New Pangaea Pg 210-220

Week 33

Day 3

Its been four days now and no one knows who killed Recruit Ticker. Nor does I had any clues who could has shot me. I read the notes on Doctor Borman’s autopsy report.

Excerpts.

‘Ligature marks may be very subtle, mimicking the natural folds of the neck. If the victim has been strangled from behind, the impression from the ligature generally will be horizontal at the same level of the neck or just below the level of the thyroid cartilage. I found the hyoid bone and/or thyroid cartilage intact which made my conclusion more accurate. Recruit Ticker is aged twenty five and his two halves of the hyoid did not fuse ( its usually after age 30 ) it proves my conclusion.’

Death by ligature are works of experts like criminals. I remembered the previous case of the Maba family; death by strangulation. We had two suspects; Inmate PP10231 Karim Melia; murdered his family member by strangulation and Inmate PP10219 Tom ‘Peaches’ Jamie; enforcer for the organization, specialized in garrote. But they are in Holdings and from there to Outpost Six is one long distance. Assuming someone walks there its a three hour walk on way.

I asked Joseph to checked more on their background.

I got an update that afternoon.

Special Report from Investigator Joseph Bat

Day 3 Week 33

1621hr

Tom ‘Peaches’ Jamie has a previous conviction for murder but was acquitted due to lack of evidence. One of the jury members of his trail to his case was Margaret Bath. Of the ten jury that sat there, six died in accidents or suicides and three died of natural causes in three years. The last two who did not die was Margaret Bath and Mathew Lone. But Mathew is admitted to the asylum some years back. Margaret Bath is also the mother of Jamie Ticker, married to Richard Ticker.

Tom ‘Peaches’ Jamie is also a killer who specialized in the assassination by the act of sniping.

That evening, I had Tom ‘Peaches’ Jamies brought into custody at BASE. We searched his unit and found nothing.

Day 4

‘I know you did it, Tom. So tell me how and why?’ But he laughed and gave me his snide looks. ‘Ya will never know the truth, won’t ya?’

That was all I could get from him. I had him thrown into the Holdings and held there in isolation. He is an experienced criminal and he won’t break easy. I was not to asked but he broke down the next day.

Day 5

‘I did it. I killed Jamie Ticker. I also shot you. I threw the rifle away in the jungle. It was a mistake. I did not planned to do it.’ Tom Jamies was in tears and he is pleading for us to protect him. But he won’t say who was he to be protected from. I had him put back in Holdings.

‘Why did you do it, Pedro?’ I looked at the man who I know did the foul action. ‘What did you do?’

‘I had some raptors persuaded him to speak the truth. That’ all and its not for you or me. Its for justice.’ Pedro walked out of my unit.  He also laid the damaged PH900 on my table. It was taken from the jungle flooring and its barrel has been crushed. Probably by a creature or a man.

But that was not my concern anymore for Corin is back. She is injured and needed medical assistance.

‘The chimps are coming back and in force, ladies and gentlemen. They will be here tomorrow or the day after. About  a thousand of them. Good luck.’ Darned it, they got reinforced from somewhere.

Week 34

Day 1

The chinese has a saying that the number thirty four means live and die. Its like a complete cycle of a human’s life.

And today is our thirty fourth week.

The time is was 0444hr and the chimps came to wake us up from our sleep. But in fact we did not sleep at all that day. The Bubble has told me of the arrival of the chimps twelve hours earlier, but that was also too late. It was the local creatures that told me to be careful first, with them running with their tails between their legs. There were the raptors and then the T-Rex including Rexy. He ran too; probably wiser to the word ‘existence’ counts now in his head. I had all the preparations I could do; and they never seems enough. I called Earth Council but they are not taking my call.

Special Report from Lieutenant Ludwig

Day 7  Week 33

2103hr

I see them near now; they are huge in size and numbers. There are two columns of them, and they are splitting up now. Column One is going to south and I think its towards Outpost Six, while Column Two is still proceeding to Castle. I don’t know how they will cross over but they are headed there.

They have these riders on the lizard like creature and they are moving fast too. They are armed with spears like the infantry chimps.They are also pulling some sort of catapult behind them. I counted twenty of these catapults.

