Griff and Merc docked their aircar. Just as they climbed out, the invasion alarm blared. The base AI had completely failed to report the breach, a terrifying realization for the tech group still trying to trace where spies had intercepted the AI system's relay. Without direct vision, the underground bunker was blind to the dangers above. If the surface guard shack hadn't radioed the alert, they would have had no warning at all.
The enemy had advanced on the far side of the abandoned outpost, spotted only when General Sefira's scout team had noticed an auger drill in the vicinity that was not cloaked. The invaders' intentions were unmistakable: they were after the Essenes, and that drill would pierce the underground walls in minutes.
Within the chaos of the alarm and storming troops, the militia leader and the mercenary scrambled for the door to the hidden chamber that housed the Essene. Bolting past rows of wall-docked vehicles being set for battle, racing across the expansive floor through soldiers running in the opposite direction, past the machine shop. They slipped through the threshold just before total lockdown. Once inside the back room—a dead-end space with a single entrance, making it the only secure vault left to protect the tribal families they would set up their defense. Jimmy stood at the vault door, frantically motioning them inside. As the team piled in, preparing to seal the room against the coming onslaught.
Soldiers in the motorpool were in position to set up their line of defense. Barriers were raised from within the ground for the foot soldiers who would defend the front of the perimeter. Machine gun stations slowly descended from the forty foot ceiling, and gunners climbed the rope ladders that dropped down, three soldiers per station would keep the massive firepower going perpetually.
The blast doors meant to seal the surface tunnel had been sabotaged—left hanging open and useless against the invading force. Saboteurs had locked down the control panels, cutting off any hope of closing the route. Now, a tidal wave of trucks and infantry barreled down the shaft. With the stronghold's inner defenses compromised, the allies had only one desperate option left: hold the line where the road met the main entrance.
"Get these doors shut and reinforced!" Griff yelled, spinning toward Lynn and Avril at the control panel. The massive iron doors rolled together, sealing shut with a deafening thud that reverberated through the motorpool and vibrated deep in their chests. External steel shutters slammed down past the heavy jambs, burying the outside control panel and locking the mechanism from the outside. A second steel barrier dropped on the inside, sandwiching the iron core. Beyond their safe zone, outside in the machine shop and motor pool, soldiers entrenched behind the perimeter barriers listened to the distant, echoing roar of the enemy advancing down the drive. Everyone was locked in, waiting for the impact.
Inside the room, two automated machine-gun stations lowered from the ceiling. Griff and Jimmy shimmied up the rope ladder to the first, while Lynn and Merc scrambled up to man the second. Below them, twelve young fighters formed a loose gauntlet flanking the entrance—six on each side. Standing like statues, their rifles trained on the threshold, their faces betrayed neither fear nor any other emotion.
Within their cramped pod, Merc and Lynn worked with practiced speed, calibrating their heavy ordnance for antipersonnel fire and prepping the anti-vehicle rounds for whatever breached the doors. Merc flipped on the external surveillance monitors and choked back a breath. The upper grounds were a hornets' nest; a swarm of enemy infantry was already rushing the main opening. Overhead, the sky was a chaotic dogfight of fighter jets twisting through a deadly aerial ballet. When he switched to the driveway feed, he saw a sea of hostile soldiers packed shoulder-to-shoulder. Slumping back in his chair, he stared desperately at the oncoming tide. He wiped a hand across his sweat-slicked forehead, then glanced over at Lynn. Did he dare show her the devastation rushing toward them?
Lynn slammed the heavy housing of the anti-vehicle gun into place, her knuckles white and her jaw set. In the harsh glare of the lights, Merc saw her—truly saw her—not just as a squadmate, but as someone he was likely sharing the last moments of his life with. Remorse for every cold shoulder he'd given her surged all at once. He stepped into her space, pulling her from her seat into a desperate kiss. She immediately shoved his chest with the flat of her hands. "Are you out of your mind?" she snapped, wiping her mouth with her sleeve before grabbing another metal jacket. "Back off, bud," She said firmly. "You had your chance. Now man your gun." Jumping back to her seat she set up her sites to cover the middle of the door. Merc gave a half-smile and slipped into his seat. He set his sites and prepared to defend their space. Out of nowhere came Jimmy's cackling laugh over the radio.
