Chapter 38: Overland Rush

The assault convoy followed the access roads until they reached paved roads, then headed right for the gate. They met with little resistance, and the lead vehicles took out the sparse enemies easily with their roof turrets.

"Too damn easy," Chris growled as they led the charge.

"I agree," Emmy said.

"Wish we could see ahead," Sanchez muttered from the back compartment, swinging his holographic turret interface in a circle. "These damn trees block everything."

Chris tapped the steering wheel. "Can't get any top cover. That damn cloud makes flight impossible. Hold on a sec... Oh shit!" He slammed on the brakes, throwing the occupants forward against their harnesses. The heavy vehicle shuddered to a stop just a few feet from a glowing force field wall that had been invisible seconds before. Behind them, the convoy screeched to a halt.

"I think this explains why there is so little activity out here," Emmy commented, craning her neck to look out the side window. "It just keeps going as far as I can see in the trees."

Energy crackled across the surface of the wall, and while they watched, a bird flew into it. There was a sizzling pop and a tiny singed corpse fell to the ground in a shower of feathers.

Chris got on his ARHUD headset. "Command, we've got a problem."

***

"I do not sense any particular magic at work," Celestia said. "Could these armored trucks of yours pass through unscathed?"

"I don't think we can penetrate it in these vehicles," Jeff said, tapping his chin.

Dr. Hardy looked at a his scanning equipment. The Overwatch had an array of advanced sensors, and he had been running through them all, trying to figure out a way past the barrier. "We most certainly cannot. Even if we were unfortunate enough to push through the field, it would instantly turn our equipment, and us, into a plasma discharge explosion. But I have noticed something of interest about the force field."

"Enlighten me."

Dr. Hardy tapped a console, and brought up a holographic sine wave pattern. "See this? This is the EM frequency I'm getting from that wall."

Jeff scowled. "Yeah, okay, why is this interesting?"

"Because it's running at exactly sixty hertz."

"I'm going to squeeze your neck for you if you don't stop looking at me expectantly every time you say something incomplete."

Dr. Hardy rolled his eyes. "Fine. In pleb terms, sixty hertz is the United States power grid standard frequency for alternating current, which is exactly the same frequency we use for our power here. I believe that wall is being powered by the ProteC generator on this island."

Jeff narrowed his eyes. "I see. Can you overlay a facility schematic on the map?"

Dr. Hardy pulled up the diagram and highlighted the location of the power plant, several miles away.

"Since we don't know where this energy barrier is tied in at, it would be best to hit up the power plant control station and cut the power at the source," Jeff said. He got on his headset commlink. "Chris. New orders for your team. I'm sending coordinates to your GPS."

***

"The geothermal plant? Understood. We're on our way." Chris reversed the armored truck, then swung it in a circle and headed back the way they had come, edging past some of the convoy and then gunning it down a side road.

"Just us? What about all these other assholes?" McAllister gestured at the armored vehicles behind them.

"They want to be able to head in full force the moment we get the barrier down," Christ replied. "They aren't expecting much resistance as this facility is off the beaten path. But the moment that barrier drops, Shub-Niggurath is gonna know it. They don't want to wait around." He accelerated down the road, which had no sign of any enemies on it whatsoever.

"Be careful coming up on the facility," Emmy cautioned. "I would not be surprised if it was protected by a force field as well."

"Roger that."

The road remained clear up until they approached the plant several minutes later. Chris steered down the road, looking for anything unusual. Sanchez swiveled the turret around, scanning the jungle. Emmy leaned back in her seat, eyes almost completely closed, the crystal glowing faintly in front of her.

Suddenly her eyes popped open in terror. "CHRIS!" she yelled, her horn shining powerfully as she poured magic into the crystal defense field, then the ground erupted into a shock wave of fire, dirt, and flying rocks. The explosion rocked the rear of the APC into the air, hurling the occupants against their restraints like rag dolls. Emmy's mounted crystal shattered into a million pieces, overloaded by the intensity of the blast. To the sides, trees and plants flattened in an expanding circular spray of splinters and shredded fragments. Alarms squawked and red lights appeared on the dashboard as the heavy vehicle teetered on end, then it fell back and slammed onto the ground with a screech of tortured metal. Steam drifted up from the destroyed engine, and automated fire suppression systems triggered around the exterior of the vehicle, momentarily concealing it in a cloud of dry chemical.

For a while, the only sound inside the vehicle was warning buzzers and electrical equipment sparking.

Chris groaned. "Is everyone okay?" he coughed out, fumblingly unbuckling his seat belt. "Emmy? Emmy!"

She hung limp in her harness, eyes closed, head on her chest.

"No!" Chris's buckle let go, and he dragged himself out of his seat, reaching for her. "Emmy!"

She stirred at his touch. "Ugh. I'm okay. What happened?"

"Thank God," Chris gasped. He heard groaning in the back, and saw Marky pulling at his harness as well.

Marky wheezed. "Dude, next time you drive over a speed bump that fast, give some warning, okay?" He looked around. "Is everyone else alive?"

"I think I'm dead," McAllister said, choking.

"What's wrong?" Chris called back, worried.

"I was trying to drink when that shit happened. The water went down the wrong way."

"Whatever dude," Sanchez snarled. "Ask what happened to the bottle you were drinking from."

"What?"

"It hit me in the face, damn it."

McAllister chuckled, then started coughing again. "Now what?"

