Out of the Fire

Part 8 - First Recon

It was cold, it was still dark and Little Joseph was awake. "I need to go to the potty," demanded Little Joe pulling at Mary's sleeve.

Mary struggled through the clouds of sleep to awareness, looked one eyed at her baby and growled. "It's still dark".

"I really need to go," the young boy stressed.

"Wee or Poo?" asked Mary. She sat up and reached for her warm dressing gown, the cold bringing goose bumps to her skin.

"Poo," was the unwanted reply. A wee could have been sorted by a sneaky walk to the end of the tent line, but the other required the longer trip to a toilet behind the shower block. Digging under the bed for socks and boots, Mary swung her legs out of the bed, deliberately bouncing it in an unsuccessful attempt to stir the snoring Joe senior, pulled her dressing gown on and tied it tight.

"Come on then, darling" She spoke gently to the young one as she took his hand and unzipped the tent door. Stepped from the decking floor of the tent out onto the dry dusty pathway, hand in hand they made the now familiar trek.

Squinting at her watch, she cursed, it was almost five thirty and hardly worth going back to bed. As Little Joe finished his business, Mary wondered how much longer the toilet paper situation was going to last. There had been talk that the civil administration was predicting that toilet paper would be the first of the twenty-first century luxuries to run out. The possible alternatives had led to some interesting speculation at the Thermae, especially now that the weather had turned. Mary wished she had had the forethought to pack a chamber pot or even a bucket for these moments, especially as it looked like they could still be in the tent when the snows arrived.

Back at the tent, she tucked Little Joe in and draped her dressing gown over the top of the doona, climbed in and snuggled her cold naked body against Joe's to steal his warmth. Joe recoiled and released an expletive in protest, then relenting, rolled back and pulled her in tight.

A short while later, Mary, Joe and Little Joe all made the short trip to the Thermae for their morning ablutions, it was cold and their breath steamed the air. The walls of the shower tent were now tied down and they pushed past the overlapping curtains at the entrance into the steamy interior. The tent was well populated, and even though more than half the colony had now moved into houses, the town plumbing wasn't connected so the communal facilities were still fully patronised.

As the civilians moved from the tents into their newly completed houses, the single military personnel were able to move from their simple tent lines into the relative comfort of the tent city. The soldiers with families had always been accommodated in the tent city so Mary, Joe and Little Joe hadn't needed to experience the pleasure of a Military Lean-to, well at least not as a family on this deployment. Joe finished dressing first and set about getting Little Joe ready for the day.

"Ok Joey, hold still," he instructed as he struggled with doing up Little Joe's over sized coat and getting his shoes and socks on. "Are you ready to go to Aunty Jean's and Little Elle's after breakfast?" he asked.

Zipping her 'Jacket, Cold Weather', Mary retrieved her hat and buckled her pistol belt, then scooped up Little Joe's day bag from the bench. Giving a last look around for any forgotten items she followed her men to the new Mess for breakfast.

The new Mess had only been in operation for a couple of weeks. So far, it was the major achievement of the colony, the frame and cladding had been constructed from milled local timber and roofed with Zinc Aluminium sheets carried through the portal for the purpose. The Mess building was a large rectangular weatherboard clad barn with an East to West aspect. It had solar electric and solar hot water panels on the South facing roof and the main entrance was a set of double doors opening onto the town square. The Mess roof space and walls were insulated by glass fibre sheets, and it had double glazed windows. Two wood burning, pot belly stoves, provided heating for the dining area, so it was the perfect space to escape the coming winter. The dining area itself was quite huge while the kitchen occupied the Eastern most end. From the Kitchen, a covered walkway led to the huge solar powered refrigerator that had magically appeared from within a container unloaded from one of the trucks.

The family joined the queue for the modest but adequate hot breakfast served from the bain-marie by a couple of young teenagers. Mary received a sleepy smile in response to her cheerful morning greeting, while Little Joseph received a more enthusiastic response as he happily chatted to the girls.

"Poor things," Joe said as they found a table, "They have to get up so early to prepare for breakfast."

"I hope that is the worst thing that happens to them here, don't forget what they have left behind, they probably really miss their television and Facebook." responded Mary.

"True enough," agreed Joe. Just then Little Joe let out a squeal and took off, looking around, Mary saw that he had just spotted Aunty Jean, Uncle Brian and Elle joining the breakfast queue. Jean and Brian joined Joe and Mary and after a few minutes fooling, the two kids even settled down to eat, chatting happily. Breakfast for everyone consisted of a slice of toasted sourdough, a well fried egg, a scoop of mashed root vegetable that today was potato and a paper thin slice of fried steak. As they ate, Mary asked about Jean's health, Jean being almost six months pregnant.

"You ask me that same question every morning," complained Jean, "I feel fine, the same as yesterday, and the day before and I'm sure I will feel fine tomorrow, stop worrying. I have done this before remember," she stated, only half pretending to be annoyed.

"I do worry, the hospital here doesn't even have a machine that goes ping, in fact there isn't even a hospital here," replied Mary.

"There are doctors, as you know, because I work for one, and any number of trained mid-wives."

"True," Mary conceded, "How is the nurse training going?"

"Once I got over the yuck factor, I have started to really enjoy it, and it is easy, people aren't constructed as complicated as I thought they were, certainly not as complicated as quantum calculations." Jean reported.

"Hey Brian, have you figured out how come the GPS system survived the EMP and stayed operational for five hundred years?" Joe asked.

"Well since we haven't heard a single radio signal that we didn't make ourselves, and we have been scanning for them, I doubt that anyone is maintaining them. The best we can come up with, is that they were sufficiently hardened against EMP and have enough fuel to maintain their orbits, more than the government admitted to anyway," replied Brian.

"Wouldn't they have drifted out of sync over that time?" asked Jean.

"You would think," agreed Brian, "But as we are only guessing about why the GPS still works, we don't even have a theory on why they are still so accurate."

"Well I hope they don't all decide to fail now, it is really convenient, having them is a real bonus." concluded Joe.

Breakfast over, they returned their plates and cups to rinse station and rinsed and stacked them for the dish washer. Jean took Little Joe's hand as Mary gave him a kiss and told him to be good, Joe squatted down and gave him a hug and told him to have fun and they would be back after work.

In the months since their arrival Jean had started work in the medical centre as a trainee nurse and was by all accounts a natural at it. The medical centre consisted of one of the larger pre-fabricated buildings on the other side of the town square. It had also sprouted a couple of the larger, multi room tents as hospital wards erected beside the building. Next to the medical centre was the combined Junior School and Child Minding centre occupying three of the buildings fronting the square. Jean shared her time between the Medical Centre and helping at the prep school where Little Joe and Elle attended.

Jean revealed to Mary that she had been approached by the Mayor to ask if she was interested in helping Brian out teaching science and maths to the senior classes. She admitted to Mary that if it wasn't for her pregnancy, she would have been interested but she felt that it would be too much. Brian, having fallen into the role of School Principal was now finding that over three hundred students were at least as difficult to manage as the scientists and academics of his past life.

He enjoyed his class time and to the older students he was a sort of mythical hero, as his role in saving them from destruction was well known. Brian and his teachers were also dealing with the reality that finding teaching space and establishing a curriculum to transition the next generation to a low technology life was extremely difficult especially as the coming winter dictated indoors spaces. They also had to contend with the many older students who, not being from the original colonies, had been a long way into an education that was preparing them for a now non-existent future. Many of those students were also emotionally struggling with the loss of their friends and their technology and the new paradigm seemed confusing and terrifying to them. The students from the colonies were having a much easier time, having been prepared for this for most of their lives.

As the sun finally cut through the early morning clouds, Joe and Mary, along with those officers and soldiers not on a mission or duty endured the morning parade on Mars Field, as the parade ground was now called. At the conclusion of the parade, the officers and Senior NCOs were instructed to attend orders at the Military Headquarters next to the Town Hall in the Town Square. After delegating the daily training tasks to their Junior NCOs they made their way as a group back into town. General Stuart met them outside the half completed building and walked with them around the back to the old command tent.

Once everyone was seated in the briefing annex, well, the officers and Sergeant Major Kylar anyway, due to a seating shortage, the half a dozen sergeants had to stand along the back of the tent. The General checked his notes and began his brief.

"We have been on site for nearly six months and haven't yet visited Sanctuary One, nor have we had contact with any other people. The committee has discussed this and feel we are now secure enough to send a recon back to Sanctuary one to see what has happened there. The boffins have finished assembling the fixed wing drone and in the next few days will be testing it. If it works out, we will send it to One but this doesn't preclude a ground recon. Joe, I want you to work with operations to plan a ground recon in force to One and I want Mary's team to do it."

"Sir," Joe accepted.

"I want it ready to go sometime in the next two weeks, we don't how long we have before the snows come and we should at least know what we are up against, if anything." General Stuart concluded.

