Hotel California: Part 1: No reason to be afraid
Posted By: PeterPiperArbiter
Date: 27 June 2005, 4:22 pm
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"Any time of year, you can find it here." read on the dimmed poster on the wall.
"Yeah. Right." I thought while tossing my bag on the reception desk. I was one of the men and women who were assigned to clear the so-called hotel and ready it for work as a makeshift headquarters for the local operations. The Covenant had already begun its attack on Africa, and it would surely be only a matter of time before they get here. Where? I was stationed only about 150 kilometres away from New Mombassa, which was completely destroyed by an in-atmospheric slip-space jump.
Our official local command post was overrun only a half an hour ago.. Or at least I think it was. My team was evacuated a few minutes before the battle started ringing behind us. Yes, we were techs. We had no business in battle..
"Hey, you! You gonna stop dreaming boy? Anytime soon would be nice." a nearby soldier said.
"Uh.. Yes sir." I muttered, as I was starting to gather my tools up from the bag.
"Never mind them.." Kathy, my girlfriend, said to me and smiled.
We were happy together. As happy as you can be, I suppose, when you'd have to fear the end of your existence as a race at the same time. How I wished I could hold her now, but no.. Not on duty. I remember how she said that. It wasn't in any way mean. Just, that we'd get our jobs done once in a while, that's how she said it. She always was a bit worried about everyone else and what they thought about us.
Well, the place was somewhat tidied up now, at least there weren't any tables or broken chairs lying anywhere near. We started on working with the electrics.
"Sheesh! This place must be ancient. When was the last time you saw one of these?" Kathy said, and showed me an ordinary light bulb.
Those were indeed ancient, but the electric system in general was in good shape and somewhat modern. It wouldn't be as bad we thought it would.
There wasn't much to do inside the place. We hooked the computers over to the electric system and everything worked out fine at least for now.. Nothing blew up. Outside, more specifically, on the roof.. It was a different thing. We'd need to set up comlink –stations, some sort of a radar system and we'd have to hide them as well, so they wouldn't get scorched immediately in an air raid. Not that this place could withstand too much punishment, but guess it's the thought that counts..
Speaking of thoughts, I was just thinking that the night was about to land above us. Me, Kathy, Helen, Nick and John worked anyway to get the base up and running, that was our job and we shouldn't rest before it was done. Not today.
Helen and John were working with the wirings, the rest of us three workaholics were doing our best getting these things working again - after who knows how long storage time.
Marines and other staff, like commanding officers and such, had been arriving and making the place a home away from home all day. We had just got the radar working, somewhere around 1 a.m., when Kathy tapped me on the back and pointed up. There were no clouds, and the sight was in all of it's ghastliness, beautiful. We decided to take a small and damn well earned break.
Our fate, as far as we know, was being decided up there. You could see small explosions and "shooting stars", beams and flashes.. It was beautiful, and this could be our last night.. With me and Kathy.. I was just about to kiss her when a marine ran up behind us and yelled us to get the hell inside and quick. The reason was clear; there was a group of Phantoms in the area. Under the moonlight, they were flying low and about a few kilometres away from us, you could see the light reflecting from their armour. It certainly was a wakeup call, and a real reminder that love really does make you blind..
There were no fixed, heavy defences. We simply didn't have the time to make any. We went to the bomb shelter, with the few civilians that were still around and rest of our tech group.
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