Ceo

  Command Center, Second Floor, Office 3

  August 5th, 2153(Sadly), 17:32 hours

  The screen share changed to another software, a similar looking one to the Security System here. There I saw a long steel hallway, with what appeared to be primitive storage containers, wooden crates, those barrels that hold liquids for long journeys across the sea in the European era of Exploration were organized neatly along the walls of the hallway. The lights were on giving me a clear down the entire hallway.

  “What type of camera is this?” I asked.

  “Dome cameras.”

  “Is this live?” I asked.

  “Affirmative.”

  “Can you turn the camera 180 degrees along the Z axis?” I asked.

  The view soon slowly began to shift to the left showing more boxes and more hallway. The crates would occasionally break up leaving an opening and upon closer inspection they were opening up for doors, a piece of parchment was placed on each door.

  “How much can this camera zoom in?” I asked.

  “Only digitally.” GEAR said.

  “Alright, can you read what's on that parchment?” I asked.

  “Negative.” GEAR answered.

  “Can you turn the camera 90 degrees back? I think I saw a door while you were turning it.” The image turned 90 degrees and a steel door came into view, a piece of parchment was on this one as well. The writing wasn’t in the latin alphabet, it was essentially an alien language with symbols I couldn’t identify.

  “Are there other cameras you can access?” I asked.

  “I can access the whole CCTV system, as I was given access.” GEAR said.

  “Alright, bring up a camera where there is movement going on.” I said.

  GEAR wordlessly switched the image, now there was a large open area, sunlight was streaming in from the left at a harsh angle, the light was being interrupted by what appeared to be peaks of some sort which casted shadows into the room.

  The movement the camera was picking was from people in what appeared to be linen clothing, the compression was bad, I couldn’t make out many details from the distance. They were unloading something from a wooden ship which seemed to stand on some sort of legs, sails protruding from the sides of the ship. The angle was focused on the people with the ship in the background.

  “What type of camera is this GEAR?” I asked.

  “Bullet Camera.” GEAR said.

  “First off, focus on that wooden ship I wanna see what they are doing.” The image panned to bring a part of the ship into view. It was surprisingly large, it looked like it was around 20 meters in length. I could see three cannons placed on the front of the ship and looked capable of turning. A large plank allowing access off and onto the ship was heading towards the ground, a couple of people were on the ship they looked like they were giving orders out.

  “Is there audio for this camera?” I asked.

  “Negative.”

  There appeared to be several dozen people here, all scurrying about carrying boxes to and fro somewhere. “Where are they taking the boxes?” I asked.

  The camera panned to the right the direction the people were headed towards, there was a large bulkhead door open. Due to the angle though I couldn’t see inside it without switching cameras.

  “Focus back on the ship.” The camera panned to bring the whole ship into view, “Now focus on… the guy on the back of the ship.” The camera focused on the person of interest and zoomed in. It was for a moment out of focus but quickly came into focus, the face looked like a lizard, wearing a kind of uniform of sorts.

  “I’m guessing these people aren’t invited here?” I asked.

  “To my knowledge they appear to be collaborators with the Hawks.” GEAR said.

  “Collaborators with the Hawks? What is the status of Beta Bases’ Fusion Reactor?” I asked.

  “I cannot access the data from here, you’ll need to upload me directly into their data center.” GEAR said.

  “Can you show me the Fusion Reactors Control Room?” I asked.

  GEAR wordlessly changed the video to a room with the view in black and white, numerous computer screens, keyboards, mice and consoles were present; the room looked nearly identical to the Control Room here in Charlie Base. “Now look for a screen that is on. It should report the status of the Fusion Reactors.” The image started to pan to the left showing the rest of the room, eventually a bright white spot appeared on the screen.

  “Switch to color vision.” I said.

  The image was suddenly shrouded in darkness with a dim light emanating from a single screen, “Zoom in on the screen that is on”, the image zoomed in showing a similar screen that I saw earlier. The fusion reactor was producing “120 kilowatts” , 30 thousand more than ours.

