The Hawaiian Special Forces

Chapter 63

It was sitting in a crate on the docks that they discovered the real reason it was a bad idea to try to sneak into the United States. "Contents manifest," the customs agent requested drolly.

"Here you go, sir."

"Anything not declared in this document that you don't mind losing?"

"Nothing," the Japanese accented voice replied.

Next thing they knew, they heard a hissing sound from one corner of the container, and their HUDs lit up. ::Nanites!:: Hanale warned as they all backed away.

::Counter-measures. NOW!:: Aoloa ordered Lopaka and Hokulani as he started giving his own nanites instructions. After a couple tries, they managed to snatch a sample of the US nanites and deduce their commands: destroy anything not approved on the list provided.

Aoloa managed the countermeasure: nanites of their own with a simple message of "I'm checking here." The result was the US nanites went around them, leaving them unharmed at the back of the crate.

When they left the other side, it was Hanale who voiced, ::Holy shit that was close!:: for all of them. The remains of the deer they'd brought with them were completely gone.

"Nanite report: unlisted biological material detected and removed. This crate is clean, but with twenty pounds of material, that will be a one thousand dollar fine, sir. Be more careful with your inspections before leaving port next time."

"Understood, sir. I know you don't want another incident with our wasps. I apologize profusely for the error."

After a bit, the voices drifted away and the colony allowed themselves to breath again. ::That was way too close! The Americans haven't been slacking since they closed their borders. It's probably just as well they don't want to be the world police again.::

Getting out of their container proved to be more problematic than they'd planned on. Simply activating their comms signals to try to get into various computer systems triggered countermeasures. They'd had another nanite inspection simply by going online. In the end, they waited until they were shipped out of customs two days later. By that point, they were hungry, and it was only their nanites' ability to recycle water that kept them alive.

They broke out of their container on the highway outside Seattle. ::Okay, I never, ever want to do that again!:: Hanale observed.

::Agreed,:: Keaka seconded, with a few others agreeing.

::But we made it in. Once we get down to San Francisco, it's just a matter of getting on a transport to Hawaii, and we're almost done.::

::Aside from the minor issue of getting from the big island to Ni'ihau, that is,:: Lopaka observed.

::I think things will get quite interesting, then. We'll worry about getting to Kauai, first. Then it's just a short swim through pod-infested waters,:: Aoloa rebutted.

Hokulani looked thoughtful for a bit before she suggested, ::What if we stay on the big island? The command bases are all there. If we could take central command captive, we could force them to release Mele and Kaholo to us.::

That prompted a massive discussion as they started going through various possibilities for strategies. Their biggest challenge: how to exert the leverage they needed to get their friends out and get back off the islands unharmed. They all knew the resources the UPS had been exerting were focused in those islands, and they were walking into the lion's den on this one.