"You have got to have the worst timing," he said through his laughter. Lynn looked over at the sister gun station to see Jimmy standing in the window still laughing. She flipped him a derogatory bird and turned back to her console.
Griff kept his eyes on the outer perimeter monitors. Hordes of soldiers flooded the driveway, their heavy machinery and armored vehicles forcing a path through the crowd. One massive machine was entirely new to him, but its purpose was unmistakable—it was designed to tear through the walls and doors that protected the Essenes to drag them away.
"Damn," he muttered.
Suddenly, a strange, low vibration rumbled from deep underground. "What the hell?"
He looked down at the room below him. The families trapped there stood little chance against an enemy this ruthless. His heart ached for the children. He knew the Russians and their allies would gladly weaponize those innocent lives for leverage; they had already proven they would sacrifice their own people to get what they wanted. They would burn the world to the ground just to seize the treasure inside.
Yet, as Griff watched the families, they didn't panic. Remaining eerily calm, they began to filter toward the front of the room, lining up on either side of the heavy doors. "Get back!" he yelled down through the access hole he and Jimmy had used to climb into the station. Before he could grab their attention, the rear walls began to crumble—first in small showers of concrete, then in massive, shattering chunks. Griff radioed the threat over to Lynn and Merc on his relay. But before either station could turn to face the breach with their firepower, massive figures stepped through the dust. Giants, some standing over five meters tall, emerged from the ruins with ground-shaking strides. The first one lunged for the exit, digging his thick fingers into the cement floor to hook the bottom of the steel door and wrench it upward. Two more, standing on each side of the threshold shoved their fingers into the iron seam, pulling in opposite directions with raw, monstrous strength until the frame gave way and the doors rolled open. As the first giant ripped the remaining steel door cover clear, the gargantuans swept past the soldiers in the machine shop and out into the motorpool.
The men outside, ready and waiting to start their defense, turned and froze in place, watching as the giants ran toward them and then past them, straight up the drive to meet the oncoming forces. Sampson was running slightly ahead of them. No one knew what to think, and no one fired a shot. They just watched as the dog led an army of giants out to meet the battle.
"What is happening?" Jimmy asked as he watched in amazement. He then jumped out of the entry hole, climbing a few meters down the rope ladder.
"What are you doing?" Griff yelled after him. He knelt down to look out the hole at his friend. "Are you nuts?"
"I gotta go get my dog," he said, looking up at Griff with a smile. He glanced down at the giants running beneath where he dangled, timing his drop. When one surged close enough, he let go, colliding with the side of the creature's head. Jimmy scrambled for a handhold, desperately clutching a handful of coarse hair before finally gripping the massive ear. Irritated, the giant slowed, swatting at his head until his fingers closed around the human. He pulled Jimmy into view to inspect him. Jimmy gestured wildly toward the fray, urging him forward. Cupping the small man to his ear, the giant caught Jimmy's shouted command: "Go after my dog!" He yelled, pointing and barking like a dog. Understanding flashed in the behemoth's eyes; he set Jimmy securely on his shoulder and lunged back into the thundering pack, racing through the motorpool and up the drive toward the thick of the battle.
Lynn counted seventeen giants. None of them seemed bothered by the tiny people inside the motor pool. As they turned up the drive and out of sight, she switched her focus to the tunnel cameras. On screen, the huge creatures were smashing the vehicles racing to the underground with angry fists. Below, the foot soldiers were already scattering in retreat. She watched the giant who had secured Jimmy on his shoulder and reached down, gently scoop up Sampson, and hand him over to the tiny man. Across the way, Griff was climbing down from the machine gun station. Lynn and Merc scrambled from their roost to follow after him. Reaching the ground, the three of them ran through the befuddled allied troops, jumping the barriers and sprinting to the exit road but stopped at the threshold, staring up at the chaotic, retreating troops with their pursuers following closely. The army had nearly reached their stronghold.
"Where did they come from?" Lynn asked when Avril ran up beside her.
"It is written," she said as she turned to Yeshua who just appeared out of nowhere, "Ehyehovah say to bones: I to make breath enter you, and you live. It is writing of Ezekiel."
"There was a burial vault of the giants on the other side of the wall." Yeshua said plainly. As if it was not a big deal. "We needed help. They came to help."
