G
Guest
Guest
hi, this is my first post here so please be gentle.
i used to hang out on the uv board a while back but they went all asherons call so i stopped and i havent had a pc for a while either.
but i'm back and i'm posting a story i started writing back in my uv days.
i sent this to miroslav the other day and have since found this board so , sorry miroslav, if i'd have used my brain i'd have posted it here,
so this is my first fanfic so any feedback would be appreciated
oh and i'll say it again, please be gentle.
if you like it i might be tempted to finish it.
Rattling the Sabre.
(A Very English Apocalypse.)
Prologue.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20:45hrs Thursday October 17th 2077
Captain Stuart Holden sat patiently in the small, well appointed office, overlooking the parade ground here at Hereford. He had no idea why the C.O. wanted to see him, he'd had his debrief from the oppo in Hong Kong the week before. they couldn't be sending his team out again so soon, could they? Besides, Parker was still laid up with a Chinese bullet in his leg. And they surely wouldn't send him out a man down.
But you never could tell, 22 SAS was an unpredictable Regiment to be a part of, that was it's appeal. You could call it dangerous, exhilarating and at times disorienting, but you could never say it was boring. If you weren't out on assignment, you were constantly running exercises and retraining to hone the formidable skills required to wear the uniform of one of the most feared and respected military units in the world.
And what assignments, in his five years with the SAS Holden had been on secondment to MI5, served as bodyguard to the Sultan of Brunei, trained pro-independance guerillas in Somalia, hunted down "Real" IRA cell members in Ulster, and run incursion, sabotage and assassination ops in Rwanda, Timor, Afghanistan, Belorussia and Sumatra. A soldiers life was not a quiet one.
He looked up as David Stirling, the C.O. of 22 SAS regiment entered the room.
“Ahh, Holden” he said.
“Yessir”
“You are to be reassigned Holden” Said Stirling. Stirling was an unnaturally tall man and Holden had to crane his
neck to look up at the slim figure of his superior.
"Reassigned where sir?"
Holden was expecting to be reassigned. Just not this soon. His last mission had gone pear shaped and he was damn lucky to have got his team out alive.
Since China and the U.S. were at war, British Forces were expected to mobilise soon. And the SAS are usually at the front of any fight, more accurately, they are usually about forty miles in front of the front. The regiment specialised in ops behind enemy lines and were renowned for being where they were least expected. But why was he the only member of his team here?
SAS teams were just that, teams. they operated in eight man Sabre Squadrons, or teams, which would divide into two four man cells or four pairs if necessary. There was no official unit commander and they were always deployed in even no's so that no one man could dominate a team.
"You are being Assigned to special duty," Said Stirling "You will report directly to the Home Secretary in this, Captain, you will have no contact with your former team members and you will notify no-one of your new location, is this understood?”
“Yessir” Former team...What was going on here.
“You leave in 45 minutes, gather your gear. Dismiss”
“Sir” Holden saluted and turned to leave. He paused, "Sir?"
“I'm sorry Stuart...I can't answer your questions.” Holden was shocked, Stirling had never before addressed him by his first name. "You'll be briefed in full when you arrive...Christ, I don't even know where they're sending you." He paused. "It's been a privilege Stuart." He said at last. "I hope I'll see you on the other side of this with nothing more than a few more tall tales to tell."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
02:00hrs
As he sat in the Leyland, a large truck used widely by the British Army as a workhorse for transporting soldiers and equipment quickly over most terrains, he took stock of the last few hours. There were eight men in the back of the vehicle, all from Hereford, all SAS Sabre team members, but most from different units. Odd, they usually kept team members together, after a while serving under fire you could almost read each others minds. But some of the men in the truck he only knew from duty rosters and shift changes. Of the two others whom he knew, Harris was a bull of a man, he favoured the GPMG as a weapon and was usually found in a support role, he could be relied upon to cover the back of any in his unit without question. Lewis was another matter, he was young, the youngest Sabre team member Holden knew of, at only 19. This meant, of course that he was one of the best, the problem was, he knew it. He was reckless and headstrong. He could be a problem.
Holden’s train of thought was derailed as he looked out of the rear of the truck. They were on the outskirts of London, what the hell were they doing here. He'd assumed they were being sent into combat what other reason for splitting the teams unless they needed each of their expertise? Why London? Hereford had its own airfield so London had to be their destination. And hadn't the C.O. said he'd report to the home secretary? Maybe that's what this was, just a briefing, then off on the job. Yes that would make sense.
The truck entered the blackwall tunnel, one of two that ran under the thames, along with the eight or so bridges these were the only way to pass the moat that surrounded the city proper, he could see why the romans moved the capitol here from york, it was much easier to defend against attack….
The truck had stopped. The men in the back looked at each other quizzically. They heard a cab door open and a burly sergeant came to stand at the rear of the vehicle. The Sergeant began undoing the tailgate and looked up at them, “c’mon lads, out ya get.”
“Sarge?” enquired Holden.
“Well, we're here.” He studied Holden’s face, then looked at the others, “Strewth, they ‘avent told you ‘ave they.”
“Told us what Sergeant?” Lewis piped from the rear of the vehicle in an openly belligerent tone.
“ Look, let's get you inside, I'm sure they'll brief you once we're in.”
The sergeant's tone left no doubt that the discussion was over, so the men began to decamp from the vehicle. As they sorted through their gear and hosted their 84lb packs onto their shoulders, the grizzly sergeant crossed the lanes of the road, empty of traffic at this hour and headed for a rusted steel door on the other side of the tunnel. “Fall in” he called over his shoulder, and the man obeyed. Even though there were others like Holden, of a higher rank than Sergeant, they obeyed.
The sergeant opened the steel door and it gave an unwilling squeal as it was pushed back on it's hinges. They all filled in ands a corporal appeared from the gloom beyond them, exchanging a nod with the sarge as he passed and headed out to the truck. The sarge closed the door after them and led them into the chamber beyond.
It looked like a service corridor, ducts lined the walls, and vents and fuse boxes were dotted at regular intervals, 200 yards down there was a fork, the left led to an electricity substation a short way down, the sergeant took the right. After a few minutes of trudging down gloomy corridors, ignoring side passages here and there they were faced with another door. Again steel, but not rusty. There was a complex electronic panel to the right of this door, comprising a keypad and a card swipe unit. The sarge produced a card from a chain around his neck, swiped it and entered a seven digit number. The door slid back noiselessly and the nine assembled men entered.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The door was only one of many concealed entrances to the near fortress that lay beneath London. A corridor beyond led to a similarly secure elevator, from there it was 3 miles down into to bowels of the earth. To an electric railway network that connected these distant entrances to the hub of the base, directly under Whitehall, the centre of British government.
