Wonderland part 8 - The Battle Begins

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WONDERLAND

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FROM WONDERLAND PART 7 - The Preparations

She reaches next to her bed with glee and pulls out a Superman comic, and then a Miss Marvel comic.  “These are comics.  They are stories to help entertain and provide a little moral compass.  The heroes are amazing, and they always win.  That was what I wanted from being a hero.  When I found out my best friend since I was 8 years old was Phantasm, I freaked out!  I did a lot for her over the last couple of years, but she was always scared to hire me.  I guess she didn’t want me to get hurt.  She certainly did her best to keep me out of trouble in school!  But she decided she needed help, especially with this Wonderland thing.”  Darrev reads a few pages of the Miss Marvel book, and says, “These are quite fascinating.  When we finish this battle, maybe you could show me more of these, comics?”  She smiles grimly; she would love to show him more, assuming there is a future to show them in!

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WONDERLAND PART 8 - The Battle Begins

The day starts with an unusual calm.  The sun is bright and the birds are chirping.  But there are no people on the streets.  Many had left to go stay with friends and relatives in the country.  Many have been called up for reserve duty, even people that had been out of the service for more than a decade!  There is very little looting though, as the National Guard has orders to shoot looters on sight, no questions, and no mercy.  And almost every block of the city has a squad of soldiers on it.  Then the news came over the wire; the mothership had entered orbit.  Lexko and his band moved their ship out to the far side of the moon to observe.

Power Armor, Guardsman, Phantasm, Sapphire and Silver are ready.  They saw there is a Destroyer headed to New York, and the military has control over that air space.  They sent in wave after wave of jets, firing unguided missiles and sidewinders, since they had been warned that radar guided missiles were useless against their stealth.  The Destroyer is dropping high explosive bombs and firing ballistic weapons with APSE (Armor Piercing Special Effect) style warheads.  It took the fighters about four hours to bring the destroyer down.  By that time it had leveled NYC and was heading towards Newark NJ.  Another Destroyer was moving towards Philadelphia.  This was the hero’s territory.  Two squadrons of attack helicopters attempted to take the ship down, but it was slow going.

Guardsman takes to the air.  He found an area that looked like a loading door, and he and Power Armor beat the door in.  Then the squad moves in.  Even though they knew what the Zendats look like, they are all taken aback, except Silver.  He is in this for vengeance!  He fires his concussive blasts at them, and then the others join in.  They move forward in the ship, noting areas of importance, and destroying everything they see.  They got to the front, and Power Armor fires his GUSTAV missile at the cockpit door, blowing it in!  Phantasm fired a flash bang arrow in, and then Guardsman started beating the walls, breaking their controls, and Silver and Sapphire start blasting away at all of the aliens there.  After they are done and the Destroyer is crashing, Sapphire throws a coil of blue energy at the wall, and Silver fires a concussive beam, and the combined blast blows a hole in the hull!  Then all of them go out the hole and watch the Destroyer crash into the ground.  The troops on the ground cheer!  Power Armor lands, and sees if they have any ammo and jet fuel for him.  After this successful attack, the Commander assigns a supply team to him.  He is using standard military equipment, and they have an easy time getting him what he needs.

A regular Army platoon moves up to set up vectors of fire at the ship, in case some of the bad guys try to exit and kill people hand to hand.  The military had been warned; these aliens look weak, but are actually stronger that the strongest normal human on earth.  This unit has been reinforced by a pair of reserve unit mortar teams.  The set their 60mm mortars, dial in and wait.  Then the surviving Zendats come running out.  They see the humans, and start firing their weapons!  They use a pistol that fires small flechette darts dipped in a poison that is near instant death to a carnivore, but plant life ignores.  The SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) teams begin firing, and the mortar teams start shooting.  Within a minute, all of the Zendats are dead, but at the cost of five brave soldiers.

Power Armor walks up to the platoon leader.  “Don’t be fooled into thinking their technology is anything we want.  Their tech is really dangerous to us.  Call in an airstrike and reduce it to rubble.”  The platoon commander salutes; he knows the man running Power Armor has the rank of Major, and obeys.  About 4 minutes later, a flight of F-16s drops a full load of 500 pound bombs on the Destroyer, and turns it into a smoldering mess.

Then he gets news.  “Gang, they have two destroyers veering to our location, one was heading for Chicago, and the other is turning north from Atlanta.  I think they plan to attack simultaneously.”  Professor Juarez steps out of his battle armor, and checks it out.  Two of the reactive plates on the left side have been expended.  His supply team is rushing replacements in now, but it may be a while.  He adjusts the hydraulics under those plates so they will temper blows better, although that does limit his strength on the left side.  He’ll fix it later…  “If they arrive at the same time, then Guardsman and I will take one; Phantasm, Sapphire and Silver will take the second one.”

