Armageddon or Something Close To It

PresidentMarcos · July 7, 2003, 12:21

MAY 23,
2029
Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The morning of May 23 was like any other at the Cape Kennedy Spaceport. Payloads were launched, and re-entering vehicles received. The dull monotony of everyday life hung like a thick, choking fog over all aspects of life at Kennedy. Occasionally, however, this monotony would be dispelled by a "special launch payload." And the 23rd was such a day.

A huge tracked vehicle, reminiscent of a tank without it's turret, rumbled slowly down the main road to the spaceport. Slung on top of the payload carrier was a huge cylindrical pod. What the pod contained was a great mystery...

But it must have been valuable, for there were many who wanted it's contents...

And that was ample justification for the security surrounding the object.

"Easy...easy there...easy does it..."

A man in an orange jumpsuit stood on the road, slowly backing away as the carrier approached. He motioned with his hands, in order to help the driver keep the carrier in balance.

Behind, in front and around of the carrier were an entire company of MBT-44 main battle tanks. These were the most powerful ground combat vehicles known to man, each being four times as a squad of late 20th century tanks.

The crews were confident that they were more or less immortal here.

Of course, this worked in the favor of the attackers...

"Den Mother to Grizzly Cub, do you read me?"

"Grizzly Cub to Den Mother, affirmative..."

Hiding in the bushes next to the road was an entire company of exoskeleton infantry. Their job was to secure the road after the carrier had passed, cutting off the main escape route.

The task of actually seizing the payload would happen in mid- orbit. It was to be the responsibility of a squadron of space fighters.

And so, after a few minutes, the carrier and it's escort had passed.

"Fan out, and secure the perimeter..." the commander ordered.

One of the infantrymen jumped out of hiding in the bushes, and lay prone in the center of the road.

Soon, his fellow infantrymen followed suit. Within a few moments, all of the main thoroughfares were secured and covered. Nothing could come in or out of the spaceport without the knowledge of the infantrymen.

****

As this was happening, the payload was being ready for launch. It had already been attached to it's orbital maneuvering shuttle, and it was now attached to the vertically pointed rail launcher.

"Rail launcher charged..." one of the launch operators in Mission Control said.

"Permission to transfer charge to launch magnets?" he asked the chief operator.

"Permission granted."

The operator looked down at his computer, and with a click of the mouse, initiated the software sequence designed to activate the launch system.

A light fixture that had been on the ceiling flashed red, then glowed green.

"We have charge transfer...10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1. Orbital velocity peaked...launch structure separation. We have lift off!"

Every operator in the room cheered. Considering future events, it was incredibly ironic...
As the payload was launching from Cape Canaveral, a squadron of space fighters belonging to the U.S. space force was gathering overhead. They were to provide escort for the shuttle and it's valuable cargo.

"Little Friend One, this is Big Daddy, over..." said the pilot of the shuttle.

"Big Daddy, this is Little Friend One. Proceed to orbit as usual," said the commander of the squadron charged with escort duty.

"Roger!"

The shuttle activated it's maneuvering thrusters, rolling until the payload pod was pointing upwards, and the vertical fins on the shuttle downwards, toward Earth.

“Thruster firing initiated.”

One of the main thrusters aboard the shuttle fired a brief burst. It was enough to set the shuttle and the pod moving at over 4000 miles per hour.

Suddenly, aboard one of the space fighters, one of the pilots spotted a radar return. It was not the shuttle…

And it was not the fighter escort…

“Oh my god…”

The radar contacts lined up…

“We’re under attack!” yelled the pilot, just as the unidentified contacts fired their missiles, then accelerated forward.

Instantly, one of the missiles locked on to the commander’s craft. It’s rocket thrusters increased power, and the missile slammed into the fighter, automatically detonating the shaped charge warhead. The fighter never stood a chance.

Without their commander, the squadron of fighters fell into confusion. Most were annihilated in the hail of missiles, but a few managed to escape.

The shuttle was now defenseless…

After the escort fighters had gone, the enemy fighters swooped in.

