Atlantis: chapter 7
And here's the next chapter in the ongoing saga (lol). Chapter seven everyone!
Please note that this page and all related articles are a work in progress and the authors reserve the right to edit, expand, delete, and/or reformat this page and all other related pages. Please also note that in writing this we mean no disrespect to any country or culture, a book merely needs protagonists and antagonists.
Chapter VII: Friend or Foe?
"I told you, I'm fine!" Matt said in frustration.
"You might think you're fine, but I'm under orders here," the medical officer responded in a matching tone.
"Look, its just a few cuts and bruises. Really,"
"Whatever you think it is, those wounds are infected. Raptors don't wash their hands enough," another, younger medic said jokingly. When Matt didn't smile, he stuttered and went about his business of getting a shot ready for both Captains.
"Fine. Give me the shot and let me get out of here. You've already cleaned me up,"
After about five minutes of drawn-out medical examination, the shots were administered. Both Captains were led to the twelve-man seating area back in the holding bay. All of the seats were taken, but two men stood up and allowed Tom and Matt to sit.
The ride to Facility 2 was a short, if uncomfortable trip, because the hovercraft was being continually forced to weave through the taller trees, so it was more like one big roller coaster than anything else. Regardless, Tom had time to snooze, as he hadn't really slept at all in the past 30 hours, before the battle. When he was in the Hospital bed, his sleep was disturbed by the flashbacks, which had lasted about 24 hours. After that, he had skirmished multiple times, gotten himself almost killed at least a hundred times, and now, as he landed and got out of the hovercraft, he was mentally preparing himself for an onslaught of questioning.
The craft landed, and Tom and the rest shuffled out into the sunlight. He surveyed the area around him and instantly memorized the layout. Much different than Facility 1. Less of the one major monolithic building type layout, Facility 2 opted for a wider, more open space with lots of courtyards and the like, exactly like a college campus.
Ten men stood by the entrance to a building; Nine of them were marines dressed in combat fatigues with weapons loosely held in Tom's direction.
The other man was a Corporal, rough features, gruff expression.
"Atten-shun!" He barked, saluting.
"At ease." Tom and Matt said together.
"Sir, Corporal Mike Tucker, speaking on behalf of General Fritz. He needs you in the debriefing rooms ASAP. We need to collect whatever information you may have, sir!" Mike said. Obviously this was one man who went by the books.
"Thank you, Corporal. On our way." Tom and Matt assured him. "We'll head down there as soon as we drop off our gear." They both needed to get out of their armor and stow their weapons until they could be returned to the armory.
"Very good, sirs. You are currently berthed in the Officer's Quarters, in building six. Top floor, room 803." He walked away.
“Gee, nice guy huh?” Matt commented.
“He's probably just had a rough day.” Tom said tiredly.
“Who around here hasn't, though?” Matt pointed out. Tom and Matt both headed for the Officer's quarters.
After a luxurious, if short, steaming hot shower in the shower rooms, Tom felt ready again to take on the world. He had about 15 minutes to kill before his debriefing with a so called Dr. Shang from whom he had gotten a comm. text-alert message. He met up with Matt in the hallway.
"We've been bunked in the same room," Matt started, "And we've also got two others with us."
"Oh, just what I need. Newbies?" Tom asked.
"Not quite..." Matt said, trailing off at the end. He led the way to the door, then punched in an access code. The WIO spooks just kept getting worse and worse.
The door opened to reveal two startled girls, one in her late teens, and the other just having turned 20.
“MATTHEW KENDERSON!” Captain Scarlett Miller screeched, and rushed out the door into Matt's arms.
Captain Holly Dayne just stood there blankly, as if she couldn't believe that they were there.
“Oh my god! I can't believe it's you guys!” Scarlett exclaimed as Matt's grip on her loosened.
“Yeah, neither can I,” Matt replied. They stood there in the hallway for a long, long time, just staring at one another.
“Alright you four, come on! Dr. Shang wants you in the debriefing room in five minutes, but you were supposed to have come early.” Dr. Stephens's voice rang out behind them.
"Just a minute!” Matt called. A pause.
