Eden's Children (Earth Exiles Book 2) by Mark Harritt Read Free Book Online

everyone could talk on.  There were three team channels, one for the Mechs, one for the security team, and one for the Spec Ops team, or Mech, Sec, and Spec.  Mickey had taken the naming convention further, naming Luis and John the Tec team during training maneuvers.  The name stuck.  Mike, Jennifer, Ken, and Everett were also able to open up a private channel to each other as needed. 
    He heard a familiar, melodic voice in his ear, “Roger Mike, I hear you five by five.”
    “Hey Jen, your team ready to go out there?” he asked.
    “Yeah, Teams up, ready to go,” she replied.
    “Ken, what about your team?”
    “Waiting on one.  I’ll give you the heads up when he’s ready.”
    Mike knew immediately that Ken was talking about Joseph.  Mike was going to have to talk to Murph about that problem.  If anybody could kick Joseph in the ass, it was Murph.
    “Team, I need a SITREP.”
    The team started with Everett, and worked through the ranks until Tom replied, “Tom reporting, Green across the board.”
    Mike leaned over to pick up his rifle.  He slung it over his chest.
    Ken reported, “Mike, Sec team’s up.”
    “Alright, Spec team on me.  Sec team, start deploying outside.  Mech team, you ready to take up positions?”
    Ken started rattling off commands to his team on a sub channel.  Mike headed towards the door with his team behind him.
    Jennifer answered him, “Roger Mike, Mech team is taking up position on the wall.”
    Mike walked out of the tunnel, stopping short as the Mech team moved forward.  Beyond the ledge, sheets of rain decreased visibility.  Water sloughed off of the cliff face, creating a curtain that Mike could barely see through.  It was a miserable day, though soon it would be a miserable night.  It was twilight, the daylight waning.  The landing shimmered in the light cast from the tunnel and lights used for Mech maintenance on the ledge.
    Randall, Weitz and McFarland walked by with the rest of the techs, heading into the tunnel.  Randall and Weitz ignored the soldiers as they walked past.  Randall had that superior look on her face and Weitz just looked annoyed.  Bobby McFarland had a completely different attitude, wishing everybody luck.
    If there was one thing that all factions agreed on, it was that the mech armor had to have constant maintenance, upgraded with any reasonable weapons or tech they found on the static ‘net that they could fabricate.  In this world, the only thing that kept the monsters from killing them was the Mech armor.  Techs were constantly busy making sure that the mechs were in perfect working order.
    With the unlimited energy offered by the quantum batteries, it made sense to concentrate on energy weapons.  Two new weapons had been added to the mechs.  Both were non-lethal, but they would incapacitate anything that they were aimed at.  One was a short wave microwave weapon that made an assailant feel like their skin was on fire.  The other was a subsonic sound weapon that immediately made an assailant feel sick to their stomach, and at high energy, could make them vomit and void their bowels.  It wasn't pretty, but it was effective.
    Mike waited until the last tech cleared out of the way, and then stepped into the rain.  Twilight had turned to dark.  His display went from regular light to starlight as he moved forward.  Unlike conventional starlight, his view was three dimensional due to the multiple lenses on the face of the helmet.
    It was sweltering hot in the humidity from the rain.  He looked at an icon on his helmet, and the neural interface dropped the temp down another ten degrees.  Immediately, he felt the difference as the suit shunted his body heat and worked to cool him down.
    The rain poured down, working its way through the cracks and soon Mike was soaked.  He wished he was inside one of the mechs.  It would be nice and dry in there.  It was going to be a very wet night.
    “Ken, there are eight of you, and five of