Week 16
Day 1
The start of our fourth month stay here if you considered a month period is four weeks cycle. I stayed hidden in BASE while Major Feeley and Major Shaw entertained the new guests including the colonist’s.
Village Two is almost ready with its housing and facilites, for the hundred over families. The double wall is up to protect them and the pair of Heavy Bots are still creaking well.
‘Commander, I need to speak to you.’ Its Doctor Indra Silvia Pereira, Geophysicists/ Bio-Chemist, who just caught me at the ground level of BASE as I was to mount my bike.
She had discovered hydrocarbon deposits in the ground some distance from Outpost Five. It could lead to finding crude oil or fossil oil. It can be refined to become more products like petrol and kerosene to asphalt and chemical reagents. Its a prized products before the turn of 22nd Century, when we cleaned out the available resources, but by then the replacement energy was in turn to serve the world like solar and wind. And of course the inevitable nuclear which tops the list of energy provider.
My reply to her ‘uh-huh?’.
She went on ranting about the old engine designs using the fuel as a combustion agent. So in the end I asked her what are we looking at in reality. She said ‘alternative energy source that can work’. I added in the last words; ‘pollution and non-renewable resources’. It did end the subject but I took on her to look further into it and discuss with the other panels before embarking on it.
I rode all the way to SWAMP for my official visit there.
I was met by Lieutenant Carlos at the outpost, who late gave me a tour on both the facilities. I am awed by the technology here as we are stting on an open landscape with dinosaurs and reptile nearby. Its unlike BASE where we cleared the plateau of nasty creatures or any one too big for their claws there. But here its different as the SWAMP sits on the edge of the riverbanks next to the feeding ground of the Apatosaurus (formerly called the Brontosaurus); one of the biggest mammals to ever walk with its incredibly long neck and its long and whip-like tail as well as its small skull with nostrils towards the top of its head. It can measured up to ninety feet long; or the Castorocauda ( Greek for “beaver tail” ) and it is recognized for its beaver like tail. The Castorocauda weighed in at around one or two pounds and feasted on fish. There is also the Pterodactylus is known for having a wingspan of 2 ½ feet as well as their long and narrow jaws which contained sharp teeth. They are seen feeding on the fishes that swims to the surface. As in everywhere in this place, there is the nasty creatures like Pachyrhachis and mosasaurs. These carnivores swim in the murky water looking for prey. If not for the electrical field in the water, they would had been some concerns for the personnels. I can see the MSV on trail on the river and its a beautiful craft, but its size is relatively small compared to the big dinosaurs.
I took my tour of the base with the brief introduction by the Lieutenant. I proposed to the Lieutenant to seek a place for the next Outpost Seven at the other fringe of Village Two on the west side to protect it. He suggested that he can deploy Sargeant Sharon with six specialist there, leaving him with twelve in SWAMP. It will be a simple outpost with units for the personnels. I asked him how many can fly the BUBBLE and he gave me four names; Specialist Tun Ngoc, Specialist Musa Bini, Specialist Prasad Nin and Specialist Gintu Mos. I asked if its okay these four formed my wing arm with Major Shaw as command. He reluctanly agreed but we came to a compromise, they can stay at Pupost Six and fly when needed.
We also agreed on moving the bikes to BASE. There I can formed my bikers team. I already had Pedro on one and myself, but I was thinking of Nixon and some others.
Then the dreaded turn for me to visit Village Two, although its past late afternoon.
‘Goodday to you, Admiral Stoke’ I saluted the man I just saw some months back.
‘I am retired, Scott. So be nice and call me Brad. I am here with my grandson, Vincent. Can I make a request?’ I was all ears and he said he wanted to transferred to Village so that Vincent can be nearer to his mother. The child parents divorced when he was three and his dad is missing in action somewhere in some remote planet. I decided to upped the offer by saying that Major Shaw will be transferred here to manage the Wing Arm. The Admiral was visibly upset but he accepted the decision. It was only ater I found out the reason.
