On Distant Shores (Exiles Triology Book 1) (25 page)

“Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas, anymore.”

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Where did it all go?”
Mike thought to himself.  There was no building, no loading dock, no offices, nothing.  The compound was gone, the fence around it gone, the parking lot, gone.  There had been a rural road with traffic on it.  It was all gone.  It was a punch to the gut.

His thoughts were mirrored by the clamor over the radio.  There were at least ten people talking.  He could hear John and Jennifer, and a crowd of others.  The rest of the crowd was talking over John.  Mike couldn’t hear what he was saying.  The crowd was stunned, trying to make sense of what they were seeing.

Everett spoke, “Excuse me, can you please hold it down.”

Everett’s voice conveyed the inner Master Sergeant.  It was a command, not a request.  The team listened as Jennifer shouted everybody down.

“Everybody, quiet!  We can talk about this once we’re sure that the team is safe.  Right now, they have a job to do, and they can’t do it if we keep talking over them!”

The noise quieted down.  Mike thought about switching to another radio channel, but he wanted everybody aware of what was happening up top, just in case they had to defend themselves.  The mech armor was powerful, but who knew how many of those beasts were out there.

Right now, Tom was exposed.  He was the only one that could be attacked.  There was no room in the tunnel for Rob to squeeze up next to him.  Only when they were all in the wider cave opening would they be able to support each other with cover fire.  It was not a position that Mike liked.

“Smith, can you move the lens around so that we can see what’s out there?”

John spoke up, “Yeah, I can do that.  Wait just a second.”

The camera started forward so that the view wasn’t blocked by the cave.  The drone flew forward out of the cave.  Then it stopped in one place, and the camera slowly panned around the meadow.  The drone was about one hundred feet in front of the cave.  There was nothing but the open meadow, maybe a thousand feet long by a thousand feet wide, irregularly shaped.  The cave entrance cut into the meadow like a jagged wound. 

Some of the trees looked familiar, like pine trees, but they were oddly different, something about the color of the vegetation.  There were other trees around that looked like tropical banyan trees, and there were vines throughout the vegetation.  A low mist encased the meadow as well.  It definitely didn’t look like South Dakota.  The sky beyond the trees was a darker, gun metal gray.

Mike had an ugly feeling about that sky, “John, could you please pan the camera up?”

“Certainly, Mike.”  The camera panned, and Mike could see irregularities in the skyline, peaks of high mountains.  These were incredibly high mountains, much higher than the Rockies.  If Mike didn’t know better, he would think he was in India, close to the Himalayas. 

“What in God’s name is going on?” Mickey asked, breathless.

“Don’t know, Mickey, but we’re going to find out.” Mike said.

“John, go ahead and bring your drone back towards the cave, and land it above, so that we don’t step on it as we go outside the cave entrance.”

Smith spoke up, “Okay, I can do that, but you wouldn’t step on the drone.  It has sensors, and doesn’t allow anything to get near it.”

Mike thought for a second, “Okay, do what you think is best, but I’m taking the entire team up, and you may lose signal.”

John replied, “Okay, then your plan sounds like the way to go.  I’ll bring it back and park it above you.”

Mike spoke to his team, “Everett, Mickey, move up behind me.  Tom, stay put until Rob gets up with you.  Rob, move forward and once you get to Tom, give him the okay to move forward.  Tom, I want you and Rob to move as a team into the cave entrance.  The rest of us will meet you at the cave entrance.  Reply in sequence.”

The team gave confirmation that they understood the orders, from Everett, the highest ranking, down to Tom, the lowest.  This gave the team an opportunity to ask questions if needed.  It also gave everybody one more comms check before they moved forward.

“Good, execute.”

Mike knew that Rob was moving forward to Tom’s position, and knew that Everett and Mickey were moving forward to his position.  Mike started climbing up the elevator shaft, slipping occasionally in the gore of the broken eggs.

