Bootstrap Colony

by Hechtl, Chris

  The Gunny snorted, but the woman smiled and reached for the beer, then hesitated when the Seal did too. Mitch handed them one each, then watched as they twisted the top off. Akira was still at attention. The Seal looked over to him. “Ease up son.” Gunny snorted and took a beer, then sat down.

  They each took a sip, and then glanced at the bottles. “We make our own here,” Mitch explained.

  Gunny smiled. “Bush it isn’t, but it still cuts the road dust.”

  The Seal chuckled. “That it does.”

  “Okay, Chief? May I call you Chief? Or do you prefer Travis now that we are in never never land?” Mitch asked.

  The Seal snorted. “Chief or Travis will do.”

  “Okay, we have two people handling security here, Brian and Sergeant Phyllis. Brian however is itching to go full time with the college courses, so I think you might be able to slip into his post. Gunny, I am sorry, I don’t have much artillery, just a couple of mortars on the robots.”

  “Mortars?” The Gunny asked.

  “Robots??” The woman echoed, as did a stunned Akira.

  Mitch nodded. “Robots. I brought along quite a few, you may have noticed a few in the halls.”

  Akira nodded. “I see androids like...Honda, Toyota, Sony.”

  “Well, they look similar, but they are actually my own design.” Mitch smiled as Akira’s eyes widened. “I also brought along a handful of UAV’s, choppers, a plane, and vehicles. Most of the vehicles are also automated.” Akira whistled softly.

  The Seal looked dubious. “You’re trusting tin cans and a kid for security?”

  Mitch gave the Chief a look. “I will show you the security robots I brought along. They are the latest generation.”

  “We were playing with robots back home, but they couldn’t keep up with Seals,” Travis sniffed.

  Mitch nodded and then glanced up. “Computer, have one of each of the reserve robots report to the garage in ten minutes.”

  “Understood,” the AI replied.

  The woman looked up to the ceiling and whistled, and then sat back. “I think I am going to like it here.”

  “And you are miss?”

  “Oh, sorry, Tina Riley, Corporal Riley medic,” she explained.

  He nodded. “Okay, you’ll have to check in with Doc, medics are her department.”

  Tina nodded. “She is a real Doctor?”

  “We have her, a couple nurses, and some med students here,” Mitch replied with a nod.

  Tina nodded in return. “Thank god,” she muttered. He gave her a quirked eyebrow look. She squirmed a bit.

  “Don’t like having to patch people together without support?” Mitch asked, clearly understanding her view point. She nodded. “I don’t blame you. I brought along an entire hospital package as well.” She nodded. “You took care of the wounded on the way here?”

  “Yeah. A red head took over,” Tina replied.

  “That was Doc,” Mitch replied.

  She nodded. “I didn’t want to jog her elbow,” Tina replied.

  The AI beeped. “Miss Riley please report to the infirmary.”

  Tina sighed. “No rest for the wicket.” Mitch nodded. “Duty calls, thanks for the beer.” She smiled as she got up to leave.

  Mitch turned his attention on the remaining people. “All right, now, you three pitched a proposal to Jack?” The trio nodded as the woman left. “You want to,” he looked at the tablet, “let’s see here, enter the caves and kill the shark hounds? You do realize, you three and a handful of others scattered over the four villages are our only military assets right?”

  They nodded. “And you want to take most of our weapons, and enter unmapped caverns, up against pack hunting animals on their own turf, in the dark?” Again they nodded.

  “You do realize they will be quite fierce, defending their young, backed into a corner right?” Mitch asked patiently. The Gunny nodded, but the Seal looked a bit thoughtful. “Charging up San Juan Hill with a k bar may be a jar head thing but a squids?” Mitch asked, turning to the Seal.

  Akira’s face stormed over. The Gunny gave a textbook reply of “Semper fi! OOo Rah!”

  Mitch snorted. “Okay, Jack has denied your request. I came up with an alternative, an ambush, but he is not happy about it. He is all for killing these things, but he is also concerned about well, getting bit in the butt if things go south.” They reluctantly nodded.

  “We can’t be out in the open with these things; they are just too damn fast and maneuverable. They are smart too, adapt fast and are prone to flanking enemy. When we got our first look at them they were downright nasty, they immediately spotted weapons fire as ranged threats and used superior speed to attack from flanking positions. They soaked up casualties in order to get to the attacker.”

