Excerpt from The Silver Affinity Chronicles IV: A Galaxy Divided / Chapter Six - Threats, Foreign and Domestic -------------------------- The sun rose to greet the day and the ATV team, crammed into Hawkins’ and Lynn’s tattered tent, awoke and broke down the small camp they’d set up in the mountain passage. Wisps of fog still clung to the ground, but the sun would soon burn the remnants off. With the camp broke down and everything packed up, the electric ATVs soon were rolling on through the passageway in the rock. Today, they would finally break through the wilderness to reach the ruins of the old capital Dolorous. Having not forgotten the importance of this mission, the former military duo was also enjoying their time spent together in the wilds of Nadan II. Hawkins and Lynn both needed relief from the military life, but it seemed that even in their civilian life they retained an aspect of being a reserve defense for the township of Fortitude. This they didn’t mind, however; this was on their terms instead of some generals’ command. The passage surprisingly did not take long to traverse, and acted as a shortcut through the mountain chain. Within two hours, they were emerging on the other side, downhill facing the swamplands and Fort Ticonderoga miles downwind. Just forty minutes before noon, they were entering the familiar bog – within another hour, they were projected to be at Ticonderoga. The chaos of Vivian’s escape at the hands of the NAUA was literally another planet away at the moment. “I’m loving this cooler weather,” Lynn radioed back to Hawkins via her earpiece. “Fall is a lovely season.” “Yeah, I prefer Summer personally,” he replied. “But at least fall doesn’t mean snow; just the anticipation of snow.” “At least the cooler weather keeps the mugginess down in the swamps,” Lynn argued. This he couldn’t deny… compared to several days ago, traversing the previous swamplands, the humidity had nosedived resulting in a startling pleasant ride, aside from the smell of the bog. The cooler temperatures couldn’t fix that. Stopping for a stretch at the remnants of the former Syndicate main fort, the team ate lunch and rested for fifteen minutes before heading back out on the trail. Riding through the weed and tree-infested barracks and concrete structures long since abandoned, Lynn gained a sense of nostalgia, literally staring at the fort she’d once slept in. Shaking it off, they crossed the far bridge that connected the fort to the shore. Now reaching into the early afternoon, the ATVs romped their way up the low hills and onto the rugged dirt road that would soon lead them to the orange LED-lit Federation bridge, that had once acted as the official barrier between civilized life in the capital and the wilderness of Nadan. How strange it seemed to them now that it was an out-of-place structure, still lit brightly as if the Galactic Federation still existed, though it now sat a week’s time away from civilization rotting away from the elements and lack of maintenance. Riding over the aging bridge, the ATVs spread out from their single-file formation to ride in a wider formation as the highway grew in size. Still grieving at the loss of one of their own, the other riders and the sheriff remained silent for the majority of the day, aside from asking for assistance with something. Conversation was nil, but there was nothing else that could be done at this point except grieve and move on with the mission. Within the next hour, they would reach the edge of the ruined downtown district.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 19:38:36 +0000
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