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Chapter 44

Chapter 44

January 29th, 2158 (Station Time)

At first jogging in the mech suit was a little awkward.  Even though they were moving at a good pace, the suit felt sluggish.  Logan was using more energy than he should, and it wouldn't take long before he would exhaust himself.

Twice Logan stumbled and almost tripped as he and his suit began to fight over where his steps should land.  Growing more and more frustrated, Logan stumbled a third time.

"Relax," Mike's voice said through Logan's earpiece.  He was at least forty meters ahead of Logan.

"How can I, when the suit is trying to kill me," Logan grunted in frustration.

"The mech has been programmed to run, let it do its job.  Begin the step, and let the mech finish it.  Stop trying to fight it's programming."

Logan knew that Mike was only trying to help, but his comments only made him more frustrated.  It wasn't until his fourth stumble that he decided he couldn't completely control his suit.  He needed to figure out how to work with the suit.

Over the next several minutes, Logan fought both his suit and his mind as he tried to give more control to it.  Slowly he began to feel better allowing the suit to do most of the work.  However he still tried to land each step for the suit.

Running in the suit had begun to feel natural and it was taking a lot less energy.  The more Logan relaxed the more he began to take in the environment around him.  Far in the distance in the west, the beginning of the ocean could be seen.  To the north, the rolling foothills continued beyond sight.  White sand covered the desert to the east.  Jagged red mountains were slowly being left behind in the south.

The two were headed northeast to the edge of the dessert were they would could move at a faster pace.  The land around them was mostly brown with large clumps of bushes.    The bushes seemed to be the same as some found around the camp, but in a higher concentration.

As the pair crested a hill and began to ascend into it's valley, Logan noticed a distinct game trail.  As they approached and passed the game trail, Logan focused in and took several high-resolution image stills.

Bringing the image up on his heads up display, It was obvious to Logan that all of the prints that ere made were from one type of animal.  Each print looked to range from around two centimeters to upward of six centimeters.  The prints looked to be paw prints, indicating something similar to earth's mammals.  This was probably a medium sized rodent like a raccoon.

Storing the images to a file, Logan sent them by message to Manuel back at the camp.  Logan didn't remember seeing any tracks close to the camp.  It was likely that Manuel had not run across any tracks, and this would give him more information to classify the planets inhabitants.

Logan removed all images and messaging info from his heads up display and was shocked to find himself at the edge of the dessert.  They had reached the dessert and changed course to follow its edge without him realizing.

He had continued to run, but the suit had followed the course, and successfully navigated any rocks and bushes that he may have encountered.  The suit truly was programmed to do almost anything.  It only needed a host, and the host's ability to begin the process of each step.

Now, Logan was using hardly any energy.  He believed he could run at this pace all day.  It felt like an easy stole rather than a run.  He didn't have long to marvel over this before Mike began to slow down.

They had come to the area marked as their target.  Several of the hills in this area were taller than others with one in the middle that was almost a mountain.  At the base of the hills the land was now mostly rock.

Logan ventured toward the marked area that indicated the cave entrance.  The side of the hill had several rocky outcroppings.  The cave entrance was behind one such outcropping.  It was possible that other croppings hid more caves.

The mouth of the cave was large enough for Logan to enter while still in his mech, but he had to do so sideways.  The cave entrance curved slightly hiding the inside of the cave from the outside world.  Past the entrance the cave opened into a room sized cavern.

Both sides of the cavern were covered with the simple images that he saw sent from the rover a few weeks back.  The rover had entered the cavern, taken the images and preformed a quick environmental scan and moved on.

Now Logan realized that he had only seen a small portion of the images.  He saw the large tan guerrilla like creatures and the green humanoid Clothans, as well as several other animals both familiar and unfamiliar.

"Logan," Mikes voice came into the cave from outside.  "You have about twenty minutes.  Get what you can, then we have to go."

Logan could see him, but he was close enough that he didn't need the ear peice to hear him clearly.  "OK," Logan responded.

Opening a compartment on the his mech, Logan removed three probes and set them up on tripods in the center of the room about six feet from each other.  The probes would take thousands of high-resolution images of all the visible area in the cave.  They would then use the images to create a virtual version of the cave, which Logan and anyone else could use to visit the cave any time they wanted.

Logan was about to leave through the entrance of the cave, so not to be in the way of the probes, when he noticed the cave extended beyond the initial room.  Walking to the back of the cave, the cavern became tunnel, which turned at a ninety-degree angle.

As he walked around the turn, he activated the probes to begin working.  He looked up and found himself in a second cavern.  This cavern was very different from the initial one.  Instead of being largely empty, this cavern was almost full.  On the right of the cavern there was a distinctive fire pit.  A ring of rocks surrounding black ash.  The wall next to the pit was blackened, following the soot stained wall up to the ceiling, Logan noticed a natural hole, which acted as a chimney to ventilate smoke from the cave.  Pass the fire pit; there were several piles of dried vegetation.  There were three piles made mostly of grasses and leaves.  They were most likely beds.  And beyond the beds was a pool of water.

Logan probably would have stood there in shock for some time, but his DNAC bipped indicating the probes had finished.  Quickly he ran back through the tunnel and into the initial chamber.  He collected the probes as quickly as he could and headed back into the secondary room.

Logan had begun to set up the probes in the second room when Mike's voice came over on Logan's earpiece.  "Start wrapping it up, we need to get moving."

Logan didn't respond, he finished setting up the probes and then stepped back though the tunnel.  He activated the probes and waited the long minute for the probes to finish.  As he waited he noticed the tred marks from where the rover had entered the cave.  Next he noticed his own foot print, large from his mech suit.  Last he noted the smaller human like footprints that covered almost every inch of cave floor.

Logan's DNAC bipped indicating the probes had finished.  He went back and gathered the probes, packed them up properly and exited the cave.

At first, when Logan exited the cave, he didn't see Mike.  But movement on the hillside about three hundred meters away drew his attention to Mike.  He was squatting down on the hillside working on something.  Then he stood up, turned, and headed towards Logan.

"What were you doing up there?" Logan inquired.

"While, you were in the cave, I noticed the footprints around the cave entrance.  The Clothans must use the cave on a fairly regular basis.  I set up four probes and two transmitters.  I thought it would be best if we get an idea about the traffic in this area.  Maybe it will give us a little more incite to our little friends."

Logan nodded his head, "I'm all done on the inside.  Are you set out here?"

Mike activated his DNAC, entered a few prompts and a new line appeared on the ground, this one heading east, into the dessert.  "I'm ready, and our path is before us."

With that, the two began to run once again.