[IC] The STARLIGHT Incident (Namelessjake and Shadowcatcher)

[Namelessjake]

Alex lead the 8 man squad across the ice on their four snowmobiles, it was another thirty miles before they would have to radio in. Summer was coming to an end in the Antarctic and the snow wasn't too deep, the sun was still high in the sky for most of the day though. The squad's training earlier in the summer had been worse, trying to sleep in perpetual sunlight was not something Alex had relished. Alex was gazing about across the barren icy wasteland when the radio crackled into life.
"Razor 1 Actual, this is command. Do you copy? " Somewhat surprised, Alex responded.

"Uhhh this is Razor, I copy. This wasn't part of the training exercise." There was a pause before command replied.
"You are to cease your training and proceed to the coordinates being sent to you know. A helicopter from the Dewitt Research Base has crash landed. You are the closest unit we have, you are to secure the crash site and any survivors before heading to the Research Base, which you will secure. Do you copy."

" I copy. Razor out." He said, putting down his radio. A few seconds later he received the coordinates of the crash site and turned the convoy of snowmobiles in the right direction, the rest of the squad would have heard the transmission so they was no need to rely it.

[Shadowcatcher]

Andie had indeed heard the transmission, she was sharing the same snowmobile as their Captain afterall. She looked back behind her and saw that the others were following suit, heading in the direction of the coordinates.

"Hey Wolf," she said in a normal tone knowing he would hear her even over the noice of their ride. "...Any helicopters sent down here are supposed to be meticulously designed to withstand the weather down here. That may mean the 'copter had to have some kind of malfunction within the systems." she said matter-of-factly the way she always did. "However, just like they are designed to handle the weather, they are also not meant to just malfunction out of no where. That means if both of those things are true, it must have been one of two more things." she paused, wondering if maybe she was overthinking this too much.

"The helicopter must have gone down as a result of human error or some kind of sabotage. Considering anyone down here has been trained not to make mistakes, my gut is telling me it was a result of some kind of outside interference." she finished. As Andie stopped speaking she thought about offering a suggestion in regards to a plan, but she held her tongue. It was not her place to make the decisions, that was Alex's job. All she needed to do was give him any kind of information she could, mechanically speaking...that and an extra pair of guns. "If my knowledge about those aircraft are as good as i think, once we get there i might be able to deterine the cause of the crash. I believe it is best to be on our guard."

She stopped speaking then and looked out onto the fast snowy landscape and waited for their Captain to think.

[Namelessjake]

Alex paused thinking over what Andie had said. "You could very well be right. Why it would be sabotaged though I don't know." He replied, adjusting their heading slightly. "Hopefully it'll just have been a malfunction, I'm starting to get sick of this place." He said, knowing that any long delays that had here would likely mean having to redo their training exercise, despite the fact a real operation would been much more beneficial anyway. Sometimes he wondered why they were even here. War with Russia wasn't a certainty by any means and, even if it did come to that, he very much doubted a large amount of the fighting would occur in the Arctic circle.

"We're only a few minutes out now, hopefully there are some survivors." He said over the squad's comms so that more than just Andie would hear. There were 8 of them on the mission. Alex and Andie were on the lead snowmobile followed by, Pope and Mother, then Summit and Kiwi, and Silver and Hawk on the last one. Most of the squad's callsigns had some basis in reality. Mother was the fieldmedic, Hawk an excellent Marksman, Pope was probably the most religious and Kiwi was originally from New Zealand, his callsign had never oozed originality. The helicopter came into view and Alex brought the convoy to a halt. "We'll go on foot from here." He said as he dismounted the snowmobile. "Summit, Kiwi, Silver, Hawk, you stay here ready to bring the snowmobiles over. Everyone else with me." He ordered, once everyone had pulled up and disembarked.

[Shadowcatcher]

Andie got off the snowmobile, her boots making a soft crunching sound against the snow. She walked towards Mother who was coming along with them and stood next to her. Should anything bad end up happening, it was Andie's job to make sure their medic was safe. Afterall, in a real combat situation, the team medic should be the farthest from the action. If she went down, there was no hope of helping others who got injured as well. Andie could fix machines, people....eh, not so much.

