Quantum Troopers Return Episode 10: The Ship Of Theseus

By Philip Bosshardt

UNIFORCE now realizes that an existential crisis exists with respect to Red Harmony. The cartel seems to be overseen and commanded by a malevolent extraterrestrial entity called Configuration Zero. UNIFORCE now believes Red Harmony needs to be shut down and wiped out completely. But how to do that, when the cartel is protected by the Chinese?
A mission to penetrate and destroy the cartel’s base below the Ming Tombs near Beijing is formed. The assault goes well but Colonel Johnny Winger is captured by cartel agents and spirited out of the base. Winger is now missing, presumed to be in the custody of Red Harmony with priceless details about Quantum Corps systems and tactics in his processor-head. Something has to be done and fast. A new mission is formed when signals analysis points to Winger being held in or below Potang Palace in Tibet.
The purpose of the new mission: to locate and render Configuration Zero inoperable and to rescue Colonel Winger. If he can’t be rescued, the troopers of 1st Nano have orders to terminate the famous atomgrabber.
The mission team approaches Potang Palace in an underground assault and penetration effort. What they don’t know is what Configuration Zero is planning for Johnny Winger. The assault and penetration proceeds as expected, but, unknown to the troopers, Winger is being prepared for a different future...a future in which he will become part of Configuration Zero itself. Battling his way through a series of tests and changes, Winger tries to survive the process, even as his own 1st Nano troopers battle through Red Harmony defenses to rescue him.
In the end, Winger seems to have survived and is rescued. But he’s suffered grievous injuries and has to be regenerated back at the Mesa de Oro base. The regen process goes well but it’s clear to all that Winger is changed.
General Wolfus Linx briefs Winger on a proposed new mission coming up. But as Winger departs, and armed with intelligence showing Configuration Zero seems to have disappeared, Linx watches Winger carefully, a growing suspicion in the back of his mind:
“Have we rescued something we should have destroyed?”
Final episode in the Quantum Troopers Return serial.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philip Bosshardt
• Release date: Nov 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005504274

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 10: The Ship of Theseus

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 # (*)TitleApproximate Upload Date

1 (23)‘Fab Lords’2-7-20

2 (24) "Free Fall’3-6-20

3 (25)Forbidden City4-3-20

4 (26)Deep Encounter5-8-20

5 (27)HAVOC6-12-20

6 (28)The Empty Quarter7-10-20

7 (29)The Hellas Paradox8-14-20

8 (30)Twist Pirates9-11-20

9 (31)The Better Angels10-9-20

10 (32)The Ship of Theseus11-13-20

(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: Entanglement

Aboard UNBP Geoplane Mole

East China Sea

Two Hundred Meters below the Seabed

December 28, 2067

1900 hours

At UNIFORCE Paris, UNSAC realized that an existential crisis existed with respect to Red Harmony. The cartel seemed to be overseen and commanded or at least advised by a malevolent extraterrestrial entity called Configuration Zero. UNSAC believed and the Secretary-General agreed that Red Harmony needed to be shut down and wiped out completely. The question was how to do this while the cartel was basically protected by China.

UNSAC and SG believed that the cartel had to be confronted on its home turf, at the Ming Tombs complex. This would require a penetration in force, but not enough to cause the Chinese to react to violations of their sovereignty. Discussions ensued with Quantum Corps, BioShield, Boundary Patrol, UNISEA and UNISPACE. A combined operation seemed to be necessary, drawing from all forces.

Slowly a plan evolved to use the weather and natural sandstorms out of the Gobi desert to mask an approach of ANAD nanobotic swarms. Simultaneous assault by a small squadron of geoplanes would provide seismic cover and tremors on demand to cover and support the penetration. A two-pronged assault would follow with ANAD swarms disguised as sandstorms (artificially generated by irradiating the desert from satellite) and geoplanes supporting an underground direct action by troopers from 1st Nano and supporting the effort with artificial seismic tremors. Geoplanes—there would a Boundary Patrol squadron of three—would transport the direct-action force to and from the Red Harmony compound.

