Published: 28 Feb 2022

Not According to Plans

⚫Corporal Diffuso: Explorer Corps – Trainer/Tester
⚫Dakota: Cadet Sergeant Explorer Corps Academy – Leader of Rescue Team One
⚫Mario: Cadet Corporal Explorer Corps Academy – Member of Rescue Team One
⚫Fairfax: Senior Private Explorer Corps – Member Mountain ISTAZ Team 5
⚫Ajax: Senior Private Explorer Corps – Member Mountain ISTAZ Team 5
⚫Diane: Specialist Explorer Corps – Forest Mountain Team 19
⚫Sean: Specialist Explorer Corps – Forest Mountain Team 19

Fairfax started to move toward the back, but the sergeant’s booming voice stopped him, “Corporal! You can’t be serious!”

The younger man nodded, “Sure I am!”

The sergeant blinked and stared at the corporal, “How old are you?”

“Twenty-one, why?”

“You sure those numbers aren’t reversed?”

“Nope, but there are a couple of twelve-year-olds’ who came up with the idea…”

“Eleven,” Fairfax answered. “Seventeen days until I’m twelve.”

“Twenty-four days till I’m twelve,” Ajax chimed in. “We both pretested in climb and repel… And we’ve done way crazier junk to get into towers from street level.”

“Yeah,” Fairfax retorted with a snort, “this won’t be nothin’ compared to climbing up and through a tower trash chute eight to ten stories up on a building. We didn’t have no ropes on the streets of Chi-Troit either!”

Dakota joined in, “Sergeant, it’s the best chance those on the ground have! Me, Mario, and Dean are repelling certified. We’ll go!” He paused and glanced over to his two teammates. “Right?”

Both teens exchanged glances, then nodded, although Dean looked less than thrilled. “So you have five of us who can…”

The captain’s voice came over the speakers, “No one is doing a damned thing until I get authorization! But, on the off chance someone is crazy enough to green-light this, I need those willing to… be totally crazy… to get ready. Prepare seventy-five-meter class four lines. Those things weigh over twenty-five kilos, so get help securing them. Diffuso, if we get a go order, you give everything a final safety verification.”

“Absolutely, Captain!” Diffuso shouted. He turned to those in the middle section of the large craft. “Anyone else certified who wants to join us?”

Diane spoke up for both her and Sean, “We certified with outstanding grades! We’ll go too!”

The corporal motioned everyone into the back. A few seconds later Jasper’s voice came over the speaker, “Kids, it’s Commander Montgomery. Am I understanding this correctly?”

Fairfax answered, “If it’s us asking to repel out of the back of this ship, down to the trees, climb down, and get to those stranded below, it sure is!”

“We can’t leave ‘em!” Ajax shouted before Fairfax was finished.

There was an audible exhale followed by a sigh, “And Corporal Diffuso, you are… um… You are willing to join this rescue endeavor?”

“Harnessing up right now, Commander!” the corporal shouted with a great deal of glee in his voice.

“OK, so who’s the adult?” Jasper asked with a chuckle.

“Not sure there is one, at least until we hit the ground,” Diffuso admitted.

This got a hearty laugh out of Jasper. “OK, fine, even I admit is does sound exhilarating… Alright, fine… But let me get some kind of… agreement out of all of you who want to do this. Everyone who is going to slide out the back of a heavy transport in the middle of a blizzard needs to tell me you are not being forced or coerced, so I have a verbal record you are willing to do this…”

“Willing?” Fairfax responded with a wide grin, “This is going to be a blast! I want to!”

“Same here!” Ajax shouted with jubilation in his voice. “This’ll be a rush!”

“Commander, Cadet Dakota Sinclair here. Yeah, I am with these two… It sounds like fun. But even more important, there are at least a few below us who needs us down there now!”

The others spoke up with less enthusiasm, but all made it clear they wanted to join the rescue attempt.

Jasper’s voice took on a humorous tone. “Corporal, if any of these kids gets seriously hurt, we both may need to find new gigs. So take care of them… Dakota, you are to take the team leader spot, but Corporal Diffuso has the same authority over you as any instructor… And, to be honest, I’d prefer at least one of the other two from Dakota’s team stay with the transport. Robin is going to be shorter on manpower than we expected, and he will need leadership of older kids if we find a major problem.”

