Eden's Children (Earth Exiles Book 2) (21 page)

----------------------------------------------------

The loud explosion almost overwhelmed the A.I.’s sensors.  Now, it sensed hominids, much like the primitives in the area, walking down the tunnel towards its location.  Logic trees hadn’t been programmed for this situation.  The primitives in this area didn’t have the technology to breech the door.  Now, the simple A.I.’s programming kept coming back to the same place that it started, a continuous loop.

It had no way to protect itself.  A hundred and twenty of the smaller hunter killers had been destroyed, as well as the one working warrior robot.  The A.I. needed to preserve itself so that it could send out a data packet.  As it prepared the data packet for burst transmission, it tried to solve the problem at hand.

Around it, the mechanical spiders slowly moved up and down in a pulsating rhythm which eerily mimicked life as their hydraulics cycled.  They waited for a command to repair . . . something, anything.  The A.I. made a decision.  The A.I. manipulated and corrupted their original programming.  Now, they were programmed to perform maintenance on organics.  The two hominids were identified as organics that needed maintenance.  The soldering irons on the maintenance spiders started to heat up.

----------------------------------------------------

The tunnel ahead widened.  Eventually, it could no longer be called a tunnel.  Their lights played over a large open space in front of them.  Across from them, a single red light gleamed dully.

“What’s that?” Rob asked.

“What, the red light?  I don’t know,” Mike answered.

“No, there’s something on the floor.”

Mike shined his light onto the floor.  There was something there which seemed to be moving slightly.  He moved forward slowly.  His light shined down on one of the moving objects.  It was large, about a foot across the body.  He recoiled slightly as he saw the shape.  It looked like a six legged spider, with a multitude of different arms.  Each arm had a different type of appendage on it.  Suddenly, one of the appendages began to glow dully, a dark red.  The red quickly shifted from dark red, to red, to orange, then proceeded to turn white as the tip heated up.

“Ah, Mike.”

Mike looked up.  Across the room, hundreds of lights were shifting from red to white.  Mike cursed.  He pulled out his flashlight, clicked it on, and the multitude of small robots were revealed.  As one, they all turned and started moving towards toward Rob and Mike.

Mike started shooting, shattering the automaton.  Rob’s rifle started barking death as well.  The M203 thumped and a forty millimeter flechette round tore into the scuttling spider shapes.  Mike hadn’t even heard Rob load the weapon.  They shot many of the the spiders close to them, but they were picking up speed.  They were going to be overwhelmed.

“Run!” Mike yelled.  He turned, and Rob was already moving.  The lights on their rifles bobbed up and down as they ran.  Mike could hear the skitter of their feet on the floor as the spiders ran after him.  At least he thought he heard it.  Whether it was an actual noise, or just in his mind, it propelled him forward into a sprint.

They burst into the fissure running at full tilt.  They saw Everett, Tom, and Mickey at the bend in the fissure, heading their way at full speed.  If their lives hadn’t been in danger, Mike could have laughed at the expressions on their faces as they saw Mike and Rob in full stride coming out of the opening of the mine.  They skidded to a stop, and then bounced off of each other as they tried to turn to run back to the opening of the fissure.  The rest of the team started running in front of Mike and Rob.  They didn’t even have to know what was back there.  They just knew something bad was coming.

Mike didn’t look back.  He hated not knowing how close they were, but he didn’t want to lose speed checking.   Ahead, Everett, Mickey, and Tom disappeared around the bend.  Rob made the turn cleanly, but Mike hit the far wall and staggered as he rebounded, his momentum shifting his weight too far to make the turn cleanly.

Mike was the last one to make the opening of the fissure.  Matki saw everybody come boiling out of the fissure, and he was running away, leaving everybody else in his dust.  Mike had to leap to clear the backpacks that were laying in front of the fissure.

The team ran about a hundred yards, then turned, ready for whatever it was that had been on Mike’s heels.  They stood at the low ready.  Then they waited.  It was a good two minutes before the first of the robots came out of the fissure.  Mickey shot it.

