STEP 4: Observe the trap and its actors

  RG Doctrine

  Know who’s doing the fighting

  Feebee’s ‘manual’

  Alpha team were sitting at one of the small tables, out of the way at the back of the rest room. Alpha-2 liked the coffee better than that on the Scout Ship. Feebee agreed. Alpha-3 just drank the stuff, didn’t care. “All tastes the same to me.”

  He really could be a grumpy old man at times.

  “You said the RG are fighting the environment. And never was that truer than now. We need to learn the planet, else we’ll end up fighting it too. We start today. Now.”

  Feebee had posted her scouting brief with the local captain snd sent Chen a copy.

  WILL SPEND TIME SCOUTING OUTSIDE THE COMPOUND TO OBSERVE AND GET A FEEL FOR THE CRYSTAL JUNGLE.

  The RG captain watched them leave. They’d gone light, the girl seemed to have a yearning for long ballistic rifles. She also had a pistol and knife. The other two didn't carry much more. He’d read their mission brief and immediately started a book on whether they’d return. And if they did, how long they’d stayed outside the wire. Most money was placed on the girl returning dead and the old men gone, along with their ship within a day.

  Only one person bet on all three returning alive after the day was up. The captain laughed and took Feebee’s money. When she asked for a receipt, he smiled “You’ve got a lot of pluck.”

  “Thankyou.”

  “It wasn’t meant as a compliment.”

  “Oh. Ok.”

  They left an hour later. Walked across the scarred ground outside the compound towards the crystal jungle.

  Feebee had one last thing to say to her team, “We NEVER lose sight of each other. Heads on a swivel. And if that means we move slowly and stay a pace apart that’s how we move. Agreed.”

  “Yes Ma’am.”

  A couple of paces into the jungle and the compound had disappeared. They were engulfed in a covering of tall crystal grass. The bulbous heads of the grass split the morning light into rainbows. A thin, smoky looking mist drifted just above the grass that was growing a good arm’s length higher than their heads.

  The general base chatter crackled then died over the open comms channel as they went deeper. The trio just turned their radio’s off and resorted to hand signals instead.

  Feebee had them walking to the cadence of the breathing exercise. Four steps, pause and breathe. Then the next walks, then the third. Only one person walking at any time. Everyone else motionless. Progress was slow but consistent.

  The approach seemed to work but the jungle was quiet around them.

  They learnt and got better. Feebee leant against a tree, barely touched it and the tree rang like a church bell. Other trees joined in, the sound rippling out across the jungle scape.

  Alpha-2 drank some water and spat on the ground. This rang and rang, again the jungle went quiet. It had heard.

  Alpha-3 was initially clumsy, uncaring about his foot placement. He landed heavily on a root and a whole copse of trees rang out in protest. The jungle fell totally silent and took a full twenty minutes to recover.

  And so it went on until by mid-afternoon they were accepted by the jungle. Local fauna emerged, curious and observing. The jungle hummed around them to a pulse they felt through their feet. A pulse that they had learned to sync their movements to.

  By late afternoon Feebee felt that they had travelled maybe half a mile from the base. She asked the QI for an assessment.

  ‘We are 857 yards from the base perimeter,’ came the response.

  ‘And did your friend, the planet, tell you this?’ Feebee asked sceptically.

  ‘Don’t be nasty,' said the QI. 'And for your information, my processing capacity has become considerably more efficient since we’ve been dirt-side. So, NO. I worked it out for myself.’ The QI came across like a petulant child.

  'You realise I'm your processor. You're welcome.'

  'Partly true.' Was the QI's cryptic answer. 'But seriously, something is making your neural net better. Something to do with this planet.'

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Feebee recognised genuine concern behind the delight, 'You'll monitor this?'

  'Yes.'

  Feebee called a halt. Alpha-3 put down his backpack and the whole jungle rang out with reverberations from the action. Echoes came back and forth on the wind for a full five minutes before the jungle returned to normal. He mouthed 'SORRY'.

  With her fingers, Feebee spelt out a message, ‘MUST LEAREN TO BE QUIET. ALWAYS QUIET.' She then asked them both 'SEEN SIGNS OF DISSIDENTS?'

  'NO', came the response from both.

  'LARGE FAUNA?'

  'NO'

  'HOW DO WE FIND?'

  Alpha-2 responded, 'SIT and WAIT.' He nodded as he conveyed the message.

  Feebee thought on that and realised the truth in his statement. They were noisier than the jungle, even when being quiet. They needed to be silent and let the jungle come to them. Accept them.

  'WE WAIT,' she said. They both nodded.

  'WHERE?' Asked Alpha-3

  Alpha-2 simply answered, 'FIND WATER.'

  He got an immediate thumbs up from Feebee and Alpha-3.

  The QI directed a satellite and obtained LIDAR of the area. It showed a gully with a stream not far from their location.

  'How did you contact the satellite.'

  'I spoke with it.'

  Directly?' asked Feebee.

  'Yes. Directly,' responded the QI. 'And if I can, you can.'

  ‘Yeh, but our comms are compromised. So how? And whose satellite is it?’

  The QI was quiet for too long.

  Feebee grew impatient, 'Well? Do we have an answer?'

  'I'm still digging.'

  'So how did you talk to the satellite? Can you show me?'

  'I didn’t say it was a satellite. Later.'

  Feebee was surprised, the QI had fobbed her off. She made a note to come back to the question.

  They slowly followed the QI's directions to the gulley. Found a stream and a small waterfall. Crystal grass held back from the stream's banks. Maybe by the noise or the humidity. Either way the banks were clear of the tall grass, so they formed a triangle, each able to see the other two and all the space behind them while sitting.

