units were located, however, he had a team of soldiers to locate and command.
“Any word on other survivors?”
“Negative,” Weslow said with a lowered head, “I counted two dead on my way over, Tiler and Houku, from the engineering team. There should be another debris field to the southwest of here. Saw it on my way down.”
Weslow pointed with one hand as the other reached inside his flight uniform’s pocket. Slowly and almost painfully he extracted it back out and pushed it towards Duntan. In his hand was a pair of small metallic hexagons. Duntan studied his hand for a second before tentatively reaching out to take the identification tags from the captain’s palm. He rolled the tags with his fingers, wishing he wasn’t holding them, but finally touched one of the edges to watch parts of the surface recede into the material to reveal the name, rank, and etched picture hidden there. With a promise to avenge their and everyone else’s lives lost in this attack Duntan made a fist around the two ID tags and stuffed them into one of the armor’s compartments.
“Let’s try to locate the rest, shall we ,” Duntan quickly said as he turned his head in the direction where Weslow had pointed.
He knew there was a faster way to determine the fate of his team and has he stood there part of his shoulder armor detached before accelerating straight up. The micro-UAV ascended to one hundred meters and hovered in place as it scanned the area for any transmissions and signs of live. It took almost no time at all before icons started to appear on Duntan’s display as the UAV detected SOU Echo’s transponders and even communications exchanges between some of the team members. He saw that they were scattered mostly in small groups throughout a one kilometer semicircular area. Two of those transponders, however, were not moving and under direct inquiry to their individual computer systems Duntan saw that their vitals had faded during the crash. The loss of life was starting to finally hit home for the Colonel as each one of those soldiers had been his family and his responsibility
Duntan initiated his comm to give orders to the remaining members of his unit when an incoming encrypted transmission stopped him, “to any available unit this is Sergeant Logwari with a Priority Red request, repeat Priority Red. Kalka HQ has been overrun. We are exfiltrating with the General and require assistance.”
Those words brought new life and a tinge of rage to Duntan. Weslow had suggested that the Kalka subterranean HQ had been destroyed, but there was always some hope in the back of Duntan’s mind that he was wrong. Now as he stood there with his hands in fists, the reality of the situation revealed itself. There was also only one thing Colonel Slaige could do.
“Sergeant, this is Colonel Slaige, Priority request received. Proceed to the destination I send you. Keep off the TacNet and follow my updates,” with renewed determination Duntan brought up the map of the area surrounding the now overrun base and started to formulate a plan.
215km SW of Kalka Mountain Complex
Frontiera
Master Sergeant Felix Logwari felt the shuttle vibrate underneath him even through the insulated armor that covered his entire body. He wasn’t a designated pilot, but he knew enough and with the help of the shuttle’s flight assistance software Felix was able to get the ship under control in the turbulence of the canyon. Cursing under his breath, he corrected the shuttle’s flight path once again as the winds threatened to push it into the tall rocky walls on either side. He hoped above all that Colonel Slaige knew what he was doing and wished they had been able to find a real pilot before evacuating, but there had been no time for that and Felix instinctually made the call to leave as quickly as possible.
The sergeant and his security comrade Specialist Nolan Velarsk had a duty to perform, that of
“Any word on other survivors?”
“Negative,” Weslow said with a lowered head, “I counted two dead on my way over, Tiler and Houku, from the engineering team. There should be another debris field to the southwest of here. Saw it on my way down.”
Weslow pointed with one hand as the other reached inside his flight uniform’s pocket. Slowly and almost painfully he extracted it back out and pushed it towards Duntan. In his hand was a pair of small metallic hexagons. Duntan studied his hand for a second before tentatively reaching out to take the identification tags from the captain’s palm. He rolled the tags with his fingers, wishing he wasn’t holding them, but finally touched one of the edges to watch parts of the surface recede into the material to reveal the name, rank, and etched picture hidden there. With a promise to avenge their and everyone else’s lives lost in this attack Duntan made a fist around the two ID tags and stuffed them into one of the armor’s compartments.
“Let’s try to locate the rest, shall we ,” Duntan quickly said as he turned his head in the direction where Weslow had pointed.
He knew there was a faster way to determine the fate of his team and has he stood there part of his shoulder armor detached before accelerating straight up. The micro-UAV ascended to one hundred meters and hovered in place as it scanned the area for any transmissions and signs of live. It took almost no time at all before icons started to appear on Duntan’s display as the UAV detected SOU Echo’s transponders and even communications exchanges between some of the team members. He saw that they were scattered mostly in small groups throughout a one kilometer semicircular area. Two of those transponders, however, were not moving and under direct inquiry to their individual computer systems Duntan saw that their vitals had faded during the crash. The loss of life was starting to finally hit home for the Colonel as each one of those soldiers had been his family and his responsibility
Duntan initiated his comm to give orders to the remaining members of his unit when an incoming encrypted transmission stopped him, “to any available unit this is Sergeant Logwari with a Priority Red request, repeat Priority Red. Kalka HQ has been overrun. We are exfiltrating with the General and require assistance.”
Those words brought new life and a tinge of rage to Duntan. Weslow had suggested that the Kalka subterranean HQ had been destroyed, but there was always some hope in the back of Duntan’s mind that he was wrong. Now as he stood there with his hands in fists, the reality of the situation revealed itself. There was also only one thing Colonel Slaige could do.
“Sergeant, this is Colonel Slaige, Priority request received. Proceed to the destination I send you. Keep off the TacNet and follow my updates,” with renewed determination Duntan brought up the map of the area surrounding the now overrun base and started to formulate a plan.
215km SW of Kalka Mountain Complex
Frontiera
Master Sergeant Felix Logwari felt the shuttle vibrate underneath him even through the insulated armor that covered his entire body. He wasn’t a designated pilot, but he knew enough and with the help of the shuttle’s flight assistance software Felix was able to get the ship under control in the turbulence of the canyon. Cursing under his breath, he corrected the shuttle’s flight path once again as the winds threatened to push it into the tall rocky walls on either side. He hoped above all that Colonel Slaige knew what he was doing and wished they had been able to find a real pilot before evacuating, but there had been no time for that and Felix instinctually made the call to leave as quickly as possible.
The sergeant and his security comrade Specialist Nolan Velarsk had a duty to perform, that of
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