Part 8
Sergeant Thomas Hill tightened the straps on his backpack and readjusted his belt holding his sidearm and various equipment. The sound of clips being loaded and ships being prepped echoed through the cavernous hangar. Around him, four squads of twelve men each checked and rechecked their gear. He reasoned with Captain Relo that 48 commandos would be able to take out the power source and any resistance they met along the way, but Relo wanted a few specialists to go with them. The captain asked Hill to bring Tech Specialist Hannah Culver to help interface with any alien technology they may find and she obliged. Thomas looked over at Culver and smiled with one corner of his mouth. She was looking up and holding her glasses into the light trying to find a smudge.
Bringing her hands back down, she breathed on one of the lenses and rubbed. She glanced up at Hill and squinted. "I'm just finishing up here," Hannah said as she put her glasses back on. She blinked a couple of times. "Thank you for allowing me and my team to come along."
Hill crossed the distance from her in three strides. He gave a reassuring smile to both Hannah and her two junior technicians. The two younger men looked to be turning paler by the minute. He had assigned three more commandos to safeguard Culver's team and they appeared on his right side dressed in full combat gear. "Don't worry, ma'am. These three men will see to your safety."
Sergeant Hill turned and left the group as the three soldiers introduced themselves to Culver's team. Those are good men and she'll be in good hands. He walked over to the small group of four that were sitting on crates discussing the contents on a small holdout display. They were wearing winterized camouflage that was mostly white with shades of blue and purple situated at random points. The two commandos stood up and snapped to attention. Hill casually returned the salute and motioned them to sit down and join him with Abrams and Harper. "Still want to head down there, Lieutenant?" he asked through a wry grin.
Harper laughed. "I think us Navy guys can handle ourselves on the ground just fine, thank you."
Hill noticed the corners of Harper's eyes wrinkle as nervousness bleed into the lieutenant's words. "Never doubted you for a second, Harper." He patted the man on the shoulder and looked over to Kasan. "And how about you, Miss Abrams? Still believe we can talk our way off this planet?" Hill asked in a slightly less playful tone.
Kasan looked up from the display. "Yes, I do." She sighed and put her elbows on her knees. "But I understand the reasons why the captain thinks otherwise, and I won't compromise the mission for my own curiosity."
She straightened up and Sergeant Hill could see a determination in her face that had not been present before. He took this as a good sign. "I look forward to hearing from you all," he said as he took a step backward to view all four. "I hope Hexil will one day realize the strength its people possess." Kasan's eyes darted towards the ground.
A whistle from the deck officer brought everyone's attention to the main airlock as Captain Relo entered the hangar. The troops and personnel filed in some semblance, but the captain waved away any formal line up. "Thank you all for volunteering. I knew none would back down, but this threat is real." His gaze swept across the many faces as deck technicians quieted down and also listened. "Our plan and preparations are as good as we can make them in the time we have. You know your mission and you trust your fellow soldier. Whether we have been led out here by accident or on purpose are irrelevant at this time. Let the historians deal with that as they will." He brought his hands out in front of him and rotated the ring on the third finger of his left hand. "We have a responsibility to keep safe those we love. I don't need to speak of sacrifice, which would be trite, but know this: if you succeed in your mission, thousands of lives will be saved."
He paused for a moment and let the importance of the mission sink in. He returned his hands behind his back. "Since you are going in under the guise of secrecy, Verra One and Two will not be escorting you down, but they will enter the scene if things get dicey. As soon as the power source is blown they will definitely be there to help pull you out."
Lieutenant Brice had one foot on top of a crate and a coffee mug in his hand. He lifted the mug and slightly bowed his head. "We'll be there for you."
Captain Relo smiled and asked, "Any questions? No? Alright, then we are five minutes to zero hour."
The captain saluted his men and Sergeant Hill could not help but feel an ominous departure.
