Attack of the Yetis, page 5
Dobson watched as Rover 3 came to a stop. The vehicle’s side door slid open and a member of its crew emerged from it, waving his arms in a frantic attempt to draw their attention. Communications were still inoperative, so there was no means of seeing what the crew of the rover wanted short of landing. Dobson brought the copter around, doing a circle over the rover as his eyes scanned the snow looking for a spot to land. Dobson didn’t want to land. It was a very risky thing in this environment. There was no choice but to roll the dice and do it though.
The copter touched down not far from Rover 3. Dobson left its engine running as he got out of his seat and hurried to meet the bundled-up figure approaching it. Dr. Seeley kept his seat, waiting to see how things played out. Dobson didn’t force the doc to join him this time. This was something he could handle on his own.
Dobson met the approaching figure halfway between the copter and the rover. The hood of the man’s parka covered his head and he had a cloth tied over the lower half of his face, but Dobson recognized him through it all.
“Lieutenant,” Dobson greeted Larka. “What in the blazes are you doing out here?”
“I could ask you the same,” Larka chuckled. “We were on our way back. The rover got damaged. At first, we thought it was the axle and that we were stuck until you or another rover happened by. We managed to jury-rig her enough though to get her moving.”
“So you’re all okay?” Dobson asked, relief clear in his voice as he spoke.
“Why wouldn’t we be?” Larka asked.
“We just came from what’s left of Rover 1.” Dobson’s lips curled up in disgust as an image of the bodies inside it flashed through his head. “Its whole crew was dead. Something out here ripped its way inside the rover and killed them all.”
“Holy frag,” Larka muttered. “And I thought we had problems.”
“We haven’t had any word from Rover 2 and the sarge’s team since the interference out here picked up. After seeing what happened to Rover 1, we figured you guys might be dead too,” Dobson said.
Noticing the figure still in the helicopter, the lieutenant gestured towards it. “Who’s riding with you?”
“Dr. Seeley,” Dobson answered. “The colonel stayed at base camp to keep an eye on things there. Quinn and Leah are supposed to be working on a means of getting communications up again.”
“Really scraping the bottom of the barrel with Seeley, aren’t you?” Larka asked.
“No one else was able and available to ride shotgun with me,” Dobson explained. “It’s not like I had a choice in the matter.”
Larka nodded. “So can we get a ride out of here? The rover is shaky at best. It could give up and die on us at any second. Besides, we can always come back for it later.”
“No argument from me,” Dobson said, smiling. “Get your guys ready and into the bird.”
Larka ran back to the rover. Bennet and Wallace followed him out of it when he reemerged from the vehicle. The three of them climbed into the copter’s rear, Bennet and Wallace strapping into seats there. Larka moved to stand behind Dobson’s seat as the pilot ran through the copter’s pre-flight checks.
“We’re heading to check on Rover 2 next,” Dobson told the lieutenant.
“Understood,” Larka barked back at him as Dobson finished up and the copter rose from the snow.
****
Rover 2 sat near a snow-covered hill that rose up out of the sea of white as Dobson brought the helicopter in to circle it, trying to get a better look at the rover before coming in for a landing. The rover looked intact and undamaged. Its headlights and interior lights were on. Dobson thought the sarge and his team might be okay like Larka’s crew until the rover’s open side door came into view through the copter’s window.
“They’re dead,” Dr. Seeley said coldly, capturing Dobson’s attention.
“We don’t know that,” Dobson protested.
“But we do,” Seeley said, sighing. “Think about it. The rover’s door is open and its interior lights are on. If there were anyone alive inside it, they would have come out at the sound of our approach just as the lieutenant did.”
“I hate to admit it, but Dr. Seeley might be right on this one,” Larka replied. “Anyone alive down there would have seen and heard us by now.”
Dobson looked from Seeley to Larka and then back at the rover below. “So what, you just want to write them off as dead without landing to check things out?”
“Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor,” Dr. Seeley sneered at him with outright contempt.
