Chapter 2

Jones awoke to Reveille; he got up and ran to the parade area for his morning calisthenics, running through the routines without thinking. 'Relax Scout, concentrate on the languages I'm passing to you and I'll control the body.' Hal said

All too soon Jones found that he had a new set of languages in his mind, he was amazed as he couldn't even understand class-room French, an order was barked in one of the languages.

"Attand soldat, sprak aut." It said and Jones understood it to mean "Attention Soldier, sound out." And he replied in the same language.

"Jons Prit. Sal nun 884569332. Sur" which he understood meant "Jones, Private. Serial number 884569332. Sir."

"Gut, Cary un" The voice said and Jones heard 'Good, carry on.' And so Jones went back to his exercises.

The lessons from then on were done in this language, although Jones heard them as English his responses came out in the same language. At first Jones tried to resist the lessons but several painful headaches and severe cramps soon cured him of that.

He started to work on computer systems, how to access them and to change the circuit boards to allow him to literally hack into a computer. Although after that lesson he found that he had an android escort with him at all times.

His lessons now included armed combat, but this was with a half-swords and full-swords, taking him from the beginners' simple swings to exercise his arms and then strikes to hit a dummy. He had small arms lessons, handling and firing a colt semi-automatic pistol. Maintaining the equipment and dismantling/reassembling the weapons. Jones found he could clean and dismantle a sword, leaving the blade, tang and pommel, with the hilt and quillions separated, before putting the sword back as the blacksmith had created it.

The weapons were given out and returned to the Quartermaster's section, where all the equipment was stored and developed. The area was mainly large manufacturing machines all programmed by computers and had several droids working when there was no other way.

He didn't know who programmed the Quartermaster droid, but he must have been a James Bond fan. "Ah, good morning Scout. I have just the thing for you ... but you have to return it." Was the normal speech given before Jones could take anything.

This time the item in question was a horse.

"Quartermaster what is this?" Jones asked.

The Quartermaster looked up from the keyboard, "What does it look like? It's a horse!" It said and then got up from the desk, "actually this is a fully formed exoskeleton covered by a polycarbonate skin. It contains a portable arms station; analysis unit and communications relay system. The skin is modelled on the current breed of horses used by the men at arms." It added.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with it?" Jones said.

"That's obvious Scout, you're supposed to ride it. You will be supplied with bridle, tack and everything necessary." The Quartermaster said.

Jones shook his head, "That's not what I mean, how am I going to feed it? It's going to need shoes and I'm no farrier."

'You don't have to worry about me Scout; I am perfectly self-sustainable, although I can simulate eating food should anyone else try to feed me.' The horse said over Jones' link causing Jones to step back in shock.

"It spoke to me! How can it speak to me?" He said surprised.

The horse gave a snort and then Jones heard 'I also supply storage to augment your internal computer and so I have to have a link to communicate to you. The Quartermaster also neglected to say that I have night vision and radar to scan up to a mile away.'

"I was going to get to that part later, now this exoskeleton..." The Quartermaster began to say but realised that he wasn't being listened to.

"I think I'll call you Blackie." Said Jones, he was still looking at the horse.

Blackie looked down at its dark coloured legs and gave a nod, 'That would seem appropriate.' It, Blackie, said.

"Wrap him up and I'll take him." Jones said to the quartermaster droid.

"I haven't gone through all the specifications; you will need to know more about the 'horse' it has a sophisticated robotic brain, more so than you're currently used to. If you need to repress this there is a shunt circuit that can be attached to the exoskeleton." The Quartermaster held up a coin shaped unit.

Jones took it and while looking at it crushed the unit he shook his head, "I'm sorry Quartermaster I didn't mean to do that." He said apologetically.

The Quartermaster looked at the broken unit, "It's lucky we have more of those, you humans don't understand the delicacy of the equipment," he pressed some buttons on the computer, "yes, bay 4, subsection 25, bucket 163. I'll ensure that you have a replacement ... please try to be more careful with it next time." It sounded annoyed at the human's ham-fisted touch.

"I'm really sorry Quartermaster." Jones repeated only to hear a snort from the 'horse'.

The next few days were spent honing Jones' infiltration skills – for some reason he was quite proficient in this, his only gripe was the fact that he was forced to stay in the Army, which was why his attitude had originally kept him at janitorial duty level.

