Chapter Five
The Mark One graced the skyline of devastation high above a previously thriving city, Budapest was now a wasteland. Troy scanned the ground below for traces of survivors and any clues as to the whereabouts of his new nemesis. Sadness filled every corner of his heart as he tried to imagine what it was like when a wall of fire had engulfed everything including the poor innocent peoples of this city in ruins. As a guide he raised a satellite image of the area before and after the blast just to give an impression of what it had looked like before, there was no way of telling amongst the rubble and debris that used to be ancient landmarks.
Suddenly an alert began to sound on the control panel to his right; he turned ninety degrees to face it and tapped away rapidly.
‘Life signs?’
‘Affirmative, two and very faint underneath heavy debris in the next sector’ the computer replied as it showed a satellite view of the area in question. He banked right and headed for the area now on his screen trying to pinpoint the exact place the life signs were coming from. As the chopper reached its destination he jumped out the side door from its height of nearly one hundred metres, he activated his armour and prepared hi8mself for the carnage below. He landed with a thump crushing boulders below his feet and activated his scanning systems to aid in his search for saveable human life. The intricate sensors of his advanced armour immediately picked up two people trapped under heavy rubble. He ran to the spot where the life signs came from and as he approached he activated x-ray visuals, his view was now black and white and filled with grey motionless skeletons underneath the outline of all kinds of fallen masonry and fixings. He spotted them almost immediately and began to remove the rubble pinning them down.
As he got deeper he reached a giant steel mast and could see the foot of one the victims moving slowly, they realised help was coming and the cries got louder. He scanned the steel obelisk and text popped up on his visor indicating a weight of over thirty tons, he activated maximum power and lifted the massive object out of the way of his targets. Finally he reached them and scanned them for vital signs which indicated both were in need of urgent medical attention. He lifted both survivors from the ruins and ran with them one on each metallic shoulder to the Mark One that had just landed nearby, he knelt down and placed them in slowly. He accessed the Integral Grid and located the nearest hospital while simultaneously lifting the Mark One high into the air, his armour still deactivating.
At last he found a hospital a few miles outside of the city, he dropped the Mark One to ground level where it hovered silently and carried the two young innocents to the door. ‘These people are survivors and must be seen to immediately’ He announced to the hospital demandingly in a believable Hungarian tongue, every agent was educated in all major languages. He returned to the Mark One and lifted it thundering into the dusty sky, as he did the main view screen flashed to another news report.
‘It is thought that the controversial political activist Mohammed Jaffar, also believed to be the head of Akhira, has been assassinated in the Afghan town of Kandahar where Robert Davies is at the scene…’
Troy’s attention locked onto the screen as he tapped in co-ordinates for Kandahar; he knew the story before he heard it.
‘Yes I’m here in Kandahar where it appears Mohammed Jaffar has been assassinated, eyewitnesses say a tall blue ‘monster’ was seen leaving Jaffar’s palace which raises the question, is this the same person or ‘thing’ behind the devastation in Budapest’ The news reporter answered Troy’s fears that Frost had struck again and that he was too late to stop another onslaught. Just as he brought the Mark One up to full speed warning lights filled the inside of the chopper as if it were a Las Vegas skyline, the news report ceased and his screen was filled with a black emptiness. Something tragic had happened. The Mark One levelled off at thirty two thousand Kph and suddenly a satellite image from the Integral Grid re-filled his blank screen; it was Kandahar and it was in ruins. He requested a frontal view on his screen and the computer obliged, all he could see was a blue horizon.
‘Magnify frontal image to show Afghan Airspace, engage the Curvature Compensation System’
Suddenly the image on the screen made him feel as though he were travelling at the speed of light as the vessels high-tech camera zoomed in on the destruction ahead.
