Hot Drop by J Dark

Author:J Dark [Dark, J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Paper Angel Press
Published: 2017-07-01T07:00:00+00:00

* * *

She made certain the channel remained private. Sealing herself in, and turning her ECM systems fully active, she raged at their nebulous orders. It was clear to her that the entire mission had been a misdirection of some kind, but for her life she couldn’t figure out why. There seemed to be no reason for the sudden capriciousness of their orders. As she raged inwardly, it felt like a fog was lifting. Her head started to ache, then cleared.

What the hell is happening?

She remembered the mission. They’d been tasked with a rescue, to be certain, but it was a rescue of the rescue team and the original science team.

“Our last mission was a complete failure. Something affected the team through the power suits. There was no communication and the radio chatter, while sounding normal, was not the parameters that had been in the briefing. Keep alert and observe two changes in standard operational procedures. One, always remain in visual range of each other. Do not use your HUD; use your eyes. Two, maintain constant communications with Control. Keep the comm open at all times. Do not go dark.”

We blew it! What is going on here? How did … the ECM gear. I turned it on to keep from being heard by Control.

Tripoli looked at the others, all of whom had settled down on the damp earth. Their bodies had turned toward her, waiting for orders. She moved to the nearest soldier, and pressed her helmet to his. “Wendell, can you hear me?”

“Shore can, Corp.”

“Turn on your ECM, then get Marco to turn his on.”

“Done.” Wendell’s hands came up to his helmet. “Oh man!” He started to pull at his helmet, then stopped.

Tripoli kept her helmet tight against his. “Wendell, you good?”

“Frosty, Corp. What is that? My gawd, what they hell was hap’nin to us?”

“Get over to Marco, and get him on ECM. I’ll get Simon and Carter.”

A few minutes later, all five had their ECM on and were discussing the situation. They huddled close, five helmets in a circle pressed tight to one another, so their voices could be heard.

“We call for pickup, and get this intel back to Control,” Marco said.

“No. In order to call for pickup, we have to drop the ECM, and we don’t know how fast this operates. For all we know, it could be instant”, Tripoli said tersely.

“They gotta know something’s up. Going dark was what they specifically said not to do,” Simon replied, remembering their orders.

“Good sense,” Tripoli replied. “But the wrong choice here. ECM’s the only thing that cleared our heads.”

“I wonder why it works,” Simon asked thoughtfully.

“Right now, I don’t care. It’s got our heads clear, so we keep them going and see about the Sarge first, then the mission,” Tripoli said. “You apes ready to go?”

“Locked and loaded!” came four muffled voices.

“Good. Simon, Carter. First team, you lead out. We go a slow walk. Watch for movement or noise. Use hand signals. If you see something, call huddle.”

“Yes, Corp,” both Simon and Carter replied.

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