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    Quantum Troopers Episode 17: Lions Rock
    Quantum Troopers Episode 17: Lions Rock
    Quantum Troopers Episode 17: Lions Rock
    Ebook137 pages2 hours

    Quantum Troopers Episode 17: Lions Rock

    By Philip Bosshardt

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    About this ebook

    Episode 17, Quantum Troopers. Red Hammer has seized control of several UNIFORCE killsats. Millions are threatened and nations scramble to comply with the cartel’s demands. Quantum Corps has to assault the base where the killsats are controlled and put it out of commission, but the only way to do this is from below ground, using a new vehicle called a geoplane. Tests show that the geoplane works but subterranean ops are risky. Follow Lieutenant John Winger and his nanotroopers in the Tectonic Sword mission, as they try to take back control of the killsats, from below ground.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPhilip Bosshardt
    Release dateDec 16, 2016
    ISBN9781370203994
    Quantum Troopers Episode 17: Lions Rock
    Author

    Philip Bosshardt

    Philip Bosshardt is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. He works for a large company that makes products everyone uses...just check out the drinks aisle at your grocery store. He’s been happily married for over 20 years. He’s also a Georgia Tech graduate in Industrial Engineering. He loves water sports in any form and swims 3-4 miles a week in anything resembling water. He and his wife have no children. They do, however, have one terribly spoiled Keeshond dog named Kelsey.For details on his series Tales of the Quantum Corps, visit his blog at qcorpstimes.blogspot.com or his website at http://philbosshardt.wix.com/philip-bosshardt.

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      Book preview

      Quantum Troopers Episode 17 - Philip Bosshardt

      Quantum Troopers

      Episode 17: Lions Rock

      Published by Philip Bosshardt at Smashwords

      Copyright 2016 Philip Bosshardt

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      A few words about this series….

      *** Quantum Troopers is a series of 15,000- 20,000 word episodes detailing the adventures of Johnny Winger and his experiences with the United Nations Quantum Corps.

      *** Each episode will be about 40-50 pages, approximately 20,000 words in length.

      *** A new episode will be available and uploaded every 3 weeks.

      *** There will be 22 episodes. The story will be completely serialized in about 14 months.

      *** Each episode is a stand-alone story but will advance the greater theme and plot of the story arc.

      *** The main plotline: U.N. Quantum Corps must defeat the criminal cartel Red Hammer’s efforts to steal or disable their new nanorobotic ANAD systems.

      *** Uploads will be made to www.smashwords.com on approximately the schedule below:

      Episode # Title Approximate Upload Date

      1 ‘Atomgrabbers’ 1-14-16

      2 ‘Nog School’ 2-8-16

      3 ‘Deeno and Mighty Mite’ 2-29-16

      4 ‘ANAD’ 3-21-16

      5 ‘Table Top Mountain’ 4-11-16

      6 ‘I, Lieutenant John Winger…’ 5-2-16

      7 ‘Hong Chui’ 5-23-16

      8 ‘Doc Barnes’ 6-13-16

      9 ‘Demonios of Via Verde’ 7-5-16

      10 ‘The Big Bang’ 7-25-16

      11 ‘Engebbe’ 8-15-16

      12 ‘The Symbiosis Project’ 9-5-16

      13 ‘Small is All!’ 9-26-16

      14 ‘’The HNRIV Factor’ 10-17-16

      15 ‘A Black Hole’ 11-7-16

      16 ‘ANAD on Ice’ 11-29-16

      17 ‘Lions Rock’ 12-19-16

      18 ‘Geoplanes’ 1-9-17

      19 ‘Mount Kipwezi’ 1-30-17

      20 ‘Doc II’ 2-20-17

      21 ‘Paryang Monastery’ 3-13-17

      22 ‘Epilogue’ 4-3-17

      Chapter 1

      Buried

      U.N. Quantum Corps Base

      Table Top, Idaho, USA

      July 20, 2049

      1630 hours U.T.

      Major Jurgen Kraft, with a glance toward Johnny Winger, spoke up. General, we’ve engaged Red Hammer several times, with mixed results. He pressed a few buttons on his control pad and SOFIE brought up 3-D imagery of the Red Hammer nanobot, at maximum resolution. As you can see, the bugger’s studded with effectors. It’s big as a battleship and well armored. It’s able to maneuver surprisingly fast for its size and it can grow and swap effectors with great speed…Lieutenant Winger here has reported it’s hard for ANAD to keep up. And the enemy’s new pulser makes it even harder…especially to hold any battle configuration.

      It has one known weak spot, General, Winger added, taking his cue from the Major. Amidships, there’s some kind of cavity or cleft that opens through some phosphate clusters right through the outer membrane groups to the bot’s innards. If you can get by the grabbers and carbenes and radicals around the site, you can do a lot of damage inside. But getting inside…that’s the trick.

      General Wolfus Linx was growing frustrated. ANAD has recently been regenerated, has it not? You had to do a quantum collapse in your last engagement?

      That’s correct, sir, Kraft said. At Lake Vostok, in the Antarctic. We were being jammed…quantum interference with the swarm made it a bitch to control. The pulser waves kept messing up ANAD’s config. The only way Winger could escape was to leave him behind. We lost that one completely. The regenerated master now has changes that should make it more effective at engaging the enemy.

      Let’s hope so, Linx said. Now the biggest question is how to take down Lions Rock. I’ve studied your after-action reports. It’s a safe bet the place is thick with defenses, if not worse, now that we’ve already stirred them up.