  The Seal looked dubious, Akira frowned. “The only way we could bag these things safely is at range with the robar or Barrett,” Mitch finished. Akira scowled, toying with the beer in his hand.

  “Unfortunately I only brought a dozen of them, and the rounds are a royal pain in the arse to make, even with salvaged brass. Don’t even get me started on the poison dart ones,” Mitch grimaced.

  Gunny looked confused. “Wait, you rigged fifty cal rounds as poison darts? Why?”

  Mitch shrugged. “I wanted something that could drop something big fast without being able to get a heart or head shot. I only have a few rounds left,” he replied. The Seal nodded. “Bob wanted me to go with spitting cobra venom; it is effective, easier to get then the tropical snail one, but it took up to thirty minutes to kill something, even the distilled version. The concentrated snail venom killed in a second,” Mitch replied. The Gunny and Travis nodded.

  “Anyway, as I was saying, we might be able to use an ED or CAT to add weapons fire for an ambush, but they are valuable assets, as you three are.” Mitch looked into each of their eyes.

  “Akira, you are...” He looked at the tablet. “An avionics specialist?”

  “Yes sir.” The young South Korean gave a short bow.

  Mitch snorted. “Don’t call me sir, I work for a living.” Mitch responded. The marine snorted. Mitch waved his hand. “Sure I am in charge, but it is my dime so my ball.” The Seal nodded. The AI beeped. He stood. “Okay gents, I think I promised a demo.” He ushered them out then led them back to the garage.

  Within the cavernous garage space Lisa was a bit annoyed at seeing the robots standing at attention. There were nine, an R-2 style robot, scout track, mini me droid, Andy android, GP droid, CAT, donk, Crusher, and ED. The Gunny whistled at the Ed, eyes wide. “Damn! Hot diggedy damn!” The Seal snorted a laugh.

  “As you can see gentlemen the R-2 and androids are for household work.” Mitch waved his hand, and then placed it on the dome of the R-2. “The R-2’s and others like it clean and fetch and carry like the mini-me’s do. The GP,” He waved to the Short circuit style tracked robot. “This is the general purpose robot, used outdoors.”

  “These,” he waved to the scout and Crusher, “You are more familiar with. They are a basic scout or patrol unit.” He waved to CAT. “CAT three here is one of the security robots, and ED one here is the heavy security.” Akira looked amazed. “I also have a banged up predator drone, a bunch of other UAV’s and a few other toys.” They nodded. Akira crouched down, examining the robots.

  Gunny looked the ED over, awed by the robots fierce stance and firepower. “Walking tank!” he commented.

  Mitch nodded. “Yeah, it is. It has bailed my bacon out of the fire a few times when some dinos got frisky and put me on the menu.”

  The Seal chuckled. “Wish we had had a few.”

  “Unfortunately I can’t see doing a live fire exercise right now; I only brought a finite amount of ammo, grenades, and mortars. I can show you the lasers later though,” Mitch offered. They nodded.

  “I Never thought I would be the one watching a dog and pony show,” the Seal commented wryly. The Gunny chuckled.

  “The ED here has three guns on each forearm.
One laser each, two guns sighted for two hundred fifty meters, and two for fifty meters for close in work. The short range gun is a shot gun, with shredder rounds,” Mitch replied, pointing each weapon out.

  He stepped behind the robot and pointed. “ED squat a sec here.” The robot stepped its legs out and then squatted. Mitch went around and pointed to the back. “Okay, here we have the mortars, there are two. They are variable target, variable round. I have loaded them with a half a dozen flash bangs, four frag, six flares, and two area denial rounds.”

  The Gunny whistled softly. “Hot damn!”

  “The Eds are slow, but they make up for it with firepower.” The Gunny nodded.

  “When you entered through the first gates you may have noticed the two robots there? Right?” Mitch asked. They nodded. “They are a cross between the GP’s and ED. They were the first prototypes for the ED robots. We weren’t sure about making the deadline on time so I had the build team build each of them to test things out. They are P one and P two.” He shook his head. “Cracking a track on one of them is a major hassle like the GP’s,” he said and sighed, waving a hand to the GP.

