Point of Crisis
Authors: Steven Konkoly
Point of Crisis
Book Three in The Perseid Collapse Series
A Novel by Steven Konkoly
Copyright Information
© 2014 Stribling Media. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Stribling Media.
Contents
About The Perseid Collapse Series and Point of Crisis
Acronyms and Terminology Used in
The Perseid Collapse Series
Dedication
To my family. The reasons I write.
Acknowledgments
To the usual suspects. You know exactly who you are. Thank you!
About the Author
Steven Konkoly graduated from the United States Naval Academy and served as a naval officer for eight years in various roles within the Navy and Marine Corps. He lives near the coast in southern Maine, where he writes full time.
His first novel,
The Jakarta Pandemic,
reached readers in 2010, followed by four novels in the
Black Flagged
series:
Black Flagged
(2011),
Black Flagged Redux
(2012),
Black Flagged Apex
(2012) and
Black Flagged Vektor
(2013).
The Perseid Collapse
(2013)
,
book one in
The Perseid Collapse Series,
signaled his return to the post-apocalyptic genre, followed shortly by
Event Horizon
(2014)
and
Point of Crisis
(2014).
Please visit Steven’s blog for updates and information regarding all his works:
About The Perseid Collapse Series and Point of Crisis
The Perseid Collapse Series
takes place six years after the H16N1 virus ravaged the world in my first novel,
The Jakarta Pandemic
. Book One,
The Perseid Collapse
, unveils the “event” that catapults the United States into chaos and chronicles the first forty-eight hours “post-event,” as the characters navigate an unfamiliar, hostile landscape to reach their destinations.
Event Horizon
picks up where book one ends, spanning the second forty-eight-hour period. That’s all I’ll say.
Point of Crisis
will open the timeline and scope of the series, addressing some of the bigger-picture questions posed by the previous books. As always, the Fletchers will be in the middle of the action.
A list of military/government acronyms and definitions used throughout
The Perseid Collapse Series
is available through the Table of Contents.
Time in
Event Horizon
is measured in plus (+) DAYS from the EVENT. The prologue scenes occur during the timeframe of the first two books in the series.
Happy Reading!
Acronyms and Terminology Used in
The Perseid Collapse Serie
s
ACOG
– Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight. A telescopic scope commonly issued to troops in the field.
ACU
– Army Combat Uniform
AFES
– Automated Fire Extinguishing System
AFV Stryker
– Armored Fighting Vehicle used by U.S. Army
AN/VRC-110
– Vehicle based VHF/UHF capable radio system used by U.S. Marine Corps.
AR-10
– 7.62mm NATO/.308 caliber, military style rifle
AR-15
– 5.56mm/.223 caliber military style rifle
BCT
– Brigade Combat Team, U.S. Army
Black Hawk
– UH-60, Medium Lift, Utility Helicopter
CISA
– Critical Infrastructure Skills Assembly
CQB
– Close Quarters Battle, urban combat
CH-47
Chinook – Twin engine, tandem rotor, heavy lift helicopter
CIC
– Combat Information Center
CONEX
– Intermodal Shipping Container. Large metal crates typically seen stacked on merchant ships or in shipping yards.
C-130
– Propeller driven, heavy lift fixed wind aircraft capable of short landings and takeoffs.
C-17B Globemaster
– Heavy Lift, fixed wing aircraft
C2BMC
– Command, Control, Battle Management and Communications
DRASH
– Deployable, Rapid Assembly Shelter
DTCS
– Distributed Tactical Communication System (satellite based network)
EMP
– Electromagnetic Pulse
ETA
– Estimated Time of Arrival
FEMA
– Federal Emergency Management Agency
FOB
– Forward Operating Base
GPS
– Global Positioning System, satellite based
GPNVG-18
– Panoramic night vision goggles, wide field of vision.
HAM radio
– Term used to describe the Amateur Radio network
HBMD
– Homeland Ballistic Missile Defense
HESCO
– Rapidly deployable earth filled defensive barrier
HK416
– 5.56mm Assault rifle/carbine designed by Hechler & Koch.
Humvee
– Nickname for High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV).