If all went as planned, UNIFORCE would destroy Red Harmony and make the entire effort look like an unfortunate series of ‘natural’ disasters.

The mission would be a combined-arms effort, called Operation Quantum Strike.

Geoplanes Mole, Prairie Dog and Badger both angled downward and squeezed through another dense layer of granite as the ships closed steadily on the eastern end of the Bo Hai gulf.

Just passing plate boundary, Colonel announced Sergeant Rono, geotech for Mole’s crew. Eurasian plate ahead, inclusion zone with hard granite… dead ahead.

Very well, Jessica Morales replied from the command deck. "SS1, are Badger and Dog keeping up?"

The Sensors and Surveillance Tech (SS1) was Sergeant Michaelis. The trim, mustachioed Russian adjusted knobs on his scopes and studied waveforms trickling across the screens. "Yes, ma’am…Badger shows off our starboard quarter, one thousand meters, maintaining depth and angle. Dog is off to port, keeping pace."

Morales mused over the stratigraphic plot in front of her. Granite’s hard stuff. We’d better slow down. DSO, chop speed to two kilometers per hour.

Aye, Colonel, came back Corporal Robles, Mole’s Driver/Systems Operator. Cutting tread speed to two k.

"Make sure Badger and Dog do the same."

Both answering back…showing speed dropping to match.

Geoplane Mole, accompanied by her sister ships Badger and Prairie Dog, was two hundred kilometers southwest of the Liaotung Peninsula, and approaching the ground below the city of Tientsin. After discussions with Colonel Johnny Winger, Mole’s onboard ground force commander, Morales determined they had better go deep before the sea got any shallower…already fathometer readings above them showed the continental shelf climbing rapidly. All three geoplanes were nosing through a zone of hard tonalitic granite, two hundred meters below the seabed of the East China Sea.

If all went well, the Quantum Strike force would cross beneath the land boundary in less than five hours, and begin angling up toward Beijing and the Ming Tombs complex. North and east of the capital’s outer ring roads and the Great Wall, the geoplanes would penetrate the subsurface foundations below and begin a surprise assault on the Red Harmony base, from an unexpected direction…from below ground.

A slight tremor shook Mole and all on the command deck looked up with momentary alarm. They had just crossed over a plate boundary, cruising at a stately two kilometers per hour from the Philippine Plate into the mass of the vast Eurasian plate and fault zones were notorious for steady tremors.

Mole shimmied for a moment like a dog throwing off bathwater and then steadied down.

Geo, any signs of stronger movements?

Rono shook her head. Small-amplitude P waves, ma’am…nothing serious, yet. These fault zones shake, rattle and roll like creaking carousels sometimes.

But this was no ordinary P-wave. The geoplane was suddenly slammed sideways and the screech of resisting metal sounded through her hull.

Strike-slip fault, Colonel! Big P-waves all around…we’re gonna get hammered!

Morales got on the 1MC. All hands, brace for quake! Secure everything— She had barely gotten the words out of her mouth when a series of waves struck the geoplane broadsides.

Morales’ words were cut off as Mole shuddered violently. For a brief moment, there was an unmistakable sensation of sliding, sliding sideways and downward. Almost at the same moment, something hit Mole’s nose with a sickening crunch and the geoplane shuddered again and ground violently to a halt. The cabin tilted to port and stayed tilted.

Mole’s cabin was deathly still for a few moments, then the creaking and groaning of the hull under tremendous pressure started.

What happened? Johnny Winger asked, wincing as the tortured sounds of the hull being compressed grew louder.

Borer offline, Skipper, reported Corporal Li, the ship’s BOP1, Borer Operator. I am reconstituting the bots, going max reps.

Treads? Do we still have treads?

DSO Kurasawa checked her traction controls, pulsed her sticks and offered a rueful smile. Treads not damaged, Colonel. We can still maneuver. I’m showing increased friction on B tread…maybe something caught…but I can compensate.