This vast network of tunnels was the inspiration of Winston Churchill, he had the first bomb shelter built under 10 Downing Street during World War II, although today's bombs needed a little more protection than his bunker could offer. So consecutive governments in collusion with the military and various scientific establishments such as British Nuclear Fuels had constructed this, the largest underground facility this side of the Pentagon. In fact some of the technical advisors were the same who had constructed that massive installation.
The base was built to house the three hundred members of parliament and their families, a military wing capable of housing of a full battalion, one thousand soldiers, with weapons and vehicles for all. There was a scientific contingent of two hundred and all the latest technology to flesh out their laboratories, there was a hospital, a telephone exchange and even a small garden. The facility had it's own power plant and water purification system, quite ingenious really. The artesian well under the base provided water, which was heated by geothermal energy to feed the steam turbines of the power plant, this steam was then distilled and fed through several complex filters to provide the base with fresh, clean water. The Royal Family were housed in a separate wing, under the protection of the household cavalry and several MI5 operatives, joined to the main complex by rail.
In peacetime the installation was manned by only three hundred soldiers and technicians, the Sergeant, whose name was Welland, was one of these, and he was scared, more scared than he had ever been in his life.
Because for the first time in his life, the base was being put on to operational status.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
06:45hrs Friday October 18th 2077
Holden and the rest of the Sabre team sat in a small briefing room, tucked away in a vast underground complex that only a few knew existed, but many more suspected. Last night, after the Sergeant had shown them all to their bunk room, they had talked. They soon realised why they had been picked for this duty, whatever it was, and it made them uneasy. They were all experienced soldiers, Holden was 33 and had been with the SAS five years, he was an incursion and assassination specialist, as was the brash youth, Lewis. Dalton and Price were from the same team and were counter terrorist operatives, Harris, Burton and Moore were all from search and rescue teams. Their tales of pulling downed pilots back from behind enemy lines left no doubt as to their capabilities. The last member of this new formed team was Seward, who described himself as a man who liked to make things go BOOM. A demolition expert, who had served three tours in Ireland disarming home made bombs.
The thing that alerted Holden to the fact that this assignment would not be a walk in the park was that these men, himself included, were all career soldiers, and they were all unmarried, with no families.
They had no doubts as to where they were; only why they were there.
The men all leapt to attention as a Brigadier General strode into the room, flanked by a scientist and a small, bespectacled man in a blue pinstripe suit.
The brigadier spoke first, “At ease men. Well you must be wondering what you're doing here, but first let me make it clear where you are. This facility is the main protective bunker for government in the event of a nuclear attack. As you will have surmised with the trouble between China and the U.S.A. the government is in emergency session to decide whether or not to enter into this conflict. Now, politicians can procrastinate all the like, but everyone knows it's a forgone conclusion,. We will enter the was and we will be giving the Americans any assistance we can.”
“This presents us with a little problem. We are about to enter into an armed conflict with the largest, nuclear capable country in the world. We pose a special threat to the chinese, as England is the perfect staging post for an American invasion force, as is Japan, whose government is also in session to discuss this. As we are about to become a possible target for nuclear strike by China we are moving this facility to fully operational status.”
“You, Gentlemen, are a part of that operation. In the event of nuclear war this facility will be a fully operational military base, with two primary roles: one, to protect government throughout the crisis, and two, to re-establish a governmental infrastructure once the conflict has passed.”
“The drill runs like this, if and when China Launches, the missiles will be detected and this facility will go onto full alert. All personnel will be evacuated from surface structures down to here. The entrances will be sealed and we will wait for the bombs to fall. If the strike is averted, either by our own satellite defences or by a benign intervention on the side of the Chinese we will stand down.”
“If, God help us, the missile hit, our scientific team, headed by Dr. Rawlins here” He indicated the man to his left who had entered with him. “Will establish the half life of the agents used and will determine the minimum safe hibernation period. That figure will be entered into the central computer and all personnel will enter Cryo-Stasis for the required period.”
“Is that clear?”
Silence.
“Your role in all this begins after hibernation. You have been selected for two reasons: You have no families. this will be a great advantage to you both before and after the conflict. It is important that you are able to function at maximum efficiency after an event of this kind as you will be among the first called upon to act. Your skills make you the ideal choice for the first people to lead an expedition outside this facility after the conflict. Your exact operational parameters will be made clear to you in the event that it becomes likely you will be deployed, for now, consider yourselves on standby and make yourselves comfortable. Gentlemen.”
The bespectacled man stepped up to the front and began to speak, he introduced himself as a Mr. Chiltern, a member of the civil service. An aide de camp to the Home Secretary who was in session now, but would speak to them later.
Holden heard no more. His head reeled. He feared he would faint. What was this madness? There seemed to be a real possibility of a nuclear war. He couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it. They wouldn't let it happen. He would just have to stay here on standby and wait for this mess to blow itself out.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But it didn't blow itself out.
England and Japan both entered the war on the side of the Americans. The Middle east and what remained of Russia sided with the Chinese, as did Cuba. Other small conflicts flared up under the pressure of impending war. India invaded Pakistan, Australia stepped up its involvement in Indonesia.
As the weeks passed the global situation deteriorated, China continued to press across Europe, the Czech republic and the Serbo-Bosnian Federation collapsed, weakened by years of internal conflict. France stepped in when Germany was invaded, as did Italy and Spain, fearing for their own borders. English troops were mobilised to garrison Berlin while the Americans attempted to push the Chinese back to their own borders. The threat of an invasion of China being posed by the massing of U.S. and English forces at Japan. While in South America the Cubans and Colombians grabbed territory from their neighbours.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As the war outside escalated the Sabre team felt the impotence of being locked away more than most. Even in peacetime they were on the front lines of any dispute and here they were, condemned, it seemed, to spend the war underground, like moles, or worse like cowards hiding from the great conflict raging outside.
At first they were occupied with learning their new role. They were shown around the D.V. or devastation vehicle. Which would be their transport back out to the world. It was ostensibly a large, heavily armoured A.P.C. with oxygen tanks, air rebreathers and layers of radiation and E.M. shielding. To protect them on the outside. It could survive a nuclear blast at only two miles from ground zero.
They were shown the new power assisted armour that was beginning to be used on the front lines. It was bulky and cumbersome but would keep you alive even if you stepped on a land mine. It was also radiation shielded. The men of the Sabre team didn't much care for them, they were used to the need for speed and stealth, this armour was the tool of a front line grunt. But if it was rad shielded you could bet they'd be wearing them when the time came.