About an hour later, the one coming from Atlanta arrives.  There is a pair of F22’s chasing it, but their missiles aren’t doing much. Then Marco sees something he had not noticed, and notes it on a pad on his left bracer.  Then he is stunned by the sight of 3 small alien ships descend and attack the F22’s!  These ships seem to be excorts.  They draw the F22s off, and then 4 F15’s fly into the scene!  It is a spectacular dogfight, but Marco knows they have a very important job to do.  He says to Guardsman, “Everyone is distracted, we better strike now!”  Guardsman flies up with Power Armor, and then sets him on some handholds, and then starts beating on a door.  After about 15 seconds, the door breaks its hinges and folds in.  Power Armor fires a smoke grenade in and then leaps in!  Guardsman is right behind him.  They go in and there is a group of Zendats waiting for him!  They fire their Flechette darts, but they bounce off of Marco and Guardsman’s armor.  Then a pair in the back stand up and fire what looks like a rocket!  Marco takes the hit in his shoulder, and feels like it is inoperative, along with his 20mm cannon.  He sprays the group with his chaingun, and then Guardsman fires both barrels from his shotgun.  After a few seconds, they’ve taken out all of them…  They proceed further in, and then a robot comes out from behind a bulkhead.  It looks like a very big version of one of the Zendats, but they both sense the Wonderland inside; it is being piloted.  Guardsman, seeing that Power Armor’s shoulder is wrecked, leaps up and strikes the beast, sending it flying back!  Marco yells “DUCK!”  Guardsman hits the deck, and Marco fires his Gustav missile at the robot, splattering it into molten slag.

They both get up and move forward, and then they see the cockpit.  Marco fires both of his stinger missiles, and they buckle the door.  Guardsman rushes forward and smashes it down, and then moves away!  Marco fires twelve grenades into the cockpit, and it becomes a roaring cauldron.  Both of them race to their entry point and bail out!  Marco fires his jets to slow his descent, and Guardsman sees the other Destroyer has arrived…

About four minutes after Power Armor and Guardsman go in, the second Destroyer arrives.  Sapphire picks up Phantasm by the waist and says, “I cannot believe I get to help Phantasm in a fight!”  They fly up to the doorway and Phantasm fires a Magnesium arrow at it.  The 4000 degree heat begins melting the doorway, and Silver fires some blasts to push it in!  Phantasm fires a flash bang, and then the gang goes in.

There is a large group of Zendats.  They start shooting at Silver, but their flechettes are bouncing off of his armor, although the armor tells him it can’t hold these darts out forever.  Sapphire forms a large rope of energy and casts it around the attackers, and then makes it explode!  They beat the bad guys and start moving forward.  Then they see the robot come towards them.  Chelsea can sense the Wonderland inside, and lets the others know it is piloted.  She leaps up and fires an exploding arrow, and then lands on its head!  She drops an HE grenade and leaps off!  “GO!  Get to the cockpit NOW!”  She fires another exploding arrow and then dances to avoid the darts.  She is pressed to the limit, but now she has new limits and avoids every dart.

Silver and Sapphire get to the cockpit, and she lays out a rope on the doorway, and Silver stands ready!  She explodes the rope, and they go in.  He fires repeated concussive blasts, and the Zendats shoot back!  As they kill the last one, Silver senses that one of the darts nicked his side, and he gets woozy.  Silver and Sapphire blast their way out and fly out!

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Guardsman sees flash and blasts going off in the cockpit, and races over to the ship.  Then he sees the cockpit explode!  Sapphire flies out, with Silver right behind. 

“Where is Phantasm?”  Sapphire flies over, “She’s holding off a mech in there, go help her!”  Guardsman flies in through the shattered cockpit and sees the mech, and he sees Phantasm avoiding its flechettes.  He smashes into the mech hard, burying him face first into the deck.  Then he grabs Phantasm’s hand and says, “GO, GO, GO!”  They rush through the cockpit, with Guardsman protecting her with his body, and then they fly out.  They see Sapphire and Silver floating there, and then Silver collapses to the ground, with Sapphire barely catching him!  She throws a healing rope on him, one of those flechettes must have hit him!  His mask fades back, and she sees he is fine, but knocked out.  She notes that Phantasm is almost out of arrows, and has a lot of dents in her armor. 