Dean spoke up without hesitation, “Commander, it’s Cadet Dean Bendson. I’ll stay… I… well repelling is great, but from a ship, with no rock wall, and in a snowstorm… Um, just saying it’s not…”

“No need to explain, and thanks for being honest, Dean. You are in command of the rest of the kids in the ship. I’ll get you a mission command ribbon to put on your uniform. You others… we’ll make up a ribbon or something… Just take care of each other… And Corporal Diffuso. It sounds to me like… How about I leave it at there is still a bit of kid inside the only adult on this mission…”

Diffuso snickered, “More than a bit, sir!”

“If I was there and asking someone else, I’d say pretty much the same thing. I expect a report as soon as you make certain those kids are taken care of.”

As soon as he was sure Jasper was done, Ajax pointed to hooks holding extra standard packs. “We need to take five of those, spare clothing, and food… extra emergency beacons… Um, and medi-kits, probably a couple of them…”

Dean grabbed a pair of empty packs and stuffed emergency ration packs along with two cases of insta-heat meal packs in them, even as Diffuso secured ropes to equipment racks in the back of the ship and handed out harnesses.

Diffuso scanned the cargo hold even as Ajax and Fairfax pulled five preset field packs off a rack on the port side. Fairfax spoke as he pushed extra heaters, battery packs, and rifles into empty slots. “We may be on our own for a couple of days… What else do we need?”

“Part of ISTAZ is learning to make due do with less… But we need to get them coats, gloves, um…” He scanned the equipment racks, “Canteens, a water purification unit, fishing equipment, and pickaxes to make holes in ice.”

Dakota glanced over to Fairfax ‘Can you get shoe sizes?’

Fairfax closed his eyes, ‘I need shoe and coat sizes.’

‘I can barely hear you… but… um, yeah… two of us have outgrown our boots so I need a G… un make it two Gs an F, H, and…’ The voice faded out then came back, ‘Make it two Hs… but I don’t think we’ll be able to get Zackary into a boot…’

‘Coats?’ Fairfax asked.

‘Um… we need four YMMLs and a YMM… Any chance you have one-piece outers?’

‘Plenty. Sizes?’

‘Same as coats… but Jordon’s got long legs, so he’ll need a long YMML… Um… you moved away from us… you are coming, right?’

‘We’re not going to leave you! Getting gear ready now.’

While Ajax stuffed the proper coats, one-piece outfits, gloves, footwear, and packs of underclothing into an empty pack and tossed it over to Mario, Dakota glanced over at Fairfax, ‘Tell them to stay put. We’ll go to them! The last thing we want is them getting lost or separated trying to get to us, or worse miss each other because we are both moving around down there.’

Fairfax passed the message along even as he tossed spare packs to Dakota, Diane, and Sean before he and Ajax each secured a pack for themselves.

Diffuso eyed Ajax with a momentary questioning look as the boy dug into bins and selected sizes, but quickly shrugged it off. Instead, he grabbed his pack, filled up a spare pack with lots of heavy equipment including a bunch more fully charged battery packs, hand warmers, solar rechargers, stun rifles, a pair of E-domes, a few spare axes, and other survival gear. The pack was so full and heavy he needed Dean’s help to secure it to his rope.

Satisfied he had enough survival equipment, he verified everyone was properly hooked up, then did a harness check. “Dean, help the others to strap the spares to a standby repelling descender and link it to their primary.”

He turned to the kids about to jump. “Dean is going to secure the extra packs you grabbed above you. By linking them, they will alternate between lowering yourself, then the pack. Set both descenders to a max speed of four on the dial. Remember, there is no place to brace with your feet. Therefore, use the descender brakes every couple of meters or so after the first fifteen.”

He eyed the food laden packs even as he grabbed a full medic pack and added it above the massive pack he already had strapped to his line. “Dean, can you lower the food down to us with auto descenders?”

“I was planning on it, Corporal. But there are trees below…”

Ajax gave a dismissive flip of a wrist, “If they get stuck, I’ll climb and get ‘em.”

Dakota moved to the far back and tested the rope as he double-checked his harness. “Some of the trees below us are probably well over fifteen meters tall…”

Fairfax snorted. With a shake of his head and snicker, he eyed those looking at Ajax, “Guys, trash chutes are eight to ten floors up. We free climb up to them, then over to the slide chute using nothing but cracks, dents, and damaged welds to pull ourselves up into them. We have to make it between the time the trash stops falling and the inner door shuts. Once in, we have to climb up on metal cables to the maintenance shaft to get into the building. A fifteen-meter tree ain’t nothing!”

As the rest turned to him and blinked, Ajax rolled his eyes and added, “And the nasty crap that falls out leaves the chutes slick, smelly, and… well, lots depends on what’s in the trash bin when they dump ‘em.