Special Report from Lieutenant Ludwig

Day 1 Week 34

0643hr

My morning recon completed; the chimps are making rafts with trunks of the trees. They are constructing it now at the river banks. I just saw twenty of them killed a croc.... oh my God! They just jumped on it and stabbed at it. The darned croc could not do much; its dead by now. They are not chimps; they are killer beasts.  I am turning back; they are throwing stones at me.

I was on the Bubble overlooking the Castle at 0900hr. The jungle offered good covers despite the previous encounters. Everything grows fast and big here. The chimps are there now and surrounding the place. I could hear them; a steady buildup of the sounds that slowly thundered to screams. They are screaming their war cries or whatever on the Castle. There are now flutter of movements and shadows of moving creatures. A jungle cannot hide long what technology can do to unveil. My infra-scope viewer tells me there are massing up there in the numbers for the push. Then one chimp came out and raised its face to the air. Its smelling the air for us, and it starts to move forward. I have ordered the men to hold their fire until I give it out. From behind the chimp, a few more came out and sneer at us. They are taunting us to fire them, but we did not. Then they went back into the jungle and there is rumbling in the bush.

The tension in the air was tense, and we ar just watching the jungle edge. The defenders are poised for action and the patience of the non-trained could be slacking. I want the chimps to come forth before we fire. I saw one non-military Fed’s raising his rifle, and I rushed over to pull him back. I motioned with my finger on my lips to keep quiet. He nodded back and we resumed our vigilance.

Then the horns sound was heard and the chimps came out with their wood scaffolding and running onto the open clearings. On the castle rampart. I saw the men ran along the rampart on the outer wall lighting up the wicks on the cannon. The catapults from the Castle went off in a series of whooping sounds as the pots of crude oil with the lighted rag flew off to the jungle trees. The pots landed and exploded into balls of flame while the cannister shots went off simultaneously. I can see the affect of the cannons shots as its tiny pieces of metals tears out in an arc and punched into hard and soft surfaces. I can see a chimp taking full impact and being flung back twenty feet.

I see chimps being shot at by the fragments get up and run on towards the castle. It unbelievable. Then they start climbing up and jumped onto the rampart of the outer wall but there are no personnels there. But instead they were greeted by the barrels of gunpowder which was lighted up earlier by the wall defenders. These defenders has taken off for the bastion tower and they climbed to the top.

The chimps looked at the lighted wicks and tried to put it off the fire. But wicks did their their work and the  blast of the combined barrels of gunpowder tore off most of the rampart and portions of the wall. The collapsed walls also brought the chimps to fall on the moat and around it, beside burying most of them.

By then the twelve men on the bastion tower light up their cannons there and sprayed the yard of the surviving chimps. The HELI-PODs hover over the high tower to picked up the twelve brave men who stayed back to set those traps. The twelve men climbed into the HELI-PODs and the craft took off. It then swing back and fired at the cluster of gunpowder barrel on the bastion tower. The explosions here are linked to a series of barrels which is set on the different levels. Those blast then took on more damages as its collapsed on the chimps. The HELI-PODs then dropped cannisters of explosion filled with metal fragments.

The whole castle by then a flaming furnace with fires everywhere and crisp chimps meat. But the HELI-PODs has flown to the other side of the river towards Village Two. I had boarded my Bubble which was parked at the yard.  I also turned back the Bubble and flew to Outpost Six for my battle now. SWAMP has moved downriver dragged by the MSV leaving only Outpost Six standing alone. And she is not without her personnels. I got off the Bubble and let the pilot takes over to fly her to the designated area.

Now its our turn.

I landed on Village Two and rode off on my bike. unslung my PH900 and took my position. Pedro was next to me, and he looked at me. ‘You ready?’

I could only nod my head.

Special Report from Lieutenant Ludwig

Day 1 Week 34

1003hr

We got the approval and we are taking off in formation. Five Bubbles and one HELI-PODs. We came in from the south east and flew over Outpost Six for  the river. We saw the rafts on the river; big rafts the size of forty feet across and sixty feet in length. They know their trees well as it was floating on the water. They had these other chimps with long poles pushing it across.

