Title: Obliteration
Author: Barry K. Nelson
Genre: Science-Fiction
The three
reprogrammed Brelac Reploids forming the special team Silencers still
faithfully serve the United Protectorate under the watchful monitoring of the
Central Intelligence Division. Stationed on Maseklos Prime, Colin McKenzie,
Diane Christy, and Kelly Lytton are called to a hostage scene and end up with
clues that lead to the elusive Dr. Arthur Trevors. Although initially a traitor
who worked undercover with the Brelac, Trevors was in large part responsible
for the capture and reprogramming of Colin, Diane, and Kelly so they could
serve their current function as weapons for the Protectorate. The war with the
Brelac is not going well, and the Silencers are given an advanced warp-drive
ship and sent beyond their home quadrant, Poseidon, to the last known
coordinates of a missing ship. Their mission is to locate the missing ship,
part of an original task force of five ships sent out to find other human
colonies and enlist their help with the war against the Brelac. As soon as
Colin and his team leave the quadrant, they run into trouble, and things go
downhill from there. They find themselves in the midst of a war between local
factions on a planet far from home and feel obliged to aid the human faction against
a clearly superior force that seems to have help from a monster who leaves a
wake of death and destruction wherever it goes. The more they find out, the
weirder things get, and they end up stranded with no way home, much less any
hope of completing their original mission to find the lost task force ship.
This new enemy they face seems invincible, and they wonder if they’ll survive
as everything and everyone around them is destroyed. Maybe this time not even
their Reploid powers will save them. But what other hope does humanity have?
Colin had that usual nervous feeling stinging in
the middle of
his stomach while he was riding in the front seat
of the new car
that the CID had given him, Diane, and Kelly. Finally we get a
vehicle
of our own. No more
having to depend on shuttles, taxis, or the
subway to get around, he mused. The only drawback to this was
having Diane as a driver. Impulsive and bad tempered, she’d just
received her driver’s license two weeks ago. Even
with the tight
safety belt strapped across his torso, Colin was
still not feeling
secure as he watched Diane jerk the steering
wheel to the left and
right in order to weave in and out of the four
lanes of traffic on the
streets of Navarone to reach their destination.
Colin imagined that
Kelly, riding in the back seat, was feeling the
same way – and
maybe car sick too. He looked a little green in the face,
not a good
color for his blond hair he’d recently had cut in
a shorter style. Over
the sound of their car’s wailing siren, Colin
heard Kelly yip as they
came up close and fast to another vehicle. Diane
swerved at the last
moment to avoid a collision.
I should have gotten my license
before Diane, Colin scolded
himself. He looked over at her wearing a black
tee‐shirt and jeans,
with a broad smile on her face. The white sneaker
on her right foot
shifted frequently from the brake to the
accelerator pedal. With the
air from the open window blowing through her long
black hair, she
looked like she was on a joy ride, except for the
large laser pistol
holstered at her right hip.
“Do you mind slowing down?” Colin asked. “We want
to at
least get there alive.”
“Slow down?” Diane teased with a laugh. “We have
to get
there before those Reploid jackasses kill the
hostages. You heard
the report. Their hour deadline is almost up!”
“I know,” Colin replied sourly. What a way to start
the
morning!
Twenty minutes ago, he was sleeping in his
quarters back at
the military base when he was awakened by a phone
call from CID
Captain Melony Carter, informing him that
Vendetta terrorists had
taken several civilians hostage in an office
building and were
threatening to kill them, then detonate a nuclear
bomb that was
hidden somewhere in Navarone, unless the
government agreed to
release Vendetta operatives from the penal moon
Taraxis in the
Tacoma System. Carter also reported that one of
the terrorists was
observed using paranormal abilities – Reploid
abilities. And that
was why he and Diane and Kelly had been called.
Their team, the
Silencers, was the only defense against Reploids,
because they were
Reploids too, reconditioned and turned against
Vendetta to serve
the Protectorate.