As time wore on and it seemed there was less and less for them to do, they went to check out the armoury. It was Holden’s idea that wherever they went they went together. They didn`t have much time to adapt to all these new circumstances and they more they could learn about each other, the better their chances of survival would be on the outside. The armoury was astounding. It was, after all, designed to cater for a full battalion of men. There were hundreds of SA80’s, the mainstay of the british army, there were lars rocket launchers, karl gustav 84 mm anti tank weapons, browning 9 mm pistols, grenades, claymore mines. There were H&K MP5’s flash bombs, some SPAS12 auto shotguns, GPMG’s. there was even ordinance going back through the years; a few cases of 7.62 FN-FAL’s and even some Thompson SMG’s. Price found an old storeroom containing Lanchester’s, Stirling's, Sten’s and even some rebored Lee Enfield’s. it was quite an arsenal. Holden was bemused to find a door at the back of the main storeroom that was locked in the same manner as the outer doors. Keypad and card reader. He made a mental note to enquire about it.
They tried to stay busy, they tried to inventory the weapons, but a quartermaster was already there, and as is they was of all quartermasters, jealously guarded his stores from “interference”. They went to the motor pool and the NAAFI, the Ops room and the Library, but everywhere on the base was already manned and operational. The brass saw this and attached them to the scientific team, ostensibly to learn more of their role after the “Event” as everyone was now calling it.
What a ludicrous understatement for the annihilation of mankind, the “Event”. Scientists seemed to need the detachment that the terminology provided and anyway, everyone knew it wouldn't happen.
So it was that an elite, eight man team of soldiers began to learn about radiation counts, decontamination procedures, the effects of a nuclear winter, cellular mutation, the operation of Cryo-stasis and the effects of prolonged hibernation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15:20 Monday November 11th 2077
They were in the cryo-lab, the central control for all the hibernation chambers throughout the facility, learning of the failsafes that were being fitted as the watched.
“In the event of a nuclear strike it is quite likely that not everyone will be able to make it to the Cryo-tubes.” Explained Mason, the project leader for the Cryogenics department. “ So we have been installing this fail-safe device. It is not as effective as full cryo hibernation though. As you already know a Cryo-stasis subject id ideally held in a breathable liquid medium and the whole, including the body suspended in the fluid is rapidly reduced to absolute zero. The subject can be awoken at any time either by pre-programmed computer sequence or by direct human intervention. Provided of course you have the codes.”
“Now this fail-safe system we only brought in this week. We're trying to install it throughout the base as we speak.” Seeing a raised eyebrow from Holden he went on “It is an experimental compound gas, comprising three stages, one rapidly following the other. If the base detects a launch, once the cryo-tubes are armed this gaseous compound will be released throughout the rest of the base, thus maximising the survival chances of those who did not make it to stasis.”
“So how does this stuff work?” asked Holden.
“Well, it's not dissimilar to the lethal injection method employed in the U.S. The first stage is anaesthetic which renders the subject unconscious, the next stage is a paralysing nerve agent which prevent any trauma damage by the third agent, which is a micro molecular suspension agent.”
“A what” asked Holden, he was never afraid to show a lack of knowledge. That was probably why he learned so much.
“It freezes you.” Replied the scientist, in a tone that managed, barely, not to be patronising. “There are millions of particles in each cylinder that bond with the cells of your body and remove the heat by induction.” Holden looked over at the slim metal cylinders that were stored along the wall of the room. “I've seen a tiny vial of these things extract all the heat from a lab fire. Incredible endothermic properties. Remarkable little things really. Hard to classify too, some say they're almost an organism, a mycoplasma.”
“sorry, say again, a what?” chimed in Price. Price prided himself on being a bit of a tech head but even he was way out of his depth here.
“A Mycoplasma, the smallest living thing we know to exist. Smaller than a bacteria or even a single celled amoeba, but vastly more complex than both in structure.” Mason was just showing off now. And loving every minute of it. Most of the people he conversed with on this subject were also specialists in the field. It was nice sometimes to be able to amaze the unenlightened.
“So once you've been frozen like this how do you come round?” Something here bothered Holden.
“Oh, there's a counter agent to the Mycoplasm, that disperses it. Those that made it to the pre-programmed Cryo-tubes will release the counter agent before leaving the cryo-chamber.” Said Mason, dissmissively. He wanted to get back to the impressive stuff.
“But what if No-one makes it to the tubes? How long would you be out?”
“Well, erm, we don't really know. You see all the test subjects were revived with the counter agent. If the
agent isn't introduced you could be out for a considerable period of time.”
“How considerable?” asked Lewis, now interested himself.
“Early projections indicate it could be in excess of three hundred years, depending on the conditions. But no less than fifty or so years in the worst of conditions.” Mason said with a nonchalance that decried the looks of disbelief on the faces of the team.
“Three hundred, YEARS. That's insane.” Lewis was clearly not happy.
Wouldn't it make more sense to have the discharge of this counter agent on the same time release as the tubes?” asked Holden, cutting off the younger soldier.
“Captain, really, there's no need to get worked up about this. It is only a fail-safe. And if it is ever implemented the people in the tubes will release the counter agent on their revival. I agree it would have been more prudent to link the two systems, but we are only now installing this system. It is merely an afterthought for our added safety.”
Something occurred to Price. “Look, is there any way we can help with this installation? I know we aren't scientists but we're not idiots and we're used to getting things done in a hurry.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mason concurred and the eight men were soon set to work, glad to finally be doing something.
The base was equipped with a Halon gas delivery system, for fire control, but when the base was occupied the system was deactivated and a water sprinkler system implemented instead. For although Halon gas was very effective, it worked by replacing the oxygen in the room, with it's own inert gas. A gas which humans couldn't breath. And in a place where evacuation could mean a slow death by radiation poisoning, it was considered prudent not to take the risk.
The plan was to use the deactivated Halon system to introduce the new, compound gas, which had been named “Sandman.” Scientists did like to amuse themselves with the names they gave their creations. This meant, first checking that the Halon system was fully operational, by using a harmless, scented compound to ensure every room was being reached. Then the delivery system had to be charged with the Sandman gas and tested to ensure that the gas would not just freeze in the ducts and fail to reach the rooms.
The problem was the gas. At present they had only twelve canisters of the Sandman gas and two of the counter agent. They were waiting for more, which was on it's way from the research boys at Porton Down. But the work went on. The SAS. boys diligently checking every system and duct, flushing the Halon and checking every room's delivery systems until they believed they were ready. The scientific team they were working with, including Mason were impressed by the teams diligence, even the grizzled old sergeant, Welland, who had been assigned to ensure that the team didn't get lost in the warren that made up the lower floors, was impressed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10:00hrs Thursday November 23rd
Holden had left the men refitting some of the older, plastic ducting on level 31 while he went off to find someone who could tell him what was behind that locked door in the storeroom.
