Chapter 5: Encounter
'Tiran you need to get up!' Li called out to her operator.
She'd been trying for quite some time, but no matter how much she insisted, the pilot wouldn't respond. She was in a precarious position. As she monitored Tiran's vitals, she found his heart rate slowing, becoming unrhythmic and irratic, and his breath becoming ever more shallow. If she didn't do some thing drastic soon, he operator would cease to exist and eventually her along with him.
Like she had so often done before, Li initiated a power build-up in one of the capacitors that allowed Tiran's arm to function. It quickly reached the levels she usually stopped at when she merely need to rouse a particularly lazy Tiran in the mornings, then she pushed it further. When the charge was halfway to a lethal level, she stopped it and released it into his system.
Tiran's back arched, but he otherwise remained unresponsive as his body flopped back into the seat. Desperate, Li overrode the capacitor's safety locks and pushed the charge even higher. Now, as the charge reached a point just below the lethal voltage and ampoules, she halted it's build and once again released it.
Tiran's back arched again, but this time as he flopped back down, it was followed by a violent fit of coughing. If she had any real emotions to speak of, she would feel relieved, Li thought. What a strange thought it was.
Like a corpse from the grave, Tiran sat up in his seat, his hands cradling his head.
"Aw shit, how long was I out for?" he croaked.
'Approximately three hours, after the second impact.' Li quickly informed him.
"Second impact?"
'Yes. After the aircraft finally came to a complete stop, some loose debris dislodged and sent us tumbling down a sharp incline. Best estimates from functional sensors indicate we have come to rest at the bottom of a wide ravine.'
"Ravine? Shit..." Tiran quickly realized what that meant for him. Somehow, somewhere, he had managed to crash on land. Where that land was, though, he hadn't the faintest idea. "Li, run diagnostics on the Cloudburst and try to figure out our location," he quickly rattled off as he went over the instrument panels.
Tiran started flipping switches and pushing buttons, trying to get a response out of his bird. It was then he discovered that his right arm was unresponsive, fingers curled in a permanent claw. Main power was down, he saw. He also couldn't get a response from the communications group. Not only that, but he was somewhere on land, and the only land there was in the Pacific was Hawaii and that which was currently owned by the so called Nihilists. He really hoped it was Hawaii.
The true gravity of the situation was just starting to sink in.
'Warning. Suspected containment breach in reactor housing.' Li chimed in Tiran's head. 'I am detecting heightened levels of radiation outside the aircraft.'
"Well if that don't just make a bad situation worse," Tiran grumbled. "Is this suit rated for radiation?"
'Yes. This suit is able to shield you from limited levels of radiation for short periods of time.' Li answered.
"Did you say limited?"
'Correct. I do not recommend you expose yourself for any longer than is absolutely necessary.'
"Dammit. Alright. Li, try to restore emergency power and pop the clam shell. At the very least, we need to get away from the crash site. This was sure to attract attention."
'One moment.'
While she worked, Tiran tried to figure out what was happening outside. However, as he tried to peer out spider's web of cracks that was the canopy, he found himself faced with nothing but darkness. He thought he could see the dark outline of the lip of the ravine against the star studded sky above, but that was about all he could see. The rest was shrouded in darkness.
After a moment, a few of the instrument panels flickered to life, but quickly died out again. Then something sparked somewhere behind him and the panels returned with a diminished glow. 'Emergency power activated with limited functions,' Li announced, 'I suggest you egress now.'
"No, I thought I'd hang out for a while..." Tiran said with a sarcastic sneer.
Tiran quickly hit the canopy release with his good hand. Nothing. The canopy remained stubbornly secured. Cursing, Tiran slammed his fist on the button that would activate the explosive bolts, but they too failed him. "Oh, Goddammit!" Tiran twisted in his seat and hooked a few of the stiff fingers on his right hand under a lip in the canopy and braced his other hand on the rim of the cockpit. Then with a grunt, he activated the servos in the joints of his suit.