The General left the annex and ducked out of the tent leaving the officers and NCOs to discuss the mission. Joe, as the second in charge, allocated a number of planning tasks to the officers, directed those SNCOs not involved in the mission to begin a training regime based on defence skills and released from her other duties Mary to prepare her team for the mission.

Leaving the command tent, Mary and Joe crossed the Town Square and headed back to the military camp. There had been many changes there as well over the last six months. What had been a sprawling vehicle park and tent rows in a grassy paddock was now organised and fenced. The packed earth compound was now equiped with covered vehicle parks and individual unit offices set in prefabricated sheds lining the compound. Lining the external wall of the compound, were the rows of containers, still on their trailers, holding the military stores, weapons and ammunition. The stores area, now separately fenced off from the rest of the military camp was controlled by the Logistics Troop and secured by the colony's newly formed police force.

The role of the police had, for want of a better idea, been allotted to the members of the NSA assault squad. The guard house to the logistics compound also doubled as the police headquarters. The inclusion of the new police force in military training activities, had helped integrate the NSA assault force as fully accepted members of the colony.

At the East end of the compound, the original site of the Marshall's tent was now occupied by the military administration building, complete with covered verandas extending the full length of both sides of the building. Behind the administration block was Mars Field, now a closely mowed and rolled parade ground. Mars Field also doubled as a sport ground for the colony and various goal nets and posts lay around the sides of the field to be set up as required. Mars Field was also the main training ground and as often as not, an audience of off duty colonists gathered to watch the soldiers train and practice their military skills. It may not be as good as the old TV, but you took what was on offer, and the close quarter combat training was as close to exciting entertainment as it got in the colony.

Mary and Joe signed into the Ordinance depot and knocked on the Logistics Officer's door. Lieutenant Nicholas Miller had only just returned from the General's briefing as well, so was up to speed on their mission.

Mary started "Ok Nic, I will need three recon vehicles, two of them Hummers with fifty cals and one of the LAVs with the twenty five millimetre. Oh and I also need a Carl Gustaf M4 for each vehicle as backup, as well as my normal platoon weapons and ammo for a two week operation, no telling what or who is out there."

"We can do that, now do you want a recon drone as well?" asked Nicholas.

"The solar powered ones, yes one of them would be useful too," replied Mary.

Joe interrupted, "You guys seem to have this in hand, I'll leave you with it, I have to check out the Sanctuary, Charlie said we should be able to get to the lower level today. I'll catch you later."

He gave Mary a quick kiss and left them discussing the amount of ammunition and rations Mary's team would need.

Joe made his way beneath the towering front wall of the Sanctuary compound until he reached the gun battery guarding the entrance to the compound. After spending a few minutes chatting with the duty Bombardier in charge, he headed into the compound. Things had really changed over the past months within the compound. The granite paving of the compound floor, now cleared of the half millennium build up of silt and grass looked as if it had been laid yesterday. The great doors to the Sanctuary had been uncovered and now stood open with two soldiers standing or rather sitting guard against the cliff face.

They leapt to attention as the Major approached. Before walking past into the cave entrance, Joe offered them some extra training if they were having difficulty remaining upright while on guard duty. Behind him, in the compound, the great granite blocks that had protected the Sanctuary doors for five hundred years were being repurposed. A team of construction engineers with a mobile crane, were using the blocks to construct a watch tower against the North side of the compound entrance.

The entrance to the Sanctuary was partially obstructed by a large extractor fan pulling air through a large flexible, silver coloured conduit strung from the cave roof and disappearing into the bowels of the cavern. When the cavern was first opened, the air quality inside registered a high level of carbon dioxide, and for safety reasons, the lower levels of the cavern were still being flushed. The air quality of the cavern's top level, however had stabilised rapidly and teams were now busy checking and distributing the contents of the long undisturbed containers.

The containers had been stored in the cavern in a thoughtful and logical order, proving the intellect and foresight of both his father-in-law, Rodger Fergusson and Mike Axell. Those stores most likely to be needed during the early days of the colony were stored in containers closest to the entrance. Stores like building materials, electrical wiring, roofing sheets and prefabricated metal building frames were the first to be unloaded and taken down to the construction sites in the village. Other top level containers that had held solar hot water systems, building tools and the saw mill had already been emptied and moved out.

The empty containers were towed from the Sanctuary and lined up against the Northern and Southern walls of the compound to be repurposed as offices and barracks and stores for the Military. In addition to his duties as the General's second in charge, Joe was also responsible for converting the sanctuary into the Military base for the colony.

Pausing just inside the sanctuary he watched a team prepare one empty container for moving. The container was huge, being one of the forty foot containers used for insulation materials, it was also one of the lined containers ear-marked for office space. Joe watched, intrigued as a couple of workers jacked up one end of the five ton container. They rolled a set of trailer wheels under, then lowered the container onto the dolly, secured the chassis in the locking castings at each corner of the container. They applied a brake to the wheels then dragged the heavy jack to the front of the container. The workers repeated the operation with another set of wheels, these with a tow bar and turntable to allow steering. A tractor then hitched to the tow bar and towed the container out of the cavern to its final position near the wall.

He watched the workers drag the heavy jack out to the container and repeat the operation in reverse. The tractor, using its bumper, then nudged the grounded container into place next to another previously positioned container. The workers then attached the jack and the dollys to the tractor's tow bar to drag them back in side the cavern for the next container. Joe was impressed with the simplicity and efficiency of such a manual operation. Acknowledging the workers, he made his way further into the cavern. The lights in the Sanctuary were now working, as solar panels had been secured along the top of the compound wall and the batteries installed and charged.

Joe paused to converse with a couple of the colony's cooking staff who were loading a hand cart with canned vegetables from another large container. He had yet to be convinced of the safety of five hundred year old canned beans and peas, but was assured by the cooks that they were very safe having been stored at a constant cool temperature in a dry environment. One of the cooks also advised the Major that the duty chef personally tests each can as it is opened.

"I get the shits after eating them, then I'm coming for you." Joe said with a grin.

"If a can is contaminated, then the shits is the least of your worries," one of the cooks replied dryly. The two cooks then carefully secured the container after loading their cart, and with another smart comment on tonight's stew, man-handled the cart up towards the Sanctuary entrance.

Further in, a couple of men and women were checking the contents of a container labelled mechanical and carpentry tools. Next to that container was another, unopened but labelled toilet paper and sponges on sticks. "Oh hell," Joe said aloud, then continued to himself "Sponge on a stick, that is really going to suck, I can't wait to tell Mary."

At the ramp to the lower level of the cavern, he located Charlie Williams, the former Director of the NSA domestic business arm. Charlie had been tasked to manage the distribution of the Sanctuary stores once the Sanctuary was opened. She had jumped at the chance as she was still, even after six months, trying to come to terms with the magnitude of the situation she had stumbled into. The Director had overseen an investigation into Mike Axell's organisation and after ten years, what she had believed was a separatist movement posing a threat to the US state had turned out not that way at all. Charlie was still having a difficult time living with her failure to put the pieces together and expose the true nature of Mike Axell's conspiracy.

Joe and Mary had taken Charlie under their wing and were helping her adapt to the new reality. Working with the stored supplies had helped Charlie understand both the magnitude and the fragility of the venture and the impossibility of a similar operation at the national or international level succeeding. It was as the General told her. "A matter of first understanding the situation, eventually accepting the reality and then moving forward."

Charlie understood on an intellectual level, but couldn't help feeling survivor's guilt whenever she thought about it.

"Hey Charlie," Joe greeted her as he caught up with her and returned her kiss. Charlie was couple of years older than himself or Mary, but he had to acknowledge that she was still a fine looking woman, if a bit serious. "How is the lower level going, can we go down for a look yet?" he asked.

"I was just waiting for the NBC guy to get back to me," Charlie replied.

"Oh you mean Corporal Morley, is he down there?" asked Joe hopefully.

"He went down about half an hour ago." She held up a tablet computer plugged into an attachment connected to a fine wire leading off down the ramp. "He is still conscious and moving at least." She pointed to the pulse monitor and moving dot on the screen.

After another fifteen minutes, Corporal Morley emerged, puffing back up the ramp, his yellow biohazard suit opened, its hood draped over his back, "It is all safe down there now" he reported. He wound up the wires connected to Charlie's tablet and disconnected and stowed the attachment into its plastic case. "There's a shit load of containers down there," he added, "Heaps more than what is up on this level."

"So it is ok for us to go down there without oxygen then?" asked Charlie.

"Sure, you can even turn those noisy ventilation fans off too if you like." Corporal Morley added. He let his oxygen cylinder slip with a clang as he unzipped the rest of his suit.

Joe and Charlie made their way down the wide ramp deeper into the mountain and as the floor levelled out, the extent of the cavern became obvious. It appeared under the harsh glare of the LED lights to be at least as large as a couple of football fields. The roof was supported by rows of large columns, and double stacked rust red painted containers formed corridors between the columns. "Shit!" exclaimed Joe, I didn't realise the Cavern was this big.