Everyone who he had asked either didn't know, like Welland or wouldn't tell him, like Mason and Rawlins. He decided to seek out Chiltern, the Home Secretary's aide, and see if he could tell him what was behind that door. If he couldn't that only left the Home Secretary and the P.M. in the chain of command.
He didn't know why it had become so important to him to find out what was in that room, all he could ascribe it to was that he and his team had been given free range of the base, with the exception of that one room.
He drew near the opts room and enquired of the door guard if Chiltern was inside, to be told that he was up in the motor pool, on the first level. Holden thanked him and headed up there. The motor pool was designed with six separate access points, from the outside they looked just like the entrances to private car parks, belonging to the various tower blocks in the area. But if one looked more closely, each was, in fact, a very defensible position, veritable fortresses blending into the urban background.
Holden found Chiltern at the motor pool entrance to the base proper, ensuring all was in place for the P.M.'s visit tomorrow. He strode confidently towards him and opened his mouth to speak but Chiltern cut him off.
"Yes, I wondered when you'd get round to asking me."
Holden was Startled, "Ask You..."
"It's o.k., Sir Royston says you have full clearance." Sir Royston was the Home Secretary, Holdens Questions had obviously not been as discrete as he had hoped. "in fact, his exact words were, "if anyone needs to know about those damn things it's him and his team, so bloody show him."
"Sir, I didn't mean to..."
"It's alright Captain, there's a standing order that anyone asking about Store seven is to be reported. You weren't to know. Just have your team assembled there in an hour and I'll give you the tour, o.k.?"
"Yes Sir."
"And do stop calling me Sir, I'm a civil servant, not God." He waited. "Anything else Captain?"
"No, S.. Nothing Mr Chiltern."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11:00hrs
Holden and his men waited expectantly outside store seven, they heard the footsteps echo around the cavernous armoury as Chiltern's three hundred pound Brogues announced his arrival.
"Gentlemen," He said simply, as he drew near. "this room is off limits to most of the personell in the facility, but Sir Royston feel that you need to know what's in here."
He loosened his tie and drew out a keycard on a chain, he swiped the card and punched a series of numbers onto the keypad, quickly returning the card to its place and securing his tie. There was a hiss of air as the door slid back and he lad the men in.
the room was unimpressive, a sttel-grey chamber, about twelve metres longand three wide, with a grill floor and several wide dreawers set into the walls. a single door in the opposite wall was tthe only other feature, it looked like a drivethrough morgue.
Chiltern took the blank looks as his cue to speak, "Airlock. The room beyond is a clean room. no dust, no static." he crossed to a drawer and pulled out an all-in-one paper coverall, "we've got to put theese on. before we can go in, the slightest particle could cause a disaster."
When all were suitably attired, Chiltern crossed to the far door and pressed the simple switch that was the doors only furniture. there was a hiss and all present felt a rush of air as the atmosphere was exchanged.
Flourescent lights flickered into life above them as they entered the room.
"Weel, this is it. Store seven. God alone knows where the other six are. well, God, the PM, Sir Royston and the MOD i imagine, i certainly dont."
The chamber resembled a huge open plan office, it seemed at first glance to be a single large room with subdivisions, simple false walls ony five feet or so tall separating areas.
"Everything in here is deemed "Sensitive" by the powers that be, myself included, there are documents, devices, weapons, secrets. everything we wanted to keep away from prying eyes gets dumped in here. this is where Mason first rediscovered the Sandman gas."
"Sorry, did you say rediscovered?"
"Hmm?, Yes. It was first made in 1998, to be used as a weapon of some sort. The original delivery system is in here somewhere, looks sort of like a flamethrower. well, that's why we have so little of it, the boys at porton down are having to practically relearn how to make it."
"So what else is in here?" piped up Lewis.
"Ohh, this and that, our early experiments with laser weapons technology, several biological samples that were sent here never to see the light of day, including one madmans attempt to turn the Ebola virus airborne."
"jesus."
"Every Government secret from the last two hundred years all stored on high density optical disk. The formulae for almost every chemical compound imaginable, a pocket size first stage plasma reactor, condemned for it's instability, but between you and me i think the nueclear industry is just too much trouble to try to do away with."
"What's that?" asked Dalton, pointing to a set of steel doors lurking noncholantly in the wall of the chamber.
"Thats where Mother lives. Yes, I know, sometimes i think scientists watch too much sci-fi, but then they say thats where the best ideas come from. Mother is what the lab coat brigade call the computer that runs this facility. She's about a hundred feet below us and that elevator is the only way down."
"you speak as though it were alive?"
"Well it's the closest we've ever come to true AI, she's aware, intellegent and capable of advanced problem solving. They say she has no personality and no ability for free thinking, but i leave such things to philosophers. She answers when i ask her things, that makes her alive to me. more so than a lot of the real people i know."
"So what do we do now?" asked Lewis, his impatience clearly showing.
"Weel, we learned from our Sandman experience, Mason has a keycard and the doorcode, he also has an extensive catalogue of the contents of this store. Look through the inventory. If you see anything you think you can use, let me know. you guys are the first out of this place and if there's anything in here that can help you on the outside we want you to have it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11:00 hrs Tuesday 28th November 2077
The Eight man team were in what had become thier unofficial workroom, the room housing the gas delivery system. Price had been looking through the inventory for store seven.
"There's stuff in here you wouldn't believe." said Price to the assembled men.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
04:00hrs Tuesday December 1st 2077
No-one knows who launched first. Some said that the Chinese, seeing U.S. troops rolling up the road to Beijing just thought "Fuck it" and launched. others say that India fired on Pakistan and the automated systems all over the globe went nuts and fired. some think it was a rouge sub commander that started it. The truth is, no-one knows.
One side fired and everyone joined the party. America was the worst hit in terms of the sheer volume of missiles, but England is a small country, not a single square inch of the British isles escaped devastation. those who fled to Scotland thinking themselves safe away from the capitol were vaporized when the missiles hit the nuclear submarine base at Holy Loch and the Garrison of the Black watch in Edinburgh Castle.
The net result was the devastation of the planet. over seven hundred Billion people died in the first three weeks of December of 2077. Most from burns caused by the initial blasts. London itself was hit by seven nuclear missiles, two groundbursts, centred on Parliament and the docks, and five airbursts, over canary wharf, where MI5 had their offices, Hyde park, Leicester square, Southall, Wembley and Blackwall.
It was the end of the world
It was what we had always feared it would be.
Our fault.