He turned to Mike and Rob, “That’s it?  That’s what you were running from?”  He saw the eyes of everybody else grow wide, and he turned back just in time to see an army of robotic spiders roll out like a tide from the fissure.

They started shooting.  The spiders weren’t moving as fast as Mike had thought they were, but there were a damned lot of them.  Not as many as it had first seemed.  They weren’t quite as scary out here in the daylight either. 

They dealt with them efficiently.  When the spiders got too close, the team fell back to give some distance, and started dealing death again.  Rob killed the last three with a ‘203 flechette round.

“That wasn’t too bad,” Mickey grumbled.

“Well, maybe not out here, but seeing all those little bastards running at us in the dark can light your heels on fire,” Mike replied, his eyes still on the crevasse.

They waited to see if there were any more surprises.  Nothing else came out of the fissure.

“What do you guys think?” Mike asked.

“I think we should all go back this time, just to make sure there’s no more big surprises,” Everett answered.

They entered the fissure and walked back to the mine.  They entered, all of them with flashlights on.  They walked down the corridor, back to where Mike and Rob found the mechanical spiders.  They played their lights around the room.  A curse from Everett drew everybody’s eyes to the large construct that his light revealed.  It was another one of the giant robots.  They watched it, but it didn’t move.  Uneasily, they started exploring the rest of the room.

A platform sat across from the main entrance.  A series of dark boxes sat on the platform.

“Man!  That looks familiar.”

Mike agreed with Tom, “Yeah, except for that red light, it looks like the computer that we have back at the colony, doesn’t it?”

Everett nodded, “And that, right beside it.  That could be a twin to the quantum battery we have.”

Mike walked over and put his hand on the console, “Looks like we’re going to have to haul our electrical engineers up here to take a look at it.”

“You’re going to need to bring Weitz and Bobby up here as well, to explore the software,” Everett pointed out.

Mike’s face screwed up at the thought of having to spend time with Weitz.  No way around it though, “Yeah, I guess so.”

They walked around to see what else was there.  Past the main room there were more tunnels that led back into the mountain.  One tunnel had a large amount of parts in it.  Mike picked them up and looked at them.  They looked like replacement parts for the different robots.  There were sensor nodules, different types of servos and motors, computer boards.  You could pretty much make a new robot complete from what was in these supplies.  The techs were going to have fun exploring these.  They’d be in nerd heaven.

A voice, muffled by the bends in the tunnels, called out, “Hey guys, back here.”

Mike yelled out, “Marco!”

A voice answered, “Polo!”

They kept that up until Mike found the correct tunnel and followed it back.  He found Tom, Rob and Mickey there.  More skeletons lay at their feet.  Men had been herded back here and killed, their bones and mining tools the only thing to tell their sad tale.

“So, it was a mine,” Mike observed.

Rob nodded, “Looks like.”

Mike shook his head, “This doesn’t make any sense.  Why would they kill miners, then just sit on the mine?”

Tom spit to the side, “Sometimes, things just don’t make sense.”  He turned to look at the bones, “Sometimes evil men do evil deeds.  Usually just because there wasn’t anybody around to keep them from doing it.”

Mike couldn’t argue with that.

The team met back up in the main room.  They told Everett and Matki what they’d found.

Everett was just as puzzled as Mike, “I don’t get it.  They kill men for this place, then they abandon it, and post guards to make sure that nobody else can use it?”

Mike shrugged, “Don’t know.  We’ll probably never know.”

Rob pointed at the main frame, “I wonder if they’re still around?”

Mike shrugged again, “Who knows.”

Mickey looked around, “We finished here?”

Mike nodded, “Yeah, we don’t want to break anything else.  We need everything intact so the techs can do some investigation.”

They walked back out of the mine.  The day was headed towards early evening.  Mike looked at the sun, starting to track behind the mountains, “Well, I don’t think we’re going to get too far away from here tonight.”

The guys groaned.  Mike chuckled, “What’s the matter?  Tired of being here?”

Rob pointed back towards the fissure, “Killer robots.”  He pointed back at the town, “Killer robots.”  He looked at Mike, “Not too sure I want to spend more time around here.”

