Cloud to Cloud

Episode 1: The Reality of War

"Come on, Evan! Get on frequency!" the confined space of the military communications van filled with Linc's voice, as his partner heard the demands through military-issue headphones.

"Hold your horses, cowboy! I don't have them yet!" Evan adjusted his position on the thinly cushioned metal seat.

He reached to turn one of the multitudes of dials on the board occupying the wall in front of him, causing the static in the headphones to merge with the squeal of the metal stool.

Evan winced at the noise. "Billions of dollars on state of the art modern tech, and they can't get us a comfortable chair that won't squeak."

Sleek monitors mounted above eye level flickered to life, before reverting once again to static. The snap of an image caught Linc's eye before it was lost in a haze of pixels and scrambled data.

"That was it!" Linc straightened his lanky form in his seat. The energy of the moment coursed through his tattooed arms. "We're almost there!"

Another flicker of images, and both men sucked in a breath. Anticipation and adrenaline coursed through Evan's rigid form.

Linc wiped his palms over the camouflaged pants of his uniform.

"Hands on the wheel, man." Evan grabbed at the dials.

Linc gave the comment a brief grin. His hands struck the keyboard stationed in front of him, fingers flying.

Code and commands screamed across the faces of the monitors below the flickering screens. Evan's eyes flitted between each of the four main viewing channels. The images and data streams were joined by a garbled audio feed.

"Yes!" Evan locked in the dials within his reach. "Okay, okay, I'm in! I got it! I got the link!"

Linc's smooth shaven face ripped into a broad smile. "Yes, you do! Right next to you, brother!"

Evan's gaze tore from the screens long enough to roll his eyes at the comment.

"Whatever, man. There! Decryption set!" The screen directly in front of Evan blossomed with encoded text. "Let's get this!"

Linc wiped his face on the sleeve of his uniform. "Enemy tank battalion closing forward line. Grid six, tango-five-two. Is the drone in position?"

Evan's hands surfed across the board below the monitors. "It is now. Ready to jam when you say."

Evan glanced to his side at a small Army Cyber Command motivational poster taped to the front of a door panel. He smiled as he recalled its words:

Einstein never guessed the weapons of World War III would be information, data, and control of the Infostrada.

Evan keyed in another myriad of code.

"Okay... Now! Block 'em out." A flicker of dots scattered across the screen as Linc whistled.

"Done! Look at those dots bounce the battlefield. They have virtually no electronics. They're blind! Total confusion!" Laughter echoed off the walls of the communications van.

"Shit. They're all over the place." Evan smirked.

Linc shushed Evan with a wave as he sent a verbal all-clear through the headset. "Red Rover Four, this is Snoopy Three. The battlefield is yours."

Another voice filled both Evan's and Linc's headsets. "Roger. We can probably hold jamming for twenty. We'll tell you when they finally knock down our bird. Clean 'em up while you can. Out."

Linc's eyes flashed as he accepted the go-ahead for the real prize. "Let's get back to the data. I see the signals. You are dead on frequency now."

Evan's eyes locked on the screen in front of him. "Crypto key cracking routine... set! Let's grab these data streams. They're in a panic out there and trying anything! Their guard is down. Transmissions are sloppy."