The Destroyer strikes the ground, and then a flood of Zendats comes out firing their weapons.  Marco is already back in his suit and mows them down with his chaingun and grenade launcher as the troops start laying into the Zendats with their SAWs!  Then he gets out continuing his repairs on the suit.  Then he hears a message from the Commander.  “YOU GOT AN INCOMING, SHOULD BE THERE IN ABOUT TEN MINUTES!  IT WAS BLASTING LA AND THEN LEFT TO GO AFTER YOUR GROUP!”  Marco calls Guardsman over and tells him.  Guardsman sees that Sapphire is busy healing up the valiant group of soldiers that has been supporting them.  Even though one of them has his arm in a sling, he and another GI are still reloading Power Armor.  Then the Destroyer shows up.

Guardsman picks up and throws a pickup truck right at the floating ship – it dents the shell.  Even though he hates doing it, he reaches down and gently grabs Silver and shakes him.  “Come on buddy, I need you right now!”  Silver starts moving again, and then they fly up to the dent.  Guardsman points at it and smashes it, and then Silver throws 3 huge blasts of energy at it, and a small hole opens!  Guardsman sticks his hand in and starts pulling.  He rips with all of his strength, and then feels the skin of the ship slowly tearing.  Then he sees a familiar hand on the other side.  He looks up and it’s Power Armor!  Even though electricity is crackling from a break in the shoulder armor, he lends his strength, and the skin buckles!  Guardsman, Power Armor and Silver all fly in, and then there is the sight and sound of huge explosions inside!  Then there is a flash, and Power Armor, Silver and Guardsman all fly out, and then there is an explosion that catches Guardsman!  He is thrown away just as the ship explodes!  Silver flies up and catches the unconscious hero, and flies him to the Earth.

There they see Phantasm and Sapphire.  Sapphire flies over and throws a rope of healing energy around Silver and Guardsman.  The ropes glow and flash, and then Silver stands up.  Phantasm goes over and says, “How are you doing dad?  I can’t see through your armor.”  Marco Juarez feels the pain from his dislocated shoulder, the pulled muscles in his thigh and the blood drizzling out of the cut on his forehead, and then steps out of the armor.  “Sarah, do you have a rope to spare for me?”  She flits over and cast the healing rope around his torso, and then lands.  She causes the armor to fade from her head, and everyone can see the tears in her eyes.  An army supply truck pulls up and asks what Power Armor needs.  He makes a list, and the GIs begin reloading his weapons.

Chelsea goes to Sarah, and says, “Hey kiddo, you are doing fine!  Just your everyday interstellar invasion…”  Sarah looks at her and gets a determined look.  “There’s just so much death and destruction, its crazy hard to look at…”  Then a few Zendats comes running out of the crashed ship!  Sarah flies up and casts a large energy rope that encases some of them, and then explodes!  Phantasm leaps up and fires an explosive arrow into the midst of a group, and then leaps in and leg sweeps 4 of them!  She leaps up and fires a flash bang into the ground, and when she lands she draws her large knife and makes short order of them!

They go back and check on the boys.  Professor Juarez has already gotten back into his Power Armor and is dialing it up.  He has a fresh load of munitions and the jets on his legs are fully fueled - he will deal with the damaged shoulder hydraulics and armor later.  Silver stands and strikes his right hand into his left palm, causing an energy wave.  Then Guardsman stands up, and sees his torso armor is a wreck.  He takes off his backpack, pulls out a couple of snack bars, and then spills the rest out.  He reloads his shotgun and holsters it, and then takes off his torso armor, revealing his bare upper body.  Chelsea is mesmerized by his chiseled physique, as is Sarah, but both of them have their faces covered by their masks!  Everyone grabs a couple of snack bars and wolfs them down; Guardsman beckons for Phantasm to come over.  “Stand on my foot.”  She does, and they take off towards where they expect the next ship to be.  Power Armor is rolling on expanded plates on his feet that have a drive motor tied to his power core.  It’s not as fast as his jets, but a lot easier on fuel!

Marco Juarez is on the phone.  “Commander, we just took out another one.  What is the status of the assault?”  The commander, a three star general that was commanding a combined forces base and has assumed command of US military forces after the Pentagon was torched, says, “Great work!  They sent a dozen in, and even though we have some serious casualties, that was the last one still going.”  “Estimates of remaining force?”  The commander says, “I think they are rethinking their strike.  Expect even more next time.  But Major Juarez, we have a surprise of our own.  We just need a way in.”  The commander explains the plan, and Marco Juarez gets a big smile on his face.  “I think we might have an ally that can help us.”  He signs off, and then steps out of the armor.