A vast mushroom cloud now dominated his view and he asked the computer to scan for any signs of Frost or of his comrades led by agent Miller, he knew they had headed there after the briefing. The Mark One arrived in Kandahar, Troy dropped the helicopter into the flames and dust of the mushroom cloud which had now reached the upper atmosphere, wisps’ of violent cloud filled with electromagnetic energy sparked off the hull and fizzled into smoke as it passed though. The sleek vessel descended to almost ground level, the slim outline of a door appeared in the side of the Mark One and then slid open quickly as Troy activated his armour once again.
‘Take off and land nearby I’ll be back at these co-ordinates in twenty minutes’
Seconds before he landed a halo of blue shimmering light surrounded him, when he hit the floor it sparked violently and the force bounced him back to his feet.
He walked through the rubble and activated the highest level of his sensor program, setting it to scan for the life signs of his comrades. As he walked through the mortar like desert he again felt the same emotions he felt in Budapest. His head-up display constantly flashed indicating life signs everywhere but they were too faint and each one was about to go silent at any moment; the dead and dying. This brought a tear to his eye a tear that the world around him could not see for his armour, he realised his blue protective suit was incapable of showing his emotions and this saddened him even more. Suddenly his head-up display indicated the remnants of the Mark Four had been located, several hundred feet ahead of him. He ran as fast as his armour would carry him to the fallen chopper with visions of Miller and his team picking themselves up in their armour. The view he saw was a far cry from the one in his mind’s eye. He got to the empty shell of the vessel which still had a shine to its outer layer but the inside was a searing charred wreck. The blast had destroyed all its components and only the sleek black shell remained intact, the material the Mark class helicopters were made of was extraterrestrial and virtually indestructible.
‘The access door was still open when the blast hit I’m guessing’ Troy muttered to himself inside his armour as he tried to work out what had happened to his old friends.
As he walked further on he magnified a view of what looked like three silver belts, seemingly untouched by the blast. As he approached he started to realise that they were TCA belts, he looked to the side of them at a pile charred bones and he knew instantly he was looking at his fallen team mates. He knelt down picked up a handful of ash and held it to his chest letting out a mighty robotic roar and throwing it into the wind of the wasteland.
He picked up the belts and ran aggressively to the Mark One, Frost was a wanted man and as he did his thoughts were interrupted by a communication from Sadek.
‘Daryl we’re approaching your location have you found Frost or Miller?’
‘Their dead all three of them and Frost has gone’ Troy responded solemnly as he re-entered the Mark One.
‘What? Could you tell what happened to them Daryl? Did they go after him without the armour activated?’
Sadek was dumbfounded that just one man could take out all three and then destroy a supposedly indestructible helicopter in the process, his heart raged with fury that a city close to his heart now lay in ruins as did its citizens.
‘I found DNA matches near to the armour belts so I’d guess he tricked them somehow, I’ve uploaded all I know to the mainframe I have to find Arrin before he rips this planet apart’ Troy ended the conversation abruptly, fired up the Mark One and belted off towards the apocalyptic looking sun, shrouded by blast clouds with a deep red hue.
The Mark Three headed towards Kandahar at full speed and the wary age
nts inside prepared for anything that Frost had to throw at them. Sadek got up from his command console and walked behind the main pilot seat, he placed his hand on Kym’s shoulders who looked up at him bemused. He looked straight ahead blankly, his heart saddened to the deepest level that one of his team mates could wipe out so many of his own people. All for what?
‘Kandahar has just been wiped from the face of the Earth, Frost has detonated another nucleonic pulse a little larger than the one in Budapest’ Sadek informed the team of what Troy had told him, hearts dropped and faces sank as he let them know of the fate of their colleagues.
‘What the fuck is he playing at? All these singular targets were earmarked for elimination anyway, why kill millions doing it?’ Markov barked from the rear of the helicopter, he had been designed to enter fits of rage for combat purposes, rage that was usually under control but not today.
‘He’s clearly gone crazy’ Sadek tried to give his team some answers but they just weren’t available to him.
‘Let’s see if we can find any survivors, Troy is on Frosts tail I just hope he’s as smart as Thorn thinks he is’ Sadek returned to his console and began the search for survivors
The sun was setting and beams of bright red light shimmered off the hull of the Mark One as it bolted across the horizon with a vast red ocean below.
