2051: The Battle Over Nothing

(Earth, Arizona Desert – Mine under Nothing – 2051.09.07, 0832)

Richard McKinley was furious. He was leading his troops down one of the mine's many tunnels. They come to Nothing to find a place for his troops to lick their wounds. But it had all gone horribly wrong because of Crichton and her little band of misfits. McKinley had not recognized her, but his second-in-command Lieutenant Daniels had. The lieutenant had provided him with her file. There wasn't much in it. McKinley would have ordered Daniels to find more information, but the man had been killed in the firefight at the underground river.

So now he was fighting in the dark. But that was not going to stop him from crushing Crichton and her little troop. And then he would find the Augment secrets of Nothing, Arizona, and make them his. ~Once I have them, I will retake Texas and restore it to the glorious days of the Republic.~ And with the Republic, he would set his goal to taking over North America. Which would be the springboard to his final goal of WORLD DOMINATION ! They reached a junction in the mine. ~Time to get back to work.~ He turned to his troops and began giving orders.

(Earth, Arizona Desert – Mine under Nothing – 2051.09.07, 0835)

The passage carved by the river was getting narrower. It was also getting dryer. They had found out that what little water was in the passage was coming from other streams that ended in the big river. As they passed their ends, the water level dropped. Crichton was in the lead, with everybody following her single file. Suddenly, the passage widened and Crichton gasped.

"What the…"

"Something wrong, Colonel ?" Zander asked.

Crichton stepped aside so that Zander could see. The wider area the group was now entering was not natural. It was a quarry. The stone mined from the quarry hadn't gone very far. Because whoever had mined it, had used it to build a dam that was blocking the river. Several pieces of mining equipment had been abandoned in the quarry. All of them were covered in dust. Nez walked up to a forklift and wiped away the dust to reveal a name.

"Cheng Industries Inc."

Cheng Industries Incorporated had belonged to Verity Cheng, who had been an Augment ruler in Asia. The Chinese had overthrown her years ago and the company had collapsed. This had left tons of their products up for grabs by other Augment leaders, which they had done with gusto. Finding this gear was a strong sign that they were in the right place.

"Let's go," Crichton said.

A stone flight of stairs connected the bottom of the quarry to the top of the dam. The group climbed it to find a large lake. And that lake was filled with several large concrete towers that were connected to the dam by several metal walkways. But the towers were not solid. There were grates in them. Some of them were intakes, while others were vents. This told Crichton that these towers held turbines.

"It's a power source." Benton said.

"But for what ?" Zander asked.

"Let's find out," Crichton said.

The group continued down the dam. About halfway, they found a large hatch. It was not locked and opened it to find a flight of stairs that led into the dam's innards. Zander and Crichton led the way down the stairs. A well-lit concrete tunnel ended at a catwalk. The catwalk was clearly above a large empty space, because Crichton could hear echoes as they stepped onto it. But the space was pitch-black. Then lights began to snap on. Crichton gasped when she saw what was in the space. It was Shepard who broke the silence.

"Well, I guess we found what the Augments were up to."

A large section of the room was filled with stasis bubbles. And inside those bubbles were babies. Crichton figured that there were at least 1500 of them. The rest of room was filled with all sorts of pieces of equipment. These were covered by cloth, so they couldn't see what kind of gear it was. Continuing down the catwalk, they found it ended at a metal flight of stairs down to the floor of the room. Once they got there, they began uncovering the equipment.

"I've got a printing press." Benton said.

"Fridges here." Zander said.

"Pallets of paper," Nez began, before taking of another sheet. "And MRE's…" MRE stood for Meal Ready to Eat, it was a kind of military rations. "…next to a lot of bottled water."

"I've got tents." Rodriguez said.

"It's an escape capsule," Crichton said. "If the Augments lose the war…" She exchanged a look with Nez. They both knew that the Augments were losing territory fast these days. "..they can retreat here. An unimportant dot on the map. With everything you need to start a literal underground Augment city. They spend a couple of decades down here, replenish their numbers…"

"Right, they wait long enough to lull the world into a false sense of security. And then they come back for round two." Nez said.

"So, what do we do ?" Benton said.

Before Crichton could answer the question, there was a series of loud hisses. That was when they noticed that there were vents all over the floor. The room was being flooded with gas.

"Move !" Crichton said.

