Wright

Wright1

Complete darkness. That was all I could see inside the bay of the great plane in which I was housed. Around me the darkness hugged in and enclosed me in a cocoon which I felt safe inside. I was disorientated still.2

A red light began to spin in the distance. At the other end of the great bay is sprayed the interior with crimson waves. It was a warning light, no doubt about that.3

“Thirty seconds to Spirit Fall.” A voice somewhere outside of the bay called out. “Prepare!”4

That word kicked me into action. I remembered I was on a mission for the army. I was inside the bay of a B-52. I was inside a combat suit dubbed GHOUL. The text flitting across the eyepieces confirmed what I knew to be fact.5

Butterflies lifted my stomach and turned it in a complete back-flip. I keyed the communications unit from my seat.6

“Make it a minute.”7

“Negative GHOUL Saxon. Spirit Fall in ten.” He could cancel the entire strike on his own authority, but the pilot wanted the mission to happen. Luckily for me; “Interceptors spotted, on our six. GHOUL Saxon – warm your guns.”8

The bomb bay below me opened and the earth loomed thousands of feet below. The modified bombing mechanism lowered the GHOUL suit beneath the plane and it was buffeted by the immense turbulence created by the evasive manoeuvres being undertaken.9

“Roger Valkyrie Command.” Like I had a choice in the matter. From the underside of the GHOUL twin chain-guns, ‘Tarantula’ unfolded from their armoured housing and spun up to speed in preparation for firing. The screen showed the scene behind the B-52, land dropping away quickly and two British F-3 Tornado jets.10

I decided I would give the enemy pilots their chance. This wouldn’t be a fight, it would be murder.11

“R.A.F pilots. This is GHOUL Saxon. Disengage or be destroyed.” Valkyrie Command cut in with a protest but I muted him. “This will be your only warning. You have five seconds to break pattern.”12

The planes continued their attack pattern, a missile lock warning sounded inside my cockpit and my heart leapt inside of my chest. They would fire on me.13

Training kicked in as instinct and the dual layered optical interface reacted quickly to my input, flares were launched and a radar buoy dropped to disable their tracking and targeting systems.14

“You have had your warning. GHOUL Saxon out.”15

I opened fire on the F-3 planes. Each chain-gun responded by launching an unavoidable volley of supersonic rounds at each plane simultaneously. Fire raked their nose-cones and cockpits before veering off to the sides and striking the ordinance on their wings.16

Both planes were destroyed not only by the withering rate of fire but by their own missiles fuel tanks becoming so damaged that they detonated on the wings. Each plane fell as a fireball in an erratic spiral, doomed to strike the ground below like ill-designed meteors. 17

I took the Valkyrie Command channel off mute.18

“We take no prisoners. Spirit Fall now!” GHOUL Saxon was dropped by the modified mechanism and I retracted the chain-guns back into the main body of the suit.19

The suit itself resembled a great tank when attached to the B-52 and was hardly aerodynamic, it was a box at best. Once dropped it spread four great legs and increased its surface area to slow the fall. G-force barely affected me inside the cockpit.20

“Good luck GHOUL Saxon..” The B-52 turned tail above me, going back the way it had come. Still I fell; lulled by the quiet and reassuring ticking of the altimeter. The fall was automated and the system took over at the appropriate time and deployed two massive booster engines.21

From the rear legs the boosters engaged and began to push the GHOUL forwards. Steadily it accelerated and broke the sound barrier after a short time. With little in the way of a physical steering system the GHOUL handled surprisingly well considering its shape. 22

Once on the ground the GHOUL would unfold and become a four legged semi-walking battle-tank capable of crossing any terrain. Not much smaller than an 8 wheeled flatbed truck it was a fortress and a force to be afraid of, very afraid.23

“Spirit Fall achieved.” A metallic, female voice sounding rather canned and Albanian announced into the cockpit through a loudspeaker. “Impact in two hundred miles.” It would take a little over fifteen minutes to reach the target location.24

The time was to be used in preparation; checking and arming weapons systems. Testing internal movement systems and targeting systems. I tracked a half-dozen targets on the blurry ground below all at the same time. They all resulted in simulated kills for the GHOUL.25