"Can they die...again?" Griff asked.
"They were once of the human race, they will die again, yes," he answered with a nod. Griff took off running toward the vehicles. And even though Lynn and Merc didn't know what he was going to do, they joined him. All three jumped over the raised barriers to where the electric vehicles were docked.
"Lynn, lower the barriers!" Griff yelled, vaulting onto the flatbed of the artillery truck. "Merc, get some men and help me hitch this gun!" Lynn bolted toward the guard shack. Meanwhile, Merc and a handful of soldiers hauled the massive anti-aircraft artillery trailer into the center of the bay. Griff jumped into a nearby truck, started the engine and screeched into reverse, slamming into the hitch of the trailer, Merc locked it down after centering the joints. The men scrambled aboard just as Griff hit the gas toward the exit. As the truck tore past the opening gates, Lynn timed her leap perfectly, grabbing a soldier's outstretched hand as he hauled her over the tailgate. Griff gunned the engine up the ramp, slowing only when a towering giant stepped into the path. Recognizing the friendly soldiers, the behemoth moved aside, clearing their way out into the blinding light of day.
Sure enough, the Russians had sliced one of the giants in half with the laser weapon Griff had spotted earlier on the monitor. They were targeting a second towering man when Merc anticipated Griff's plan, swiveled the anti-aircraft gun, and unleashed a barrage of firepower. The shells missed their primary target, instead obliterating two enemy trucks parked just beyond the laser vehicle.
All around them, the remaining giants retaliated, hurling enemy trucks across the battlefield and scattering soldiers into the air. They swatted at the swarm of hostile drones and flying vehicles buzzing through the sky. Seizing the moment, Jimmy yelled into the ear of his giant companion, gesturing wildly for him to pull the others back from Griff's impending assault.
The mammoth man unleashed an ear-splitting roar that drew the attention of his colossal peers. He waved his massive arms, signaling them to clear the blast zone. The earth trembled as the giants retreated to a safe distance.
From the bed of Griff's truck, one of his men hoisted a bazooka, loaded a rocket, and took aim. The anti-tank round struck dead center, detonating the Russian vehicle and vaporizing the death ray.
With the laser destroyed, Jordanian, Israeli and Australian fighter jets screamed in from the west to pursue the retreating adversary. Sleek, electric Black Hawk helicopters dropped low for tight ground maneuvers, hunting down hostile combatants and picking off enemy drones while carefully avoiding the allied troops below.
One by one, ground and air units surged from the entryway of the underground base to join the fray. Griff wrenched his truck toward the primary breach—where the enemy had first ruptured the subterranean walls of their fortress. He led the charge, flooring the accelerator as a massive plume of dust choked his wake. Other vehicles with their crews and the lumbering giants ran hot on his heels. As they rushed toward the breach, a swarm of enemy drones descended like a plague of locusts. Rainfalls of AI-guided projectiles tore through their ranks. Even the giants weren't immune. For every flying arsenal a giant managed to swat from the sky, a dozen more took its place, stitching lines of fire across their thick hides. Dark blood gushed from the punctures; the giant men were just as vulnerable to the mechanical onslaught as the smaller humans. And with the chaos so tightly packed, air support was out of the question—calling in the jets would only massacre their own lines..
Off in the east, the air filled with swirling dust—the first sign of oncoming vehicles. Griff pressed the accelerator, driving at full speed toward his destination. Suddenly, shadows rippled across the earth around him. Invisible aircars had filled the sky, betrayed only by the silhouettes they cast on the ground. Then, short energy blasts began to pluck drones from the air, dropping them like huge black raindrops to be crushed by the heavy vehicles trailing Griff. It was the Israeli soldiers that surged from the east by land and air, while Egyptian and Aussie jets screamed over the ground troops from the west, charting a course toward the abandoned base to launch an air strike.
"What the fuck took you so long?!" Lynn screamed gleefully, waving at the jets roaring overhead. She clung tightly to the anti-aircraft gun, feeling the wind whip her hair wildly across her face. They were on a kick-ass campaign, and she was loving every second of it. Another twenty minutes and they would finally reach their destination. It looked like smooth sailing from here with no more hurdles from the invaders—but even if trouble did find them, the Israeli and Jordanian military were not far behind.
