PARADOX - Chapter 89

Chapter 89

May 25, 2012 – Kirtland Air Force base, New Mexico



“Incoming traffic.” The air traffic controller turned to General Jones who was silently pacing around the control room. The General enjoyed the crisp quiet atmosphere of the room, said it helped him to think. General Jones grunted and eyed the controller with a raised eyebrow. “Doctor Stiehl and his Team are inbound!” The controller glanced back at the General with a wide grin. “ETA ten minutes.”

“Spread the news?” The General ordered. “I want all strike force commanders and teams in the conference room… now!’

General Jones headed out to the tarmac to welcome Monday’s Team home. By the time he reached it, a crowd had already gathered. Megan was actually holding hands with Lt. Beartalker, but as soon as the Lieutenant spotted the General, he jerked his hand from hers. Megan gave Lt. Beartalker a nasty look and stuck her tongue out at the General.

“What a lady.” General Jones thought. “If I’d found one like her years ago, oh well…”

The airship floated gently to the tarmac. Within minutes a motley gang of people walked down the ramp. Their period uniforms were gone and they were dressed in the rags of prisoners. General Jones could tell from the look on Monday’s face that their mission had not been successful.

Monday strode up to General Jones and saluted. “Mission failure, Sir.”

General Jones switched his cigar from one side of his mouth to the other. “Welcome home Doctor. Are your people accounted for?”

Monday nodded his head. “Everyone’s safe and sound. Tired, hungry, mad as hell, but, safe.”

“We’ve got a major operation starting in a few hours.” General Jones shook his head. “Get your people some food, change of clothing and be in the conference room in one hour.”

Monday liked the way the General did not mince words or spout unnecessary platitudes. He wrapped his arm around Daria’s shoulder and walked over to his friends waiting in a tight group.

“Mueller beat us to the punch,’ Monday explained while being hugged by Megan. “The information he took back with him will most likely change the past. We should have found him earlier.”

“The bastard got away,” Henri blurted. “At least we think he did.”

“About this time thingy,” Megan pondered. “We think it will be a ripple effect. If history is changed in a big way, we may not notice it for days. Actually, we may not notice it at all if it splits off into a parallel dimension.”

“Food for thought,” Monday hastily replied. He was in no mood for a lengthy debate of any kind and he knew that Megan had a way of going into minute detail on any subject. “Right now we need a hot shower, some food, and some good news if we can find it.”

“We’re going to strike the Nazis at their New Berlin Base,” Dorbec grinned. “You returned just in time for payback.’

“Now that’s the good news I wanted to hear,” Monday smiled.

One hour later, to the exact minute, they were all gathered in the main conference room. Chester had already gone over the basic plan with those who had been on the time mission. He wanted to make certain that they were physically capable of another mission, coming so close on the heels of the last one. Monday assured him that they were ready.

“This operation is a simple assault and destroy,” General Jones stated. “We will assault the Nazi base, destroy the Bell Project, and eliminate anything or anyone that gets in the way. You have your assignments, you know the timetable, so let’s burn some rubber and kick some ass.” He took a seat at the head of the table.

Chester had previously explained the operation in detail, now he went over it again to reinforce the plans and bring Monday up to date.

“We will use twenty of the precious Arianni airships on this mission. There will be five flights using the four-finger formation. Three aircraft in each formation will be remote guided, the fourth will be manned. Our intent is to use the remote aircraft to help clear the defenses along the tunnels to New Berlin Base, which we hope will allow each piloted aircraft to get thought to deliver it’s cargo and assault force. There is one freeze bomb on each manned airship, just in case one or more get knocked out. Once safely inside the base, the assault force will hold off enemy counter attacks so the specialists can plant their charges to destroy the Bell Project.”

For an hour, Chester went over the details of the operation. Each piloted aircraft was assigned a special technical team along with a full Navy SEAL support team. This was an international effort. While Chester’s airship and command was American, British, French, German and Japanese manned the four other aircraft. After the briefing, Monday and Chester remained in the conference room while the other commanders left to talk with their crews.

“I don’t like the composition of our crew.” Monday scanned the faces around him. “There are too many critically important personnel on our airship and their loss would be a severe hit to any future military responses.”

What he didn’t say, but everyone knew, was there were too many noncombatants on the ship, among them, Daria, Megan, Marta, Ariana, Dom, and others. Each flatly refused to be left behind, insisting they had earned and deserved the right to be in on the action. Monday had no problem with his Team, Dorbec and his two men, Lt. Beartalker and his SEALS, Chester, Henri, and the other SEAL Team commanders and their men, but he simply did not want to place the women in harms way.

“General Jones approved the list,” Chester replied. “As commander of the airship, I can’t go against him.”

“Can’t or won’t?” Monday looked hard at Chester.

“They refuse to back down,” Chester nodded. “Each have a specific skill we can use, each has earned a place, and others flatly refuse to be left behind.”

Monday glanced at the faces of Daria, Ariana, and the other females. He could see defiance and determination in each one. Persuading them to change their minds would be a lost cause.

“When do we depart?” Monday knew when he was out gunned.

The entrance to New Berlin Base was underwater. To reach the base they would have to dive under the ice for over a mile, find the wide entrance, navigate the tunnel for almost twenty miles underwater, then another ten miles through a larger tunnel filled with air, and finally break through into the base itself, which consisted of half a dozen huge chambers at least a thousand meters in circumference.

