Point of Crisis (The Perseid Collapse Post Apocalyptic Series) Read online

  Point of Crisis

  Book Three in The Perseid Collapse Series

  A Novel by Steven Konkoly

  Copyright Information

  © 2014 Stribling Media. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Stribling Media.

  Contents

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  About The Perseid Collapse Series and Point of Crisis

  Acronyms and Terminology Used in The Perseid Collapse Series

  Prologue

  PART I

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  PART II

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  PART III

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  PART IV

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Epilogue

  Dedication

  To my family. The reasons I write.

  Acknowledgments

  To the usual suspects. You know exactly who you are. Thank you!

  About the Author

  Steven Konkoly graduated from the United States Naval Academy and served as a naval officer for eight years in various roles within the Navy and Marine Corps. He lives near the coast in southern Maine, where he writes full time.

  His first novel, The Jakarta Pandemic, reached readers in 2010, followed by four novels in the Black Flagged series: Black Flagged (2011), Black Flagged Redux (2012), Black Flagged Apex (2012) and Black Flagged Vektor (2013). The Perseid Collapse (2013), book one in The Perseid Collapse Series, signaled his return to the post-apocalyptic genre, followed shortly by Event Horizon (2014) and Point of Crisis (2014).

  Please visit Steven’s blog for updates and information regarding all his works:

  www.stevenkonkoly.com

  About The Perseid Collapse Series and Point of Crisis

  The Perseid Collapse Series takes place six years after the H16N1 virus ravaged the world in my first novel, The Jakarta Pandemic. Book One, The Perseid Collapse, unveils the “event” that catapults the United States into chaos and chronicles the first forty-eight hours “post-event,” as the characters navigate an unfamiliar, hostile landscape to reach their destinations. Event Horizon picks up where book one ends, spanning the second forty-eight-hour period. That’s all I’ll say. Point of Crisis will open the timeline and scope of the series, addressing some of the bigger-picture questions posed by the previous books. As always, the Fletchers will be in the middle of the action.

  A list of military/government acronyms and definitions used throughout The Perseid Collapse Series is available through the Table of Contents.

  Time in Event Horizon is measured in plus (+) DAYS from the EVENT. The prologue scenes occur during the timeframe of the first two books in the series.

  Happy Reading!

  Acronyms and Terminology Used in The Perseid Collapse Series

  ACOG – Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight. A telescopic scope commonly issued to troops in the field.

  ACU – Army Combat Uniform

  AFES – Automated Fire Extinguishing System

  AFV Stryker – Armored Fighting Vehicle used by U.S. Army

  AN/VRC-110 – Vehicle based VHF/UHF capable radio system used by U.S. Marine Corps.

  AR-10 – 7.62mm NATO/.308 caliber, military style rifle

  AR-15 – 5.56mm/.223 caliber military style rifle

  BCT – Brigade Combat Team, U.S. Army

  Black Hawk – UH-60, Medium Lift, Utility Helicopter

  CISA – Critical Infrastructure Skills Assembly

  CQB – Close Quarters Battle, urban combat

  CH-47 Chinook – Twin engine, tandem rotor, heavy lift helicopter

  CIC – Combat Information Center

  CONEX – Intermodal Shipping Container. Large metal crates typically seen stacked on merchant ships or in shipping yards.

  C-130 – Propeller driven, heavy lift fixed wind aircraft capable of short landings and takeoffs.

  C-17B Globemaster – Heavy Lift, fixed wing aircraft

  C2BMC – Command, Control, Battle Management and Communications

  DRASH – Deployable, Rapid Assembly Shelter

  DTCS – Distributed Tactical Communication System (satellite based network)

  EMP – Electromagnetic Pulse

  ETA – Estimated Time of Arrival

  FEMA – Federal Emergency Management Agency

  FOB – Forward Operating Base

  GPS – Global Positioning System, satellite based

  GPNVG-18 – Panoramic night vision goggles, wide field of vision.

  HAM radio – Term used to describe the Amateur Radio network

  HBMD – Homeland Ballistic Missile Defense

  HESCO – Rapidly deployable earth filled defensive barrier

  HK416 – 5.56mm Assault rifle/carbine designed by Hechler & Koch.

  Humvee – Nickname for High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV).

  IED – Improvised Explosive Device

  KIA – Killed in Action

  L-ATV – Light Combat Tactical All Terrain Vehicle

  LP/OP – Listening Post/Observation Post

  MARPAT – Marine Pattern, digital camouflage used by U.S. Marine Corps

  M-ATV – Medium Combat Tactical All Terrain Vehicle. MRAP

  Medevac – Medical Evacuation

  MOB – Main Operating Base

  MP – Military Police

  MP-7 – Personal Defense Weapon designed by Heckler and Koch, submachine gun firing armor penetrating ammunition

  MRAP – Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle

  MRE – Meals Ready to Eat, self-contained field rations used by U.S. military

  MR556SD – 5.56mm assault rifle/carbine with integrated suppressor.