He walks over to Silver.  “How many people can fit in your scout ship?”  Silver thinks, “I could crowd about 6 humanoids, I think.  Do you have a plan?”  He turns to the group.  “The lab that was working with me on Wonderland phase one had some great success and now we have the edge; an entire platoon of Wonderland phase one enhanced rangers that have been training in secret.  They have about 47 in their unit.  With the five of us and 10 to put up a supply base and medic station, we should be able to mount a sharp assault on their mothership that will end this for good.”  He paces and says, “According to Lexko, on the one occasion they were not able to subdue the planet in the first pass, they regrouped and sent twice as many destroyers about 5 days later.  Let’s all go home and get a little rest, and maybe Cliff can get you a new chestpiece Guardsman.”  Phantasm looks at her GPS, and sees that they are about 60 miles from home.  Silver and Sapphire grab Chelsea and fly off with her, and Guardsman uses a chain to tow Power Armor.  He has wheels out and knows it will be a bumpy ride!  The Soulforged arrive in about 10 minutes, and it takes Guardsman about 40 minutes to get Power Armor there.  Professor Marco leaves his battle suit in Cliff’s armor lab, and they go in.  The place still has power, although it may be the standby generator.

They go in, and Cliff and Annie meet them.  Annie has a spread fit for a king laid out, and everyone digs in.  Chelsea says to Cliff, “What’s it been like here?”  He replies, “A few deadbeats tried to break in, but the place is pretty solid, and the bulletproof glass is a pretty good deterrent.  Whenever the internet has been up, we’ve been following you.  But it looks like it was pretty rough out there.”  All of them nod. 

Cliff puts his chin in his hands.  “A billion.  That’s how many have died, about a billion people.  In only 18 hours…”  He looks up.  “New York is gone.  Tokyo has been leveled.  London is about three quarters destroyed.  DC, Beijing, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Tel Aviv, Baghdad, Moscow, Calcutta, Paris and others have all taken significant damage.  About a third of the world’s military has been destroyed.  If your group had not taken out 4 of those destroyers…”  Guardsman goes to slam his fist into the table, but realizes they won’t have a table.  “We’ve done everything we could, but we all need a rest.  Cliff, talk to Professor Juarez, he is working with the Commander on a plan.”  Then he pats down his chest, something both Chelsea and Sarah would love to do!  “You have another chest plate I can use?”  Cliff gives thumbs up, and goes to talk to Marco Juarez. 

After they eat, Sarah goes up to her room, and allows her Sapphire armor to fade.  It needs at least eight hours of calm to repair itself.  As she lies there, Darrev knocks, and she waves him in.  He lies down next to her.  “Today went much better than the first day of battle on my world.”  He turns and looks at her longingly.  “Would you… like to release some stress together?”  She smirks, “My bond is really beat up, and she may not want to leave me while she is in such a deep repair mode.”  He replies, “Mine as well, but maybe they will allow it, just this once…”  He grabs her hand and kisses it, and then Sarah puts her hand behind his neck, and moves his lips to hers.  They kiss with exuberance, and all of the stress, horror and fatigue leaves her mind just for a moment as they share their passions…

Chelsea and Bobby lie next to each other, depleted of energy.  They turn to each other, and sense the need for closeness.  They can feel it – Chelsea’s power has suppressed both of their strengths.  They curl up together, and explore each other as they search for a release for the stress and overwhelming carnage they have just been through…

Marco Juarez makes a phone call, surprised there is still service.  “Commander?  Major Juarez.  Yes, I’m glad we did well too, just doing our duty sir.  I noted something in the battle.  It seems that the Zendats are using a force dampening field around their ships, which is why missile are so ineffective.  The best way to take them out is to actually put explosives on the hull, where the force dampening field won’t affect them.  And I think good old ballistics will work better than missiles.  I agree sir, hopefully your plan works and we don’t have to test that hypothesis.  Thank you sir, I’ll pass your comments on to my team.”  Then he hangs up.  He writes a few notes to himself, and lies down to rest, as he is exhausted as the others!

And he thinks about his wife.  The last time he saw her she was in pretty bad shape.  He knows she wants to test the Wonderland to see if a derivative that can safely be taken is available.  But he knows now, after his discussions with Lexko, that her chances of surviving Wonderland are nearly zero.  Her best hope is to turn herself in, and then he will try to persuade Sarah to heal her.  But even if she lives, she has a lifetime of prison to look forward to.  He may have aided, but the entire Wonderland project was her doing.  They won’t have mercy on her…  And the fiasco with the bank robbery is going to shine a very sharp light on her actions.