As he climbed up, he heard Rob tell Tom that he was in position.  Then he hailed Mike on the radio.  “Chief, I’m at Tom’s position.  We’re moving forward to the mouth of the cave.”

“Roger, maintain position in the cave mouth until the entire team is there.  If you see anything hostile, don’t ask for permission, go ahead and engage.  Do you copy?”

“Roger, Wilco.”  That phrase came from Rob and Tom, in sequence.

Mike crawled into the tunnel, and started moving forward on all fours, the only way the large mech armor could fit through the tunnel.  It was tight, and his mech armor kept rubbing and bouncing off the walls.  His audio picked up sounds from behind as Everett and Mickey climbed up the shaft and entered the tunnel behind him. 

He had a small problem navigating the turn in the tunnel, but soon he could see ambient light as he crawled to the tunnel entrance.  He crawled out and was able to stand up.  His sensors noted the size and outline of the cave, and where Rob and Tom were in relation to Mike’s mech armor.

Mike walked forward so that he didn’t block the tunnel.  Tom was stationed at the right of the mouth of the cave, and Rob was stationed at the left of the mouth of the cave.  Mike walked forward to stand behind Tom on the right side of the cave entrance; standing to Tom’s left so that he could use his weapons if needed.  Everett’s icon popped up on the display.  Everett took a second to look things over, then moved to the left, behind and to the right of Rob.  Mickey’s icon showed up, and he moved forward between Mike and Everett.

“Team, status report?” Mike asked.

All four reported green across the board.

“Okay, this is what we’re going to do, gentlemen.  Tom, I want you to move out of the cave then do a one-sixty degree turn to your right, move to that sector and clear any hostiles. Rob, I want you to do the same thing to your left.  Everett, you’ll go out on an approximate 80 degree angle to your left.  Mickey, I want you to walk straight out and clear hostiles.  I’ll be going out on an 80 degree angle to the right.  The goal is a five pointed star, 100 feet out, with the cave mouth in the center of the star.  Engage any hostiles, do not wait for permission.  Are there any questions?  Sound off in sequence.”

All replied to confirm their orders.

“All right gentlemen, execute, execute, execute!”

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All five moved smoothly along the uneven ground.  The time learning the mech armor, and letting the onboard AI ghost learn their neural responses paid off.  There was no stumbling.  They were all in position in a few seconds.  They were all ready for trouble.

“Security halt.” Mike called over the radio.

A security halt meant that they all stopped moving, and looked and listened for any hostiles that may be in the area.

There was nothing in the meadow that could attack the team.  They stood at five points that gave them interlocking fields of fire over the entire meadow.  If anything was going to attack them, it should come at them pretty quickly.  “Maintain security.  Look for anything moving.  Let me know if you see anything in your field of fire,” Mike ordered.  The team replied back with a course of, “Roger,” “Affirmative,” and, “Roger, Wilco.”

They waited.  Nothing happened, nothing attacked, and nothing was moving, except for the vegetation swaying in the breeze.  Small animals scurried through the trees and the grass.  When that occurred, the heads up display would outline the varmint in an orange circle, and the targeting computer would display options to engage.  Mike would look at the display and then identify the animal as no threat.  Eventually, the AI stopped highlighting the animals for friend or foe identification.  The software was designed to interface with Mike and to learn as it did so. The software development team and the bio-mechanical team had done wonders with the armor.  Mike could feel the armor working in harmony with him.  One day, he would feel completely natural in the armor.  Even now, processes that had taken concentration when he started were done without him consciously thinking about it.

They stood there for twenty minutes by Mike’s clock.  He decided that there wasn’t going to be any kind of attack from anything.  “Maybe we need some bait,” Everett spoke.  Mike started, used to the quiet.  He had been concentrating on his heads up display.

“You could be right, Everett.  Mickey, Rob, Tom, maintain surveillance.  I’m going to keep the ear bud in.  If anything happens, let me know.  Everett and I’ll judge whether we have time to get back into the armor, or if we have to retreat back into the tunnel,” Mike asked Everett, “Mind joining me close to the mouth of the cave, Everett.”