“If there was a lot of trash, it can take half an hour. If it does, the metal is hot from all the stuff rubbing up against it. We also have to do it with our hands wrapped so we don’t get cut up, cause if you get cut in a trash chute, it’ll get nasty fast.”

Fairfax let out a sigh, “It’s real bad if someone happened to toss a body or three into the trash, which is at least a quarter the time. Depending on how long it was in there before being dumped and how much heat built up, the stench can be pretty bad. And there is always squashed rats and bugs. The chutes can get coated in what is left, so yeah, got to make sure your hands don’t get cut.”

Diffuso let out a gasp but found his voice even as the pilot announced they had permission and he would open the back in less than two minutes. “And you both did this more than once?”

“Easily a few dozen times,” Fairfax announced with a smirk.

“At least!” Ajax added. “But it was really a last resort thing… It was a way to get away from gangs, rat swarms, armed street level patrols, and super bad weather. It can be gross, but it never got old!”

Sean looked over with wide eyes, “How old were you when you first climbed into one of them?”

“Six,” Ajax answered.

“Yeah, probably about the same,” Fairfax agreed. “As soon as I was big and strong enough to free climb. But the first half-dozen times Dad made me and my sister do it on chutes a couple of hours after they dumped. We had to get in quick enough to where he and Mom was sure we wouldn’t get cut in half by the inner door, ‘cause it snaps shut hard fifteen minutes after the main trash stops falling out.”

Ajax nodded, “Exact same for me. Mom and Dad carried us until they were sure we could do if fast enough.”

Fairfax continued to get ready as he added, “It super important to be fast. The inner door cycles up and down without completely closing for twelve minutes to clear any debris. A scoop then gets pushed down shoving the last of the smaller items out. This is the window to get in. The scoop pulls back with cables. If you can get to the cables, it will pull you in and you can drop down into the maintenance area with help from the cables for the main door.”

Ajax nodded. “Yup! If you do it right, you can let the main door cables drop you down to the inner platform while it closes. It then opens all the way up. Two minutes later the main inner chute door snaps shut hard ‘cause things tend to get wedged into the lip. The thick inner door slams down on the lip to cut or break whatever is there so it seals tight. You don’t want to be in the chute with it cycling, because it vibrates so hard, holding on is almost impossible. But getting caught in the door is death. So you have between when the shaking stops, to when the door pulls all the way open to slam into the lip to get inside.”

Mario started to say something, shook his head, and glanced over to Diffuso. Like the teen, the man had the look of wanting to ask questions but said nothing.

Sean and Diane were also speechless, but they moved up and patted both Ajax and Fairfax on the back before edging close to the back ramp.

Dakota shivered, but managed to find his voice, “The more I get to know you two, the more I understand why there are so many SLOs in the academy!”

Ajax looked over with surprise. “Really?”

Diffuso responded after a few awkward seconds of silence. “About one in twenty in the main academy, one in forty at Den-Springs.”

“Nice,” Fairfax smiled in earnest. “We won’t be the only ones!”

“Nope,” Dakota stated. “But with Real Explorer Corps ranks and pay, you’ll the highest ranking!”

Dean nodded, “And probably among the highest decorated. It will…”

Dean’s voice cut out as the ship shook hard. The craft rocked back and forth for a few seconds as the thrusters were turned so the ship could hover well above the trees. The captain’s voice came over the speaker. “I pointed us into the wind, so expect to get blown back. Remember to drop fast at first. The heat from the engines and warming plates on the wings are going to make it very hot until you are at least fifteen meters below us. Be ready for a combination of wind, cold, and heat all at the same time! I’ve moved back away from the ridge, so there is less chance of twisting an ankle on rocks buried under the snow, so you’ll have at least a three-kilometer hike. I put us straight south of where we saw the burning seed pods.

“Sonic imaging shows we are twenty to thirty meters off the forest cover. It’s the closest I can get without possibly scorching the treetops. There is a chance the ropes will get caught. I need each of you to tap your emergency transponders when you are either on the ground or in a safe spot in a tree.

“Dean, once you lower food and other supplies, I want you to stand by where the ropes are tied off. I need you to cut them as soon as I give you the OK. Otherwise, there is a chance they will anchor us. Besides, the ropes may be useful to our ground team! Use a laser cutter because class four ropes are infused with a core of titanium-Kevlar strands!”

“Understood, Captain!”

“Ground team, keep your heads down and helmets secure until the ropes fall. I don’t want to have any of you getting knocked out from your lines!”

