by Ken Lozito
The first troop carrier ship rose into the air and headed off into the northeast. The second ship took off soon after that, heading in a different direction. The sounds of the engines faded and all was quiet but for the nightly hum of New Earth. Connor glanced over at the Hellcat. Their gear was already on board, but they wouldn’t be flying out just yet. He and Diaz would be monitoring the two teams from the command center for a time and then head out after that. None of the recruits knew for sure whether Connor or Diaz would be out in the field with them, but Connor suspected they knew there’d be a good chance they would be.
They walked back to the command center and Connor brought up a map on the main holoscreen, then launched a secondary window to run a check through the automated protocols Noah had set up for him. He’d dispatched a trio of drones to monitor the two quadrants where his recruits would be. As part of the standard deployment, Connor had equipped both teams with a drone of their own to use as they saw fit, but the tactical drones the teams were using were smaller and didn’t have the range that Connor’s patrol drones had.
Diaz poured them both a cup of coffee that they drank while watching the progress the two troop carriers made as they approached their destinations. Connor uploaded a report back to Field Operations so the monitoring division was aware that the scheduled training mission had begun. They monitored each of the troop carrier’s comlinks, and Team Alpha had just reached their drop-off location. The drop feed showed each of the recruits’ heat signatures on the ground. Their names appeared on screen as their locators transmitted their position to the GPS satellites in orbit. Winters had Compton and Jackson on point, and Connor brought up the output from Winter’s PDA. She already had the location of the expedition marked on their map, and a few minutes later they started heading toward it. The second distress beacon call was also designated in the vicinity of the last known location of the expedition.
“There they go,” Diaz said.
“We’ve run enough nighttime exercises for them to function in those conditions,” Connor said.
Team Bravo reached their location at the edge of a canyon. They would need to find a way into the canyon to reach the survey ship.
“I wonder how long it will take Randle to find a path down into the canyon at night,” Diaz said.
“If it were me, I’d check in with Command Central for a survey map of the area, and if I didn’t have that, I’d split into two groups to scout for a way down into the canyon,” Connor said.
A few minutes later Randle called in, asking for a topographical map of the quadrant he was in, and Connor transferred the information back to them. There was more than one way to achieve the objective, but time was always of the essence.
The hours went by quickly as they monitored each team’s steady progress. They moved quicker once it was daytime. Team Bravo would reach their first victim soon. As part of the exercise, Connor and Diaz had built in tripwires that would create different situations, depending on when the teams reached them. The distress beacon that Team Alpha was moving toward went offline. They quickened their pace, and Winters sent an update back to them.
“Almost time for us to take this show on the road,” Diaz said. Working from his own holoscreen, he frowned. “What the hell is that?”
Connor glanced over but didn’t see anything on the screen. “Play back the drone feed from thirty seconds ago.”
Several hundred meters away, the infrared spectrum of the feed revealed several creatures following the recruits on Team Bravo. Then they disappeared, as if the creatures were suddenly cloaked in a shroud of cold that prevented them from being detected.
They had the drone focus in on the area but couldn’t find anything.
“I’m not sure what they were. Could be they’ve got something following them,” Diaz said.
“We can do a flyover with the Hellcat once they call in a pickup for the first victim,” Connor said.
“Is that the broken leg?”
“That’s the one,” Connor said.
A few minutes later, Randle called in to Command Central for a pickup. They’d found the first person from the survey ship.
“Where are the other survivors?” Connor asked.
“The victim has lost consciousness due to the pain of his injuries and is not responsive, sir,” Randle replied.
“Understood. Hellcat is being deployed and will be at your position within the next thirty minutes,” Connor said.
They set the camp systems to follow passive protocols, including the fence remaining electrified to deter any curious creatures, and left the command center. Connor and Diaz walked over to the Hellcat troop carrier that had been assigned to Search and Rescue. Connor used his implants to send his authorization, and the side entrance door opened. He climbed aboard and headed to the cockpit. The Hellcat’s systems came online, and he established a connection to the camp’s computer system. All data feeds would funnel through there. Diaz joined him in the cockpit and sat down in the copilot’s seat.
Diaz checked the ship’s systems. “All systems ready.”
Connor engaged the engines and the Hellcat rose into the air. His heads-up display showed Team Bravo’s location through the retrieval beacon they’d set up. Connor punched the coordinates into the navigation system and pushed the throttle. Their velocity took Diaz by surprise.
“A little warning would have been nice,” Diaz said.
Connor had spiked the velocity, which caused a delay in compensation by the inertia dampeners. He’d been expecting it, so he was ready when the brief gravitational forces pressed him into the seat. Diaz wasn’t.
“This is payback for all those comments about Lenora, isn’t it?” Diaz said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. We have an unconscious victim who requires medical attention, so I maximized the speed,” Connor replied innocently.
Diaz snorted. “Right,” he said, sounding unconvinced.
