by Mark Harritt
“How many rounds does that rail gun have?” Mike asked.
Bob, shook his head. He didn’t know.
Everett turned and yelled, “Hey, Tracy, how many rounds do those magazines hold?”
She held up two fingers, followed by three clenched fists.
“Good lord, two thousand rounds?”
Three heads turned towards Bob, “well, the slugs that thing fires are smaller because they move at a much higher velocity, causing as much damage as a larger caliber bullet.”
“What caliber, and how heavy is it?” Rob asked.
“I don’t know the exact specs. A lot of that was handled by the military. You would probably do better to ask Lieutenant Pang when she gets back. They look like the size of a twenty-two caliber to me. They’re square though, not shaped like a bullet.”
The techies and the team watched as Weitz scrambled down the mech armor. Once he was off the armor, he called Tom over the radio, and let him know that the armor was clear for operations.
As the armor stirred to life, the others backed away, knowing that Tom would have to get his balance, and get used to the tilt in the floor. The next armor up for weapons was Mike’s. Soon enough, Mike was in the cockpit, stowing his rifle and putting on the helmet. He tried to scrape the helmet with his sleeve to get the puke out. He didn’t have time when the monster attacked. He couldn’t get it all out, so he yelled for a towel. Somebody threw him an old t-shirt, which worked fine. It didn’t get the stench out though. He was going to have to do a thorough cleaning when he got the chance. As he turned on the helmet, he noticed two new displays. He leaned forward, going through systems check as Weitz’s voice muttered in his ear. As Weitz went down the check list, he replied in the positive, the board lighting up green until all systems were online. The two red indicators indicating missing systems were now gone, replaced by green. He immediately understood that those indicators were for the weapons. He felt the foam engulf his body, and knew that he might actually be going into combat in the mech armor.
He broadcast,“Radio check, over.”
Tom answered, “Roger, boss man, I have you Lima Charlie.”
Mike stood the armor up, and, as with Tom, everyone backed away to let Mike get used to the angle in the floor. “Tom, I need for you to move forward of the carcass towards the elevator shaft. I’m going to start cutting up the carcass so that we can move it out after the recon. The last thing we need in here is a pile of rotting meat.”
“Roger, Chief, I’m moving forward now. Chief?”
Mike replied to the question, “Yeah, what’s up?”
“Boss man, can I do some target practice on the soft areas before you chop up the carcass? I don’t know what these weapons can do.”
Mike thought about it, “Affirmative, get close to make sure you don’t miss. We don’t want a ricochet. That could really mess up somebody’s day.”
“Roger, Boss, no problem. I’ll ensure that I’m so close I can’t miss.” Tom clicked on his speakers to announce to the room at large, “Move away from the carcass, I’m going weapons hot, and I need to ensure the weapons are working.” Tom walked forward to the carcass. Mike turned on his speakers, “Everybody move behind Tom’s armor so that you’re out of the line of fire.” The engineers moved quickly to comply with Mike’s order. “Everett, you’re now my Range Officer. Please ensure everybody is in the safe area behind Tom, then give us the OK to engage the carcass.”
It took a few minutes, then Everett gave them permission to engage. As Tom got close to the carcass, a sound like a muted buzz saw started. Mike watched as chunks of flesh flew through the air. The sound stopped, and then Mike saw smoke rising from the carcass. He assumed that Tom had engaged the pulse laser.
“What do you think, Tom?” Mike asked.
Tom spoke, “Not bad. It’s like a video game. The cross hairs move to where you point the gun. Once the cross hairs are where you want them, think about pulling the trigger and the weapon shoots. On the mini-rail, there’s a bar that decreases as ammunition is expended.”
Tom moved past the carcass and took position close to the elevator shaft, close enough that nothing could get by, but not close enough that he could be surprised by anything coming down the elevator shaft.
Mike walked the mech to the carcass. First he tried the mini-rail. He only used it for a short burst of five, and the metal pellets tore into the flesh of the carcass. He set his mini-rail to safe, and turned on the pulse laser. As he watched, he noticed the beam of light was not exactly where the smoke rose as he cut into the carcass.
“Probably an aiming laser,” he thought. He sifted through the command tree for the laser, and found what he wanted. He had the capability to use the cross hairs, with the visible laser off, or he could use the aiming laser, in either day time mode or with night vision. There were two more settings for smoke and water vapor.
“The engineers thought of everything,” Mike thought.