Thus ends part one. If anyone liked it I'll write part two. (Hehe just like Stephen King)
i used to hang out on the uv board a while back but they went all asherons call so i stopped and i havent had a pc for a while either.
but i'm back and i'm posting a story i started writing back in my uv days.
i sent this to miroslav the other day and have since found this board so , sorry miroslav, if i'd have used my brain i'd have posted it here,
so this is my first fanfic so any feedback would be appreciated
oh and i'll say it again, please be gentle.
if you like it i might be tempted to finish it.
Rattling the Sabre.
(A Very English Apocalypse.)
Prologue.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20:45hrs Thursday October 17th 2077
Captain Stuart Holden sat patiently in the small, well appointed office, overlooking the parade ground here at Hereford. He had no idea why the C.O. wanted to see him, he'd had his debrief from the oppo in Hong Kong the week before. they couldn't be sending his team out again so soon, could they? Besides, Parker was still laid up with a Chinese bullet in his leg. And they surely wouldn't send him out a man down.
But you never could tell, 22 SAS was an unpredictable Regiment to be a part of, that was it's appeal. You could call it dangerous, exhilarating and at times disorienting, but you could never say it was boring. If you weren't out on assignment, you were constantly running exercises and retraining to hone the formidable skills required to wear the uniform of one of the most feared and respected military units in the world.
And what assignments, in his five years with the SAS Holden had been on secondment to MI5, served as bodyguard to the Sultan of Brunei, trained pro-independance guerillas in Somalia, hunted down "Real" IRA cell members in Ulster, and run incursion, sabotage and assassination ops in Rwanda, Timor, Afghanistan, Belorussia and Sumatra. A soldiers life was not a quiet one.
He looked up as David Stirling, the C.O. of 22 SAS regiment entered the room.
“Ahh, Holden” he said.
“Yessir”
“You are to be reassigned Holden” Said Stirling. Stirling was an unnaturally tall man and Holden had to crane his
neck to look up at the slim figure of his superior.
"Reassigned where sir?"
Holden was expecting to be reassigned. Just not this soon. His last mission had gone pear shaped and he was damn lucky to have got his team out alive.
Since China and the U.S. were at war, British Forces were expected to mobilise soon. And the SAS are usually at the front of any fight, more accurately, they are usually about forty miles in front of the front. The regiment specialised in ops behind enemy lines and were renowned for being where they were least expected. But why was he the only member of his team here?
SAS teams were just that, teams. they operated in eight man Sabre Squadrons, or teams, which would divide into two four man cells or four pairs if necessary. There was no official unit commander and they were always deployed in even no's so that no one man could dominate a team.
"You are being Assigned to special duty," Said Stirling "You will report directly to the Home Secretary in this, Captain, you will have no contact with your former team members and you will notify no-one of your new location, is this understood?”
“Yessir” Former team...What was going on here.
“You leave in 45 minutes, gather your gear. Dismiss”
“Sir” Holden saluted and turned to leave. He paused, "Sir?"
“I'm sorry Stuart...I can't answer your questions.” Holden was shocked, Stirling had never before addressed him by his first name. "You'll be briefed in full when you arrive...Christ, I don't even know where they're sending you." He paused. "It's been a privilege Stuart." He said at last. "I hope I'll see you on the other side of this with nothing more than a few more tall tales to tell."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
02:00hrs
As he sat in the Leyland, a large truck used widely by the British Army as a workhorse for transporting soldiers and equipment quickly over most terrains, he took stock of the last few hours. There were eight men in the back of the vehicle, all from Hereford, all SAS Sabre team members, but most from different units. Odd, they usually kept team members together, after a while serving under fire you could almost read each others minds. But some of the men in the truck he only knew from duty rosters and shift changes. Of the two others whom he knew, Harris was a bull of a man, he favoured the GPMG as a weapon and was usually found in a support role, he could be relied upon to cover the back of any in his unit without question. Lewis was another matter, he was young, the youngest Sabre team member Holden knew of, at only 19. This meant, of course that he was one of the best, the problem was, he knew it. He was reckless and headstrong. He could be a problem.
Holden’s train of thought was derailed as he looked out of the rear of the truck. They were on the outskirts of London, what the hell were they doing here. He'd assumed they were being sent into combat what other reason for splitting the teams unless they needed each of their expertise? Why London? Hereford had its own airfield so London had to be their destination. And hadn't the C.O. said he'd report to the home secretary? Maybe that's what this was, just a briefing, then off on the job. Yes that would make sense.
The truck entered the blackwall tunnel, one of two that ran under the thames, along with the eight or so bridges these were the only way to pass the moat that surrounded the city proper, he could see why the romans moved the capitol here from york, it was much easier to defend against attack….
The truck had stopped. The men in the back looked at each other quizzically. They heard a cab door open and a burly sergeant came to stand at the rear of the vehicle. The Sergeant began undoing the tailgate and looked up at them, “c’mon lads, out ya get.”
“Sarge?” enquired Holden.
“Well, we're here.” He studied Holden’s face, then looked at the others, “Strewth, they ‘avent told you ‘ave they.”
“Told us what Sergeant?” Lewis piped from the rear of the vehicle in an openly belligerent tone.
“ Look, let's get you inside, I'm sure they'll brief you once we're in.”
The sergeant's tone left no doubt that the discussion was over, so the men began to decamp from the vehicle. As they sorted through their gear and hosted their 84lb packs onto their shoulders, the grizzly sergeant crossed the lanes of the road, empty of traffic at this hour and headed for a rusted steel door on the other side of the tunnel. “Fall in” he called over his shoulder, and the man obeyed. Even though there were others like Holden, of a higher rank than Sergeant, they obeyed.
The sergeant opened the steel door and it gave an unwilling squeal as it was pushed back on it's hinges. They all filled in ands a corporal appeared from the gloom beyond them, exchanging a nod with the sarge as he passed and headed out to the truck. The sarge closed the door after them and led them into the chamber beyond.
It looked like a service corridor, ducts lined the walls, and vents and fuse boxes were dotted at regular intervals, 200 yards down there was a fork, the left led to an electricity substation a short way down, the sergeant took the right. After a few minutes of trudging down gloomy corridors, ignoring side passages here and there they were faced with another door. Again steel, but not rusty. There was a complex electronic panel to the right of this door, comprising a keypad and a card swipe unit. The sarge produced a card from a chain around his neck, swiped it and entered a seven digit number. The door slid back noiselessly and the nine assembled men entered.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The door was only one of many concealed entrances to the near fortress that lay beneath London. A corridor beyond led to a similarly secure elevator, from there it was 3 miles down into to bowels of the earth. To an electric railway network that connected these distant entrances to the hub of the base, directly under Whitehall, the centre of British government.