‘Scan for any signs of the Mark Two attack chopper, anything at all!’ Troy announced to the Mark One computer.
‘I have initiated a high magnitude search of the globe through the integral grid and the onboard sensor systems, however I do not think it will be fruitful, if the Mark Two has activated the anti-tracking system I’m afraid there will be no way of tracking the vessel’
For ten minutes the Mark One thundered across the sky at incredible height and speed, with no indication of the Mark Two’s whereabouts. Suddenly a thought came to Troy’s resourceful mind.
‘Computer request the Grid to conduct a worldwide search for a concentrated area of tachyons, our attack choppers give off tachyons from the pulse emitter when a pulse is fired’ Agent Troy was an extremely capable man in tense situations. With that only minutes later, the Computer of the Mark One announced its results.
‘A high concentration of tachyon particles has been traced to the Himalayan Mountains, the Integral Grid is bringing up an image of the area now’
‘Bingo, you can run brother but you can’t fucking hide. I knew we’d find him, computer take us there full speed’
The Mark One shifted at an incredible pace towards the Himalayas and Troy prepared it for battle. Within minutes the Mark Two could be seen on Troy’s long-range viewer, he slowed to attack speed and prepared to brawl.
‘Computer aim two full power Taser beams just under the rotor blades of the Mark Two and prepare to fire. That’s the only area not protected, it should be easy to damage’ Troy finished as he lowered the Mark One into position. Two green beams of light shot from the Mark One and struck the rotors of its sister vessel so ferociously they ripped off the blades sending them high into the air, Frost seemed to be a sitting duck in the snow filled expanse of the Himalayas. The Mark One shot overhead and began to turn for another pass.
Frost knew he was in trouble as his beloved helicopter shook sending him flying from the central console and onto the floor of the grounded vessel. He got back up and brought all systems back on line as the image of the Mark One filled his screen and saw it was heading for another strike. He activated the stability cons used for high-speed flight and activated the choppers Fusion Drive. Two thick beams of light once again fired from the Mark One as it made its approach, the beams hit the snow where the Mark Two had been a split second before; Frost had bolted off at full speed evading destruction. The Mark One turned sharply and gave chase; its prey was going nowhere now. The rotors of the Mark One retracted as it matched the speed of the pursued and made ready to attack again. Both magnificent helicopters now dodged and dived at high speed each trying to outmanoeuvre the other to no avail. Shots of light fired frantically from each vessel as they ripped up the sky. Suddenly the Mark Two banked left and Troy followed as the G-force warning systems kicked in on both vessels, they activated the Inertial Dampening systems almost simultaneously.
The pursuit stepped up a level as Frost fired a low yield pulse at the Mark One, a ball of shimmering light headed for it at speed and narrowly missed. Frost dipped the front of the Mark Two and dived down toward the Ocean below. Troy regained control and plummeted after his nemesis as the Mark Two entered the water. Both glided gracefully through the ocean at close to the speed of sound ducking and diving around the great canyons and volcanoes of the Mariana’s Trench. Eventually the Mark Two shot gracefully out from the beautiful blue ocean like a great white shark breaking water. As they regained height, Frost activated an evasion manoeuvre and his chopper banked sharply to and fro, avoiding the Taser beams coming from the Mark One. Whist the computer controlled the Mark Two; Frost charged the Fusion Drive to full capacity and prepared to purge its energy on the unsuspecting Mark One. Suddenly from the exhaust a huge ball of light ejected and hit the Mark One instantly knocking out all major systems. As it fell it shimmered with bolts of plasma and plummeted to the ground at high speed. The Mark Two dramatically lost speed as the Fusion Drive tried to regain power; thought it didn’t matter, the assassin had escaped. Troy’s vessel fell helplessly to the ground as he tried frantically to reactivate the computer systems with no luck. The Mark One slammed into the Brazilian rain forest, crushing trees violently at high speed before embedding deep into the ground.