The three of them followed Alex towards the crash site. Andie was on her guard, overly cautious as usual, and stayed at the back while Pope and Mother traveled in the middle. She glanced back at her teammates once before she focused ahead.Man....I have a bad feeling about this for some reason. I just hope this time...my gut is wrong. she thought to herself. There was practically nothing out here, and she tried to convince herself that this was going to be simple and easy. Then they'd go back to the training exercise and maybe if her luck was good enough, she'd actually get a decent amount of sleep tonight.

With a sigh she decided to stop thinking about her own ambitions and focus on the task at hand.

[Namelessjake]

The group made their way to the crashed helicopter. It was a civilian transport helicopter, heavily modified for use in the Antarctic. Alex was certainly no expert on anything mechanical. "Hummingbird, try and find out how it crashed. Pope, Mother check the back for survivors." He said, as he pulled open on of the vehicle's side doors. Glancing towards the back he saw three bodies and some cargo. Leaving them for the others he turned towards the cockpit. The pilot's body was covered in blood. The helicopter had clearly hit the ground nose first and the man had been impaled in his seat by part of the wind shield. The snow that had come through the broken glass was red with blood. Alex checked for a pulse, just to make sure. "Dead." He called out to others as he made his way to Pope and Mother. "What have we got?" He asked.

"Two dead, one seemingly unharmed but unconscious." Mother said, still knelt down examining on of the bodies. "Scientists." She added, holding up an identity card, slung round one of the bodies' neck on a lanyard, to show Alex. "The two boxes contain core samples." Pope added, standing over an open container. Nothing too suspicious yet. Alex thought to himself. "Guys bring over the snowmobiles and load up the bodies. We'll have to head for the research base. Mother you deal with the unconscious guy, try and bring him round." He radioed to the others before turning to Andie. "Hummingbird, what's the verdict?"

[Shadowcatcher]

While the others went to check for survivors, Andie followed Alex's orders and went to determine how this helicopter had cashed. She did her usual rounds, assess then determine the problem by process of elimination. Andie studied the body of the helicopter first. The make and model number was written across the tail, it was a newer model of this specific type of 'copter, not the newest but but enough for it to have been built to easily do its job. Looking inside, she noticed the the pilot dead in the part sectioned off as the cockpit and looked to the control systems. They were locked in the place they were at the moment of the crash, other parts of the controls were badly damaged in the crash, too much so for her to figure out if there had been some kind of malfunction. Hmmm....what happened in here? she asked herself before carefully stepping inside. She looked around for signs of a struggle such as bullet holes or cuts on the inside that didnt appear to originate from the crash. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"Hummingbird, what's the verdict?" she heard her Captain call out. She gave one last look around, her eyes falling to the pilot for another moment, before she left the aircraft. With a sigh she stood in front of Alex and her lips parted as she got ready to speak...to tell him that she had found nothing out of the ordinary, but she stopped and hesitated. Wait....the pilot was... She turned back towards the helicopter and jogged over to tht cocpit where the pilot sat dead, still grasping the handle that controlled the direction of the helicopter. This was what she was lookig at.. "Wolf....you need to come and see this." she called to him. The pilot's hands were holding the handle in a way in which, if the helicopter was going down, would not be the correct way to position it. To raise any kind of aircraft, your hands would be pulled back to make the craft raise up. Instead, his hands were positioned to make the nose of the helicopter plunge to the ground. This was human error....but she didn't think it was an accident. It looked as though the pilot had MADE this happen.

[Namelessjake]

Alex joined Andie in the cockpit and let her explain her thoughts. "Hmmmmm... Something is definitely going on here. But what?" He asked rhetorically. "We'd best get to the research base quickly." He added, after pausing for a moment to try and make sense of everything. He headed back out to the snowmobiles where the bodies of the scientists had been loaded onto a sled, with Mother looking after the unconscious one. The pilot's body was trapped in the cockpit and with the strange turn events were starting to take, Alex didn't want to waste time recovering the body. "Okay everyone let's move out, we're headed to Dewitt Research Base." He ordered as he climbed onto his and Andie's snowmobile.