After the call from Carter, Colin had less than
ten minutes
before Diane and Kelly would pick him up, which
gave him very
little time to throw on some blue jeans, black
shirt, and white
sneakers, and rush to the base’s main gate. By
the time he got there,
Diane and Kelly were waiting for him in the black
car that now
sped along the highway, careening and swerving
through heavy
traffic.
“If we’re going into a dangerous situation, I
think I’d rather
get killed by the bad guys than by a member of my
own team,” Kelly
said. He thrust out his hand between Diane and
Colin, pointing at
the windshield and shouting, “Car, car, car!”
“I see it!” Diane shouted back.
Colin held his breath as he watched their car
make a rapid
approach to the rear end of a blue car up ahead.
Diane jerked the
steering wheel to the right, and the car swerved
into the right lane
to avoid it. Colin was hoping that during the
excitement, Diane
would not forget her Reploid strength and
accidentally rip the
steering wheel away from the column.
Colin exhaled, but not out of a sense of relief.
“Diane! Truck up
ahead!”
“I’m on it.” She steered the car to the left to
avoid crashing
into the rear end of a red pickup truck. She
mashed her foot down
on the accelerator pedal, and the car sped up
ahead of the truck,
fishtailed in front of it, then skidded toward an
intersection. With
tires squealing, they made a sharp right turn and
headed down the
road towards a large crowd. People scattered as
their car came to a
screeching halt a few feet away, the momentum
jerking Colin’s
body forward.
“We’re here,” Diane announced.
“We’re alive,” Colin jabbed. He was amazed that
they had
survived being passengers in a vehicle with Diane
behind the
wheel. His heart was still pounding when he
looked over at her, but
not from a romantic feeling. And they want to
train her to be a pilot?
Diane punched a small touchpad at the right side
of the
steering wheel, and the blaring siren quieted.
“Okay, let’s do this,”
she said, lunging out of the car.
Colin and Kelly exited the car. Colin took a
second glance at
Kelly. His blue cut‐off denim shorts, green tank
top, and black
sneakers without socks made him look ready for a
day at the beach
rather than a hostage situation.
They moved through the crowd of onlookers and
came upon a
police roadblock. A five‐foot‐high blue barrier
of glowing energy
stretched across the road between two black metal
poles. On the
other side of the barrier, three uniformed police
officers stood near
their patrol cars with red bar lights flashing.
As Colin, Diane, and
Kelly approached the barrier, an officer on the
other side walked
over and held up his hand. “Sorry. The road is
blocked off. Police
emergency,” he told them in a stern tone.
In unison, Colin, Diane, and Kelly reached into
their pockets
and brought out the black billfolds that held
their badges and
identification. “We’re with the CID. Silencers,”
Colin explained.
“Lieutenant Copeland is expecting us.”
“Silencers?” the officer inquired. He pressed the
keypad on the
small remote attached to his belt and spoke into
the microphone
attached to his earbuds. “Lieutenant, there are
three people here
claiming to be from CID. They call themselves
Silencers.” After a
brief moment, the officer said, “Understood,”
then reached into his
pocket and brought out a small black remote. He
pressed a key on
the remote and a section of the barrier faded
away to allow Colin,
Diane, and Kelly to pass.
They proceeded until they came upon a cluster of
vehicles
with flashing red lights parked in the middle of
the street – several
police cars in front of and behind two large
black armored vans
with ‘SWAT’ emblazoned on the sides. Several
uniformed and
plain‐clothes officers crouched down behind the
vehicles with their
laser guns aimed at a building several feet away.
The SWAT
officers, clad in their heavy black body armor,
aimed their laser
rifles at the building. Several robotic assault
units, black five‐foot
cylinder‐shaped bodies supported by four thick
spider‐like legs,
targeted the building with twin heavy laser guns
mounted on their
sides, ready to quash any threat that might
emerge from the
building.
