New Pangaea Pg 195-204

Week 29

Day 1

‘Commander, we got visual. The column is marching and fast; about two hundred or so of them red tunics, with one riding a lizard. Looks like a Komodo dragon from the database search but its not of this era for sure. Am monitoring them.’ That was Lieutenant Ludwig and he is flying recon with extended power packs for longer flights. Based on the Lieutenant’s position, we are looking at them arriving in a week or so.

And Corin is still on life support as her body is fighting the common cold. Most of the non-armed colonists are in Monolith or Plateau.

I can even feel the tension in the air around us, as the creatures are also eyeing us as potential servings or coming to near extinction soon. Then they can have the jungle back to its pristine condition. Even Rexy stops to look at me when I ride pass its area near Village Two.

Dugout Two is ready now, as reported by Major Shaw. My instruction was to build more housing units and do a connecting trench to Dugout One. The Shuttle will now be stationed at the new Dugout. After that build Dugout Three and continue with housing units.

Doctor Leong reported to me that they have the lots and its housed in secured pits with adequate food. The men in the Infirmary are back at their posts.

Now we wait and meanwhile continue with our daily life's. But the mood of the personnels and colonist has changed to more sombre and disbelieving of the turn in their life's. The bars are still serving but the flow is more intense with credits piling up, but who cares, as we may not be around to pay or receive. But I was not prepared for my Specialist to the first to break. This was the report filed by his commanding officer, Lieutenant Ludwig.

Special Report from Lieutenant Ludwig

Day 1 Week 29

1923hr

I was in the Billet with the Air Wing  having our late afternoon drinks. Specialist Byron Man ( Bubble Pilot ) was on patrol and due back at 1700hr, but he came in at 1400hr. He was very agitated and walked over to our table. He grabbed the glass of wine from me and gulped it down in one shot. He then told us he doen the glorified works of an airman. He has blown the column to bits. He bragged about shooting missiles at them and chasing their butts off the land.

I stood up and punched him on the jaw. He was knock unconscious and we dragged him to his bunk. I took the Bubble and flew to his last known location. He did as he said, but his aim was either poor or bad, as I see he has got about one third of those chimps. The rest are still there and they are shouting at my craft. I veered off for base to report in immediately. 

Specialist Bryron fired off two missiles and dispensed off three hundred rounds of ammo. He was drinking alcohol concoctions during the flight. In other words, he was intoxicated.

If not for the lack of officers, I would had grounded and kick the Byron’s butt off the Air Wing. But this is time of war and I cannot afford to lose personnels. I had him practice loading the cannons and firing it for two days from dawn to evening.

Day 3

‘Commander, we got visual. The column is still there and not moving. I think they are waiting for reinforcement.’ That was my bigger fear of the situation.

How many are coming and at what strength?

I re-read Corin’s interview transcript. Besides snakes, there is another enemy; the slithery ones like us who traveled on creatures on four legs. There are snake-men’ or lizards men. I must watching too many re-runs of the old classic when the days imagination drives their mind. Most of those ‘myths’ are proven or left aside as man made stories.

The Snake Man-- half man, half reptile-- has been always a common refence in ancient cultures, even as far back to Babylon and Ancient Egypt. The descriptions may generally differs from different culture but the similarity is uncanny. It mostly associated with the development of man-kinds development of literary and new ages.  Even mytholodogy from the then Africa nation to the Southern Hemispheres, snake-men are reveled as union of Gods and earthlings. The Greeks has their version of Medusa, while the Orientals has their snake deities. It also a situation that alludes to the possible extraterrestrial origins in these cultures as some of their teachings or discovery rivals that of the later twentieth centuries findings. Even in the era of Atlantis dawn, the half man, half serpent was recorded in the history of Athens.