"Now what on earth do you think you guys are doing, just showing up like that?” Holly scolded, kidding. She then started laughing as Tom and Matt's expressions froze into fearful frowns, and eventually everyone broke out into elated laughter. Once the humor died down, Tom realized that they were running late.
“Come on guys, we can catch up later.” Tom broke the happy party up, and they all started downstairs toward the debriefing room. They got there with two minutes to spare, but Dr. Shang was in a vehement mood, and so he scolded them for being late.
“Did I not say, upon your entrance to this building, that you were to receive and carry out any orders that I gave you?” He asked menacingly.
“Yes sir!” The four said together, their eyes fixed slightly above Dr. Shang's head.
“Then why, may I ask, are you all late?” No one spoke after this comment. “I see...” he continued. “Well, for now, I have some questions for all of you.”
Dr. Shang launched into a stunning array of queries, from why Tom helped out West when he got knocked to the ground to how the Biological cloning technology worked. Many of these, no one could answer, and whenever this happened, his mood slipped yet more into the category of insanity. From his first glance of Dr. Shang, Tom had gathered that he didn't like this man. Now here was more proof, as if he needed it.
“... and how, may I ask, did these Velociraptors get out of the holding pens?”
“I can answer that.” Tom volunteered. “We underestimated their intelligence. There have been numerous examples of it in the past couple hours.”
“Like what?” Dr. Shang sneered, like it was Tom's personal fault that some military brass had underestimated a Raptor.
“Well sir, for one thing, they can speak. They have a complex language system beyond anything we could ever have imagined. When we were searching for survivors in the Facility complex, we could here strange sounds coming from the Raptors. Hissing and clicking, extremely weird noises and growls.”
As he relived the details of the carnage, the hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up. He hadn't realized it at the time, but he had been terrified. He also hadn't realized up until now how alien the creatures sounded. Something about the sounds unsheathed his primal instincts, like something too horrible for words. “And they can count, or at least have some measure of quantity and can attack on a signal.” he continued. “We trapped a bunch of them in between a couple of metal storage racks. We didn't anticipate them escaping, but they only did so because they could receive orders, and on a certain sound, they all rushed forward, hitting the racks at the same time, so that their combined force was more than that of the racks, and predictably, the racks toppled over. They must have done something similar with the holding pens.”
“I see...” Dr. Shang didn't believe him. It was obvious in his voice. “Well, at any rate, they escaped. But how on Earth can they have taken out an entire facility within the span of an hour or two?”
“It wasn't just them sir.” Matt answered. “After they escaped, they some how teamed up with a small battalion of Iraqi troops, all heavily armed.”
"And what business did they have at the Facility?"
“Sir, they were after our vehicles and equipment. When Dr. Stephens and I...”
“Save it!” Dr. Shang exclaimed. “I do not need to know of any acts of valor that Dr. Stephens has contributed to whatever happened at that facility. Just tell me what they were after and why!” Venom rang clear through his voice. Tom realized that Dr. Shang must have been a huge rival of Dr. Stephens.
“Yes sir,” Tom murmured. “As I was saying, they were after our vehicles. When I was on the roof, I saw most of the Iraqis in the courtyard. They were all moving towards the motor pool, and about five minutes later the entire armament of Strykers and other vehicles."
“What all did they take? 'Just about every vehicle' is not too specific.”
“They drove out with I would say about 20 of the 25 Humvees, every single one of the Strykers, and all of the 40 Assault Recon Motorbikes. I managed to jack, I mean, take back one of them, but how much good one of 40 will do I don't like to consider. As for air units, I don't think they had pilots trained to fly any of it, but a group did go over and managed to board a Huey gunship. I'd send a team in right away to check for explosives."
"Already taken care of. Now, if you would please hand me your video mission log?"
Tom handed over the memory chip from his helmet camera.
Dr. Shang studied the device for a moment, his deep, concealing eyes taking in everything there was to take in of the device, and, secretly, details about Matt, Scarlett, and Holly. He had already read up on Tom. He had decided that they were obviously very good at fighting, but strangely limited in believing of their Psi abilities. Such a shame, He thought. They could do such marvelous things with their raw power and sheer will alone, and what they could do if properly instructed is just fantastic.
