His old phase pistols also went into the bundles, and he attached the new ones to his weapons belt. They were heavier, but the difference wasn’t enough to be uncomfortable.
He didn’t bother studying anything he’d gained. There would be time enough for that later. For now, they needed to get out of the area with the goods. They’d see what happened later. At least this time they didn’t have George to muck things up.
This fight was both a blessing and a curse. They had gotten a whole arsenal of super powerful weapons and batteries. They now had uniforms to masquerade as the city dwellers, and they had tons of wreckage to study.
Jared hoped the city didn’t find the wreckage, and that his people would be able to learn how the technology worked.
The short time he’d spent in the ships here should increase his understanding greatly, since he had Memory Recall. He could spend time later going over the controls in greater detail. It wasn’t a substitute for practicing with them, but at least the next time he was inside one he would know what to do. His job finished, he watched as the dragons tried to carry the larger of the pieces of wreckage, but it was no use.
“It is too heavy.”
Jared walked over to them and looked over the wreckage. “What if you slice it into chunks? We can take the most critical parts and leave the rest behind. The main thing I want here are the controls, communications system, and weapons array.”
“We can do that.”
Jared backed away, and they used their razor-sharp claws to dissect the ship into pieces.
“It would be a good to carry at least one engine away. Also, I want to bring some of these phase cannons with us. Actually, can you strip them off all of these ships? At least, the ones that are still whole? If we can figure out how they work, we will have some super powerful weapons on our side.”
“After we take care of this ship.”
“Okay, if it takes too much longer, we can just leave it be. I don’t want to be here if or when the cities send more reinforcements.”
“I think the cities will be much more cautious with the next round of ships and people they send here. We killed four of their own. No doubt they rarely see death. Not with the use of full nanotechnology to sustain their bodies.”
“Good point. Though they could just send a huge army of robots here to take everything out.”
“If they have an army, that would be my guess after our actions. The resources to create these ships are significant, and now that we have destroyed seven, it is enough to raise the enemies’ ire.”
“Well, let’s not be around if that happens.”
While the dragons finished their task, Jared went back into one of the drop ships and looked around for anything that would help him understand the phase cannon better. He wanted to figure out where its power source was, if it used a battery, or if the ship itself produced the energy. If Jared and the dragons took all the cannons, but then had no way to power them, they would just be useless hunks of metal. Well, they’d be useless to him, but no doubt Pete would have a field day.
“We are ready.”
Jared jogged back outside, where four huge chunks of the ship sat next to the dragons. The smaller chunk was the entire cockpit. It looked as though Scarlet intended to carry the piece. There was a large portion of a wing with two thrusters underneath, and one rear engine hanging on by a single support. The other two chunks were part of the cargo hold. The phase cannons also lay in a heap next to the rigged bundles Jared made.
“Please take these pieces in different directions and stow them someplace we can find later. I’ll wait here and keep looking through these ships for anything else we can take.”
“Jared, what if—”
“I’ll be fine.” Jared waved her concern away. “We know how fast the ships can fly, and based on the distance to the city over the ocean, it will take them at least twenty to thirty minutes to return home and then another thirty minutes or so to come back.”
“What if they sent news ahead of them and there are already ships on the way back?”
“Then, let’s shoot for you to be back in twenty minutes to pick me and this equipment up.”
Scarlet turned to her brothers and bobbed her head. “Return swiftly. We need not take them far, just far enough they will not discover them without a tracking device built in. We must leave here before any more of these ships arrive.”
Jared returned to the drop ship while the dragons grabbed their payloads and took off. He could tell it was heavy, as it took a while for them to gain altitude. Of them all, Scarlet looked to have the easiest time, but her brothers had only recently regained their ability to fly, so it stood to reason that so much extra weight was difficult at the moment.
Back in the half-destroyed cargo hold of a ship, Jared worked his way from one end of the ship to the other. At some point he’d activated Clear Mind, though he didn’t remember when. It was becoming a natural thing for him to do, but would still be a while before it became integrated into his everyday life, as was evident in his failure to activate during his fight with the stranger from the city. It excited him to think he’d come so far, and he couldn’t wait to see what the next breakthrough would be.
One by one, he opened all the compartments. There were no surprises and everything he’d seen before was also clear here. Since he had time, he raided the medical supplies and rummaged for anything else useful.
Once again, he focused on the weapons system. There had to be an ammunition source for the phase cannon, and he needed to figure it out before they left the area. Jared pulled an image to mind of the drop ship from above. He found the phase cannon and transposed himself into the image from inside the ship. He stood just behind the controls. The phase cannon was five feet in front of him, mounted on the nose of the cockpit. It rested on a swivel for a full field of view.