There was like twenty of such rafts with about fifty chimps on each. They were sneering at us with their bared teeth. We ‘sneered’ back with the missiles aimed at the rafts. We blew the rafts to pieces; we got about twelve of them and followed up with cannons shots on the remaining rafts and swimming chimps. For once I appreciate the river reptiles as they participated in the contest of eliminating the chimps.

Darned! They hit Specialist Raisa Lenin’s Bubble and she is going down. She did not make it as she crashed her Bubble on the raft that was still floating. It went up in flames and she is dead by then. We done our round for now and returning to our temporary base at Village Two for reloading.

Goodbye, Raisa.

They regrouped at the river banks and in turned wait for reinforcements. They came on the rafts and they been landing for an hour now.

This time the calvary joined in with their lizard rides. A lone rider came forward and he is riding a menacing lizard. We can tell this one is an officers as he wears a black stripes on their tunic. Those are the ones, we the snipers were told to target. All five of us; Sargeant Mugan Kabe ( Weapons ), Corporal Micheal Kano ( Weapons ), Corporal Pedro Mano ( Sniper/Scout ), Specialist Ian Mathew ( Sniper ) and myself. We took our aims and shoot at their leaders. We were all stationed at different locations on the high trees and we took our fires. After three shots we ran back to Outpost Six. All of us survived the mission.

Now comes the difficult part. But it was not so when you have someone you know next to you. In my case, its now Vickie.

They came up the river banks, packed in twenty per row and Bruning or jumping in with their assault on us.  We let loose with the four twin mounted cannons and the Napoleons. Like in the Castle, we stopped the first and second wave but they keep on coming. The Napoleon’s firing in sequence and the reloading ; and then lining up for the firing. We did like four of five rounds, I lost counts but the chimps are relentless in their assault. Chimps dropped from the shots may get up with their bleeding limbs or chest and marched on. They climbed the walls and we pushed them off with the long spears or just shot them off in the head or chests; it did not matter as long as they are thrown off. Some of us hurl fragment grenades down at the base and watch it explode among the chimps. One chimp saw a grenade picked it up and ran with it towards the river. Its blew him up into pieces. Its utmost crazy fighting these beasts unless you put one bullet into their thick skull to stop.

The riderless lizards are worse; the lizards go crazy when their master rider dies and fall off their backs. Without instruction or guidance, the lizards revert to their nasty self. They just rip at anything close by friends or foes. You are referring to a twelve to twenty feet long reptile with a deadly bite in them. They are also killed by the chimps in retaliation with their spears.

Just when we though they will never end, the call from the horns on the other side.

The chimps all suddenly stopped their fight and then started retreating to the river bank. They ignored the few lizards behind for us. The chimps ran for the riverbanks and got on their rafts. Once boarded they rowers pushed the raft off and rowed back upstream to their rafts. They are retreating and crossing back the river.

It was then the turkey shoot on the lizards by the snipers as they were devouring their previous master’s dead friends and also their own. We had to shoot the lizards to stop the carnage. In the end we gave up as the other reptiles came to joined in. I saw the crocs came out of the water and also attacked the lizards and chimps alike.

As Vickie once said, it’s brutal and senseless killings. We sat behind the wall and switched off the automatic cannons from firing. We just listened to the sounds of fights and gnawing of teeth on flesh. Its frightening to all of us. Some of us closed our ears and tried to think of more better thoughts.

The time is only 1105hr. Lunch was served early but no one was keen to eat then.

At 1504hr, the catapults started on the walls. They are flinging stones at us against the stone wall; its holding up but the ones that flung over the wall hits the yard. Or the wooden wall in the rear. I counted six catapults firing from the jungle, so I called in air support.

The HELI-PODs came in like a dragon behind us and roared its cannons on the catapults. It also fired two missiles onto the catapult hiding behind the jungle cover near the swamp. Its awesome to see such firepower and the destruction it created. The jungle next to the river banks is burning as we modified the missiles with phosphorus contents, courtesy of Agent Chemicals. The highly flammable chemical is burning with intensity that ravaged the growths there. I can see small creatures running out of the jungle for safety from the heat and flame. At that moment, I felt more disheartened than relief at the damage it has done. We have brought in mass destruction armaments to New Pangaea, but it inevitable given the level of threat.

