“I figure one to three tracks maybe more. That’s too many for us to handle alone,” said Kris. He headed over to the base calling ahead for an immediate meeting with Colonel Markham and Commander Frulé. They landed next to the hangar where Tom and François were sitting outside on packing crates.
“What is going on Kris?” asked Tom. Kris told him everything he knew adding the fact that it had rained heavily two days ago and that would have obliterated any tracks made before then. He concluded by saying, “This is related to the recent battle and therefore is within the military jurisdiction.”
“Yes of course,” said Tom.
“Commander, would you care to take charge of this operation?
“Yes, Sir,” said François. He was delighted; this was the kind of activity he was more used to. He turned to Kris and Andrew.
“As you gentlemen have done the initial
surveillance, would you care to assist?”
They both nodded.
“Very well, I will take one flight with two fire teams. We will meet back here in twenty minutes. Do you need any gear?”
“I have enough for us both,” said Kris.
25
Intruders!
The Kaedian patrol returned to their camp in the large cave. The rest of the men were long gone and they had a long trek ahead of them so they decided to have a hot meal before heading out.
One of the men had thought he heard water dripping from inside the cave so a couple of them grabbed their water packs and headed into the cave while the other man started a fire and unloaded cooking utensils.
Trooper Benk was nervous he did not like being left on his own like this. This had been his first combat mission and he was scared out of his mind when leaving the transport, but he blindly followed his leader as all the men had. When the others around him were cut to pieces he had hesitated and then the bees had attacked. He had run in fear for his life.
Now they had to wait for their people to return for them before the Hevinians found them. He finished preparing the food packs then sat down to wait for the others to come back out of the cave.
At the Sheriff’s office Andrew asked him what he had for gear and Kris pulled out and opened his mount out box. Andrew’s jaw dropped at the arsenal contained within.
Fifteen minutes later they were back at the base, both wearing camouflage body armor, helmets and armed with M4 carbine assault rifles and Heckler & Koch Mark three pistols -- Kris’ weapons of choice. The Barque landed and dropped the team off at a clearing between the orchard and the forest. The dense forest behind the orchard prevented the use of Sharks, but with the shrouded Jaguar overhead the small force of twelve moved off leaving the Barque on standby. Kris showed Frulé the footprints and then, without being told, took the point as they moved out of the orchard and into the forest.
Kris was totally focused on the job at hand. Even though it had been several years, he slipped back into his military training as if it were yesterday. Being the point man usually meant being the first to encounter hostiles. His senses were heightened; he was alert to every sound around him as he moved silently through the undergrowth, and for the first time in years he felt fully alive. His first indication of something amiss was the smell of wood smoke. Just then the shrouded Jaguar overhead called in smoke rising and gave the grid reference. Kris froze and waited for the rest of the team to catch up; nothing was visible until something moved slightly.
That was all it took; Kris sighting along his weapon targeted a partially concealed guard one hundred yards ahead sitting outside a large cave opening. When Frulé showed up Kris was in a crouched position with his carbine aimed at the guard’s head. Without losing focus Kris pointed out the guard. Frulé took note and indicated a fall back to consider the action to take. Frulé wanted to give them the opportunity to surrender. It seemed obvious that they had hostile intentions but Frulé wanted to be sure.
Andrew solved the problem. He spoke fluent Kaedian, so, with the team lying flat behind whatever cover they could find, and with Kris covering him, he crawled to within hailing distance of the guard.
“Kaedian forces in the cave,” he called in Kaedian. “You are surrounded by superior forces. Your unit is gone and your Commander has abandoned you. Lay down your weapons and you will live. Refuse and you will all die here.”
The reply was a particle beam blast that took out a tree next to Andrew. They crawled back to Frulé.
“So, I don’t think there is any doubt they are not prepared to surrender,” said Andrew wryly.
“Then we have no choice,” said Frulé. He pressed his communicator, “Jaguar two, target the forces outside the cave and take them out.”
“Roger that, targeting the forces outside the cave. I have one target, firing now.”
The Jaguar had been hovering over the team, shrouded about fifty feet up, with a clear view of the Kaedians. The blast of one hundred rounds, each almost 2 inches in diameter was deafening to the team directly underneath and lethal to the Kaedian, his body armor useless against the large caliber rounds slamming into him. In less than half a second it was all over. Frulé waited until the Jaguar gave the all clear, that the hostile was neutralized. He stood and ordered the team to advance. They moved up the slight incline to the cave cautiously with weapons up.
Kris still the point man, moved into the clearing, sighting along his carbine targeting the body. Andrew followed with Frulé and the rest of the team spread out alongside. There was no need for Fire Team’s Corpsman to check the body; it had been torn apart by the blast. Frulé ordered two men to check out the cave. It was obvious there were no more Kaedians outside the cave but he wanted to make sure there were none hiding inside. The two men moved cautiously hugging the rough walls overlapping each other in a defensive incursion. Within five minutes they were back.