Pausing on the image, Jared magnified the view and saw something he hadn’t noticed before. The cannon sat on the nose, but there was a track that ran vertically around the tip. He focused on the controls in front of him for the weapons system and saw Top, Bottom, and Middle. It looked like the cannon could sit on top of the ship, swivel to the bottom, or remain on the nose like he’d seen. That made these things even deadlier. They had full 360-degree rotation along with being able to fire on enemies above and below. The only blind spot was behind the ship.
It was a good thing they’d surprised these guys, because looking at everything they had at their disposal, it could’ve been a lot worse. Jared suspected none of the people and robots flying the ships had experience fighting against anything. No one dared attack the cities. They’d probably grown complacent, which was how he had escaped unscathed.
Almost unscathed. Jared looked down at the angry red burn on his arm.
Jared didn’t think it would take long at all for the cities to mobilize and ramp up their offensive operations. Once they realized there were a group of dragons and a human with capabilities and skill equal to their own, things were liable to get hairy quick.
Turning his thoughts back to the present, Jared traced several paths from the cannon to parts of the ship’s interior. There were a few compartments and panels around the control console he hadn’t pried open because they didn’t look like storage areas. He unsheathed one of his daggers and popped them open.
After the third panel, Jared heard several thumps outside announcing the return of the dragons.
“How’s it going?”
“We are waiting on Malsour to return. Two more minutes.”
“All right, I should be ready by then. I’m trying to find a source of power for the phase cannons.”
Two panels later, Jared found what he sought. There was no label on it, but under a panel just to the side and back of the console, a huge battery pack sat inside. The indicator lights on the side glowed a healthy green to show it still had a lot of charge.
Reaching to grab it, Jared paused. He didn’t know what would happen if he unplugged it. Perhaps there was a shutdown sequence he needed to do. Time running out, Jared squeezed his eyes shut and yanked the battery out.
Nothing happened, and he opened one eye to look down. The battery was whole, and the only changes were the indicator lights winking out. Depressing one button on the side that read Charge, the lights blinked back on to show almost a full battery again.
“I found it! I need to get the batteries from the rest of the ships while we are here. It will only take a few minutes.”
“You must hurry, Jared. Even by your conservative estimations, we are running out of time.”
“I’ll be quick. I promise.”
He dumped the battery with the others in the duffle outside and ran from ship to ship, popping the panels open. He only gained three in total. The explosions had destroyed the other ships to the point he couldn’t get to the panels, or the batteries had fried with the ships.
“Okay, here are the bundles we need to take.” Jared pointed them out to Scarlet. He’d positioned them all farther apart so the dragons could pick them up.
He ended up with two bundles of weapons, one bundle for medical supplies, and a small bundle of clothes he planned to carry. Jared picked up the duffle of clothes and slung it over his shoulder before climbing on Scarlet’s back.
Everything ready, the dragons launched themselves into the air and headed back to their tiny home.
It’d been a harrowing experience, but Jared smiled as he looked around at the four dragons and their bundles. They had their fighting force now, and this little foray had allowed them to gather a ton of weapons and gear for everyone. It had been a successful day—even if the cities now knew about the dragons.
It didn’t take long for them to get home, and Jared saw the plume of smoke from the burning earth well before they made it back. Jared was glad the dragons had waited until after he and the others had engaged with the city’s ships before working on the den. The smoke was an eyesore in an otherwise clear sky, and anyone from miles away would see it.
“Scarlet, I think we need to stop with the tunneling soon. If we saw the smoke from miles away, anyone can. If the city sends a response force, we don’t want them zooming in on us like a homing pigeon.”
“I think we should give them a few moments longer. They found natural caves beneath the cliffs here. The smoke is mostly from their initial descent and the trees that surrounded the hole.”
A few of the trees in the immediate vicinity were gone, and in their place lay smoldering piles of ash. It was a good thing there were no leaves, because the whole forest would’ve gone up in a blaze. As it was, the fire still could’ve spread to the neighboring trees, and he was glad that hadn’t happened.
“I see. Okay, we need to put some of these embers out to stop the smoke from rising into the air. Let me go get more people and shovels, and we’ll throw dirt on the trees and ash.”
He vaulted off Scarlet’s back and ran over to the cliff.
“I need volunteers to help shovel dirt onto the burning trees out here.”
Volunteers poured from the rooms as everyone was eager to get out and see the new dragons.
“Whoa, whoa…I don’t need everyone. I promise everyone will have time to meet Scarlet’s brothers, but right now we are in a rush to put out the fires so the smoke stops floating into the sky.”
Jared chose five people at random, shoved the digging tools into their hands, and beckoned them to follow. All five immediately set to work. He started on the opposite side of the clearing and they met in the middle.
“Scarlet, can you take a tour from above to make sure we got everything?”
“One moment.” Scarlet launched into the air. “There is a trickle of smoke just to the south, though it is not very noticeable unless you are directly over the area.”
