Week 38
Day 1
The Federation latest additions came in the day before we were attacked, but they landed some distance to the north west. A total of a hundred and fifty containers landed there and they have one hundred colonists and four hundred military personnels under Colonel Jeffrey Dante; Special Forces. They also came with HELI-PODs and military vehicles, and including supplies. They are here in response to the request of General Victoria Seeker as conveyed by Earth Council.
But the latest development is not appealing. The Empire and Federations are in conflict of ideas, but no war has started as yet. They been some diplomatic issues which they are sorting out, but meantime all diplomatic relationship are off. That applies to New Pangaea.
Forty three Fed’s survival including General Victoria will joined their people back as of today. They will continue to explore the land on the north to west while we focused on east to South. All previous arrangement are considered as null and void from this day.
Its a fragging Invasion force to conquer the chimps. Or understand them. I remembered what Mathew Burns said; ‘they can’t be trusted.’
At the ceremony to remembered the fallen in the last battle, I was asked to say a few words.
‘When we first embark to here, we were told of a promise land; a land of opportunity for us to live on; worked on; feed our family and above all populate it for the new generations. But we came to see hardship; which we could endure, dangers; which we could handle, sufferings; which we could overcome. But we did not foresee to have the ones we loved died in our hands even before we could had live a life here. Today is our 38th Week on New Pangaea. I will named it the 38th Declaration. We will map it as the day we decided to follow it the end with our courage and determination. We will not the ones who sacrificed their life's in vain.’
The headcount of the dead that day was two hundred and twelve one, with twelve more in the Infirmary still fighting for their life. We have ten more missing or unaccounted for as there was no remains found. They were all victims of this war with the chimps.
I also lost Specialist Micheal Burns and Kano; two very good friends and comrades.And my Air Wing; Captain Ludwig and his crew. Of the Four Horsemen, only three survived; Allen the pyro expert died in Village Two. And so was Peter Thomas Bone; a child will be born no knowing his father.
The rest of the week was cleaning up the Village Two and rebuilding it again. As for Outpost Six, it was also repaired and the defenses put up again with new Napoleons’ to come soon.
I looked at my new roster.
Outpost One / Tip’s Nest; Unmanned now. Travel time half an hour.
Outpost Two / East Ends; Unmanned. 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 three specialist including recruits, with four at the ramp. Travel time ten minutes to the vertical cave.
Outpost Five / Southern Belles; Sargeant Kabe and three specialist including recruits. Travel time is forty five minutes.
Outpost Six; Sargeant Sharon and Mick O-Brien,with two specialists.
Military Village: To close
Village Two; Five guards and twenty Village Guards.
Patrol; Corporal Pedro and three specialists; New Furies.
BASE; Major Feeley, and eight specialist and recruits.
BASE TWO; Major Shaw and seven Specialists including recruits.
BASE THREE/SWAMP; Lieutenant Carlos Manuela and Sargeant Ali Hamid plus the remaining personnels;
And twenty five armed colonist.
I still got eighteen M-Bots left as some won’t work or are damaged. We been using them for construction with the W-Bots.
Earth Council has taken my Code One call and they will reply in due course.
Now I needed the coffee; my fifth today. I got five hundred forty three Fed’s who are near us and outnumbered us by four to one in military expertise. I got an unknown numbers of warrior chimps to contend with and not forgetting the hundreds of the predators around us. I could hear the call of the T-Rex and the Raptors now as the sun goes to rest on another fateful day.
Day 2
The Monolith requested my presence immediately. I had Major Shaw fly over on her Bubble and she stayed to look at her son, Vincent Stokes while I flew to Monolith.
‘Commander, we may have something you need to know.’ I am looking at Doctor Tanaki, Doctor Frost, Doctor Indira and Doctor Moshe.
‘I am listening.’ I took up the cup of coffee which was served by Major Shaw. She does make good coffee despite the poor selection of coffee mixture which we have. We are all in the Command Unit on Monolith One.
‘May I start?’ Doctor Tanaki has been fetting since I came in. So he was allowed to speak; ‘If you can recall the report I did on the walls of Monolith on the west side; about it being ‘pasted’ on. Well, I am right. We did some tests and found its not consistent with the grains on the top or the other side although it has the same physical resemblance. We collected some samples and tested it with Doctor Indira and Doctor Sze Thing. Doctor Sze Thing is still busy in her lab and would not be attending as yet. We also did some sound probes on the surface and we think its hollow at about fifty feet inside.’
