The driver of the white panel
truck looked over and saw
something even more
horrible—several more soldiers
running towards them, rifles
at the ready. He picked up his
walkie-talkie and keyed the
mike button: "All units, this
is Charlie, baleet zheeyot,
repeat, 'stomach ache,' 'stomach ache.' Out." He put
the truck in PARK, pulled a
pistol from under his jacket
and hid it in his front jacket
pocket, and got out of the
truck. His passenger’s face
was blank with surprise when
he heard the order, but after
a moment’s hesitation he too
got out, his hands inside his
coat pocket.
Hundreds of frightened people
were running hysterically off
the San Francisco-Oakland Bay
Bridge towards the toll
booths—some were so scared
that they were throwing
themselves over the side and
plummeting several stories to
the pavement below. The police
were reacting quickly, trying
desperately to restore order.
"Stay in your vehicles!"
they shouted from
public-address loudspeakers. "Do
not panic! There is no danger!
Stay in your vehicles!"
The two Russians walked
quickly amidst the crowds,
moving quickly enough to not
get trampled but not so fast
that it drew attention to
themselves. CalTrans officers
were emerging from the toll
plaza, arms upraised, urging
folks to go back to their
vehicles so they could be
moved. As hard as they tried
to avoid them, one CalTrans
worker appeared in front of
the lead Russian. "Sir, where
the hell do you think you’re goin'?" the hefty woman
shouted. "Go back to your
vehicle, right now! You can't
leave your…"
"Yop tvayu mat!" the
Russian said, and put two
bullets into the woman. These
new gunshots created a virtual
human stampede. Terrified
drivers ran in every
direction, trampling anyone
unlucky enough to be trying to
head in the opposing
direction.
The two Russians followed the
surging human tidal wave past
the toll plaza, steering
themselves towards the north
side of the onramp where a new
east span of the Bay Bridge
was under construction. They
climbed atop an immense dump
truck at the base of a
concrete support structure.
Moments later, several
construction workers joined
them. "What happened?" one of
them asked.
"We heard gunshots," one of
the Russians replied in a
pretty good American accent.
"When we saw everyone else
running, we ran too."
"Shit, man, this is the
biggest panic I’ve seen since
the Eighty-Nine earthquake,"
another worker said. "What did
you see?"
"A huge explosion," the
Russian replied. "A huge
fireball, as big as those
suspension towers."
"What?" the worker asked.
"What are you talking about? I
didn't see no explosion."
"Oh. Uyobyvat! Are you
kidding!" And at that, he
pulled out a small cellphone,
hit a speed-dial button, then
pressed the green "SEND"
key—and the white panel truck,
loaded with almost two
thousand kilos of high
explosives, detonated in a
massive fireball. The entire
easternmost section of the Bay
Bridge blew apart, sending
hundreds of vehicles flying
through the air and crashing
down to the edge of San
Francisco Bay.
But that was not the last
explosion to occur on the Bay
area bridges that morning.
When the terrorists' emergency
call went out, a second
terrorist team already caught
in heavy traffic on the
westbound span of the bridge
west of Yerba Buena Island in
a large Chevy panel van also
exited their vehicle, ran
through traffic towards San
Francisco, and detonated the
explosives by remote control
when they started to see
National Guard troops up ahead
in their path.
The Golden Gate Bridge to the
northwest was not spared.
Another truck filled with
explosives detonated in the
northbound lane several meters
from the toll plaza, and a
second truck bomb exploded
almost exactly at mid-span in
the southbound lanes. The
suspension bridge twisted
wildly, several of the cables
holding the span snapped, and
huge chunks of the roadway
fell into the straits, but the
bridge somehow held.
Market Street in the heart of
San Francisco came under
attack moments later. Through
clouds of smoke wafting in all
directions, six Humvees and
two large sports-utility
vehicles made their way
through the debris and craters
in the street. Each Humvee had
a soldier in regular-looking
green camouflage fatigues in
the gunner's turret, manning a
fifty-caliber machine gun. The Humvees blocked the
intersections of Drumm,
California, and Market
Streets, deploying two
terrorists from each vehicle.
The terrorists hid small
remote-control explosive
devices in trash containers or
under parked vehicles, then
took up defensive positions on
opposite street corners. The
fourth Humvee and the SUVs
continued down Drumm Street on
to a high-rise office building
just west of Justin Herman
Plaza, overlooking the San
Francisco Ferry Building and
World Trade Center on the
waterfront.
<End of Excerpt>
About Dale Brown
Former U.S. Air Force captain
Dale Brown is the superstar
author of eleven consecutive
New York Times best-selling
military-action-aviation
adventure novels: FLIGHT OF
THE OLD DOG (1987), SILVER
TOWER (1988), DAY OF THE
CHEETAH (1989), HAMMERHEADS
(1990), SKY MASTERS (1991),
NIGHT OF THE HAWK (1992),
CHAINS OF COMMAND (1993),
STORMING HEAVEN (1994),
SHADOWS OF STEEL (1996) and
FATAL TERRAIN (1997), THE TIN
MAN (1998), BATTLE BORN
(1999), and WARRIOR CLASS
(2001). His Fourteenth Novel AIRBATTLE FORCE will be
published in late Spring
2003... Dale's novels are
published in 11 languages and
distributed to over 70
countries. Worldwide sales of
his novels, audiobooks and
computer games exceed 10
million copies.
Ripped from today's
headlines, Act of War: Direct Action is a suspenseful real-time
strategy experience based on the techno-thriller by bestselling author Dale
Brown. In the midst of a collapsed economy, terror attacks and instability
plague the U.S. and beyond. In this new reality, a specialized
anti-terrorist unit must assure homeland defense... at all costs. Command
counterterrorist forces throughout the world, in this PC game of
geopolitical conflict and international intrigue. Tomorrow's War Is Now.
Platform:
PC
Category: Real-Time Strategy
Launch
date: March 8, 2005 ESRB rating: Teen Target System Requirements:
Operating System: Windows 2000/XP
Processor: Pentium III 1 GHz
Memory: 256 MB RAM
Video: DirectX 9.0 compatible
Story
Overview
A ruthless
secret group of petroleum company owners known as the Consortium
finances an international terrorist organization to stage a
series of attacks around the world in an effort to destabilize
the global economy and profit from skyrocketing oil prices. A
group of seasoned military veterans and young techies are
recruited into a special high-tech task force and begin the
worldwide job of tracking down the terrorists and uncovering the
international conspiracy before the terrorists can strike in the
heart of America itself. Product
Features
CHILLING AND BELIEVABLE STORYLINE
Storyline and game universe
created in close cooperation with Dale Brown, 15 times NY Times
best-selling author and expert on US
military, global conflict and future military technology.
EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT
Zoom down to street level on the urban
battlefields of San Francisco, Washington DC, London and Moscow;
all highly detailed, realistic, and fully destructible. With a
game-play where success is partly determined by your ability to medevac your own wounded soldiers and take enemies prisoner
(rather than killing them), contemporary/near-future combat
comes to life in a very modern way.
MILITARY AUTHENTICITY
First RTS to combine a reality universe
with simple, elegant game play. Using highly detailed
representations of existing and experimental military
technology, all to scale, Act of War offers an authentic battle
experience without the authentic complexity.
Strong focus on exceptional production value (audio, cinematics,
story, technology)
Full 3D with ability to zoom in to see the action up-front for
full immersion into the action.
Level of detail in character animations and textures only seen
in FPS games to date.
Extensive multiplayer options and single-player skirmish mode
for infinite replayability.
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or search Google below.
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