Jared looked in the direction and saw nothing from his vantage. They’d covered all the ash from the trees there already. He walked in the direction for a couple dozen yards before he saw what Scarlet saw. There, rising from the ground, a thin tendril of smoke escaped into the air. It looked like it seeped from between the rocks. Just to be safe, Jared threw dirt over them to cover any gaps in the rocks.
He walked back to Scarlet as she thumped to the ground. “It was probably the smoke from below where they are still clearing.”
“Let us go find out.”
“Is there enough room for all of your brothers?”
“Not yet, but soon they will hollow enough out for all of us. Enough questions. You will have answers in a moment.”
Jared chuckled. She’d probably grown tired of his constant stream of questions and had been waiting to say something like that for a while. It was true, though. She only knew what her brothers told her, and it made more sense to see it with his own eyes before asking more questions.
“Everyone, listen up,” Jared called to the five who had helped him out. “I’ll go with Scarlet into the tunnel and check it out. I’d like everyone to go back up to the rooms. Once I’ve determined all is clear, we can work out a rotation of people to come down here to explore and meet Scarlet’s brothers.”
A collective groan escaped from their lips, but they reluctantly trudged back to their rooms, depositing their shovels into a pile.
“Everyone is eager to meet your brothers. That is a great sign after what they’ve been through.”
“I only hope my brothers feel the same.”
“At least some of them do, and that is better than nothing. Besides, even if they don’t bond with anyone, having them around is awesome. What would’ve happened today if they weren’t here? Scarlet, we took out six drop ships like they were nothing. If it were just you and me out there, we’d have died.”
“That is not—”
“I know. It’s a sobering thought, but it’s reality. We need to get your brothers bonded as soon as possible to work on their defenses. If they increase the hardness of their scales and skin like you, then we will be much stronger and fights like these won’t be quite as nerve-wracking. Do you know how many rounds that city dweller put into your side before it—”
Jared stopped, his heart clenching in his chest. He hadn’t bothered to check up on her after their ordeal. He felt like such a bad person, and he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought to make sure she was okay.
“Scarlet, I’m so sorry. I—”
“It is okay, Jared. The rounds did not seriously hurt me. Though if he’d landed a few more…”
Jared darted around to her side, examining the hole bored clean through her scales. The skin beneath was a charcoal color. Running his fingers around the edges of the wound, he carefully inspected it to make sure there was no lasting harm. If that guy had managed even just one more volley, it would have punched a hole right into her body.
“That was way too close.”
“I agree. Now we know they have more powerful weapons. On the bright side, we no longer need to test the efficacy of the phase rounds against me.”
A smile split Jared’s face as he thought about their previous conversation, but then the embarrassment came back, remembering their conversation after.
“It is unfortunate you were unable to test your Natural Armor in the same manner.”
Heat rushed to his cheeks. He knew she wouldn’t let him live down his attempt to test a ballistic round against his newfound defenses. Well, it hadn’t been a bullet, but rather him trying to shove his knife down against his hand. The moral of the story was they didn’t need to test their own defenses. Nature and these battles they fought were more than sufficient.
Their conversation carried them into the tunnel and the caves below. When they stopped inside, Jared paused, his mouth dropping open.
Not only was there a massive underground cave system, an underground stream flowed beneath
.
Why are all the trees dead if there’s water? Looking up, he saw exposed roots, dried and shriveled. Not only did the roots not reach the water, they had to contend with the acidic rains. Until Mother Nature re-asserted her dominance and cleaned the atmosphere, he doubted they’d see widespread vegetation again.
“Do you know what this means?” He didn’t expect Scarlet to answer, and continued speaking. “We don’t have to go down to the lake anymore. At least, not for cleaning, bathing, and water for cooking. The only reason for us to go back to the lake now is for nanites. Is there any dirt down here, or is it all rock?”
“I do not know. My brothers only opened the larger chamber here. If you follow the water up or down the stream, you may find some.”
“If we can find dirt, maybe we can grow mushrooms or some other plants that don’t need light down here. Maybe Pete can route the electricity down here and we can—”
“Jared. Think about the others and their past experiences.”
“What are you…oh, yeah. I wasn’t thinking about that.”
“Many recovered well from the ordeal, but they may be averse to living underground again.”
“But there’s so much potential here.”
“There is, but you may lose people if you pursue it.”
“What if we have no choice?”
“I cannot speak for them, but I know them well, and I doubt all of them will be receptive to it.”
His joy dimmed, but not gone altogether, Jared’s mind spun with the revelations of an underground bunker like this. It wasn’t massive, but it would give their colony the edge it needed to thrive. They wouldn’t need to risk going down to the lake all the time.
“We have yet to explore the tunnels on either side.”
Scarlet’s proclamation didn’t dissuade him in the least. Regardless of what they found, this was an epic discovery. He’d take a group with him to explore the tunnels later. With the dragons living in the main cavern, they didn’t really need to worry about encroaching enemies, anyway.
Radioactive Revolution: A Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Page 14