But there is one similarity, all these myths tells of the birth from the sea or water. Its either symbolic or there is a connection to it that we have yet to discover as there are any seas left on Earth. The faiths has some of them worship the snake as it has traditionally been associated with wisdom. The repeated symbolic mirroring of the snake man as a source of wisdom and higher consciousness suggests that these myths could be a prelude to extraterrestrial source of intelligence. The lizard man has been named but its sometimes mistaken for the snake-men as they share a similar head structure. These beliefs are in the stories of some older nations suggests that they come to them in dreams and from nowhere. But its unsupported by scientific research and so they are set aside. But every time I set aside such myths and stories, I tell myself it may be true here as we are on a different world. This is not Earth but New Pangaea. And we have only been here for 29 weeks and explored less than four hundred miles area.

It was then I remembered my maternal grandmother used to sing a song to me when I could not sleep when young. She said she learned it from her grandmother who learn it from her grandmother. She is part Native American and English. The song was called ‘Dream Catchers’. I still remember the words but not the rhyme.

An ancient Chippewa tradition
The dream net has been made
For many generations
Where spirit dreams have played.

Hung above the cradle board,
Or in the lodge up high,
The dream net catches bad dreams,
While good dreams slip on by.

Bad dreams become entangled
Among the sinew thread.
Good dreams slip through the center hole,
While you dream upon your bed.

This is an ancient legend,
Since dreams will never cease,
Hang this dream net above your bed,
Dream on, and be at peace.

( Dream Catchers http://www.firstpeople.us/html/Dream_Catchers.html )

Like its last line, we need to dream on for our new land and be at peace with it. There is no more other new lands for us but here. Its also said that the dream-catcher holds the destiny of the future.

Week 30

Day 1

‘Commander, you need to see this.’ I woke up to find myself having a good sleep and now awaken to see something. It is Specialist Melanie and she is almost due with Decan’s baby.

‘How’s the kid doing? Should n’t you be on Monolith?’ I took the report from her.

‘Its fine but I decided to stay with Decan.’ She took off without my salute. I can’t understand women’s emotions at times. The report said they found some foreign metals pieces in the dugout and its unlike anything we have. Its like as the report said ‘metal 101’ which means ‘metal unknown’.

But my second reports is more interesting. Air Wing has seen two small groups of chimps approaching our area. They tried to hide but their red tunic was too obvious. Each group is about five chimps. So they are trying recon on the targets. But the main column is still camping there.

‘Sound Red Alert and lookout for ‘commando's’ chimps.’ I switched off my comms to hear the red buzz goes off on BASE.  Then I find Micheal Bent on my door as I was getting refreshed.

‘Scott, I got a good weapon to repel those monkeys. We can use ultra sonic waves on them, something which we talked about before but never tried to so. ‘

‘So your dream told you last night?’

‘How did you know?’ He was surprised but I am not interested to explain my statement.

‘Yes, it can be done. Our comms dish can be be used to transmit the waves directly at the source but its a narrow bandwidth. We can test on different decibels to find the correct one. We did once on the insects that came to invade us  but this is a different species and more density.’ Doctor Doctor Sze Thing, Archaeoacoustics expert was briefing me on the convincing argument by Micheal Bent. If his theory is right they will dropped off like bad apples from the trees.

‘Commander, we have picked up the commando's locations.’

We want to captured the chimps so the personnels so in addition to our normal weapons, we don gas masks and held the tranquilizer gas in glass cannisters. We laid ambush on their trail with some of us on the low branches, and had our bodies smeared with dirt and findings from the ground.

Then they came in a column of singles and swaying their bodies as they moved through the undergrowths. The lead one suddenly stopped and took a sniff of the air. He may had detected us as he was getting agitated. But he is too far away for us to attack yet.