The canopy woundn't budge at first. But then a groan began to build. Something popped and cracked. The groan turned into a moan and the already battered and tortured metal began to buckle and give way. Finally, with snap, the canopy shot up, opening a gap just large enough for Tiran to crawl through.
He pulled himself through, gradually squeezing and working his way out, the plates of armor on his suit scraping loudly on the metal. As he worked himself out of the wreckage, Tiran's arm slipped and he found himself tumbling un-gracefully to the ground. He landed in a heap, feeling the wind get forced from his lungs by the impact.
With a painful grunt, Tiran picked himself up and sat up on his knees, drawing in a few breaths that caused a sharp pain in his abdomen. Stars still swirling in his vision from hitting the ground for the third time that night, Tiran forced himself to look around and take in his surroundings.
He was certainly in a ravine all right, with sharply angled sides rising up to a full height of about thirty feet. It was easily wide enough two or three Cloudbursts side-by-side. The fact that his had ended up on its belly rather than its roof was nothing short of a miracle.
"Li, got a fix on our position?" he asked aloud.
'Negative.' If Li had any capability to truly color her voice with emotion, he could have thought she sounded troubled. 'I am not detecting any signals from satellites and radiation from both short and long wave radios is conspicuously absent.'
"What do you mean, we're in a dead zone? The sats are down?"
'No,' Li clarified, 'I mean that they simply are not present. We are effectively alone.'
Real panic starting growing in Tiran's chest, "That's impossible. The Earth's covered with electronics. There has to be something."
'And yet the opposite is true.'
"You're shitting me," Tiran said in disbelief.
He really wasn't liking what he was hearing. In this day and age, the atmosphere was completely inundated with signals from radios and satellites of every kind. Nowadays, you could even get cell service in even the most remote areas of the world. Tiran grabbed his pistol with his left hand and checked the chamber. With a little difficulty, he wracked the slide back against his right forearm and put into condition one.
Confident he could at least protect himself if he had to, Tiran shoved the weapon back in its armor slot and stomped back to the battered remains of the Cloudburst. He was careful to avoid the aft end, where the suspected radiation leak was and pulled himself up onto the small ledge that protruded out about half a foot from the lip of the cockpit.
With some effort, he managed to widen the gap between the canopy and the cockpit, forcing it open enough that he could get inside without too much difficulty. "All right, let's see what we got to work with."
Tiran was glad to see that the emergency power was still holding out. With a stretch, he reached up and punched in his code for the weapons locker behind his seat. The hatch hissed with escaping pressure as it popped open, but then ground to a halt after only sliding out a few inches. Frustrated, Tiran gripped the hatch and yanked it the rest of the way. A rack slid out, but it didn't hold nearly what Tiran expected.
On the rack was just one pistol of the more modern rail gun design and a small submachine gun a little further back. The rest of the spots on the rack held only a few ration packs and a couple of boxes of ammo. Well, that wasn't going to do him a lot of help then.
Tiran quickly realized he should have paid much better attention SERE school. He could make shelter, sure, but getting food after his ration packs ran out was going to be a problem. Maybe he could use the firearms to hunt, though he'd have to be careful with how much ammunition he used.
Gathering up everything that was in the locker, Tiran hopped down from the cockpit. "Li, initiate the emergency shutdown that failed to engage on the reactor and kill the battery to conserve power."
'Tiran, surely you don't mean to leave the Cloudburst here? OPNAVINST 5510.1B and 5510.60 clearly dictate that in the event of a catastrophic event in foreign zones, all classified data and material must be destroyed.'
"Is there a self-destruct in the aircraft?"
'Negative.'
"And there weren't any explosives in the locker either. We'll just have to hope no one finds it."
Tiran looked back up to the sky. The stars were beginning to fade, the veil of night was getting pushed back by a rising sun. He didn't like the look of that. At least in darkness, he'd be better covered from unfriendly eyes. Tiran had been briefed on what the enemy did to those they found in their territories. He wasn't gonna let that happen to him.