‘We also believed that its related to your ‘earth facture’ findings on Week 12. We think that whoever is inside could be also connected to there.’ Doctor Indira has to kick in her thrusters or in this case her boots into the discussion. She has pushed Doctor Tanaki aside to demonstrate her statement.’The piece you found on that place was also seen here; or traces of it was discovered in the soil.’
‘Doctor Moshe?’ I inquired with a puzzle look as why a entomologist was doing here.
‘Oh, I am here as they called me to study some fossils of some insects; to be exact beetles found on the site. More exact, I was referred to are ‘scarabs’; little guy that can fly or rolled the small dung ball. I am sure you seen in the old vid-clips. Anyway, scarab has been linked to ancient Egypt more than Greece, but they co-exist in about the same time. Scarabs were devoted in ancient Egypt and they who worshiped Ptah, the Egyptian Scarab God wore the symbol of scarab on their headgear. More to those who are associated with the initiation of warriors and death. Ptah also known as "First of Gods" and "Architect of the Universe"; forms a triad with his wife Sekhmet and their son Nefertum Ptah was believed to had originated from another Universe beyond our Solar system, and created our Solar system. Ptah is also shown in a white mummy shroud holding the scepter, and with a closed lotus flower hanging from the neck of the shroud - perhaps symbolizing the death of Atlantis.’ Doctor Moshe picked up a report to show us how God looked like. She then continued her findings.
‘In ancient Greeks fables, the scarab was also mentioned to compete with the eagle for the favour of Zeus. But they lost and the eagle became the emblem of Zeus, carrying his thunder. In the same timeline, there was the fable of the scarab and the vultures in ancient Egypt. But the scarab was not to left out of its connection to the Greeks Gods. Its mentioned many a times in Ancient Greek myths; the old play of Aristophanes ‘Peace’ where the peasant flew in a scarab to Olympus; Dionysos’s of the Greek’s God drank from his cup named kantharos or ‘scarab’, which can served drunkenness. Drunken is also linked to trance of linking earth to the skies.’
Moshe got us all captivated and she paused to see our reactions. ‘Well, the fossil I checked does resembled that scarab and its design is close to that we seen in other old dig sites on Earth. As you know scarab does not exist in the pre-historic timelines of Pangaea but much later in the development of Earth. So we could be seeing ancient Greeks artifacts here.’
‘Among the very early creation of coins, there are ones which picture insects like beetles, scorpions and others. Even ancient Greeks produced these beautiful crafted coins ever seen, with the looks of their gods and goddesses or scenes of mythological portions, portraits and animals including beetles. There are somewhat over 300 types of ancient Greek coins picturing insects and arachnids. Our earlier discovery of the coin with Kronos was not an accidental piece of junk; its a precious achaeological find in this times.’ Doctor Indira can be quite dramatic in her selection of words.
‘And we think Atlantis could be here.’ All the five scientists has their look on me. Its like a child asking for sweets.
‘Do it. I will advise Earth Council.’
The Hydrophonic farms are working and they are already producing the growths. Thank goodness for technology as we can now feed the people albeit less mouths to feed. I had to faced up to some families whose loss I could not described but I could relate to their pain.
The one other blessing we have are there are no predators like T-Rex to worry about here.
‘Scott, we discussed and we will focus on your bridge for now. Let the Fed’s fight the chimps, we just concentrate on the Colonization.’ Micheal Bent words was wisdom to me then.
‘Thanks, Dad.’ I hugged him and soon we had a drink in the Officer Billet at Monolith talking about the old days leaving out Mum’s topics.
When I got back to my BASE, there was a message.
‘Comms me tomorrow, Vickie.’
Day 3
On the side toward the sea, and in the center of the whole island, there was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of all plains, and very fertile. Near the plain again, and also in the center of the island, at a distance of about fifty stadia (one stadia=606 feet), there was a mountain, not very high on any side.
That was an extract of the description of Atlantis from the words of Plato in the writings of Timaeus. If Plato was right there was a mountain standing in the land that could represent Atlantis. Or could it be its city he was describing as a ‘monstrous structure that rises up from the earth’. Atlantis was said to be an island that covers a big mass of land, and New Pangaea continent in which we are on does cover a large continent surrounded by water. There is are a lot of assumptions here, but the conclusion may not be what I thought.
My exact thoughts right now is what Vickie wants to talk about. I closed my research on Atlantis and picked up the comms. She has agreed to meet me at the river bank, alone.
