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Elbridge Outpost

Tarkel Jungle

March 24, 1984 RE

The Colonel had decided to stay at an actual outpost today so we could see if they had anything else available to help the injured. This outpost that the tourists were calling Elbridge was fairly well built. They even had a decent radio tower built and I wondered who was responsible for that. Col. Miller just wanted to get in contact with his superiors to report on what was going happening out here. He just hoped that the tower had a long enough range to reach the construction teams that were supposed to be following us.

I was not going to just sit around doing nothing in this outpost. We had arranged to have a few of the buildings in the outpost to ourselves and one of those buildings was going to be used for interrogation purposes. As expected, all but one of the injured SA soldiers had died on the way here and the last was in critical condition. That still left us with three foot soldiers, their commander, and Lockwood. The three foot soldiers did not know anything of interest, but Lockwood and their commander were different. Lockwood was under special guard. The Colonel did not like how he was able to sneak into my trench and temporarily hold me hostage. That indicated that he had some sort of training and that he might be considerably more dangerous than anyone thought he was. The enemy commander, however, was just a fool. That was why I had the "honor" of being invited to be a part of his interrogation.

I was about to walk into the interrogation room right now with Tracy walking along side me. Once again, she was acting as my girlfriend as she had at Gaia Outpost. Truth be told, I would rather just be hanging around this outpost than interrogating a prisoner. And what was the first thing he said to me after entering his chamber. It just had to be something stupid and racist. "Thank the gods, another human. Could you call off these pets of yours so we can have a civilized conversation?"

He would have to say something like that while the girl of my dreams is around. The last thing I want is her opinion of humans dropping because of some idiot making comments like that. When I looked at Tracy she seemed to be taking it in stride though. I hated that she was supposed to stick through this entire process with me since she was supposed to be guarding me. Maybe he would not say too many things like that if I could keep him on subject. I looked over at the guards in the room, one of them happened to be the alligator that had saved my life earlier on the river. They nodded at me and stepped out of the room, but Tracy had to remain.

"Does it have to stay?" the enemy commander asked.

"She is under orders to act as my bodyguard while I am here," I responded as a bit of annoyance crept into my voice.

"Ah, a personal guard dog. I fully understand."

I really needed to get things started before I died of embarrassment. "First of all, can I at least get your name?"

"Getting right into things eh? I can respect that. I am Lord Tyler Markham of the Dalgan third infantry division."

"Well, Lord Markham, may I ask why you were pursuing my people through this jungle."

"Of course you may my good man, but I don't know all the details of why I am out here myself. All I was told was that I was to attempt to capture the members of the science team that was sent into our jungle and, failing to do that, we were to just delay you for an unspecified amount of time," he said without me having to use the least bit of coercion.

"Thank you for telling me that Lord Markham, but why are you telling me your orders so easily? I could not imagine your superiors being happy with you back home if they found out about this," I said while finding it a little odd that I was the one that sounded like I was talking him out of giving up information. Well, I never said I was a professional interrogator.

"Easily you say. You think I have not noticed that the rest of my men that you captured have all gone missing. No doubt this half beast army that the Caresseans seem to be so fond of has been making meals out of the less cooperative members of my soldiers. I have no intention of working my way through anyone's digestive system," Lord Markham snorted. "Besides, if those Galvantan's had lived up to their end of the bargain then I would not be in this mess. If they had shown up like they were supposed to I would be the one interrogating you right now. It would serve them right if something bad happened to them."

My eyebrows flew up in surprise. "How could you honestly have expected the Galvantans to show up? They would have had to travel through both Virania and Caressee in order to get here," I stated.

"They claimed they could get a few forces here. I don't know how they planned to do it, but my superiors seemed to believe them. Now I am just starting to think that my rivals wanted to get rid of me just as we were about to put an end to Caressee once and for all," Lord Markham sighed.

That final comment did not surprise me much. The SA was always on the verge of putting an end to Caressee once and for all as far as they were concerned. What did surprise me was that Markham actually thought all of this was just to get rid of him. That required an incredible amount of arrogance to think that his own government would allow the sacrifice of so many soldiers and that a foreign ally would sacrifice one of its own agents all because of him. I truly believed that Galvanta thought they could get people here and I would be interested to find out just how they planned to do so.

"Thank you for your time and cooperation Lord Markham, but I believe I need to report some of the things you have said to the Colonel," I said as I prepared to leave the interrogation room.

