Mercenary Black Mamba

At the underground space of the Green Camp, Ngpanwaza Valley, Mambasa.

"Fuck! There is no radioactive reaction!"

Major Hummer threw away the Geiger counter he held and plopped down. The Combat Intelligence room was a mess. The intelligence analysis team was yelling that the satellite phone was unresponsive.

Seven minutes had passed since the system shut down. The monitor linked with the Dragon Lady, the monitor receiving information from the Black Bird, the monitor receiving information from the recon satellites, the monitor connected to Bunker Hill's CIC, and the large screen receiving information from the GPS satellite, were all shut down at once.

As usual with any systemic problems, the cause was unrevealed and angry voices clamored. Due to the satellite communication being unresponsive, the Green Camp became the Galapagos of the Ituri jungle.

Hummer glared at the monitor filled with noise as if that was going to solve the issue. The buzzing static sounded like an auditory hallucination and the diffracted flashes of light dazzled him.

The Combat Intelligence system was surrounded by many layers of firewall and had a bypass and a backup system. Unless there was a fifth-degree solar flare or an atomic bomb exploding in proximity, it was not going to be shut down. These days, the solar flares were stable and there was no residual radiation. The situation was maddening.

"The piled-up human sins have brought forth an apocalypse. The angel transformed into a gigantic bird, Moroni, descended from the heavens to punish the humans that became beasts."

"Shut up, stupid!"

Hummer glared at First Lieutenant Norfaulk who was praying. His head was already like a mattress chewed up by a beagle. The shutdown of the combat system didn't only result in simple disconnection in the flow of information. The Agrippina shield was now inactive and the surveillance system was inactive too.

If a flying UMA or Black Mamba ambushed them, they would have no choice but to be decimated. Hu was in a deep hurry and this Mormon was babbling about aliens and hellish America, making him want to blow up his head.

"Director, it's Langley."

An agent handed him the emergency phone. It was the landline that was never used.

"Major Hummer here."

Hummer's face paled. His hand holding the receiver trembled.

"That can't be!"

The receiver he held dropped onto the floor. Low-orbit satellites were all said to be eliminated. Did all the 100,000 asteroids wandering in the Kuiper Belt descend upon the Earth at once? He looked back at First Lieutenant Norfaulk. The devout Mormon was still muttering.

The door opened as if it was smashed.

"Hummer, what happened?"

Brigadier General Dyson in his pajamas ran into the room.

"The Black Eye, the Dragon Lady, Blackbird, Keyhole, Pegasus, Poseidon, and Darvish are all eliminated."

Hummer pointed at the ceiling with his finger.

"All of them?" Dyson asked, not understanding what he meant.

"Yes, all of them. According to the Clark control center and Langley analysis team, all the satellites above our heads and space trash disappeared."

"Did Russians shoot up a hydrogen bomb there?"

Dyson's mouth was open agape in awe.

"That's preposterous. The polar bears can only float some tin cans there. How can they ever shoot hundreds of atomic missiles 1,000 kilometers above the ground? Their satellites are all gone too. The United States of America and the Soviet Union are now deaf and blind."

"I don't know what caused it but it's fair. The pigs at Los Alamos must be feeling defeated. It was ridiculous to see them whine, asking for 1,000,000,000 dollars in space debris treatment budget."

Dyson regained his composure. It was no use to regret. The recon aircraft still numbered dozens. If they hauled satellites from the other side of the planet, they could avoid a blackout. With a shadow, the light came. The talkative parliament would be silenced and the military industry and banks that belonged to the Freemasonry could benefit greatly from it.

"Los Alamos isn't a problem. The White House, the NSA, and the CIA are all shaken up."

"Now is not the time for this."

Dyson hurriedly ran out of the combat intelligence room. There was one being that could commit a planetary catastrophe like this. It was the Garuda.

"Mr. Lamartin! Dyson here."

"What's up?"

The diamond parrot spoke through its beak.

"All the satellites and recon aircraft above Africa and the Atlantic have been swept away. It must be the Baphomet."

"There was a great shift in energy. Was it not the gravitational wave?"

"We have no means to track it down."

