Tesla by Jason Walker (an ebook reader txt) 📕

light that was flashing in the hallways. Suddenly, everyone had to secure their hatches and make sure all rooms were air tight and secure.

Up on the bridge, the commander only had seconds before incoming missiles would hit his ship. He could see through one of the windows on the bridge that Agent Carpenter’s helicopter, still on the top deck, was at risk of being destroyed. The commander and the executive officer watched as the machine guns started shooting up streams of lead into the sky after their automatic response was activated. Soon, the tracer rounds illuminated the sky in a massive volume.

“It looked like a red light sabre being activated by a Jedi knight,” said the executive officer. The commander agreed as they watched the sky in front of them. They could see the exhaust trail from the incoming missiles.

“Prepare for impact!” yelled the commander as he watched one of the incoming missiles explode after being hit with machine gun fire.

One of the missiles had managed to get through their defensive barrage though.

Brrrrrrrr. The sounds of the gunfire shocked everyone on board, but what came next was an enormous compression wave as the second missile blew up over the top of the ship. It detonated above them but without an explosive warhead.

Instead, all electronic equipment on the vessel suddenly went offline. They were dead in the water. All the lights went off, and battery power appeared to not be working either. Commander Alderson realized he’d just been hit by an EMP.

“We’re in deep shit, people. We’re going to have to reach out for assistance. Try to hail someone Corporal Williams,” the commander ordered.

Corporal Williams was sitting directly in front of his radio when he heard the commanding officer bark his orders.

“Right away, sir,” he responded. Several moments later , after several attempts at external radio comms, Williams realized that no messages could be sent or received.

“Sir, we don’t have comms. They’ve fried our systems.”

In the platoon room that they’d been rushed to, Darren realized what had just happened, and it made him think quick about being responsible for his mission, which was to keep artifacts and people safe, and that made him rise to action.

“The ship’s dead, folks. That was an EMP! We’ve got to get to the chopper!” he ordered.

Mathews quickly got his security team to go back to the Chinook. They got through several locked hatches and then hastily boarded their bird. When they got inside it, they took out their heavy weapons that they had stored on board in case of problems with artillery or tanks, never expecting they’d need them to shoot at an Iranian warship.

No doubt, the Iranians figured that they would take the ship hostage, but as they approached to collect their prize, Darren’s men started firing their 84mm Carl Gustav. They had six rounds available and used every one. Each one that hit the Iranians’ boat was an anti-tank round, so they were able to inflict serious damage to the hull of the ship.

The Iranian vessel, which was only half a mile away, was closing in fast. That was until the rounds from the Carl Gustav hit its magazine. It blew up like a bad fireworks explosion, killing all hands and cracking the seventy-five-foot ship in half.

Darren’s team felt relieved, but they knew that in a short amount of time, the Iranian Air force would be there to take them out. On the ship, they weren’t able to get the engines online, though Commander Alderson was doing all that he could to make it so.

The live exchange between the two vessels and the Chinook caught the attention of the US Navy aircraft carrier that was patrolling the Persian gulf nearby. The commander of the aircraft carrier, Commander Steele, dispatched two fighters to investigate who owned the mysterious helicopter landing ship. After the fighters circled over the scene, they reported back to the US Navy carrier that an unidentified vessel had completely destroyed an Iranian navy war ship. They had no idea who owned it. No markings anywhere—completely black.

Knowing the potential for bad press for the US, the fighters were told to patrol the area while the Navy commander dispatched a call to a US Navy frigate a few hundred miles away from where the incident was unravelling.

Up in the air, one of the US fighter pilots passed his co-pilot the coordinates of enemy planes inbound approximately sixty miles northwest, travelling at Mach 3. They would be closing within missile range in T -40s. The pilots of the US jet called back to the Navy carrier, reporting that Iranian MiGs were in-bound. The pilots requested permission to engage if threatened.

From that moment on things went asunder for the CIA ghost vessel. Commander Alderson was still unable to get his ship operational and was worried that he would lose it.

“We’re just sitting ducks out here. We need to get moving. Find some batteries that didn’t get fried—now!” Commander Alderson ordered.

Executive Officer Smith left the bridge in search of his orders. If he could find some batteries that hadn’t been damaged, then they could get the ship’s electric generator online.

Meanwhile, when Commander Steele on the US aircraft carrier heard that his pilots were under attack, he ordered the launch of more planes to assist in what was quickly becoming an international incident. Darren watched the activities in the sky above him in awe, witnessing both an American and an Iranian plane explode.