Mike pointed down the valley, “How about we head in that direction and go as far as we can go before the sun goes down.  I’d kind of like to put this place behind me as well.”

Mickey nodded, “Yeah, good idea.  Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  ----------------------------------------------------

Mike and the team walked down the valley, trying to get as far from the ruined city and mine as possible before nightfall.  The walk down the valley was fairly steep, making Mike think they were dropping in elevation pretty quickly.  His suspicion was confirmed as evergreen trees started dotting the landscape.  They were stunted trees, none of them higher than six feet, but it was a good indication that they were headed lower.

Mike turned to Matki. “So, you think we’ll be able to get you home soon?” he asked.

Matki looked at the low trees around him.  A look of yearning crossed his face.  A wistful smile was there when he looked at Mike, “I surely do hope so, Mike.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll find a way back there,” Everett said.

Matki pointed down the valley, “At least this valley is heading in the right direction.”

The mountains were painting the valley in lengthening shadows as the sun tracked down.  Tom pointed towards the northern side of the valley, “We might be able to find a place to laager up over in that direction.”

“Lead on, Tom,” Mike said.

They followed Tom into the meager tree line.  The trees weren’t thick, and they were able to walk through the foliage without any problems.  Tom led them close to the mountain ridge that delineated the side of the valley.  They found a location with several standing rocks to give them a little more cover.  They were still very aware of the ghost cat attack they endured previously.  The rocks weren’t the best protection, but better than nothing at all.  The team started looking for sleep positions and backpacks hit the ground as they each decided where they were going to sleep.

Mickey and Rob chose positions close to each other, but Mickey, being a big man, was taking up a lot of real estate.

“Hey, move that big ass over, Mickey,” Rob complained.

This brought chortles from the rest of the team.  Mickey glanced over at Roberto, “Big ass?”

Rob grinned.  “Well, you have to admit, Mickey, baby got back,” Rob said.

“I’ll have you know, Tracy likes my big ass.”

“Good thing.  Not a whole lot of women like a man with a bigger butt than they have,” Tom observed.

“Hey, Tracy may be thinner than your girls, but she’s got the curves that I like.  Some of your girls got some big butts,” Mickey looked at Tom when he said that.

“Not bigger than that butt,” Tom said, pointing at Mickey.

Everett called out, “Mickey, if you run into any woman with a butt bigger than yours, she probably hangs out at the elephant enclosure at the Barnum and Bailey circus.”

Mickey stood up and did a double bicep pose, “You guys are just jealous of my manly physique.”

The catcalls and taunts continued as the team unpacked their gear, settling in for the night.  Suddenly, Matki grew very still.  Mike looked over when he realized that something was wrong.  Matki was motionless, listening.

“What is it, Matki?”

Matki held his finger to his lips, indicating that Mike should be quiet.  Mike listened, but he didn’t hear anything.  Mike looked questioningly at Matki, but Matki didn’t say anything.  Matki was squatting next to his backpack, in the process of taking his sleeping bag out.  He stayed in that position, listening, as if whatever he was listening for was just at the edge of his hearing.

Mike yelled back over his shoulder, “Guys, quiet down.  Matki hears something.”

Everybody stopped what they were doing.  Mike watched Matki intently.  Finally Matki turned to him, “Do you feel that?”

Mike didn’t know what Matki was talking about.  He looked around the group.  Mickey shrugged.  Tom shook his head.  Everett stared at Matki, worried.  Rob was the first one to feel anything.

“Oh, man, I know what he’s talking about.”

Mike turned to look at Rob, “What is it?”

Rob put his hand up to his jaw and massaged the muscles on either side of his head, next to the ear, “Wow, I’m surprised you don’t feel it.”

It began to build at the back of Mike’s teeth.  His hands went up to the side of his face, “Oh, wow, yeah, I understand.”

It was a buzzing that seemed to start at the juncture where the jaw met the skull.  It wasn’t painful, but it was annoying.  The buzzing was suddenly joined by the sound of some kind of engine.  It wasn’t loud, but they could track it as it approached.  Soon, it became very apparent that the noise was well above the valley floor. They listened to it as it approached, drew even with their position, and then continued on up the valley toward the city.  The team went on the defensive.  The sudden understanding that there was something else out there, possibly dangerous, made the team freeze in place.