“Again, I’m with Seeley on this one,” Larka said.
Dobson and Dr. Seeley had briefed Lieutenant Larka on a more detailed version of what had happened to Rover 1. Cowardice was something Dobson expected from a man like Seeley, but he never would have expected it from the LT. But was it cowardice or just one of the hard calls that came with having an officer’s rank? Dobson wasn’t sure.
“LT, it doesn’t feel right to just fly away without checking things down there out,” Dobson argued. “We don’t know for sure that all of them are dead. What if the sarge is in that rover and just too injured to have gotten the door closed?”
“Do you really believe something like that may be the case?” Dr. Seeley said with a snort.
“The truth is, Dobson,” Larka put a hand on the pilot’s shoulder as he spoke, “after what you two told me about Rover 1, I think the situation could be too dangerous for us to go wading into at the present time. Given that both of the other rovers were attacked, miles apart, it lends credence to the theory that there is more than one of the lifeforms that you say ravaged Rover 1.”
“I get that it’s dangerous but …” Dobson started.
“There are only five of us,” Larka pointed out, “and we’re not exactly armed to the teeth. Heading into an unknown like that mess down there is a good way to get us all killed just like those poor bastards down there. We have no idea of the enemy’s number or strength. Heck, we don’t even know what they are.”
“Listen to the lieutenant,” Seeley urged. “Returning to base and letting the others know what’s happened out here is the only sane course of action.”
“Fine,” Dobson relented. “I’ll take us home. But I am coming back out here to check on the sarge’s team even if I have to do it alone.”
“You won’t,” Larka promised.
****
Everyone aboard the helicopter was quiet as Dobson flew them home. The copter landed at the base less than an hour after leaving the location of Rover 2. Dr. Seeley hurried away to the base’s lab as soon as it had touched down. Larka let Bennet and Wallace loose to get some food into their stomachs and allow them to recover from their time stranded in Rover 3. The work to get it moving had been exhausting and done in below zero temps. Larka himself accompanied Dobson as the pilot went to report in to Colonel Brannon and bring him up to speed on what had happened to the rover teams.
Larka and Dobson found Colonel Brannon in the comm. room with Quinn. Dobson shut the door that led into the rest of the building behind them as they entered.
“That bad?” Colonel Brannon as he saw the expressions of the two men.
“Rover team 1 is dead, sir,” Dobson said. “And the team from Rover 2 is missing in action, possibly dead as well.”
“Rover 2 looked to be abandoned when we located it, sir,” Larka confirmed. “I deemed it too risky for us to set down and investigate it more than what we could from the copter.”
The news hit Brannon like someone punching him in the stomach. He had feared things had gone badly for the teams that had been dispatched to track the radiation signatures, but to have the worst of those fears confirmed and made reality was something else altogether.
“Too dangerous?” he pressed Lieutenant Larka, angry at the chance that Larka may have left men alive there.
“Yes, sir,” Larka said, standing his ground. “Do you want to tell him about Rover 1 or should I?”
“Whatever killed the team in Rover 1,” Dobson said, “it wasn’t human. The rover’s roof had been torn through and its side door shattered. The bodies inside … They were mutilated, Colonel. Whatever killed those men mauled them. From the looks of things, I’d say whatever it was ate parts of them too.”
Brannon stared at the two men, trying to figure out how to respond. “You’re sure about this?”
“Saw it with my own eyes, sir.” Dobson looked on the verge of being sick. “Frankly, sir, I could use a drink right about now.”
“All the evidence points to there being more than one of the creatures that attacked Rover 1,” Larka added. “Rover 3 was also attacked miles from where we found Rover 1. There’s no way to know exactly how many of these things we’re dealing with or where they’ve gone to.”
“You’re wrong,” Quinn spoke up as he rose up from underneath the comm. console he had been working on. He pointed the screwdriver in his hand at Larka. “Think about it, man. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out. The radiation signatures we’ve been picking up are the creatures that killed the rover teams. That’s the only thing that makes sense and explains why those two rovers were attacked but yours wasn’t. Your team didn’t reach the area where the signature you’d been sent after was, did you?”