"Bloody Axell Corp must have been at this for years," added Charlie, "How did I miss it?"

"To be fair, Rodge Fergusson gave him a fifteen year heads up," said Joe "Mike took that information and ran with it. He was an organisational genius."

"What is in them all?" asked Charlie. They walked along one of the corridors looking at the labels. "This one has horse drawn ploughs," she said reading the stamped brass plate, "and so does the one above it."

"Well now I know where our swords and spears are," Joe reported. He was checking the content list of the containers across the corridor from the ploughs. "Ok, can you get your people to make a list for us of these," Joe asked as he waved over his shoulder at the expanse.

"Check it against the inventory at Civil Admin and we will work out which need to be opened now." Charlie agreed. She was still a little stunned at the magnitude of her failure to understand just what it was she had been investigating.

As they emerged from the lower level, Joe also requested that a number of the empty containers be left in place on the upper level, but moved back against the Sanctuary walls to be "Converted into either offices or accommodation or something to be determined," he said.

Satisfied with the progress in the Sanctuary, Joe thanked Charlie and withdrew blinking into the daylight. On his way past the tower builders, he noticed that it was being assembled hollow around a ladder accessible through a wide door in the base. Wending his way past the carpenters constructing the platform for the top of the tower, Joe couldn't help but think how medieval it was all beginning to look. "How many generations before someone wants to wear a crown in here?" he thought to himself wryly.

Mary was supervising vehicle preparation when Joe returned.

"How is it all going?" He asked.

"We could be ready to go tomorrow, but I want another day to run through some drills and I want to spend a bit of time going over a map recon, but we won't need a fortnight," she answered.

"Sure, it's your mission. I had a look at the lower level up at the Sanctuary, there are heaps of containers down there. I found the container with the swords and stuff," Joe told her.

"Woot," Mary cheered, "We gotta get that out, I miss my sword work. The civvies will love it too, when we get back into sword training."

"Well maybe when you get back then," Joe said, "I'll go get Little Joe, see you back at the tent."

Twenty minutes later, Joe returned in a rush, he had Little Joe on his hip. He found Mary and a couple of the Recon NCOs having a hot brew and enjoying a laugh about one of the many inevitable mishaps of the day.

"Joey baby, what are you doing here?" Mary greeted them, then seeing the look on Joe's face, "Joe, is everything ok?" she asked nervously.

"Oh yes, just you gotta see this, back at the square, you guys come too," he commanded the NCOs. Together they hastened back to the town square. "You won't want to miss this," Joe said mysteriously.

They trotted down the street to where Mary could see a crowd gathering, as they got closer they pushed through to the front. She was amazed to see a huge aircraft being assembled on the road, its wide wings coated in solar panels. "Is that the recon drone?" asked Mary, "It's bigger than I imagined it would be." She exclaimed without swearing, being acutely aware of Little Joe sitting on big Joe's shoulder.

"Apparently it has a range of a thousand miles on a fully sunny day, but can still do a two hundred mile round trip or hang around in a holding pattern for hours when fully charged even on a cloudy day." Joe informed her. "They are going to do a test flight then, if it goes ok, do a mission over Sierra One tomorrow. It looks like you have your extra day."

"Sierra One is that Sanctuary One?" asked Mary.

"Sanctuary One." answered Joe with a shrug.

The technicians completed some adjustments through a panel on the top of the aircraft then spun up the single propeller situated at the back of the fuselage between to the twin tail booms. One of them clicked the panel closed and retired behind a desk sized control panel on the Military HQ veranda. A couple of the NSA police, chased some kids from the road in front of the drone and it was ready to go.

The operator tested the controls and when it seemed that all the appropriate flaps and panels wriggled like they were meant to, the operator donned her VR headset and pushed the throttle forward. The electric motors emitted a high pitched whine, the propeller roared and the pilotless drone accelerated down the hill, after an incredibly short take off it lifted steeply into the air. The assembled crowd let out a spontaneous cheer as it banked steeply and began to climb in a lazy spiral around the colony.

The operator, futuristic with her VR headset and hand held controller appeared more like she was playing a video game than controlling a serious bit of military hardware. After about fifteen minutes of subjecting the plane to some basic manoeuvres, she declared that she was going to land it and needed the road cleared again. The police firmly directed everyone over to the far side of the town square and when the road was clear, the operator piloted the drone in for a slow motion, text book landing, taxiing it back to its start point.

General Stuart stepped off the HQ veranda and led the gathered crown in a rousing three cheers startling the Drone operator, who, regaining her composure waved to the people and proceeded to check the plane over. A couple of other technicians then helped her remove the wide wings and stowed them with the fuselage on the HQ veranda for the night.

The next day, leaving her NCOs to drill and redrill their crews in weapon handling, contact drills and vehicle mounted obstacle crossing, Mary attended HQ for final briefing and to observe the drone recon. The drone operator, this time a young private under supervision, occupied the console, the preflight checks successfully conducted and confirmed by the senior operator, he donned the VR headset, confidently powered up the drone and performed an uneventful take-off. For the next hour, the drone flew in a holding pattern around the colony while the technicians calibrated the controls and the camera feeds.

General Stuart, Joe, Mary and sundry duty personnel and even the mayor watched, with the intensity of a super league audience, the camera feed on the large panel TV mounted on the wall of the newly finished briefing room of the HQ building. Calibration completed, the drone broke free of the holding pattern and disappeared out of sight following the route of the old road between the Sanctuaries. Of the old road, there was no sign, the tall pine forest completely blotting out any remnants. The drone feed also failed to reveal any indication that people had ever travelled in their direction.

An hour into the flight, the operator set the drone climbing to gain altitude and on the screen the land opened out in front of them. The forest fell behind as the fortress walls of the first sanctuary sailed into view jutting out from the cliff as theirs did. The plane settled into a slow high orbit of Sanctuary One while the camera zoomed in on the compound.

The large covered area, originally the cage protecting equipment from the EMP seemed to be still standing, however on closer zoom, the building revealed itself to be a much rebuilt copy of the original. This was exciting news, it meant that someone was, or at least recently had been occupying the location. While the drone feed did not reveal any indication of occupation and even the surrounding land had a deserted look, the Sanctuary certainly didn't appear derelict, just deserted.

The feed did however, show evidence of a road or wagon track leading away from the Sanctuary toward the North West, so General Stuart ordered the drone pilot to recon along the road. The road looked used but after another twenty miles with no sign of people, the operator reported that the power reserves were getting low. He requested, and was granted permission to return.

"Curiouser and curiouser," observed the General, "Well Mary, you had better take your team and find out what is going on over there. Also, I have decided to send a recon section of engineers with you to look at putting the bridges back up. Young Lieutenant Yoi will command them, he has been out before and knows his shit, but look after them." He concluded.

"He has been briefed, Sir?" Joe asked.

"He is getting his vehicle and team ready now," the General advised them, "He knows to report to you tonight, when can you leave?"

"I reckon we can be on our way by zero eight hundred, unless the guys have done something stupid in the last couple of hours, and I can't rule that out, they were playing with guns," Mary reported.

General Stuart laughed, "I haven't heard of any accidents, so zero eight hundred it is, I'll see you on morning parade."

"Damn," Mary thought to her self, she had hoped to skip the parade.

Mary assembled her recon platoon, herself and the five women and fifteen men of the platoon were Axell Force's most experienced operatives and they were all pumped to go. She ordered them to line the vehicles up at the gate to the military compound and then stood them down. Kai had finished making a last inspection of his men's readiness and they were repacking their kit. He was aboard their vehicle assessing the spare ammunition for the personal weapons and for the cupola gun when Mary found him. Kai greeted her, then waved to show he would be with her in a minute. He gave his driver Private McCallum last minute instructions then dismissed his team.

"Good afternoon Sir," Kai saluted Mary, "It is a pleasure to be part of your mission."

"Get stuffed Kai," she responded with a laugh, "Are your guys ready?"

"Just topping up the water jerries, and getting a couple of diesel jerries in case of a cloudy week," replied Kai.

"Ok, can you park your truck behind ours at the gate before you finish up, we will be leaving after parade."

"Aw shit," I was hoping we would be out of here before that," replied Kai.

"The General wants a word, so brace your self," laughed Mary, "Ok, see you in the morning."

At breakfast, Mary found Sergeant Trask and organised the Recon platoon and the Engineers to assemble at the northeast corner of Mars field near the gate to the vehicle park after parade. Morning parade was a long and painful experience. General Stuart loved to give long and rambling motivational speeches and especially today, as the first recon to Sanctuary One was about to leave, the opportunity for a rousing pep talk was too good to pass. Eventually when even the waiting civilian spectators were starting to lose interest, he ran out of words and the parade was dismissed.

Mary handed her platoon over to Sergeant Trask with orders for final check of weapons, communications and the vehicles before mounting up ready to go. Kai gave Corporal John English the same instructions for the Engineers and followed Mary to report to the General.

