All the ships look exactly the same on the outside. Likely the interiors would also be the same. There might be a nice open porting spot. It would sure be convenient to port onto a ship whenever we wanted.
As we crept down the passageway, a squad of bugs came charging out of a side room and almost hit us. They were in a hurry to get somewhere. I freaked a little; lost my concentration. We uncloaked. Bugs have fast reflexes. They spun around and drew weapons. I tried to re-cloak us, but couldn’t concentrate.
We ported back to the Monument. A high-pitched siren started wailing, coming from the bug ship. It was over. The bugs started running full speed back to the ship. They moved out fast, seeming happy to get back inside the ship. It was time for us to leave anyway. Other than the cloak walk, the operation took one-minute, forty-seconds. That’s it. And the cloak walk didn’t last very long either.
We ported back to Mr. T’s lab to debrief. And to have some lunch and watch the news feeds. I was overly quiet, thinking of how I froze out there and how I lost cloak. I was angry too. They shouldn’t have ported around without overwatch authorization.
Roll had an interesting observation that pushed through my gloom. He had spent a lot of time reviewing the Bugblast reports. The military operation exploited a bug nest ship sensor blind spot. The blind spot was due to poor design related to the propulsion system. A follow-on report indicated the bugs had rigged a makeshift sensor array to fix the problem. They had pushed out the sensor fix very quickly. Good old Roll noticed the D.C. ship didn’t have the new array.
Roll was sure the bugs were up to something in D.C. He didn’t think they were there to just threaten the government. There was another objective. He thought it must be important if it took precedent over fixing the sensor problem. Mr. T felt the observation was important enough to push the information upline to his superiors along with the pertinent recording evidence. That ship still had the blind spot problem. Roll had a point. When we got a chance, it would be a good idea to check out the area in case they were up to some no-good bug stuff.
Even as Mr. T passed along the lack of a sensor fix on the D.C. bug ship, I dropped back into my funk. Mr. T and Rock shouldn’t have ported to take out that bug squad without giving notice. Not even to save the White House. Who cares about a stupid building? Roll and Para didn’t exactly follow the OPORD either. Grandad was keeping an eye on me.
“Are you okay Sweetie?”
“I am now.”
“You did good today.”
“No one died.”
“A lot of bugs died.”
“They did today.”
I said I was okay, but it wasn’t true; anger pulsed inside me. Anger at myself, at the team. What happened to following the OPORD and not just porting off on a whim? Team cohesion, my foot. Don’t worry, I wasn’t about to let this one pass. In due time I would speak my mind, after a little necessary venting away from the team. It was a terrible operation with lousy group cohesion. My freezing up didn’t help either. That’s what I learned from the op.
In the meantime, I sat quietly, scowling, as we ate and watched the Emergency Broadcast news reports. Well, I didn’t eat, but the others were stuffing down food like it was their last meal.
A report came on with the title, Capital Mall Battle.
It turned out the report didn’t have much to say about the Capital Mall incident, only a brief acknowledgment that a special forces team had taken some action against the bug ship. No helicopters or drones had been allowed in the area. In fact, the entire area was secured, so journalists couldn’t get close to the ship.
It was obvious to anyone in the vicinity of the Capital Mall that a military operation was taking place, with all the gunfire and explosions. There were some respectable distant camera shots but no detailed reporting. Government censorship.
The film footage improved on a later newsvid report, with some good camera work recording the bug ship moving up with the Washington Monument in the background. I really thought they were going to destroy the whole place. But the ship moved off and evidently headed out over the Atlantic. That was a happy sight.
Mr. T received a call and moved to another room for a quick conversation. Roll was shaking his head. He was sure it was the military police giving us warning the house was surrounded and we should come out with our hands up. Next stop, military prison. That sounded about right. We should have been more clear about our intentions for the Capital Mall operation. Mr. T came back, switched channels, and announced we should watch.
As I’m sure you’re aware, for our Emergency Broadcasting Programming entertainment, the authorities allow three or four slightly different news information productions. The same reports eventually cycle through all the channels. This report was different, with an air of excitement.
There was some great footage of a couple of Bad-Ones, the new 6th-gen fighters. They seemed to drop in out of nowhere, just behind a bug nest ship as it moved out over the Atlantic. The caption indicated it was the D.C. ship. There were two flashes and smoking trails as missiles launched and the Bad-Ones peeled off with amazing acceleration.
Mr. T has been tutoring us on munitions. I’ve seen a lot of rocket launch videos. AMRAAM, Sidewinder, Hellfire, hypes, and more. These missiles seemed bigger, as did the actual rocket plume. Then there was a brilliant flash. Looks like they perfected a Goldilocks missile too.
The report said the nest ship had been destroyed. Two Bad-Ones, no air base specifics given, chased down
