There were twin grips at the rear of the tubular weapon that Rempt now positioned in the general direction of the Antonov, and as the two Hinds set down nearby, Rempt activated the weapon by moving a virtual mouse cursor keyed to his eye movement across the visual field of the HUD and clicking the cursor with a double blink on the appropriate button.
Rempt instantaneously felt the weapon vibrate as the amplification circuitry was activated, and a beam of invisible force streamed from the psychotronic projector. The weapon was the end-product of a half century of clandestine research and development. In the early stages of development, only the USSR. had taken the concept seriously, but during the Cold War the US had realized the military potential of psychotronics and pushed to close the gap in the way an earlier generation had closed a nuclear missile gap.
Although the hows and whys of the technology were still poorly understood, enough was known to produce a variety of useful weapon systems, mainly for clandestine warfare. One major difference between psychotronic beams and more conventional beams, such as laser or microwave radiation, is that psychotronic beams cannot be stopped or deflected by any known force or substance.
The projector Rempt fired sent its energies straight through the Antonov's hull, and its effects were immediate. In the same way that the electromagnetic pulse from Cerberus had neutralized the Antonov's electronic systems, so psychotronic attack had unplugged the crew members' brains and central nervous systems. After a few seconds' exposure, the crew sat motionless in their seats, cut off from all experience of the world around them.
Rempt then turned the projector on the two descended Hinds. The weapon produced the identical result on the four crewmen in the double cockpits of the Soviet gun ships. Brain wave analysis by the weapon's remote scanning sensors showed that the targets had been completely overcome by the weaponized force. Rempt then deactivated the weapon and removed the HUD.
"They're out of it," he told Breaux with unconcealed relish. "And, partner, we are going in."
Chapter Nine
Slowly, cautiously, as though approaching a trio of tranquilized prehistoric monsters, the concealed commandos and rebel forces emerged from hiding places amid the crags and crevices of the tableland and moved toward the silent, immobilized aircraft.
The tableau was surreal, yet there it was. Breaux's troops approached with weapons drawn and unsafed.
"Man, they're sure as shit out of it," Sgt. Death commented. "They're like zombies."
"Rempt, how deep are they under?" asked Breaux.
Breaux's squad had surrounded the two choppers and Breaux had opened the cockpit compartment door to peer inside at the pilot.
"Deep as you can get," Rempt answered as he put on a pair of padded leather gloves. "Watch this."
Hauling back and bunching his fist, the spook suddenly launched a savage right directly into the center of the pilot's face. Hot dark blood jetted from the shattered nose.
Breaux grabbed Rempt's hand and spun him around.
"You do that again and I'll break your jaw, so help me, you sick sonofabitch."
Rempt struggled loose, and his toothy smile returned to his long, lean, Texan's face.
"Don't worry, partner," he told Breaux. "One shot's all I allow myself. But these guys are history anyway, so what's the difference?" Rempt began removing the flight helmets of the first Hind's aircrew.
"It's hard to resist. It's like being on a drug high and thinking you're god, that you can do anything to anybody, but here it's true. I could cut them to pieces and they wouldn't know or feel a thing. Their nervous systems are just — unplugged's the best word, I guess."
"Rempt," Breaux said, "if this is what war's becoming in the twenty-first century, then I'd just as soon buy the farm right now. What I'm seeing disgusts me."
"Relax, you self-righteous bastard," Rempt said back. "These weapons have been around for decades. They've never been produced for the battlefield and probably never will. There are already secret treaty protocols banning their use. But in the case of covert operations, well, that's another story entirely. In this here sandbox, any game that works, you play."
By now Rempt had removed the first flight helmet, inserted a thin charge of plastic explosive and a microminiature remote detonator, and placed the helmet back onto the pilot's head.
"This poor bastard's all done," he announced, after wiping away the blood. He'd probably come out of it without even a sore nose. "Now let's take good care of the second pilot."
Rempt turned and walked off into the darkness toward the other downed gun ship.
Meanwhile other members of the force were conducting their part of the operation at the downed Antonov. Here too, the flight crew was completely immobilized, although there was no attempt made to tamper with any of the personnel as Rempt had done to the crew of the Hind.
On the contrary, the attention of the force was given over to the palleted and lashed-down cargo that had been carried onboard the huge heavy lift transport aircraft. Squads of specially equipped SFOD-O personnel swarmed over the crash-landed Soviet aircraft, some devoting their attention to the exterior hull, others entering the plane's cavernous interior.
The detail that went into the plane immediately set up generator-powered high-intensity lamps that lit the Antonov's cargo bay in a bright, hard glare. While they unshipped videocams and set about recording the specifics of the war materials that were stowed onboard the transport out of Kharkov, those stationed outside in the cold and darkness were treated to the eerie spectacle of ghost lights gleaming from within the crash-landed jet.
While the videocam crews swept through the Coaler's cargo area, technicians went to work on the lashed, palleted and crated payload onboard the heavy lifter. These crews were equipped with NBC agent detectors and precision tools of various types. Crates were opened and the cargo carefully video-recorded, some components removed where necessary.
In the case of the heavy caliber artillery tubes that were lashed down the length of the Antonov's cavernous cargo area, these were uncrated and then subjected to a metallurgical sampling procedure. A specially modified drill was used to extract a few millimeters of metal from the tube casings, then the tubes were re-crated and lashed into their original positions.
By the time the operation at the Antonov's landing site was completed, the squad operating on and in the vicinity of the two immobilized Hind helicopter gunships had already finished up its work. The area around the Hinds had been carefully and thoroughly sanitized of all human presence, and the special forces personnel prepared to withdraw back into concealment at the base and summit of the bluffs prior to commencement of the second phase of operations.
Rempt was back behind the projector, this time inducing the reverse of the neural paralysis that had disabled the Soviet aircrew at the bottom of the gorge. Other elements of the covert mission unit monitored the ostensibly secure radio frequencies used for communications between the helos and the transport plane, using a duplicate made from Soviet radio equipment captured or copied during other missions.
Still others, including Breaux, watched intently through night observation devices as the Soviets returned to normal consciousness, albeit with no recollection of what had taken place in the approximate two hours during which the operation had been conducted.
All clocks onboard the Hinds had been reset to only a few seconds after the time that the helos had set down on the sandy floor of the ravine. The Mi-24s' systems, unlike those of the Antonov, had not been subjected to electromagnetic pulse attack, and so had remained undamaged. The covert ops technical squad onboard the Antonov had confirmed that its onboard clock had been permanently disabled, while its radio gear, which was specially hardened against EMP effect, remained functional.