  “The computer system in Beta Base is likely ramping up power production to meet the demands of its visitors.” GEAR said.

  “I can see that, but we can’t do anything more than just observe? Correct?” I asked.

  “Affirmative.” GEAR said.

  A knock came from the door, looking over I saw it was Bomblitz, “You can come in.” I said.

  “Lieutenant Hans Gunther has arrived, he is entering the building as we speak.” Bomblitz said.

  “Alright, GEAR keep an eye on Beta Base and keep trying to get access to more systems.” I ordered.

  “Affirmative.” GEAR said.

  “Beta Base?” Bomblitz asked.

  “Long story.” I said.

  “Ok, do you want me to get him?” Bomblitz asked.

  “Yes, I also want you to join me to hear what Gunther has to say.” I said.

  Bomblitz nodded, he was about to leave when suddenly the intercom went off, “First Lieutenant Hans Gunther, welcome back to Charlie Base Commander Maldonado wishes to speak with you. She is in Office 3 on the second floor.”

  “I guess he is coming directly to us instead.” I said.

  A few minutes had passed and there I saw the middle aged Kyntari medic, he looked surprised at me. Then that look of surprise turned into worry “Are you actually her?” Gunther asked, approaching me.

  “My grandmother, if you're talking about her. Then no, I am not.” I said.

  “I was wondering why you looked so familiar, I guess I wasn’t the only one to be confused by your looks.”

  “As it appears so.” I said.

  “GEAR, how were you holding up when we last checked up on you?” Gunther asked.

  “I am doing fine Lt. Colonel, just having memory problems.” GEAR answered.

  Gunther nodded, “You aren’t the only one with dementia, or atleast used to. I seem much better with this new body I have.” He said.

  “That is good, glad to see someone from back then is alive.” GEAR said.

  “Yes, thank you.” Gunther said, he then changed topics “So I am guessing you are here to figure how the Americans got here, what we were doing here, and why we left.” Gunther said.

  “Yes, GEAR has told me part of it might relate to the Hawks.” I said.

  “Ah, the Hawks. That is correct, we left because Congress learned of the threat and decided that a Kinetic Kill Vehicle was the solution to dealing with them.” Gunther said.

  “Ok, ok, start from the beginning from the discovery of the Wormhole.” I said.

  Gunther nodded, “Alright, so the Wormhole that led here was discovered in 2049 in orbit of Saturn, NASA and the Space Force sent probes through as you know standard space exploration procedures. After 7 years of probing the entire system they find this planet, the one we are now currently on. Then a decade later they send the first manned mission through the wormhole, titled the Ra Program on an Interplanetary Exploration class spaceship, called the Enterprise.They get here, and they realize there is intelligent life, but they remain in orbit of the smaller farther out moon. After getting these findings Congress, NASA, and the US military all started the construction of four more space ships, though as you can guess it took like a few years of secret meetings to finally get congress on board. Back to building ships the types that were ordered was one more Interplanetary Class equipped with SSTO’s, and Three transport vessels. One for transporting military and more research personnel, and the other two was transporting an entire moon base worth of supplies, material, and pre fabricated equipment to establish a forward base of operation on one of the moons. After that we would actually land on the planet I didn’t have the honor of being the first Americans on this planet that went to your grandmother and the crew of the Endurance.” Gunther said.

  “What year are you in now?” I asked.

  ”About 2081, do you want me to continue my extremely shortened version of events?” Gunther asked.

  ”Yes.” I said.

  ”Alright where was I? Oh, yeah. The captain had just landed with the then lieutenant Maldonado, where they would establish what would become Alpha base, and soon afterwards they would get into contact with the locals. Who just so happen to be humans oddly enough specifically people who were descended from citizens of Nazi Germany that had died during World War II. I can’t tell you how they got here or why they are here, they didn’t know the answer to that as well. But continuing on we would make another first contact with another species and an empire to the far east past a mountain range that was locally called ”The Wall”.”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  ”I saw it on the map y’all made.” I said.