‘Commander Bent, the person I am looking for. My name is Margaret Welch and I am here to make a complaint. And goodday to you, Admiral. I hope you do not mind if I intercept your discussion but mine is of utmost urgency.’ Now I meet the admirable Margaret Welch; descendants of a awfully painful snooty aristocrat that has a claim to some older throne of hundred of years ago but they ceased now as royalties. Thank the stars, we do not have monarchy here in New Pangaea, or maybe we will soon be with Margaret in line soon..
The nice and respected admiral excused himself and I was left listening to the lady questioning my lack of facilities in the village. I would had turned her over my lap and spanked her if not for the high shriek of the Spinosaurus. It took my new guest to hold her tongue as she heard that sound.
‘Its a nasty dinosaur that eats meat. We called it Spinner. You might want to get into some shelter while I chased it off the perimeter.’ Well, she did take my advise but she said she is not finished as yet. I rode off on my bike to the source of the sound and find a fine specimen of the Spinosaurus standing outside the wall trying to look in. I was standing on the watch tower with a new military specialist, named KT Moong, manning the twin mounted cannons there.
‘Shall I shoot it, Sir?’ I looked at the man and smiled.
‘Son, if you shoot the darned creature, his family will hunt you down and share your carcass among them.’ That took the glee out of his enthusiam on his first kill.
‘That’s a no no, I guess. I was wondering when do I shoot?’ I sympathise with the man. He is eager but he must know something; cannons are for emergencies. So I told him the basic rules here; shoot only when threaten. Like when the Spinosaurus is twenty feet and charging at you. He got the rules into his mind fast. It was at nineteen feet so he fired just above the head of the creature. It got the message and went back into the jungle.
I got off the tower and rode off, while talking to BASE; telling them to send the ladies to chase Spinner away from this place. Next time, it will be me riding with the ladies on bikes.
It was past dusk when I reached BASE.
‘Commander, Warden Tomas request for your presence at Holding tomorrow. They got an issue there.’ Just when I thought it was safe to play poker with the inmates.
Day 2
The new roster I did last night reads as follows:
Outpost One / Tip’s Nest; Corporal Micheal and three specialist including recruits. Travel time half an hour.
Outpost Two / East Ends; Corporal Saidin and three specialists including recruits. Travel time ten minutes
Outpost Three / Wide Plains; Corporal Duffy and five specialist including recruits. Travel time thirty minutes.
Outpost Four / Cavern; Sargeant Keefe and nine specialist including recruits, with four at the ramp. Travel time ten minutes to the vertical cave.
Outpost Five / Southern Belles; Sargeant Kabe and six specialist including recruits. Travel time is forty five minutes.
Outpost Six; Sargeant Mick O’Brien,with five specialists.
Outpost Seven; Sargeant Sharon with five specialist there
Village: Coporal Simone and four recruits. Travel time is one hour.
Village Two; Corporal TY Yen and three Specialists.
Patrol; Corporal Pedro and three specialists; New Furies.
BASE; Major Feeley and seven specialist and recruits.
SWAMP; Lieutenant Carlos Manuela and Sargeant Ali Hamid plus four others.
Wing Arms; Four Specialist
Seventeen guards over eighty nine convicts.
Fifteen Viillage Guards in training.
Darned it! I am always short of personnels. I have over six hundred colonist to take care in an area which span over ten miles.
And now I got a situation in Holding.
‘Commander, we have an inmate PP10257 Tevos Carli admitted into Medic for multiple wounds. He was stabbed by persons unknown at this stage.’
‘Carli? Is he related to Carlos Carli?’ Carlos is one of the nine fugitive with Senior Guard Kim Toh.
‘Yes,he is. He is Carlos cousin. They were brought in together but he did not escape that day.’ It seems according to the Warden no one saw the incident and no one claims responsibility. I asked where was Tevos found; they said the common unit hall where the inmates go there to relax in the day. But this incident happened at early morning before roll call. There is a roll call every morning at seven for the attendance count. But this morning they found Tevos missing and a search was conducted. He was found half alive in the hall.
