The story so far…..After being shot down and realising that it was an RDF weapon that did it. McCallum’s team is on foot and on their way to the power station. Also Colin, Clyde and Obidiah are on their way to the same location. They are also aware that something is wrong with the RDF. After being on the receiving end of foul play by one of their own. Colonel Shields, the regional commander of Proxima B. Has dispatched a Pathfinder team to check out the power plant that has gone off line. While he’s coordinating efforts back at the RDF base he is unaware that trouble is brewing for him.
Little do any of the teams know. They are all in for more then one surprise at the power plant.
RDF Forward Research Unit, Solar Power Station 7-7-3 Proxima B
The Pathfinder stops at the base of the plateau. The crew, consisting of two RDF troopers and two engineers jump out the back.
“You two just as well stay here, me and Jonty will take a look. There could be radiation leakage”. says Vince
“Sure, what do we know about solar power cells anyway” replies Corporal Hinz.
The two engineers make their way up to the plateau and soon discover why the power station has gone offline.
“What the hell? What’s happened to these battery cells? They’re totalled!” Says Jonty.
“What is that? It looks like a piece of space junk” he continues. “Must be wreckage from one of our satellites. It’s come down, crash landed here and the heat from re entry has caused the battery cells to melt down”
“Heat doesn’t do this to solar battery cells. They would have exploded and turned this plateau into a giant crater. That’s why we build them out here, away from the base. There doesn’t seem to be any radiation though.” replies Vince, studying his particle detector.
“Still, at least the solar dish is intact” says Jonty, cheerfully.
Vince takes a closer look and soon discovers that the battery cells were aggressively drained of power, causing the cells to short out. While Jonty moves over to the space debris for a look.
“This is strange, these cells have melted down. Not because of heat, but because they have completely and rapidly drained of all power. How the hell has that happened?” He remarks.
“This is weird too, look at this. It’s some material which I’ve never seen before. Look how it reacts when I touch it. This isn’t from one of our satellites”.
Jonty raises Corporal Hinz on the personal comms and explains what they’ve found. He gets him to report the situation to Control. Hinz climbs back into the Pathfinder and gets on the radio. The Pathfinders all carry much more powerful radios than their personal comms. The RDF base and Colonel shields would be well out of range of their personal comms.
“Shields isn’t happy, he’s ordered us back” says Hinz
“Well those cells are going to take time to fix. All the while the base will have to run on auxiliary power to pug the gap” says Trooper Chapman.
“Not just that, we are not the only ones to of find an unidentifiable piece of space stuff. Colin and Clyde’s team have found something too. Colonel Shields has declared a state of alert. To top it off, the relief unit set from Mars has arrived through the gate, But they’ve gone down. Colin and Clyde’s team have been set to the Ravens crash site. We’ve been ordered to link up with them when they come though here.” says Hinz.
Hinz speaks into his comms to tell the engineers to make their way back. The repairs to the power cells will have to wait. He gets no reply, Trooper Chapman smiles to himself as if to say typical. He walks over to the path and looks up. To see if the engineers are making their way down, but see no sign of them.
“Oh, what the hell are they doing up there?” Asks Chapman. “I’ll have to go up there” he says.
He starts walking up and gets about half way. When Hinz shouts something over the radio. Chapman curses under his breath and begins to walk back down. Hinz appears round the corner, then to Chapmans horror collapses!
“HINZ” shouts Chapman
He rushes forward then realises that something is very wrong. Hinz, is hurt and: to his horror starts to regrade! As if every DNA strand in Hinz’s body starts to collapse!
Then a figure appears from around the Pathfinder. But like nothing Trooper Chapman had seen before. This person, if it was a person was huge! And Chapman soon noticed the grey object in his hands. Quite clearly a weapon! Chapman had no idea what was happening, nor who this assailant was. He took it as hostile and wasted no time, he clicked the safety off his Heckler-Enfield PBR32 assault rifle and levelled it at the white faceless assailant and fired!
To be continued……….