“No, we didn’t,” Larka admitted. “Or rather, we did, but the radiation signature we had been tracking wasn’t there. It was gone when we arrived.”
“See?” Quinn looked over at Colonel Brannon. “If it had been, all three rover teams would almost certainly be dead now instead of just two of them. Whatever those things out there are, they caught us completely off guard and hit us hard, letting us come to them before making their move.”
“You’re suggesting that these … creatures are intelligent?” Brannon asked Quinn.
“Dr. Harvey and his team say this radiation is alien in origin which means these creatures have to be too,” Quinn answered. “So I will put it this way, they were smart enough to find a way to this planet, weren’t they?”
“God help us. He’s right,” Dobson exclaimed. “Then that means …”
“That means those things could be on their way here next,” Brannon finished for him.
“On the upside, I just finished up the modifications Leah and I developed for the communications gear. We should be back online now and able to send and receive through the interference without it messing with things anymore,” Quinn smiled.
“Good work.” Brannon slapped him on the back. “I want you to make contact with the Hobart ASAP and make them aware of the situation here. I want Captain Shoyer’s copters ready to pick us up on the drop of a dime.”
“We’re running?” Dobson asked. “I was hoping to take the copter back out to Rover 2. We don’t know for sure that its crew is dead. We can’t just leave them out there.”
“I’m sorry, Dobson. I understand where you’re coming from, but that’s just not an option that’s open to us at the moment. Our first priorities have to be securing this camp and getting Dr. Harvey’s science team out of here. The brass will want the data they’ve already collected on the radiation down here,” Brannon said.
“We’re just going to leave them then?” Dobson protested.
“Drop it,” Brannon ordered him. “Quinn can try to reach Rover 2 now that communications are up again. If he can make contact them, you can take your bird out to get them as fast as you can get her prepped. Otherwise, the matter is closed and those men are to be presumed KIA. Do I make myself clear?”
“Crystal,” Dobson growled angrily but said nothing more.
“Lieutenant Larka, I’m afraid that you and your men are the only soldiers I have at hand. I know you just got back, but I need you get to work on securing this base. Are you up to the task?” Brannon asked.
“Consider us on it, sir,” Larka answered. “You know as well as I do though that if those things want to get in here, they’re going to. If they could tear their way inside a rover, these doors and walls will be nothing to them no matter what we do to reinforce them.”
“Just do what you can,” Brannon said. “Dobson, you’re with me. Dr. Harvey isn’t going to like being forced to leave, but we’re not going to give him any choice in the matter.”
****
“Leave? Are you insane?” Dr. Harvey raged. “Our work here is just getting started! We don’t even have a specimen of these creatures emitting the radiation yet.”
“And you won’t, Doctor,” Brannon said, facing down the doctor’s fury. “I’ve already lost six men out there trying to get you one. I won’t lose any more.”
“Allow me to remind you that I am in charge of this operation, Colonel,” Dr. Harvey spat.
“This is a security matter, Doctor, and I have complete and utter authority in regards to those. I can no longer guarantee the safety of you or your team at this facility. As thus, it’s time to go.” Brannon was beginning to lose his cool and hoped it didn’t show.
“Up until this moment, Colonel, the two of us have gotten along rather well here so far. I would hate to have to place a call that would ensure the death of your career,” Dr. Harvey threatened.
“You do what you feel you have to, Doctor. I’ll do the same, and that means I need you and your team loading up for evac. ASAP,” Brannon said firmly.
Dr. Harvey started to continue arguing, but Leah took him by the arm.
“He’s right, sir,” she told Harvey. “We can’t afford to lose all the data we’ve already collected.”
As she led Dr. Harvey away to get him and Seeley started on packing up, Leah glanced over her shoulder at Brannon to flash him a smile. Brannon wasn’t sure what to make of it, but he was glad for her help.