I send Doctor Schmidt Bormann and Joseph to give it once over at the Hall. I also had the inmates sitting in the yard while the investigation was going on. I saw the guards all standing huddled together at the sidelines but one person took my attention. It was a young guard who was constantly looking at the direction of the hall. I went into the hall to confer with the two experts in criminalogy.
Then I walked out and told the Warden we have some clues to check. I also told the warden to continue with routine works. The inmates marched out for their routine road building and the guards followed suit. I stopped the Warden.
‘Who is that guard?’
‘That’s Officer Park Song; a fine officer and due for promotion to Senior. Been with me for over five years now.’ I asked for his record and the warden said it will delivered to me.
‘Commander, you are needed in the Village.’
I am needed everywhere and everytime. Or maybe the name Commander is easier to remember than President or Chairman.
‘You are fragging crazy. All four of you. No, I cannot allowed such an experiment or even approve such a project. I am looking at a quartet of four old man who is tinkering the idea of making a flame thrower contraption which they say can replace the cannons on the walls. The logic is simple, the creatures feared fire and they can produce fire. If this is the smoke screen, then the real fire came from Doctor Indra who told them of the crude oil.
‘Look, Scott. I am a microelectronic enginneer, Sam here is a mechanical genius, Allen is also one.... what’s that.... oh! Technologist in pirokinetics, and Jimmy here is the genius in assembling anything together. They couldn;t named his professional skills so they called him ‘genius’. We have the rought sketch and we can design this wall deterrent gadget.’ I looked atn the four crazy men and finally klet them try but only on scraps and bits that they can find or salvage. Then I knew that was a mistake to say Doctor Indra was the fire. It was actually the Cheng’s.
‘Commander, we can save on ammo and charges here. Good idea.’ I would had strangled them if not for the fact these fragging old men may killed themselves in the process. Even though one of them is my dad.
I got the info I needed from the Warden and that took up my day with Joseph and Doctor Bormann.
Day 3
Some morning I do not want get out of bed and this is one of them. But the call came in and I had to get out. It was to get my butt to BASE.
‘Commander, we have the riders for you. They are volunteers.’
Specialist Nixon, Specialist Melon, and the Jessies’.
Did God read my mind or I went into his dream? Six riders now named as the Bikers will roam the land. The new SB2001S is framed on a new super lightweight design on top of a electric drive super technology to deliver blistering acceleration and performance whilst the aerodynamic body and strategically placed fins/ducts channel air to supply cooling to the concealed super conductor electric system and rests on two wide hubless alloy wheels. The ride’s helmet has a a builtin on screen data update on the mechanics and performance of the bike projected on their visor. It was also earlier mentioned of built in comms unit and a mounted metal projectile gun with twenty shots ammo load on each side of the front of the bike, but this one has one more extra. Its twin mounted gun; one on each side for the extra fire power.
These bikers are going to ride the terrain like what we used to do on horses. We going to gallop over the land, in a manner of riding, but this time with a high powered bike, and this one takes some handling. I never decribed the falls and slips which Pedro and myself went through and thanks to our extra padding on the knees and elbows, plus gloves; we kick those dirts and rocks off. The new bikes comes with a superior brake system that allows us to stop on standstill on the fast run, but it still needs handling by the rider, or they will be sliding across in front.
In our rides, we come across small obstacles like rocks and uneven tracks which adds sores to your butt if you are firmly on the seat. Thanks to the well designed suspension, we are able to counter these jumps and bumps with some help but it still hurts for the new riders. We also teach the riders on how to jump over fallen trees and cross over small streams. By the end of the one day course conducted by Pedro, the team asked for a long reprieve before they start the next training.
But my day is not over yet.
‘Commander, Joseph wants to see you back at Cavern.’
Comms need not specify but it was Big Mouth so I sped up the ramp on my new bike. I was with Doctor Bormann and Joseph going through the notes.
Preliminary Update from Investigator Joseph Bat.
Day 3 Week 16
1715hr
I done my research and searched the Hall. I found possible clues.
1. Guard Park Song has an exemplary record with the unit, but his social records says otherwise. He is a right activist and been known to be assocaited with rebel groups. Among them is the Brothers in Arm. Senior Guard Kim Toh is a member too.