Soon enough, Rob’s voice asked for a radio check. Both Mike and Tom gave him an affirmative. Mike sent Rob forward to stand with Tom. Now that they had three mechs up and operational, Mike felt better about their chances, as long as there wasn’t a pack of beasts like this one at the top of the elevator shaft. With no more attacks, odds were rising in their favor.
As he cut up the beast, the tough hide tried to resist the laser, but it soon gave way. He thought about where this monstrosity may have come from. Unless the military had some biological experiments in the facility, he didn’t have a clue. It was as big as four elephants, but no elephant was as dangerous as this creature. Everybody had been lucky that weapons were nearby, otherwise most of the engineers, and his team would have been killed before they got into the stairwell.
He heard Everett calling for a radio check. He received a five by five from Rob, Tom, and Mike.
“Everett, where’s Mickey?” Mike asked.
“Still working on sprains and contusions.”
Mike turned on his external speakers, “Can someone please get Mickey over here and armored up. I want the entire team for this recon.”
The radio clicked in his ear, “Mike, Jennifer here. Mickey is on his way. He has one more arm to wrap and stabilize. Maybe ten minutes.”
“Roger, thanks for the update.” Mike answered.
Another voice spoke over the radio, “Mike, how would you like to get an idea of what you’re going to face before you step into the elevator shaft?”
It was John Smith talking. Mike could see him on the heads up display, holding what looked like a three by three foot square of carbon fiber with four holes. There were small propellers in each hole. There was a shiny ball of glass with electronics in it. Mike could see at least one camera lens.
“Is that the drone?” Mike asked.
“Affirmative, that is the drone. And it links to your head’s up display. Your entire team will be able to see whatever it sees,” John answered.
“Sounds like a plan to me. Go ahead and send it out. Maybe we can keep from being ambushed by other critters out there.” Mike answered.
“Okay, powering it up right now.”
Mike watched as John and Luis powered up the drone and set up the laptop that controlled it. As soon as the laptop was powered up, Smith sat down and initiated the sequence to get the drone flying. He typed a command, picked up a controller and the drone leaped into the air. It hung there as Smith went through his checklist, using the controller and the keypad of the computer.
“Alright, here we go, the drone is now online.”
Smith finished talking, and another display popped up on Mike’s screen. Mike accepted the input, and the camera on the drone started relaying images to the team. He watched as the drone moved up into the air, then sailed over the heads of the standing mech armor towards the elevator shaft. This gave Mike a partial out of body experience as he saw the mech armor below the drone, and realized that he was looking at himself.
The drone slowed as it approached the sh
aft. Mike could see the enormous claw marks and dents where the beast slammed the door with its body and forced them open. The drone displayed the area behind the open doors.
“What the hell are those?” Mike heard over the radio. It sounded like Weitz talking.
Mike looked at the image. There were leathery objects in the background, some of which were ripped open. There was fluid and gore everywhere.
“Hey, move the camera to the left.”
The camera moved and one of the leather shells came into focus. And something more.
“Hey, doesn’t that look like a leg?” Rob asked.
Smith spoke up, “Okay, moving forward now.”
The drone started forward. More of the leathery shells and bodies came into focus. One had a head that looked like the beast they killed.
Mike knew what they were, “It was defending the nest.”
Bob spoke, “What, you mean there was a nest of these things up there?”
Mike replied, “Yes, that’s her nest, and for some reason, it was in our elevator shaft.”
“What the hell,” another voice exclaimed.
Everett spoke next, “Team, be alert. If there was a nest of these critters, odds are very good that there are more of these monsters up there.”The voices over the radio quieted as the engineering team realized the implications in that statement.Mickey piped up over the radio, asking for a radio check. The rest of the team responded. The drone moved into the shaft. The camera showed a large amount of cracked leather shells, and dead versions of the beast that Mike had cut up. It was a horror.
“Well kids, now we know why she was so pissed off. All of her kids are dead.” Rob said.
John spoke, “Mike, what do you want to do now?”
“Can you angle the camera up so that we can look up the shaft?”
“No problem, but we can’t send the drone up any further unless one of you gets into the shaft. The drone radio controls are line of sight, and we have to use the mech armor suits as a relay for the signal. If the drone tried to fly up the shaft right now, we would lose signal and possible damage the drone.”
Mike replied, “Roger, I understand.” Mike cut the comms with John, “Tom, I need for you to move forward into the shaft. Take it slow, and peel out of there if you see anything that doesn’t look right.”
Tom spoke up, “You mean like a ten ton, pissed off lizard trying to disembowel me?
“Yes, exactly like that, Tom,” Mike replied.