  MTV M1078 – Medium Tactical Vehicle used by U.S. Army, 5 ton capacity

  MTVR Mk23 – Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement used by U.S. Marine Corps, 7 ton capacity

  M1919A6 – .30 caliber, belt fed medium machine gun fielded during WWII and the Korean War. Fully automatic.

  M240G – Modern 7.62mm, belt fed medium machine gun used by U.S Army and U.S. Marine Corps

  M27 IAR – Heavier barrel version of the HK416 used by U.S. Marine Corps. Replaced the M249 belt fed machine gun. Issued to one member of each fire team.

  M320 – Rifle-mounted, detachable 40mm grenade
launcher.

  NCO – Non-Commissioned Officer (Corporal and Sergeant)

  NEO – Near Earth Object (asteroid or meteorite)

  NVD – Night Vision Device (used interchangeable with NVG)

  NVG – Night Vision Goggles

  PRC-153 ISR – Intra-squad radio. Motorola style radio (usually strapped to tactical vest) for squad communication.

  ROTAC – Tactical Satellite Radio

  RTB – Return to Base

  Satphone – Satellite Phone

  SNCO – Staff Non-Commissioned Officer (Staff Sergeant E-6 and above)

  SUV – Sport Utility Vehicle

  Two-Forty – M240 machine gun. See M240G

  UH-60 Black Hawk – Medium Lift, Utility Helicopter

  YCRB – York County Readiness Brigade. Harrison Campbell’s group.

  “Point of Crisis”

  A fixed point in the “Malthusian Catastrophe,” where population levels exceed the food production and distribution capacity of a system—resulting in a crisis that can only be regulated by famine, war or disease. – From Thomas Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population (1798).

  Prologue

  EVENT +2 Days

  Space Fence “Site Alpha”

  Kwajalein Island, Republic of the Marshall Islands

  Technical Sergeant Marla Quinn typed the last lines of code into the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) interface and pressed return. Her strained face relaxed, revealing the early stages of a grin.

  “Frank, we’re connected to Vandenberg,” she said, turning to find the Raytheon contractor responsible for engineering the bypass.

  An air force sergeant seated near the door shrugged his shoulders. “He left with the rest of the civilians a minute ago.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me?” Quinn muttered, turning back to the computer station.

  She had been so busy typing code that she hadn’t noticed the exodus. The contractors had worked tirelessly with the station’s U.S. Air Force personnel to figure out a way to package the post-“event” Space Fence data and deliver it to the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Under normal conditions, the information streamed continuously to the California base, but two days ago, at 20:58 local time, the Joint Space Operations Center stopped accepting data. Less than thirty minutes later, the U.S Air Force garrison on Kwajalein Island went into lockdown.

  Her fingers returned to the keyboard, typing the last string of commands that would route 593.7 terabytes of orbital tracking data through dozens of satellites, on a circuitous path to reach Vandenberg’s central processing mainframe. She was surprised that Frank left the room. He was well aware that she was minutes away from rebooting the system and testing his program.

  “Did he say where they were going?” she asked.

  “Negative. Manuel poked his head in and said everybody needed to see something. You know these guys. They interpret the term ‘appointed place of duty’ pretty loosely,” he said.

  “They’ve busted their asses for thirty-six hours straight on this, so I don’t care if they’re hitting golf balls into the atoll. Can you run out and look for Frank? I’d hate for him to miss this.”

  “Just send it. It’s not like the computer’s gonna pour him a glass of Johnnie Walker Blue to celebrate.”

  “I’ll type,” Quinn said. “You find out what’s so important.”

  She wouldn’t be surprised if they had been called to another “closed” security briefing. Several of the contractors held security clearances higher than their commanding officer, and they’d spent considerable time behind closed doors since the “event.” The new Space Fence system had applications far beyond tracking the flight paths of more than twenty thousand orbital objects. The powerful S-band frequency radar used by Site Alpha could detect smaller objects than the previous VHF version, providing the United States with the capability to track China’s latest fleet of previously undetectable microsatellites. That was all she knew—and all they were going to tell her. She typed the rest of the code and held her pinkie finger above the return key.

  “Marla, get out here now!” said the duty sergeant, suddenly appearing in the operations center door.

  “Hold on,” she said, tapping the key. “What the fuck is the big deal?”

  “Something happened to the navy ship. Something bad,” he said, disappearing.

  Quinn stood up, mostly annoyed, but partly frightened. The USS Paul Hamilton, one of the U.S. Navy’s Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) capable Arleigh Burke class destroyers, arrived at the recently constructed naval facility two months ago. The ship’s mission was unknown to the station, but it didn’t take a War College degree to figure out that it had something to do with Site Alpha’s unadvertised tracking capabilities. Yelling erupted in the hallway, and she dashed through the door, colliding with Frank DeMillo.

