Quantum Troopers Return Episode 5: HAVOC

By Philip Bosshardt

An unknown piece of space junk plows into the atmosphere of Venus, witnessed by the manned station Fort Bliss in orbit. It survives and impacts the ground, near a base jointly operated by UNISPACE and the Russians. The object turns out to be a Keeper unit, arrived from alien origins deeper in the solar system. Above them coursing through the atmosphere, a manned airship is damaged by the object’s descent and the crew has to be rescued.
Colonel Johnny Winger and a detachment of quantum troopers are sent to find out what has landed on Venus and why the base has been silent for weeks. They soon find themselves incarcerated by the Russians at Ishtar Base, for the Russians and their cartel cronies are trying to plumb the secrets of the fallen Keeper and make use of its technology for their own ends, in violation of all treaties.
With help from his fellow troopers, Winger manages to accompany an exploratory expedition out to the Keeper but conditions on the surface make it impossible to hold his configuration and Winger must hide in a nearby cave to save himself.
Still incarcerated inside Ishtar base, the detachment devises a ruse to escape and subdue their Russian captors. Leaving three behind to gather intelligence, three remaining crewmen then head out in a crawler vehicle to rescue Winger, but they are assaulted by something no one expected...flocks of huge, extremophile birds, dubbed thermosaurs by one of the crew, and have to seek shelter. They locate Winger but with their vehicle damaged and surface conditions of Venus so dangerous, they are trapped.
Only a harrowing flight by the detachment lander to the Keeper site and last-second heroics by crewman Emily Blakely to draw off the attacking thermosaurs, allows the lander to set down. Armed with critical intelligence on the Russian base and what they are harboring, the quantum troopers have to find a way to lift off through the thick atmosphere and avoid the swarming ‘saurs while avoiding the quantum effects of the nearby Keeper.
Fifth episode in the Quantum Troopers Return serial.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philip Bosshardt
• Release date: Jun 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463852415

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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Quantum Troopers Return

Episode 5: HAVOC

Published by Philip Bosshardt at Smashwords

Copyright 2020 Philip Bosshardt

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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A few words about this series….

Quantum Troopers Return is a series of 25,000-30,000-word episodes detailing the adventures of Johnny Winger and his experiences as a quantum trooper with the United Nations Quantum Corps. This series continues the original serial stories of Quantum Troopers, Episodes 1-22 (formerly Nanotroopers).

Each episode will be about 40-60 pages, approximately 30,000 words in length.

A new episode will be available and uploaded every 4 weeks.

There will be 10 episodes. The story will be completely serialized in about 12 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 Harmony’s efforts to use their nanorobotic ANAD systems for the cartel’s own nefarious and illegal purposes.

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

Episode # (*) Title Approximate Upload Date

1 (23) ‘Fab Lords’ 2-7-20

2 (24) "Free Fall’ 3-6-20

3 (25) Forbidden City 4-3-20

4 (26) Deep Encounter 5-8-20

5 (27) HAVOC 6-12-20

6 (28) The Empty Quarter 7-10-20

7 (29) The Hellas Paradox 8-14-20

8 (30) Twist Pirates 9-11-20

9 (31) The Better Angels 10-9-20

10 (32) The Ship of Theseus 11-13-20

(Note *: Episode numbers start with Episode 1 in this new series but the continuation of episode numbers from Quantum Troopers is also provided)

Chapter 1: Inferno

Aboard UNISPACE/Roscosmos station Fort Bliss

In Venus Orbit

June 2, 2065 Earth Universal Time (EUT)

0400 hours (local)

On Venus, there are only clouds…to the naked eye. Cloud cliffs and cloud valleys. Cloud ravines and cloud canyons. Cloud bergs, buttes, badlands. Cloud continents. Above the clouds is the vacuum of space. Below the clouds is Hell itself, an inferno of heat and sulfuric acid rain. And don’t forget the occasional storm.

That was why station engineer Natalya Yegorova was glad beyond words when EINSTEIN—Fort Bliss’ onboard computer—beeped insistently and dragged her out of a reverie that had lasted for who knew how many minutes. Yegorova took one last look out the nearest porthole and begrudged the final wisps of daylight before the planet from hell was fully enveloped in the nightfall. Astronomers are supposed to savor the night, she kept telling herself but that never worked. At that same moment, she heard a beeping from her console and turned her attention back to the displays.

What the hell…

Yegorova looked over her boards, controlling the positioning of the great telescope further up on the station’s central truss and the optical and radio sister scopes that accompanied it. She quickly pinpointed the source of the beeping…Scopes C and D…the south lateral spotter scopes…was picking up some anomaly. Something was approaching the planet, head-on and it was approaching fast.