They all bolted for the entrance. But a thick blast-door came up from the floor. A loud click indicated that it was locked. But nobody made it to the top of the stairs. Zander made it the furthest. He figured it was because his Augment nature. But he still cursed like any base model Human as the world went black.

(Earth, Arizona Desert – Mine under Nothing – 2051.09.07, 0842)

McKinley had split his troops into three groups. They were exploring three tunnels at the same time. If Crichton and her misfit were down here, it was only a matter of time before they found them. And they turned a corner in the tunnel, there was suddenly a hissing sound. The Colonel was about to bark an order when he spotted a gas grenade rolling down the tunnel. The tunnel quickly filled with gas. That caused the world to fade to black.

While the didn't know it, McKinley's group was the last one to be attacked. The other two groups had already been taken down. And whoever had done it had been fast. They hadn't been able to send a radio message before things had gone south for the winter.

(Earth, Arizona Desert – Augment Complex – 2051.09.07, 0915)

Zander was the first to wake up. His vision was blurry at first, but he managed to blink it clear. All of their gear, including their weapons, was gone. They were locked in a room full of stasis chambers. Unlike the one in the original room, these were meant for adults. There were markings next to the chambers, which said Mark One. ~Make sense, the Mark One was phased out in favor of the Mark Two.~ It would be easy to get the surplus Mark Ones on the black market.

There was a single door out of the room, but Zander tried it and out it was locked. ~Of course it is.~ On the bright side, everybody was here and they were all still alive. It was only then that Zander realized something. ~How did they knock out A-8 ?~ The robot would have been immune to the gas. He studied the robot and found a small black disk attached to robot. He pulled it off and the robot opened its eyes. ~Jammer.~ Zander dropped the disk on the floor and crushed it with his left foot.

"Status, A-8 ?"

/\=Fully functional./\=

"Good. I can use help breaking down the door so we can escape."

/\=Yes, Captain./\=

A-8 got up and the two of them approached the door. Oddly enough, it was a wooden door with a doorknob that looked more at home in…well, a civilian home…then an underground complex. They were about to try breaking down the door when there was a loud click. ~This is too easy.~ Before he could make a move, the door opened and one of McKinley's soldiers came stumbling in. The woman fell as soon as she was through the door.

"Easy, soldier, easy." He turned to A-8. "Help her to her feet."

/\=Yes, Captain./\=

A-8 helped the soldier up. Based on the uniform, she was a Sergeant. The sergeant blinked as she tried to clear her green eyes, but it didn't seem to have the desired effect.

"Name, rank, serial number," Zander said.

"Jones, Margriet….Sergeant…2, 4…" She tried to continue, but her head refused to cooperate. So she took a deep breath. "2, 4…8 ? No, not eight. Seven, six…." Something seemed to click in her head. "Five ! It was five. Jones, Margriet…Sergeant, serial number 245."

"Again."

Jones repeated the sentence as if it was her own personal mantra. After a few times, her delivery became better. Her head was clearing. At the same time, Crichton and the rest of her team began to stir. ~Good, looks like they were only knocked out.~ As Crichton opened her eyes, Jones managed to stand on her own. Zander decided that now was a good time to push for answers.

"So, Sergeant, how did you end up here ?"

"The same as you, somebody gassed us. I was looking for an exit. But all I found was you and more stasis tubes."

"MORE stasis tubes ? So the room you woke up in, is…"

"More of this," Jones gestured towards the room. "Yes, sir. I have a bad feeling about who were in these tubes before." She paused. "And our room is much bigger then this one. I figure this where the brass was in stasis, while the our room was for the grunts."

"What about your gear ?"

"All gone."

"Not all of it." Benton said. "The medical supplies are still here." She had managed to inject herself with an emergency stimulant pen. "I have enough for everybody in this room. We should check if McKinley's medic has more."

"Sounds like a plan." Zander began. "Make it happen."

Benton set to work. After they were injected, everybody checked their pockets. At first glance, it appeared that whoever had gassed them had gotten all their gear. But they had gotten sloppy with A-8. All of the robot exterior weapons and gear were gone. His torso, however, had a hidden compartment for this kind of situation. It had two pistols and six clips of ammo. Crichton took one and Zander the other. Benton also found two scalpels in her medical kit and taped them together. Then she hid the make-shift weapon up her right sleeve.

"Ready ?" Crichton said, getting nods from everybody, including Jones. "Go !"