“Thirty seconds to impact. Spirit Fall phase two initialized.”26

Step aside Hollywood! Here comes Saxon!27

In a special effects extravaganza the booster rocket engines detached from the legs of GHOUL and shot off on a collision course with the landing zone. The internal sensors tracked them and I watched them land in comfort.28

They streaked away from the GHOUL and bounced off the ground once before exploding in mid-air. They exploded over enemy trenches and sent up great tsunamis of earth into the air. The landing zone was clear of any obstructions or ditches after the two rockets turned it into a crater.29

The zoom lens narrowed and pulled out from the scene. It didn’t change the appearance of the screen though – the ground was approaching fast and GHOUL was preparing for touchdown.30

The legs extended wide and the support buffer; two large strips of inflated rubber designed to take the shock off of the hydraulic legs. They did their job well when the GHOUL hit the wall of the crater. The legs compressed and the rubber strips rebounded, creating a sudden backwards jolt after the harsh deceleration.31

The weapons systems onboard the GHOUL activated fully – the ‘Scorpion’ turret hoisted itself above the main frame and the side ‘Wasp’ turrets extended beyond the frame. ‘Tarantula’ reactivated just as before and the final weapon began its long charge; ‘Eagle’ was the codename for the awesome orbital weapons platform in geostationary orbit overhead.32

Eagle was capable of delivering a 50 billion Terawatt laser with a width of only 2 millimetres to any point on Earth. It was accurate to one thousandth of a centimetre. The metallic female voice came back to announce its arrival;33

“Fifty seconds to application of ‘Eagle’. Designate target.”34

The time to designate a target was taken away by the impact of a rocket to the right front leg of Saxon. One of the forward ‘Wasp’ turrets locked on and opened fire with a single missile in return. The missile struck its target in the chest, exploding the man into shattered flesh and bone.35

Then came the hail of fire: Machine guns, rockets, missiles and grenades. The ‘Wasp’ turrets returned fire as fast as they could but I brought ‘Tarantula’ into play – the twin chain guns blazed away and Saxon fought off the attackers as if possessed. Indeed, possessed by me.36

No matter how many troops Saxon shot, blew up, maimed, more kept coming. For thirty seconds Saxon fought laboriously for nothing, though lost nothing either.37

Battlefield information skidded across the display constantly and most went ignored by my conscious mind – the unconscious instinct driven primal mind took over control of Saxon and turned it to a frenzy of destruction.38

‘Scorpion’ the turret atop Saxon turned to target an M1A1 Abrams. A dull thud and a single high-velocity round saw the tank turned into nothing more than a cloud of dust and smoke licked by teasing flames.39

I could feel the white hot searing poker of battle drawing in and in contrast I closed my eyes, darkness engulfed my mind and I passed over control entirely to my sub-conscious. That was the effect of Spirit Fall.40

Saxons combat effectiveness was multiplied exponentially, like the Chaos Theory taking effect over its weapons; they fired faster, hit harder, missed less and struck targets in the perfect order. In short, no matter what force came against Saxon, regardless of size and power, it would annihilate them with no remorse, give no quarter.41

Three seconds until ‘Eagle’ was ready to fire and still no target.42

I begun scanning, searching for a target that ‘Eagle’ would be worthy to destroy. The battlefield presented none. I widened my search, looking for targets further behind enemy lines, across the entire county, almost the entire region.43

ICBM. Inter Continental Ballistic Missile – usually nuclear tipped. I marked that, four miles away. There would be more than one missile in the bunker. ‘Eagle’ responded instantly with a pencil thin line – invisible had it not been for Saxon – jutting from the heavens and into the earth like a great celestial spear striking its helpless prey.44

The explosion was blinding, even at this distance. A great flash of white, searing the retina with its brightness even at this distance. It rose and spread like a great blotch, an infection of the sky and horizon. It too ate up land and sky, clouds and trees and concrete. Life also fell before its great wave like Daisies in a hurricane.45

80 Megatons of nuclear potential cleansed the entire country of life and fighting spirit. Machines were knocked from the sky as it was obliterated under what could only be divine intervention. The earth boiled and melted beneath everyone.46

Then it washed over Saxon. Unprepared the weapons modules exploded or were seared away before they had time to detonate. Buffeted and thrown backwards Saxon careened through the countryside until it was dumped into the boiling ocean. Peace sinking.47