“That could have gone better,” Dobson whispered. “Do you really think he’s going to try to frag your career?”
“Does it matter?” Brannon asked, shrugging. “Come on. I trust Leah can handle things here. We need to get back to Quinn.”
Dobson followed him to the comm. room. Quinn was talking with the Hobart as they arrived.
****
Captain Shoyer stared at Lieutenant Bryson in confusion as she relayed the request Quinn had made to her.
“Colonel Brannon wants what?” he asked.
“The colonel requests that our birds be put on alert status for evac., sir,” Bryson told him. “All of them.”
“And did the colonel give a reason?” Captain Shoyer demanded. “I didn’t think the storm hit them that hard over there.”
“Sir, Colonel Brannon reports that the situation on the mainland has changed. He says three of his men are confirmed dead and another three missing. He believes that the camp is likely to come under attack in the next few hours.”
“Attack? By what?” Shoyer asked, growing even more frustrated.
“I’m afraid that information wasn’t passed onto me, sir,” Bryson answered.
“Should we begin prepping the birds, Captain?” Lifeson, his XO, asked, walking over to stand beside him.
“Prep the birds,” Captain Shoyer ordered. “I want them at alert status and ready to lift off whenever the colonel needs them.”
“Aye, sir,” Lifeson said. “I take it that means you believe Colonel Brannon’s claims then? Six men dead or missing in action? I mean, what kind of trouble could they have possibly run into over there?”
“I don’t know,” Captain Shoyer said. “But whatever it is, it’s serious and our job is to get them out of there if it comes to that.”
“Men of all sorts can and do go whacko down here, sir,” Lifeson commented.
“Brannon’s not one of them,” Captain Shoyer said, glaring at Lifeson. “He’s one of the toughest bastards I’ve ever met. Now get those birds prepped.”
“Yes, sir,” Lifeson answered and headed off to carry out the order.
Captain Shoyer moved to look out the bridge’s window. The Hobart was surrounded by ice. She could handle it though. She was a military ice breaker powered by twin nuclear engines. Captain Shoyer’s crew was an experienced one as well. They would be ready and able to leave the area if that’s what ended up happening. He hoped it didn’t come to that though. Captain Shoyer didn’t know the colonel that well, but he respected the man. The powers that be would have Brannon’s head if the base had to be abandoned though. Too much had been invested in this mission and too much was riding on it. The fact that it was a classified in the highest sense of the term didn’t help matters either. If the powers that be deemed Brannon had screwed up, there would be no real trial. The colonel would be dealt with quietly behind closed doors and punished as they saw fit.
****
Lieutenant Larka watched Wallace finish up welding the main building of the base camp’s rear door shut. The door was made of a thick metal, but the walls around it were not. Welding it would only go so far in terms of keeping something out and not very far at all if Dobson’s story about what happened to Rover 1 was true. Still, the precautions Larka were overseeing were better than none.
“Do you really believe Dobson, sir?” Bennet asked.
Larka looked at Bennet as he answered gauging the soldier’s emotions. “Given the nature of this op., Bennet, why would I have any reason to doubt him? We were sent down here to locate an alien radiation source. That radiation source turning out to be coming from actual aliens shouldn’t seem too un-plausible, should it?”
“I guess not, sir,” Bennet replied. “It’s just all this feels like we’re trapped in some sort of bad horror film is all. I didn’t sign up to fight aliens.”
“None of us did,” Larka grunted, “but here we are nonetheless. Sometimes the battle picks you and not the other way around.”
“Larka!” Colonel Brannon called from the other end of the short corridor.
The lieutenant instinctively snapped to attention at the sound of Brannon’s voice.
“I need you to come to the comm. room,” Colonel Brannon shouted.
Larka left Bennet and Wallace where they were, scurrying to where Brannon stood at the room’s door. Brannon moved aside so he could enter. The Colonel closed the door behind Larka as he entered.
