Horizons

by Donald B McFarlane

  Looking back down, she spotted a short man approaching, still in full battle kit, holding a helmet by his side, looking downcast as he walked towards the trio.

  “This is Major Michael Tattersall.” The Colonel introduced the man and gave him a light pat on the back. “Mike, could you tell the Doctor and the Sentinel what you know.”

  The Major didn’t respond but looked at Rhea with a blank expression. Rhea recognised the look from a conversation she had had with Joe about his first encounter with the aliens in Paraguay. Nothing could frustrate a soldier more than knowing that they were going into a fight where they didn’t stand a chance against an almost god-like opponent.

  Putting out her hand, she touched the major on the shoulder, which forced himself to blink a few times. “Major. Can you help us find out what happened to your men?” she asked in her most feminine of voices.

  The Major straightened his posture and cleared his throat. “I can.” He replied.

  “Thank you.” Rhea looked up at the SC. “Could you tell the Sentinel Commander what happened first?”

  Mike looked up at the massive robot, clenched his jaw, then relaxed. “We were in our hide sites, on surveillance. Everything was going to plan. At some point, I can’t remember when, my sergeant and I heard a loud booming noise over the village. It sounded like a jet going supersonic, and seconds later, there was a second blast from a position just to the west of the town.” The Major stopped and looked down. “It was shortly after that that the battle kicked off.”

  “Thank you, Major.” The SC looked the Colonel. “Have you searched the area west of the village?”

  “We did. We found nothing.”

  “This does not make sense.” The SC turned and faced to the west. “Whatever conveyance was used by the attackers was apparently malfunctioning, because announcing your arrival like that is not a sound strategy.” Without informing the rest of the group of his intentions, the SC started off towards the west side of the village.

  Rhea looked at the Colonel and then at Mike before taking off after the robot, the two British officers in tow. The walk to the edge of the village took just under ten minutes at the SC’s pace, and like the flip of a switch, the village ended and was replaced by an endless sea of sand stretching as far as the eye could see.

  Stopping on the edge of the town, the SC looked down at the trio of humans before focusing on Major Tattersall. “Major. Would you say this is roughly where you heard the second loud noise?”

  “It would be very close to this position.” Came the reply.

  “And Colonel, you said that your men have searched this area, thoroughly.”

  “They have, but as you can see, there is nothing here. It’s nothing but desert.”

  Rhea shifted her gaze from left to right and mentally agreed with the Colonel. There was nothing in front of them. It was empty.

  “Stand by.” The SC activated a full spectrum sweep of the area using all the sensors at his disposal and came up empty. “You may want to cover your ears.”

  Rhea looked up at the machine with a confused look on her face, but she had known him long enough not to question his instructions, and quickly stuck her gloved fingers in her ears just in time as the SC fired off a thunderous sonar burst towards the desert.

  “What the blazes was that?” Asked the Colonel, shaking his head.

  If the SC could have smiled, he would have. “Sonar, and the solution to our puzzle.” The machine moved away from the village to a point fifteen metres away from the edge of the town, brought its arms up to chest level, and pried the hatch open on the Coalition insertion pod. Once it was opened, the SC quickly deactivated the pods cloak to reveal an eleven-foot tall capsule that was embedded in the Iraqi desert.

  Rhea and the two officers quickly moved towards the now visible device with a sense of awe.

  “What is it?” She asked as she reached out and touched the pods surface.

  “A stealth insertion pod. Very rare, and this one is timeworn. It probably malfunctioned on entry which would account for the two loud booms that the Major heard. Probably the crew firing the jets to slow the descent.”

  The colonel moved to a position where he could see inside the pod. “How many men could this transport?” he asked marvelling at the device.

  “Two operatives with handheld weapons.” Replied the SC. “The problem is now finding those two, and that problem is made larger by the fact that they are probably wearing Shimmer Suits.”

  “Shimmer Suits?” asked Major Tattersall.

  The SC looked down at the human. “It means they’re cloaked. Just like this pod. It’s why your men didn’t stand a chance against them.”

  The major let the information sink in before responding. “How do we track them?” He asked, rubbing the stubble on his chin.

  The SC moved away from the pod and looked back at the town. “With difficulty. Their footprints would have been washed away by time, so that is not an option. The suits render them invisible to almost all of my sensors, so I am afraid at the moment we have no alternative but to wait for their next move.”

  The Sentinel Commander looked down at the humans. “There is another concern I have. There will be more than one team on the Earth at this point.”

  Rhea looked at the two British officers, and then took her backpack off and fished out the satellite phone. Powering the unit on, she dialled the number for the White House. This was information that needed to be forwarded to the highest levels at once.

  32

  The pod that Kio and Twiv dropped in functioned flawlessly. Air-brakes had been applied at five thousand feet to slow their descent, and then a quick retro-burn was initiated at fifty feet to allow the insertion pod to come to a gentle stop amongst a dense jungle environment.