This vast network of tunnels was the inspiration of Winston Churchill, he had the first bomb shelter built under 10 Downing Street during World War II, although today's bombs needed a little more protection than his bunker could offer. So consecutive governments in collusion with the military and various scientific establishments such as British Nuclear Fuels had constructed this, the largest underground facility this side of the Pentagon. In fact some of the technical advisors were the same who had constructed that massive installation.
The base was built to house the three hundred members of parliament and their families, a military wing capable of housing of a full battalion, one thousand soldiers, with weapons and vehicles for all. There was a scientific contingent of two hundred and all the latest technology to flesh out their laboratories, there was a hospital, a telephone exchange and even a small garden. The facility had it's own power plant and water purification system, quite ingenious really. The artesian well under the base provided water, which was heated by geothermal energy to feed the steam turbines of the power plant, this steam was then distilled and fed through several complex filters to provide the base with fresh, clean water. The Royal Family were housed in a separate wing, under the protection of the household cavalry and several MI5 operatives, joined to the main complex by rail.
In peacetime the installation was manned by only three hundred soldiers and technicians, the Sergeant, whose name was Welland, was one of these, and he was scared, more scared than he had ever been in his life.
Because for the first time in his life, the base was being put on to operational status.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
06:45hrs Friday October 18th 2077
Holden and the rest of the Sabre team sat in a small briefing room, tucked away in a vast underground complex that only a few knew existed, but many more suspected. Last night, after the Sergeant had shown them all to their bunk room, they had talked. They soon realised why they had been picked for this duty, whatever it was, and it made them uneasy. They were all experienced soldiers, Holden was 33 and had been with the SAS five years, he was an incursion and assassination specialist, as was the brash youth, Lewis. Dalton and Price were from the same team and were counter terrorist operatives, Harris, Burton and Moore were all from search and rescue teams. Their tales of pulling downed pilots back from behind enemy lines left no doubt as to their capabilities. The last member of this new formed team was Seward, who described himself as a man who liked to make things go BOOM. A demolition expert, who had served three tours in Ireland disarming home made bombs.
The thing that alerted Holden to the fact that this assignment would not be a walk in the park was that these men, himself included, were all career soldiers, and they were all unmarried, with no families.
They had no doubts as to where they were; only why they were there.
The men all leapt to attention as a Brigadier General strode into the room, flanked by a scientist and a small, bespectacled man in a blue pinstripe suit.
The brigadier spoke first, “At ease men. Well you must be wondering what you're doing here, but first let me make it clear where you are. This facility is the main protective bunker for government in the event of a nuclear attack. As you will have surmised with the trouble between China and the U.S.A. the government is in emergency session to decide whether or not to enter into this conflict. Now, politicians can procrastinate all the like, but everyone knows it's a forgone conclusion,. We will enter the was and we will be giving the Americans any assistance we can.”
“This presents us with a little problem. We are about to enter into an armed conflict with the largest, nuclear capable country in the world. We pose a special threat to the chinese, as England is the perfect staging post for an American invasion force, as is Japan, whose government is also in session to discuss this. As we are about to become a possible target for nuclear strike by China we are moving this facility to fully operational status.”
“You, Gentlemen, are a part of that operation. In the event of nuclear war this facility will be a fully operational military base, with two primary roles: one, to protect government throughout the crisis, and two, to re-establish a governmental infrastructure once the conflict has passed.”
“The drill runs like this, if and when China Launches, the missiles will be detected and this facility will go onto full alert. All personnel will be evacuated from surface structures down to here. The entrances will be sealed and we will wait for the bombs to fall. If the strike is averted, either by our own satellite defences or by a benign intervention on the side of the Chinese we will stand down.”
“If, God help us, the missile hit, our scientific team, headed by Dr. Rawlins here” He indicated the man to his left who had entered with him. “Will establish the half life of the agents used and will determine the minimum safe hibernation period. That figure will be entered into the central computer and all personnel will enter Cryo-Stasis for the required period.”
“Is that clear?”
Silence.
“Your role in all this begins after hibernation. You have been selected for two reasons: You have no families. this will be a great advantage to you both before and after the conflict. It is important that you are able to function at maximum efficiency after an event of this kind as you will be among the first called upon to act. Your skills make you the ideal choice for the first people to lead an expedition outside this facility after the conflict. Your exact operational parameters will be made clear to you in the event that it becomes likely you will be deployed, for now, consider yourselves on standby and make yourselves comfortable. Gentlemen.”
The bespectacled man stepped up to the front and began to speak, he introduced himself as a Mr. Chiltern, a member of the civil service. An aide de camp to the Home Secretary who was in session now, but would speak to them later.
Holden heard no more. His head reeled. He feared he would faint. What was this madness? There seemed to be a real possibility of a nuclear war. He couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it. They wouldn't let it happen. He would just have to stay here on standby and wait for this mess to blow itself out.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But it didn't blow itself out.
England and Japan both entered the war on the side of the Americans. The Middle east and what remained of Russia sided with the Chinese, as did Cuba. Other small conflicts flared up under the pressure of impending war. India invaded Pakistan, Australia stepped up its involvement in Indonesia.
As the weeks passed the global situation deteriorated, China continued to press across Europe, the Czech republic and the Serbo-Bosnian Federation collapsed, weakened by years of internal conflict. France stepped in when Germany was invaded, as did Italy and Spain, fearing for their own borders. English troops were mobilised to garrison Berlin while the Americans attempted to push the Chinese back to their own borders. The threat of an invasion of China being posed by the massing of U.S. and English forces at Japan. While in South America the Cubans and Colombians grabbed territory from their neighbours.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As the war outside escalated the Sabre team felt the impotence of being locked away more than most. Even in peacetime they were on the front lines of any dispute and here they were, condemned, it seemed, to spend the war underground, like moles, or worse like cowards hiding from the great conflict raging outside.
At first they were occupied with learning their new role. They were shown around the D.V. or devastation vehicle. Which would be their transport back out to the world. It was ostensibly a large, heavily armoured A.P.C. with oxygen tanks, air rebreathers and layers of radiation and E.M. shielding. To protect them on the outside. It could survive a nuclear blast at only two miles from ground zero.
They were shown the new power assisted armour that was beginning to be used on the front lines. It was bulky and cumbersome but would keep you alive even if you stepped on a land mine. It was also radiation shielded. The men of the Sabre team didn't much care for them, they were used to the need for speed and stealth, this armour was the tool of a front line grunt. But if it was rad shielded you could bet they'd be wearing them when the time came.