“What the hell is that?” Tom asked.

Mike shook his head, “I don’t know, some kind of aircraft.”

Tom’s face swiveled towards Mike, “That’s a damn quiet aircraft.”

Everett walked over to Mike, “What do you want to do?”

Mike thought about it, “Whoever built those robots may be coming to check on them.  I don’t like the idea of being in this valley with aircraft up looking for us.”

Everett nodded, “Especially if they have FLIR.”  FLIR was Forward Looking Infra-Red.  It detected body heat.  In the cold air, they’d stand out like a flare.

Mike was worried “I hope they don’t have weapons on that thing.”

“Di di Mau?” Everett asked, using an old Vietnamese phrase misappropriated by soldiers during the Vietnam War.  The phrase actually meant, “Get Lost.”

“Yep, let’s get the hell out of here,” Mike said.

Sleeping bags were quickly shoved back down into back packs.  The team pulled out their Starlight Monoculars.  Even Matki had one, borrowed from the Air Force security team.  Monoculars in place, they checked to make sure they didn’t leave any equipment behind.  Then they started down the valley, using the cover of night to avoid the quiet aircraft.  They walked in silence.  It was ingrained.  Four things could get you killed very quickly on patrol, noise, movement, light, and smell.  They couldn’t do anything about the last until they found a place to take a bath, but training took care of the first three.  They’d all been forged in Ranger battalion, Special Forces training, and the real world.  That last one, the real world, was the kicker.  The real world, with its Islamic terrorists, narco-terrorists, and militias, didn’t suffer fools to live long.  Darwinian forces had a steep learning curve.

Tom led the way, Matki behind him.  The team fell in to follow.  They were ready for trouble, but none found them.  Mike pushed the team until he felt they had enough distance between them and the quiet aircraft.  They were all tired by the time they made camp.  It was good they were heading downhill.  That meant they had to use less energy to travel, but they were still using a lot of energy.

Mike called a halt, “Okay, we’re going to find a place to rack out for about six hours.”

That would give them all about four hours of sleep with two people on guard for an hour at a time, two shifts.  Even with six hours to crash and get some rest that still meant a twenty-seven hour day that they’d put in.

Tom led them into an area easy to secure, waist high standing rocks with a small circle of trees masking their presence.

“Cold camp, no sleeping bags,” Mike told them.

The team grunted their approval of the idea.  The last thing they needed was to have equipment scattered and then be attacked.  Field jackets and watch caps came out.  Everybody pulled out their woobie, a light nylon blanket.  Matki had one, but his was woven from graphene fibers.  They huddled close for body heat.  The long day fighting killer robots and their long walk trying to get away from the aircraft made sleeping easy.

Tom and Rob pulled the first watch.  Mike snuggled in with the other three sleepers, and he nodded off pretty quickly.  Too soon, he was awakened to pull security with Mickey.

They sat close, nudging each other to make sure they stayed awake.  It was tough, but they made it through the hour, then woke up Everett and Rob, and Mike sank into sleep again.

Mike felt better the second time he was woken.  Still tired, but it was easier for him and Mickey to stay awake.  All too soon, it was time for them to move again.

Mike and Mickey moved among the team, shaking them awake.  Tom came up swinging, and Mike had to block the punch.

“Oh, sorry Mike.  I was dreaming of that big robot trying to swat me like a fly.”

Mike grinned at the statement, “Yeah, you weren’t too happy with me at the time.”

Tom grinned back, “Well, I was a little stressed.”

Mike heard Everett’s voice, “You girls ready to go?  Or are you going to kiss and makeup?”

“Screw you, Ev,” Tom said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Before they started out, Mike pulled the team together, “Has anybody heard that aircraft again?”

Rob, Tom, and Everett answered no.

“Mike, don’t worry about the ship.  I will know if it is close.  I think that I would know even if I was sleeping,” Matki answered.

