595 sighed. That was the boring, correct way to handle the situation, yes. “Fine. We wait.” With all the power coursing through her right now, she had to make a conscious effort to stay rational. She lowered her visor; it crawled back over her face and bright blue eyes.

[hr]

Far away, further up the side of the valley, two creatures watched the twin lamps disappear. After a short exchange, one of them set off back down into the valley’s basin at a run.

[hr]

“There...that...should do it.” Dr Wetherall groaned as they maneuvered the last of the mast’s supporting legs into position. “Start on the transit station, would you please?” He asked his two juniors, before turning the comms mast on. He stayed by the control panel while he tried for home. “This is Olive Branch calling base. Come in, over.” No answer. Dr Wetherall made a few changes to the configuration and tried again. “Base, this is Olive Branch, come in please.”

[hr]

Back in the real world, aboard the FOB, the lab was suddenly filled with a whirlwind of white noise. Freyr jumped out of her seat and approached the comms console where one of her team was already sat. “Isolate that signal, clean it up!”

[hr]

“I have one foot-mobile moving into town.” Athena reported after about ten minutes of Dr Wetherall trying unsuccessfully to get through to the real world on comms. She shared her view through the scope with the group. A faint, red and yellow blob was quickly traversing through the black canvas of the landscape toward a cluster of shapes identified as buildings. 

“Great, there goes the element of surprise.” 595 commented, just as Thebes and Saddam successfully deployed the shield around the area being prepared as a transit station.