He briefly remembered seeing a forest on his way down. Though in which direction that may lay, he hadn't a clue. "Li, can you give an idea of where we are on land?"
'Current barometric pressure puts us at approximately eight thousand feet above sea level, give or take.'
Great, they were probably on the side of some mountain. Best guess in that case would be down then. With a huff, Tiran began to pick his way down the slope of the ravine, careful not to trip on any loose rocks and lose grip on the supplies he was cradling in his arms. He really should have thought to bring his flight bag in his mad endeavor to assist his shipmates in the fight. Although, he hadn't really expected to end up where ever he now was.
Fortunately, the more he descended, the more frequently trees began to appear. Just a few at first, on the top edges of the ravine, but then gradually they thickened becoming more and more like a forest. Tiran figured they had crashed just above the tree line on the mountain. That was good. It would allow him to find cover relatively close to the crash site. If any search and rescue crews were coming, that would be the first place they'd check.
Before long, the ravine began to deepen, becoming a valley. Tiran decided it would probably be best to get out of there and head for some higher ground. He didn't exactly know what kind of weather this place had, but he'd rather not get caught in a flash flood if for some reason it decided to suddenly rain. So Tiran made his way up one of the steep banks that promised to at least put him a little further down the mountain.
As he crested the rise, Tiran was relieved to see a thick wall of foliage and pines. That would give him the cover he needed. Without so much as a second thought, Tiran plunged himself into the underbrush. As the sun began to rise, Tiran found the cover of the pines safe and welcoming. He marched on, circling back a little towards the crash, searching for a suitable place to make his camp.
It wasn't long before he came across something that both intrigued and worried him. It was a path. At first he thought it was a game trail, but then he realized it was far too wide for something like that. He knelt down for closer inspection, maybe he could determine how much traffic it saw and if so, what kind?
Gently putting a few of his supplies on the ground, Tiran traced a few of the prints with his good hand. He found one for raccoons. That was good, it was something he could hunt. Also a few that belonged to what seemed to be a very big cat, but fortunately it didn't seem to be fresh, probably a few weeks old. The next set of tracks he discovered gave him pause.
They were hoof prints. And as Tiran looked around, he saw that there were far more of those than any of the other tracks. What was more, some of them looked fresh, days old. One thing that caught his eye though were their size. The hoof prints weren't wide or deep enough to belong to full grown horses. Maybe they belonged to another equestrian of a smaller size. Ponies came to mind.
Still, Tiran hoped there weren't any unsavory characters around, riding on horse back. He didn't know if he could conceal himself easily enough, let alone run from that if he were discovered. He did think, though, that the tracks warranted further investigation. Perhaps it was just a game trail, albeit a very wide one, and it could lead him to some source of water.
Tiran decided to follow it, though he melted back into the underbrush and set off on parallel path. That way he could at least drop and hide it anything or anyone were to happen along the trail.
* * *
"Ha! Would you look at that!"
Tiran stood at the edge of a pool, one fed by a small spring. He had his helmet off, enjoying the freshest air he thought he'd ever encountered. A light breeze toyed with his helmet matted hair as he stood in the shade of the trees. It took him a few hours, but at least he'd found a source of water.
Still, his job was not yet done. Kneeling by the cool water, he traced his fingers through a set of tracks, "Still no footprints. Just hooves and paws. Maybe it was just a big game trail after all."
'It would be wise to err on the side of caution, however. Tracks can be easily concealed.'
"Yeah, you're right, Li. As usual..." Tiran grumbled. "But at least we won't have to worry about food and drink for a while," he said, gathering his things and glancing around.
'I do not think it would be a good idea to stay in this area for a prolonged period.'
"But we have a place to stay. Sort of."
Making a mental note of the spring's location, Tiran started off into the undergrowth again. It wasn't long before he found a sizeable little clearing about as wide as a large driveway. He set to work constructing a crude lean-to out of branches and old pine needles. It wasn't the best, but it would shelter him and hopefully keep him out of sight. Then he dug himself a small fire pit, careful to only gather wood that had been long devoid of any moisture to ensure it would be relatively smokeless.