Then I saw the cause of his agitation; its a Archaeopteryx; a part bird and part dinosaur which has teeth and claws. Although it had feathers and could fly, it had similarities to dinosaurs, including its bone structures. It has a wingspan of about 1.5 feet and was about 1 foot long from beak to tail. There was a pair of them and they just came out of the bush. They saw the chimps and shrieked out loud, and then ran towards us. It ran just before us and stopped to look at the chimps again. This time around, the chimps took offence and came running towards them. The small dinosaurs ran off into the bushes and we came out of our hidings. That caused the chimps to stop and grinned their teeth. We served them our cocktail by releasing the gas on them. They started swinging their limbs and shaking their heads. Soon one then two of them dropped on the knees and keel over. By then it was all over as the chimps are all down. We came out of the jungle and signaled the M-Bots to picked up the sleeping chimps.

The second group was captured by Lieutenant Carlos when they passed by his team hiding spots. The Lieutenant just need to drop his gas on them.

We kept the captured chimps all in a long deep pit with a metal netting over it. These chimps are bigger than Corin and stand up to my height. They are males as I checked on them myself. They woke up later and tried to climb out but the netting held down by long spikes and its also electrified to deter them off. We took out one which was dressed slightly different, he had a emblem on his tunic. We reckon he was the leader as he was walking in the front of the troops. He was kept restrained on a metal chair and under guard at Outpost Six. We ran vids of chimpanzees for him to see and he was very violent. While he was pulling at his restraint, Doctor Boris was listening to his grunts and screams.

‘He’s obviously upset. He wants us to let him go.’

We kept him there until he was tired and we fed him. And then he became violent again. We could not get Corin to talk to him, as she is still sick. So in the end we pay a vid of Corin with us. We recorded her in the interviews and walks with Doctor Boris. The chimp acknowledged the identity of Corin.

‘He knows her and wants her free too. He seems to be a friend of hers.’

‘Can you talk to him? Tell him we meant no harm.’ But it did not work. He was as violent as before.

‘Corin, tell your mate here we meant you no harmed. We are actually helping you to get better.’ Corin is off life support now and able to sit up. Her chimpanzee mate, is going berserk pulling at his metal cuffs on both his limbs to tear us apart. Corin reach out her right hand, and the chimp went silent. He fell on his knees and grunt in low murmurs. Corin spoke softly and he looked up. He got up and walked towards the bed, by then which my personnels has allowed him to do so. The chimp bowed before Corin and kissed her extended hand. His eyes was all bleary and he is as gentle as a kitten now.

‘Commander, I think Corin is more to what we know. She has command over the chimp.’

‘Well, you are the doctor. Tell me more, Doctor Boris. Tell me more.’ I am also curious to know who Corin is. We left the chimp to talk to his mate under guard while I had things to attend to.

‘The other chimps are getting anxious and ruly.’

‘Feed them some bananas from our store. I know its synthetic and not the real stuff, but they won’t know the difference. I hope.’

Day 2

‘Commander?’ I woke up to see Doctor Boris standing before me. ‘You need to come with me to see Corin.’ I wondered if the personnels around here knows that even the Commander needed to sleep eight hours a day.

Corin is up and walking, and her chimp mate is tagging behind in his cuffs at the Infirmary. I walked up to her and she hugged me much to my embarrassment. She added in the insult by laying a kiss on my lips. And I had no coffee yet.

‘Thank you, Commander.’ She is speaking in the language I know. I nodded and she pout her lips. I decided then I be more better standing a few steps back.

‘Corin is well and she thanks you, Commander. She knows you are the leader and she would like to talk to you on herself. I read Ancient Greeks as well as speak. Its my first time communicating with it.’ So I understand from my peer, that the language used here is ancient Greek.

Corin said she is what she said before, but she did not disclose one important matter. She is also a high ranking officer of the Inner Hall. In other words, she had held position of influence or power. Male chimp here was one of her subjects also banished to the camp. His name is Deko and he is an officer of the guards and so are the others. They are all banished for protecting Corin. I am really confused now as I have eleven chimps that does not belong to the main group of chimps which is about declare war on us.

