impressive and added greatly to his bulky appearance.
'Marcus's work no doubt.' He thought as Foley spoke.
"This is Eagle lead, do you copy us?" He said waiting for Yeller's reply.
Yeller smiled as he spoke. "Black Cardinal copies Eagle lead. What's your status?"
"Eagle team is down with no casualties as is the NEST team. Aircrews from both Stork A and B are here as well but they are grounded. We have as you can see made contact with Black and Grey Reaper along with local law enforcement and Resistance elements." Foley rattled off with a practiced ease.
"Do we have anymore intel on the nuclear detention? That's one of the high priority items that the Godhead is waiting to hear on as we speak." Yeller asked turning serious.
Roger spoke up now. "I can say with full and absolute confidence sir that there was no nuclear detonation. The explosion that you are referring to was the detention of a cult liquid drug stockpile totaling about 10 million gallons of highly explosive 'Bliss'. That said however and as we will be working with the NEST team in the coming hours to confirm we have at two cult produced Minuteman III missiles with what we now believe to armed with MIRV warheads of a radiological nature. We can't say for certain but we believe from cult records that they are reproductions of W87 Mod 1 nuclear warheads. We have nearly two dozen unmounted warheads sitting in a lab in addition to the two missiles and more pressing the cult still controls at this time an additional Minuteman missile in the old silo in the northern part of the county and they control the central control station for all the silos."
"Mother of God..." Alvarez said and for once Yeller was inclined to agree with him.
"If the cult holds the control station then how do you have the other two missiles under control?" Yeller inquired.
"We have physically broken the targeting computer and flight computer links. As a further measure Grey Reaper has gone so far as to have Grey Squad pull the electrical connections for the links so they can not be physically made until they are restored. So we only have one rouge missile to deal with at this time." He said finishing is report.
Yeller simply stared at the massive lawman while Archer looked down at his own computer in thought. The other man sat back heavily into his chair with a numb look across his face as he too tried to process what was said.
"Black Reaper, can you explain why we detected a 150 kiloton explosion in the area again?" Archer asked much to Roger's shock, a look that when he looked at Joey she shared as well.
"Oh wow... ok I know that my math was off but holy hell. To answer that question sir you have to understand that this drug produced by the cult is extremely explosive when pressurized even by the slightest amounts. The cult had 100 tanks each one holding 100,000 gallons of this drug and they were full to boot, we set off C4 charges to both eliminate a high level cult leader and the cult's entire youth population while causing maximum psychological damage to the remaining cult members. It also by my calculations was supposed to simulate a 0.87 to 1.25 kiloton warhead however I'm not surprised that with the numbers I could find from the cult that I was wrong." He explained which made Dr. Niwa add her two cents afterwards.
"I would love to see those numbers because this is well outside of 'close enough for horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear weapons.'." She jested.
Yeller hid his own smile. Roger wasn't very often wrong about a great many things but one refreshing thing was that the man was always willing to accept that he could be wrong at times. Far worse men would let their egos insist that they were right in face of reality.
'Like Winox. Oh boy is this going to make the DoJ's life very interesting in the coming days.' He thought.
"Well Black Reaper I did say I expected you to find someway to make contact with the outside world since we last spoke. Dr. Niwa once you can examine the nature of the weapons we are dealing with pass it on to us and by morning Eastern Standard Time I'll have the reps from the NNSA here to help you with that on this end. Captain Foley you are at this time to guard and assist where possible the NEST teams, leave the frontline combat to the Reapers and Resistance forces for now but know that once we get a full picture that we will very likely have you assisting in fighting the rest of this cult given how locked down the area is. Reapers... I'm going to ask you to make up a list of items that your people need in terms of relief supplies, once that is done I want you to make a second list of what sort of military support that you feel will be helpful in defeating the cult and why." He paused to gather himself before finishing.
"I will not bullshit you men. I had to push the rules and regulations to the absolute breaking point to get Foley and his men there this fast, and even once I report my findings to Black Pope and the rest of the Godhead I can't say how much hardware they will want or legally can throw at this problem." He said as Marcus finished the man's thought.
"But it doesn't hurt to ask at this point. Don't worry sir, I will get you your lists and plan on continuing this war alone until we can get more outside support. At least now someone out there knows we are in trouble."
The link was cut there after and everyone set themselves to work bunking down for the night as at this point the NEST and Delta teams had to get themselves on synced with the local schedule if they were to be able to operate alongside the Resistance.
.
Outside of the school Roger and Joey were making their way to his truck when Marcus and the Sheriff caught up with them.
"Hey you two wait a moment. For right now I'm going to suggest that you guys stay on stand by at least until tomorrow afternoon, since we need to focus on Black Cardinal's to do list. So relax tonight because I suspect that by late tomorrow we will see what sort of pace we will need to adapt under the new order of things." The elder Rook said.
Roger regarded his father for a moment as the idea of being told to relax now of all times felt odd. "Won't you need us to help Foley or the Doc?"
"Roger be honest. We have had you both running hard since you guys kicked off the campaign against Rachel and for both of your own good take advantage of this lull to relax. Your father and I will see to our guests needs and let you know when we need you. That's a order... more or less." The Sheriff said with a chuckle at the end.
Roger turned to Joey and smiled. "Well Joey its only 9 o'clock so lets get back to the Spread Eagle and celebrate our reestablishing contact with the outside world."
"You're buying." She said excitedly as they turned back to the truck.