“Big Daddy 1, you will follow us…”

boxcarjoe · July 8, 2003, 14:51

keep going, space fiction rocks!

ChrisiusMaximus · July 8, 2003, 15:04

Its an interesting start, but are you going to finish this one ?

PresidentMarcos · July 8, 2003, 23:59

I'll try...

Chapter 1: The Opening Acts

MAY 23,
2029.
Somewhere over southwestern Brazil...

Immediately after apprehending the shuttle in mid-transfer, the fighters had called in support in the form of several ECM-equipped shuttles. They had immediately jammed the radio waves wide open shut. As such, the shuttle carrying the precious cargo was unable to annouce it's distress to friendly forces. To add insult to injury, the shuttle passed right over several Space Command bases, each brimming with hundreds of space fighters, more than enough to rescue the shuttle. And of course, the fighters had to have taken the shuttle somewhere...

So they took it to their base of operations, namely, a cave complex in Brazil known as Jaburo.

"Alpha Command, this is Beta Longbow Delta 1. You are cleared for landing," the tower operator at the camoflauged airstrip said.

"Roger," replied the commander of the fighters. "Alpha Squadron, prepare for re-entry..."

Each spacecraft, including the shuttle, cut thrust to the main engines, and applied a 5-second reverse boost, levelling out as their speed decreased. Soon enough, one of the fighter's undersides began to glow cherry-red, then white hot. Soon, all the other spacecraft followed suit, as they fell down from the sky, toward Jaburo...

A few moments later, all the spacecraft had safely landed. The fighters and the shuttles taxiied into the underground hangars, and that was the end of this phase of the operation...

This was a day to rock the world in the very, very near future...

unscratchedfoot · July 9, 2003, 00:12

Nice story keep it coming.

Hey!

What about the big battle between the exoskeletons and the super duper battle tanks? I was hoping for a nice big rumble there.

PresidentMarcos · July 11, 2003, 23:10

Chapter 2: Counter-Action

MAY 23,
2029
Situation Room
The White House

The President sat as usual in his high backed leather office chair, with his feet on the desk, and his hands behind his head. He looked on at the huge map of the world that was in front of him. It was business as usual. Sometimes, there was a crisis. But not too often...

Still, they could pop when you least expected them to happen...

Suddenly, the President was jolted out of his state of euphoria by the cry of one of his aides.

"Mr. President! Mr. President! One of our nuclear warhead carrier pods are missing, along with the nukes stored in them!"

This was a surprise. Something like this hadn't happened for...what...for a long time...

"Well, what happened?" asked the President.

"It was hijacked in orbital transfer by unknown forces. Of course, this happened in the morning. Hours ago. It's just that it's taken us this long to figure it out!"

"Why?"

"Well, it takes a long time for this shuttle to get anywhere...usually about nine hours before suspicion arises. Put the missile defences on alert?"

"Yes, of course..."

****

MAY 24,
2029
Jaburo, Brazil

It had taken several hours, but the computer technicians had finally cracked the entry codes, and opened the blasted storage pod. And then, it took another several hours to take care of the self destruct charge, and yet another several hours to make sure that the self destruct charges were fully destroyed. But it was worth the drudgery...

The General walked up to the missile, and began inspecting it. He started at the warhead, and walked up and down on each side several times, feeling it with his hands. If the warhead had capacity for thought and feeling, it would have felt incredibly violated.

Finally, the General finished.

"Excellent. We can proceed with Operation Kaboom..."

ChrisiusMaximus · July 12, 2003, 05:31

Nice! Keep it coming

Samuel Johnson · July 15, 2003, 21:10

"This was a day to rock the world in the very, very near future..."

For those about to rock, we salute you, in the very, very near future! Sorry, couldn't resist. More, more, more.

PresidentMarcos · July 19, 2003, 00:07

Chapter 2: A Rumble In The Jungle In Megadeaths

MAY 25,
CIA Headquarters,
Langley, Virginia.