‘Tell Corin, for now all the chimps are to be placed under guards and we will decide later on her claims.’ I brief Doctor Boris and had Corin kept under surveillance.

My comms buzzed and I got report from Lieutenant Ludwig, our waiting column has been reinforced to now at three hundred. They are also marching fast.

Day 4

The chimps are within half a day’s march now. Their projected target is the castle again. I warned Vickie and I got my personnels on standby at Outpost Six.

Special Report from General Victoria Seeker, Federation Provisional Governor, Federation Colony on New Earth

Day 4 Week 30

1445hr

The first attack came at noon and it was not the full force. The first wave was fifty chimps armed with spears who hurled them into the castle wall. The strength of their throw was higher than the forty foot high wall and the spears landed on the yard. No one was injured and no one fired on the chimps. They threw their spears and jeered at us but we ignored their taunting, They then withdraw back to the jungle.

The second wave came in with stones and these were aimed at the upper walls. Just like before, we just ignored them and when we thought that all was fine, the third wave came, and this time they did something unheard of. The chimps was carrying long stakes and they leaned it against our wall across our moat. They then climbed up very fast and jumped onto the rampart. It happened so fast, but by then we were firing at the ones climbing. I saw one chimp while climbing lost his balance and fell into the moat. He could had been hurt as he could not get up, and the raptors came. It was cruel.

But the ones that was successful in climbing up are now engaging my personnels in close combat. I was there with my sword and PH350. I shot at one chimp who was holding one of my men on the flooring of the rampart. I slashed at one who was leaping onto the rampart from the wood. I saw two of them gabbed one of the men and threw him over. Then they grabbed the napoleon cannon and threw it too.

‘Fire the cannon’. It was the command that woke up the gunners.

The gunners remembered and lit off the fuse and aimed the cannon on the approaching chimps on the outside ground while we fought the ones on the wall. I slashed at the climbing chimps on the wall, to prevent them coming onto the rampart of the wall. The ten cannons roared into firing destruction with its loaded cannister. The sound was so loud that we all stopped fighting. I looked over the wall and see for myself the effect. There were chimps laying all around the ground in pain or dead. I counted maybe fifty or more of them on the ground outside. We took the advantage to shoot the ones on the rampart and pushed the rest off.

Then the sound came from the jungle and the chimps jumped over the wall, but they forget the moat. Many of them dropped in on the sharpened stakes or raptors kept  there, while some jumped on the bodies which was impaled to escape.

It was without doubt a tragedy and not a victory. But my gunners were not stopping, they reached another salvo into the jungle and screams were heard. Then the catapults swung into action with their clay pots filled with crude oil and a lighted wick. The clay pots on impact on the trees or ground will spread outs its flame and there was small fires in the jungle. And burned flesh smell.

I called for a cease fire and sat down by the rampart. I asked for an update on the personnels and the condition of the wall.The later was okay, but we lost eight men and wounded of fifteen with one I saw had his right arm limb torn partially off his shoulder. Its brutal what the chimps did but our cannons also conducted the same on them. Sixty three chimps was dead that day from the cannons or put out to dead by my personnels.

But the chimps has withdrawn.

Special Report from General Victoria Seeker, Federation Provisional Governor, Federation Colony on New Earth

Day 4 Week 30

2145hr

They came in again at 1645hr with an improvised scaffolding; they strung together the long stakes to form a series of checkered squares that they lean against the wall and they climbed up by the numbers. This time they came in waves of twenty and well spaced out to avoid the full blast of the cannons, but we were busy using our rifles to fight them. every time we shoot one, two was there to replaced the one we shot. More of them start coming over the wall and we were outnumbered, so I ordered a retreat to the inner tower. Our HELI-PODs was taken to flight by then, but it only hover at the yard to fire at the oncoming chimps in the yard.