Several feet in front of the police barricade, a
chaotic mess of
bloody dismembered bodies – civilians and police
– lay scattered
among demolished vehicles.
“Maybe it would be a good idea to keep our heads
down,”
Kelly suggested.
Colin nodded. A wise idea. He crouched down, along with
Diane and Kelly, and approached two officers who
were kneeling
behind a police car. “We’re Silencers, with the
CID,” Colin said,
displaying his badge. “Lieutenant Copeland is
expecting us.”
The officer pointed to the left. “He’s over
there. I’ll call him.”
The officer pressed a key on the remote attached
to his belt, then
spoke into his microphone. A few seconds later,
Colin looked to his
left and saw the familiar sight of Lieutenant
Copeland, in his
thirties with bushy black hair, carrying a laser
gun as he
approached in a crouched position. His black
suit, grey shirt, and
black necktie appeared a bit rumpled –
understandable, given the
situation.
“Silencers from the CID. I haven’t seen you three
since the
Mertz case,” said Copeland. There was a wide‐eyed
expression of
surprise on his face. “The CID sent you to handle
this situation?”
“We’re the best qualified,” replied Colin.
“What’s going on?”
“A group of eleven male suspects walked into the
lobby of the
Universal Industries building and killed the
three security guards
at the reception station. They then proceeded up
to the building’s
twenty‐fifth floor, where they took a number of
hostages. Four
officers responded to the alarm that the security
guards set off, but
they never made it out alive. We’ve evacuated the
building to avoid
any further civilian casualties. So far, the
terrorists have the entire
twenty‐fifth floor under their control.”
“I see that SWAT is here,” said Colin, pointing
to the black
vans. “Did they try to storm the building and
retake the floor?”
“Yeah, but their first attempt was a disaster.
One of the
terrorists has some kind of energy weapon that
we’ve never seen
before. Its effect is pretty damn gruesome. I’m
sure that you’ve
seen the aftermath up ahead.”
Colin raised his head to take another look at the
wreckage and
bodies. What kind of weapon could have caused all this damage? He
eyed the wrecked cars. Sections of some vehicles
were left intact,
while other sections appeared to be crumpled like
tin foil. “The cars
look like they were crushed somehow.”
“More like imploded,” Copeland corrected. “It’s a
hell of a way
to die. We lost six officers. As far as we can
tell, they’re using some
sort of implosion beam weapon. All forms of
personal protection
we have are useless against it. And we have
several witnesses that
have stated that they didn’t actually see the
terrorist using a
weapon, but he was actually using his bare hands.
Maybe in all the
excitement, they didn’t get a good look at what
was happening. You
guys think you can go up against something like
that?”
Colin was starting to wonder the same thing
himself, but no
use alarming others by admitting it. “This falls
within our area of
expertise. Have the terrorists made any other
demands besides the
one‐hour deadline to release Vendetta agents from
the prison
moon, Taraxis?”
“No. But if we don’t meet their demand, they’ll
kill all the
hostages and detonate a nuclear device that they
have hidden
someplace in the city. We’re up against a rock
and a hard place
here. If you have any solutions, I’m all ears.”
Author Bio
A Pennsylvania native, Barry K. Nelson has attended
college and has worked at a variety of jobs, including retail and the corporate
environment. Barry enjoys reading and gardening and is a fan of science fiction
and horror movies, Marvel comic collecting, and the X-box 360.
Barry has written short stories, and his first book in the science fiction series, The McKenzie Files, is soon to be followed by a sequel, Assassination Anxiety.
Barry is a member of Ning and Goodreads, can be found on Facebook, and can also be reached through Penumbra Publishing.
Barry has written short stories, and his first book in the science fiction series, The McKenzie Files, is soon to be followed by a sequel, Assassination Anxiety.
Barry is a member of Ning and Goodreads, can be found on Facebook, and can also be reached through Penumbra Publishing.
Links
Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/5250542
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