They found General Stuart talking with Joe and Charlie Williams about the organisation of the Sanctuary. The General acknowledged them as they approached, Mary saluted and said with a straight face. "Inspiring words this morning Sir."

Kai almost choked and even Joe looked startled but the General, without a trace of irony, thanked her.

"We are ready to go sir," she reported.

"Just hold on for a bit, the boffins have asked if I could tack on another task, can you erect another phone base station on the way back? I thought it was a good idea so you can make room in one of the cars for a Signaller and the base station?" He challenged Mary, getting no immediate response, he continued. "Ok, see Lieutenant Carson, she has it all organised. That is all Captain, have a safe trip."

"Yes sir, I'm sure we can do that." Mary saluted and avoiding a stern look from Joe, she and Kai turned back towards their vehicles. Jill Carson was waiting at the front of Mary's vehicle talking with Sergeant Trask, there was another soldier with them digging in the jumbled pile of stores at their feet. Kai felt a moment of excitement, followed by disappointment as he realised Jill would not be going. As soon as Mary confirmed the Signaller and the stores, Sergeant Trask set about distributing them among the vehicles. Kai advised that his vehicle had room for the Signaller and within fifteen minutes, the first vehicle rolled out of the vehicle park.

Following the road to the front of the massive compound walls, the lead vehicle turned left across the front of the artillery batteries guarding the Sanctuary onto the Main Street. Main Street led from the compound, through the square and out of town. Having deliberately chosen this route through the town, Mary was not surprised that most of the settlement had turned out of bed early to see them off. In an almost carnival atmosphere the lead vehicle slowly drove through the town square just as the sun touched the highest point of the half built guard tower above the settlement.

Standing tall in the turret of the LAV 25 next to Sergeant Trask, Mary waved to the watching spectators, her gaze then sweeping across the new colony where the progress was amazing. Around the outskirts of the town, the farms were being fenced by teams of men and women and shelters were being constructed with logs cut from the forest across the valley. On the far side of the compound behind her, the civilian vehicle park held hundreds of vehicles, from large semi trailers for hauling plant, container trucks, smaller tray back trucks through to solar powered SUVs. The civilian maintenance team had established a very military style maintenance centre and the repair teams were busy methodologically inspecting vehicles and assembling other equipment.

On either side of the compound entrance was stationed an artillery battery each with their three guns, menacingly protecting the settlement from the unknown. Further out, the early logging crews were steering their vehicles into the forest accompanied by armed soldiers. Other soldiers were engaged in establishing the trench and barbed wire perimeter around the settlement with two protected access points, each with an entrance and exit gate. Within the compound itself, the construction crews were busy assembling the covered rampart at the top of the new guard tower. The colony was taking on all the aspect of a medieval fortress town, protected by a castle.

Maintaining about 100 yards spacing, the convoy slowly headed south towards the first sanctuary following the ghost of the old road, partly following the GPS map and partly following memory. It may have only been a half year ago in Mary's memory but it was over 500 years ago in actuality and the terrain had changed a lot in that time. Having been meticulously reconnoitred by drone during the previous couple of days, the first 20 miles was an easy drive hardly bothering the vehicles' power meters.

Calling a halt just before entering the more heavily wooded terrain, Mary called the vehicles in side by side. Having achieved a sufficient enough distance from the settlement to avoid causing alarm, Mary deemed it as good a spot as any to prove the weapons. After five minutes of test firing into the convenient hillside, the weapons were cleaned again and a hot brew enjoyed, it was time to get serious.

The open grassy range they had once driven through all those months ago was now a mature woodland with some very large trees, light undergrowth and numerous fallen logs. Mary ordered the convoy to continue in full tactical mode and as they were venturing into an unknown region, to maintain a high alert. The lead vehicle soon had its work cut out maintaining course with the necessary detours around fallen logs and washouts. They could find no sign of the old road, 500 years had allowed nature to totally remove all traces of 21st century human activity.

"This is torturous," Sergeant Trash admitted as the LAV crawled carefully around yet another semi-fallen tree, "I'm beginning to wish we had brought some tracked armoured vehicles, it must be shit in the hummers."

At noon, while traversing a slightly more open area, Mary called for a break and they harboured into the classic fishtail formation with vehicles parked about twenty yards apart and facing out and with the turret guns manned. The rest of the vehicle crews set about preparing lunches. Consulting the section leaders on their slow progress, Mary decided a more easterly route might avoid some of the denser forestry.

Further to the east the trees thinned and progress improved markedly. Close to sundown, Mary declared an early halt, to prepare for the night routine. Being too exposed for a harbour where they were, Mary ordered the platoon to back-track a mile into a concealed position more suitable for the nights admin harbour. In the position, the vehicles reversed back into a closer fishtail formation and with sentries posted, the soldiers commenced a well practised night time routine.

Meals were prepared, ablutions performed and bedding unpacked in preparation for quick deployment. With everyone, including the sentries fed and abluted, the night's sentry roster released and orders for tomorrow completed, the crews remounted for the short drive to the safe night time harbour. Sergeant Trask had identified the small hillock about two miles back as an easily defended night time position.

The drivers, following their well practiced operating procedures, continued about a mile past the front of hill before turning and doubling back, using a different route and entering the position from the opposite direction. Anyone following the vehicle tracks would have to pass across the front of the position first, giving the platoon time to prepare for the encounter. The vehicles reversed in to their close fishtail formation with the backs of the vehicles only a couple of meters apart and their front facing out. The drivers on queue, shut their vehicles down one after another about a minute apart to simulate continued driving away and in silence the sentries were posted to each vehicle turret. The radars were deployed and those not on sentry hit the sack.

The platoon, roused by one of the sentries just before dawn, quickly stowed their bedding and adopted the high alert, stand-to position. The platoon remained at high alert as the day broke and with nothing disturbing them after 30 minutes, Sergeant Trask called stand down and morning routine commenced in silence.

While the men fed themselves and maintained their kit and weapons, Mary summoned Kai and the section leaders for the morning orders. "Has anyone seen any wild life at all" she asked.

"I don't know about anyone else, but I haven't seeing so much as a squirrel," Kai reported.

"There are certainly bugs and I have seen the occasional bird but we seem to be entirely alone in a land devoid of animals," Mary observed. The others also confirmed not having seen any animals either.

After orders, Mary needed to visit nature so following procedure for venturing outside the defended area of the harbour, she delegated one of her recon team to stand guard while she crapped. Swinging the trenching tool on the way back, she commented, "I hope to God they figure out how to make toilet paper before the supplies run out, a sponge on a stick would be totally horrid out here."

"Oh that is a bad image," complained her sentry as they returned to their vehicles still laughing.

The second day was a re-run of the first but they reached the banks of the first river well to the east of their objective, the old bridge site. Keeping to the tree line Sergeant Trask navigated them westwards along the foot hills towards the bridge site. Emerged from the timbered terrain just before sundown, they and approached the location the map indicated for the first bridge.

Sergeant Trask led the vehicles a couple of miles past the bridge site to a safe admin harbour where they completed their night time routine. The platoon then proceeded along a different route into their defensive night harbour closer to the bridge site. Mary was proud of her platoon, they had settled back in to a tactical routine and were treating the mission as a combat mission in enemy territory.

Next day having completed their morning routine they made the short drive to the bridge site. At the first bridge location, Sergeant Trask sited the vehicles in defensive formation to protect the ground while Kai accompanied the Engineer's section leader, Corporal English, to recon a site for the bridge. The gap to be spanned was not much wider than it was 500 years ago, however the river was certainly deeper with the banks steeper and less stable than previously. At this time of year the water level was fairly low, but still too deep and fast for a person or vehicle to cross unaided.

After the break, they remounted and patrolled east down stream in search of a safer crossing. The river ran through an open valley between heavily forested hills. Well into the undulating grassland and with the foot hills now behind them, the radio cracked into life as the lead vehicle reported animals. Bringing her LAV to a halt next to the lead vehicle, Mary had a clear view from the small rise overlooking the whole valley ahead. The other three vehicles also drew along side. In the far distance, on the other side of the river, they could clearly see a large herd of animals.

"What do you think, cattle or bison?" asked Mary. In the long grass, it was too far to tell even with binoculars. This siting boosted everyone's mood, no one was saying but the lack of animal life had been depressing.

From their vantage point, Mary identified a possible crossing point a couple of miles ahead. "Do you think we can cross there?" She asked Sergeant Trask. She handed him the binoculars and pointed.

"Only one way to tell," he replied as he handed the glass back.

Maintaining an open arrowhead tactical formation for traversing the grassland the troop closed in on the possible crossing. The vehicles pulled up just short of what looked like the most feasible crossing point, the inside of a wide bend in the river where the slope of the bank seemed shallow enough for the hummers to traverse. Directly across, on the outside of the bend, the bank appeared to be too steep and the river too deep. Diagonally though it appeared there was a reasonably accessible exit point, although it would require a tricky manoeuvre in the river bed with the risk of bogging the vehicle.