“We only went in about two hundred yards," said the Lance Corporal. "The cave opens up to about twenty feet high and twenty feet wide and extends further back. I have no idea how far it goes but it seemed prudent to report back.”
“You were correct,” said Frulé. He spoke into his communicator. “Barque two come up here and land in front of the cave. There is plenty of space now that the Jaguar has cleared it away for us. Activate a probe. I want to see how far back the cave goes.”
Andrew looked around; it was true the one quarter second burst from the Jag’s cannon had cleared vegetation for another twenty feet around the cave. As the Barque landed the side panel opened revealing a large silver cube hovering inside. Françoise and Andrew entered the Barque and climbed up into the Command Center while Kris and the nine other troopers scoured the area looking for any signs that here may have been more Kaedians. The large main navigation screen was divided into panels one for each camera mounted on all six sides of the cube. With the activation programming complete the unmanned probe moved into the cave. Reacting to sensors on each side it kept to the center of the tunnel recording and analyzing everything as it passed.
Watching intently Frulé suddenly exclaimed, “Stop! I want to take another look at screen three. Can you zoom in?”
The operator reversed the probe and rotated the lens on the left side. A pile of bags came into focus.
“Those are Kaedian assault packs and there are three of them,” said Andrew.
Frulé toggled his communicator and was in instant contact with the troopers outside.
“There may be at least two more Kaedians around. Establish a defensive position around the cave entrance and keep a sharp lookout.” He turned to the Barques pilot. “Close the outer hatch and shroud now!"
“Commander,” it was Kris. “I checked the area. There are overlapping tracks leading away from the cave and there was a bunch of tracks coming in and out of the cave entrance. There could be more of them inside the cave.”
“Very good,” said Frulé. To the probe operator he said, “Move the probe ahead. Let’s see if we can find them.”
For the next fifteen minutes, t
he probe covered nearly a quarter mile of tunnel. Every few minutes someone thought they spotted something that needed to be looked at but so far there was nothing unusual. The operator who was also monitoring the forwardfacing camera spoke up.
“The end of the tunnel seems to be coming up. No, wait a minute, it’s a sharp corner. The tunnel goes off at ninety degrees.”
“Continue slowly,” said Frulé.
The probe turned the corner and the lights revealed a large cavern. As the probe entered the sensors expanded to keep the unit in the center. The data revealed that the cavern was forty feet high, fifty feet wide and one hundred and eleven deep. The wall was covered in strange multicolored hieroglyphs and, on the floor, were two very still bodies in black uniforms.
“The probe is indicating oxygen levels are at 0.09 percent,” said the operator.
“I’m not an expert,” said Andrew, “But that seems like a dangerous level. It looks like those Kaedians walked in there and passed out and died due to the lack of oxygen. Look at the dark color of their skin.”
“I would agree,” said Frulé. “Bring the probe back. I don’t want anyone going in there until the medics have given the okay.”
The next day Andrew and Sande joined a team of EDF troopers who were setting up ventilation equipment outside the cave. Since Marcie had taken on the job as Health Officer for the village, Sande had devoted her medical expertise to the Battalion. Altogether just over a quarter of a mile of leftover grey water pipe was improvised as an air duct and was laid inside the tunnel. Connected to the Barques ventilation system fresh air filled the cavern for the first time in an unknown age. Two hours later the probe was sent in once more to measure the oxygen content. The probe monitored the levels for twenty minutes. The results were good, the oxygen levels held at 21 percent. Even so, Sande required that the air be monitored every fifteen minutes as long as anyone was in the cavern. Powerful lights that had been stripped off the tanks and reconfigured were brought in. The power cable was laid and connected to the Barque parked outside.
When Andrew saw the hieroglyphs recorded by the probe he thought he recognized them from some of the cave paintings he had found exploring caves as a student. He showed Sande the pictures and she became excited. Sande studied ancient human history as a hobby and had been on several digs on planets close to Hevinia trying to unravel the mystery of how evidence of ancient humans came to be there. She found it fascinating that as the Hevinian Commonwealth expanded they found new evidence of these ancient humans. The further the planet was away the older the evidence was found. Some scientists had speculated that the pattern indicated the path humans took before arriving at Hevinia. This implied that humans were in evidence in other parts of the Galaxy even before Hevinian recorded history.
On several planets, Sande had seen similar markings on pottery shards and on partial remains of paintings on cave walls. What was curiously missing was any evidence of modern humans on any of these planets. Each time she had recorded the images and transmitted them back to the Council of Archeology. Hevinian scientists had studied them along with other fragments sent by other enthusiasts from around the Galaxy. All these studies and conclusions were available to anyone who wanted them. Because of her interest, Sande had brought archeological testing equipment and all the data she could find with her down to the village clinic intent on continuing her hobby. To her knowledge this was to be the first time pristine hieroglyphic paintings had been discovered intact covering an entire interior wall.
