Risk of Revelations

[JonasHudson]

The sun was approaching directly overhead, as a party of five, in a single column, evenly spaced, crept its way up a desert pass between two rock outcroppings.

Even treading lightly, the area was dusty, and the heat had the ground at its hottest and dryest point of the daily cycle. When they'd landed it was still dawn, cool and damp. Now, the heat was starting to kick in. Dust was in the air as they stirred the ground with their steps. The dust combined with the already rusty glow of the Leeds sky left a red haze over the area.

They were all properly outfitted, but for a short range jaunt. Jonas was in the middle, his side arm in hand as he looked over the heads of the others, into the distance. Ahead of them, still a couple hundred meters out and above them, was the wreck of the Gallic battleship they'd detected some slight energy signatures from. Nothing definitive, but worth a look. Could just be residual energy left in parts of the ship's engines, or some smaller sub system. Could mean survivors, could mean something of value. Only one way to find out.

As they approached, from the bow of the ship, many breaches in the hull were visible. The entire ship itself was also slightly 'bent' from the impact, as it shaped to the relief of the terrain that it landed on, which was near the top of a crater, on an outcropping against the inner wall, which formed the peak of a ridge. Jonas's party approached from a small path that lined the crater, leading around the edge from the bottom, where their freighter Stratocaster was sitting on stand by. Their engineer Boltcutter on watch.

When they got close enough up the hill, Jonas whistled once to signal to his men in front. They took a knee and the party closed in to huddle up near the rock wall they were following. Everyone kept their eyes scanning around them for any surprises, keeping the old light machine guns they were armed with aimed outwards.

"Alright, Bulldog, Jumpstart, you two stay here, take cover. Keep an eye on the wreck" he said as he pointed up the hill with his finger, "and you keep an eye on the way out, stay at the ready, don't radio in unless something happens" he gestured down the hill. Otherwise, I'll call you if needed. I'll check in within an hour. Hold tight until we get back"

The two men, former mercenary, former BAF, looked at each other. One said "What if you don't come back". Hudson looked at him, and at the path leading back to the ship. He then turned to the others as they took their positions, with puzzled looks on their faces.

"Cylone, I want you and your heavy machine gun at point, you and her are with me. Butterfly, you watch my back. Be ready with the door decoder. If things start blowing up, I don't want to wind up stuck fighting with each bulkhead divider as we go" he went on in his raspy, slighty 'old London' accent. The machine gunner, the 'big guy' of the group, well adorned with a couple belts of extra rounds, sporting a 'do-rag' rather than a helmet, half winked and nodded his acknowledgement as he silently turned back towards the wreck.

"You might wanna see this" She said in a matter of fact tone, as she turned to him with a small device with a glowing screen. A clicking sound could be heard lightly from it, like a light static, "Giger counter's in the yellow already, we could be orange by the time we get inside. Just thought we might want to avoid the barbecue" she said as she threw the device over her shoulder on a sling, and picked up her weapon.

"I heard it. Let me know when we're just about at red. I mean a hair length away. Still decon safe levels, you know what I mean" he replied half chuckling. She gave him a concerned look, half shook her head and went back to fiddling with some other gear. 'Alright, stay low, and quiet. We haven't picked up any signs of enemy activity, but with this radiation, our scanners might not be so reliable. Its more than I was hoping for. Still, we'll get inside and do more scans from there at least"

The last thing he did, before signalling, was pull a small pack he'd had slung over his shoulder foward in front of him. He pulled out a small case resembling a miniature silver briefcase, and opened it. He held it close, so that only he could see its contents. From his perspective, he looked down at a small screen with numbers on it, embedded over several small tubes marked with radiation symbols, labelled EXPLOSIVE. He flicked a switch on the panel which caused the digits to read STNDBY, before closing it up, and slinging it again.

"Lets move out..."

---

Leeds Resistance Forces | Tales of a Renegade |The Freelancer

<<<TAU ENTERPRISES>>>