Lamartin and Dyson referred to it as "it" but it was clearly the Baphomet they were talking about.

"We don't need to track it down. The Baphomet's ego is just like a human's bestial ego. The disgruntled must have commenced its attack. When male lions fight, they claw each other's eyes and bite each other's front paws. The Baphomet must be planning to deafen and blind us and cut off our limbs. Call Davis. Deploy the satellite immediately and we must be prepared to defend."

"Please explain the priority."

"First deploy it over the Predator, then to the fleet docked in Dar es Salaam and finally to the camp then to Rwenzori."

"What about the White House?"

"Don't be stupid! Why would the Baphomet hit Reagan?"

The diamond parrot glared.

"I apologize."

Dyson bowed.

"The flying Baphomet was impervious to Verriere's cavitation. With mere missiles and cannons, we will not be able to make one scratch. Activate the Predators, immediately deploy the MLRS's, and use nuclear bombs when you need to. Black Mamba must be treated the same. There is no time."

The diamond parrot closed its eyes.

"Come quick. I didn't know you last time. This time, I will not let you go."

Sticky laughter streamed from the thick darkness.

* * *

Black Mamba was watching the universe with the most comfortable pose in the universe. Gorbachev and Reagan could make a fuss all they wanted. He didn't care.

"That's great!" he exclaimed.

The vast universe was in front of his eyes. The night sky in Jipeun-dari, over the Sahara, and the Ituri jungle didn't compare to this.

The universe had no boundaries. Even if the Garuda exerted its maximum speed, it would take 30,000 years for it to escape the Solar System. That was if it ignored the laws of physics and made a beeline for the outer perimeter. This was sufficient to throw one into epistemological doubt.

Humans were such petty beings swarming on a small planet called the Earth. He missed his study at Eungsim-je. All he wanted was to take care of his mother in the traditional tiled Korean house and put some bowls of rice and doenjangjjigae on the nickel silver short-legged table.

For what was he flying across the sky with his teeth gritted? For whom was he trying to ring the bell? He ended up as a world-ender in his endeavor to benefit the world.

In the course of his life, he ended up as an asura and neglected the comfortable ease of life. When he resolved an issue, there came another. His teacher was right. A peaceful life was a hundred times more difficult to achieve than a successful life.

"We are here! Time elapsed: 23 minutes, five seconds, 25."

The Garuda awoke him from his musings.

"Wow!"

He was at Eungsim-je, not space 100 kilometers above the ground. The bookshelves fill up an entire wall. A folding screen gifted to him by Bonipas was conspicuous against the background. On one wall was attached the cuckoo clock that was a housewarming gift. Was it a manifested mental image? Was it augmented reality? The technology of the Concretus never ceased to amaze him.

"Mach 30! Is it the max speed?"

He was doubtful. With the science of the Concretus, they could travel back and forth to the Solar System as if it were their lawn. With the speed that took 10 hours to get to the moon, it was difficult to escape the Solar System alone.

"Chicken, what will you look like after the fourth transformation?"

"The space-time around me will be different."

"All right. What conditions must be met?"

"There is no data. I will know after it happens."

"What good is knowing the conditions after awakening? Go down!" Black Mamba yelled.

Chicken indeed was a bird with a bird brain.

Twenty-five thousand meters above Groom Lake. They could see the airbase built on a barren mountainous basin and an empty desert. In contrast to what was commonly known, the Groom Lake airbase was a supportive facility to Area 51 and was not located within Area 51 itself. According to the intel of the DGSE, Area 51 was an oval desert with a surface area of approximately 50 kilometers situated above the airbase.

"Enlarge!"

The ground landscape was zoomed in. The ground was bustling with activities. Five Galaxies with their nose cones raised. Thirty Hercules with their rear ramps opened. The large containers and linear vehicles crawled out in a line from the building's entrance. Trucks and trailers busily alternated between the airstrip and the desert.

"We are here on time."

Mu Ssang smirked. Without looking, he knew that the nervous Freemasonry was deploying Predators en masse to defend against the Garuda and his offensive and attack Novatopia in turn. By now, they would have figured out the relationship between him and Novatopia.

