Brian Park felt they were in a bad place. As a special operations soldier, he was always in a bad place, but this was alien; on so many levels. He felt something was going to go wrong quickly. The squad had dispatched many of the drones and felt if they had to leave, they had properly completed their mission. But he didn’t have to leave. They set up an alternate position roughly thee hundred yards to the west. They might have to fight their way through the streets, and they had some heavy weapons to carry, but the squad could displace if necessary using the Grathik anti-gravity technology.

As the sound of gunfire intensified behind them, he was still focused on what was in front of them. He went from man to man whispering, “be prepared to move to our alternate position.”

After telling Robson and Simmons about the be prepared order a loud sound that could best be described as a sonic boom struck their eardrums from the front. It was not alone, several additional sonic booms resonated through the concrete canyon of the Grathik base. There was no sound of projectiles being launched from what could be described as an electro-magnetic coil-based weapon system. 

As Brian raised his binoculars to scan the area to his front, large heavy projectiles ripped through the buildings around them. The projectiles may have been smaller, impacting with intense kinetic energy. It was sufficient to rip walls off buildings. There were no explosions. It was like throwing a rock at a glass bottle, but a hundred times larger. One round struck low on the building they were standing on. It tore into the right front wall around the sixth floor and ripped the right side of the structure apart depositing debris into the street below.

“That’s it guys! We are out of here! Displace to the alternate position now! Break down that pig. Load up your Donkeys!” As their observation platform was being dismantled, the human soldiers had a similar version of the anti-gravity tech that allowed them to descend to ground level safely. Some described it to a parachute drop with or without the Parachute Landing Fall (PLF).  

The movement to the alternate position was without event, but every man in the squad could feel the adrenaline coursing through their veins. They knew they escaped what could have been a very terrible situation. Within a half hour, the new Observation Post (OP) was set up. Brian Park contacted his higher headquarters which was closing in on his location after fighting through the Salvesh ambush sites.

“BUTTERFIELD, this is RIDDLER, over,” Brian spoke into the radio.

Lieutenant Jacob Butterfield was in an armored personnel carrier moving very close to his position when he heard the call. “RIDDLER, this is BUTTERFIELD, go ahead over,” he spoke with his thick Mississippi accent.

“BUTTERFIELD, this is RIDDLER, we have displaced to position Alpha Oscar Two, over.”

Lieutenant Butterfield checked his map and realized the squad was right in front of the lead elements of the company team. “RIDDLER, this is BUTTERFIELD, we will be at your location in ten mikes. Be prepared to mount your Alpha Papa Charlie. Join the company. You can push forward with the rest of the unit.

“Roger that, Riddler out.” Brian Park clicked off the radio and addressed the squad over squad comms, “I just spoke to the Lieutenant. I know we just got here, but the LT will be here in ten minutes. We are loading onto our APC and joining the company for the advance.”



[@HeySeuss]