Chapter 7-4
The time was dawn when team China arrived at Shelter 1. Everyone let out a sigh of relief upon seeing this base because it was a modernized military base. There was a complete airport and barracks. The civilian tents were separated from the rest. A modern research building was guarded. And best of all, there were high tech weapons such as the newest Apache attack helicopters and tanks that hadn’t been turned into Transformers. A few helicopters took off as the Sky Sticks appeared in the distance. The two parties had communicated in advance so the helicopters guarded the Sky Sticks until they reached Shelter 1.
Shelter 1 was located on a flat plain the mountains. A river flowed through this plain. So there were way more troops and civilians stationed in this shelter. Basically all the civilians that survived in the surrounding cities had gathered here. The population approximated two millions, crowding this spacious plain.
The United States was one of the leading countries prior to the catastrophe of Transformers. Despite 99% of its cities were destroyed, the reserve stockpiled by the federal government and those remained in the smaller cities and towns could feed several million people for a period of time.
Still, distress overtook the government officials. It wasn’t limited to just the U.S. though. The U.S. suffered the heaviest damage, almost wiped out. New robots were being created in other countries rendering all high tech weapons useless. While the number of robots increased, humans were dying off without the same replenishment. Computer calculations estimated the time before human extinction was approximately one year.
The end is nigh for the human species… was nothing more than a false prophecy at any other time. It would only appear in fictions, movies, or games. Our concerns regarding extinction were only worries in regard to the environment, to nature, and to nuclear weapons. Even the most pessimistic person would not believe that date to come in a year. However, the countdown had started in reality.
Team China’s appearance was especially important in this situation. If what they said was true, then humans did not walk down the path of extinction as predicted. Humans rose from a disadvantageous position until they stood on even field with the robots. Time machine was invented in under a hundred years. Some politicians sighed as they realized war was the force behind technological advancements.
Team China disembarked from the Sky Sticks. A thousand troops surrounded the airport. A political figure and ten researchers with white hair rushed to the team. An man at least half a century old grasped Zheng’s hand and said. “You come at the right time. We are grateful… The citizens of America thank you. People of the world thank you.” He dragged Zheng toward the modernized building.
Zheng smiled bitterly as he looked back. The researchers fenced around the Sky Sticks like people that had been starved. Xuan acted heartlessly. He handed a bag to Zero. Zero then opened it up and put the two Sky Sticks into the bag in front of everyone. He folded the bag like a handkerchief. He didn’t give it back to Xuan and instead put it into his shirt pocket.
“Spatial…” The researchers were dumbfounded as they pointed at Zero. “Spatial technology! Have humans of the future reached the applications of spatial technology already? How is this accomplished? Special materials that can cause a change in the electromagnetic field?Or space compression?”
The researchers clung onto Zero. The rest of the team quickly went over to Zheng.
The old man’s face twitched, but he immediately pulled himself together and put on a smile. “Let’s go to conference room first. We can leave the discussion on technologies for later. I think no one wants to delay any longer. Every second we lose is at the cost of the lives of tens of thousands of people and the same number of increase for the robots. Frankly, I wish for you to wipe out the robots as soon as tomorrow.”
The old man tried to snoop information from them but Zheng was experienced at derailing the conversation. The politicians didn’t get anything out of him by the time they reached the building. The group entered the conference room and Zero was finally freed from the researchers.
On the other end of Shelter 1, a few dozen people were anxiously staring at a screen that showed an X-ray. A corridor that team China walked by just then was under the scan of an X-ray machine. It would show whether they were humans or robots in disguise.
“No issues. They are real humans, every one of them. Their bodies are beyond impressive. The weakest one in the group is still at least twice stronger than our best soldier. And I don’t know how to describe their leader… They really are humans from the future. Humans that have evolved.”
Despite claiming to be sent from the future, the government was cautious of team China due to their sudden appearance. The thing was, if team China from their future to save the Earth, then some things had to be given access to them. These things were the last hopes of humans. Therefore, the government must know whether they were humans, and furthermore, humans that weren’t controlled by the Decepticons.
“They can’t be. Our civilization is built on the infinite energy of the AllSpark. Our form of life is a cycle of robot, energy, and reconstruction. Humans are a species based on genetics. We have no research nor prior contact with this species as you are the first similar species we have met. Thus, we could not have obtained a method to control humans. Megatron is a tyrant who only knows to destroy everything. He will never cooperate with humans.” A voice sounded next to the old man’s ears.
The old man finally let out a sigh of relief. He put the headset back into his pocket then walked into the conference room. “My apologies to keep you waiting. Let us now start the discussion of putting an end to the catastrophe brought by the alien robots.”
There were a total of sixty people including politicians, military officers, researchers, and other related personnels from the U.S. Team China only had twelve people but everyone was looking at them with hope, doubt, hesitation, and contempt.
The old man said. “Ahem. I was the vice president of the U.S., Andrew Roosevelt. I took office after the previous president died in the catastrophe… The current statistics of the U.S. is 13 million survivors spread over from Shelter 1 to Shelter 9 and some smaller towns. We have 1.2 million soldiers. However, only Shelter 1 still possesses a small quantity of heavy equipment and mechanical weapons. Out current situation is not promising. Most countries in the world are at a similar state to the U.S… Humans have come to the final line before extinction. Director of the National Security Agency, please brief on our situation.”
He turned to a tough looking middle age man. The man saluted and said. “Yes. Mr. President. The only reason the Decepticons haven’t come to wipe us out is because they have other priorities on hand. We have no way of defending an attack from them. There are only 100 thousand soldiers stationed in each base from Shelter 3 to Shelter 9. Their military equipment are extremely outdated. They only had the oldest tanks and lacking in heavy firearms. No air support. No access to satellite information. Nothing. Their defense is nothing more than a piece of paper to the Decepticons. One slight poke and it will break open. Shelter 1 and Shelter 2 are our hopes. We retained a lot of armed vehicles and air weapons. But these are not enough to fight the stronger Decepticons. They also had the advantage of numbers. My advise is to use nuclear weapons. It is the only way to save humans from extinction.”
The director of NSA was dressed in a military uniform and spoke with the tone of people from the military. He was nearly shouting by the end of his words.
The politicians and officers debated. Quite a few were agreeing to using nuclear weapons, but they were not the majority. Almost none of the politicians agreed with it.
“Gentlemen, calm down. We have talked with other countries the last time and unanimously agreed we should not use nuclear weapons. If the U.S. started this trend, all countries in possession of nuclear weapons will begin to bomb cities containing robots. When such time comes, we would have no need for a countdown. As we know, ocean water can isolate objects from the power of the AllSpark. So nuclear submarine aren’t affected but that also means a large quantity of nuclear weapons still exist. Let us hear what the future warriors have to say. I believe they will show us the light.” Roosevelt sighed.
Xuan stood up before Zheng got to talk. “First. It is impossible for twelve people to fight all the robots in the world. Our strategy is to find the location of the AllSpark and destroy it. Once the robots lose their source of energy, we can either fight an attrition war or use a limited amount of nuclear weapons. The survival of humans is guaranteed after we killed the majority of robots. So the first task is to find the AllSpark. We can not accomplish this task by ourselves. We need help from the military and government. Secondly, our weapons are also mechanical objects and have the risk of turning into Transformers, which will lower our strength by a large margin. In order to prevent this from happening, we need to know the reason of why the mechanical objects in this place haven’t been converted. Is it due to the electromagnetic field of this place?”
All sixty people turned to the president. The old man hesitated. He silently looked over team China before he sighed. “Follow me. They are the last hope of humans. They protected us from the power of the AllSpark. I think the answer you want lies in them.”