"Chicken, can you see through the underground facilities?"

In Area 51, the on-ground facilities included an anti-aircraft radar base, a missile range, guard barracks, and add-ons. The laboratory and the important facilities were 200 to 500 meters underground.

"We need to descend 2,000 meters."

The Garuda fell vertically with a swoosh. The anti-aircraft radars installed here and there in Area 51 were not considered. The force-field plasma absorbed radio waves and converted them to thermal energy. The micro-lattice outer hide absorbed the covered thermal energy, so the current-use radars and thermal imaging equipment were useless against it.

"What are they doing?"

The trailers withdrew at once. The Galaxies lowered the raised nose cones and the Hercules raised the rear ramp. The elevator openings exposed on the ground disappeared. Linear cars hauled Galaxies and Herculeses onto the landing strip like a swarm of bees.

The radar base north of the desert increased its output. The on-ground artillery shed their camouflage at once. Missile launchers revealed themselves from underground one by one. The Groom Lake base also activated its anti-aircraft radar and the fighter jets on the apron were moved to the airstrip.

"Someone is capable of clairvoyance here!"

Freemasonry had various kinds of ESPers. There could be someone who could see through camouflage. The small anti-aircraft firearms including the Vulcan cannons opened fire.

"Chicken, scorch the surface just a bit."

Black Mamba sounded worried. There was the San Andreas Fault on the western shore 400 meters away from Area 51. If the photon cannon touched the unstable fault, a great catastrophe would collapse on San Francisco and Los Angeles. No one knew what happened beneath the surface of Earth. He didn't want to repeat the catastrophe of the Bachilkile Valley.

"All right. I'm just scorching the surface."

Garuda soared to an altitude of 10,000 meters.

"Wide-range Massacre Mode Activated."

The fusion reactor raised its output. With a buzzing sound, the three horns were suddenly covered in sparks. The atmosphere gave way to the high-temperature and high-pressure plasma. With the energy maxed out, the stealth mode and four-dimensional distortion field were deactivated.

As if waiting for the moment, the Patriot (MIM-104B) ranging on the ground launched their missiles. The four ranges unleashed 16 missiles at once. The variable-time-fuse warheads exploded in a disarray.

Thousands of shrapnel struck the body of the Garuda. The 12 Hawks who received the coordinates late struck its body directly. Garuda was engulfed in flames.

"They are quite cumbersome. I will strike just once."

A flash of light shone 10,000 meters above the ground. The 50-meter photon cannon expanded like a funnel. The flash of light covered the ground 10,000 meters around. The sky was whitewashed and the ground shook.

A 10,000-degree extreme-temperature laser swept across the radar bases and cannons. The objects on the ground near the center of the explosion were disintegrated to a molecular level. The center of the explosion became a void in an instant. The 300-meter storm raged toward the center of the explosion. The facilities, aircraft, and vehicles four kilometers around were torn to pieces that swirled around like willow leaves in the wind.

"One more blow to the opening!"

The second photon canon scorched the ground. The surface soil was blown away. The flash of light and heat waves left nothing on their path. The boiling bedrock was making a hellscape.

The Groom Lake base didn't fare better. The open space allowed it to avoid a resonance explosion but the tornado of thousands of degrees battered the fighter jets and helicopters on the airstrip as if they were made of flour. The rear control tower collapsed and the dozens of fighter jets and supportive aircraft nearby scattered.

"A fly survived. Should I strike it?"

"Of course."

The third beam from the photon cannon struck the underground shelter behind the control tower. The F-16s and F-15s pulling out of the shelter exploded. The six fighter jets were vaporized. The flash of light erased the living quarters of the airport guards and apron and hangar and the anti-aircraft ranges.

A firestorm engulfed the jet fuel tanks. The lined-up tanks exploded at once. The ground shook with a boom. The emergency wartime jet fuel caught fire. The 150,000 tons of jet gasoline exploded in flames.

As if a volcano erupted, flames and dark smoke soared to an altitude of 15,000 meters. The surviving structures were engulfed in a tsunami of flames. The on-ground facilities of Area 51, a 752 fleet that provided supporting fire, and the squad of guards were eliminated at once.