As time wore on and it seemed there was less and less for them to do, they went to check out the armoury. It was Holden’s idea that wherever they went they went together. They didn`t have much time to adapt to all these new circumstances and they more they could learn about each other, the better their chances of survival would be on the outside. The armoury was astounding. It was, after all, designed to cater for a full battalion of men. There were hundreds of SA80’s, the mainstay of the british army, there were lars rocket launchers, karl gustav 84 mm anti tank weapons, browning 9 mm pistols, grenades, claymore mines. There were H&K MP5’s flash bombs, some SPAS12 auto shotguns, GPMG’s. there was even ordinance going back through the years; a few cases of 7.62 FN-FAL’s and even some Thompson SMG’s. Price found an old storeroom containing Lanchester’s, Stirling's, Sten’s and even some rebored Lee Enfield’s. it was quite an arsenal. Holden was bemused to find a door at the back of the main storeroom that was locked in the same manner as the outer doors. Keypad and card reader. He made a mental note to enquire about it.
They tried to stay busy, they tried to inventory the weapons, but a quartermaster was already there, and as is they was of all quartermasters, jealously guarded his stores from “interference”. They went to the motor pool and the NAAFI, the Ops room and the Library, but everywhere on the base was already manned and operational. The brass saw this and attached them to the scientific team, ostensibly to learn more of their role after the “Event” as everyone was now calling it.
What a ludicrous understatement for the annihilation of mankind, the “Event”. Scientists seemed to need the detachment that the terminology provided and anyway, everyone knew it wouldn't happen.
So it was that an elite, eight man team of soldiers began to learn about radiation counts, decontamination procedures, the effects of a nuclear winter, cellular mutation, the operation of Cryo-stasis and the effects of prolonged hibernation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15:20 Monday November 11th 2077
They were in the cryo-lab, the central control for all the hibernation chambers throughout the facility, learning of the failsafes that were being fitted as the watched.
“In the event of a nuclear strike it is quite likely that not everyone will be able to make it to the Cryo-tubes.” Explained Mason, the project leader for the Cryogenics department. “ So we have been installing this fail-safe device. It is not as effective as full cryo hibernation though. As you already know a Cryo-stasis subject id ideally held in a breathable liquid medium and the whole, including the body suspended in the fluid is rapidly reduced to absolute zero. The subject can be awoken at any time either by pre-programmed computer sequence or by direct human intervention. Provided of course you have the codes.”
“Now this fail-safe system we only brought in this week. We're trying to install it throughout the base as we speak.” Seeing a raised eyebrow from Holden he went on “It is an experimental compound gas, comprising three stages, one rapidly following the other. If the base detects a launch, once the cryo-tubes are armed this gaseous compound will be released throughout the rest of the base, thus maximising the survival chances of those who did not make it to stasis.”
“So how does this stuff work?” asked Holden.
“Well, it's not dissimilar to the lethal injection method employed in the U.S. The first stage is anaesthetic which renders the subject unconscious, the next stage is a paralysing nerve agent which prevent any trauma damage by the third agent, which is a micro molecular suspension agent.”
“A what” asked Holden, he was never afraid to show a lack of knowledge. That was probably why he learned so much.
“It freezes you.” Replied the scientist, in a tone that managed, barely, not to be patronising. “There are millions of particles in each cylinder that bond with the cells of your body and remove the heat by induction.” Holden looked over at the slim metal cylinders that were stored along the wall of the room. “I've seen a tiny vial of these things extract all the heat from a lab fire. Incredible endothermic properties. Remarkable little things really. Hard to classify too, some say they're almost an organism, a mycoplasma.”
“sorry, say again, a what?” chimed in Price. Price prided himself on being a bit of a tech head but even he was way out of his depth here.
“A Mycoplasma, the smallest living thing we know to exist. Smaller than a bacteria or even a single celled amoeba, but vastly more complex than both in structure.” Mason was just showing off now. And loving every minute of it. Most of the people he conversed with on this subject were also specialists in the field. It was nice sometimes to be able to amaze the unenlightened.
“So once you've been frozen like this how do you come round?” Something here bothered Holden.
“Oh, there's a counter agent to the Mycoplasm, that disperses it. Those that made it to the pre-programmed Cryo-tubes will release the counter agent before leaving the cryo-chamber.” Said Mason, dissmissively. He wanted to get back to the impressive stuff.
“But what if No-one makes it to the tubes? How long would you be out?”
“Well, erm, we don't really know. You see all the test subjects were revived with the counter agent. If the
agent isn't introduced you could be out for a considerable period of time.”
“How considerable?” asked Lewis, now interested himself.
“Early projections indicate it could be in excess of three hundred years, depending on the conditions. But no less than fifty or so years in the worst of conditions.” Mason said with a nonchalance that decried the looks of disbelief on the faces of the team.
“Three hundred, YEARS. That's insane.” Lewis was clearly not happy.
Wouldn't it make more sense to have the discharge of this counter agent on the same time release as the tubes?” asked Holden, cutting off the younger soldier.
“Captain, really, there's no need to get worked up about this. It is only a fail-safe. And if it is ever implemented the people in the tubes will release the counter agent on their revival. I agree it would have been more prudent to link the two systems, but we are only now installing this system. It is merely an afterthought for our added safety.”
Something occurred to Price. “Look, is there any way we can help with this installation? I know we aren't scientists but we're not idiots and we're used to getting things done in a hurry.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mason concurred and the eight men were soon set to work, glad to finally be doing something.
The base was equipped with a Halon gas delivery system, for fire control, but when the base was occupied the system was deactivated and a water sprinkler system implemented instead. For although Halon gas was very effective, it worked by replacing the oxygen in the room, with it's own inert gas. A gas which humans couldn't breath. And in a place where evacuation could mean a slow death by radiation poisoning, it was considered prudent not to take the risk.
The plan was to use the deactivated Halon system to introduce the new, compound gas, which had been named “Sandman.” Scientists did like to amuse themselves with the names they gave their creations. This meant, first checking that the Halon system was fully operational, by using a harmless, scented compound to ensure every room was being reached. Then the delivery system had to be charged with the Sandman gas and tested to ensure that the gas would not just freeze in the ducts and fail to reach the rooms.
The problem was the gas. At present they had only twelve canisters of the Sandman gas and two of the counter agent. They were waiting for more, which was on it's way from the research boys at Porton Down. But the work went on. The SAS. boys diligently checking every system and duct, flushing the Halon and checking every room's delivery systems until they believed they were ready. The scientific team they were working with, including Mason were impressed by the teams diligence, even the grizzled old sergeant, Welland, who had been assigned to ensure that the team didn't get lost in the warren that made up the lower floors, was impressed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10:00hrs Thursday November 23rd
Holden had left the men refitting some of the older, plastic ducting on level 31 while he went off to find someone who could tell him what was behind that locked door in the storeroom.