Seeing events escalating, Darren decided right then that they needed to get off the ship, in any way possible since they had poached artifacts with them of high value. He had to get his handler, Anna, and the dead ETs off the ship asap, so he banged his fist on the hatch door closest to where he was compartmentalized. Shoving aside the sailor, who opened the hatch, he set out to retrieve the pilots of the Chinook, which was barely holding to its straps on the deck.

Darren didn’t have to ask twice once he found them. Collectively, they agreed they were better off getting away on the Chinook than risking losing what they’d recovered if the CIA ship was sunk, since it was now floating around on the open sea—completely dark and defenceless.

After summoning the pilots to duty, Darren quickly made his way to Anna’s location in the hold. He ran up to the bridge, dragging Anna in tow, shouting to Commander Alderson that they were leaving at once.

The commander implored that if their helicopter actually worked, then they were to send out a distress call so the ship could be rescued by HQ.

Darren hadn’t thought about the Chinook and its electronics. It had been exposed to the EMP too, making it questionable to power up, even with EMP shielding.

When his pilots told him the Chinook was a no-go, Darren paced the deck, feeling helpless. They had one-of-a-kind ancient artifacts and ET DNA, and it was looking more and more like it was all going to end up in the sea if they couldn’t get off the ship fast.

“Shit! Shit!” Anna shouted at the top of her lungs when the captain of the Chinook told her that the chopper wasn’t going anywhere.

A few seconds later, they witnessed a second Iranian Fighter blasted to pieces three thousand feet above the sea. Darren could see streams in the sky where numerous air-to-air missiles had been fired as the dogfight thundered on above them.

Back on the Navy aircraft carrier, Commander Steele was ordering a US Navy frigate that was the closest ship to Commander Alderson’s location to hurry the hell up and get to the ship in distress because a shit storm was going down without them. When it appeared in the distance, the commanding officer of the frigate called for identification to find out who was in command of the ship that had lost all power. Dead silence.

The US navy warships were now talking to one another, wondering what in the hell was going on, and the entire fleet was put on red alert as they prepared for an Iranian onslaught. Several more planes were launched from the aircraft carrier, and several Blackhawk helicopters were launched from the US Navy frigate that was still a few hours away, but the helicopters could be there in as little as forty minutes.

Commander Alderson wasn’t liking his odds of coming out of this with his ship. There was still no answer from his executive officer, and he had no outside communication with anyone. The option he now had to consider was giving the order to scuttle his vessel and order his people to abandon ship.

Suddenly, Darren’s second in command came onto the bridge and requested to speak to the commander. “What do you have to tell me?” The commander asked. Phil smiled and told him they found a working battery for their helicopter and managed to get the radio inside it working. The first messages were already being sent out by Darren, and he had sent him to ask the commander what else he wanted him to say.

The commander breathed in a deep breath of air and let it out again. “Call for assistance. We’re dead in the water due to an EMP. Request helicopter transfer of priority-one cargo plus your team. I want you off the boat in case we get blown up by the Iranians. We need a tow out of here and sustained air support until further notice,” replied Alderson.

Phil nodded and left the bridge. “Right away, sir.”

Five minutes later, Phil was back at the Chinook. When he got inside, Agent Carpenter was talking over her headset sending out messages and requesting immediate evacuation of their priority-1 cargo. She stopped her transmission when she saw Darren’s second in command walk up the ramp that had been lowered.

Darren looked at him too. “What did he tell you, mate?”

Phil looked at Darren and then over to Anna. “He wants us off the boat in case it sinks. I think he’s considering scuttling the boat. But he asked for us to send a message for a tow and sustained fire support. He wanted you to tell whoever you’re in contact with that we’ve been hit by an Iranian EMP missile.”

Anna looked at Phil and nodded her head. “Okay. Blackhawks are inbound and will be here in thirty minutes. Fighters will be here in fifteen, but they’re warning us that Iranian ships are moving down their coast and heading out to sea to confront us. Darren, you might need to find some more ammo. Go down to the armoury and see if you can bring up a dozen rounds for your Carl Gustav. Maybe bring up an additional unit if you can find one. This might get ugly before it gets any better,” she replied.

Darren and the security team left the Chinook and went back inside the ship. They found their way to the armoury and got everything they could carry, and they took it back up to the top deck and got themselves ready for a firefight.

Luckily for them, the Iranian ships didn’t get there before the three Blackhawks showed up. Two landed while one gave them cover. Off in the distance, they could see US fighters firing rockets at other planes and another firefight began.

After the Blackhawks had taken off, they headed for a new destination in Saudi Arabia where they could store their cargo at a CIA secret base. The next morning, they were on their way in a C130 to Diego Garcia,