UNSCDF2 Chapter 25- Secronom Research Facility

Reygi, Kandahar, Afghanistan

Secronom Research Facility

April 20, 2001
1510 Local Time

            “They are here somewhere. They couldn’t have gone far.” Williams spoke to Green quietly.

            “Let’s get Christopher off the turret in case they snipe.” Green suggested.

            “Alright.” Williams waved at Christopher.

            Christopher hopped off the Warthog turret and grabbed his M16 from the back of the vehicle. Green knelt down to the ground and saw some blood drips leading away from the dead Russian soldier.

            “Staff Sergeant.” Green pointed at the ground.

            “Get ready.” Williams cocked his gun.

            Christopher ran up beside Williams and looked at him. Williams pointed at the blood trail and Christopher nodded. Green took point as he led the team down the trail. After a few meters, the blood trail disappeared as wind blew dust around.

            “Check those rocks.” Williams pointed at some rocks a couple of meters in front of them.

            Christopher steadied his M16 as he approached the rocks while Green watched his sides. Williams held his SA80’s scope close to his face as he shuffled closely behind Green. As Christopher reached the corner of the rocks, he stuck his fingers up in the air.

            “Three…two…one.” Christopher counted quietly.

            As soon as Christopher’s fingers counted zero, Christopher quickly turned around the corner and scanned for hostiles. Green immediately followed and grasped his M16 tightly. There was a small pool of blood, but there was no one. Williams knelt to the ground and examined for footprints. There were two faint set of footprints leading away from the rocks.

            “There.” Williams waved his hand for his marines to follow him.

            The set of footprints turned around the rocks and back to where they came from.

            “Warthog…” Christopher looked at their Warthog in the distance.

            Two soldiers were running steadily towards their parked Warthog in the distance. One soldier appeared to be injured, but was still keeping his pace towards the Warthog.

            “Freeze!” Green shouted.

            The moment Green shouted, the injured soldier turned around and fired his AK47 while the other soldier continued to run. The marines took some cover and began to fire back. Williams aimed his sights at the injured solider and changed the angle of elevation. He fired two rounds and the injured soldier dropped to the ground dead.

            “Got him.” Williams exclaimed.

            “He’s getting away.” Green rushed forward towards the Warthog.

            “Don’t let him get on the Warthog.” Williams sprinted.

            The soldier climbed into the driver’s seat and turned on the ignition. Green fired a couple of rounds, but missed.

            “The tires.” Christopher shouted as he aimed.

            The Warthog began to move away from the marines as they fired. The bullets had a tough time penetrating the thick rubber tires.

            “Concentrate fire on the left back tire!” Williams ordered and fired.

            The marines fired in unison at the distant Warthog. After a few seconds, the tire popped and the Warthog skidded sideways before flipping. The vehicle cart wheeled three times before rolling to a stop. The marines rushed to the crash site and readied their guns. Green looked at some debris near the flipped Warthog for the soldier while Williams and Christopher searched the vehicle. There was no soldier in the Warthog.

            “How could it be…?” Christopher looked at the ground for blood and footsteps.

            “He can’t just disappear into thin air.” Williams looked around frantically.

            “He may have jumped out early Sarge.” Green called out.

            “Spread out marines.” Williams commanded.

            Christopher walked off to check out a smoking piece of debris a couple meters from their location. As Christopher approached the vicinity, he noticed that smoke was coming from the ground. Upon further inspection, a piece of the Warthog bumper had broken some sort of air shaft and wedged itself between fans.

            “Sarge!” Christopher called out.

            The motor of the fan was heard by a loud grind as it attempted to turn the fan. As the motor grinded its gears and had no effect in turning the fan, sparks flew from its side and smoke formed. Williams and Green jogged up beside Christopher and looked at the medium sized air shaft.

            “He’s in there.” Williams pointed at the blade of the fan.

            There was a piece of military clothing ripped on the fan. Williams pointed his gun down and scanned the shaft with his scope. It was pitch black at the end and the occasional smoke covered his field of vision.

            “What do we do Staff Sergeant?” Christopher asked cluelessly.

            “Well, we know he can’t climb out…” Williams looked at his height to the bottom of the fan.

            “Should we hide this?” Green asked.

            “Well…we should get a ride out first.” Williams pointed at their destroyed Warthog.

            “We can’t cover this up.” Christopher looked at the shaft and then looked around.

            “Leave it.” Williams turned away from the edge of the opening.

            “Call it in sir?” Green asked.

            “Yeah, call it in. Frederick and the others are going to be pleased about what we found.” Williams nodded.

            “Base, this is Williams’ team, request Echo Squad and Jackal Squadron to be on site near the facility.” Green spoke on the RaidComm.

            “Copy from base. Captain Zyrok asks why you request both squads, over.” Sears replied back.

            “Sears, it’s Williams here. Inform Zyrok that we found an access point.” Williams answered.