It was then the Bubbles arrived; all four of them and they started firing cannons at the chimps on the wall and the yard. That broke their attack as they seemed to fear the flying machines. They climbed back over the wall and ran back to the jungle. But many were caught in the cannon fires or fell from the oncoming rush for safety.

The Bubbles and the HELI-PODs followed up with more attacks on the jungle and missiles were fired into the trees. The explosion was strong enough for us feel the impact on the ground. The Bubbles rake the jungle trees and chased the chimps in retreat.

My casualties list was twenty eight with nineteen dead. The chimps count was fifty four with some drowned in the moat. We did not count the chimp that died in the jungle as we were busy treating our own.

Although we won the battle but we would had lost if the full force was sent in. Our defenses are not adequate to fight them as they are strong and agile in movements.

I did not exactly agreed with her report; you can’t fight man to chimp with what they have but we can improved on our defenses. Just as they can improvise we will improve on ours. We just had to stop them from jumping onto us. That means no close combat but distance the killing fields.

Bubbles reported they are regrouping at a safe distance. I recalled the Bubbles.

We will use fire to douse their agility.

Day 5

The chimps came back that morning and this time it was me manning the wall with my surprises. They were massing at the treeline, and not an effective distance on our Napoleons design. It was exactly 0900hr they came charging with their checked climbing platforms, and they leaned that against the wall, My personnels assigned to the wall had their flamethrower on it. I fired doses of the flames on the platform and it burned with the flames. The chimps on seeing the fire jumped off and went berserk with it. That was when the cannons went off; first ten salvo and then the other second salvo in succession for three rounds. Then we took up the PH900 and started firing them as they retreat. The catapults did the finishing rounds on the trees burning for the third time.

It was all over. No casualties, but for one who took a spear in the chest. The chimps count were high at about a hundred or so.

‘They will return with more.’ Vickie stood there holding her PH900, still smoldering from the shots she fired.

‘And we will improve on their return.’

I walked away from the wall and went down to the ground. I walked out the gate and into the open clearing to see chimps laying around in pain. I laid my rifle down and said; ‘saved those you can, but move the badly wounded to the side. We end their pain with the doctor’s help.’

But some of the men are already killing the wounded like the previous battle. I saw one holding the chimp head and he just sliced his blade across the throat. I tried to stopped him and he glared at me.

‘He didn’t killed your brother yet. This one did on mine. I am taking my anger on them. Find your own to take care.’ He then moved onto the next chimp. I had my personnels take him away to General Seeker. I also told my personnels to stopped them at gunpoint if needed. We saved twenty of the wounded and had their wounds dressed. We send them off back to their troops in the jungle.

Bubbles said they are withdrawing from our land. They numbered about less than a hundred.

Corin refused to meet me for a while but I released her friends from the pit. They refused to go and stayed at the jungle fringe at Outpost Six.

‘Vickie, is there any news from your side on Earth like new colonists or supplies?’ We were in her castle tower that night just looking at the stars. We took the chimps carcass to a site near the castle and cremated them. But the predators came on the smell of blood and flesh but they kept their distance in the jungle edge. The castle wall was manned that night and no one slept a wink. Not even us.

‘No, our comms are still out and we don’t have a schedule if you are asking.’ I kept quiet and stared at the stars in the skies. Three hundred years ago, we discovered about eighty eight constellation and today, we have discovered more than a hundred more. We are not and never will be alone in this Universe. But the ones which we met to date are now our enemies.

‘Vickie, do you know the Constellations are formed of bright stars which appear close to each other on the sky, but are really far apart in space. The shapes you see all depend on your point of view. Many societies saw patterns among the stars with gods and goddesses or stories from their culture. It came from Most of the constellations with which we are familiar come from ancient Greece. But other civilizations created their own patterns in the sky based on stories and people that were important to them. Corin speaks Ancient Greeks. Maybe there is a connection. Are you listening?’ But she was asleep by then.

Come morning, I may need to check on Earth Council on the EDS schedule.