Once he was finally settled in, Tiran decided it was time to get a good look at his arm and see what he was dealing with in the dying light of the day. A lot of the plates on the forearm were mashed up and badly crumpled. In some places, they were cracked, the strange yellow-green sealant oozing grossly out making them appear as if they were severely infected wounds.
Tiran began undoing the latches and locks that held the gauntlet together, forcing some of them open with a stick, such was their paltry condition of disrepair. Once he did finally get the lightly armored glove off, it came away like the shell off a steamed lobster's claw.
Tiran let out a low whistle. Much of the synthetic flesh underneath had been mashed and pulped to the point where the underlying skeletal structure and wires were almost clearly visible. As he peeled the last of the suit's protective outer components from his arm, Tiran could see the rest of his prosthetic limb was much of the same up to the elbow joint. It was a miracle the metallic bones below were still intact.
"Well that's lucky. Glad you didn't take a hit, Li."
'Were my matrix located in the lower arm rather than the upper, I'm sure it would have been a much different scenario.'
Examining the extensive damage, Tiran felt it odd that the destruction hadn't caused him any pain. "At least this time the limb's fake. And it'll be easier to fix," he glanced around at the surroundings of his new woodland home, "Probably."
'Yes, I suggest you find a technician to restore integrity and function to the limb,' Li said, 'it is imperative to your continued survival in this environment.'
Tiran rummaged around in the first-aid kit and pulled out a few rolls of gauze. "That's gonna be a little difficult," he said as he began wrapping up his now quasi-useless appendage. The yellow-green sealant began staining the cloth almost immediately, hardening into a dull sickly color. "At least until we get pulled outta here by CSAR."
'Tiran, shh.'
A look of dumfoundedness splashed across Tiran's face, "Li, did you just shush me?"
'Tiran!' she said in a harsher tone.
She sounded deathly serious and Tiran knew when to shut-up. He sat quietly and listened. At first, he could hear nothing but the diminished rush of wind through the trees and the cries of the forest's nocturnal inhabitants coming to consciousness as they began to start their night of foraging. But then he heard it.
Lightly at first, but then it rose in volume. The sound of hooves striking the ground, carrying a great weight. Tiran froze and listened as it made it's way along the path not too far away. He guessed it might be heading for the water source. Still, he quietly pulled out the small railgun pistol and activated it. As it came alive, the pistol let out a small whine as the circuits warmed. The hooves stopped.
Almost imperceptibly, a light patter of rain drops began to fall. Rolling down the trunks and crashing through the leaves, the droplets plunked and splattered onto the forest floor. Tiran silently wiped the nodules of water from his face as they obscured his vision. He wondered at the sudden shower, but flicked the thought aside for the moment.
Tiran held his breath, his chest felt as it it were bound with iron hoops. After a moment, the hoof steps resumed and from then on he could hear something being dipped repeatedly into the water.
"Li, what do you think it is," he whispered.
Her response was not long in coming, 'Aural analysis indicates a quadruped belonging to Equus caballus, though based on the weight of the steps, one of substandard stature.'
"So, a little horse?"
'Pony, to be precise.'
A pony? Tiran thought. He thought those were extinct. At least, horses on earth were so scarce now that only the richest of the rich could afford to own and maintain one. Wild ones were practically unheard of. Though they had been heard of. Rumors mostly, from the still uninhabited areas of the world, virtually impossible to get to or even develop. Where the hell was he even?
"You detect any people?"
'Negative.'
Tiran thought for a moment. He was reluctant to leave his little hiding spot, but curiosity was starting to get the best of him. He'd only ever seen pictures of horses, never a real one, and he very much wanted to see a real one. He wondered what it'd be like. Finally, the desire to see the unknown won out over his reason.
"I'm gonna get a closer look."
'Tiran, I strongly advise against that action. There are still too many unknowns.'
"Exactly. I want to know. Besides," he said, checking the charge and magazine on his pistol, "we're armed."