Crichton opened the door and led the charge through. Like Jones had said, the room was bigger. There was no sign of whoever had been in the stasis chambers. The only people there were McKinley forces. Benton found the Colonel's medic, a male Captain with a nametag that said Williams. She injected him and soon they were working on waking the rest of McKinley people. Meanwhile, Crichton and Zander searched for another way out of the room. Alas, the only other exit was a set of heavy metal doors. And those were locked.

"We're on breaking those down any time soon," Crichton said.

Before Zander could reply, Benton shouted for Crichton. They had found Colonel McKinley. The man had been shot three times in the torso. Benton and Williams had examined the Colonel, but there had been nothing they could do. McKinley's troops were talking gathered in one corner of the room, talking amongst themselves. It appeared that they were figuring out who was in charge now.

"How long ?" Zander asked.

"From the looks of it, he was shot while we were all out." Williams said.

Williams was an African-man in his forties, with greying hair and a clean-shaven face. He took a deep breath, then turned his attention to the troops. Despite outranking Lieutenant Daniels, Williams had not been part of the chain of command of McKinley's forces. He had only been given the rank of Captain so that he could put his foot down when it came to medical matters. But now that McKinley and Daniels were both dead, he closest thing to a commanding officer the Texans had left.

"Attention !" All the troops snapped to attention. "Okay, troops, I'm not going to beat around the bush. The Colonel is dead. And so is his cause. Hell, most of us were drafted into this moronic farce at gunpoint. So you need to decide what your loyal to." There were mutters, but Williams kept going. "Your family and friends. Or the demented dream of a dead madman. And you need to decide NOW. Because we're in an Augment bunker and it's do or die." The floor was dusty and he drew a line with his foot. "If you pick McKinley and his crazy dream, stay there. If you want your life back, come to this side of the line."

There was an awkward silence. Then the first soldier walked across the line. In the end, there were only three soldiers left on the other side of the line. Two men and one woman. It was Private Ariana Hendricks who spoke up. She was an African-American woman in her thirties.

"You will pay for this betrayal." She turned to the other two. "Let's go."

The three of them went into the room where Crichton and company had woken up. Crichton had no idea what they were planning to do there and she didn't care. Even with what remained of McKinley's forces on their side, the number of stasis chambers in the room made it clear that were probably severely outnumbered and outgunned by the Augments. But first they had to escape from this room. Studying the place, she noticed an air vent attached to the ceiling. It seemed to run through the whole complex.

"Shepard." She pointed up. "Can we use that ?"

"I wouldn't, Colonel," Shepard began. "You see the brackets and the pins connecting the vent to the ceiling ? I'm no engineer, but I've made enough repairs to Olivia to know that those pins will snap like a twig if you put anything heavier then a rat in those vents. A fall from that height will break your neck."

"Yeah, I figured as much."

"Colonel," Shepard lowered his voice. "Why did they lock us in here ? And why sedative gas ? They could have killed us."

"No, they can't. At least not yet. The Augments running this place need to know who knows we're here. Who we report to. And if the Feds are about to come breaking down their door." She paused. "There are probably hidden cameras all over the place, allowing them to listen to every word we say."

"So, what do we do now ?"

Crichton was about to answer when Nez got her attention with a hand signal. She walked over to him and saw that he had found a hatch in the floor. ~It can't be that easy.~ Nez opened the hatch, revealing a maintenance area underneath the stasis chambers. There were small passages, but the bulk of the space was filled by machinery. And that machinery was loud. ~Even if there's no way out down there, it should give us some options.~ She began giving orders.

(Earth, Arizona Desert – Augment Complex, Control Room – 2051.09.07, 0932)

Verity Cheng watched as Colonel Crichton and several of her people dropped down into the maintenance area under Stasis Room B. ~Clever girl.~ She and her group were doing much better then Private Ariana Hendricks and her two cohorts had done. They had attempted to escape through an air vent from Stasis Room A. But the vent had not held their weight and they had ended up falling from the ceiling of the Embryo Stasis Room. They had been found with their necks broken by the fall.

Getting back to Crichton and company…the maintenance area not only lacked cameras, the hidden microphones throughout the Stasis Room were useless because of the noise the machinery made. ~Time for Plan B.~ Until now, Cheng had been watching the action from a chair that stood facing a bank of monitors.

But not only did Crichton know exactly what she wanted, she had made it clear that she had no intention of making it easy. Cheng stood up and began ordering her people around.

To Be Continued…