"Okay, Thompson," the man said. "Several nuclear weapons have been stolen from us?"

"Yes, sir," the analyst replied.

"Who the hell did it?"

"A scout force is being sent out to find out exactly who did it as we speak...

****

In the Brazilian rainforests, the team of elite operatives had just been inserted. Silent but deadly, they inched ever closer to the camoflauged entrance...

"Okay, okay..." the captain in charge of team said. "There's the entrance...It looks like there are some guards to take down..."

He grabbed the huge kinetic sniper rifle, and aimed for the guard's head, then pulled the trigger...

"BANG!"

Even though the guard was wearing one of the best exoskeletons money could buy, it was simply no match for 5kg of depleted uranium travelling at 9412 metres a second. Within moments, all the guards had been alerted, and were rushing to the scene...

ChrisiusMaximus · July 19, 2003, 04:15

Should have used a silencer and a little stealth, keep the goods coming PM.

PresidentMarcos · July 19, 2003, 12:34

In this story, EVERYONE is stupid and incompetent. Get it? Got it? Good.

"Move! Move!" one of the guards yelled over the radio, as he pointed in the general direction of the assault team, and pulled the trigger on his rifle...

It blazed intensely, raking the bushes with depleted uranium. Another guard ran up, and turned the flamethrower on the bushes...

"POW!"

A wall of bullets erupted from behind a ridge. Instantly, half the squad of guards were taken down, their heads blown apart in the shower of bullets...

The others pointed in the direction the blast had come from, and started throwing grenades.

"POW! POW! POW!"

"Okay, okay..." the captain of the assault team yelled. "We go around the damm ridge..."

He began to crawl to the west, around the ridge...

His squad followed suit.

Suddenly, one of the squad members was blown to smithereens by a grenade. In retalitition, the entire team stood up, and opened fire...

The jungle was filled with the noise of bullets whizzing through the air, garnished with the horirble screams of the dying. When the smoke finally cleared, the clearing was absolutely littered with corpses. All but two of the assault team were dead, in that clearing. Fortunately, the two survivors were soon to be extracted.

unscratchedfoot · July 19, 2003, 19:35

Was the mission a failure? Did a lot of bad guys die too? This is fairly good and would perhaps be even better with a few more details. I hope for more gunfights coming up.

PresidentMarcos · July 28, 2003, 21:39

Sorry about the slooow pace of updates...I was away to a hot springs resort.

Anyway...

Chapter 3: KABOOM PHASE ONE

May 25,
Jaburo, Brazil.

The large missile pod raised itself upwards as the top opened, revealing a large circular depression. The circular depression opened, revealing a missile warhead. Seconds later, the missile flew out of the tobe at supersonic speed, it's engines blazing...

*****

Cheyenne Mountain, NORAD HQ

"Uh, sir...we've detected a missile launch from Brazillian territory," one of the interns manning a radar screen said to his supervising officer.

The supervising officer then pushed a big red button, activating the SDI system...

*****

The missile split into two parts. One exploded high above Cheyenne Mountain, creating an EMP that rendered that area's defences useless. The second destroyed Cheyenne Mountain...

*****

At the Jaburo HQ of the clandestine army, the General pushed the big red button...OF DOOM!!!

PresidentMarcos · August 1, 2003, 22:38

Chapter 4: Even More Doom!

Immdiately, the other weapon pods opened, and released nuclear weapons. Within seconds, the population of the US fell...from 280 million, to 140 million...

As the president took off in Air Force One, he was fuming.

"This...is...war..."

To be continued...

unscratchedfoot · August 2, 2003, 00:02

I think you made the record for shortest chapter in the history of appleton short story forum. And 140 million people were cooked. Let's see what the president does about it.

PresidentMarcos · August 12, 2003, 20:56

The President picked up the Red Phone, and dialed in a number. Several seconds later, the U.S's own missiles had launched from Grand Forks. Only seconds later, all of South America had been completely vaporized.

Including Jaburo.

The End.