The lights went on just before Sande and Andrew entered and the effect was dazzling. The colors appeared to be as bright as the day they were applied. The overall impression was one of an artistic
representation, meant to enjoy, but also to educate. The left wall was covered in the glyphs. On the rear wall was a massive stylized painting of a star, a brilliant white ball with light and fire radiating outwards in all directions. On the right wall was a depiction of a star system showing planets in orbit, including what looked like a blue planet within the star’s habitable zone and its three moons. Above each planet was a glyph and below were some marks that could be another form of writing. On the front wall, next to the entrance was a pictogram showing a blue planet, then the same blue planet with white dashes on it, then the blue planet again this time the white dashes moving away. The next picture showed what appeared to be a massive asteroid hitting the blue planet destroying it and the last picture showed the white dashes in a line going up the wall into the ceiling which was black dotted with yellow/white stars. As the line of dashes passed a particular star, a line of smaller dashes broke off heading toward it. This pattern was repeated many times. As the line moved on, the dashes decreased in width until a very thin line of white dashes dropped down onto the right wall, stopping above the blue planet with the three moons.
Each picture on the front wall had a hieroglyph and similar marks. After she recorded all the images, she began to take a close look at the glyphs on the left wall and to her amazement and joy she found the same marks under each glyph that appeared on the right and front walls. She began to systematically record each glyph with the corresponding marks from each wall and already she had noted some similarities between them. Next, she took tiny samples of the paint from the marks, pictures, and glyphs. Her equipment back at the clinic’s lab would be able to determine their age within two hundred years.
“I think the marks are much later than the glyphs,” she said to Andrew. “Hopefully it is a translation of the glyphs into a newer language.”
She was excited but fearful. If word of this discovery reached Hevinia the place would become inundated with scientists and reporters. She had to talk to Sara and the village council about the need to preserve and protect it. She turned to leave but saw another smaller glyph different from the rest in the left corner. Between her and the glyph was a puddle of dark water about five feet in diameter. Focused on the painting she stepped forward.
“Stop!” yelled Andrew. She froze and Andrew grabbed her and pulled her back before she stepped into the puddle. “Don’t step in that water.”
“What is the problem?” she asked, surprised.
“Just back away from the water. It is not unusual for poisonous gases to be trapped by the surface tension of the water especially in caves where nothing has been disturbed for years. We had best leave now and send in the probe to test it.”
Sande was shaken up a bit.
“I never would have thought of that,” she said. “Thank you.”
She recorded the tiny glyph and backed away.
“Why don’t we wait until the probe has done its job eh? Come on, we are done here for now.”
Suddenly Andrew was distracted by a metallic voice coming from the wall behind him.
“Eim kraz.”
The voice was speaking in Kaedian. He looked at the wall searching for the source of the voice.
“Eim kraz. Heimenin tolverse verfrinae. Farfa keem boolgure sleemfer tarneena,” the voice said again.
He roughly translated “Respond Kraz. Respond Kraz. Why have you not checked in? We will wait at the prearrange coordinates for two days.”
Andrew homed in on the voice. There was a small communicator wedged in a crack in the wall next to where the Kaedian bodies were found.
Outside Kris and Ray were studying the tracks leading away from the cave. Actually, Kris was studying the tracks and Ray was listening to Kris’ assessment.
“See here, these prints have a tread similar to those found on the bodies of the Kaedian assault troops. The tracks all lead away from the cave, there are none returning.”
“Okay, that means there are still Kaedian soldiers on the loose,” said Ray. “How many do you think there are?”
“Ten to fifteen would be a close estimate,” offered Kris. “Ah! Here comes Tom and Françoise, we’d better let them know what we have found.”
Kris was showing them the tracks when Andrew appeared with the communicator.
“I found this in the cave.”
He then told then what he had heard. “I did not reply.”
“Well I guess that confirms it,” said Tom. “Andrew, do you think there is any chance the Kaedian fleet will return for them?”
“No, they know they are on their own.” Andrew anticipated the next question. “They will travel for a while then, when they feel secure, they will establish a camp. Once the basic necessities are taken care of like food, water and shelter they will come looking for women.”
“What?”
Tom was struck by the matter-of-fact way Andrew spoke. “Are you serious?”
“Very,” said Andrew. “These men know they are forced to spend the rest of their lives on this planet. They are aggressive combatants, used to taking what they need as it becomes available. They know we have superior numbers so they will not attack us in force but they will steal. As the colonists arrive and start farming they will attack outlying farms and kill the men and children. They will take the women and all the food they can carry. This will continue until we wipe them out.”
“Then we had best deal with them now,” said Frulé.
“They must realize we are aware of their presence so they will be careful to conceal themselves. They may have camouflage capabilities. If you haven’t done so, I would recommend going through the packs we found inside as it might be helpful,” said Andrew. Kris started to say something but Tom cut him off.
“Kris, I know you could do this, but this one is our responsibility,” said Tom. “Besides, this mission could take weeks and you are an elected official now and have responsibilities to the village.”
Altis-5: Book #2 of the Sleeper Series Page 26