‘Scott, the Council is not happy with my agreement to your boundaries of New Pangaea. They think we should be free to explore and colonized....’ She looked very military in her new uniform of dark green and red banded cap. Her beautiful hair is all kept under the cap and not a strand lies outside. I remembered I used to ruffle her hair in the morning and she will made those nagging statements but now I am addressing her as the commander of the Federation Colony of New Pangaea. Or New Earth as they named it now.
‘colonized? You’re mistaken, General. Yours is not a Colonization policy. Your new force is an exterminator team to kill the chimps.’ I seen your new HELI-PODs; they don’t carry four missiles; they carried an external pod with six missile each. I am sure you brought your tanks too. Those ones with the big cannons on it. You are here to win the fragging war with the chimps. Tell me I am right, General.’
‘Yes, you are right. And I am the fragging General given the task. I got a dozen HELI-PODs and a dozen tanks with other amour vehicles. We are to march tomorrow to the camp and onward. I am here to say goodbye.’ She did not look at me after that as she has turned to walk back to the waiting HELI-PODs.
But she left me a note on the ground where she stood. It says ‘forgive me. But orders are orders. You ought to know.’ She also left me a report.
‘You are a bastard, Bashir. You should had told me. I had to...’ I was pulling Doctor Bashir by his frock and slamming him to the wall.
‘Victoria told me not to tell you. She wanted to surprise you herself. You frag it; you are responsible for her.’ I looked at the Doctor who tells me about my responsibilities. I did not frag those mother’s kids on Monolith and yet I am responsible for their well being now. And I cannot do it for my own as the mother is waging a war on her own terms. I turned to look outside through the small viewer in the Infirmary.
‘I must go to her......’ But I could not move then. I remembered falling and then it was all black.
‘Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.’
I heard that voice and I woke up. I am in the Infirmary bed and strapped down. Susan is sitting next to me and holding my hand. I can see Micheal standing at the foot of the bed. He is calling for Doctor Bashir. The doctor came over and checked my vital signs, and then told the nurse to released my straps.
‘What happened?’
‘I sedated you. You were going to run and save the world. I had to do it. I know you well enough, Commander. Now that you are relaxed, you can frag my commission but not my responsibilities as doctor. So talk to your family now.’ I loved the way the doctor spat it out to me. He looked very menacing and he was holding a syringe like the scalpel blade.
The Bent’s family spent the evening talking and sharing. I hope out there somewhere she is too.
Day 4
I abandoned Outpost Six and Village Two to consolidate my forces at BASE and Main Village. I also pardoned the inmates and gave them weapons to defend themselves. They pledged to defend the colonist and BASE. Eighty hardcore criminals will now strengthen the Main Village with their skills. I removed all the previous penal guards to the Monolith so there will be no conflicts with the inmates.
Doctor Leong finally found my golden frog or frogs as he found them at the nearby swamp but Tony Adam during our previous battles with the chimps. Nevertheless, we took the frogs and kept them at Main Village. There we had an expert in poisons; ex-Inmate Rashid.Amin, whose second profession was making it. He taught the Zoologist more trades secrets that he will ever learned from the database.
I saw Corporal Pedro and Specialist Dixon who requested for permission to scout the Fed’s. I approved it but they are to be careful. They rode on the super-bikes and I hope they will come back soon.
I told the Cheng’s I want the Main Village reinforced like a castle.
‘Make it good.’ They saluted and went to work. They love these works.
Special Report from Doctor Tanaki.
Day 4 Week 38
0733hr
When we need to do a core into a surface, we have to create an access for the party to eventually descend. Deep core drilling into underlying bedrock, involves using a hollow drill which actively cuts a cylindrical pathway downward around the core. When a drill is used, the cutting apparatus is on the bottom end of a drill barrel, the tube which surrounds the core as the drill cuts downward around the edge of the cylindrical core. The limitation of the works is the length of the drill barrel determines the maximum length of a core sample, involving many many cycles of lowering a drill/barrel assembly, cutting the required core in length, raising the assembly to the surface, emptying the core barrel, and preparing a drill/barrel for drilling. But now we have developed a force field which will hold the hole while the debris are sucked by a vacuum suction.
We hit the bottom of the soil at fifty feet as reported early.
You need to come here to see this.
How do you describe a wonder of the Universe?