The helicopter hadn't crashed too long after leaving the base so it wouldn't be a long journey. None the less, as the convoy raced across the icy landscape. Alex radioed in to command to keep them updated. A few minutes later the cluster of buildings that was Dewitt Research Base came into view on the horizon. "I've got a bad feeling about this." He said to Andie. "Something definitely isn't right."

[Shadowcatcher]

Andie nodded at her Captains words. She agreed that something fishy was probably going on here. As she clung to his jacket, she thought about saying an "I told you so" at this point but she supposed it could be saved for later. Looking out ahead she saw the Reasearch Base, she started to think about what could have possibly happened in there. Being as there was nothing around this facility for miles, she wondered how anything could have gone wrong. She wasent a scientist afterall, nor had she ever been inside there, but hopefully it would have just been a one time thing and nothing else would need to be done.

In the back of her mind however, she knew that was just a blind wish.

[Namelessjake]

The base itself consisted of one large building, where most of the scientists lived and worked, and then a few other smaller buildings, a radio tower and helipad, forming a compound with a large open space in the middle, the main entrance just being the largest gap between the buildings. As the convoy pulled into the centre of the base, Alex noticed 3 people standing by the main building waiting for them. It made sense, they would have been expecting them and the snowmobiles weren't exactly silent. The squad came to a halt and dismounted. Alex walked over to the scientists. Two woman and a man. One of the women stepped forward to greet him. She was late thirties maybe, blonde, certainly not unattractive.

"I'm Dr Jane Pierce, Head Scientist here at Dewitt." She said, offering Alex a hand.
"Captain Miller." He said shaking her hand. "There was only one survivor of the crash, and he's unconscious. We brought back all the bodies apart from the pilot. Is they anywhere we should put them?" He asked. The other woman burst into tears and ran back inside.
"She was... involved with Mike... The pilot." Dr Pierce said glancing back at the closing door. "Dr Thompson here can show your men where to take the bodies, and you can take the unconscious one to the infirmary." She continued. "Who was the survivor?" Alex had checked the man's identity card earlier.
"Dr Daniel Gooding, if I recall correctly. Mother take him to the infirmary, Summit, Kiwi, Pope, take the bodies with Dr Thompson."
"He'll be devastated when he comes round. Dan and Mike were practically inseparable." Jane replied. "Please come inside, it's far too cold to stay out here all day." She said, maintaining her reserved attitude, although Alex could tell she was clearly somewhat shaken by the ordeal.

The Doctor led them into a communal living area. Chairs, a coffee table and a tv, furnished the somewhat sparse room. Once inside Alex took off his goggles and pulled down the scarf he had been using to cover his face from the cold. He was still confused as to why the helicopter had crashed and he decided to question Jane.
"Dr Pierce, where was the helicopter headed before it crashed?" He asked.
"To the other US owned base down here, MacArthur. We were sending ice cores to them to be tested, our equipment here is broken. Then we got the mayday call and sent out a distress signal."
"Okay, how many people are on this base?"
"15. Well 12 now I suppose." She sighed.
"Hummingbird, Hawk, go find the others and gather everyone in this room." Alex ordered Andie and Hawk. Their second objective had been to secure the base after all. "Do you have a record of your radio transmission with the helicopter and the other base?" He asked Dr Pierce.
"In the radio room. Follow me." She said, Alex indicated for Silver to follow.

[Shadowcatcher]

Andie looked to Hawk. "You should prabably take the side that Mother and Pope went; tell them to meet here. I'll take ths side." she said, jabbing her thumb to the opposite side of the base. He nodded and trudged off and so did she.

Andie was curious abut the radio transmisson records...she wanted to know if her assumpton about the pilot was true, but that was not the objective now. She had to locate all the members on this side of the facility, and seeing as she didnt know how many were on this partcular side, she figured she'd quickly scope out each of the rooms. But hell there were alot. As she walked through the seemingly endless halls of the Research Base, she wondered how a staff of just fifteen people were able to manage and run this place.