“Roger, WILCO.”
Tom moved forward, towards the shaft. The view from the drone changed as it moved further up the shaft. Tom grabbed the elevator door and the sound of metal creaking filled the warehouse as the armored hand crushed it. Tom shifted the metal back and forth, until it gave way and ripped from the frame of the shaft. He dropped it next to the elevator.
Tom moved slowly into the shaft. Mike watched him gingerly step onto the top of the elevator. The metal settled with a crunching noise as it adjusted to the weight of the armor. The car stabilized, and he stood there for a moment. They could all hear bones snap as he stepped on the bodies of the dead monsters. Cables lay haphazard in great knots and snarls in the shaft and on top of the elevator.
“Alright, good signal, moving the drone further up the shaft,” Smith said.
The drone moved up and sideways to compensate for the angle of the shaft. Gore was smeared across the walls of the shaft, where the eggs had slammed into the wall. The monster’s talons had ripped into the sides of the elevator shaft as she climbed down.
Rob talked, “personally, if these beasts had the same type of temper that their mother did, I’m glad they’re dead.”
“Ah, might not have been the mother,” Mickey replied.
“What do you mean?” Everett asked.
“Could be the father. All depends on the species involved.”
The drone kept climbing. It approached the top of the shaft. The top looked strange. The concrete walls of the top of the elevator shaft was gone, and the huge blast door at the top was gone as well. They had been replaced by the same smooth rock layer that they had seen in the other elevator and the top of the stairs.
“What the hell is that?”
“What?”
“That curved surface. That shouldn’t be there. That’s where the cables for the elevator should be attached.”
“If you go to the top of the staircase to the first floor, you’ll see the exact same thing. It’s unnaturally smooth.” Mike replied. He didn’t know who he was talking to.
There was a hole in the rock. As the drone approached, they could see that it was sizable. They wouldn’t know how big until they got there, though.
“John, can you fly the drone through that hole?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, but you’ll have to move armor forward again, though, for the relay,” he replied.
Mike gave the orders to move, “Tom, I need for you to climb up the shaft, so that Rob can take your place on the elevator.”
“Roger, moving up.” Tom replied.
Tom started climbing the iron scaffolding that encased the elevator. He used his laser to cut hand and foot holds as needed. It was a good thing they had weeks to get used to the mech armor. It acted like it was part of Tom’s physical body. He only felt faint vibrations through the foam encasing him as he moved. The neural feedback loop in his helmet gave him a capability he never could have imagined when he first saw the mech armor.
Once Tom vacated the elevator car. Rob, moving just as gingerly as Tom had, stood on the top of the car. He watched Tom’s progress from his armor graphic displays, and from the drone. Soon, Tom was at the top of the shaft, “Boss man, I’m at the top of the shaft.”
“Roger, can you find a stable position inside of the tunnel?” Mike asked.
“Well, it will be a tight fit, but I should be able to manage.”
“Okay, Tom, I need for you to move up once the drone enters the tunnel, and try to stabilize your position.”
“Roger.”
That was Tom. He would never use two words when one will do.
Smith moved the drone forward. The tunnel was a mixture of gravel, rock and dirt, just like any other cave in the world, with the exception that it was very smooth. Mike could tell the monster had traversed the passage constantly, burnishing the rock face.
The drone continued forward, moving twenty, thirty, forty feet down the tunnel. Then there was a turn in the tunnel, and Mike knew he would have to shift bodies to keep the drone working.
“Okay, Tom, move forward, try to keep from getting stuck,” Mike ordered.
“Roger, moving forward.”
“Rob, you need to move forward and take Tom’s place, okay?”
“Roger, can do.”
“We’ll have to play tag. Tom, don’t move until Rob replaces you, then you can move forward.”
Mike stepped forward as Rob started climbing, to maintain the signal line of sight. Soon, Rob was at the top, and Tom started moving forward. When Tom reached the turn, the drone started moving forward again. The tunnel widened as the drone flew forward. The roof was also getting higher. Ambient light filtered back, and the tunnel suddenly opened up to an area approximately thirty to forty feet wide, and in some places, about thirty feet high.
The opening of the cave was the widest part of the cave, making a triangle with the opening of the cave along one side, and two meandering cave walls as the other sides. The opening of the tunnel intersected the point where the two walls would have met. As the drone moved forward, the cave opened up, and the drone showed a large, open expanse of tall grass, waving as the wind blew through it. A wall of tall trees stood in the distance. There was no military base. There were no buildings. Just a meadow and trees.
“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.