"Now get me the hell out of this chair. The belt is stuck."

After several seconds of jerking on Sanchez's belt, Marky moved closer. "Lean back. I'll cut it." A circular saw blade slid telekinetically out of one of his pouches, and he put his arm across Sanchez's chest, forcing him back in the seat. "Push your belt away from your body as far as you can."

Sanchez complied, and there was a slight whirring sound as Marky spun the disk at high speed, chewing through the nylon straps in seconds. "Thanks," he said as they fell away.

The blade disappeared back into Marky's gear. "Don't mention it." He pricked his long ears forward. "Chris? What are we doing?"

"Well we aren't going any further in this. I can see pieces of the suspension sticking out from here. We'll have to continue on foot. Sanchez, do you see anything?"

"Nothing. That explosion knocked out the roof turret power."

"Well, I guess there's nothing for it. I'm going to have to take a look." Chris hit the release button on his door, and it hissed open. He held his pistol ready as he put a boot on the step and swung himself out of the armored vehicle.

Almost instantly something flashed upwards at him from the ground, a thick snake body with a circular mouth full of spinning teeth at least twelve inches across.

He fired directly into the mouth as fast as he could pull the trigger. Blood sprayed, and it fell to the ground screeching in pain. Chris fired twice more and it lay still.

"What the hell was that!?" McAllister called from inside.

"I have no idea what it was," Chris replied. "But it's plant food now." He scanned the ground, then climbed off the truck, taking a quick glance underneath it. They were resting on edge of a sizable crater, both the front and rear wheels completely gone, as well as the engine. The only thing left of the truck was the passenger compartment, designed to protect the occupants from explosions. Even so, the power of the detonation had been incredible.

"Wow. I'm pretty sure we'd be dead if it wasn't for your magic, Emmy." Chris commented. He swung his rifle around to his chest, holding it low and ready. Keeping his back to the vehicle, he holstered his pistol and scanned the area for more enemies. "Looks clear. But it also looked clear a minute ago when I opened the door, and there was Screamin' Meemie just waiting for me." He poked the dead snake monster with his toe. "And it's hard to see with all the foliage out here around the road."

McAllister swung down next to him, then he helped Emmy out.

"Ugh. Can't see a thing through all these plants," McAllister said.

"What you didn't believe me when I said it? Try using the tactical detection system."

"Yeah, good idea."

"The what?" Marky asked.

"Object recognition ARHUD software. It uses the built-in cameras and sensors on your ARHUD to find patterns in chaotic environments that the naked eye has trouble seeing, and enhance the image. Here, let me show you."

Marky's field of view suddenly showed the white outlines of birds and other animals right through the bushes. He looked around in amazement.

"Wow. This is really cool. Do the colors mean something?"

"Green is harmless wildlife, white is unknown, yellow is potentially dangerous wildlife, and red is high likelihood of hostile contact."

"Oh you don't say?" said Marky calmly. In a flash he whipped his rifle up and fired a blast into a nearby tree. A three foot bundle of tentacles underneath a chitinous shell fell off the tree with a squelching sound and rolled around on its back, kicking feebly. As it died, the green shell changed to a vomit yellow color. "That one was a red. I would suggest everyone put their detection systems on right now. By the way, how does the system know what's hostile? I've never seen a thing like this before."

Chris looked at the ugly creature. "The software records the characteristics of each creature, as well as it's actions. If one of these has attacked any of our groups, the software will paint all future encounters as red." He looked closer at the monster. "Even better. This thing has adaptive camouflage."

"What?" Emmy asked.

"It's a chameleon," Sanchez explained. "It can change the color of it's shell to match the environment."

"How very unpleasant."

"Yeah, and if this one can do it, who knows what else is waiting out there."

"Well let's go kick their ass and find out," Chris said cheerfully. "Oh and by the way, the tactical detection software is a bit buggy at times. Please don't shoot anything human just because it paints one of us as red okay?"

"Seriously?" Marky put a hoof on his face. "This is reminding me more and more of my old job."

"Just be careful alright? There's a lot of money put into this technology, but you know, always room for improvement. I'm sure our adventure out here will assist greatly in improving the reliability of the software, anyway." Chris paused a moment to adjust his headset. "Command?"

He was greeted by silence. Then he noticed the text icon blinking in his ARHUD.

• Jeffrey Peterson: What the hell is going on there? Are you alive?
  
• Christopher Lance: Hang on a moment. Rebooting the voice link module.

He ran a soft reset, then spoke into the ARHUD again. "You there, Jeff?"

"Yeah. What happened? Your truck just went red."

"Well, it kinda got blown up. We're all intact though, and close enough to our destination to continue the mission."

"Damn. What got you?"

"Don't know. Something under the road, highly explosive. Emmy kept us alive. Hang on a sec."

Chris looked back. "Hey, Emmy? How did you know what was happening?"

"The crystal amplified all my abilities. I felt something in the dirt below the road, whatever it was. An organic weapon. Some kind of giant worm maybe? It had burrowed underneath and was waiting for us to drive over it so it could take us out."

"I see." He spoke to Jeff again. "Have your lead Equestrians be on the lookout for explosive worm things under the ground. Tell them to use their magic to find them."

"Understood, Celestia is passing it on now. I see your location updated on the map now. There's an access tunnel nearby. I'll give you directions."

"Roger." Chris spoke to his squad. "Saddle up team, we're gonna hoof it."