The Hellcat sped across the skies, and fifteen minutes later they were closing in on Team Bravo’s position. Randle waved at them. The Hellcat was a highly maneuverable carrier ship that could navigate the small spaces inside the canyon if required, but Team Bravo had harnessed the victim and brought him up to the top of the canyon to expedite the rescue operation. Connor set the Hellcat down and opened the rear doors. He and Diaz raced to the back of the ship. Recruit Blake was there, along with Ramirez and Quinn. They carried the ballistics-gel form of a one-hundred-and-eighty-pound man.
“Sir, the victim’s injuries were sustained from a fall while climbing down the canyon wall. Bruising and basic med scans indicate several bone fractures on the victim’s right leg, including the femur. There is no evidence of internal bleeding, but the victim should be put into a medical capsule immediately and treated by the doctors at the main compound,” Blake said.
Diaz had a stretcher ready to go, and Ramirez and Quinn helped transfer the victim onto it.
“Confirmed transfer of the victim. We’ll get him the help he needs. Was he alone?” Connor asked.
“Sir, we believe the victim was going for help when the accident occurred. No distress beacons have been detected, but we’ve found evidence of the trail the victim was following. We intend to follow it and hopefully find the other members of the survey team,” Randle said.
“Understood. We’ll update Command Central with the status and alert the hospital at the main compound,” Connor replied.
He and Diaz were playing the part of the emergency response team. Randle left the Hellcat and joined the rest of his team that was following Marten, who’d found the victim’s trail.
He and Diaz secured the victim and updated Team Bravo’s performance ratings for the exercise.
“They did a good job,” Diaz said when they were back in the cockpit.
Connor lifted off. “They did everything by the book. The next one won’t be so easy.”
Some of the victims had timers counting down, and the more time it took the rescue team to
find them, the worse their injuries would become until the victim eventually died. As with any search and rescue operation, they were always running against the clock. Team Bravo had handled themselves professionally and stuck to established protocols. Connor couldn’t be prouder of them.
“Let’s do a sweep of the area,” Connor said.
Diaz cleared the view on the heads-up display, and the onboard cameras piped in a live video feed. In a few moments, they were over where Diaz had spotted the creatures that might have been stalking Team Bravo.
“I got nothing,” Diaz said. He cycled the feeds through several visual spectrums, and while there were some forms of wildlife, they weren’t what they’d seen before.
“Maybe whatever it was has moved on,” Connor said.
He glanced at one of the feeds and saw a herd of landrunners moving south. Their long legs propelled them at great speeds that people could only match using machines.
“Sean says they can maintain that speed all day,” Diaz said.
Connor nodded. The landrunner herds hadn’t gone anywhere near the main compound, which was why it was such a shock for Connor when he’d first encountered them while scouting for an area to establish the training camp.
“Let’s see what Team Alpha’s doing,” Connor said and brought up the map.
“She split the team. I was wondering how she’d handle the second beacon,” Diaz said.
Elyse Winters had split her six-person team into two groups of three. Preferring not to waste fuel, Connor set the Hellcat down while they watched Team Alpha’s progress. The first group closed in on the distress beacon and later reported that they’d found a colonist who’d gotten separated from the expedition and was now traveling with the team.
“They found the hologram of the lost colonist,” Connor said.
The small team was now working their way toward Winters and the others. Winters opened a comlink to Command Central.
“This is COMCENT. Go ahead, Team Alpha,” Connor said.
“Winters reporting in. We’ve located the second distress beacon, but there are no colonists nearby. We’ll continue to do a sweep of the area and look for signs of where they may have gone. We’ve found berwolf tracks near the beacon and suspect the colonist left the area to take refuge on higher ground.”
“Acknowledged, Team Alpha. Proceed with caution,” Connor replied.
He closed the connection.
“I thought the tracks were a nice touch,” Diaz said.
A warning of inclement weather broadcasted from the main compound.
“Looks like we’re gonna get some storms moving through the area,” Connor said. He brought up the weather feed, which showed projections for high winds and thunderstorms.
Diaz peered at the feed. “They might have to hunker down until it passes.”
Connor forwarded the weather alert to the two teams, along with the standard recommendation for taking shelter. Over the next hour, the skies became dark with storm clouds and distant thunder boomed across the sky. If the wind got bad enough, he’d have to send the patrol drones to a safe area until the storm passed. The storm system moving in looked like it was going to be around for a few hours, and with the onset of nightfall, both teams would be searching in the dark. Team Bravo had found an overhang under which to weather the storm, but Team Alpha was still moving.
“She should have found shelter by now,” Diaz said.
“She’s determined to find the rest of the expedition,” Connor said.
“Yeah, but they’re in a flood plain, and if there are flash floods, this could become a real rescue mission,” Diaz said.
The drone feed showed Team Alpha navigating across a rocky terrain, angling upward. Connor had the drone pan the camera up and saw a cave.
“Shit,” Connor said in surprise. He’d been so distracted by the storm that he hadn’t paid attention to where Team Alpha was.
“Is that the entrance to the cave where you put the rest of the expedition?” Diaz asked.