  “The CATs here,” He waved at the CAT. “CAT take a jog to the gate and back.” The robot moved off, and then speed up into a thirty kilometer lope. Professional military eyes turned their attention to the metal cat. “The CATs are faster, and able to handle a variety of terrain that would bog down the ED. They have the two guns on the back. They can carry a small module that can be loaded with equipment or gear, such as food or medical kits... or sensor pods.” The robot returned to its previous position with barely a sound. Akira looked it over, crouching down to get a better view.

  “The Donk here.” Mitch rested his hand on the largest robot. “The Donk here is a brute. It is general purpose mover, like a forklift, but it can do some minor tasks as well. It has six wheels instead of tracks. There is one here that has tracks, that is the first prototype. When I found out how hard it is to crack tracks with these mothers I had them switch to wheels,” he said wrinkling his nose in disgust. Gunny nodded. “Loss in traction and a higher center of gravity, but a heck of a lot easier to repair.... and they are faster now too,” Mitch finished.

  “They don’t tear up the ground as much either I bet,” Gunny added.

  “Yeah, that too,” Mitch nodded as he answered. “There is an armed UAV helicopter, actually two of them, about half the size of an Apache.” He looked out over the park then back. “Damn things never did work right, maybe you can take a look at their software Akira, I still haven’t found the faults,” He sighed.

  “What’s the matter with them?” Akira asked, now interested.

  “Oh, they just like to shoot at anything that moves,” Mitch answered.

  Gunny and the Seal looked at each other then shrugged in unison. “Yeah, I’d say that is a problem.” They gave the other armed robots a wary look.

  “What about sending some of these robots down into the caves?” the Gunny asked, looking up and piercingly at him.

  “Well, to do that we would have to get them there, stripping some of the defenses here,” Mitch replied. Gunny nodded. “They are also terrible at night, poor night vision in low level light,” Mitch explained. The Seal nodded.

  “Then there is the problem of mobility, getting the Cats to the caverns isn’t a problem, but the Eds here aren’t as fast... nor are they exactly fitted for cave work.” He pointed to the three meter tall robot. “Some of those caves are pretty narrow, or have low ceilings. Ed here would have trouble getting in and moving around.” Akira nodded slowly.

  “Then they could have course get stuck, damaged or destroyed,” the Seal commented.

  “Yeah, that too. We have to be conservative with our assets right now,” Mitch replied, glad they were thinking with their first brains instead of their balls. The Gunny and Seal nodded.

  “So, you were pretty set huh?” Travis asked.

  “Not hardly, but I knew we would be in a crack, and would have to bootstrap civilization all over again without proper planning,” Mitch replied.

  The Gunny nodded. “Proper planning prevents piss poor performance.”

  Mitch nodded. “Yeah, I had Bob, my security chief quote that one to me a lot. He was a former marine.

  “Once a marine always a marine!” the Gunny quoted.

  “I stand corrected,” Mitch replied dryly. He turned to the glowering Lisa and then back to the men. “Now gentlemen, why don’t I give you the ten cent tour so we can get out of the ladies way before she beats us to death with a wrench?”

  Travis looked over to the glowering Lisa and then chuckled. “She looked just like my ex-wife when I dared enter the kitchen.”

  Gunny looked over to the young woman and snorted. “Mine too.”

  Akira gave her a look, and then shrugged. “Can I stay and check the robots out?” he asked. She nodded.

  “Okay, have fun kids; don’t be late for supper or Janet will crown you,” Mitch said with a smile as he opened to door for the soldiers.

  “Let’s start in the armory. I managed to acquire quite a few Glocks, Bushmasters, and Shotguns, along with the handful of Barrett’s I mentioned....”

  They paused in the tour to admire the Great Hall and waterfall. “So you redirected the water in here?” Gunny asked, looking around.

  “Yeah, I redirected the water to fall in there.” Mitch pointed to the ceiling dome. “It filled up the chamber below.” He pointed to the plate and grate covered floor at the center of the chamber. “I had to work fast to get the concrete in and fused before it overflowed.” He indicated the ground floor openings.

  Travis nodded. “But it went down on its own right?” Mitch nodded.

  “I haven’t checked the sub basement beyond the tank farm area, but I believe there is a passage to the pond or beyond.” He shrugged. “As we expand and the need arises we can open it up and explore.”