"Better to conduct a foot recky of the crossing first before we commit the vehicles," Sergeant Trask suggested.

"Indubitably," replied Mary, "That water looks cold, so who do we hate today?"

Sergeant Trask laughed, "You have such an uncanny way of inspiring loyalty sir," he added "One of the drivers, and one of the Corporals, I'll ask Lieutenant Yoi if his driver can go with Corporal Jones, I think Private McCallum is our most experienced driver." Mary just smiled at the implied 'ask'.

Sergeant Trask radioed the request through to Kai and after a delay, Kai reported that Robyn McCallum was on her way. Mary directed a hand signal to the other drivers and they manoeuvred their vehicles back into defensive positions, Kai's vehicle and the LAV remained facing the river while the others covered the remaining arcs. Mary and Sergeant Trask joined Corporal Jones, Kai and Robyn on the river bank where they discussed terrain and picked out the proposed path. Robyn clambered down to the water's edge and tested it with a swipe of her hand,

"Shit that's cold, I'm not looking forward to sitting in wet gear for the rest of the day, permission to strip for the mission sir?" She asked over her shoulder.

Kai, made to deny the request however as he hesitated, Mary spoke first. "Ok, just take your weapons."

Clambering back up the bank Robyn began to remove her fatigues, Corporal Jones looked a little concerned, but bravely dropped his gear as well. Once stripped down, they pushed through the long grass, down the bank and onto to the river bed, Raul Jones clutching his rifle perhaps a little too defensively. Sergeant Trask called back to the two vehicles, "Eyes on the grass, not on the arse, just cover your arcs they are relying on you for protection."

The water must have been cold, Kai thought, if the cursing from them both was any indication, however this was drowned out by the ribbing and cat calls from the rest of the platoon. Sergeant Trask looked around with a thunderous look but only when Mary motioned to stop the fooling and pay attention to their areas of responsibility did the platoon get serious. Some of the soldiers may have thought that full tactical procedures were a bit over the top seeing as they had not seen any signs of people, hostile or not, but still it was prudent to maintain focused.

By mid stream, the water only waist deep and the flow not so fast as to cause concern, it was beginning to look like a suitable crossing point. Alerted by the warning shout from the sentry in the cupola of Kai's Engineer vehicle, all eyes went to the long grass on the far bank. To Mary's horror four large lions appeared out of the grass, each of them focussed intently on Corporal Jones and Private McCallum. Realising their peril, the two looked wildly around desperately searching for an escape route. Two of the lions, however decided very quickly that the two humans in the river represented legitimate prey and began to stalk forward, totally concentrating on the prey and ignoring the rest of the platoon.

"Shit." screamed Sergeant Trask and Mary in unison, "Take out those lions, NOW" Screamed Mary.

After what seemed an eternity the coaxial MG from the LAV ripped into life and the second of the lions flipped backward and dropped, twitching obscenely. The first lion totally focused on Robyn, leapt into a full attack. The gun exploded into life again accompanied by a number of personal weapons and the tracer tracked quickly onto the charging lion. The first rounds caught it in the hind quarters spinning it around just short of its target. Private McCallum threw herself back into the stream and threshed wildly letting the current take her down stream. Corporal Jones also thrashed backward toward the shore as the lion succumbed to the hail of bullets and collapsed into the stream and drifted after Robyn.

"Fuck fuck fuck, that was too close." Exclaimed Mary.

The remaining lions had disappeared by the time anyone thought to seek them out.

Kai assisted the Corporal back up the bank however Private McCallum was nowhere to be seen. Mary dispatched her third vehicle, One Zero Charlie, to follow the river to find her. The ribbing from his men helped Corporal Jones regain his composure and he was still in the process of regaining his clothes when One Zero Charlie reported they had recovered Private McCallum. They had also recovered the dead lion and were on their way back.

The lion had been roughly tied across the hood of the hummer and the crew dropped it off near Mary's vehicle before returning to their defensive position. Robyn McCallum had also more or less recovered her normal demeanour by the time they pulled in. She was still naked and shivering, but surprisingly, no one had thought to provide her with clothes. Several loud comments involving cats or that she looked better out of fatigues etc was all the response Sergeant Trask got for pointing that out. Kai privately had to agree with the men, Robyn McCallum was a striking woman at the best of times and naked she was certainly worth a second look.

Robyn seemed to take it all in good humour, she just rolled her eyes and made the universal gesture in their general direction and called out the observation: "I was way more afraid of you fucks shooting me than I was of the lion, so be very careful, I might not have my duds but I still have my gun."

Mary also had to hide a smile as she pulled her troops into line, "Ok, that is enough, I didn't see any of you heroes volunteering in her place, now keep your arcs covered and we will brew up here."

After Private McCallum recovered her kit, and everyone had brewed up, Mary called all except the sentries in for a debriefing. She beckoned Corporal Jones and Private McCallum to her away from the group, to find out how they really were. Private McCallum freely admitted to being terrified by the lion, but that it was no worse than her first combat experience and that she was now ok. Corporal Jones ruefully pointed out that it was a good thing that he wasn't wearing pants at the time.

Joining the group, Sergeant Trask handed them each a cup of coffee and they headed to where the men not on sentry were gathered around a fire someone had made. The atmosphere was electric, everyone was totally hyped now the mission had suddenly switched from routine to exciting. Mary led a discussion about what they had just experienced, what they had done poorly and what they needed to improve to ensure they were not surprised again. She handed the discussion over to the NCOs and went to write up her daily report.

After all the excitement, Mary decided to harbour for the night in the vicinity, so after initiating the night routine, she completed the report for HQ and handed it to Private McCallum for transmission over the long range radio.

After a couple of minutes Private McCallum reported that she was unable to get a signal, probably because of interference from the hills. "The quad copter relay would probably work " she suggested.

"Ok, pop over to One Zero Bravo and get Private Aarth to organise it." directed Mary.

Kai joined Mary and they settled back with their ration pack meals and coffee to watch Privates McCallum and Aarth configure the recon quad copter into radio relay mode. Looking at the dregs of his coffee, Kai said "I heard we brought some coffee plants through the portal, I hope to Christ they survive."

Mary replied thoughtfully "Thinking about it all, you just have to appreciate the enormity of what we're actually doing here. It sort of freaks me out some times."

Mary dragged her concentration back to the task in hand, in time to see the copter, sounding like an angry mosquito on steroids, lifting straight up until it was almost out of sight against the clouds. Private Mahmoud Aarth controlled the copter while Sig McCallum returned and transmitted the report. After a few minutes, she returned, signalling to Mahmoud to bring the copter back in. After he had landed the copter, Mahmoud approached Mary and Kai to request permission to use the copter to scout around the area to check where the remaining lions were.

Something that had been bothering Kai finally hit him, "Mary, the four lions we saw were all female, so there must be more of the pride close by" he said.

"Well, if that is so, we had better make sure we keep on our toes," agreed Mary, "Ok, Mahmoud find the lions," she consented. He returned to de-re-purpose the copter back to recon mode.

Kai was still contemplating the lions, "They must be descended from zoo animals, lions are not something I expected, what else could be out here?".

It was time to have a good look at the lion One Zero Charlie had carried back from the river. Passing some of the men who were not on sentry duty, Mary reminded them to be mindful of the lions and other threats from out there and to ensure they follow procedures for ablutions etc. They found the lion with almost all of the off-duty men standing around the carcass. It was a pathetic site, still wet and matted with blood, grass and mud. The gunshot wounds were obvious and ugly, but apart from that, the animal looked to have been in good health and in her prime.

There was, Mary thought, something wrong about the whole scene, something didn't look quite right. Having seen lions in the zoo in a previous life, Mary was confident she knew what they looked like. Her impression at the time was how large they were. It then struck her, this animal was only about three quarters grown, it must be a juvenile. She asked the men if they thought it was a bit small and a couple of them thought the same.

There was still the matter of the river crossing. Mary called a couple of the unassigned soldiers to tool up and accompany her. She checked with Private Aarth who reported that a group of five lions were at least a mile away and heading further away toward the East. He reported that the nearest other sign of life was the herd of cattle now a couple of miles further to the North.

Kai organised the sentries and arranged the men along the river bank to cover the crossing point while Mary and Private Wainwright, one of her recon troop drivers, prepared to recon the crossing. As the afternoon shadows lengthened they stripped off, and holding their weapons at the ready, edged into the freezing water. This time the watching men were more subdued and certainly more vigilant. They followed the proposed crossing route and found the exit from the river to be well within the vehicles' capability. Mary located the other lion to ensure it was dead and observed that it also was not fully grown. "Lions, what the fuck" she spat wading back to the vehicles.

Once safely back with the platoon, she gave the order to prepare for the move out, and while she and Private Wainwright dressed, the platoon squared away for night routine. As it became fully dark, they navigated to their night harbour.