“Yeah, but Winters found a faster way to it. We assumed she’d follow the path over it and have to rappel down to the entrance once they’d found it,” Connor said.
That was the original plan. Winters must have done her own area surveys and narrowed down the potential locations the expedition would have used for shelter.
The storm blew in and lasted for most of the night. Both teams had checked in, and Winters reported the successful rescue of the expedition that had become lost while scouting for potential mineral deposits. The members of the expedition suffered from dehydration and exposure because they didn’t have their survival packs with them. Winters completed the rescue simulation and, in actuality, retrieved the holograms Connor had placed in the cave.
“Winters is doing a great job. She could lead her own team,” Diaz said.
They were standing outside the cockpit, stretching their legs and taking advantage of the downtime to rest while the storm blew through the area. Diaz’s snoring had echoed from the cargo area most of the night. Connor only needed a few hours’ sleep, so he’d spent the time monitoring the teams and writing up his own evaluation of their simulated survival mission mixed with a search and rescue exercise.
“She’s doing well. I reviewed the drones I had assigned to Team Alpha and saw that she took a gamble by leading the team through a ravine to reach that cave. In this case, it paid off, but that may not work the next time,” Connor said.
“Maybe. She made a decision and took a risk based on the information she had. What would you have done differently?” Diaz asked.
“I would have stayed with the high ground as long as I could before committing to going to the cave. We’ll need to account for that when we train the next group,” Connor said.
Diaz rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. The sound of it sent a shudder through Connor. He couldn’t even stand the sound of someone cracking their knuckles.
“Think there’ll be another group?” Diaz asked.
“You bet. This class is good. Most of them came to us with some training, with the obvious exception, but even Sean Quinn has shown a level of commitment I hadn’t expected,” Connor said.
“That kid looks up to you. I think you’re the first person to really challenge him,” Diaz said.
They had a quick breakfast of some tasty field rations, and Diaz grumbled about the lack of coffee. They’d returned to the Hellcat’s cockpit when a comlink from Team Bravo reached them.
“This is COMCENT. Go ahead,” Connor said.
“This is Team Bravo. We’ve found the survey ship and three remaining members of the survey team—one survivor and two casualties,” Randle said.
“Confirm one survivor and two casualties. What was the cause of death for the two casualties?” Connor asked.
“One person died from injuries sustained during an emergency landing. The second person survived the emergency landing but bled out from her injuries after eighteen hours,” Randle said.
Connor heard the bitter tone of failure in Randle’s voice. This was a hard lesson for them to learn. Had the storm not come in, they might have saved the second person. This was one of the reasons Connor used adaptive simulations so the outcomes would change as the exercise progressed.
“Understood, Team Bravo. Rescue simulation complete. Updated mission parameters being transmitted to you now. You have forty-eight hours to reach the extraction point,” Connor said.
There was a long pause and Connor knew Randle was blaming himself, but Connor knew better than to break protocol. Team Bravo hadn’t failed this exercise. How Randle handled himself would be a clear indication of what kind of soldier he’d be. The same went for the rest of the team.
“Acknowledged. Received updated coordinates. Team Bravo, out,” Randle said.
The comlink closed. Connor had decided last night to change the extraction point for each team and had more updates for them as they closed in on their destinations.
“Sir, are we asking too mu
ch from the recruits with all these changes?” Diaz asked.
“They need to be challenged and be able to deal with unanticipated events. If we just gave them a set of coordinates and said get there at a predetermined time, that might challenge them, but I’m aiming to keep them off balance. They need to be able to adapt,” Connor said.
He glanced at one of the video feeds that showed the area ahead of the ship. A shadow passed beyond the view of the camera, and Connor adjusted it. They were in a small clearing surrounded by forest. Grassy plains stretched out before them until the forest started back up again. Connor brought the video feed to the main holoscreen.
“What is it?” Diaz asked.
“I thought I saw something—” Connor began and stopped.
Ahead of them Connor saw the spotted back of a ryklar standing up and glancing toward their ship. If it hadn’t moved, he might have missed it. The red-colored protrusions around the creature’s mouth made it look as if it had recently killed something.
“Crap! Where’d that thing come from?” Diaz said.
“There’ve got to be more of them,” Connor said.
“What’s it doing just standing there?” Diaz said and blew out a breath. “That thing is creepy.”
The ryklar’s muscular chest heaved and it backed up toward the forest.
“I think it wanted to be seen,” Connor said.
“Seriously? What the hell for?”
“I bet it wants us to follow it,” Connor said.
Diaz’s eyes widened. He accessed the video feed interface, and a row of feeds appeared, showing the area surrounding the ship.
“I wonder . . .” Connor said.
“Please tell me you’re not going out there,” Diaz said.
Connor shook his head. “No, but let’s see if it responds.”
Connor activated the searchlight on the nose of the ship. He powered it off and on three times before leaving it off. The ryklar jumped back, startled by the light. Then the creature let out a shrill scream and charged forward a few steps before pounding its clawed fists on the ground.