Chapter 5

Sophie and her platoon members were double and triple-checking gear when an amber light came on over the cargo door of the transport.

"All right, deep breaths everyone, then switch to your jump bottle," Sophie said into her mask. "Remember not to breathe until the switch is complete."

Every one of them knew the drill as well as she did, but everyone was subject to forgetting, especially under stress, so Sophie didn't feel bad about telling the platoon things they already knew, for the same reason she didn't complain when Linda double-checked her bottle after she had made the switch to the jump bottle. She did the same for Linda, then turned to the guy on her other side, and checked his bottle too.

The cargo ramp lowered slowly at the rear of the cargo area as the team switched oxygen supplies and again checked to ensure that the bottles were functioning properly and the connections were made correctly. They would have almost three miles to fall - about a minute and a half - before they could safely breathe without the oxygen, but nitrogen in the bloodstream at this point could be deadly. It could cause hypoxia with subsequent loss of coordination and mental facilities. Before the Sickness, there had been Automatic Activation Devices that would deploy the jumper's chute if he or she failed to do so, but her team had to depend on getting the job done themselves. One of these days, Sillyvale would get around to re-creating the AAD devices, but it was pretty low on their priority list.

The light above the door turned red, and Sophie tapped two of her team members on the shoulder, urging them onto the ramp. Shuffling under a hundred fifty pounds of equipment, the two stepped out onto the ramp. When the light turned green, Sophie tapped them again and they launched themselves into the plane's slipstream, followed closely by the next pair, and the next until only Sophie and Linda were left. Together, they, too, stepped off into the night sky.

Orienting herself quickly, Sophie used her limbs to guide her near to Linda's floating form, then the two of them folded their arms against their bodies and arrowed downward, angling toward the slightly darker figures of their platoon as they rendezvoused in mid-air. Sophie did a quick headcount as they approached the group and slowed by spreading arms and legs to increase wind resistance, and synchronize their fall with the others.

Sophie counted fifteen, besides herself. Good, no one lost yet. It would be tougher to rendezvous once they were in the water if anyone drifted off course. Sight distance, when only your head is out of water, is not very far at all, especially at night, when the people you're looking for only have their heads out of the water, too.

She let her body do a slow circle until she had the dark shape of the island and their target landing zone fixed in her vision. She started the long glide toward the island and the rest of the team joined her, almost as if they were flying in formation. As the bulk of Mt. Haleakala rose above them to the right, her altimeter indicated that it was safe to go off oxygen. With the volcano looming over them, it was easy to believe that they were about to smash full speed into the waves, but Sophie watched her altimeter, and held off the opening. Finally, at 2500 feet, she pulled her ripcord and quickly grabbed the guide rings as the square chute opened. Fighting the trade winds coming in from the north, she held steadily northward as the rest of the platoon followed suit. She let go her pack and allowed it to dangle below her on its lanyard as she approached the surface of the ocean.

The splash of the pack into the water ten feet below gave her warning and Sophie released the catches on her harness as she brought her feet together. She hit the water with a jarring splash and went under briefly. When she reached the surface, she stripped off her helmet, grateful that the canopy had continued its forward motion rather than settling on the water above her. Sophie hauled in the strap of her equipment pack. She stripped her swim fins out of their bindings on the pack and quickly affixed them to her feet before donning her mask and clearing the seawater from it. She gathered her canopy into a tight bundle and wrapped and tied the lines and harness around it, squeezing out the trapped air in the process, then allowed the weight of the harness to take it to the bottom.

Within seconds, her headcount confirmed that the rest of the platoon was ready for the swim to shore, but they had to wait for one more chute to splash down. The team equipment pack, bearing gear that was too heavy or cumbersome for individuals to carry during the jump, landed half a klick to windward, and Sophie silently tipped her hat to the crew of the cargo plane for their marksmanship. The equipment pack was fitted with a floatation collar, so the platoon members took turns holding onto it as they swam ashore, dragging the pack with them.