Marta outlined those defenses she was aware of. The underwater section of the tunnel was mined with remote controlled depth charges. The air portion was studded with defensive lasers and a squadron of Fliegenkämpfer were on constant alert to scramble. A special division of SS Commandos protected New Berlin Base. She did not know how the evacuation to the moon base effected those defenses.

“Into the mouth of the dragon,” Chester whispered, as the entrance to the tunnel came into view.

Meanwhile, inside New Berlin Base, Hans was issuing final orders to those commanders who were to attack the Arianni bases. They were to infiltrate the bases and concentrate the populations into small units for further disposition. The elderly would be terminated and the useful would be kept for labor or breeding. Under no circumstances were the museums and other treasure areas to be destroyed. There could possibly be a gold mine of technology hidden in plain sight. General Ludwig Keitel was given full command of the operation.

A messenger approached Hans and saluted. “Enemy activity in the tunnels, Sir. They’re using Arianni air ships.”

Hans smiled. The gutless Americans were finally trying something. He rubbed his hands together in glee. “As soon as they are all in the tunnel, order your fighters outside the base to secure the entrance. They may make it into the base, but they will never make it out.”

General Keitel nodded.

“Shall we go prepare a warm welcome for our guests?” Hans stood and strode from the room.

Their airship was in the third wave to enter the tunnel. The first two flights were well inside when the first depth charges began to explode. Chester and Monday monitored the activity on the computer screens. The explosions were enormous, sending powerful concussions through the cavern. To save resources, the drones, or unmanned ships, did not have force fields to protect them. One of them in the first flight had already been put out of commission and crashed into the walls of the tunnel. As they advanced further, more and more depth charges were triggered and the intense pressure destroyed two more drone ships.

After an agonizing few minutes, which seemed like hours, they finally emerged from the underwater portion of the tunnel into the air cavity. The defenses became more numerous and closely packed. The powerful computer controlled rays of the Nazis shot forth like green tracers. Counterfire from the advance flights knocked out many of the ray batteries, but several more drone ships were lost within seconds.

By the time they neared the opening to New Berlin Base, only two of the drone airships remained. But, thanks to their shields, none of the piloted ships were lost. The Fliegenkämpfer squadrons were waiting for them as they emerged into the first major portion of the base. They were caught by surprise. Unlike the unarmed Arianni airships they were expecting, these ships were armed with the powerful disintegration weapon. The only problem with this weapon was the Arianni ship was vulnerable during the split second it took to drop the defense shield in order to fire the desintegrator.

After a mind numbing aerial dogfight, the Nazi fighters were all destroyed. One of the manned Arianni airships was caught by the Nazi death ray just as its shields went down to fire. The ship was sliced open and crashed into the city below.

Chester could see French Commandos crawling from the wreckage and forming a defense perimeter around the downed airship. “Take us down,” he ordered his pilot, who happened to be Ariana.

Ariana deftly landed the airship next to the crashed one and Lt. Beartalker rushed out with his Team to assist the other commandos. They were assaulted by a large number of Nazi SS troops. They were using up ammunition at too fast a rate. Scores of Nazi SS were down, but hundreds continued to push toward their perimeter until it seemed that sheer numbers would overwhelm them.

Seconds later, one of the manned Arianni airships hovered over the area and started pelting the assaulting Nazi SS with its disintegration cannons. Men, weapons, pieces of buildings and other objects begin to evaporate. The Nazi SS commander ordered a quick withdrawal from the area.

Chester ordered Lt. Beartalker and the surviving commandos’ back into the ship with their wounded. The French Commander of the downed airship carried the ship’s freeze bomb on his shoulder. This was not their main target area. The Bell Project was housed in the third of the incredibly large underground complexes.

“When we go into the next city area we’ll go right through into the third,” Chester stated, talking into the monitor with the other air ships. “Marta has given us the location of the Bell Project so we will head right for that location. I want one ship to pulverize a landing spot large enough to hold three airships and then the three will land. The last ship will remain circling the area for cover. As soon as all personnel have debarked and a perimeter has been established, all ships will hover for aerial defense.”

The landing was perfect. As soon as the area was clear, the SEAL Teams poured out and secured the area. The Nazis evidently hadn’t expected them to get this far because they were meeting no resistance.

Chester nodded at Monday, a signal for him to take his Team and find the Bell Project. Monday signaled for Lt. Beartalker and his SEAL Team to lead the way, and headed down a large corridor with his Team, which included Dorbec and Henri. Following close behind, surrounded by more SEALs were Marta, Megan, Daria, Dom and a dozen explosives experts wheeling a small tactical nuclear bomb and five freeze bombs consolidated from the other airships.

Hans was furious. He could not understand how the Americans had breached the base defenses. He knew they were using Arianni airships, but he had assumed they would be unarmed. He had also not been told about the defensive shields. However, his SS troops would be capable of overpowering the landing parties as they attempted to penetrate further into the base.

“They’re after the Bell project!” Hans yelled at General Kietel over the monitor. “I want everything we have in the Bell Chamber immediately. I mean everything!”

Hans grabbed the riding crop he kept on his desk and hurried towards the door. He was only a few blocks from where the scientists maintained the Bell Project. As soon as he burst through the door, Hans ordered the commander of his personal guard to bring his company and follow him.

“Enough.” Hans thought as he hurried down the wide hallway. “It ends here and now.” He glanced at the recessed button on the top of his riding crop. The button was linked to a powerful charge of fast spreading poison gas hidden in the main chamber of the Bell Project. He had ordered it placed in the event the scientist suddenly went soft on him and tried to stop the project. The charge was enough to kill anyone inside the chamber without actually destroying the project.

“Let them get inside,” Hans smiled.