Mike nodded, but he was still uneasy about their situation.

“What’s up Mike?” Everett asked.

“Well, I don’t like the fact that we’re in this valley,” he replied.  Mike painted a picture for the team.  “We’re in this valley,” He pointed from one side of the valley to the other, “And the mountains keep us from climbing up and going elsewhere, unless we want to break out the climbing gear.”

“Whoa, Mike, I don’t like that idea at all,” Rob said.

Mike nodded, “Yeah, me either.  Not with some kind of aircraft out there.  We’d be seen for miles and they could pick us off at their leisure.”

Rob sat back, placated.

Mike continued, pointing back up towards the top of the valley, “We can’t go back to the head of the valley, at least, not right now.  Too big a chance somebody’s waiting for us back there.”  He pointed in the direction they were traveling, “So, if somebody’s thinking, they might have something waiting for us in that direction.”

Mickey’s deep voice rumbled, “Damn Mike, I hate it when you do that.”

“Do what?” Mike asked.

“Spoil my day before it begins,” he answered, voicing what everybody was thinking.

“What’s the matter?  Nobody at Fort Benning’s school for wayward boys promised you a rose garden, big guy.”

Tom shook his head, “Oh great, now I’m going to have that song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.”

The team grumbled as they stood up and stretched.  With hostiles potentially in the area, they decided to drag out camouflage cream to put on their faces.  They grabbed their equipment, rucked up, and they were ready to go.  Tom led again, Matki behind him.  Mike wanted his best scouts out front.  Rob was on security for the team, watching their back trail.  They walked in the coolness of the night mountain air, listening for trouble.  They moved slowly, hoping to hear trouble before it heard them. 

As they walked, the darkness surrendered to the light.  This was Mike’s favorite time of day, morning twilight.  That was the part of the morning when day took over from night.  You could just start to distinguish the world around you.  The animals that moved at night were going to sleep, and the ones that moved around in the day were waking up.  Birds start singing.  The air even smelled better.  Unfortunately, it was also the time of day when an ambush was most likely to happen.  As the day lightened, Mike noticed that the small pines had given way to taller trees, and the vegetation was thicker, providing more concealment.

They were traveling in a line, ten meters apart, when Tom held his hand up, making a fist, indicating that the team should freeze in place.  The hand signal was quickly passed back down the line.  Tom held his hand parallel to the ground, palm down, and started making a motion for the team to get down.  Mike slowly moved a few feet to his left as he squatted down, so that his silhouette blended with the bole of the tree.

None of the team moved once they were set.  It was an old game that they played, a deadly game of hide and seek.  The person that lost this game, died.

Mike listened.  That was always the best way to find out if someone was out there.  In heavy vegetation, you were more likely to hear your enemy before you saw them.  Most of the time, it ended up being an animal.  Unfortunately, this time, it wasn’t.  They heard the steps off to the right.  It took a while before they could see who was walking towards them. 

Mike saw a man step through the trees.  At least, Mike thought he was a man.  Greyish skin and dark red hair was the first thing that Mike noticed.  The differences didn’t stop there, though.  The man was as wide as Mickey, but only as tall as Rob.  Heavily muscled arms held some kind of weapon.  Mike thought it was a rifle, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out what its capabilities were.  There was a long knife that dangled from his left hip, and some kind of cylinder that was holstered on the right.  It looked like a large flashlight, but once again, Mike didn’t want to find out what the object’s capabilities were.

The man was wearing a tight outfit, made of alternating shades of green.  He had some kind of vest on, possibly body armor.  The man looked tough, and with all that muscle, extremely strong.  Mike sure as hell wouldn’t want to be in hand to hand combat with him.  But Mike could tell, despite the camouflage, this man wasn’t used to operating in the woods.  A no-see-‘um must have been snacking on him, because he slapped at his neck.  The slap morphed, and the man wiped sweat off his face.  Someone started talking off to the left, and the man answered in a guttural language.  Mike couldn’t understand what they were saying.  It wasn’t Matki’s language.  A sharp retort sounded behind the man on the right, and he closed his mouth, an unhappy expression on his face.