  ”Alright, these guys were lizard people, bipedal as smart as a human with lizard features. They had a technology level equivalent to Renaissance Europe with Gunpowder weapons and a bit of magic, we were pretty sure they had a massive population for a people of their technology level, but back on topic these Lizard people were at war with Humanity, not a nation, but the species they wanted us all dead. Though the air support wasn’t all that needed they had planes of their own, but we still supported them, largely through spy satellite coverage, hell we even shuttled a few high profile targets to the front a couple of times. Nothing too big, enough to give them an intel advantage, then we came across a lizard who just wouldn’t fucking die.” Gunther said.

  I cocked my head, surprised by the sudden change of tone in Gunther's voice.

  “We were confused as well, the damn thing regenerated whatever damage we inflicted onto it. It got so bad we just resorted to dropping a kinetic kill weapon on the base it was residing in.” Gunther answered.

  “Do you think a kinetic kill weapon is overkill?” I asked.

  “If you were wondering, yes it had a yield equivalent to the Davy Crockett nuclear bomb, and also no it was not overkill, since we couldn’t kill it we vaporised it.” Gunther said.

  “And did it work?” I asked.

  “Yes, it did a little too well actually to the point it caught the attention of the Hawks.” Gunther said.

  “The Hawks keep getting mentioned, but I haven’t had the chance to look into them. Who or what are they?” I asked.

  “Long story short, they are Aliens, interdimensional aliens to be specific. That's all we know, they seem to be technologically speaking on par with the countries on this planet that weren't human, which is about the Renaissance era. But their capabilities are at least equivalent to ours in the modern day or really in the year of 2133. From what little we’ve seen of them they appear to be Renaissance Europe but in actuality have science fiction levels of capabilities. Like the Star Trek level of technological capability without space travel. Along with that we believe the Hawks are actually aiding several species here, specifically the ones that want us humans dead.” Gunther answered.

  “Great not only do we have to deal with hostile locals, but hostile locals who are backed by an inter-dimensional empire whose capabilities are unknown and can only be compared to a soft science fiction series first written in the mid 20th century, did I summarize it correctly?”

  “Yes, that is correct. And that's the terrifying part, we know so little that we can use a comparison to an old soft science fiction show and we’d likely be correct with their capabilities.” Gunther said.

  “Alright, how long have we been aware of these Hawks?” I asked.

  “From what I remember, I heard the French had records going as far back as the 5th century or so when the Western Roman Empire fell, but I think that might be wrong. At the very least for the human nations here they’ve been aware of the Hawks since at least the 1850s, we believe they played a role in the collapse of the German Reich in this world by the time we arrived in 2081, though from what I remember they were already on the decline for decades before hand. So it's actually quite hard to tell if they kicked down the door or made the rot worse.” Gunther said.

  I nodded, “Is there anything you would like to add to any more history?” I asked.

  “Yes, in 2090 mere months before we left, we decided to activate the Germans old nuclear ICBM arsenal which was quite small. We had gotten word that the Hawks were getting to this world through a portal in the capital of Hlpecbyg so we decided to annihilate it, we opted for the nuclear weapon not to do physical damage but instead maximized radiation as much as the germans design allowed for of course. We were hoping to make the Hawks think twice of coming through and if they did make it impossible to leave without getting radiation sickness. But this did little to change anything in their actions and eventually we were forced to leave, due in part Congress approving the construction of a kinetic kill vehicle that would hopefully further destroy the Hlpecbyg empire and Hawks.” Gunther explained.

  “That is quite the ending of our adventures here, I’m guessing that's where your knowledge ends on the history?” I asked.

  “Pretty much, I could go into more detail about the events that we saw but that will take up too much time. Especially considering we have the bipedal lizards in our walls, who going off the description from the recon squads seem to be at the least related to Hlpecbyg, and the Hawks. Though whether or not either entities are here is something I can’t answer as well.” Gunther said.