She massaged the controls and tried to focus the array better, get better resolution on the target. EINSTEIN didn’t beep without reason. Somewhere in its nearly infinite memory were ephemeris data and trajectory details for nearly every detectable piece of space junk in the inner solar system, out to several billion kilometers. Like an overprotective mother, EINSTEIN knew where everybody was supposed to be, right down to the nearest centimeter.

He only beeped and chirped when someone was out of position or something new showed up.

A quick perusal made the hairs on the back of Yegorova’s neck stand up. The system displayed a list of likely targets, based on radar imaging and known ephemerides. She scanned the list.

Right at the top was an unknown traveler. EINSTEIN had already designated it V-101.

Yegorova took a quick peek out a nearby porthole and straight away, she saw it.

A fiery reddish-orange arrow was just plowing its way into the top of Venus’ atmosphere.

Meteorite, she figured. To give herself something to do, she put EINSTEIN to work plotting its probable impact point, assuming the thing even survived a plunge into the thick atmosphere. That was not a given around this hellhole of a planet.

When it came back, the answer surprised her: sixteen kilometers south by southeast of Ishtar base.

Yegorova tapped her lips, debating whether to advise the ground crew at Ishtar. By the time the meteorite reached the ground, it would probably be little more than a burning cinder, like a red-hot snowflake drifting down in that sulfurous miasma. Still, she decided to raise Ishtar and give them the news. She opened Comm A and sent the notice by voice.

"Udar ob’yekta v shestnadtsati kilometriikh k yugo-vostoku ot vashey pozitsii."

There was no immediate response from Ishtar—Kazan or Refimov or anyone, by voice or text. That was not in itself unusual. Perhaps they were preoccupied with some experiment or routine maintenance or they were busy cleaning toilets. When her shift change came up and Emily Blakely showed up for the day watch, the two women went over details of the latest shift and Yegorova slipped into the gangway, intending to grab a hot tea in the crews’ mess and some shut-eye in her quarters.

Emily Blakely settled in for her own watch with a novel she was trying to finish. An hour later, she had dozed off. Only the insistent warble of an emergency alarm roused her and she sat up straight, trying to get her bearings.

It was Geronimo. Some kind of problem down below, aboard the manned airship that was supposed to be cruising the mid stratosphere, a research mission. Emily blinked and rubbed sleep from her eyes. The board was lit up like a Christmas tree, alarms and warnings all over the place. Her big brother Win was down there.

Geronimo was in serious trouble.

In the early summer of 2065, as people on Earth reckon time, Geronimo had been on auto-cruise for several days when Doug Fremont and Win Blakely were both startled out of their sleepy daze by the insistent beeping of the wind shear alarm.

"Emily named this one Estelle, Blakely noted from his anemometer display. Sisters are like that. Properly known as VS-8…looks like this one’s going to be a doozy."

Hey, your sister lives for these clouds…what an imagination. Unicorns and castles everywhere. Any chance we can steer clear?’ Fremont proposed. The last one turned my insides into scrambled eggs."

Checking Doppler now… Blakely scanned his instruments. Jeez, this is one big sucker…covers almost all of Theia and Rhea Mons. I’ll try to steer around it.

Blakely grasped the joystick and swiveled Geronimo’s props to starboard. The huge airship responded sluggishly, buffeted and shuddering from stiff cross-winds. It’s like driving into a hurricane.

Fremont nodded grimly. Outside, sulfuric yellow clouds were thick and impenetrable. It’s worse than that…anemometer shows wind speed nearly a hundred meters per second. I can feel the cross winds.

A bright flash lit up the tiny cabin, followed by a crescendo of roaring, rolling thunder. Veins of lightning arced across clefts and gaps in the clouds dead ahead.

Are we turning? Fremont asked. I don’t feel anything. I don’t like the looks of that cloud bank up ahead.

"Not enough to make a difference. Estelle’s a monster, and she’s sucking us right in…I’ve got no yaw and not much pitch either. We’re caught in her outer bands…but I think we can ride her out. We did it before."

Yeah but not with lightning like this. Every time we pass over Theia Mons, those volcanoes light up the clouds like a Christmas tree.

Hang on…I’m going to try to--

But Blakely’s words were interrupted by a terrific flash, bright enough to blind both crewmen. The thunder came an instant later, followed by the smell of rotten eggs…sulfur…and the cabin was quickly thick with smoke and electrical arcs and discharges. The shock wave knocked Fremont and Blakely out for a few seconds.

It was Fremont who came to first. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes, thankful for the seat harness that had kept him upright, then his blood ran cold.

It was clear, viscerally as well as by instrument, that Geronimo was in trouble. The whole cabin was canted down, at the wrong angle. Displays flashed nonsense and garbage right in front of his eyes. He sat up abruptly, ascertained the panel was safe to touch and shook his commander roughly.

Win…Win, wake up!