They had come down further eastward than they intended, Sophie determined from the landmarks she saw as they neared shore. They had landed just outside Maalaea Bay, near Papawai Point, instead of Hakili Point, near the old village of Olawalu.

Just as well, she thought, surveying the low cliffs that surrounded the tiny bit of sand on which they landed, as she stripped off her swim gear and jumpsuit and donned combat boots. The cliffs were rugged lava outcroppings with plenty of hand- and foot-holds, easily climbable, with no need for ropes or other gear.

As the team breached the equipment pack and distributed its contents among themselves, Sophie studied the plastic-coated topographical map she had been given. It was newly printed, but was clearly a copy of a pre-Sickness map. Well, topographically speaking, things probably hadn't changed that much, and at least she would know where the ruins of the old civilization were.

They quickly buried the swim gear above the tide line and soon were ready to begin their ascent.

Studying the map, she realized that a quick jog to the northwest would bring them to the Manawainui Gulch, which would give them a semi-obscured route almost to the top of the ridge, and from there, they would work their way northward, finally turning east to come down the Iao Valley from the back of the Needle. What little intel she had found on the valley said that the Iao Needle figured prominently in the history of the island, having been used as a lookout point during a couple of historic battles for supremacy over the island. If this Kamehameha VI was the traditionalist she figured him to be, he probably had men stationed on the needle, watching the sea to the east. By coming down the valley from the west, Sophie hoped her team could get into position to see what was going on in Kamehameha's camp without being observed.

Sophie had spent some time, while she waited for the rest of the platoon to arrive at HQ, to research the available material on the islands, their people, and language. The Internet had been restored by the Sillyvale folks, but a lot of what was once connected to it was no longer available. Still, from what she had learned, she knew the before the Sickness, many native Hawaiians and their sympathizers had been struggling to reclaim their islands from the tourists and business interests that had taken over and were slowly burying the culture and language under their commercialism.

She wondered if this Kamehameha VI might have his roots in that movement. The intel from HQ was sketchy, but there were hints ... No matter. A scav was a scav. If they wanted to screw with Phoenicia they'd get screwed right back.

The climb was long, but not particularly difficult, even with all the gear they carried. After 26 weeks of Level Nine training, and the exercise they took during the subsequent training, the relatively gentle slopes of the old caldera were a piece of cake for Sophie and her team. Sophie traversed her team's line of travel constantly as they negotiated the often tricky footing, taking the opportunity to gain a bit more insight into their characters. Of her old S&R team, only Linda and Kyle had made it all the way through level nine. About half her original team had volunteered alongside them, but had found the training too arduous.

This platoon, she knew only from training, and while the training had been arduous, and the team had had to work together to get through it, the members were not her hand-picked crew.

It helped that her First Lieutenant and top NCO were not only friends, but comrades from the S&R team. Still, if she was going into combat with these people she would like to know something more about them.

As they climbed above 2,000 feet, movement and noise from the right caused the platoon to freeze in place. Peering into the darkness, Sophie saw, silhouetted against the night sky, the dilapidated skeletons of the wind turbines that had been built on Kealaloloa ridge in the years just before the sickness. One of them creaked and turned slowly in the trade winds that blew across the slope. It was not turned at the optimum angle to catch the wind, but got enough to turn the three-bladed propeller sluggishly now and then.

With the potential threat identified as no threat at all, the platoon continued their upward trek. Long before dawn they had made it over the ridge to the western end of the 'Iao valley. A short reconnoiter found a secluded spot for a dry camp and rendezvous point. They would leave equipment caches at various places in their area of operation, but this would be the main 'base'. With the gear that would be left at this location secured, Sophie put out sentries and ordered everyone to eat something. Those not on watch slept.

In the heat and humidity of the morning, Sophie split the platoon into four smaller teams. The first, led by Linda, would traverse the Kahoolewa Ridge eastward and try to find a spot from which they could observe the scav camp. The second team, under Kyle, would do the same from the Kapilau Ridge to the south of the valley. The third team would remain at the base camp and be prepared to come to the aid of any team that ran into trouble.