  Before he opened the hatch, Kio conducted a full spectrum scan of the surrounding area, checking for bio-signs, weather conditions and any other pertinent data that could assist their mission. Satisfied that it was safe to exit the pod, he slammed his fist into a large red button which quickly popped the hatch open, letting in the fresh mountain air.

  Stepping out of the pod gingerly, Kio brought his weapon up and scanned the jungle that surrounded him. Twiv stepped out of the pod and knelt down next to Kio and adopted a similar defensive posture. The pair said nothing as they attempted to get some semblance of comfort in their new environment which was alive with the sounds of wildlife.

  “Run a full sensor sweep for all forms of communications and signals.” Kio ordered.

  Both operatives tapped a few keys on their wrist pads and waited as their suits attempted to detect any non-naturally occurring signals or information that was being transmitted nearby. Once the task was complete, Kio made a note of the data that was being displayed on his helmets heads-up-display.

  “Looks like there is a settlement directly to our south.” Kio checked the remainder of the data that was being displayed. “We will move in that direction.” Kio stood up and tapped another key on his suit and watched as the hatch on the drop pod slowly closed. “Mark this location on your nav system.” Kio did the same, and a small red beacon popped up on a map that was on the left-hand side of his helmet display.

  The drop pod had taken typographical images of the area immediately below the drop zone and then fed the data to the Shimmer Suits, giving the operators a high level of detail about their surroundings, so they were not completely unaware of their environment. The capability to intercept signals data allowed them to determine estimates for local populations, and with that data in hand, they started moving through the thick jungle south, towards the nearest town.

  Kio had been on many missions, on many worlds, since he had joined the Coalition forces, but the jungle that he now found himself in was by far the thickest. So thick that he was having to use an energy blade to hack his way through, something that he was wary of doing, knowing that the clean lines left but the saw would indicate that someone had travelled this route, but under the circum
stances, he had no choice.

  Looking skywards, he could tell that the sun was still high overhead, but tiny amounts of light were able to penetrate the jungle canopy and make its way to the ground. These were almost ideal conditions for a near-ambush, he thought to himself, but there was little chance of encountering intelligent life forms in this brush. They’d have just as hard a time as he is getting into position.

  Thinking back to the orders he had been given, he started to wonder how landing in such an environment could help the mission succeed. He knew that the area they were trekking through was sparsely populated and that there were no Alliance forces anywhere on the continent. While orders were orders, he was surprised that Fu hadn’t sent all three teams to gather information near the Alliance troops, instead of spreading them so thin.

  Pushing the thought from his mind, he continued to lead Twiv through the brush for what started to feel like an eternity, and with little distance to show for it. Just as Kio was tempted to order Twiv to take over the duties, the brush started to thin, and in the distance, Kio could start to make out a clearing.

  Turning the blade off, he used the helmets optics suite to enhance his view of what was ahead and spotted six humans moving around a pit in the ground. Nearby were some tables with a variety of objects on them, and they appeared to be taking materials or resources from the pit. This was certainly a low-key mining operation, and worth an investigation

  “Set your weapon to stun. We have no quarrel with these people.” Kio ordered as he continued to inch closer to the edge of the jungle. As Twiv came alongside him, he continued to scan the area, and devise a plan. “We’ll approach them and continue our surveillance. Then we will neutralise them and conduct further studies into what they are doing.”

  Twiv quickly acknowledged the plan, and the pair stepped out of the jungle slowly, showing a considerable amount of caution even though they were cloaked. As the couple moved gingerly towards the group of miners, Twiv stepped in a large puddle of water, and the resulting sound and ripple of waves gave warning to the men, who stopped working and looked at the moving water with a confused look on their faces.

  Inside his helmet, Kio swore at Twiv. Amateur move, he thought to himself. Bringing up his weapon, he quickly fired a series of shots at the men, sending them all crumbling to the ground. Lowering his rifle, he turned to face Twiv. “You never step in water. It defeats the purpose of having a Shimmer Suit!”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Secure the mine where they were working and make sure that there is no one down there to raise any alarms!” Kio pointed at the hole in the ground the men had been pulling material from.

  Twiv ran forward, still splashing through the large puddle, and reached the mouth of the mine before firing a single shot into it. “One target neutralised in the shaft.” He reported.

  “Very well. Pull it up.”

  Kio moved towards the table that was set up near the mine and set down his rifle. The table was covered in a variety of hand tools, bottles of liquid and food. It was a mess, and not what Kio would have tolerated if this was his site. At the far end of the table, away from the pit was a small pile of rocks of varying colours. It was evident to Kio that they must have some value, otherwise it would have made no sense to dig them up, the pressing question was if they had value, to who were they valuable, and why.

  Pulling his science scanner off his waistband, he picked up the first rock and scanned it. The test took seconds and came back with analysis, and a conclusion, which surmised that the rock was useless. Kio put the stone down to his right and picked up the next stone, and again got the same result. He repeated this process for all the rocks on the table until he came to the last stone, which was smaller than the rest and reddish brown in colour with hints of orange. The rock looked unremarkable, until the scanner took twice the time to conduct its assessment, and requested a level one diagnosis.