He also learnt how to ride 'Blackie' and to remain in the saddle while fighting with the sword and also a short lance.

"What about crossbows or guns?" Jones once asked the Teacher Droid.

"There is a convention regarding such things, all long range weapons are banned upon pain of death, all battles are fought to strict rules, these you will learn and your internal computer will prompt you at all times." It said.

Jones had frowned at this, "How do you know so much about the outside lands when you haven't sent scouts out before?" He asked.

This resulted in a painful headache and the droid said, "That Scout is an area that you would be well advised not to ask questions about."

So it was that Jones was now an expert in horse fighting as well as swords and knives. The Nanites in his body had augmented his speed and reflexes to an inhuman level. One day Jones was fighting the training droid and managed to chop off its head without thinking.

"Very good Scout, now we will increase the odds." The droid said while picking up its detached head.

Jones looked in shock and then managed to say, "That would be a great trick at the Circus."

The next day Jones had two droids fighting him, the following week he was up to four, and managing to defeat them all.

During this time Jones found out that he could temporarily override the Nanites and Hal – it was odd to lose this link, he was so used to it. He also found that the air conditioning was large enough to use and evade his droid watchdog.

While doing this one night he made his way to the Quartermaster/supply section. He did some private 'shopping' while using his knowledge of the base computers to mask his actions.

After several months of training Jones was brought before the three computers.

"Well done Scout, you are promoted to Lieutenant in the Special Services, after you are dismissed you will report to the Quartermaster for additional supplies and then you will be escorted to the main entrance, after that you are on your own." The Prime Minister said.

"But we're expecting reports back from you; otherwise you'll find that we have long arms! Grunt." The Field Marshall spoke grumpily from his screen.

"I'm sure that Lieutenant Jones understands the need to let us know his progress. But at the moment he hasn't received his orders." The Doctor said soothingly.

"Right, yes. You are to scout for other bases and assess their capabilities to attack us, where possible you will commit sabotage to prevent their attacks. But the most important thing is to return to us with the information." The Field Marshall said emphatically.

"We know you will do your best to obtain this information for us Lieutenant Jones, I cannot stress how important it is to us all." The Prime Minister said.

"Very well Prime Minister, Gentlemen. I'll try my best." Jones said.

But the picture of the Field Marshall shook his head, "No Grunt, you won't try ... you will succeed." He said and Jones could hear the remaining 'or else' that had been unsaid.

Jones left the room and bent over to tie up his shoe-lace – which hadn't been untied. And 'accidently' overheard the computers talking.

"Can we trust him to act on our behalf?" The Prime Minister's voice said.

"It doesn't matter, whatever he tries will be overridden by the internal computer, and it's been programmed to take over his body when necessary." Hansaad said.

"But what use is he to us if we can't get the launch codes, London's underwater from what we know, he can't breathe underwater and so they are lost." The Field Marshall pointed out.

"I think I know where she would have a copy placed, she had a location in Barnsley that should have been safe, we'll have the androids send a team there and search." The Prime Minister said smugly.

"And then we will win this war, once and for all." The Field Marshall said with victory in his voice.

"We will do what is necessary." Hansaad said finally.

Jones waited to hear any more but soon the droid guard started to make motions for him to move on, and so he did.

Jones led Blackie along the exit corridor; it wasn't the original one that had been built but an alternate which the droids and their diggers had gouged out following the collapse of the bunker and entrance that led the base.

"The shielding and depth of the main base is what kept us operational, the computers had access to manufacturing systems and created the team of androids to maintain the nuclear reactor, they also built the digging units which created this tunnel." The droid Jones was walking with was very talkative.

"Why did they bother?" Jones asked.

"It was part of the contingency plans, we had to have a way to exit the base although it was envisaged that the base would still have a human population. Still we have the banks and equipment safe and sound." The Droid said and then went quiet. "Anyway Scout, the outside awaits you." It finished as a door opened automatically in front of them.

It was night outside and there was something in the air. Jones took a sniff and shook his head, "What's that smell?" He said as strange odours struck his nose.

"That Scout is the air of the outside, it is without the additives that are part of the base atmosphere, you can smell is pure air with pollen from the plants and no pollutants. Now down that path you will eventually find the naval base, there is a boat there ready to take you over to what used to be France. Oh yes, don't put any part of your body in the water. The fish have teeth." The droid warned Jones and then stopped by the door.