Diffuso let out a long breath, “Dean, change everyone’s descenders for max speed of seven for the first fifteen meters, then drop the max speed to four. To do it, click seven, roll the wheel on the bottom to fifteen, then click four.”

The corporal eyed the others as his voice took on a warning tone. “This means the initial drop is going to be stupid fast, but there will not be a hard jerk, so don’t panic on me. The descender will slow from a seven to a four in three-meter increments, so just let it do what it’s designed for. Trying to stop or slow too fast could mean getting singed from the thrusters!”

Ajax pumped his fist, “This is getting better by the second! Can I go first?”

Diffuso’s head dropped as Fairfax quickly called out he’d go next. “Ok, fine, but… just be careful and stay put until all of us are down, OK?”

Ajax quickly made sure his auto descender gave a green light showing it was securely fastened to the rope and clipped the spare pack on with a second descender. The moment Diffuso gave him a nod, he dropped out the back with an, “OH, YEAH!”

Seconds later, Fairfax followed with a shout of, “Wooo Hooooo!”

Diffuso watched as Sean and Diane followed with a great deal less enthusiasm. He glanced over at Dakota and gave a nod. The boy disappeared below the lip of the back ramp while crying out, “Holy Crap!”

Dean secured the food laden packs on auto descenders and sent them. Finally, Diffuso put his feet on the edge of the ramp and jumped. He felt like his heart slammed into his throat as the first fifteen meters seemed very close to a freefall. The auto descender quickly reduced speed down to a much more manageable speed, but he still hit the auto brake a trio of times as he slid down between large branches, two of which cut into his left cheek.

Even as he let out a string of curses and covered his face with his arms to protect himself, he could hear Fairfax well below, “OH, I soooooo WANT to do that again!”

He clenched his fist and started to respond when his crotch slammed into a branch he couldn’t see since it was right below the one he had just fallen through, and his arms were in front of his face. He hit the thick blanket of snow on the forest floor seconds later with no control. The impact with the ground not only left him seeing stars, it snapped his left arm and jarred his emergency transponder hard enough to send up a signal to the ship that he was safely on the ground. Adding insult to injury, the rope to the ship was cut moments later. The spare pack of extra equipment he had attached to his own rope fell and crashed down onto the left side of his head and destroyed his transponder. The full medic kit smashed into his face moments later. Everything went black.

Ajax was the first to react. He dropped the spare pack he had pulled off his rope. He sprinted over to the man while shouting, “You OK?” his voice all but drowned out by the roar of the ship from overhead. The large craft’s engines tilted back and quickly accelerated to head to the destination of the original rescue mission.

Ajax dropped to his knees, pulled the medic kit off the motionless form and cringed as he saw Diffuso’s face, “Guys! The Corps’ guy is all messed up!”

Sean’s voice came from up in a tree from somewhere to Ajax’s left, “Can’t help! I’m stuck!”

“Same here!” Diane hollered. Her voice seemed to come from behind Ajax.

“Hold on, Diane!” Fairfax’s voice echoed from somewhere in the general direction of Diane’s voice. “Your rope is tangled into the branches. I can get you down but need to climb down first! Ajax, how bad?!”

“Um, like falling from a trash chute with stuff still falling out of it bad!”

“Help Ajax!” Diane shouted, “It’s not like I’m going anywhere!”

Dakota’s form emerged from the blowing snow and knelt next to Diffuso. “Fairfax, get Diane down! I’m with Ajax and the corporal!”

Mario let out a string of curses. “The spare pack with clothing is stuck above me! I’m going to have to cut the link and leave it up here!”

“Do it!” Dakota barked. “Let Ajax or Fairfax get it down. You can help me.”

Dakota looked down and let out a long breath. “Let me take a look. I’ve been my ISTAZ Team’s lead on first aid for two years and have the advanced academy certification.” He carefully pulled the heavy rope off the man while speaking as much to calm himself as to reassure Ajax. “My goal is to be an Explorer team medic.” He pointed back the way he came. “You said you were good at climbing, so I need you to help Sean. The back-up pack he strapped to his rope is wrapped around a branch above him. He’s not going anywhere until we get it loose!”

Ajax nodded in understanding but looked down with a great deal of concern. “His arm and face is a mess!”

Dakota did a quick check, “Yeah, his arm is broke for sure and it looks like he went through the trees and either the rope or one of the extra gear bags knocked out some teeth. But his breathing is strong.” He gave Ajax a light shove in the direction of his footsteps, “I’ve got him. We need to get Diane and Sean down so we can help Corporal Diffuso and those we dropped down here to rescue. Now get moving!”