  “Did you send the data?” he asked, wiping beads of sweat from his forehead.

  “I started the sequence a couple seconds ago. Sorry, I didn’t think you—”

  “We need to get out of here,” he said, grabbing her arm.

  The door leading outside crashed open, spilling bright light and another civilian into the hallway.

  “It’s fucking gone, Frank! They sank the Hamilton!”

  “Let’s go,” he said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her away from the door.

  She wrestled her arm away from DeMillo and sprinted past the panicked contractor. They were out of their minds. A swell of warm, muggy air enveloped her like a shroud when she stepped out of the climate-controlled building, instantly creating droplets of perspiration on her face and neck. Two men dressed in khaki pants and polo shirts stood around a telescope, one frantically adjusting the knobs; the other staring at the horizon with binoculars.

  “Dan! What the hell happened?” she asked.

  The overweight, balding man behind the scope turned to face her. “The Hamilton took off at full speed, zigzagging east. Anti-torpedo maneuver. Less than a minute later, we saw a massive geyser engulf the ship. When the spray cleared, the ship was in two pieces. Went down within seconds. Un-fucking believable. We need to get clear of this building ASAP,” he said, picking up the telescope.

  The second man lowered his binoculars.

  “Dan?”

  “What?”

  “Do the Chinese have nuke-tipped SLCMs?”

  “Of course they do,” said Frank, walking briskly toward her.

  “I don’t think running will make any difference,” he said, pointing toward the Pacific Ocean.

  In the distance, a faintly visible smoke trail arced skyward, lazily tipping at the apex of its trajectory and disappearing. Quinn back-stepped toward the door, shielding her eyes from the sun while searching for the object. She found it. A small, gray dot at a forty-five-degree altitude above the horizon. One of the civilians pulled her across the grass, toward the western fence line. They had reached the corner of the two-story operations building when the fifteen-kiloton warhead attached to the DongHai 10 (DH-10) cruise missile detonated directly above Kwajalein Island.

  EVENT +3 Days

  Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor

  Bangor, Washington

  David Grant turned his passenger-burdened SUV left onto Sturgeon Street, still not sure what to make of the cars headed in the opposite direction. Whenever one of the “boomers” graced Delta Pier with a visit, every contractor at the naval base’s Intermediate Maintenance Facility (IMF) flocked north to take advantage of the submarine’s short stay. He recognized enough of the passing faces to guess that his group would soon join the exodus back to Building 7000.

  “This isn’t looking good,” stated Bob Pearson from the passenger seat.

  “No, it’s not,” muttered Grant.

  He eased the vehicle onto Sea Lion Road, mindful of the men crammed into the back seat, and headed north along the eastern shore of Hood Canal. Through the dense underbrush and trees lining the road, he caught distant glimpses of the lush, e
merald Toandos Peninsula. They passed two cars on the brief coastline stretch before the road turned sharply inland, leading to the Enclave.

  Established several years ago as an independent security zone within the naval base, the Enclave featured an illuminated, double-layered, electrified fence that extended from the tip of Bangor Lake to the Explosive Handling Wharf north of Delta Pier. Protected by an elite battalion of Security Force Marines, access to the Enclave was firmly restricted to the submarine crew and authorized naval base support personnel—on a case-by-case basis. His carload of electrical engineers had been granted eight days to inspect and test critical circuits aboard USS Maine (SSBN 741), to confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that the boat’s $110-million-dollar EMP-hardening upgrade had been worth the money.

  Three days into their assessment, Grant’s team hadn’t found any reason to suggest that the Ohio Class ballistic missile submarine was anything less than one hundred percent mission capable. Of course, he was still five long days away from putting his stamp of approval on the final report. The boat had been hooked to shore power while berthed at Delta Pier, and despite the somewhat limited effects of the EMP throughout the Pacific Northwest, he’d insisted on a full inspection. Equipment malfunctions several hundred feet below the ocean’s surface tended to be catastrophic.

  “She’s gone! Slow down, Dave,” said one of the men from the back seat.

  Grant gently applied the brakes, pulling even with a break in the trees. Son of a bitch. Delta Pier’s southwestern-facing berth was empty. He couldn’t believe SUBPAC would put her to sea without finishing the inspections. His team was one of several dozen IMF crews scouring the submarine for evidence of EMP damage. Without a completed systems assessment, the admiral was taking a serious risk with a key strategic asset. The implications of SUBPAC’s decision didn’t escape him.

  A car travelling in the opposite direction pulled even with his SUV, partially blocking their view. He recognized the driver—one of IMF’s master electricians.