"Message coming in from Badger, said Michaelis. He silently mouthed the words as the coupler received and translated the pulses. They reporting major damage, sir…borer offline, A and C treads de-tracked, possible hull breach…they’re dead in the dirt and requesting assistance, ma’am."

Winger looked at Morales. Both of them could visualize the chaos on the command deck of Badger. Lesley Chu was CC1...he would even now be popping the EAB air flasks to over pressurize Badger’s hull, to keep air inside. Badger was critical to the mission. Quantum Strike couldn’t go without Badger and her crew and her squad of quantum troopers.

Swing us around to starboard, DSO, Morales ordered. "Put us on a course that intercepts Badger and places us about fifty meters away…no closer. I don’t want to set anything else off."

Even as she spoke, more tremors rattled through Mole’s creaking hull and the ship struggled to stay vertical, fighting the force of tons of rock all around her. All aboard felt the heading change as the deck angled slight to starboard and their speed dropped off. Moments later, Mole was on course to hunt down and intercept her stricken sister ship. Dog’s commander, Major Theo Fatah, radioed that they were closing as well.

Mole had a crew of six, with Winger as overall mission commander. Each ship supported three troopers from 1st Nano. Each also bore an embarked and contained element of ANAD 2.0. The assault force IC1, Sergeant Sherm Cuddy, came forward onto the command deck from B deck, aft of them. Cuddy clung to a bulkhead as more tremors rattled and shook the geoplane.

"Badger’s hurt, Winger told him. We’re heading that way now."

Cuddy winced at the news. Didn’t see any damage aft, Skipper. Some pots and pans slung around the mess compartment but that’s about all. Acuna’s cleaning up. What does this do to our timeline?

"Nothing good. If Badger can’t go, we’ll have to offload their crew and troops. That’ll make things tight in here. But we need all of you to make the assault on the cartel."

Cuddy stared at the stratigraphic plot. That means more time…ANAD’ll have to bore an escape tunnel through this crap outside. Everybody gets into hypersuits, grabs weapons and supplies…that’ll take hours.

Can’t be helped. We can’t surface inside the Tombs and bust out of the cave walls with half a force.

Cuddy’s nightmare turned out to be true. Winger got the bad news as soon as Mole came to a stop. Lesley Chu came on the coupler circuit. All geoplanes were at full stop, less than fifty meters away from each other, but separated by tons and tons of Cenozoic granite and sandstone.

"Badger’s hurt pretty bad, Colonel. No serious casualties but we’re definitely no-go. His voice was strained. Pretty thick dust in here too, but we got the hull breach patched. Our borer ANAD’s lost containment…we’re dead as dirt here."

"I’ll get an ANAD tunnel started right away, Chu. Get your troops together and give ‘em the word. Grab your weapons and anything else you can…you’re coming aboard Mole and Dog, as soon as ANAD makes a hole."

Understood…but doesn’t this make hash out of our timeline?

Can’t be helped. Get going now…all these tremors make me nervous. We need to get away from these plate boundary zones as quickly as we can.

The escape tunnel from Mole to Badger took ANAD about two hours. It was less than a meter wide, barely wide enough for a well-fed trooper to squeeze through. There was a good bit of grumbling and griping about living like gophers and moles, but the technique had been well-practiced and simmed over the last few weeks. One by one, weapons and supplies in tow, the entire crew and troop complement of Badger burrowed through the tunnel and came aboard Mole through her D Deck lockout.

It was going to be a tight squeeze for the rest of the trip.

Winger told Morales to get the ship going. We’re behind schedule. Can we make three kilometers an hour?

We’ll try. Robles cranked up the treads and Li commanded more replications out of the borer ANAD swarm. The blue-white half-globe at Mole’s bow soon grew white hot as she chewed her way through layer after layer of Cretaceous and Jurassic granites, Mesozoic sedimentary rock and Paleozoic quartzite.

Now aboard Mole, Lesley Chu shuddered, watching the stratigraphic plot on Mole’s command deck, sipping a warm mug of coffee. At least most of the tremors have subsided.

They were now deep inside the Eurasian tectonic plate, still two hundred meters below the seabed. The continental boundary and the Ming