The HELI-PODs then lower itself down to fly low back to Village Two.

But we got them to retreat back and they just crossed over the river again. But this time there was no scavengers as there see not flesh but burned carcasses. The crocs had their fill so they are contented.

‘You think they will come back?’ I looked at Vickie and shook my head’

‘I won;t but they are not like us. They have displayed their narrow focus on fighting at whatever costs. So I don’t really know.’

They did not come back that night.

Day 2

They did come early at dawn but not in force; small raiding party was seen at the swamps. They numbered no more than ten of them. They are trying to go to our flanks to check out the situation. I send out the sniper team with Infra/Thermal viewers.

Special Report from Corporal Pedro

Day 1 Week 34

0501hr

The sniper team under my command are three of us; Micheal Burns and Kano, plus myself. We went out the rear of Outpost Six and back tracked along the jungle edge from the swamp. We do not want to engage them in the swamp as we are not sure what’s in it. We saw our targets after a short walk, on the edge fo the swamp too. They are moving very slow and careful with their steps. I noticed that they are watching the murky water for any creatures.

I signaled the team to break and select their targets. Micheal signaled back his targets are the fore, while Kano is going for the middle chimps, so that leaves the rear three mine.

I crept up behind the tree trunk near to the roots, and positioned my rifle. The distance is about three hundred yards and its across a stretch of water. That will deter them from jumping over us when fired on. They may have to turned around the edge to reached us. Micheal may be most affected as he is nearer to them at two hundred over yards over the dry edges.

It was then a Sanajeh crawled by under my barrel, ignoring me and going for its morning breakfast, I guess. It took a more than a few seconds to move by and I lost ten yards advantage. I selected the last chimp who was looking nervously everywhere. I took my breath and released it as I pulled the trigger. I saw my projectile hit the chimp on the left back side of the head as it moved its head then to see to it right. The chimp went into a spiral spin on the impact and dropped dead on the wet clammy flooring of the jungle. By then Micheal and Kano has taken their targets too. I was on my second target which is the second last chimp as it was crouching to  look for us. I took it on the forehead and it fell back on the jungle flooring. By then the last of my target was already running for the tracks they just came, but before I could pull the trigger, a Titanoaba had its jaws on the chimps shoulder. Its a big one that snake measuring maybe forty feet with a body diameter of nearly two feet. It must be their hunting time now and it got its prey.

The other shooters has got their targets except for Kano’s last chimp managed to run for cover. The Titanaoba was having a hefty meals of chimps that morning.

We returned to base at 0559hr. Mission accomplished.

They did not attack us that day but they are still across the river. Corin has recovered but she refused to talk or communicate. Her entourage of chimps are not found, so we assumed they are dead or missing. I could’t bring myself to tell her about the attacks but she seemed to know. She looked at me and by seeing me here, she knows we are winning so far.

I evacuated Village Two and send the Air Wing to Main Village. But I kept some sniper team in Village Two in case they do come there.

I got Bubble One to fly recon over the river and upstream, but no activities. They are camping there and doing something. But what, I do not know.

I got Bubbles to fly recon further west to see if there are reinforcements coming.

to date, I counted they may had lost like five hundred of their troops but they are still stronger than we are. We spent yet another restless night.

Day 3

There has been many attempt to develop an evolutionary chain between ape and man, from even the day when the scientific findings were done very much by guessworks and basic tools. We were always linked to monkeys as we shared quite a lot of similarity in DNA and also physical looks. The one thing that distinguish us is the brain size.

Monkeys brains of ancient species were twenty five to forty cubic inches compared with man which is about three times the size.  It should also be noted that some of those listed in above may be not be legitimate, since some were only based upon teeth or a very scant amount of bones. But we also drew the possibility through the makeup of ancient man looks with the facial expression close to that of the monkey. But it was never proven scientifically. Old findings of some notable finds were later proven to be frauds; a mix of bones from monkey and man or modified sculpturing with aging processes on the bones.  Though some were recorded and not been able to verified due to unsupported evidence or references. 