IED
– Improvised Explosive Device
KIA
– Killed in Action
L-ATV
– Light Combat Tactical All Terrain Vehicle
LP/OP
– Listening Post/Observation Post
MARPAT
– Marine Pattern, digital camouflage used by U.S. Marine Corps
M-ATV
– Medium Combat Tactical All Terrain Vehicle. MRAP
Medevac
– Medical Evacuation
MOB
– Main Operating Base
MP
– Military Police
MP-7
– Personal Defense Weapon designed by Heckler and Koch, submachine gun firing armor penetrating ammunition
MRAP
– Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle
MRE
– Meals Ready to Eat, self-contained field rations used by U.S. military
MR556SD
– 5.56mm assault rifle/carbine with integrated suppressor.
MTV M1078
– Medium Tactical Vehicle used by U.S. Army, 5 ton capacity
MTVR Mk23
– Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement used by U.S. Marine Corps, 7 ton capacity
M1919A6
– .30 caliber, belt fed medium machine gun fielded during WWII and the Korean War. Fully automatic.
M240G
– Modern 7.62mm, belt fed medium machine gun used by U.S Army and U.S. Marine Corps
M27 IAR
– Heavier barrel version of the HK416 used by U.S. Marine Corps. Replaced the M249 belt fed machine gun. Issued to one member of each fire team.
M320
– Rifle-mounted, detachable 40mm grenade launcher.
NCO
– Non-Commissioned Officer (Corporal and Sergeant)
NEO
– Near Earth Object (asteroid or meteorite)
NVD
– Night Vision Device (used interchangeable with NVG)
NVG
– Night Vision Goggles
PRC-153 ISR
– Intra-squad radio. Motorola style radio (usually strapped to tactical vest) for squad communication.
ROTAC
– Tactical Satellite Radio
RTB
– Return to Base
Satphone
– Satellite Phone
SNCO
– Staff Non-Commissioned Officer (Staff Sergeant E-6 and above)
SUV
– Sport Utility Vehicle
Two-Forty
– M240 machine gun. See M240G
UH-60 Black Hawk
– Medium Lift, Utility Helicopter
YCRB
– York County Readiness Brigade. Harrison Campbell’s group.
“Point of Crisis”
A fixed point in the “Malthusian Catastrophe,” where population levels exceed the food production and distribution capacity of a system—resulting in a crisis that can only be regulated by famine, war or disease. – From Thomas Malthus’s
Essay on the Principle of Population
(1798).
Prologue
EVENT +2 Days
Space Fence “Site Alpha”
Kwajalein Island, Republic of the Marshall Islands
Technical Sergeant Marla Quinn typed the last lines of code into the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) interface and pressed
return.
Her strained face relaxed, revealing the early stages of a grin.
“Frank, we’re connected to Vandenberg,” she said, turning to find the Raytheon contractor responsible for engineering the bypass.
An air force sergeant seated near the door shrugged his shoulders. “He left with the rest of the civilians a minute ago.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me?” Quinn muttered, turning back to the computer station.
She had been so busy typing code that she hadn’t noticed the exodus. The contractors had worked tirelessly with the station’s U.S. Air Force personnel to figure out a way to package the post-“event” Space Fence data and deliver it to the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Under normal conditions, the information streamed continuously to the California base, but two days ago, at 20:58 local time, the Joint Space Operations Center stopped accepting data. Less than thirty minutes later, the U.S Air Force garrison on Kwajalein Island went into lockdown.
Her fingers returned to the keyboard, typing the last string of commands that would route 593.7 terabytes of orbital tracking data through dozens of satellites, on a circuitous path to reach Vandenberg’s central processing mainframe. She was surprised that Frank left the room. He was well aware that she was minutes away from rebooting the system and testing his program.
“Did he say where they were going?” she asked.
“Negative. Manuel poked his head in and said everybody needed to see something. You know these guys. They interpret the term ‘appointed place of duty’ pretty loosely,” he said.
“They’ve busted their asses for thirty-six hours straight on this, so I don’t care if they’re hitting golf balls into the atoll. Can you run out and look for Frank? I’d hate for him to miss this.”
“Just send it. It’s not like the computer’s gonna pour him a glass of Johnnie Walker Blue to celebrate.”