  Putting the stone back down next to the scanner, Kio bent down and pulled out his science kit that was attached to the outside of his lower right leg. Opening the package, he took out a clear vial and dropped the stone in. Shutting the top of the vial he hit a small green button on its underside, and then set it down next to the science scanner.

  Turning his attention back to Twiv, he watched as his teammate struggled to drag the body from the mine and shook his head. Just as he was about to comment on the lacklustre performance, the science scanner beeped to life. Turning back, he picked up the device and looked at the results, which were profound.

  The scanner was labelling the stone as the highest priority discovery and requested that all data be immediately uploaded to the command ship. Kio picked up the vial and gave the rock another look. It certainly didn’t look impressive, but evidently, it was. Shaking his head slightly, he stuck the vial in an empty utility pouch and returned his science instruments to their proper locations.

  “We need to go back to the drop pod.” Kio stated, glancing down at the unconscious bodies at his feet. Kneeling next to one of the bodies, he pulled out his medical reader and ran it over the stunned human. After the scan was complete, Kio set the device against the person's skin and took a DNA sample before returning the device to his waist-belt, and starting the trek back to the jungle.

  33

  Rhea and the Sentinel Commander had spent the previous three hours in the shuttle waiting for Lieutenant Colonel Cundey to decide what to do with the pair. It didn’t help that the British forces had no idea where the Coalition team could possibly be, and they were not about to let the Sentinel Commander loose to track them down.

  Just when Rhea was considering trying to get some sleep, Major Tattersall ran up to the shuttle with the news. “There’s been a battle just on the other side of the Syrian border. We think it is the same people responsible for the attack here.”

  “What’s the plan?” Rhea asked, getting up from the bench.

  “We’re going to air-assault in a company of Paras, along with some US forces to try and surround them.”

  “Are we coming with you?”

  “You can come, but the Sentinel needs to remain here with the shuttle.” The major paused and looked at Rhea. “The Colonel considers this an internal problem, and the government of Iraq does not want any off-world forces operating within its borders, this includes Alliance forces.

  “You cannot stop them, Major. More men will die.” The hulking machine said dryly. “You should bomb the entire area, then move in to find them.”

  The Major straightened his posture and gave the machine a glaring look. “I am sure that we are equipped to handle this situation on our own.” The Brit responded before turning to walk away. “We’re leaving in fifteen minutes, Doctor, if you’d like to tag along.” He didn’t finish his sentence before turning to leave.

  Rhea watched as the Major strode away from the shuttle. She was shocked that they were not going to use every tool at their disposal to solve this problem. They must have known how poorly the US Air Force managed against drones over Vancouver, and now with two dangerous individuals rampaging through the desert, it was now more than ever the time to bring the Alliance onboard.

  Looking up at the top of the compartment, Rhea exhaled and closed her eyes. She wished Joe were here. This was just the kind of situation that he could resolve, probably taking matters into his own hands in the process.

  “Doctor.”

  Rhea opened her eyes and watched the SC move towards the cockpit and returned with a belt with a holster attached to it.

  “I want you to take this with you.” He handed the belt to the doctor, and she looked at it with an expression of trepidation.

  “I’m not a soldier.” She replied.

  “No, but you are strong, and this might save your life.” He replied, in a slightly more stern tone.

  Rhea looked at the belt again, then wrapped it around her waist, securing it tightly just above her hips.

  “Draw the pistol.” The SC instructed.

  Rhe
a looked down at her right hip, and gingerly pulled long grey, wand-like weapon from the holster, and gripped it firmly. The pistol felt light in her hands and smooth to the touch as she ran her left hand over the side of the weapon.

  “Do you see this switch here?” The SC pointed to the raised knob that was a just above her thumb. “If you press it in, the weapons goes hot, and can be fired.” Rhea ran her thumb over the knob but didn’t press it. “To fire the weapon, aim at your target, and just squeeze your fingers once, and release.” The SC started moving towards the exit of the shuttle. “Come,” he instructed, “you need a few practices.”

  The pair walked out in the warm Iraqi afternoon towards the nearest building. “Stand there.” The SC instructed, pointing to a spot on the ground ten yards from the building.

  Continuing forward, the machine reached the building and jabbed its finger into the wall and scratched a large X that was clearly visible to Rhea. Turning, the machine moved back to the human doctor and pointed at the wall.

  “Take the weapon and point it at the X as if it were an extension of your arm. Breath slowly, inhale, exhale. Aim just above the centre of the target, exhale, and slowly drop your arm, and when you feel like you are ready, fire.” He instructed.

  Rhea looked up at the machine, then back to the wall, bringing the weapon up. Trying to slow her breathing she let her arm rise and fall a few times in unison as she breathed in and out.

  “Do not forget to remove the safety before firing.” The SC commented.