2. There has been two reported cases of Guard Park Song involved in penal inmates killing, but those evidence was expunged on lack of witnesses or evidence.
3. We found a set of disposable gloves in a bin at the Hall. It has blood on it, and the blood belongs to the wounded inmate. On the glove we found sweat secretion left by the wearer. It matches to Guard Pak Song.
4. We found the weapon which was used in the attack. It was in the same bin which we foudn the gloves. The blade has not prints but it was traced to a previous confiscation done on EDS Titan before they land. It belonged to Carlos Carli and that blade was to be disposed by the Guard on duty, which happened to be Park Song. But on the blade we found some DNA traces and its Park Song. He could owned up as it was on it during the confiscation. He could also deny the disposal on the ground of keping a souvenier.
5. We also found something interesting; Park Song and the Warden are involved in an intimate relationship.
Clues which we have are still circumstancial but we are still pursuing.
Guard Park Song died that late afternoon on a self inflicted gunshot wound in the head. He was alone in his quarters and no one saw the incident. Despite my objection, the Warden called both case closed on lack of evidence.
I guess sometimes justice is not served in some places where you do not hold or sway the power.
Day 3
The morning could not have started worse than this; Sargeant Luker is dead. He succumbed to his disease early morning at the Medic Hall. I told Doctor Bashir to arrange the crematorium and I will attend. The recruits were given time off to say their goodbye to their mentor and leader.
The first off Village re-settlement were ready. The fifteen families alongside with Vicente Pizo has seen their spot. Its to the south and not far from Outpost Five. It has a river passing by the land which they can get their water supplies. I advised SWAMP to see if they can map a route to there. I send the W-Bots and Heavy Metals there. I armed all the families with three PDW and PH350 each. As Vincente is alone, he gets only one set. I send over the New Furies to assist them in security plus Pedro and including five M-Bots..
This new village is named New Village by me, but they named it Eden for the place of birth of man as described in the faith. One of the family is a strong faith believer and they managed to convince everyone that this is the New Eden.
Their housing are going to be build from scratch as we do not have spare building blocks but the design is about the same. Twenty five convicts on good terms are assigned to build the housing with five penal guards overlooking them.
As usual the first priority are the two walls surrrounding the place. The done the same as Village Two but they decided to add a moat. They chose to fill it up with crude oil. I suspect Micheal Bent is involved somewhere. And true to my suspicion he just walked out out a temporary unit with his three henchmen.
‘Hello Scott. You are just in time to see our latest invention; Dragon Fire.’ He led me to a an open yard and showed me what appears to be a crude looking cannon; it uses a wooden box carriage with wooden wheels, a wooden shield shield to protect the crew and a odd looking eletronic-mechanical pump system mounted to a long tubular barrel. It can be hand carried or mounted onto the wheels like now.
The Four Horsemen as I called them actually dragged the thing to the yard like the old horses did in the ancient days. They faced the barrel to the nearby jungle and crank up the unit. I stood some distance back in case it exploded but it did not; it actually emits sound of whirring and pumping and then Micheal took hold what appears to a joystick. As he moved the stick, the barrel moves with it in the same direction. He then pressed the trigger on the joystick and a long stream of fire came streaking out to a distance of over a hundred fifty feet, before its droop down. The longer he pressed the joystick, the flame retains its momentum. Then it went spurting and the flame died down.
‘Allen, you did not refill the oil.’
‘No, its the hydraulic pump that needs to be serviced.’
That got the four to argue on whose job it was. I seen enough to know the madness may work but the crew must wear protective gear like fire retardant suits. I told Vicente to have that in his village to scare away big nasty creatures.
‘Scott, you liked it. We can make it operate without manning, like in automatic mode, but we ran out of comms set to salvage from.’
‘Comms set? Who supplied you those?’ Nobody uses my comms set for experiment without my permission. I never got my answer and I gave orders not to issue any more new ones. I make sure the Chengs’ understand that well. They are doing detailed inventory checks now.
No comments:
Post a Comment