Sophie led team four down the lower, broader ridge in the center of the valley that ran between the Kinihapai stream to the north and the Poohahoahoa stream to the south. To avoid being seen by any lookouts that might be stationed on The Needle, Sophie kept her team on the southern shoulder of the ridge. As they approached the eastern tip of the ridge, Sophie and her team melted into the undergrowth. They soon found themselves near what must have been an observation post for the old pre-sickness park. Rotting wood structures and crumbling concrete were all that remained, and the native tropical vegetation was quickly erasing even those traces.

Using her binoculars, Sophie easily spotted the native lookouts posted high on the rocky spire of the Iao Needle, and she used hand signals to tell the team to keep out of sight behind the rocky promontory of the ridge. Turning her binoculars eastward, down the valley, Sophie spotted smoke rising from a small community of what looked like grass huts. As she watched, instead of the squalid, junk laden scav encampment she expected, she saw a neat, orderly village in which people seemed to be going about the business of living happy, if primitive, lives. There was little evidence of pre-Sickness artifacts, and those seemed to have been left behind as part of the park that had once been here in the valley. There were the remains of a paved parking lot with a few of the ubiquitous hulks of old automobiles. Even these did not seem to hold any interest for the villagers. From her studies on the internet, Sophie recognized guava and mango trees, and patches of taro, but these appeared to be cultivated with crude wood and stone tools.

"Anybody see any sign of pre-Sickness artifacts?" she asked into her throat mike.

"Four, this is One," Linda answered, "if these guys are scavs, they're selling everything they collect."

"Two reporting same," Kyle answered as soon as Linda finished.

"Okay, Team One, it looks like the ridge you're on runs almost all the way to the ocean, why don't you and your team head down that way and see if they've got a cache somewhere further down the valley."

"Roger, Four," Linda answered.

"Two, you and your team make your way down into the ruins to the east and see if you see any signs that they're storing stuff in the old buildings. Four will hold here and keep an eye on the village."

Late in the afternoon of the first day, a horn sounded from the peak of the Needle and Linda's voice came over the com.

"Four, this is One. We've got boats approaching the beach. They look like big outrigger types with wooden hulls. Their only power seems to be paddles. There're about six big guys in each one. I don't see any weapons."

"Roger One," Sophie answered, then, "Two, Four. Anything to report?"

"Four, Two, that's a negative. Looks like the only interest these folks have in the old buildings is to tear 'em down to make room for their crops."

"Roger, Two. Why don't you see if you can take up positions overlooking the most direct route from the beach, and let's see if we can get a better look at whoever this is."

"Roger, Four."

Just then, the horn from the Needle sounded two more blasts. Suddenly, the village was filled with people laughing and talking. The pigs, dogs, and chickens that roamed the open area, scurried to get out of the way as sandaled feet hurried toward the path that wound its way down the valley.

As with the few they had seen throughout the day, these were dressed in skirts that appeared to be made of some kind of grass, or in loincloths. Most of the women were topless, except for necklaces of shells or garlands of flowers.

Most of the villagers were tanned to a dark bronze, and most had black hair, worn long by men and women. Some, however, had lighter hair bleached even lighter by much exposure to the sun.

Sophie was surprised at how many people turned out, coming from inside the huts, from the fields lower down the valley, and from the forest within the valley. A few, bearing woven baskets of guavas and other fruits, passed within a few yards of where Sophie and her team hid.

"Four, this is two," Linda's voice came over her headset, "looks like the fishing fleet's returned. They're unloading several baskets of fish from the boats. Must have been a good day. Doesn't look like they're in any hurry to get back to the village, though. They've dug a couple of big pits in the sand and are building fires in them."

"Okay, keep an eye on them. We'll make our way around and see if we can get closer, Four out."

With the lookouts still manning the outpost on the Needle, Sophie's team had to retreat back up the ridge westward, then come back along the Kahoolewa ridge to the north to get to the beach without being seen. By the time they joined Linda's team, the sun was down, and the party on the beach was in full swing.