He glanced up to look at Matt. Tall, broad shouldered, stocky, high chin, thick eyebrows, blond hair, naturally big, and extremely fit. Hardly an ounce of fat on him. But these were just the physical figures that he noticed. He also had judgmental eyes, eyes that could tell a person's personality from one sweep. Matt had experienced pain, and from the looks of his dark, emotion stained eyes and the tight set of his jaw, he had had a lot of it. Matt's friendship with Tom was curious. Despite Matt being a year and a half older than Tom and having more of a visible muscle build, he believed Tom was stronger. Matt looked up to Tom, as did the rest. Tom, apparently, was the leader. Interesting. Dr. Shang thought. He thought of himself not as the savior of the world that he most certainly was, or even as the savior of America, but rather, just another common soldier doing his best to help.
This was the best mindset a soldier can have, because if grown too cocky, that soldier could over estimate his powers, eventually leading to his death. He had the will to obey any order, defeat any opponent, and still stand to face the next.
Next, Dr. Shang swept over Scarlett. Blond haired, Scarlett hardly ever wore lipstick, or any makeup at all except for eyeliner, which gave her jet black eyelashes mixed with her deep, dark eyes, a mysterious and powerful quality. Muscular body, extremely tight thigh muscles, and slimmer build, but still incredibly powerful. Cheerful and always ready with a smile, she liked to work together with her team to accomplish the mission. She seemed to think like Matt, like a soldier, not a lady. She and Matt shared many qualities, and were extremely different. Scarlett was more outgoing and liked to talk and gossip with her friends, where as Matt was more withdrawn. Scarlett too liked to have it her way, but was a better team player than Matt. She was also a great leader, and not at all bad at teaching either. Dr. Shang guessed she was the jokester of the group.
Holly. Strong and dark. Solidly built. Tall, and like Scarlett, didn't really use any makeup, except for her permanent mascara that was actually a dark rim under each eye, as if she hadn't slept in months. Strength emanated from her in a feminine aura. Dr. Shang, if anything, admired and secretly feared her. She appeared serious, dark, and mysterious to outsiders, yet was chatty-chatty among friends. More often than not she was the center of the gossip. Yet at the same time, their was a chill to her face. She, like the others, had seen lots of pain and suffering, and it had reflected itself in her face. She also admired Tom, and Dr. Shang couldn't figure out the reason. He hoped he would figure it out some day. Holly also appeared to be the stealthy one of the group.
Dr. Shang sighed. He wanted a nice dinner of steak and wine. He wanted to relax in the lounge. He didn't want to debrief anyone right now, even if they were to save the world.
But duty calls.
"Alright. now, tell me everything that happened from the battle to your entrance here. Starting with Tom."
"Yes sir." Tom said, then wearily began to narrate his tail so far. Dr. Shang just asked an occasional question, taking notes of the ordeals on his laptop computer. At the end of the narration, he opened a different document on his Apple Mac and glanced upward, the signal for Matt to jump in. Matt relayed all the information he had, which wasn't as much as Tom because he had only arrived to rescue Facility 1's inhabitants.
Scarlett and Holly, of course, had nothing to tell. They had been here, at Facility 2, drilling and sparring. Shang did ask them a couple questions, such as to describe their brief skirmishes with the Iraqis here at Facility 2.
"Thank you gentlemen, I will take this information to the good general. You are free to go." Under his breath, Shang muttered, 'for now'. Little did Shang know that Tom's Raptor ears had picked this up, and he turned so Shang wouldn't see his now troubled expression.
"Well, off with you then!"
Tom, Matt, Holly, and Scarlett almost bounced out of the room, happy for a chance to catch up on all of their adventures for the first time in years.
When they arrived at their rooms, the first thing that they did was fling themselves onto the bunk beds. "So, where do we start?" Holly asked.
"I dunno." Tom answered. "There's so much to talk about."
"Oh I know Tom, how many times by now has Matt saved your life?" Holly teased.
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Tom asked, playing along.