Tiran slowly got up, careful not to make a sound. It was hard in his boots and a few times he very nearly stepped on an errant twig in the failing light. Using his right arm to cautiously move branches out of his way and weapon up by his chest, Tiran edged towards the spring. It was slow going, but even after almost fifteen minutes of his snail's-pace journey, the holder of his curiosity was still there.
The small clearing was almost in sight. Already, Tiran could make out a strange silhouette in the dimness of the twilight. He paused, "You sure there are no people?"
'Almost certain.'
That caused a hang-up in Tiran's thoughts. Li was never 'almost' anything. She was always certain of her own knowledge of something—or at least told him the possibilities—but never almost. It came close to bordering on pride on her part. Always the know-it-all. It was in her programming.
For the moment, however, Tiran pushed the thought aside, he'd bring it up later. "Let's see what we got," he said quietly to himself. He stepped forward ready to brush away the last obstacle blocking his sight of what had caught his attention.
Tiran felt the snap of the dry twig almost as much as he heard it. He became stone, heart throbbing in his chest as he struggled to remain still. Then what he heard next caused ice water to flood his veins. There was a gasp, "Who's there!" Cried out a small female voice. A head popped up in the clearing by the spring, horse-like in nature. But the mane was wrong. It had a certain style to it, like a human's.
The next thing really threw him for a loop. A pair of wings popped into view, shuffling uncomfortably before folding back down again. The head glanced around nervously, then stopped. At this point, Tiran was almost certain he felt a pair of eyes boring into him.
"Shit, fuck it."
Tiran turned and booked it back towards his little camp site, stealth momentarily forgotten as he crashed through the underbrush. At the same time, the was a sloshing of water, followed by a spill and he could hear the sound of hooves drumming a mad beat down the path away from him.
Before he reached the falsely assumed safety of his camp, Tiran turned and crouched. He brought his weapon up and aimed it about wildly, heart hammering a staccato drum tap against his ribcage. After a moment, the adrenaline ebbed and he listened once again. No breaking of branches and stomping of feet. No shots fired haphazardly in his direction. Just the fading sound of galloping hooves on the wind and the dwindling stop-start of the rain as it too passed.
Tiran allowed himself another few seconds just to be sure. Then crept back to his beggar's hovel. He could already feel the shakes coming on as he sat himself down and grabbed a ration bar out of his bundle, savagely tearing it open.
"Dammit, Li, I thought you said there were no people nearby!" He spat angrily as he began voraciously gnawing on the stiff lump of nutrients.
'I still have not detected any.' she put in matter-of-fact retort.
"Then where the hell did that voice come from?"
'I don't know.' Now Tiran was really beginning to worry about her. He thought she might have taken a hit and be malfunctioning after all. 'However, in this new light of information, I do not suggest lighting a fire tonight.'
That definitely soured Tiran's mood, if it hadn't been already. He had been looking forward to the comforting warmth and light of a good campfire and the encroaching night was beginning to bring on a chill he could feel even through the suit. But she was right. A fire now wouldn't be safe or wise. Plus, he'd have to move his camp before daybreak. If only to be sure.
"No shit," he said, still a bit angrily. "We'll move again before dawn. Wake me up then."
'Of course,' Li complied, still ever faithful despite him.
Still grumbling to himself, Tiran pulled his body up under the lean-to and settled down for what was sure to be a cold first night. At least he still hadn't found himself in some sadistic POW camp. Though that was likely to change anytime, he was sure.
At least the moonlight was nice here. He watched as it began to creep through the darkness and the canopy above, lending a cool, refreshing note to everything it touched. Like a thin blanket of snow, it bathed everything with an argent tinge, inviting Tiran to leave the psychological safety of his shelter and bask in its silvery radiance. He gladly would have were it not for circumstance.
As it was, Tiran needed rest, enemy agents or no. So he rolled over and resigned himself to the thick embrace of sleep. "G'night, Li," he mumbled softly as his eyes drifted shut.
'Goodnight, Tiran. Sleep well.'