“Nope, feeling crowded in here anyway.  Meet you in a few.”

Mike positioned the mech armor in the linebacker position, and put the electronics in standby mode, so that he didn’t have to power the entire thing back up.  The semi rigid foam started deflating as soon as the electrical current was cut.  Mike opened the back hatch and stood up, looking around the meadow.  His helmet had a truncated heads up display, fed by the electronics in the mech armor.  There was no hostile movement.

He pulled off the helmet and set it down.  He grabbed his AR-10, and slung it over his back so that he wouldn’t drop it as he climbed down.  He climbed down the side of the armor and jumped off onto the ground.  Everett was in the process of doing the same thing, and then he was on the ground and walking to meet Mike.  Both of them rotated their rifles from their back to their chest, hands on the weapon in the ready position.  They met close to the middle in between the five mech armor suits, right in front of the cave.

“What do you think?” Mike asked, his ear bud set to hear, not transmit, so that he could hear a warning from the rest of the team, but so that he and Everett could talk in private.

“I think we’re well and truly screwed,” Everett replied, “Where the hell is everything.  We were here not five hours ago, when we came to work, and now everything is gone.  It’s like reality has completely warped.”

Mike nodded, “Yeah, I agree.  I don’t know where the hell we are, at all.  One minute, I’m doing gymnastics in the mech armor; next minute, I’m skidding across the floor.”  Mike stopped, and spit onto the ground, “Not even the big brains we have downstairs understand what the hell has happened.  And that scares me.”

“Yeah, I mean, I’m not a stupid man, or at least, I hope I’m not one, but this is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced.  What are we going to do?  What do you want us to do?”

“Well, we’ve been trained to survive anything that the bad guys throw at us.  We’ve been trained to live off the land,” Mike was looking around as he talked, “So that’s what we’re going to do.  We’re going to ensure that we survive until we can figure out what’s happening.”

Everett was looking around.  He was facing Mike, and Mike faced him.  This way, they had a 360 degree field of vision around them.  This was natural caution, instinctual, developed from years of conflict.

“What about Mitchem, Jamison?” Everett asked.

Mike took a deep breath.  “Well, I’m just about fed up with both of them.  They’ve been arrogant assholes the entire time we’ve been here.”

“What about that display with Jamison.  What the hell is up with that guy?  I don’t think he’s entirely stable.”

Mike nodded, “Yeah, I don’t know if he’s autistic, psychotic, bipolar, but he has a screw loose somewhere.”

“And Mitchem?”

Everett looked at Mike intently.  Mike knew that all he had to do was give the word, and Mitchem wouldn’t be a problem anymore.

“Well, he’s an asshole, but he hasn’t done anything to compromise our safety.  So, we’ll let him continue to be the asshole that he is.  With his personality, he shouldn’t be able to get too much support behind him.”

Everett’s features softened.  “Yeah, Lieutenant Pang and the rest of the engineering team think he’s an asshole.  Except for Weitz. Weitz kisses his butt whenever possible.”

Mike agreed, “The guy is a good tech and programmer, but I don’t think he can breathe when Mitchem tightens his sphincter.”

Everett nodded.

Mike continued, “I think we may have problems with a few of them.  There’s Jamison, Mitchem, Weitz, Dr. Randall, and Lieutenant Jondreau.”

Everett contemplated the names for a minute.  “Well, Randall is arrogant, and Jondreau is immature, but I think that Randall will sail wherever the wind blows to save her skin, and Jondreau might just need a good role model.  He might surprise you when the rubber hits the road.”

Mike thought over Everett’s assessments, “Yeah, you’re right about Dr. Randall.  She’ll tag on wherever she perceives an advantage.  Jondreau though, he’s a boy scout.   He’ll try to do the right thing, but the problem is that he doesn’t have enough experience in the world to understand what the right thing is.  And that might get one of us killed.”