Ajax took one glance back at the motionless corporal before shouting, “Sean, keep yelling so I can find you!”

“Up here! Up here!”

Ajax used the voice to guide him through the dense undergrowth. He looked up into the snow. He cringed. As Sean struggled, the branch above him with the spare pack pulled down further. He bet it was close to snapping. “Sean! Don’t move! Don’t move at all! I’ll be right up!”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Trust me! Don’t move at all!” Ajax shouted. He dropped his pack into the snow, took a running leap and grabbed onto one of the lower branches. Once up, he jumped, grabbed the next branch up and used momentum to swing himself until his feet wrapped around an even higher branch. Two minutes later he pulled the rope directly below Sean clear and let it fall to the ground. It took only another minute to move above where Sean helplessly hung. He located a firm spot next to the stuck pack. “Sean, I’m going to disconnect the extra pack. When I do, cover your head and face. Let the descender take you the rest of the way!”

“OK, but can you tell me why?”

“The pack and probably this branch is going to come down. I’ll try to toss or kick the pack, so it doesn’t come down on top of you, but no guarantee! So don’t be surprised if one or both hits you!”

“Aww, geesh… OK, Ready!”

Ajax grabbed the rope above the pack, hit the disconnect on the descender, kneed it as hard as he could with his left leg while his right foot kicked the badly cracked branch as hard as he could. He held his breath as both fell through the remaining canopy. The branch stabbed into the ground only a meter to Sean’s left while the pack buried itself into the snow less than half a meter in front of Sean. Still holding onto the rope, he looked up and let some snow slash into his face while letting out a plume of visible breath.

To calm his nerves, he grabbed a trio of seed pods. Two went into his vest pocket. The third he stuck in his mouth and chewed before he climbed down the rope. He found over a dozen more easy-to-grab seed pods on the way down. He couldn’t resist. All went into his vest. His feet barely sunk into the snow before he found himself in a tight embrace.

Sean squeezed tightly, “You weren’t joking! You can climb! And wow… I owe you again!”

Ajax managed a shrug, but grinned. “The tree juice is sticky, but it’s clean and unlike a trash chute, helps with grip…” he licked at his glove, “and tastes good too!”

Once Sean released his grasp, Ajax extended a seed pod, “Here, grabbed a few on the way down. Jasper was right. The ones further up taste even better than those close to the bottom of the tree!”

Sean took the offered pod and took a bite. His eyebrows went up. “Yeah, they sure are!” He secured his pack and pulled the other up over one shoulder. “We best go help Dakota!”

“You go, I’m going to get the clothing Mario brought down.”

By the time Ajax moved to where Diffuso had fallen, he found Mario, Sean, and Diane. The trio had an E-Dome partially set up.

Dakota glanced over his shoulder as Fairfax appeared with the last pack and offered to help. “Guys, the ridge we saw the flaming seed pods come from is north.” He pointed with his right arm. “Grab some food from one of the packs Dean filled and see if you can get to them.” He paused as the speaker in his emergency beacon came to life, “Cadet Sinclair, we have a relay showing you have activated your beacon but are getting stable readings. What is your status?”

“Command, we are on the ground, but Corporal Diffuso is badly injured. His transponder is busted. I stuck a spare one on him, but couldn’t input his ID number because his identification necklace is missing… bet it’s up in the tree he fell through…”

“Understood. Give me the code off the beacon you put on him. We will sync it up from here and give your note-puter full access! But we are using a relay so once the ship is out of range, you’ll be the only one able to get readings.”

Dakota read off the number on the beacon then turned, “Guys, there’s nothing more you can do here… Fairfax, go with. Mario, you should go with them… Sean why don’t you stay here and help me. You can finish the E-dome and help me get Corporal Diffuso in it.”

Fairfax pulled on his pack and grabbed one of the spares.

While Ajax helped Fairfax gear up, Sean pulled his note-puter off his belt and tapped a thick band around his collar. He used the note-puter to activate the short distance transmitter receiver to voice activation. “Diane, I’ve set the T&R to five. We’ll keep in constant contact until you find them.”

“Good idea.” Dakota stated as he grabbed his note-puter and tapped his own coat collar. “We stay in contact until we are all together and basically safe! But remember, we still have a class five star storm up there,” he reminded Sean. “Distance will be cut to at most five kilometers and must be line of sight. But we dropped down almost right under the ship, so they can’t be too far.”

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