Everyone who he had asked either didn't know, like Welland or wouldn't tell him, like Mason and Rawlins. He decided to seek out Chiltern, the Home Secretary's aide, and see if he could tell him what was behind that door. If he couldn't that only left the Home Secretary and the P.M. in the chain of command.
He didn't know why it had become so important to him to find out what was in that room, all he could ascribe it to was that he and his team had been given free range of the base, with the exception of that one room.
He drew near the opts room and enquired of the door guard if Chiltern was inside, to be told that he was up in the motor pool, on the first level. Holden thanked him and headed up there. The motor pool was designed with six separate access points, from the outside they looked just like the entrances to private car parks, belonging to the various tower blocks in the area. But if one looked more closely, each was, in fact, a very defensible position, veritable fortresses blending into the urban background.
Holden found Chiltern at the motor pool entrance to the base proper, ensuring all was in place for the P.M.'s visit tomorrow. He strode confidently towards him and opened his mouth to speak but Chiltern cut him off.
"Yes, I wondered when you'd get round to asking me."
Holden was Startled, "Ask You..."
"It's o.k., Sir Royston says you have full clearance." Sir Royston was the Home Secretary, Holdens Questions had obviously not been as discrete as he had hoped. "in fact, his exact words were, "if anyone needs to know about those damn things it's him and his team, so bloody show him."
"Sir, I didn't mean to..."
"It's alright Captain, there's a standing order that anyone asking about Store seven is to be reported. You weren't to know. Just have your team assembled there in an hour and I'll give you the tour, o.k.?"
"Yes Sir."
"And do stop calling me Sir, I'm a civil servant, not God." He waited. "Anything else Captain?"
"No, S.. Nothing Mr Chiltern."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11:00hrs
Holden and his men waited expectantly outside store seven, they heard the footsteps echo around the cavernous armoury as Chiltern's three hundred pound Brogues announced his arrival.
"Gentlemen," He said simply, as he drew near. "this room is off limits to most of the personell in the facility, but Sir Royston feel that you need to know what's in here."
He loosened his tie and drew out a keycard on a chain, he swiped the card and punched a series of numbers onto the keypad, quickly returning the card to its place and securing his tie. There was a hiss of air as the door slid back and he lad the men in.
the room was unimpressive, a sttel-grey chamber, about twelve metres longand three wide, with a grill floor and several wide dreawers set into the walls. a single door in the opposite wall was tthe only other feature, it looked like a drivethrough morgue.
Chiltern took the blank looks as his cue to speak, "Airlock. The room beyond is a clean room. no dust, no static." he crossed to a drawer and pulled out an all-in-one paper coverall, "we've got to put theese on. before we can go in, the slightest particle could cause a disaster."
When all were suitably attired, Chiltern crossed to the far door and pressed the simple switch that was the doors only furniture. there was a hiss and all present felt a rush of air as the atmosphere was exchanged.
Flourescent lights flickered into life above them as they entered the room.
"Weel, this is it. Store seven. God alone knows where the other six are. well, God, the PM, Sir Royston and the MOD i imagine, i certainly dont."
The chamber resembled a huge open plan office, it seemed at first glance to be a single large room with subdivisions, simple false walls ony five feet or so tall separating areas.
"Everything in here is deemed "Sensitive" by the powers that be, myself included, there are documents, devices, weapons, secrets. everything we wanted to keep away from prying eyes gets dumped in here. this is where Mason first rediscovered the Sandman gas."
"Sorry, did you say rediscovered?"
"Hmm?, Yes. It was first made in 1998, to be used as a weapon of some sort. The original delivery system is in here somewhere, looks sort of like a flamethrower. well, that's why we have so little of it, the boys at porton down are having to practically relearn how to make it."
"So what else is in here?" piped up Lewis.
"Ohh, this and that, our early experiments with laser weapons technology, several biological samples that were sent here never to see the light of day, including one madmans attempt to turn the Ebola virus airborne."
"jesus."
"Every Government secret from the last two hundred years all stored on high density optical disk. The formulae for almost every chemical compound imaginable, a pocket size first stage plasma reactor, condemned for it's instability, but between you and me i think the nueclear industry is just too much trouble to try to do away with."
"What's that?" asked Dalton, pointing to a set of steel doors lurking noncholantly in the wall of the chamber.
"Thats where Mother lives. Yes, I know, sometimes i think scientists watch too much sci-fi, but then they say thats where the best ideas come from. Mother is what the lab coat brigade call the computer that runs this facility. She's about a hundred feet below us and that elevator is the only way down."
"you speak as though it were alive?"
"Well it's the closest we've ever come to true AI, she's aware, intellegent and capable of advanced problem solving. They say she has no personality and no ability for free thinking, but i leave such things to philosophers. She answers when i ask her things, that makes her alive to me. more so than a lot of the real people i know."
"So what do we do now?" asked Lewis, his impatience clearly showing.
"Weel, we learned from our Sandman experience, Mason has a keycard and the doorcode, he also has an extensive catalogue of the contents of this store. Look through the inventory. If you see anything you think you can use, let me know. you guys are the first out of this place and if there's anything in here that can help you on the outside we want you to have it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11:00 hrs Tuesday 28th November 2077
The Eight man team were in what had become thier unofficial workroom, the room housing the gas delivery system. Price had been looking through the inventory for store seven.
"There's stuff in here you wouldn't believe." said Price to the assembled men.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
04:00hrs Tuesday December 1st 2077
No-one knows who launched first. Some said that the Chinese, seeing U.S. troops rolling up the road to Beijing just thought "Fuck it" and launched. others say that India fired on Pakistan and the automated systems all over the globe went nuts and fired. some think it was a rouge sub commander that started it. The truth is, no-one knows.
One side fired and everyone joined the party. America was the worst hit in terms of the sheer volume of missiles, but England is a small country, not a single square inch of the British isles escaped devastation. those who fled to Scotland thinking themselves safe away from the capitol were vaporized when the missiles hit the nuclear submarine base at Holy Loch and the Garrison of the Black watch in Edinburgh Castle.
The net result was the devastation of the planet. over seven hundred Billion people died in the first three weeks of December of 2077. Most from burns caused by the initial blasts. London itself was hit by seven nuclear missiles, two groundbursts, centred on Parliament and the docks, and five airbursts, over canary wharf, where MI5 had their offices, Hyde park, Leicester square, Southall, Wembley and Blackwall.
It was the end of the world
It was what we had always feared it would be.
Our fault.
Thus ends part one. If anyone liked it I'll write part two. (Hehe just like Stephen King)
!!