"Oh, just, when you were like, ten, and Matt was saving your a-"
"Okay, we get the point." Tom cut in, his shoulders shaking in silent laughter. "I admit, I would have been in some pretty nasty situations without Matt's assistance. However, I've gotten a lot better now."
"I hope so!" Holly said, still joking around. In answer, Tom focused all his energy on lifting a knife out of the kitchen, making it turn menacingly and face Holly. He shot it towards her, changing the direction at the last second. The missile came within an inch of Holly's face and swerved to plant itself in the wall behind her. Holly didn't even blink.
"Cool." Scarlett said, obviously not impressed by the show of psi power. "Anyways, lets hear more about the battle at Facility 1. I hear there were Utahraptors?"
"Yeah, but they weren't there for long. Most of them ate it as soon as they popped out of the tree line into the clearing. They were easy targets for wall garrison. However, one was too far and causing havoc, but that one bought it when I ordered some air support to give suppressing fire. Sucker gave me a lot of bio-samples, over his dead body. Literally." Tom chuckled.
"Yeah, I heard about that." Matt said. "What happened after he fell?"
"A squad of soldiers rushed up against his body for cover, and that gave the Atlantians food for thought about running up and smashing the rest of us in open warfare. If they had, they would've been mown down by the soldiers."
"Guys, lets pause for a moment." Scarlett interrupted.
"Why?" Matt asked.
"I'm starving!" she answered, only now realizing it after Tom had said 'food.'
Twenty minutes later, the four of them were sitting on the room's balcony, eating sandwiches, and looking over one of the courtyards of the facility. The eighth, and top, floor provided an ample view over the entire facility.
"So, Tom," Holly asked. "I heard a rumor from one of the soldiers that you jumped from twenty stories high. Is it true?"
Tom took a moment to swallow his food before he answered.
"Yep." he replied, and waited for the outburst of excitement.
"No way!" They all said almost simultaneously.
"It's true." Tom said again.
"Whoa, cool!" Matt said approvingly.
"Nice," Scarlett agreed, slapping a high five.
"Well, I guess it is cool that you jumped from that high. How much did it hurt?" Holly asked.
"Uh, a lot?" Tom said. "I mean, what would you expect it to feel like?"
"I dunno. I've never been stupid enough to jump off a building." Holly answered.
"Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures." Tom defended.
"Oh, so, what was the desperate time? You had to go give Matt a hug?" Scarlett interjected. Tom and Matt both laughed good-naturedly.
"Yeah, that was amazing what you did with that missile launcher, blowing apart Queen Rex." he said
"Well, I guess that was pretty cool. And brave." Holly said.
"Yeah, it was." Scarlett agreed.
"So..." Tom said, casting about for a new topic. "What's everyone else been doing?"
"Well, we haven't had it exactly easy, but better than you." Matt responded.
"Same here." Scarlett and Holly agreed simultaneously. "It's been a little dicey, and we've had frequent attacks on the facility, but nothing as major as you." Holly said.
"I suppose its like that everywhere." Scarlett said. "But it was kinda weird, like, they didn't really want to fight, just draw us out. Like, they'd show up with about a hundred men, and we'd rush out, guns blazing, yada yada, we'd inflict a couple casualties here and there, and then they'd just turn and run," basically repeating everything she had said for Shang.
Suddenly it dawned on Tom. "It was a distraction to pull all of our forces out to Facility 2." he said quietly.
"What do you mean?" Holly asked.
"Just look at this place. The rooms are jam packed. The hallways are filled with people at all hours." As if to emphasize his point, footsteps resounded outside as the men marched down to dinner. "At Facility 1, it's the exact opposite. We were running on a skeleton crew. The living quarters were almost deserted. I think they were purposely drawing all our forces to here."
"You know, you just might be right." Matt said after a moment's thought. "The more I think about it, the more I realize, when we were searching the LQ for survivors, more than half the bunks were empty. Of course, Raptors took the rest of the soldiers in there, but... You get my point."
"If so, then we have to be doubly careful now. They aren't just random idiots holding weapons. These guys are a lot better than we thought." Scarlett said gravely.
"Yeah, especially their officers. They know how to use the weapons they've got. Really well." Tom added.