Next morning after stand down they squared the vehicles away for the river crossing and with One Zero Charlie leading Alpha and Bravo, with the Engineer vehicle in the rear, they traversed the river crossing without problems. Turning back west, the platoon followed the river upstream to the original bridge site. The trail being mostly through open grassland with a number of easy tributary crossings, they made good time.

At the old bridge site, Kai's section conducted another recon of the river bank from this side before the platoon continued following the route of the original road toward the second bridge site. One of the tributaries along the way presented a narrow but significantly deep obstacle and they spent most of the day erecting an improvised bridge from logs cut from the near-by wooded area. It was a welcome distraction for Kai's men and they relished showing the recon platoon just what they were trained to do.

Displaying confidence in his men, Kai drove the first vehicle over the bridge. It took a stern look and a direct order to make his crew walk over after the vehicle, but it was standard procedure that all vehicles crossing improvised bridges did so with only the driver on board. Kai took it slowly and felt some settling of the timber, but after that, even the LAV had no issues making the crossing and the platoon was soon on their way again.

The next section of the patrol was again hard going through heavily wooded terrain and day was getting away from them so Mary chose to harbour for the night at the first suitable location. She had hoped to harbour closer to the location of the second bridge but it was still a couple of hours, at least, of tough driving away. Once again there was no need to remind the platoon of the importance of vigilance.

After morning routine, the vehicles patrolled to the second bridge site and established a defensive perimeter. Kai and Cpl English once again reconnoitred a bridge site. The river here was low, slower moving and wide. It flowed down a number of twisting channels separated by sand and gravel islands sprouting sparse and distorted trees. The river was now too wide for the original Medium Girder Bridge to be reinstated, and Kai felt that the twisted trees on the midstream islands, indicated the river also ran high and fast during the melt.

He commented to Corporal English, "Any bridge built here will need to be substantial and robust and is probably beyond us at the moment".

"I reckon we can do it, but it will take ages and a lot of labour," Corporal English replied, "On the plus side, the water level is low this time of the year and we should be able to cross here."

Kai pointed out the proposed crossing to Mary and she ordered a couple of volunteers from Bravo to recon the crossing on foot. The rest of the section provided suitable support. The recon confirmed the suitability of the crossing and the vehicles negotiated it with ease.

Now within 20 Miles of Sierra One, Mary sought a safe harbour site for the afternoon while they planned their route in. After securing a suitable hide, Mary established contact with HQ with the aid of the quad copter, and delivered her report, she requested clearance to go all the way to the sanctuary tomorrow. The duty operator at HQ requested she call back in 20 minutes that Mary filled with a quick inspection of the defences and a chat to Sergeant Trask. Seeking his opinion on the state of the men and the equipment, he shrugged and reported that morale was high and the vehicles were still in top condition.

Mary returned to Kai's vehicle, Private Aarth sent the copter aloft, Private McCallum established coms with HQ and handed the mike to Mary. It was a surprise to have the General himself answer the radio. He advised Mary that another low level flyby of the sanctuary by the drone revealed that it was in a very good state of repair. There were signs of regular maintenance and modification, meaning that there may be people in the area. He gave clearance for Mary to proceed, but with extreme caution, and at all costs to remain undetected by any occupants of the site.

"It has been 500 years since we left them to face the Gamma ray burst, we don't know what sort of culture they have evolved into, be careful" he finished up.

Kai and Mary helped their drivers erect a tarpaulin from the back of the LAV for shade and set up the folding map table. Sergeant Trask spread out and oriented the only map they had, securing it to the table with rocks at the corners. From the geography they had observed so far, the actual terrain was still pretty close to the map, though now there was no sign of fences and roads, and the forested areas were denser and more widespread than 500 years ago.

Looking through the trees at the clear sky, Mary though, "How good is this weather, we should just motor through the open grasslands straight up to the sanctuary."

Dragging her mind back to the task she studied the map closely, the two officers and the sergeant agreed that their best vantage point would be a low, lightly wooded hill to the south west of the compound. They concluded the safest tactical approach meant staying as close to the foothills as possible. The sergeant plotted a route towards the sanctuary, using the hills and staying within the tree lines. Mary figured that with the quad copter scouting out the terrain in advance, they could achieve the observation point without being detected.

The plans finalised, Mary called the section leaders in and briefed them on the next day's operation. Being still early in the mid afternoon and the weather warm for the time of year, Mary decided to take advantage of the time they had to refresh the platoon's morale.

Sergeant Trask gave the fifteen minute warning as Mary and her driver stowed the tarp away. When all vehicle commanders reported they were ready to roll, Mary surprisingly ordered they move back to the river crossing and set up an all round defence.

She then ordered the crews of each vehicle to take turns bathing in the river while the rest provided security. What could in other circumstances have been, young people cavorting noisily in cold river water, was, in this situation subdued and purposeful. Ablutions over they ate, prepared for night routine and once the daylight had faded, moved in formation to a new night harbour, now under full blackout conditions.

Still contemplating what the General had said about the sort of society the Sierra One people might have evolved, Mary hit the sack. Next morning after stand down, but before morning routine, rather than move to a new location, she gave orders to expanded the harbour into an extended defensive formation, ordering the fifty percent stand-to to continue. The drivers each moved their vehicles out a further twenty five yards, extending their defensive perimeter while those not on sentry completed their ablutions and breakfasts. As each soldier completed their morning routine, they relieved one of the sentries for their turn at breakfast.

The morning routine completed, and with One Zero Bravo taking the lead, they headed west following the river higher into the foothills. When they had to turn north again, Mary adopted classic mechanised cavalry tactics, manoeuvring in bounds between ridges. While the other vehicles provided cover, the lead vehicle would break cover and move quickly from one ridge to the next, then slowly drive up the rise until the crew commander could observe beyond the crest to the next ridge, but stopping far enough back to hide the vehicle hull. If the first vehicle made the bound without incident and observed no threat, the other vehicles would make the bound one at a time while the stationary vehicles covered their movement.

From their new position, while all crews scanned for human activity, Mary plotted the route to the next bound. Then Private Aarth would release the recon copter to patrol the intervening dead ground along the proposed route for the next bound. When it was cleared, the lead vehicle would once again move along the chosen route to the next bound and the whole manoeuvre would start over.

The going was a bit slow at first, however after a couple of bounds, a rhythm was established and progress sped up. Calling a halt about five miles short of their destination, Mary ordered the night harbour. Sergeant Trask supervised the deployment of the surveillance radars and Mary personally led a foot patrol to ensure the surrounding ground held no surprises. With the platoon posting sentries, fifty percent on and fifty percent off for the night, everyone was on edge, not knowing what was waiting for them and not knowing if they had been detected.

At ten past three one of the radars detected movement across the front of the position, along the path they had taken in the move into the harbour. The Duty Officer, Kai, silently called the platoon to full alert and all defence points were fully manned. After an hour with no additional activity detected and a passive infrared scan of the perimeter revealing no intruders, Mary ordered the drivers back to bed for the last hour of sleep. At morning stand-to, Mary deployed the clearing patrol to check the perimeter. They reported no evidence of human activity but disturbingly there were the tracks of a large animal across the front of the position, with the section leader observing they looked like that of a large cat or lion. This had a sobering effect on the platoon, as they absorbed just how dangerous a world it was that they had entered.

Private Aarth once again sent the quad copter toward the next bound, the terrain here was open so Mary instructed him to check the route all the way to the sanctuary. He reported that while there was no current sign of human occupation, the sanctuary did indeed look maintained. The platoon moved out and after a further hour of tactical manoeuvring they were in a position to directly observe the sanctuary.

Through the binoculars, the distant structure looked to be solid and in good repair, although through the greater magnification of the digital telescope, some signs of age were visible. There were solid looking wooden gates closing the entrance to the compound. Within the compound where the large Faraday cage had once been, an equally huge external hall was now attached to the front of the Sanctuary.

There being no obvious sign of life, Mary directed Private Aarth to send the copter in for a closer look. Private Aarth reported that the copter had only about an hour of power as the current rate of use had exceeded the rate of recharge. While the auxiliary outlet for the large solar panels on any of the vehicles could have recharged the drone reasonably quickly, Mary needed the copter now and decided to risk it. To save the battery, the copter was sent straight toward the distant structure with no effort to hide the approach. Its first circuit of the compound confirmed without a doubt that the structure had been recently occupied and was well maintained. Flying directly over the gates into the compound and as the wide entrance to the hall had no doors, Private Aarth guided the copter into the building.

The interior of the hall, contained rows of backless bench seats rather like those of a church or school assembly area, with seating, Private Aarth estimated, for about 300 people. With the large locked doors of the Sanctuary in the centre, the cliff face formed the rear wall to the building. The floor area to the back of the hall was dominated by a wide raised stage featuring what appeared to be an altar or large table of rough hewn timber. The roof of the hall was covered by wooden shingles and supported by wide beams and rough hewn trusses. There were patches of vines and grass growing in through the shingles giving some indication the building's age.