            “Williams, did you say that you found an access point?” Please confirm.” Sears asked with surprise in his voice.

            “Confirm, that is correct.” Williams acknowledged.

            “Copy that, we’ll be dispatching a Pelican.” Sears replied.

            “Good work gentlemen. Sit tight, we’re on our way.” Zyrok’s voice appeared on the RaidComm.

            “We caught a big fish this time.” Green chuckled.

Downtown Kandahar, Kandahar, Afghanistan

Mirwais Nikka Hospital

April 20, 2001

1600 Local Time

            Dimitri listened to the RaidComm transmissions and looked at this watch.

            “The UNSC has found an entrance?” Dimitri looked at Timothy.

            “Looks that way.” Timothy nodded as he removed his headset.

            “Any word of Vladamir and his team?” Dimitri tapped Timothy on the shoulder.

            “No sir.” Timothy turned his head.

            “They must be watching or monitoring them.” Timothy guessed.

            “Hmm…no word?” Dimitri rubbed his chin.

        “No sir, not at all.” Timothy turned his head to look at Miller who was busily listening to communications on his headset.

            “No signs here, Dimitri.” Miller quickly replied.

            “Very well, I will dispatch another team to take a look.” Dimitri looked at a soldier standing beside him and waved him over.

            “Sir?” the soldier greeted.

            “Get Sergeant Sasha and his team prepped for Reygi. I want eyes down there to tell me what’s going on.” Dimitri commanded.

            “Understood.” the soldier saluted crisply and walked off.

            “Keep me posted gentlemen.” Dimitri spoke to the two marines and walked out of the room.

            “Will do sir.” Timothy answered and put on his headset.

*          *          *

            Vladamir crouched forward in the dark air shaft. He didn’t want to turn on his flashlight because he was afraid that he might expose his position. He knew the UNSC marines had found him in the shaft, but not the exact whereabouts. As Vladamir moved deeper into the shaft and the light from the sun faded in the background, he clicked on his flashlight. He looked at his arm and noticed a piece of his shirt sleeve ripped with a small gash. He looked at the blood oozing out of his left forearm and grabbed his water bottle from his utility belt. He drank a bit of water and then poured some water over his wound to cleanse it. Vladamir held the flashlight with his mouth as he pulled out a small roll of bandages from his backpack. After wrapping his wound, Vladamir looked at his radio. It appeared to be heavily scratched, but he decided to radio in for reinforcements.

            “Dimitri, this is Vladamir, can you hear me?” Vladamir spoke on the radio.

            The radio buzzed with static so Vladamir decided to head back to the opening to get a better reception. As Vladamir neared the air shaft opening, he clicked off his flashlight and held his radio in the air.

            “Come in Dimitri, can you hear me?” Vladamir spoke on the radio.

            The radio buzzed with static and Vladamir knew the radio he had was busted from the crash. As he studied the radio in his hand, a dark shadow momentarily blocked the sunlight. Vladamir looked up and saw a Pelican fly over the air shaft.

            “Shit…” Vladamir muttered.

            Vladamir knew he had to keep going down the shaft. Sooner or later, the UNSC would be crawling down and doing their exploration. Vladamir turned his head back into the darkness and turned on his flashlight. The shaft was humid and cold as Vladamir crawled slowly keeping his eyes open for ventilation openings. After a couple of meters, he reached a forked road. He panned his flashlight to his left and saw a very long corridor. He turned to the right and saw a turn. From Vladamir’s experience, a turn usually meant that the shaft was nearing an opening so he decided to head right. He continued to crawl down the shaft until he came across a vent opening. He peeked out of the opening and saw an illuminated hallway.

            “No one…” Vladamir thought.

            Vladamir slowly pried the opening with his kukri and stuck out his head. The hallways appeared to be vacant and clear of any hostiles. Vladamir dropped out of the vent opening and wielded his AK47 and looked around. The hallway was very clean and tidy as if nobody was home. Vladamir turned off his flashlight and clipped it to his belt. There was an eerie quietness that resonated from the hall. You could only hear Vladamir’s soft breathing and his gentle footsteps as he began to walk forward. Vladamir approached an elevator and looked at the sign. The sign read “B2” and Vladamir pressed the top button. As Vladamir waited for the elevator, he could hear footsteps echoing from the vent opening he dropped out of. Since the elevator looked like it was going to take a while, Vladamir looked around for the stairs. To his left was the stairwell and Vladamir quickly rushed inside. He looked down the stairs and noticed that there was no floor below him before he ran up. Vladamir ran up to the ground level and pushed the door open. The ground floor was the same as the floor he left, except there was a Secronom logo printed on the wall adjacent to the door. Vladamir panned his gun then walked to the front desk. He looked at the computer monitors and saw security cameras overlooking the buildings. He studied the footage and saw UNSC marines setting up a camp in the background.

            “Freeze!” a man shouted behind Vladamir as he cocked his gun at the back of his head.