"Remember that when these pets of yours decide they have a taste for human flesh. I'm sure that uppity environmentalist tastes better anyways," Markham spoke up as I walked out the door. I am sure he meant Lockwood when he referred to the uppity environmentalist. Most people from Galvanta claimed to be environmentalists. They also claimed that the anthros did not fit in with nature and that it was up to humanity to undo the mistakes they had created to help purify nature. When things did not fit in with the Galvantan opinion of how nature should be they could get pretty vicious in making sure that things eventually became the way they thought it should be. Most of Galvanta's neighbors either learned to share in that view or the fairly powerful Galvantan's made them share in that view point at gun point. It did not help that the anthros in charge of Firanel could have cared less about the Galvantan's view of nature. They were a highly militaristic nation and nobody forced them to do anything. Their view of nature was entirely different. They really thought of themselves as the superior group of species and that they could treat other lesser species, like humans, however they pleased. I really could not criticize them too much for having that attitude since countless human civilizations had operated on a similar ideology all throughout time.

As I walked out to meet the Colonel in his hiding spot I was intercepted by another trooper who wanted to bring me to see him immediately. It turned out that I was not the only one that had some news. Col. Miller had managed to get in contact with his superiors and there were some very important events that had occurred while we were out here. Markham was serious about putting an end to Caressee. The Southern Alliance had invaded Caressee about two days ago. That was not the only news either.

Before the Colonel could finish talking with me another soldier came running up to us. It was apparently the one that was working the radio since the Colonel was unwilling to make an appearance within the outpost at his size. The soldier saluted then started giving a report once the Colonel acknowledged him. "Sir, I have news from Virania and central command."

"Virania? What happened up there sergeant?" the Colonel asked.

"There was an incursion in there air space by craft of unknown design and capable of flying higher than any aircraft should be able to fly."

I asked, "Did any of those aircraft come from the direction of Galvanta?"

"Yes they did Dr. Sanders. A group also came from Firanel about half an hour after the group from Galvanta was detected," the sergeant responded.

"Colonel, I was told by the Southern Alliance commander that he was expecting reinforcements from Galvanta," I said.

"What," Col. Miller said in a slightly raised voice that indicated he was as surprised by the news as I had been. The Colonel turned to the sergeant and asked, "Were those vehicles headed here and if so, how many more enemy forces can we expect in the area?"

"Those vehicles were headed our way, but not many of them made it out of Virania," the sergeant said.

"If they could fly so high what stopped them from getting here?" the Colonel asked as his brow furrowed in thought.

"Well, the thing is sir, the Galvantan's and the Firanelian's weren't the only ones with a surprise up their sleeves. When the unknown aircraft had made it about halfway through Virania it was like the entire country turned into a communications black hole. Nothing came out of the country for three whole hours and central command was starting to think some disaster had befallen our northern allies. Then everything returned to normal and we received a transmission from Virania saying that we should be expecting hostile enemy air forces within our airspace within an hour. We knew there had been 20 aircraft that had flown in from Galvanta and 30 from Firanel," the sergeant explained. "When they made it into Caressee there were only three left from Galvanta and four from Firanel. We tried to shoot the rest of them down but the accuracy of our own anti aircraft guns were way down while trying to shoot at aircrafts in the area beyond the stable air zone. Sir, the only reason we were able to shoot any of them down was because the Viranians had already managed to shoot the shit out of them. We managed to down all but one craft from each country and they are expected to crash land in this jungle."

"And how many did they estimate could fit on each craft?" Col Miller asked.

"Central estimates that somewhere between 40 or 60 individuals could fit on each craft. And sir, Virania also reports that Firanel and Galvanta are massing forces on their border. They expect to be at war with both of those countries at any moment."

"Thank you for the report sergeant, you are dismissed," the Colonel said as the sergeant saluted and returned to his duties. Col. Miller then turned to me and said, "It looks like Galvanta and Firanel want to make sure our respective home countries cannot funnel all the resources they want into this area. At least that little performance of your countries has given us a bit of time."

"Performance?"

"Your country is known as the technological superpower of this region. The Firanelian's and the Galvantan's were arrogant enough to think that because they had stumbled upon some sort of ancient flight device they could fly right over your country. Then your country did that little communications blackout trick and tore their little air fleet apart with unknown weapons that were unbelievably accurate. It was like kicking them in the teeth. They have to be wondering what other secrets your country has hidden within it. That should keep them from invading your country like the Southern Alliance has invaded ours for at least a little while longer," Col. Miller said with a slight smile on his face.