With its battery dying, the drone completed a quick final pass around the immediate external surrounds of the compound revealing signs of a large temporary camping ground or village to the north, currently unoccupied. When Private Aarth reported the copter didn't have enough charge to make it back, Mary instructed him to park it somewhere safe. He guided it back to the hall and up onto the roofing beam at the front of the hall directly above the entrance. With the sun still reaching the copter's resting place, it could recharge where it was, so he left the camera active, monitoring the gates to the compound.

After a meal, a double check of their equipment and confirmation each of the vehicles' crew were clear on their orders, Mary led the troop directly across the open terrain to the front entrance of the sanctuary. Adopting a defensive position in front of the sanctuary gate, Sergeant Trask posted sentries in the vehicle cupolas and left the drivers with their vehicles in preparedness for a hasty exit. The sections from the recon platoon dismounted to perform their allotted tasks. Mary accompanied Section one as they forced the compound's heavy gate open and entered the compound. Section two, patrolled around the perimeter of the compound mapping the immediate area while Section three scouted along the road leading north away from the sanctuary. Kai's engineers established a defensive position with the vehicles.

The interior of the compound was clean, but enough leaf litter had accumulated in corners and up against the sides of the hall to indicate it had been vacant for, Mary guessed, at least a month. The large compound was empty except for the great hall at the far end butting up against the cliff face. Section One cautiously entered the hall and inside, the pews they had observed from the copter vision, were scattered roughly in an arc around the raised stage, with a wooden lectern and heavy wooden altar.

With only a row of small grated openings running along the walls just below the level of the roof beams, the hall had no real windows. The only light streamed in from the open front and through the openings, highlighting the dust Mary's section had stirred. The walls of the hall were unlined and constructed of split weatherboards nailed to an exposed rough sawn framework supported by the original steel frame of the building. The hall was bare of decorations, although down each side of the hall, there was a row of pegs hammered into rough cut planks nailed to the wall frames just above head height. Behind the altar were the two huge iron bound wooden doors blocking access to the underground cavern, the original cast iron and lead doors seemed long gone.

The doors were closed and locked with a large iron bolt and chain and a large, but primitive looking, bronzed padlock. The padlock may have looked primitive, but without resorting to power tools, it was beyond the ability to of anyone in Mary's section to pick it with the tools they had at hand. Not wanting to advertise their presence by breaking the lock, they scouted around for an alternate entrance. There being no obvious postern door, the section recorded all they could of the compound and headed back to the vehicles.

Section two reported there were surprisingly sophisticated hygiene facilities at the camping ground to the north of the compound. They estimated that by the way the camp sites were lay out, it was designed to accommodate upward of a thousand people. Mary recalled Section three and while they waited for them to return, she discussed with Private Aarth, the possibility of setting a camera up in the roof to capture any action at the site.

Between them, Cpl Aarth and Sig McCallum agreed that the camera could not be successfully removed from the copter nor configured to work independently. However they concluded that the copter itself could be positioned so the camera could monitor for movement and that the solar panel on the copter should be enough to power it indefinitely. The only issue was technical, did the transmitter have the range to reach Serria Two? Mary tasked them with positioning the copter into a hidden location allowing an uninterrupted view of the entrance to the compound.

Directing her LAV into the compound, Mary guided it as close as it could get against the front of the hall. Private McCallum, by standing on the turret, was able to reach up and reposition the copter closer to the front edge of the roof, concealed from all but the most vigilant observer. Private Aarth checked the camera coverage and gave the thumbs up so Mary waved the vehicle out of the compound, while hoping that those who used this compound did not look up. "Probably not," she thought, most people look down when they enter what looks very much like a religious building. Following the LAV from the compound, Sergeant Trask noticed the black tyre marks from where the wheels had twisted back and forward getting the LAV into position against the hall.

"Mary, Sir," he called after Mary, "We may have a problem here," as he pointed back at the wheel marks.

"Shit!" She exclaimed. Running back, she tried to rub the marks with the soles of her boots. "Shit, it won't rub off, oh well maybe the marks will wash off or fade or something before they come back. Ok, let's close the gates and get out of here."

As they finished dragging the gates closed and latching them back as they found them, Section three returned. They reported that the road headed straight north and although the track seemed to be regularly used and well maintained, there were no actual signs of people anywhere. Not being authorised to patrol any further than Sierra one, they mounted up and headed in formation back toward Sierra two.

The return trip was a lot faster as they retraced their tracks, maintaining a tactical formation, but without moving in bounds. They made the first river crossing without incident and neared the half way mark before harbouring for the night. As they moved into the night harbour, Mary, perhaps unnecessarily, reminded the vehicle commanders of the lion encounter, so the radars were deployed and the sentries suitably motivated to remain vigilant. The night however passed uneventfully and shortly after dawn they were moving again.

On the outward leg, Signaller Specialist Ian Stankovic had identified a high point on one of the foothills as potentially an ideal location for the telephone relay station. To reach the hill, they had to traverse some heavy woodland and their progress was hindered by rotting logs and thick undergrowth, placing a lot of pressure on the drivers and vehicles alike. The LAV being a heavier vehicle, led the platoon through the trees, forcing a path and making it a little easier for the following Hummers. On emerging from the tree line at the foot of the rise, the hill proved to be perfect for their needs, the south and west faces were forested while the north and east sides were covered in long grass. The hill proved too steep for the vehicles, when Mary tried to push the LAV up the grassy slope, the loose soil and slippery grass balked the vehicle a quarter of the way up as the wheels lost traction.

Watching the LAV reverse down the slope, Kai groaned to his crew, "We have all been here before, load up guys" The engineers cursed as they wearily dragged their equipment from the Hummer. There not having been enough space in the vehicles for one of the steel, pre-built tower bases, the plan was to construct the relay station tower from the local timber. With one of the Recon sections providing security, the Engineer section constructed the base while Specialist Stankovic, with the assistance of Private McCallum, assembled the relay station's electronics.

The relay stations were normally equiped with basic solar panels and batteries. Because of its distance from the next closest tower this station required more than the normal number of batteries to operate in extended power mode. As the larger number of batteries required a greater solar panel capacity to charge them, Kai released the spare one from his vehicle, praying the remainder of the trip back would be as mechanically uneventful as the trip out.

Specialist Stankovic and Private McCallum seemed to have everything under control, so leaving them to it Kai headed off to check how his Engineer Section was progressing with the tower construction. He followed the sound of the saws cutting tower posts from within the tree line further down the hill, however the sound ceased before he reached them. Continuing, he intercepted his section dragging the cut and trimmed logs back up the hill. It looked like hard going so Kai called on Sergeant Trask for some recon platoon help.

It was almost lunch time before Kai's weary men were able to drag their equipment back down the hill. While section two conducted a last security sweep, Specialist Stankovic completed his final operational tests and declared the station was functioning as it should and that the camera feed from Sierra One was being relayed successfully. He also reported that there was now mobile phone coverage all the way to Sierra One.

Sergeant Trask studied the map, "It looks like we can skirt around the west of the forest, stay in the foothills until we reach the river, then turn east to the crossing," he advised Mary.

"Rather than retrace our tracks back through the trees?" she asked.

"The foothills look relatively low and rolling and the forest covering appears to be thin, making the going easier, although we could have done with the copter to confirm it" he replied.

It was mid afternoon by the time the platoon mounted up and headed south, skirting to the west of the forested areas and toward the river. They made the banks of the river without incident, turned east and followed it downstream. As the lead vehicle, One Zero Charlie, crested a small rise, its commander Corporal Anton Ramos, signalled a halt and beckoned Alpha forward, Mary had the LAV pull up close beside him.

There in the clearing in front of them was a large herd of cattle. At first look, they appeared to be a fair distance away, but on closer observation they were, in reality, only a couple of hundred yards away. The illusion created by the size of the animals, they were substantially smaller than those the platoon were used to, either from past experiences or from those they had observed at the settlement farm. Mary estimated the animals were only about three quarters of the size of the settlement's cattle. Mary signalled the other vehicles to move forward for a look as well.

Kai dismounted and made his way to the LAV, climbing up to the deck, he asked. "Do you think this has something to do with the size of those lions and that bear back at the farm?"

"I think there is definitely something going on here we don't understand," she replied.

Moving on, One Zero Charlie continued in the lead and taking care to follow the main channel of the river the platoon halted again at what seemed to be a viable alternate crossing. "If we can get across here, we can cut out almost a full day driving," Sergeant Trask observed.

What they had found was the junction of a tributary and the main river. The junction was wide and shallow with a large gravel island in the centre of the stream and low banks on the far side. The afternoon was getting away and as she stood with Sergeant Trask on the river bank watching the water, Mary contemplated aloud about harbouring for the night. Sergeant Trask suggested that they should put the river between them and Sierra one.