  I nodded, “Thank you. Now about the bases, Alpha, Beta, and this one Charlie base. What was the purpose of these bases?” I asked.

  “Well, for one I could tell you that Charlie base is one massive anti-air platform with ability to melt through 24 inch thick steel armor from 5 miles away with a thin enough beam.” Gunther said.

  “So this place is holding a D.E.A.D System.” I said.

  “Yes, it does have a D.E.A.D System. It was actually built to counter the Hawk’s flying ships in fact, one of the few details that I can tell you with confidence. Um… Alpha Base was the first base we built with the help of local officials providing labor and resources for us so we could set up a dedicated dish array that could contact Earth. And finally Beta Base was constructed to act as an forward outpost that warned us of any enemy movement through the mountains and acted as a home for a dragon we had ended up befriending.” Gunther said.

  “Wait, there's dragons here?” I asked.

  “Yes, I don’t know if the dragon is alive though. Granted I never met the dragon myself so I personally cannot tell you much about it.” Gunther said.

  “Well, I would like to show you something about Beta Base.” I said.

  Gunther raised an eyebrow at that, “What do you know that I don’t know.” Gunther said.

  “Well, for one GEAR was able to get access to the camera system to Beta Base from here. GEAR can you bring up video feed from Beta Base and show the room with the Lizards we saw with the wooden ship.” I asked.

  “Completed.” GEAR said, the monitor woke up and there was a screen share. Opening it showed the large wooden ship with sails on the side. The visitors here were still unpacking but it looks like it was dinner for them as they were all eating.

  I turned the monitor to allow both Bomblitz and Gunther to see what I was looking at.

  “GEAR, zoom in on the ship's hull, and slowly scan along it.” Gunther said.

  I couldn’t see what was going on but as the seconds wore on, I could see Gunther get concerned as Bomblitz got more confused.

  “That's not good.” He finally said after just silently looking at the screen for nearly thirty seconds.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “I believe the ship that is in the Hangar bay of Beta Base right now belongs to Hlpecbyg.” Gunther said.

  “So you're saying their society didn’t collapse after you and your expedition first nuked their capital and followed by the annihilation of everything in possibly a 300 mile radius from an interplanetary kill strike?” I asked.

  “Yeah, pretty much. But we can’t worry about that now, at least we have the information that we are potentially dealing with an old adversary here at home. What makes that worse for us is that we are actually less than a hundred miles away from their closest major city.” Gunther said.

  “Great, less than a hundred miles from the people who hate us, do you think the goblins attacking us are related to them?” I asked.

  “I actually don’t know, to my knowledge Hlpecbyg forces don’t have goblins in their ranks or empires. From what I remember the Germans never encountered anything that resembled goblins. It's very likely that those goblins belong to another nation, which is a recent development in the last 60 years. Afterall the year 2153 a lot could’ve changed in that time.” Gunther said.

  “Alright, I want you to start refreshing your memory and reviewing all the information you can dig up from the data center. The species either the Americans, Germans, whatever information we have on hand. I want a report on the military capabilities of Hlpecbyg on my desk in the War Room 3 days from today, preferably in the Morning.”

  “Got it.” Gunther nodded, “Anything else Colonel?”

  I took a moment to briefly think, “No nothing comes to mind, thank you. I will be heading back to the Main Bunker to give the news to the rest of the Majors.” I said.

  “Do you want us to keep quiet about this?” Bomblitz asked.

  “Yes, keep quiet on this, we will only tell on a need to know basis at least for now.” I said.

  They both nodded.

  “Also while y’all are here Gunther can you get GEAR to give the Bomblitz and his squad security clearance for this place. Try and figure out how to bypass the social security requirements.” I said.

  Gunther cocked his head at me, “You really don’t know your way around security clearances.”

  “Yeah I don’t, if you know how to, that’ll be a life saver.” I said.

  “I’ll get that done first.” Gunther said.