I sincerely hoped the Colonel was right. Reports had been coming in that Galvanta had recently become a nuclear power. They should not have more than three or four of them at the moment, but I had no desire to see how many of my people three or four nuclear devices could kill if the Galvantan's should get desperate enough to use them. The Firanelian's were no pushovers either. My country was the only one that bordered theirs that had never tried to invade them. Those people had to be tough in order to survive. In fact, the last group to attempt an invasion of Firanel wound up as a part of Firanel.

The fate of those aircraft that were supposed to crash land within this jungle also worried me. If they really had 60 enemy soldiers on each craft then that meant we might just have 120 enemy soldiers running around in this jungle. That meant we might find ourselves outnumbered even if it was extremely unlikely that the Firanelians and the Galvantans could get along.

I was shaken from my internal thoughts by the Colonel asking me, "Doctor, do you think that the Galvantans or the Firanelians are after whatever is causing all of these growth incidents?"

"It's a possibility, but I don't think so. They are more than likely after whatever they can find in space. While many of the old technologies may have been lost here on Earth most of the technology in orbit should be intact since no one was around to purposefully destroy it, if in serious need of repair," I explained. "Anyone who gains access to the facilities orbiting the Earth would have access to enough ancient technology to turn their country into the most powerful nation on the planet. And God knows what would happen if someone managed to get control of a functioning orbital weapon."

"That's pretty much what I was thinking," the Colonel said. I think he was trying to talk to himself, but he was not as quiet as he thought he was at his current 20 foot tall size. I was finding it a bit odd to have a conversation with someone that was a few feet taller than me even while he was sitting down and I was standing. "I think its time you and Private Stone got back to the outpost before anybody notices that you have been gone for entirely too long."

"Yes sir," said Tracy, who had been silent during that entire conversation.

When we got back to the outpost we received a few looks. I'm sure a few of them thought that we had been getting intimate with each other in the bushes somewhere by the smiles on their faces when they looked at us. But, many others might have thought Tracy was out there beating me. I was bruising up pretty bad from when Tracy ran into me and people were not buying our cover story. Whenever asked, we would say that Tracy had been surprised by something in the jungle and then attempted to run while I happened to be in her path. That was sort of true. She had been surprised by that grenade and when she ran to it I had been in her path when she tried to throw it out of the trench we had been in.

We spent the rest of day making small talk with the people at the outpost. Tracy told me that most of the stuff that she said about herself during that time was true. Apparently her family ran a small cattle ranch in the western portion of Caressee. She had four other siblings, all of which had served or were serving in the military. Even her parents had met in the military. Tracy was the runt of the liter too. Even after her growth spurt her shortest sibling was still over half a foot taller than she was. She had also been a bit of a trouble maker when she was younger. It took her parents a while to teach her that she was not supposed to chase the cattle around, not only because it was dangerous but because it supposedly affected the taste of cattle.

Personally, I always thought it would have to be a little weird to be into cattle herding. When so many of the animals on this planet had turned into anthros cats, dogs, and horses were able to integrate into human society the easiest, the wild animals had come next, and then there were things like cattle, pigs, and chickens. It was sure an awkward moment for everyone when they had to explain to the cattle what they had intended to do with them. The present day anthros that were descended from those cattle said they did not mind that people still ate cattle since it would be like humans caring about whether or not some other creature ate a monkey.

I found Tracy's tales of her childhood to be very peaceful. She sounded very fond of her life with her family. My mother had died when I was pretty young and I had been raised by my father, a well known physicist. He tried to do his best to raise me, but he was not exactly the most emotional of men. The only times he really felt comfortable around me was when he was tutoring me. I give him credit for at least trying, but I do wish for that close relationship Tracy has with her family every once and awhile. All that tutoring did make me into the person I am today, though, and if he had not turned me into this person I would probably never have found the facility we were now searching for and then no one would have a clue about what to do about our current situation. I guess things really do happen for a reason.

Before I knew it Tracy was inviting me to meet her family when we went back home. I think she was serious about the offer too. When the sun finally set I could say I had honestly enjoyed the day despite all the bad news from earlier in the day. Tracy just had a way of making me feel better when I was around her. She also made the night really pleasant for me as well. We had our own room and we technically had two separate beds. Tracy said that her bed was too lumpy and decided to use mine with me still in it. She laid right down next to me with her back pressed up against me. I tried to get up and move to the other bed not knowing what else to do. She prevented me from doing so by grabbing my arm and wrapping it around her neck. And that was how I spent the rest of the night. Besides having to worry about the fate of civilization and crazed fanatics out in the jungle, things were not going that bad for me.