  Gunny nodded. “So, in theory the sharks could come up into the basement right?”

  Mitch paused then let out a sigh. “Good point,” he said quietly, now eying the grating with fresh eyes.

  Travis nodded. “Well, they won’t get through that plate, but are there other areas that lead below?” He turned to the other passages.

  Mitch nodded. “Yeah, three more, all blocked with an airlock set up,” Mitch replied.

  Paul nodded. “We still have some leakage though, scorpions and bugs come in from time to time, and when we find a gap we seal it.” Travis nodded as he and Gunny left.

  Mitch noticed a young woman arguing with Vance in a corner. The argument was going downhill; the two were getting rather heated. He decided to take a look. “What’s going on?” he asked. The young woman was obviously a new arrival, a short rail thin flat chested black haired lady.

  “I was telling this person here...” She raised her nose haughtily in Vance’s direction. “That since we have plenty of space for farms we should all become vegetarians.” Vance was starting to get a little steamed.

  Mitch smiled. “Man cannot live on tofu alone miss,” he commented, giving her a slight bow.

  “Who would want to?” Vance commented acidly. She gave him a glare and began to swell.

  “Miss, we have plenty of food here. If you choose a vegetarian diet you can discuss it with Anne and Janet,” Mitch interjected, trying to head a blow off. She continued to swell however dashing that hope.

  “HOWEVER,” he barked. Her attention was suddenly focused on him. “However. You will not project your attitude on others here,” he warned her sternly. She glared.

  “We shall see about this. I’m going to talk to whoever is in charge.” With a haughty sniff of disdain she flounced off.

  Vance grinned. “Thanks boss. I just wish I could see her face when she found out that she is looking for you?”

  Mitch winced. “Yeah, but I might be in the room when she does,” he said in mock disgust. Vance laughed and slapped his arm in passing as he left.

  Later tha
t afternoon Mitch ran into Travis and Gunny again in the hall. It was quiet so he waved them over for a chat. Lisa and a bunch of kids were playing a game nearby.

  “I know you two have noticed the looks you’re getting from the ladies.” They both nodded. “Be careful. Go as slow as slow.” Travis cocked his head. “I know you're looking forward to get your pipes cleaned, and a lot of the ladies are lining up eager, but just remember many have had some pretty damn traumatic experiences over the past three years.” Mitch looked away for a brief moment and gusted a sigh. “Damn, has it been that long already.” He returned his attention to them.

  “Some of the ladies,” he turned and waved a hand in Lisa’s direction, “Were severely traumatized by a man and are just beginning to settle and track again.” The Gunny stilled, and then slowly nodded as he caught on to the implied event. Travis immediately looked bitter. “Some of these ladies are from the Amazon village, did you hear about that?” They shook their heads. “Okay, about sixty kilometers north about one hundred or more people were dropped. It got nasty pretty quick.” With quick words he described the Amazon base and mentality.

  “So fellas, some of these women are not completely all there, and could get nasty if provoked.” He pinned them both with a glare. “Don’t provoke them. Phyllis told me what they did to the guy that messed up Lisa.” Gunny nodded warily. “Staked him out cut off his balls with a rusty knife and then stuffed them down his throat.” Both men looked on. Gunny gave a small swallow. “I know the old joke; you’re supposed to die at the hands of an angry spouse not on the field of battle,” Mitch said, only half serious. The Gunny turned and looked at him in surprise.

  Mitch shrugged. “Trust me; the raptors will only eat you.” Travis snorted. “Why don’t you take a look around and then get back to me with a report on what you think also needed improvement tomorrow.” Gunny and Travis nodded.

  “One thing right off, I want that river fenced, and maybe even shark netting if we can swing it,” Travis said.

  Mitch nodded. “Yeah, I have been slack in that area.” He gusted a sigh. “I had planned it, but neglected it. I don’t think we can do shark netting, we would have to clean it every month or so for debris.” He looked off with a dark look. “I didn’t bring scuba gear with me either. I am not too thrilled about chancing someone every month.” The Seal gave a reluctant nod. “Netting around the banks we can do, maybe even a berm wall topped by fence. Check with Brian and Sarge and get back to me,” Mitch finished. Both men nodded as they exited.