The Wild's Domain (Part 2)

The group glanced up at the sky, there joining the stars and moon appeared to be a metal box slowly descending towards the earth.

“How is this possible?” Asked Tyson confused.

“Mateo, you’re the chief science officer, shouldn’t you have noticed this?” Asked Kaleb annoyed.

“Yeah, since between working out a power source, determining why the world reset itself, figuring out how to deal with the growing monster threat and keep myself sane, I have so much time to star gaze!” He responded sarcastically.

“Pipe down, this isn’t a drill or something to be taken lightly. Mateo, can you determine its estimated landing time?” Colton asked.

“I’ll do you one better, give it an hour, about six kilometers north from our location.”

“That’s in the middle of the wild, we can’t get there tonight, that’s Stalker territory as well as Ravengers.” Stated Kaleb

“What if there are people on that thing? We can’t just let them die!” Tyson argued.

“If you think there are people, then why don’t you convince troops, besides there are no people up there! They hadn’t sent anyone up to the stars for three years prior to this bloody mess.”

“Maybe not…” Colton stated

All eyes turned to Colton who was looking at the box hurtling towards them, “Before this mess, my father worked on top secret projects as a part of future plans. When I was younger say five, I was looking around in his office and I remember seeing a bunch of papers lying on his desk. One was a mission report of some kind and the other paper had something that looked a lot similar to what’s coming down on us now.”

“No way, impossible!” The old man grumbled.

“Only one way to find out, besides there may be good components we can fortify the base with, and do you really think we’ll be able to salvage anything once the monsters have run their way through it?”

Kaleb grumbled and shook his head.

“Mateo, what’s the status on thermal sight?”

Mateo looked at him, “Um… we have twenty pairs, each with a makeshift battery… could last between fifteen minutes and four hours. It’s too unstable and chaotic so we can’t use it to power the base, but for those it should work. Hopefully.”

“Tyson go to the barracks and retrieve as many free and willing men as you can. Tell them we’re going on a mission outside tonight.”

Tyson nodded and took off like a bullet.

“You mustn’t be serious; this is a fool’s mission!” Kaleb protested.

“He’s right, and if you die we have commander sour here to take control.” Mateo agreed.

“What did you just call me science boy!”

“I won’t die, and I sure as hell am not leaving possible people and gear out in the middle of the jungle. Dawn is seven hours and with everything out there, keeping in mind that astronauts can’t have weapons of any sort to space, they’ll be lucky to last two.”

“What if you’re not the only group out there?”

“Name three other fortified, living groups in the vicinity that could possibly out fight us?”

Kaleb once more stayed silent.

“Mateo, we need those thermals now!”

“Yeah but I need to calibrate them for the environment.”

“Just set them to detect movement, any other area can be kept normal. We honestly need them just to prevent ambushes.”

“Well if they aren’t moving they’re impossible to see, Commander we still have time. Give me five minutes okay.” Mateo explained.

The Commander nodded and waited for a few moments, listening to the grievances of his old stubborn mentor whose voice fell to deaf ears. Within three minutes Mateo had calibrated the goggles and gave Colton the bag.

“Good luck Commander.”

“Thank you Mateo.”

With those words, Colton rushed down and out of their stone stronghold weaving and rushing past the torch lit, stone buildings and across their dirt pathways. Reaching the barracks, finding a platoon of about forty warriors, a mixture of melee and ranged with fighters being the dominant group. He handed out the goggles to the rangers whose shots were best, keeping one for himself, fighters could be easily be commanded to their prey locations.

With everyone set for the mission, Colton retrieved his bow and arrows from Tyson who had thought ahead as well as two daggers and a band of throwing knives. Then he stood in front of the crowd of soldiers.

“Alright, I thank you all for risking your lives on this task. Our target is six kilometers north of the stronghold. There is a metal box plummeting towards the land as we speak. It is to land in the given area we are heading to. Our objective is to reach the ship and secure it until dawn. From then we will send back a scout who will bring back more troops to help us transport any possible survivors and assist in the component scavenging of the ship. If any do not wish to come at this point I understand.”

The group remained still, all willing no matter the odds.

“Excellent, off to the stables, and then the ship, come on let’s move out!”

The group roared loudly, marching towards the stables near the gate, there were about fifty of them, and about thirty horses. Their marksmen rode in carts of five driven by warriors, the rest being on horses led by Tyson and Colton.

The rode out the gates and across the plain, approaching without fear. By now the ship was much closer, give it another half hour before it crashed.

“How does a machine like that one, take an hour to land? Shouldn’t gravity be rushing it towards us by now ?” Asked Tyson.

“Simple, engines are decelerating its descent, another sign of intelligent life. It would have crashed sooner if not for them.”

Tyson nodded, “So your dad really was some secret project guy?”

“No he I think he was a soldier, not a part of anything like that.”

“Then why’d you tell Kaleb that he was.”

“Sometimes when you know you have to do something, one must be a little deceptive to do a lot of good. I know, just by how it’s falling and its design that there must be humans up there. Living or not is the real question but still, mankind has touched the skies and is sure as hell coming back down. Even if I’m wrong, I have a feeling that if we don’t act now then we’ll never be able to power our base here. You see where I’m coming from?”

“Believe me sir, I would never question your authority, and neither will these men.”

“I appreciate that, now come on let’s pick up the pace. The longer we take getting there the harder it will be to find survivors or salvage.”

The horse picked up speed, the calls of the wild providing the soundtrack and the ambition to discover the falling machine all built up the atmosphere of adventure, one which Colton had waited for, for too long.