  “Alright, thank you.” I said, standing up from my chair “Y’all are dismissed, get to work. I’ll be taking a radio from down stairs so I can remain in contact without needing to use the clipboard. Call me whenever need be, hell I could probably assign someone to be a radio operator and pass messages onto each other.” I said.

  “That will be a good idea in fact, I suggest you take an entire charging set.” Gunther said.

  I nodded, we shook hands, “I hopefully will see you tomorrow morning, Lieutenant.” I said.

  “I hope so too, but I’m sure the Lizards are more perceptive than they were 60 years ago.” Gunther said.

  “I hope they’re idiots, that’ll make things easier on us.” I said, moving to leave the office.

  “I suggest you take your laptop as well.” Gunther said.

  I was at the door frame, “I don’t think we have Wi-fi in the bunker yet. But yeah that’ll be a good idea to do.” I said, turning back and grabbing both the laptop and the charger.

  Gunther nodded, Bomblitz had taken his leave and soon afterwards Gunther did, leaving me alone in the office. I heard Gunther request access to Office 1 and moments later he was accepted into it.

  “GEAR, do you have a bag here I can use?” I asked.

  “I could have one printed for you in 4 hours, though I doubt you have time for that.” GEAR said.

  “Do you?” I asked.

  “I do not, sorry. You will have to carry your laptop and the radios.”

  “What about a box that's big enough to hold the items I have, but small enough to comfortably carry or drag along?”

  “In fact I think I do, the crew members of Charlie Base left a lot of things here in their rush to evacuate. I do remember recovering a registry about a bike with a trailer attached from the database, and I think it is stored here, somewhere. Give me a moment and I will collect it for you.” GEAR said.

  “Do you still have your physical body?” I asked.

  “Affirmative, I only really use it when needing to do repairs. Meet me outside, and I should have the bike ready for you.” GEAR said.

  “Alright.” I said, with my laptop in my hands going outside of the Office, downstairs and outside. The sun was still up, it seemed to be nearly 18:00 hours, the concrete hadn’t changed which wasn’t a good sign, the hugely long distances between each building hadn’t changed. I looked around and saw nothing new, a few minutes passed as I was waiting for GEAR to arrive.

  “Good evening Colonel.” GEARs’ voice blasted out of nowhere, I jumped back and looked in the direction of GEAR. It was a large aluminum rectangular prism, which seemed to consist of 4 pillars. An alright looking bike was at his side, the leftmost pillar had broken off into a simple cube hand pushing the bike along with him.

  “Where’d you come from?” I asked.

  “A subterranean storage space, it really isn’t designed for human movement in mind. It's also why it wasn’t on the map. The bike you requested.” GEAR said.

  “Thank you.” I said, I kicked down the stand, and placed the laptop into the wagon the bike was pulling. “I need to get the radios, and GEAR make sure that Gunther and the others actually get the radios and make sure he’s on Channel 1.” I said.

  “Affirmative.” GEAR said he soon began to walk away, or really waddle away as the two farthest legs or blocks moved out as the central two moved forward.

  I went back inside to grab the radios and its charging block, after that I went outside and put them onto the wagon. After that I kicked up the kickstand and walked the bike to the gate. The security guard was the same stormtrooper from before,reading the same book still, though it looked like he was starting to near the end.

  I knocked on the window, this time the stormtrooper didn’t jump and just looked at me.

  He opened the window, “Getting ready to leave Colonel?” He asked, he looked down and saw my bike. “And nice bike you have.” He said.

  “Thank you, and yeah I am heading back to the Main bunker.” I said.

  The private nodded, “Well safe travels!” He yelled as sped up my bike and attempted to ride on it. The seat wasn’t at a comfortable height and I had to adjust it before I could get moving. After that small hiccup though it was smooth sailing as I followed the wall the way I came, towards the broken wall and then down the walking path to the main bunker.

  I stopped in the middle of the forest, brought out my clipboard and sent this, “All Majors meet with me in the War Room within the next hour.” Orders from CeoofMacNCheese.