He still has her cell phone number.  He has it committed to memory; it is a phone that she will probably throw away after their conversation is over.  If they win, he will talk to her and see if they can work this out together… No matter what she and they have done, he loves her with all his heart, and will do whatever he can to help her.  He closes his eyes and falls asleep.

The next morning Sarah wakes up and stretches.  She is still naked from the night before, and sees that Darrev has gotten up.  She hears the shower going in her bathroom and peeks her head in.  “Want some company?”  Darrev pokes his head out and says, “Sure Sarah, I would love to have your company.”  He is enjoying the pulse of the water against his skin, and feels the need to be scrubbed clean.  The battle had drawn out everything he had, and this minor reward is heaven to him.  Then the curtain draws back and Sarah gets in with him.  She admires his fit body, which she really hasn’t seen before.  Darrev looks at her and is overwhelmed at her well proportioned beauty.  Both of them have red faces!  Darrev says, “I didn’t realize just how beautiful you are Sarah.”  She replies, “You too.  I mean, handsome, not beautiful, I mean… oh hell, you are hot too!”  Then they embrace.

Bobby wakes up and sees that Chelsea has already gotten up.  He pulls on his boxers and a pair of pajama bottoms, and then grabs a robe.  He heads to the kitchen where he sees Cliff and Marco are talking over coffee, and Chelsea is chatting with Annie by the stove.  As the others see him, Marco says, “Hey Bobby, hate to get right on it, but the Commander has requested some help in New York trying to dig out survivors.  My armor needs way too much work right now, would you, Chelsea and Sarah be willing to go there and lend a hand?  Cliff and I will get my armor working again and Darrev can hang out in case there is a problem.”

Bobby agrees and sits down to eat some breakfast.  Shortly after Sarah and Darrev come down the steps holding hands.  Chelsea sees them and is a bit surprised!  “Good morning Sarah, are you and Darrev, you know, a number?”  She nods with glee!  “Our bonds are allowing us to have a relationship.  I am so happy about it, but also perplexed.”  Darrev says, “It was never explained why bonds don’t allow relationships.  It has always just been that way.” 

Then Sarah starts getting dizzy.  She feels gut wrenching pain and then collapses on the steps.  Darrev supports and does his best to comfort her.  Then her Sapphire armor appears!  It is pulsing brightly!  Then Sarah screams, but it is not her voice alone.  Then the armor fades.  Sarah is breathing heavily, and then straightens herself up.  She holds out a clenched hand and then opens it, revealing… a green soul crystal.

Darrev says, “I-I think I know why they did not want relationships, as this seems to produce soul crystals.  Since ours were the last two, they may have allowed our relationship so they can reproduce.  I am utterly stunned; this is the first new soul crystal other than Sapphire’s in centuries!  When a person dies that is bonded, the relationship is too close.  The entity within the crystal dies with their bondmate, but they generate a new crystal, a replacement so to speak.  This allows them to replace themselves.  But a new crystal… this is something.”

Chelsea says, “Are you OK Sarah?”  She replies, “Yeah, most of my pain was just sympathetic to my bond.  I’m fine, and so is she.”  Chelsea says, “What will you do with the new crystal?”  Silver interjects, “We do nothing.  The crystal itself is the only one that can determine its bondmate.  All we can do is offer it to others.  For now, Sarah should keep it with her.”

Bobby stands up and says, “This should be a time of celebration.  But the fate of the world is on our shoulders, and right now we have been asked to help with the carnage in New York.  So the celebration is going to have to be later.  Sarah, are you up to saving some lives?”  She nods her head vigorously!  After everything that went on the day before, helping people sounds really good to her!  “Darrev, we need someone to stay her in case there are problems, would you mind?”  He shakes his head.  “I do not mind.  I need some time to think out what has just happened.  And I assume Professor Juarez will be busy repairing his armor.”  Marco nods.  He stands up, and he and Cliff head to the armor lab.

Bobby starts to load some energy bars in his backpack, but Annie walks over with a frown.  “Young man, I made lunches for all three of you, enough of the junk food all the time!”  He smiles and thanks her, knowing that whatever she made will be a real treat!  Then the three of them head to the well, and on Phantasm’s signal take to the air!  Bobby has an arm around Phantasm, and one around Sapphire; his flight speed is much higher than hers, so she hitches a ride.  They cruise, and about 15 minutes later, they can see it.  All of them are stunned; the familiar skyline of Manhattan no longer exists.  There is carnage as far as the eye can see, along with several crashed jet fighters.  They decide to go to Manhattan first, and are devastated by everything they see…

Next: Assault on Zenda