Читать книгу The Shards Survivors - Joe McKinnon - Страница 8

28/1/2013 @ 6am

We have learnt that most of the ‘free people’ are really trapped. Hundreds of people are stuck in no man’s land unable to do anything.

Sammy ordered the last helicopter to attempt a rescue. It crashed as soon as it crossed the threshold of the affected zone. It seems like the beam is directly linked to the Shards. No let up and no escape.

Communication with other nations is failing for some reason or another. We suspect that some equipment has failed and things just aren’t getting fixed or replaced. We like to think that our global networks are fault tolerant, but so many nodes have ceased to work and with no available staff to address network faults, it dies and so does our access to places.

The Americans reckon they can launch a guided missile and detonate it before it crosses into the dead zone. They are planning to try several different weapons. Such as a fragmentation device to pepper the Shards with lumps of metal at high speed; fuel-air device to superheat the area above the Shards’ ships; a pulse weapon to disrupt electronics; and finally, a nuclear warhead.

I have no idea what should be done. I guess I’m an optimistic person. I hope that faith prevails and the beam turns off, that the people who are released can tell us everything and we have nothing to worry about. Bubbles is definitely pessimistic. She wants to hurt them before they get us.

29/1/2013 @5am

Sammy woke us up and told us to come into the conference room, the yanks were moving.

When we got there, we had three screens showing various American locations undergoing a build-up of military equipment. From what we had heard over the previous days they had lost a lot of gear. However it seems that they have managed to move most of the unaffected equipment around Washington, New York and Austin. To move all of this gear and men they must have been doing it all along whilst telling us that they hadn’t decided what to do.

God, you have to love the yanks they say one thing, promise it, and then do the opposite. They had built fortified positions around the chosen sites and were looking like they would strike at any moment.

Sammy told everyone that the Americans are planning to strike at 7AM our time. Sammy has ordered all personnel to retreat and seek cover, because of the effects this attack might provoke. He didn’t want to lose people if he could help it.

29/1/2013 @6:30am

I think the cat is out of the bag. Suddenly all Shard ships changed to a bright blue colour, it was very hard to see through this light, day or night vision was effectively blurred. I believe that the Shards have understood our communication, and have been waiting, but no one here wants to hear it. It was just like playing a good strategy game, you observe the enemy, see what he’s up to and then prepare a defence that will hopefully blunt the oncoming attack.

I know I’m right, but no one wants to listen. I hope I’m wrong.

As we watched the tactical displays, being relayed to us by the Americans, we were all amazed to see so many units being positioned. I’d have thought that they’d lost most of their forces when the Shards paralysed the majority of the country. They have literally surrounded all three targets, Washington, New York and Austin.

The ongoing briefing told us how the Navy’s 8 carrier battle groups had been called back to home waters as soon as the Shards appeared and that all available resources were being pooled into this attack; There was no going back from this point. Everything not paralysed was committed.

In summary, America had the following resources

- 8 Carrier groups, each consisting of one carrier, 24 F-22 raptors, 20 FB-18 fighter/bombers, three submarines, four Aegis cruisers, 8 destroyers, a replenishment ship and a marine amphibious unit

- 15 missile submarines

- 50000 soldiers

- 200 frontline battle tanks

- 100 mobile missile units

- 20 top-secret battle units, which were really remote controlled robots. This was something new and none of the military people had heard of them.

The land base forces had been deployed in rings around the three sites, the aircraft were being prepared for launch. The subs have moved in as close as they dared, and were making the necessary checklists for launch. American military leaders felt that this was their only option and that they were posed to annihilate the Shards, if their initial warning shots failed to get results.

29/1/2013 @ 7am

I wish that what I just witnessed was a tale from some story, unfortunately it is not.

With precision timing, the Americans unleashed their military systems onto the targets. Eight carrier squadrons were airborne and heading inland, three flights to Washington, three to New York and two to Austin.

They have also launched a number of sub launched missiles. We don’t know what they were because traditionally these are nuclear weapons. I cannot believe that they would use nuclear weapons over their own citizens. These missiles were on a sub-orbital flight path, and by best guess they would impact on the targets five minutes before the aircraft were in the same zone.

It was planned this way so that whilst the Shards are recovering from the missile hits, they might release our people before the main attack hits them, very optimistic thinking.

Meanwhile, our bunker was sealed shut, and we were on filtered air. This was done to provide protection from the Shards in case something unexpected happens.

I’ve often contemplated what would happen to an invader if they really annoyed the American military, what would truly happen?

29/1/2013 @ 7:30am

As the battle unfolded, the missiles arrived first. There was a flash at Austin then nothing. All of the other missiles just vanished, no flash, nothing.

The tanks and missile launchers fired at Washington, as a missile hit the Shard’s beam it vanished, then the ones in flight vanished, until the launcher itself ceased to exist. Before the other two sites even pressed their firing triggers, they vanished.

Aircraft leading the run to Washington fired and spilt. Another wing that was destined for New York fled back to the carrier when they saw the ground tanks vanish; They wanted to hopefully escape and fight another day. They were that close to their carrier that some landed, before the Washington strike package arrived over the target. All the weapons, the planes and the ships they came from vanished.

Before the marines could even get a shot off at the invaders, the Shards’ beams turned to bright orange and the field expanded outwards…

We simultaneously lost visual communication feeds and were hit by a strong tremor which carried on for an eternity. I was expecting a bad result, didn’t think we would be feeling it here from the American’s actions. It happened so fast, no one was sure, we could not see or communicate with anyone.

The place went nuts, the tactical displays were down, alarms had been activated, communication systems were shattered, and the bunker was shaking solidly for 30 odd seconds. Dust was stirred up; Bubbles and I had been knocked to the floor. Everything else not nailed down had fallen to the floor. The lights, overhead, were swinging in crazy directions casting dancing shadows along the walls and floors. Here and there were people tossed aside like discarded empty water bottles.

We heard that same damned humming inside the building, that was on the speakers before, anyone outside must have been deafened.

I held Bubbles, I had tears streaming down my face, and she was crying her eyes out. I’ve never seen her do that before, not even for the deaths of her parents. We are so screwed.

The conference room is a mess, there are people yelling everywhere at once, some people seem to have broken limbs, and it was a mess.

The humming, was going away now, the room had stopped shaking. We are so stuffed.

We had a group of people yelling to God to help us. Another group wanted to run outside with guns blazing. In the commotion one of the young soldiers had blown his head off, splattering the wall behind him with his brains. We have the base medical staff running around to triage patients. One of them threw a jacket over the remains of the young soldier.

We have lost the world today, God knows what we will discover; Is anyone alive, anywhere?