Week Thirty Four
Fortunate Sun
0.6%. That's the amount of total land in the United States necessary to build solar farms to power the entire nation. 11,200,000 acres to generate 4,000,000 GWh of clean and renewable electricity. Solar Logistics knew this when they began buying up large tracts of cheap land in three locations across the almost always sunny American southwest. These would be the future sites of SunFire 1, SunFire 2, and SunFire 3, the largest and most-technologically advanced solar farms in the world.
The creation of SunFire would put an end to the coal and nuclear power industries, and it would, effectively, create a giant dent in the oil industry. That it made its way through congressional approval, passed lobbyists and politicians in the pocket of Big Oil, was no small feat and one that's attributed to it being a mostly private undertaking.
But Big Oil was not going down without a fight. They created bullshit papers about the lack of feasibility of the project. The created television commercials talking about the destruction of the American desert - ironically leaving out the part about the damages they themselves had done to the Gulf of Mexico and Prince William Sound. And when those didn't sway the public, they decided to take things a bit further.
Enter Dawson Ashgrove, former Special Ops, and now a "boots on the ground" guy for anyone with a big enough check book. He helped a few CEOs out of unwanted situations, both foreign and domestic, and had managed to sabotage the manufacturing abilities of an up-and-coming airplane builder that put them out of business within five months. He not only cleaned up messes, he created them too.
His arrival in Bisbee, Arizona with a few extra zeros in his savings account from ExxonMobile and blueprints of SunFire 2 in his Pelican Case meant that things were about to get very messy. The back of his Volvo XC40 had everything he needed for the job - high explosives, guns and ammunition, his trusty "for emergency only" box, and enough items and information to tie this whole thing back to a small group of Islamic radicals.
The plan was easy enough. SunFire 2 was still being built, so security would be diminished. Based on the surveillance he'd already performed, Ashgrove could take out the skeleton crew quickly and without much fanfare. From there, he'd plant explosives near the photovoltaic cells, destroying more than 70% of them. He'd take special care to rupture barrels containing sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide, showing the public that solar energy was not without its dangerous chemicals. Finally, he'd leave behind a few documents and hard drives in his rented room that would point fingers at the known "persons of interest" who were thought to be in league with several oil-producing Middle Eastern nations. All of this would, hopefully, have the power to stop Solar Logistics in their track. By ExxonMobile's estimation, they wouldn't have enough cash to finish the project, and if they attempted to get public funding, none of this would pass through the Republican-controlled congress.
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Dusk had painted the Mule Mountains a deep purple. He sat on a low hillock overlooking SunFire 2 with his M107 set up in front of him. There were six personnel in the complex, four inside, and one each outside at the gates. He'd be able to eliminate the two gate targets before either one of them heard the report from the gun. But this would send the four others into alarm. He anticipated at least two of the four to come out and look at what happened, making them easy targets. He'd then take out the remaining personnel once he got into the complex. Even if someone managed to call the Bisbee police, it'd be a half an hour before they could get out to SunFire. Ashgrove would already be gone, and the remote explosives would already be in place.
Two shots echoed off the photovoltaic cells, and two bodies lay motionless at the east and west gates. None of the SunFire crew were alerted, meaning Ashgrove would have to take care of them in person.
Had the other four personnel been watching the hills, the would have seen the XC40 driving down toward the west gate with a trail of dust rising up behind it. It smashed through the entry gate and stopped near the border cells. Ashgrove opened the trunk and placed the first unarmed explosive on the ground. He'd carefully designed these so that each were daisy-chained together with rope and priming wire so he could drive the truck and they would fall out the back in even intervals.
He serpentined around the rows of cells, his trunk getting lighter and lighter, before a bullet lodged itself in the truck's hood. Then another. Ashgrove immediately regretted not taking out the personnel first.
Instead of driving away from the gunfire, he drove toward it. The XC40 had kicked up enough dust that he was driving blind. And once he killed the headlights, it meant that his attackers couldn't find him either. Backing up and retracing his path, he heard the sound of gunshots in the distance, but none hit the truck. He took a different route through the solar farm, still laying out a string of explosives behind him. He then made a beeline toward the main building where the shots were coming from and winced as one landed in his shoulder. Two more tore through his front left tire and the truck fumbled to a stop.
Dust surrounded him again. Applying pressure to his shoulder, he ran around back and pulled the rest of the explosives out of the back. Three more gun shots snapped into the truck. He quickly set up the triggering device and armed the explosives. It was too late to remotely detonate. Small red lights illuminated in a twisted trail behind him and throughout the solar farm.
He could hear footsteps running up behind him. He pulled out his sidearm and fired wildly into the dust hoping to ward off anyone approaching. But when he felt the cold steel pressed into his temple, he knew it was over.
One press of the button sent a bright white flash that seared Ashgrove's eyes for an instant and then left nothing but an empty blackness that slowly turned off all sound and thought.
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"Investigators have determined that it was rogue Islamic militants operating in cooperation with the Saudi Arabian government that caused the explosion at the SunFire 2 complex last month where six bodies were recovered from the blast. Solar Logistics, the owner of SunFire 2 has said that clean-up will take a few months and that the project is on hold pending further review. In other news, the makers of Dushenivan, a once-promising cancer treatment drug, have stopped development after five of its test subjects died as a result of using it in clinical trials."