By the time they reached the base, smoke was rising all around it. The jets had laid down strips of fire that still burned on the ground. A struggling remnant of soldiers continued to fire on the battery of warfare heading straight for them—until they saw the few remaining giants. No one had told them that nightmares were part of the battleground. The men threw down their rifles and fled.
As Griff pulled the truck to a stop, he jumped out and motioned for Lynn to stay put. With allied soldiers hot on his heels, they headed toward a hole that plunged into the depths of the earth. Sliding down the steep incline, Griff gripped his rifle tight, finally hitting flatter terrain and leading the men and women deeper into the darkening underground cavern. One hundred twenty meters, one hundred fifty meters, and more, until they reached the shattered concrete leading into the base. Shattered light sources bled through the darkness. The invaders' ropes were still in place. Met by the stench of death, one by one, the allied soldiers lowered themselves into the room where the invasion had started. The smell of blood and putrefaction was as thick as the bodies carpeting the floor.
"Who goes there," someone from the hall called out through the doorway.
"Griff, it's Jacob Griffin," he called back. Slowly the men from the hall crept around the corner to see the familiar face of one of their own.
"It's over," a female voice called out as the people began to cheer.
"We heard the jets come in," said the first soldier with relief, walking up to him, stepping over what body parts he could. "But the enemy kept coming. We fired until no one else came down that hole. And then for the longest time, no one did. At least not until we saw you."
"It had to be allied forces," a second man said as he joined them. "For the longest time we thought it would never stop."
"Lynn," he said into the radio on his collar, "Take the vehicles back to the motor pool. We're going to help here." He addressed everyone else by radio who hadn't followed him down into the hole, asking them to return the vehicles back to base.
Just then one of the giants jumped into the hole. The men and women who had fought in the halls stepped back startled, too startled to take up their weapons.
"Holy shit," the first man said when he noticed Griff and the soldiers that joined him weren't surprised. "What the hell is that?"
"It's a giant," Griff answered. "They came to help."
"Where did it come from?"
"It's a long story," Griff said as he put his hand on the soldier's shoulder. "I'll tell you all about it over a beer later. Let's just do what we can here for now."
The Israeli and Jordanian militaries deployed a biohazard unit to assist with the underground base cleanup. Working alongside them, the giants carried the bodies up from the depths, separating the casualties. Hostile soldiers were brought to the surface for burial, while the few fallen allied soldiers were prepared to be sent home to their families. Before any burial took place, crews collected and registered DNA samples for a global database. Though online heritage sites had started over a century earlier as simple genealogy quests, the technology now served a vital, solemn purpose. There would be no more unmarked graves. Every family, regardless of their allegiance, held the right to search the DNA registry for their loved ones. Each resting place was meticulously grid-marked and pinned on global satellite maps—a tedious, time-consuming process as every single corpse was processed.
"Here," the field medic said as he handed Avril another vile. She scanned the beaker's code, set the marker on the map and placed it with the others. The giants had remained with the medical crew and would dig the graves as they went along. Each would then place the little body in the hole and cover it. When they had finished the last body of the soldiers, the medic began to pack up his things. But when the giants began to act as if they were upset, both the medic and Avril looked to try to understand the concern. Avril read one of the giant's vibrations and knew what was bothering him.
"He wants you to process the bodies of the giants," she said to the Israeli medic in Hebrew as she turned to him.
"Why?" he asked her. "Do they have a family?"
"They think we are doing some kind of burial ritual," Avril answered. "They want their kind to be a part of the ritual."
"Well, they fought the battle," the medic smiled. "They get the ritual." He began to unpack the venipuncture kits and put them in his backpack. He walked to the giant and motioned he was ready. The behemoth man put down his hand and the medic climbed on with his armload of equipment, Avril hurried to join him by climbing into the giant's other hand. The huge man walked over, carefully holding them close to his chest and then set them atop the first deceased colossus man. Studying the body they realized the task would be somewhat forbidding.
"How are we going to do this?" Avril asked the medic, continuing in Hebrew. "Those needles won't puncture their thick skin."
"We'll take samples from their wounds," the medic said, stepping toward a wide pool of coagulated blood. He eyed the dark crust, looking for a place to break through. "Get some gloves on and help me work this clot."
