The Forgotten World, Day 2

The survey drone lifted off the ground with a whine and zipped out of sight towards the remains of the city of Lakeside. Raj had set up several screens in the small administrative building to watch the drone's cameras as it flew. Everyone watching was filled with anticipation and dread. No one expected to see much good, but then again, perhaps there would be survivors visible from the air.

Everyone already knew that the city itself would be a radioactive crater. They had attempted to shield the electronics on the drone, but it was already designed to fly in hostile environments, so it should be ok to do surveillance of the site.

The drone spotted two people waving frantically about 10 kilometers from the farm where the remains of humanity on the planet Idyll were camping. Raj sent the drone lower and spoke through the small speaker on the drone to the pair.

"Head to the farm," he said. "All of us that remain are there. We will send someone toward you to pick you up."

And then the drone zoomed away toward the smoking ruin of their colony. It reached the edge of the giant lake and began crossing it toward the settlement, traveling about 100 kilometers per hour. He spotted no boats - not much of a surprise. The radiation from the site began sending warnings through the drone 30 kilometers from the ruin. The radiation level was incredibly high, even at this distance, confirming that there had been several reactions, not just one.

The entire site would be impossible to reach safely for decades. Raj sent the drone higher in hopes of spotting the settlement from a distance. From 1,000 meters up, the smoking ruin of Lakeside stretched out before them. The heavy forest surrounding the colony city smoked and no structures remained. As the drone got closer, it was evident that no humans could have possibly survived the initial blast.

Gasps and cries came from the group assembled in the administration building. The beeps from the drone's radiation sensor became faster and Raj decided to send it south of the ruin to check for survivors. Anything that somehow survived the initial blast would be killed by the radiation soon enough.

The drone veered toward the shore about 20 kilometers south of Lakeside. Radiation still was strong, but the alarms settled down to a steady drumbeat from the drone.

The road south of Lakeside heading toward the mine was empty but he sent the drone farther south along the road in hopes of spotting anything. A minute later, he was rewarded. The drone spotted four people sitting near an ORV stopped in the road. The solar panels were set up on the road to recharge the vehicle’s battery. The radiation in this area was still too high to be stuck there. They needed to be rescued.

The drone lowered to the road. As it got lower, it was clear that one of the four people was unconscious or dead. He lay on the ground a bit away from the vehicle. The other three people weakly waved at the drone as it approached.

“Hello, this is Raj Lehman from the farm,” he said through the speaker. “The survivors are all coming here. What’s your situation?”

The group appeared to be a family, a woman and two children under 10 or so. The woman stood up and addressed the drone. “I-I think my husband is dead,” she said. “He was close to the blast … and he got away and got us. We were hiking.”

The woman’s voice shook with pain and exhaustion. “The ORV stopped working, we think the radiation may be affecting it somehow. We are all very tired. So tired.”

“If it starts working, you must drive south as soon as possible. If it doesn’t start in the next hour, then start walking south. We will try to get someone to you. We will send some water and food with the drone.”

The woman nodded and seemed to slump with some relief. The children appeared wrung out and exhausted, past crying and close to desperation.

Raj told her they had to move on and the drone zoomed up above the road 100 meters and began traveling south. The drone picked up clusters of people three more times. These people were in better shape. He told them to head to the farm and they would be intercepted on the way.

He still wanted to get a view of Lakeside, so Raj decided to head back north a few kilometers and take the drone up to about a kilometer above ground. From there, the smoking ruin of Lakeside should be visible.

The drone rose higher and higher and the zoom lens was able to focus enough to see the former colony. There was nothing. It was an enormous crater surrounded by burning forest. Not a single building or structure remained and the devastation spread for 10 kilometers in every direction.

“That’s enough,” he said, to no one. “Let’s bring it back and start getting supplies to these people. We need to take our ORV that way and get who we can get and try to fix that broken one.”

Anna came up and wrapped her arms around him from behind. “It will be ok Raj. You’re going to keep us safe.”

Raj wanted to shrug her off. He felt overwhelmed and unprepared, but no one else at the farm could handle it either. Most of the people here were laborers and a few scientists.

A man in a blue uniform of the Naval Expeditionary Force, the quasi military organization that provided security on the planet, came up to Raj. His name was Percy, or something like that. He was beefy and tall and looked like someone who would join the military.

“Mr. Lehman, I have to ask, what are we going to do about the centaurs?” He asked, peering to the west where the last group of the beasts had been spotted.

Fuck. Raj had forgotten about them. Centaurs were dangerous insect-like, sentient beasts that carried spears and hunted humans. They had been a problem the entire time people had been on Idyll, with frequent attacks and several deaths. But they were Stone Age in their capabilities so the humans had held them off from their settled areas.

“You should go with the ORV to get the others,” Raj said. “We will set up the protective barriers. I think we have enough to protect the farm.”