On Distant Shores (Exiles Triology Book 1)

by Mark Harritt

  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!”

  --------------------------------------

  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 brain
s 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.”

  Everett shrugged, “Could be, but I’m not saying we should trust him, I just think we may be able to bring him over to the dark side, eventually.”

  “Well, Master Sergeant, you’ve been dealing with people like these a lot longer than I have. I’ll trust your judgment on that one. Just don’t give him too much leeway.”

  “Roger Chief, no problem. Team first.” Everett replied.

  Mike spit again. “We may have to redefine the team. I think that we can rely on Lieutenant Pang, and most of the engineers, minus Weitz, Randall, maybe a few others. Once we get a head count, and see who’s with us, then we can start figuring out who else we can trust. Lieutenant Pang probably knows everybody in this facility, so she can give us an idea of who to trust, and who not to trust.”

  Everett wasn’t sure about the approach, “Probably, but we have to accept that the situation is going to affect people differently. Some people can’t handle the strain when circumstances test them.”

  “This is true, but if we can give them some stability, maybe the idea that, while everything’s different, nobody’sgoing to die immediately, they may be able to accept the situation.”

  “Yeah, but we have to make it through the day first, and we need to finish cleaning up the mess downstairs, and stay alert for more of the big lizards.”

  “Okay, so I say we get Mickey out of the mech armor, and back down the cave to the play room, so that he can start people moving to get the carcass out, and up here to the meadow. The last thing I want is to have a rotting carcass down there,” Mike looked up into the sky, around the meadow, and back to Everett, “I need for you, Rob and Tom to keep security tight up here. Let us know if anything comes this way that we have to worry about, and then Mickey and I’ll start the process of getting the carcass up here, and try to arrange everybody into teams to move the damn thing. That should get their mind off everything for a little while. Plus, the more people that see the new reality, the less problems we should have.”

  “Okay Mike. I’ll relieve Mickey,” Everett said, “Oh, and send Smith up here so that we can get the reconnaissance drone back up in the air. I think it would be helpful to us if we can see the entire area. It can conduct reconnaissance better than we can in the mech armor. At least it would give us more range, and work as an early warning against anything as big as that monster down stairs.”

  “Okay, I’ll send him your way. I think they’re still hiding some things from us. We need to make sure that we know everything about the capabilities of this mech armor.”

  Everett agreed, “Yeah, I’ll try to worm more information from Smith as the day goes by. If they don’t tell us what we need to know, we may have to find the weak one in the herd, and apply a little pressure.”

  Mike nodded, “yes, but I think when I get Jennifer and Bob, and maybe the PhD Squad away from everybody, we might get some answers.”

  With Everett and Mike’s plan coalescing, Everett walked back to the armor. Mike watched him climb up the back and then punch in the code to open up the hatch. While he was doing this, Mike opened up his ear bud and commed Mickey.

  “Mickey, as soon as you get confirmation from Everett that he’s armored up, I need you to hop out of the mech armor, and come with me.”

  “Roger Mike. What about my med bag? Do I need it?”

  Mike thought a minute, “Yeah, go ahead and bring it with you when you get out. We probably need to get everybody in one place and do on more med screen, just to make sure that everybody’s okay.”

  “Okay, roger that. On my way.”

  Everett’s mech armor stood back up at attention, and Mike knew he was on the job. Mickey’s armor assumed the linebacker stance. Mickey popped the hatch, and climbed down as the hatch closed behind him. He walked over to Mike.

  “Well, what do you think boss?” Mickey asked, “Where the hell are we?”

  Mike turned as Mickey caught up with him and they walked back to the cave mouth.

  “No clue, we have no idea what the hell happened, or where the hell we are. I don’t even know if we’re still on earth. This sure isn’t the place we started out this morning.”

  Mickey nodded as he walked, “Yeah, everything’s gone. There aren’t any signs of civilization here. I did a radio spectrum scan in the mech armor while you guys were talking. There’s nothing on the frequencies except for static. Hell, if nothing else, you should be able to hear some Morse code HF noise. I thought those guys would be on radio until the end of the world.”

  Mike was surprised, “You can do a radio spectrum scan with those things?”

  Mickey looked sheepish, “Yeah, well, Tracy’s taken a liking to me. She talks about some of the other things that the mech armor is capable of.”

  Mike looked at Mickey, very seriously, “Mickey, I need for you to treat Tracy as a source right now, no matter what else you two have been up to. I need to know everything the armor’s capable of doing. It might be a matter of life or death.”

  Mickey’s sheepish look disappeared and he got serious, “Sure boss, I’ll find out everything I can.”

  Mike was satisfied with the answer, “Okay, we need to go downstairs, and arrange teams so that we can get the damn carcass of that monster downstairs out of the play room.”

  Mike and Mickey kept talking about what the hell was happening as they walked t
hrough the cave back into the tunnel. They got to the shaft, then used the service ladder to climb down to the warehouse floor. This ladder, compared to the one in the other elevator shaft, was much easier to use. It was now at an angle that you could lean into, making it easier to climb. Mickey was down the ladder first, and Mike joined him on the elevator soon after. When they walked into the play room, there was much more people gathered round the monster’s carcass. It looked like everybody, minus security, Jamison, Mitchem. Mike saw Langford, and some of the other civilians from topside. Evidently they had moved into the secure area when the alarms sounded. He didn’t see Captain Dickerson, though.

  The crowd saw Mike and Mickey, and then the questions started flying at them. Mike held up his hands, and quieted the crowd down. Pang, Bob, Joel, and Ed were in the forefront. As he motioned, the crowd slowly grew quiet, though he could see the apprehension on everybody’s faces.

  “Alright, alright, everybody calm down. I’ll answer your questions if I can, but first, let me tell you, that we don’t know what the hell is going on here. If you were watching the surveillance drone, you can see that everything is gone.”

  The crowd didn’t like that. Someone yelled from the back, “What do you mean, everything is gone?”

  Mike shrugged, “I mean, there’s no blast door at the top of the elevator shaft, there’s no large warehouse with offices, there are no cars, no parking lot, no chain link fence, no guards, no road. Oh, and that big mountain that was east of us, well that’s gone. It’s been replaced by mountains that are taller than the Rockies.”

  He let that sink in, then continued, “Mickey did a radio spectrum survey, and there’s no radio signal, no TV signals, no CB radios, no HF Morse code signals, nothing that indicates that there has ever been civilization up there.”