No wonder their equipment wasent working. They probably have no one here to maintain it properly....which means since im here, im probably going to be tasked with fixing all this shit. ...What a pain. she sighed and thought to herself. She had gone through multiple doors before finding three people working on something in a small laboratory room. Andie was pleased to finally locate some people. "Hello?" she said as she knocked on the door. Three heads all looked up at her at the same time, two were male, one was female. "Sorry to disturb. Second Leutinant Fox here, I have orders from Dr. Jane Pierce to escort you to the Living Area at the entrance of the base. If you would kindly come with me." she said. She told a lie about the doctor ordering her, just so that they would be compliant and follow her. Which they did. She radioed in then.

"Hummingbird to Hawk, do you copy?" she waited a few moments then heard his reply.
"Hummingbird this is Hawk, I copy. How many have you located."
"Three so far." she responded.
"Well, I have seven on this side, including the unconscious doctor. That means the rest are there with you."
"Copy that Hawk, im going searching for two more heads then."
"Copy." was all he said in return.

She turned to the three scientists. "Alright, you can follow me please." She started walking further into the base before she asked, looking over her shoulder. "Is there anywhere else i could find someone?"

"Whoever is left might be in the Core Lab." one of the men said. He was an older gentleman, short with a dark beard. "I could show you were it is." he suggested. Ande nodded and gave a short thank you before continuing down the hall after him.

[Namelessjake]

Alex followed the Doctor, with Silver close behind. She led them into a room filled with various electronics. The walls were covered with machines and screens, all whirring away, measuring something. The Doctor bent over a computer and pulled up the transmission logs. Alex had hoped for an audio recording but a transcript would do.

<Transmission Log>
Antarctica 4/5/2017 10:21
<Dewitt> Hey Barry, you there?
<MacArthur> Oh yeah, how's it going Elliot?
<Dewitt> Good, just letting you know we're sending the chopper over with some core samples, our equipment is playing up again.
<MacArthur> Right I'll let the lab know. What's it for?
<Dewitt> We were drilling and hit a cavern, with something metal in it. Like big. We need to see how old the ice is, but it's definitely around the 10,000 mark.
<MacArthur> Weird, you send the camera down there?
<Dewitt> Mhm, couldn't see much but what ever it is, it's definitely not natural. No body wants to say it as they'll sound crazy, but extraterrestrial origin is kind of looking probable.... That's why we want to check the core samples, make sure it wasn't just part of another research station that the ice shifted over. I doubt it though.
<MacArthur> You serious? That's crazy. Send the chopper over and keep me updated.

Antarctica 4/5/2017 10:41
<Dewitt-1> This is Dewitt one, we have... errr... a technical problem and we're losing altitude...
<Dewitt> Can you hold it Mike?
<Dewitt-1> *Loud noises*
<Dewitt> Mike? Mike? Shit, send out a distress call. I think the chopper just crashed.

Alex finished reading the screen and turned to Jane. "Extraterrestrial, really?" He said with a hint of skepticism.
"I know it sounds crazy but with all the tests we've run here that does look like the most likely explanation. It's why we wanted to double check over at MacArthur." She replied.
"That's kind of mindblowing." Alex said, looking over the transmission logs again. Suddenly there was a beep on another screen. He looked over to it. It was the base's radar display and it was now showing three dots moving towards the base. Likely snowmobiles at that speed. Alex thought. "How far away is the nearest base on snowmobile?"
"Just over an hour really." Jane replied, now also looking at the display. "It's a French base..." Alex checked his watch. It read 11:32.
"And anyone would have been able to pick up these broadcasts?" He asked, his mind racing.
"Well yes, we don't encrypt anyth-" The Doctor began to reply before Alex interrupted her, time was now of the essence.
"I don't think you're alone in thinking that whatever you've found is of alien origin." He said, making for the door. Things were starting to look like they could get rather messy very quickly. The US and France were on good terms but who knew what countries would do if there really was alien technology beneath the base.

"Everyone, finish what you're doing and get outside as soon as possible." He radioed to the rest of the squad. "We have three snowmobiles in bound. ETA ten minutes. There's a possibility we're sitting on top of something a lot of people are going to want for themselves."

[Shadowcatcher]

Just as Andie and the three scientists reached the Core Lab, she heard Alex radio in.