"But what that doesn't explain is how the Raptors got out. I looked at the holding pens that they're making here, and they are completely Raptor-proof. Of course, they're trashing them because of what happened at Facility 1, but still. Those pens had electronic locks. The only thing that could open them was a signal from the control room. And to do that, you'd have to enter a twelve digit code. And you'd have to get past biometric access denial systems. It was completely full-proof." Holly said worriedly.
"That does seem strange." Scarlett agreed.
After a minute of silent thinking, Tom said, "The only thing I can come up with is that they had help from someone pretty high ranking." This thought troubled them all.
"If someone with access to that kind of knowledge is helping the Atlantians, we're in serious trouble." Matt said.
"Well, the Atlantians aren't really our enemies." Tom explained. "They're just puppets, and Iraq is taking full advantage of them."
"True." Matt acknowledged.
Tom finished his food, taking his tray back inside to the sink in their small apartment like room. The four of them would be sharing the room, as everywhere else was jammed packed.
Holly followed him into the kitchen, leaving Matt and Scarlett alone together.
Holly walked in and started helping Tom clean the kitchen. Tom looked up, pleased that she was with him here alone.
"Those two'll be out there all night if we let them." Holly observed.
"Yep." Tom agreed. Being Matt's best friend, he had to listen to Matt raving on and on about Scarlett when they were together without her. "It gets sorta downright annoying, frankly."
"Well, it's almost impossible for them to not." Holly answered. "They're so alike and yet so different in so many ways. Including combat style, which is a little scary."
"Speaking of which, why don't we go for a little sparring when they're done talking?" Tom asked, knowing it was Holly's favorite activity here.
Holly smiled at him, and suddenly Tom felt like the sun was hovering right over him. "Sure. I'd love to."
"I've missed you." Was the first thing Matt said. It just sort of slipped out...
Scarlett looked surprised, then, "Me too." she admitted.
A giant anvil lifted off Matt's chest. He was able to breath again. This was the most awkward part, the beginning. Once they started talking it became easier.
"So how are you and Holly doing?" Matt asked.
"Oh, excellent. She can be a little bossy sometimes, but not too bad. Anyways, it's really fun sparring with her. It's kind of cool to be fighting someone who has a completely different style than us. You know how we both tend to strike hard and fast first off? She's completely the opposite. She does nothing but block and evade everything I throw at her at first, then cranks her hostility meter up towards the end of the fight. She usually beats me." Scarlett admitted. "It's like, she knows I can't go all-out forever, so she just waits. Plus she's really good and wicked fast."
"Hmm, I'll keep that in mind the next time we go to spar." Matt said with a grin. Scarlett shouldered him in a friendly push. Matt shouldered her back.
"You've changed so much." Scarlett said.
Matt chuckled. "War and bloodshed tend to do that."
"Speaking of, as soon as we get back home, I need to show you my new place." She said.
"Oh yeah, I haven't seen it yet."
"No, but you need to. I installed a new gym area, complete with an obstacle course."
"That'd be cool."
They shared the silence for a minute, gazing down below at the gates.
"This place is so beautiful." Scarlett said. "This would be my one and only vacation spot. I just wish when this is all over..."
"What?" Matt asked
"I just wish we had a chance to enjoy this. I mean, look at this. It's a tropical island. You've got your basic palm treas, banana trees, and a whole load of others I don't know. This place has so many wonders. Did you see the fresh fruit in the Officers' Mess? It was all picked right here, on the island. They had mangoes, bananas, coconuts, apples, plums, pears, all manner of stuff. All from right here. And the beaches! The beaches have pure white sand. We got to stroll by on patrol duty once. It was beautiful."
"Just like you." Matt said.
"Oh, come on. You watch too many movies." Scarlett said, though she sounded pleased, and Matt knew it.
They talked for a while longer, and then Holly appeared behind the sliding glass door. She opened it, and popping her head out, asked, "Anyone up for a little sparring?"
"Sure!" Matt and Scarlett answered.
"Alright, but I call I get Tom first." Holly said. "He's gonna get his butt handed to him." She said with a grin.