But the stories did not start from there; in fact it started in the myths and legends In the ancient Greeks myth, the god like Herakles or Hercules as known widely, captured a pair of monkey look alike thieves. He set them free as he was amused at their looks but his father, Zeus was without mercy. Zeus transformed them into creatures we now identified as monkeys. Not withstanding, other beliefs and faiths has the monkey in their teaching. Some were even worshiped as gods and others as symbols of cosmic proportion.

We experimented with the primates for over four hundred years. We got to them learn to write and communicate, but we got them to speak our words as yet. Not so in the intelligent syllable until what I saw here. Somehow the primates here learned or was taught better than we did. So maybe we are similar to the primates after all.  But we all shared one dis-similarities; monkey are more intelligent to adapt faster to their situation and surroundings. Their ability to learn is faster than human’s at times. That is what we did not foresee in our battle. An ancient war lesson which we forget to remember; to defeat your enemy, you need to know the enemy strength.

‘Commander, this Lieutenant Carlos. Your chimps are here in down stream and they are crossing the river. They have outflank your flankers.’ I rushed to the comms and shouted my command down to Outpost Eight; ‘Evacuate now.’

‘Its too late, Commander. They are here. We are holding them off for now.’ Outpost Eight; Corporal Simone, Corporal TY Yen and five Specialists including the two recruits.

‘Air Wing, Outpost eight! Scramble!’

‘Air Wing already up. We be there in five minutes.’ That was Lieutenant Ludwig.

They made it alright but late was better than never.

Special Report from Corporal TY Yen

Day 3 Week 34

1705hr

There were me, Simone, Specialist Karl Ivan ( Comms ),Specialist Vincent Price ( Recon ), Recruit Jermain Mansor, Mitch Basset and Tom Madden at Outpost Eight. All good officers and friends; all under one big fragging tree. Jermain was in the Crow’s Nest and Mitch was on the platform. The rest of us was in the corner having our first meal. It was fragging 0700hr, and who the fragged wants to fight at that hour.

It was Mitch who saw them first and then MB 3 on the ground reacted to the threat. It could not do much as a fragging chimp had threw a spear into its head console and blew it. But MB 3 bought us time. We went for the platform and took firing positions. But these are chimps; they lived on trees and they fragging played on it. They swung and jumped onto the platform and we started shooting them. MB 2 on the platform was firing away until three chimps jumped onto it. It struggled and pulled them off but they took off two of his limbs. It moved to  the fallen chimps and blew their brains off. But the next minute, it had a spear in its hydraulics in the back. It went down without a fight.

I saw Jermain firing at them from the Crow’s Nest before they got him. They threw him off the nest onto the yard. Mitch was with Simone and firing with their rifles, but these chimps keep on coming in. I was with Tom in the hut and that gave us some cover.

I saw Karl die; he was on the platform running to get down to the yard when he got impaled by a spear and thrown off the platform. But he took the fragging chimp with him; full blast in the head. God bless his soul. Vincent managed to join Simone and Mitch and they are holding their own until they ran out of ammo. Vincent then pulled out his grenade and smiled. They knew then they were going to die. He pulled the pin and they held each other. It blew a hole on the platform but its also took down many of them chimps.

By then the Bubbles arrived and they were firing the cannons on the chimps. I wanted to stop Tom but he ran out in glory to kill those chimps. He was shot by our own cannons from the Bubble. The chimps withdrew and then I came out to hail the Bubbles. A winch was lowering the rope for me to get on. I grabbed it and that was when the spear got me in the lower abdomen. But I hung on to fly off back to BASE.

Special Report from Lieutenant Ludwig

Day 3 Week 34

1710hr

We scrambled off all three Bubbles and we arrived there at 0735hr to see the chimps swarming on the yard and the trees. I initiated action by firing those on the yard and trees. We saw the explosion on the platform and I send Bubble Three under Pilot Mane down. She swooped down to the platform level while I provided cover and started clearing the chimps there. She saw our man coming out firing at the chimps but her guns were live. She regretted having to shoot him.