      Gabrielle Galland spoke up. General, Lieutenant Winger and I have been studying that problem. We have a tactical plan we think might work.

      Linx nodded for her to proceed. With Kraft’s help, she hooked up to SOFIE to create a sim of her idea.

      A few months ago, at Kurabantu Island, sir, 1st Nano was faced with a similar problem: an underwater complex, where Dana Tallant was being held along with her CC2, Sergeant Collin, by Red Hammer. The complex was built into the side of an underwater escarpment and it was well defended from most approaches. Lieutenant Winger here used ANAD to bore a small tunnel from outside the swarm zone and assault the compound from inside the mountain, from a direction the enemy never expected. A small rescue force was able to achieve complete tactical surprise.

      Linx was intrigued. Go on.

      Well, sir, both Lieutenant Winger and myself believe the same tactic would be effective against the Lions Rock base. An assault from below ground, starting from a point well outside Chinese territory.

      Linx altered the map to show the area in greater detail. I scanned your reports from the Kurabantu operation on the trip over from Paris. ANAD is capable of tunneling fast enough to create an assault route?

      With some tweaking and adjusting, Winger replied. More than capable, sir. Doc II has helped us optimize his effectors and propulsors to make such operations work even better—

      ANAD’s processor has been upgraded. Doc II here has been tinkering under the hood again.

      Linx glanced in the direction of the swarm, now gathered in a corner of Kraft’s office, its shadowy outline vaguely resembling Dr. Irwin Frost. The swarm brightened and drifted forward.

      ***I’ve taken steps to streamline the logic in ANAD’s central processor. After the Kurabantu mission, Lieutenant Winger asked me to speed up his molecular manipulation and sorting speeds…I’ve done that and tested it. ANAD now can break down solid phase structures at speeds orders of magnitude faster than before.***

      Sir, if I may—Galland cut in. She laid out the tactical plan she and Winger had developed in the commissary that morning. An underground assault offers several advantages. We gain tactical surprise…I doubt they’ll be expecting an assault force to pop up right at their front door, from below ground. And, as with the Kurabantu complex, it’s more likely that Red Hammer defenses will be minimal to nonexistent along this axis. So far as we know, they have no real knowledge that ANAD can do this kind of tunneling.

      Linx studied the maps. SOFIE annotated the views with additional data, depicting surface conditions, cities, topographic relief, even layering the diagrams with underground rock strata.

      It’s a long distance to go underground, Lieutenant. We’re looking at…what?...several kilometers of tunnel, through hard shale rock, if I’m reading the diagrams right. Can ANAD create a tunnel of that length, sturdy enough for an assault force to transit in a reasonable time?

      General Linx, sir— it was Taj Singh. Begging the General’s pardon, sir, but Sergeant Barnes and I have been working on that very detail. He approached the console. May I, sir?

      Linx relinquished control of SOFIE and 1st Nano’s CQE1 took over the sim tank, pressing buttons to bring up a 3-D image of a strange-looking cylindrical craft with a large parabolic horn at its nose. Sergeant Barnes and I started working on this idea after the Detachment got back from Lions Rock. Let me assure you, sir, I don’t have any great desire to go climbing through narrow tunnels underground any more than necessary.

      Barnes picked up the story. "What you’re looking at is a new vehicle for transporting troops underground. We call it a geoplane. We’ve nicknamed this one Gopher."

      "Gopher is designed to use ANAD boring and tunneling capabilities… he put a laser pointer spot on the parabolic nose …to create a path underground, to ferry troops and supplies covertly from one point to another. As you can see, the borer module up front uses ANAD swarms to create a path…a tunnel, if you like, using high-speed molecular disassembly. Gopher is propelled by her treads on these six ring tracks spaced around her circumference, through the tunnel created by the ANAD borer. She can carry a full squad of troopers, plus supplies, weapons, and munitions of any type."

      Kraft was both impressed and a bit skeptical that a pair of noncom CQEs could think up such an idea. What drives it, Sergeant? What’s the power source?

      Singh cleared his throat while Barnes licked her lips. She knew they hadn’t brought the idea to Kraft for review before springing it at the staff meeting. The Major didn’t like surprises, especially when he couldn’t take some of the credit.

      "We’re figuring a hybrid power source…fuel cells and batteries. Nuclear’s too heavy; the shielding alone would make Gopher too cumbersome. Fuel cells are light and compact now. Sergeant Barnes here has even figured out a way to capture some of the energy that ANAD releases when he breaks atomic bonds in disassembly."

      Linx nodded to Kraft. Your people have done good work here, Major. Top notch work.

      Kraft smiled a hesitant smile. Yes, sir. I always encourage initiative in my staff.

      I assume this is just a design. How long before we can have an operational vehicle?

      Taj checked with Barnes.

      "General…let me run the sim of Gopher in operation while the Sergeant and I do some figuring."

      Proceed.

      Singh toggled some switches and the 3-D image of the tiny geoplane whirred to life. As the sim advanced, the geoplane approached a steep mountain and its front end borer grew white hot. The craft nosed down at the base of the mountain and plunged below ground. But below the mountain, the strata of rock had been stripped away to reveal Gopher busily at work, like a carpenter bee, pushing its way deeper and deeper into the simulated crust.

      As the sim proceeded, Linx, Kraft and the rest watched Gopher chewing its way through a series of maneuvers…first descending, then climbing and turning, its circumferential treads propelling it steadily along tunnels created by its ANAD borer. Mounted on a parabolic horn at the nose

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