Kai just caught the end of the conversation as he approached, "If I can be so bold," he interrupted light heartedly, "I agree with Sergeant Trask, but not for tactical reasons, look up to the west."

Both of them looked, and both of them agreed, crossing as soon as possible would be the wisest course of action, judging by the storm clouds building behind them.

With their first experience of crossing this river still fresh in their minds, Mary wanted a thorough reconnaissance of the area first. Unfortunately with their only quadcopter still on the roof of Sierra One, any dismounted recon of the crossing would be fully armed and in force. So two section from One Zero Bravo, was tasked to perform a fully dressed, fully tactical clearing of the crossing while the remaining vehicles adopted defensive and support positions. Within an hour, Corporal Jones called back to declare the area clear of any threat and more importantly, no lions. Leaving the section in defence of the far bank, and with the coming storm looming great, Mary sent her Charlie vehicle into the crossing.

The path chosen by the recon was diagonally from the west bank of the tributary, over the central island to a point about 100 yards further down stream, across the main channel and up onto the south bank of the river. Taking it slowly, Private Wainwright guided the hummer through the closest channel onto the central island. It looked to those watching that the going on the island was very soft and the wheels were inclined to spin. He slowly edged into the far stream where the water was a lot deeper than the first stream, coming to above the top of the wheels, and the hummer lurched and spun over the hidden rocks until it crawled out of the river at the exit point.

As Sergeant Trask was giving instructions to Private Aarth on where he expected him to take One Zero Bravo, Mary interrupted and pointed out the speed at which the large green/black storm was rolling over the western hills to their rear. This suddenly made things more urgent and One Zero Bravo hastened into the crossing. Private Aarth guided the hummer skilfully across the first channel and over the island. Without the crew on board, the vehicle didn't sink so badly into the sand and was soon bucking and lurching across the main channel. At the far bank, however it was unable to exit the river and the wheels just spun and dug into the bank. This could have been a major irritation but the crew of One Zero Charlie quickly connected the tow rope from the front of their vehicle and with both vehicles spinning their tyres, it slowly climbed and was dragged out on to the bank.

Seeing the exit getting churned up, Mary decided to take the LAV across next in case it was needed to extract the last Hummer. The eight wheels on the LAV made short work of the crossing and it was soon parked on the far bank.

Kai asked if Private McCallum was ready and confident, she replied, "No problems here sir, and I think I have figured out the best way to exit too."

Just as they rolled over the river bank and skidded into the channel, the first spits of rain began to fall. Kai, standing in the cupola, thought the rain was surprisingly cold and the raindrops were quite a bit larger than he thought rain had a right to be. The first channel did not present a problem, however the transit of the island was another issue. As soon as the vehicle had emerged from the river onto the sand, Kai and his section dismounted and followed on foot as Private McCallum spun the wheels through the loose sand and gravel. In fact the now heavy rain actually helped by settling the sand and making it just that much firmer and soon the hummer was ready for the second channel.

With the crew back on board, Private McCallum nudged the hummer into the stream. After watching the previous vehicles cross, they were ready for the rough ride and it didn't disappoint. The hummer lurched over the hidden rocks and obstacles as the current tried to force the rear of the vehicle down stream. At the exit point, Private McCallum set her wheels straddling the tracks of the previous vehicles and gunned it. The nose of the hummer bounced up but she kept the power on and the vehicle slowly crawled out of the river with the wheels spinning and tearing into the river bank. Once on the level she throttled back and the crew in the back gave her a great cheer, plus a lot of good natured ragging about woman drivers. Someone even quipped that if that was how she drove her SUV back in the old days it was no wonder they gave her a hummer.

The rain was now really belting down, everyone was wet, and as the top hatch of Kai's vehicle had been kept open for the river crossing, most of their personal gear was also saturated. Belatedly, Kai suggested someone jump up and close the hatch, but as he thought to himself, the moaning about cold and wet etc would take a while to die down. It was by now quite dark, so Mary decided to harbour for the night and after a cold ration pack dinner and a hot brew, they moved onto a wooded hill about a mile away. The vehicles circled around and approached the night harbour from the back of the hill, continuing until they could observe their tracks across their front.

Kai's crew conducted the clearing patrol as they were already wet, not a happy bunch but it made sense and after sentries had been posted from the remaining crews they settled down in soggy bedding for the night. After the initial thunderstorm the rain kept up a steady drumming, making it difficult to sleep.

At about three in the morning, Mary was awoken by Sergeant Trask quietly informing her the sentry had detected movement on the radar, thankfully the rain had stopped. As he had already alerted the section commanders, the platoon was fully alert, the tents were down and the men were in firing positions to protect the vehicles. The vehicles' machine guns were manned. From the radar, Mary could see five unmistakably human forms in formation patrolling in their direction and about fifty yards out. She sent word that no-one was to engage until she and only she gave the command.

Mary turned to Sergeant Trask. "Send a flare up when they get about twenty yards out."

Then one of the other radars lit up indicating another five intruders incoming from behind them. Mary alerted the crews on that side of the harbour and was returning to her vehicle when Sgt Trask sent the first of the flares up, quickly followed by another over the second group.

As the flares ignited, the radio cracked into life, the commander of Two Zero Alpha, requesting a stand down and to inform Mary's platoon that their lead sections were approaching the harbour. She quickly called stand down and informed her troops of the intruders' identity. Mary also congratulated her platoon on their performance and discipline, it was well done.

Then the rain started again. As one section two platoon filed into the position through the sentry points, Mary promptly isolated Lieutenant Rodgers in the back of her LAV and angrily informed him that his stunt had placed his men in grave danger. They could have been killed, that her platoon had been observing their approach for quite a long time, and it was only the professionalism of her platoon that had saved them. He started to laugh it off, but seeing Mary's face darken, changed it to an apology and started to explain what they were doing out here. Mary was still furious but set about getting a hot brew going, she obviously wasn't about to get back to sleep now.

Lieutenant Rodgers updated Mary on what had been going on during the week they were away. It appears that because of the tower, the sanctuary was now called the castle by just about everyone. The town housing had all been completed and the tent city had been packed up. The fencing had been completed around the top of the farm paddocks and work was now starting on fencing some of the grassland to the south for the cattle.

He also sheepishly explained why he and his platoon's lead section decided to ruin Mary's sleep. Two platoon was conducting an in-depth defensive patrol when they were informed that Mary's returning patrol had established a harbour at the location they had identified for themselves. Lieutenant Rodgers had then decided to test the famous One Recon Platoon's vigilance with his lead section. The rest of his platoon and their vehicles were harboured about a mile to the south. Mary had lost interest by this time, her anger had evaporated and all she could think about was living in a real house at last.

The rain started to ease as the dawn tried to break through the clouds and had totally ceased by full daylight. It was fortunate the day turned out to be sunny, as the vehicle batteries were seriously depleted and would need at least four hours of full sunshine to bring them back to capacity, besides all their shit was wet. With Two platoon assuming the security duties, Mary's platoon performed the necessary vehicle maintenance, personal admin and drying out their kit.

After the rain, Kai was interested to see the state of the river they had just crossed. He discussed this with Mary who asked Lieutenant Rodgers to release one of his vehicles. He mobilised his two zero Alpha vehicle and crew to take Kai and Corporal English back to the river crossing. They were lucky to have crossed when they did, the river, now running a banker with the dirty turbulent current totally unrecognisable from the two shallow streams of yesterday. Observing the torrent, Kai acknowledged the challenges facing him and his engineers when the time comes to bridge it.

Once back at the harbour, Kai found the platoon had finished their admin. His section was taking it easy, flipping cards around a smoky fire and enjoying a hot brew or resting in the shade of their drying tents. Sergeant Trask appeared, to inform him that Mary had directed they have an early lunch and gave them the departure time. Leaving straight after lunch would give them ample time to reach the settlement before the afternoon stop work.

Kai sought out Lieutenant Rodgers to catch up on the news from the colony, then after lunch his vehicle resumed its position at the tail end of the formation for the last leg of the trip. The platoon was in high spirits and Mary had to cool down a bit of skylarking in the vehicles before it got out of hand. From the rise as they approached the settlement, the progress was obvious. Hot-house frames being assembled outside the town boundary by the farmers, in town, the last street of houses had been completed and construction had commenced on a large building at the close end of Mars field.

Onlookers, informed of their return by Military HQ, began to gather as they drove into the town square. Mary called a halt and the vehicles lined up in front of the HQ and Civil Administration Centre. There was chaos for a while as family members ran to greet their returning loved ones. Mary allowed the platoon half an hour to get reacquainted with their families before they were required to return and bed down the vehicles and refurbish their equipment. She left her platoon and Kai's engineers in the capable hands of Sergeant Trask and the corporals as she and Kai returned to the HQ veranda where they reported directly to Joe and the General.

Saluting General Stuart, Mary turned excitedly to her partner, "Joe, What is our house like?"