I saw Simone and asked Mane to picked her up. I did not see the spear that bit Corporal Simone.

Then your order came. We rise up to the top and both Bubble Two and myself fired out missiles at the platform. We confirmed its destroyed and we flew back.

Special Report from General Seeker

Day 3 Week 34

1714hr

On request, I had the HELI-PODs picked my men to fly to Outpost Eight. Six of my men went down to the yard while the HELI-PODs offered support. They scout the area and collected the rifles and any spare supplies. There was the ATV undamaged, so they loaded it on there. They then  took off on the ATV shadowed by the HELI-PODs.

Corporal Yen died from her wounds at 1908hr. I lost seven personnels in that raid. I called for a tactical withdrawal of all personnels to Main Village and Plateau. 

Chimps were then sighted on our side of the river banks. They came up the river banks and waited. As usual the lone officer will come out and looked at the silent response from us. Then he retreated and the assault came. The rows of chimps this time had wooden shields on them but they did not meet any fire from the wall. The charge stopped at the base of the wall and they keep on looking for flames or projectiles but none came down on them. One chimp pulled the scaffolding and leaned it against the wall. It climbed up and over the wall. It then later stooped over the wall and screeched at others. The chimps heard the cry and more came up to the wall and climbed up with their improvised ladders. Some chimps who went inside later opened the gate and more went into Outpost Six.

What they did not know was we did set gun powder barrels but with the detonator using our very own electrical charges invented by Cheng. The multiple cannisters of phosphorus contents exploded and took down the whole structure of Outpost Six into a flaming structure. Then the secondary charges when off which blew up the whole place with those planted gun powder explosives.

When the smoke cleared and the fire dwindled to embers, I took a ride in the Bubble. There are no chimps to be seen on Outpost Six areas, nor were there any moving on the riverbanks. I did however see some predators in there like Rexy, my favourite T-Rex.

It was 1909hr then and we beaten them twice. But they are improving every battle, and we are losing more than we can afford.

Day 4

‘Commander, this is Bubble Two. We have no sights of them chimps here either.’ Bubble One and Two was flying recon around Village Two and the former Outpost Six.

SWAMP also reported no activities there too.

It was Bubble Three who gave me the good news; ‘Chimps sighted on North West heading back to home. I think they are withdrawing. I count maybe two hundred of them and there are many wounded. We won, Sir.’

An empty victory for we know they will be back. And stronger. Sure is nice to have a reprieve and then we will continue this senseless fight.

But Corin is still not talking to me.

A conference of officers was called and we discuss our options. We reached a decision with Major Chavdar abstaining on the vote. He’s getting unpopular nowadays, except with Major Shaw.

Day 4

From research archive, we know that the chimps dislikes water. They drink water by scooping it with the leaf and chewing into it. But other species of primates like orang utan has shown tendency to enjoyed the rain but not so in jumping into the river. Our last battles with the chimps proves the above statement. They avoided the river and swamp water and thread carefully when they are near it. IT was this suggestion that we will built into the edge of the river. We will build the new Outpost Six nearer to the swamp and river.

She will be bigger and bustier, pardon the use of expression here. She is also renamed ‘Armada’ for she will have a docking yard for the MSV.

As for Outpost Eight, it will remained as its with a small monument to remember the fallen for now. The two M-Bots shell will be kept there side by side to the monument as guard of honors. Major Feeley said the right words that day when we perform the memorial; ‘The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. John F. Kennedy, 35^th President of the United States of America.

Works starts now.

The architect is Philip Dupine and Matsu Ishido; nicknamed the Builders. They have come up with a unique design on the fortress of ancient Japan; high walls and plenty of gates in between. The Steel Mill will cast more beams and poles, plus Napoleons with cannister shots. The two Heavy Metals were sent there with the W-Bots. So were many colonists. The castle will be ready in two weeks.

‘I am sorry about your castle. We could not had saved it with your people inside.’ I looked at Vickie as she looked at the mess there. What was once a stone wall is now crumbled to a mound of stones. Only part of the tower stood there with one side all exposed to the elements. She just turned back and said; ‘lets go. It was never meant  to last.’