**********
The small stealth ship slowed its decent to the icy terrain. Kasan looked forward through the cockpit viewport and exhaled not realizing she had been holding her breath. Ian Harper was piloting the ship, and after his assurance that he had flow this type of aircraft before, he still didn't convince Kasan of his competence. The ride down was pretty bumpy, but Harper blamed it on turbulence. She leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. Just try to relax. This will all be over in a second.
With the ship in full stealth mode and full jamming it barely made a sound as it crunched the snow beneath the predetermined landing zone. The LZ was a good two kilometers away from the spot of the beacon and they had set down at the base of a hill.
"Not bad, ‘eh?" Harper asked Kasan as he unbuckled his harness. He stood and had to duck his head down to avoid the low ceiling. "We are 2.2 klicks from the site." He moved pass Kasan as she finished with her harness. "Private Brooks, you take point. Private Smith you are behind me and Miss Abrams."
Kasan donned on her neural protector around her head followed by a wool cap. She tied her hair in a ponytail and tucked it under her thick jacket. She had never met Hannah Culver, but the woman seemed to know what she was talking about. She touched the switch near her temple to activate the device and instantly heard a steady hum echo in her skull. It subsided after a couple seconds and she plugged the cables into her belt.
Hexil supplied a long lasting battery-powered waist harness that was able to link all personal devices the user could wear or hold. They also provided a high-grade, lightweight armor vest that she and Harper wore. The commandos were decked out in winterized combat gear complete with scoped rifles and explosives, should the need arise.
They disembarked the ship and crouched as they did a visual survey of the area. Harper tapped Brooks on the shoulder and they moved on. Private Brooks' boots punctured the snow as they started up the side of the hill.
Kasan didn't fully understand the tension between military staff in different branches, but the two infantry soldiers did as they were commanded from the Naval officer. After her initial encounter with the unknown entities, the crew aboard Pioneer seemed to respect her for putting herself in danger and living through it, and these soldiers were no exception. She frowned as she looked at the back of Harper's covered head. In fact, Ian hasn't been flirting with me much at all. She shrugged and took that as a sign that he knew the seriousness of the situation.
Brooks waited at the top of the hill lying prone with his sniper rifle. He was applying an anti-reflective coating on his scope when the other three took positions beside him. "Sensors don't show anything for a good 500 meters," Brooks informed them as he finished with his application.
The other three patched in to Brooks' communicator frequency and the image of what he saw down scope appeared on their personal two-dimensional screens. The display showed a grid pattern with distance-to-target data scrolling away as Brooks zoomed in and out. He focused on a single structure in the center of the clearing. It was roughly 10 by 10 meters and had no entry that they could see. He adjusted the scope and the image switched to thermal readings. While the structure did have heat, there were currently no lifeforms inside.
"I don't get it," Kasan said as she looked over at Harper. "What's the point of inviting someone to talk and don't show up yourself?"
"Maybe they're waiting for us to arrive before they reveal themselves?" Harper offered.
Private Smith leaned back to look at both Harper and Kasan. "That structure is exactly where the beacon is homing."
Brooks zoomed out and refocused on the hillsides looking down towards the clearing. The range was 1.5 kilometers and he traced the outline of the ridge.
"Wait! Go back," Harper ordered as something caught his eye.
Kasan squinted as she tried to make out what Ian saw on the screen. Brooks reversed his direction and returned to the point Ian said he saw something. It was a tiny red light that flickered on and off. All four strained their eyes as much as they could and Brooks zoomed in at maximum magnification. A metallic, boxy form hovering a meter off the ground slowly swept the area with a red beam.
Private Smith's sensor gear started beeping and he switched the view of his display to read the information. His head came up and the other three could hear him gasp.
Kasan tore her eyes off the screen and looked out across the frozen landscape. Her jaw dropped as hundreds of red lights illuminated the clearing below from across the entire ridgeline. The white snow turned the color of blood.
The lights were headed their way.
New story out! Halo: Below the Brine
(it's the best story you're not reading!)