The depth of the distance to the base of the structure is estimated at about ten thousand feet to its ground. I could drop down the little probe we used on the caverns, but this place looks immense from the images which we have. It’s estimated to be as wide as three miles across and there are three rings of structures inside it. The central section seems to be biggest solid structure and that alone is taking up more than a mile across. As said, we cannot comprehend the magnitude of the place and its more than just jumping in. Mine shaft development has not changed much in the year 2311; we still experienced casualty yearly from collapsing mines or inhalation of fumes, even though the design of the support has improved. The current mine shafts on Earth has exceeded three miles depth and the limit was set at four miles due to the tremors and accidents in the mines, and also the heat of the shafts are too dangerous to work in. The current issues are the cross mining which makes the mining works a risky occupation.
Another problem we had was the boring drill has been damaged to some circuit outage and we are not sure what could had caused it. It just fizzled and then stopped. All the connector and grids on the machines are toasted. Its beyond the nursing care of the Cheng’s brother.
In the end, the team comprising the five doctors, Chengs’ and my enthusiastic Three Horsemen decided to plan on a manual winching to go down.
I left it at that, and went back to BASE.
‘Commander, you got a Code One from Earth Council.’ I heard them out and the answer is to monitor and advise on situation. Earth Council do not want to aggravate their strained relationship with the Federations. Meanwhile all new colonist are being transferred to other locations. But EDS Titan will come in a week with supplies.
Fragging Council playing diplomats now. I am blind with one working Bubble and low personnels count, with a well equipped army on the rampage in my land. I never felt so hopeless.
Day 5
Outpost Six and Village has been cleared of all items which we can use, and the gates of these places were left open for the jungle and its habitants to reclaim the place. I also got my update from Doctor Tanaki. The team is descending today at 1100hr.
I had a visitor that day in my command Unit. It was Melody Mannheim, the young widow of Peter Thomas Bone. She was accompanied by Doctor Bashir and her dad, Peter Mannheim. She wants to abort her child as Peter is no more around. She is of the age to decide for her own, but the father does not allowed it and Doctor Bashir thinks its my decision now. I sat down to talk to the duo but I was interrupted by a call from Base Three. I left the Mannheim halfway through my discussion.
‘We saw the apes just staying there on the edge, and not moving at all. They just stared at us. According to Doctor Leong, there could be four or five troops there as he can identify the prime primates. They came here two days, only about twelve of them and then more came. We counted like a hundred and twelve now.’
‘Talk to me, Doctor.’ But Doctor Leong is speechless. He is just observing them for any signs of these behaviors. ‘There is no such records before in our archive. This is absolutely crazy.’
I decided to walked up to the primates. There was this large one sitting there with some other large silver backs around him. He is about twice my size across and taller by a feet or so. I stood before with my hands holding my PH900. The Silverback got up and strolled towards me. It stood before me on its four limbs and then stopped to take up a curved bone. It took it up to its mouth and blew the bone like a horn. The surrounding chimps went into a frenzy and started screaming at the top of their voice. The large primate hands me the horn in its hand. Its looks white but the the middle is black, and the tip red. Upon handling me the horn, the primates all retreated back to the jungle.
‘Let me look.’ That was Doctor Leong who now has found his courage to come out and faced his previous adversary. ‘Its a Unicorn Horn.’
Soon back at the comfort of BASE Three, and the primates no longer sits to watch us, Doctor Leong recite the story of the mysterious Unicorn. The first mention of it was by Herodotus, who in the 3rd century BC wrote of the ‘horned ass’ of Africa. The Ancient Greeks did not see such an animal but heard of it through Ctesias who traveled to the east. He brought back many wonders and stories to tell the people. He did see one for himself, he describes a creature he calls the ‘wild ass of India’ as being equal in size to a horse, with a white body, a red head, bluish eyes and a straight horn on the forehead, a cubit long. He describes the lower part of the horn as being white, the middle black, and the tip red. As a physician, he was especially interested in the horn, which he heard was protection against deadly poisons. Drinking cups made from the horn were believed to possess the power of neutralizing poison when poured into them. Ctesias represents the unicorn as being extraordinarily swift of foot, untamable and almost impossible to capture. The respected historian Pliny the Elder, who was born early in the reign of Tiberius and died in AD 79 wrote of the Unicorn. Soon later in history, great leaders has claimed to see it, Alexander the Great to Julius Ceaser. Alexander boasted of riding one to battle. The well-respected Greek, Apollonius of Tyana, claimed to have seen a Unicorn in the east. Its also claimed in the faiths words, that Adam was the first to identified the Unicorn when he saw it.
‘So you are telling me here in New Pangaea, we may have Unicorns’. I do not believe in fables and myths, but this is really unbelievable to put aside. But the doctor did not answer and took my horn away to analyze for more clues.
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