breath of relief—only by good fortune had he delayed the AMC from getting more troops to the chamber and tipping the scales their way.
But was he really going to be able to help the FCSF unit trapped inside?
He looked at his watch.
One minute to go …
He pushed the throttles all the way forward—and held on tight.
He’d have his answer soon enough.
The first indication JT had that something was happening was when his knees started to shake.
True, he was in a sticky situation, trapped on the upper level of the huge chamber, with bad guys blocking any route of escape. But he’d been in tight spots before, and his knees never shook.
But they were shaking now.
He turned to Ben, who was holding a position looking down the gantry at the AMC nest just thirty feet away, and said, “Can you feel that?”
Ben thought for a moment, then said, “Is everything shaking?”
JT began to reply … but the words never came out.
The mild vibration suddenly became a rumbling so loud, so powerful, that the massive S4 chamber started moving— physically moving. The gantry began swinging like an amusement park ride, knocking some of the FCSF troopers off their feet.
And then came a gigantic boom!
In that instant, no one could talk, no one could hear, no one could even think about anything but the overwhelming, earsplitting bang—the result of Hunter’s jet rocketing past the huge open door leading into the S4 cavern, breaking the sound barrier at the exact right moment.
Everything in the fantastic chamber went dead. All the colors, all the lights, all the means of communication—all of it just blinked out. This place had run on sound waves to keep it hidden all these years. Creating a sonic boom in such a space was like dropping an A-bomb on it. Thousands of circuits were blown out. Other things exploded just from the massive increase in pressure. Many AMC soldiers and techs on the bottom floor suffered from burst craniums, their screams could be heard even over the titanic roar.
It was the moment the FCSF team had been waiting for.
Ben shouted as loud as he could, “Let’s go!”
Immediately, JT and half the FCSF troopers attacked the AMC soldiers blocking their way out of the underground chamber. Many of the enemy gunmen were on the floor, writhing in pain from the sudden unexpected sonic blast. Though outnumbered, the FCSF troopers quickly overran them in a brief, one-sided firefight, disabled the controls of the big round door, and opened it manually.
Meanwhile, Ben and the other dozen troopers ran forward, guns blazing. Seeing them charge, the frightened and injured AMC soldiers at the far end of the gantry quickly retreated. This allowed the FCSF squad to light and drop the 50-gallon bladder bomb directly over the ray gun.
They didn’t wait for it to explode.
Once they had lifted it over the railing and let it go, Ben just yelled, “Let’s get the hell out of here!”
It was only a matter of luck that the Man Not Zhang survived the bladder bomb explosion.
He’d been at the back of his pod about a minute before, monitoring the security situation across an array of fifty-year-old TV screens. Intruders were inside the walls. They’d slipped in disguised as the lowly AMC privates whose only job was to lead lambs to the slaughter—and those dimwits couldn’t even do that right.
But Procedure 3 had worked. The intruders, identities unknown, were trapped by his forces on the upper level.
Nellis had promised that an underground convoy of reinforcements would arrive at S4 at any time. The numbers would be overwhelming—and the Man Not Zhang had planned to throw waves of AMC soldiers at the intruders until they ran out of ammunition and were eliminated.
He’d been checking the time, anxious for the AMC reinforcements to arrive, when he heard the most horrendous noise. In the next instant, the sonic boom went through S4 with such concussive power, it penetrated his all-black ensemble and ripped some of the
But was he really going to be able to help the FCSF unit trapped inside?
He looked at his watch.
One minute to go …
He pushed the throttles all the way forward—and held on tight.
He’d have his answer soon enough.
The first indication JT had that something was happening was when his knees started to shake.
True, he was in a sticky situation, trapped on the upper level of the huge chamber, with bad guys blocking any route of escape. But he’d been in tight spots before, and his knees never shook.
But they were shaking now.
He turned to Ben, who was holding a position looking down the gantry at the AMC nest just thirty feet away, and said, “Can you feel that?”
Ben thought for a moment, then said, “Is everything shaking?”
JT began to reply … but the words never came out.
The mild vibration suddenly became a rumbling so loud, so powerful, that the massive S4 chamber started moving— physically moving. The gantry began swinging like an amusement park ride, knocking some of the FCSF troopers off their feet.
And then came a gigantic boom!
In that instant, no one could talk, no one could hear, no one could even think about anything but the overwhelming, earsplitting bang—the result of Hunter’s jet rocketing past the huge open door leading into the S4 cavern, breaking the sound barrier at the exact right moment.
Everything in the fantastic chamber went dead. All the colors, all the lights, all the means of communication—all of it just blinked out. This place had run on sound waves to keep it hidden all these years. Creating a sonic boom in such a space was like dropping an A-bomb on it. Thousands of circuits were blown out. Other things exploded just from the massive increase in pressure. Many AMC soldiers and techs on the bottom floor suffered from burst craniums, their screams could be heard even over the titanic roar.
It was the moment the FCSF team had been waiting for.
Ben shouted as loud as he could, “Let’s go!”
Immediately, JT and half the FCSF troopers attacked the AMC soldiers blocking their way out of the underground chamber. Many of the enemy gunmen were on the floor, writhing in pain from the sudden unexpected sonic blast. Though outnumbered, the FCSF troopers quickly overran them in a brief, one-sided firefight, disabled the controls of the big round door, and opened it manually.
Meanwhile, Ben and the other dozen troopers ran forward, guns blazing. Seeing them charge, the frightened and injured AMC soldiers at the far end of the gantry quickly retreated. This allowed the FCSF squad to light and drop the 50-gallon bladder bomb directly over the ray gun.
They didn’t wait for it to explode.
Once they had lifted it over the railing and let it go, Ben just yelled, “Let’s get the hell out of here!”
It was only a matter of luck that the Man Not Zhang survived the bladder bomb explosion.
He’d been at the back of his pod about a minute before, monitoring the security situation across an array of fifty-year-old TV screens. Intruders were inside the walls. They’d slipped in disguised as the lowly AMC privates whose only job was to lead lambs to the slaughter—and those dimwits couldn’t even do that right.
But Procedure 3 had worked. The intruders, identities unknown, were trapped by his forces on the upper level.
Nellis had promised that an underground convoy of reinforcements would arrive at S4 at any time. The numbers would be overwhelming—and the Man Not Zhang had planned to throw waves of AMC soldiers at the intruders until they ran out of ammunition and were eliminated.
He’d been checking the time, anxious for the AMC reinforcements to arrive, when he heard the most horrendous noise. In the next instant, the sonic boom went through S4 with such concussive power, it penetrated his all-black ensemble and ripped some of the
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