"Everyone, finish what you're doing and get outside as soon as possible. We have three snowmobiles in bound. ETA ten minutes. There's a possibility we're sitting on top of something a lot of people are going to want for themselves."

She didn't bother to reply to it as she sent one of the scientists in to get the other two guys. After a few moments they came out. "Okay guys, here's the deal. Dr. Pierce wants you all to meet in the Living Area and i need you to come with me. You guys are about to have some company." She started walking back to the entrance, glancing behind occasionally to make sure they were following her. At one point she saw that the woman looked very nervous. "As long as you stay with me, i'll protect you, alright? That's my job, and i am very good at it." she reassured all of them.

Five minutes passed before she found herself back at the entrance. She saw that Hawk had gotten everyone on his side just like he'd said. The rest of the team was gathered there as well. Summit walked over to Andie. "I hope whoever on their way here ain't looking for a fight. 'Cuz they'll lose." he said, confident as usual. They all smiled at that. "Let's hope it wont come to that." she said, patting his large shoulder. With a grunt he strode away, his heavy boots making a light thumping sound.

"Where is Alex?" Mother asked then, moving from her place at the unconscious doctor. His other colleagues were huddled around him, all looking worried.
"He's checking out the recent transmission logs." Silver said, approaching us. Andie was going to say something before she heard the light sound of the approaching snowmobiles.

[Namelessjake]

Alex walked into the room to see that the others had managed to gather everyone in the room and nodded in approval. "Okay, we've got about three minutes now before three snowmobiles get here. We don't have much of a clue who's on them so we're going to use ours for cover." He said as he walked towards the entrance of the building. "Even you Mother, I'm sure he'll be fine and I want to make sure we at least outnumber them." He added when she didn't make to move like the rest of the squad.

Out side the squad's snowmobiles formed an arc around the building's entrance, it would have to do for cover. Alex looked around briefly and noticed a maintenance ladder on the side of the radio tower. "Hawk, get up there quickly." He said pointing to the tower, before making his way over to the middle snowmobile and crouching down behind it. He checked his ammo and levelled his gun at where the snowmobiles would enter the base, out of the corner of his eye he saw the rest of the squad doing the same on either side of him. "Hold fire until I say so. They could be unarmed." He said as the sound of engines grew louder.

"Two riders on the front vehicle, one on the other two." Hawk's voice crackled over the radio. With his height advantage he could already see the snow mobiles approaching the base. "Unarmed civilian clothing." He continued.
"They could have just received the distress call and came to see if they could do anything to help." Mother chimed in.
"Perhaps, don't let your guard down though." Alex said as the snowmobiles came into view.

They slowed down as they pulled into the courtyard area, seemingly not a threat. "Hands up!" Alex shouted across the courtyard as the riders dismounted. They seemed somewhat surprised, not having noticed the squad of soldiers aiming at them. They cooperated and Alex stood up, still keeping them in his sights. "Walk over here, no sudden movements." He said. As the foursome reached him, Alex lowered his weapon. The rest of the squad would have him covered and he doubted they'd be too friendly if he tried to talk to them while pointing a gun in their faces. "Who are you?" He asked, one of the men stepped forward.
"My name is Matthias Deniaud and these are my colleagues." The man said with a noticeable French accent. "We're from the French base nearby, we got the distress call and came to see if we could do anything to help."
"We've got everything under control here." Alex said, aware something was wrong. Matthias said they had left when they heard the distress call but if Jane had been right about the distance earlier then the French had left about fifteen minutes early.
"I see, we'll head back then. I'm glad everything is okay." Matthias replied, and the four Frenchmen turned walking back to their snowmobiles. Alex raised his gun again, watching the men walk across the courtyard. They reached the snowmobiles and paused, doing something Alex couldn't quite make out. Then as they began to mount their vehicles Matthias shouted out. "Maintenant!" The men dived behind their snowmobiles as one of them tossed something at the squad. There was a bang and everything when white. Alex dropped back into his cover behind the snowmobile as he heard someoneshout. "Flashbang." His vision came back as gunfire erupted from behind the other snowmobiles.
"Return fire!" Alex shouted, firing off a few shots, hoping that the Frenchmen hadn't noticed Hawk on the radio tower.