Avril moved in to help. Together, they scraped a thick sample into a specimen tube. The medic then signaled the remaining giants, who stepped forward to lower their fallen comrade into a freshly dug trench. Avril and the medic gripped the dead giant's massive collar, anchoring themselves to the torso as others lowered the body down as gently as possible. Once the giant was settled, the medic logged a GPS pin on his tablet, attaching a detailed note to the coordinates. When they were ready, massive hands scooped both tiny humans up, setting them safely aside as the giants began shoveling earth over the grave with their hands.
With all the dead finally put to rest, the medic and Avril returned to their electric vehicle and loaded up their instruments and supplies. It was odd that the giants didn't follow them back to the base. Avril turned and watched as they gathered themselves together, and the last five of the surviving gigantic men turned to head southward.
"Where do you suppose they're going?" The medic asked but she shrugged and continued to watch them as their driver drove away in the opposite direction.
"Where are the giants?" General Sefira asked in Hebrew when the medical team docked their vehicle and began to collect their things.
"They traveled south after we processed the bodies," the medic answered.
"They will find a home for themselves," Avril added, she also spoke in Hebrew. "Their vibrations of thought felt as if they were heading somewhere near the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia."
"The ancient writings talk about giants living there," the medic mused.
"Well," Avril said thoughtfully. "Fact or fiction, they'll be living there now."
"They will be the last of their kind to walk the earth," Emaniel said, also speaking in Hebrew, as he walked up to them. "If you noticed, there were no females, only males. They will once again die off and probably be forgotten."
"That doesn't seem right," Avril said sadly.
"They only borrowed our timeline," said Emaniel. "They will return another time, in another place that will be laid out for them in the physical."
"I'll relay a message to the Arabs of their presence. The giants should live wherever they choose to call home without being molested by man," the Israeli general said as he left the conversation. The medic nodded at Avril and they also continued on their own way. The Essene leader had disappeared from the group as mysteriously as he had appeared.
"What's up?" Jimmy asked as he ran across the motor pool to his sweetheart's side. "You were out there for days." Sampson's nails clicked the floor as he followed.
"We mark graves, and DNA for families," she said as she kissed him. He was just what she needed to get past the hot sultry days in the sun and living in a tent for the last week. "Giants want mark too."
"What do you mean?" Jimmy asked. Whatever she was talking about it sounded pretty interesting.
"Mark grave of giant, like ours," she answered.
"You put the giants into our DNA bank?" He said with a wide grin. "This ought to be interesting. I want to see what families they match up with."
"Me too," Avril said as she thought about it.
Jimmy helped Avril unload supplies and carry them into the medical bay. When they finally headed back to their domain, he led his beloved into his room. Lynn, Griff, and Merc looked up from their huddle at the table, where they were playing a three-player game of six-level chess on the hologram projector.
"You not to win," Avril said to Lynn. She pointed at the queens on two levels and and then at the opposing rooks. "No use same play on different levels, always to lose."
"Well, I'm out," Lynn said as she zapped her queens with the player device that disintegrated the pieces.
"Hey, put those back," Griff complained. "We're still playing."
"Guess what Avril did," Jimmy broke into the conversation. "She put the giant's markers into the DNA bank."
"I want to see the results on that," Merc said as he moved two of his pieces. "Check."
"I'm out," Griff said and turned off the game.
"Son of a bitch," Merc said as he glared at Griff. "I still win."
"Let us know when they've mapped out their lineage," Griff said, purposely changing the subject.
"I'm claiming that as a victory," Merc said and tossed his marker device on the table. "When do you think they'll have that done, the giant's DNA matches?"
"Today," she answered. "Medic curious too."
"They've been able to start building a barrier of the super concrete around the base," Lynn informed Avril, changing the subject completely. "They have to blend the cement first and then melt the plastic into the paste. It looks damn good when it sets. Kind of artsy. Although the molds have to be perfectly precise to fit, you can't cut it to shape. Hell, you can't even blow that shit up."
"Wait a minute," Griff said as a thought occurred to him, "the poly fiber, that could be what the Chinese are using for their drones projectiles. They may have blended it with something."
"Let's check it out," Merc said as he pulled together his pack and rifle. "They have some of the downed drones in the lab."