  This gave them 360 degree coverage across the water plus the banks upstream and down.

  Feebee sat slowly on the ground, took up her usual cross-legged position and started breathing exercises to a silent count of four. The other two joined her and soon they were hidden in plain sight, one with the jungle.

  As she descended more and more into a state of stillness and balance her senses opened up to the jungle. She could feel energy pulse through the ground, in the air.

  Feebee felt more alive and in tune with her surrounds than she'd ever felt before. She began to hum a complex tune, swaying slightly in time with the rise and fall of the notes. This was new to the Alphas. Yes, they'd heard her hum before, often but never when in a state of stillness.

  As they watched, the ground began to light up around Feebee. Roots, previously hidden, chased flaming fingers of light across the ground and up the trunks of luminous trees. And as this happened nature responded. Pulses of multi-coloured light burst from the tips of branches like molten ejecta. The wind joined in; it crooned and warbled through the tall grass causing its bulbous tips to sing a descant to Feebee's lead.

  Alpha-2 gave Feebee a message, 'STOP HUMMING.'

  Feebee read the finger movements and stopped immediately, 'DIDN'T REALISE.'

  'Can you show me now?' Feebee instructed the QI.

  'Show you what?'

  'Don't be coy. You know.'

  A new window opened in Feebee's overlays. It had a different feel, more grain, as if a new sense was being used. One yet to be defined. She could see the gulley running through the whole view, down across a waterfall and into a pond of sorts, out of sight, below the falls. The pulses in the flora around her were visible but as she zoomed in there was no evidence of her or the two Alphas. Whatever this was, they were hidden, invisible to it.

  That's weird she thought. Invisible wasn't the right word. Accepted felt better.

  'See what I mean?' said the QI.

  Feebee nodded and as she did, a shimmering outline became visible. A momentary lapse, then as she returned to a state of stillness it was gone.

  Feebee moved slowly, remaining calm, balanced and looked up. The image shifted and was now focused in the air. Not from her point of view, but showing where she looked.

  A drone hovered high above. It criss-crossed the sky, a standard patrol pattern. She tracked it through the scope on her rifle. Itching to shoot it down but resisted. It would give the watchers information as to their capability.

  'Is it one of ours?'

  'No.'

  'Does it have active comms?'

  'Can't detect any. Best guess, its autonomous and transmits. That's what we're tapped into.'

  'Oh. Ok.'

  Feebee then slowly raised one hand. Checking the movement wasn't visible to the drone. Then she finger messaged the Alphas.

  'A3. BE LIKE RG. NOISY. DRAW WATCHERS TO STREAM. THEN GO SILENT. A2 ON ME.'

  They responded, thumbs up. Alpha-3 moved off slowly and was immediately visible in the feed from the drone. He was working a classic J-hook patrol pattern. Circling back round on his prior route to protect his rear.

  Very slowly, she led Alpha-2 down to the stream. She could see where Alpha-3 was going next and moved to the bottom of his J shaped route before it turned parallel to the stream, along the bank.

  Then a tap-tap-tapping sound began, just at the edge of her hearing. She gently laid a hand on a thick root, could ‘feel’ the tapping. Not through her hand but in her bones. Weird.

  'It's not random sound. It contains information.' The QI was trying to analyse the tapping.

  'A code?'

  'Almost certainly but without context, impossible to crack.'

  'Can you tell where it's coming from?'

  'Not precisely, but it's close.'

  Feebee turned on her comms, then sent three clicks in quick succession.

  CLICK-CLICK-CLICK.

  Then turned them immediately off.

  Alpha-3's image wavered then disappeared from her overlays. Feebee smiled.

  Alpha-2 was looking at Feebee. He'd heard the clicks. 'A3 IS BEING STALKED. WE OBSERVE. ONLY INTERVENE IF NECESSARY.'

  'ACK' responded Alpha-2.

  They saw Alpha-3 emerge from the jungle and stutter walk; walk, stop, breathe, walk, stop, breathe until she sent more clicks, telling him to HOLD. He took one step back into the jungle and disappeared.

  All three of them we now accepted by the drone. It showed no movement at the water's edge.

  Now they waited.

  It started to rain. Just a drizzle but higher up, the mountains were getting a drenching. It made no difference to Feebee or her team. It wasn’t cold and their black fatigues were water resistant. The rain rang the crystals doubling the jungle noise. It was deafening but accepted, so care was still needed.

  Then Feebee saw what could have been a slight shimmer, downstream? Heat haze? She saw it again and slowly raised on hand. Fingers messaging.

  ‘DOWNSTREAM. AT LEAST ONE.’

  She got a thumbs up from both Alphas.

  As they watched, a single figure stepped out from the jungle, onto the beach by the stream. The figure was human, a woman, dressed in green camo. Perfect for the jungle. There were no RG patches or shoulder titles on the camo; it was dirty and crumpled. She crossed to the stream, walked in and sank down into the water so just her eyes, and the top of her head, were visible. Had they not seen her enter the water they would not have noticed her within a choppy area of the stream.

  Feebee watched her through the rifle’s scope. Her face filled a large portion of the ocular lens. It was painted with green, light blue and black streaks. The cryptic colouration worked well. Added shadow and broke up the shape of her face.

  The QI pinged her, ‘Strange shape coming our way.’

  Feebee slowly slung the long gun on her back, ‘Explain.’

  Instead, the QI showed her the image of a black smudge travelling down the gorge towards them.

  ‘What is it?’ she asked.

  ‘Hard to say. Best guess. Water.’

  Feebee was confused. ‘Water?’

  ‘More specifically, rainwater.’ There was urgency in the QI’s voice.

  She saw the danger. ‘How long do we have?’

  ‘Ten, maybe fifteen seconds.’