As Jones exited the base the Android spoke once more, this time with the Field-Marshall's voice. "Okay Grunt, you are on your way, but don't think about dumping everything and running off, the stuff inside you will ensure that you remain loyal to us, and that you'll do your duty. Remember you're in this man's Army for life ... yours especially."

"Yeah, yeah. One false move and you'll fry my body. I know." Jones said and his thoughts were dark, one of them was focusing on finding the Field-Marshall's engram and deleting it.

Jones mounted Blackie and began to ride along the path, trusting Blackie's night sight to follow the path, and then the moon came out from behind a cloud and lit up the landscape. The light showed everything in monochrome to Jones.

"That's beautiful, I can see the land and trees, the rabbit tracks ... hold on how can I make out this detail?" Jones said out loud.

'Your Nanites have allowed your eyes to see further into the spectrum than before, also the lack of air pollutants means that the light is not diffused in the air as you are used to.' Hal said over the link.

They travelled on with Jones looking around at the shapes along the ground then he heard. 'Proximity alert.' From Blackie and he drew his sword.

A dark shape leapt up from behind him, it was long and growling. Jones went to stab it but then turned the blade so that the flat side caught the beast along its head. Giving a yelp the dog, for that was what Jones thought it was, turned again and bared its teeth.

"Bad Dog! Sit." Jones said in an authoritative tone and was surprised to see the animal do so and start to whine.

'Scout what are you doing? Kill that beast before it injures you!' Blackie said turning to face the animal.

"But I don't need to! Look at it, the only thing wrong at the moment is that it's hungry." Jones said and took a meat stick from his pack and threw it towards the animal, which sniffed at it and then wolfed it down, sitting back on its hind legs looking at Jones.

'Oh great, you've got a pet.' Blackie said shaking its head.

'Analysis of animal shows descendant of German shepherd and Labrador cross, giving it both the intelligence and ability to hunt' Hal added to the conversation.

"Well I'm not going to kill an animal just because it's hungry." Jones said watching the dog closely.

'Look Scout, that thing has lived here for many years; just picture what it's been living on. It's not a pet it's a killing machine.' Blackie said and moved forward to tread on the dog but missed as the animal jumped back.

Jones pulled on the reins, "Stop that. Look just leave the dog alone, we have work to do." He said for lack of any other reason.

The dog watched them move on and then it got to its feet and began following them.

While they were travelling Jones noticed lumps in the ground, all in irregular shapes. 'Those used to be buildings; all you see are the remains that have been taken over by the earth.' Hal said.

Jones could picture them as they should have been - what had the people been doing just before the bombs dropped, were they carrying on as normal, or hiding under the tables hoping for everything to be alright?

He shook himself from the maudlin mood that had descended on him. 'There had been no warnings; the government didn't want to cause a panic.' Hal said quietly.

"So they just let them think everything was fine ... so what happened as the bombs were falling?" Jones said angrily.

'In the first 20 minutes about 50% of the population were either dead or dying, the major towns and cities were struck first, those living in the countryside were relatively safe' Hal said. 'The resulting winter was bad, as many had relied on defunct companies to deliver heating oil or coal, those who couldn't survive ... didn't.' Hal didn't carry on.

Jones flicked Blackie's reins and they kept going.

After some more time they came across a flat area of broken rubble and grass, it cut through the landscape in a straight line. "What on earth is this?" Jones asked out loud.

'I would think this is the M4.It ran from London to Pontarddulais, in Wales.' Hal said

Jones looked along the clearing, marvelling that it was still visible under the moonlight.

'We've still got company.' Blackie pointed out shaking his head to where the dog was following.

"Don't worry about him. So we can follow this to London." Jones said addressing first Blackie and then Hal.

'No Scout, we can only get as far as Reading, that's where the boat is waiting for us.' Hal replied.

Jones kicked himself as he pictured the world now; Reading was the nearest city to the new North Sea, "So we're going to travel by boat, past the islands of the North and South Downs before crossing the sea to Vimory, France." Jones said fixing the route in his mind

'Although it's no longer France, it is part of the Land Loir in the continent called Euro. The town is called Vior. There is a castle there and a Duke who is in charge, that was part of your training, do you remember Scout?' Hal said in a suspicious tone.