Specters of the Past

'Two hours ago we recieved reports of a relic of immense value hidden within the valley.' Ironwoods voice came through the wall mounted speakers, easily cutting through the low rumbling of the Drakes engines. 'Your mission is to find the relic and prep it for immediate evac.'

A small map was produced on Greys HUD. It displayed an aerial view of an area deep within Grimm territory. A small clearing was marked with a blue square, indicating their drop point. A red line snaked from it, going through the neighboring forest. That indicated the path they were going to take. Grey followed the line; after the forest it went through what looked like a giant frozen lake before going into another forest where it abruptly ends.

Grey keyed his radio. 'Sir, how will we know when we've found the relic?'

'Excellent question. We still don't know what the relic actually looks like. However our initial reports mention of an anomaly being produced from the area. Chances are that the relic is the cause. You should be able to identify the relic once you find the anomaly.' General Ironwood paused. 'We wish we had more to tell you. We shortly lost contact with the three squads as they began transmitting their findings, so expect heavy Grimm activity.'

'Acknowledged. We'll bring it back.'

'Be sure that you do. Our Specialists have their hands full at the border, so don't expect any reinforcements. Goodluck Specters, Ironwood out.'

The radio channel died.

Red chucked beside Grey. 'I wonder what kind of rock the General wants us to bring home this time?'

'I just hope it isn't as big as the one we carried back from Trident.' Zeke sat in the seat opposite of Grey, his rifle laid across his lap. 'My arms start hurting at the thought.'

'You barely helped carrying it,' Rolo chimed in. 'In fact I don't remember you touching the rock at all.'

Wolv, who sat between Zeke and Rolo, grunted in agreement.

Zeke raised his hands in defence. 'Well I felt like I was carrying it in spirit. Those Ursas don't shoot themselves you know. '

The banter continued as Grey rose from his seat and made his way into the cockpit. He made himself comfortable in the unoccupied copilot seat. Atlesian dropships usually have two pilots operating the ship but General Ironwood had only assigned one.

'Making sure I don't crash the ship?' The pilot, who was introduced to his team as Hawthorn, casually glanced at his guest.

Grey looked down at the console, various pieces of information were shown on the screen.

'It doesn't usually happen, you know.' Hawthorn continued, now focusing on his own screen. 'I wasn't planning on giving you and your squad a show. Certainly not for people as important as you guys.'

Sighing, Grey gently put his hands on the two joysticks. He had been trained to fly various airships and certainly wouldn't mind taking control from a certain talkative pilot.

Hawthorn kept rambling. 'There was some very strong wind you know. Very, very strong. The guys in the tower said that they didn't see it on their scanners but they are probably lying. Covering their own mistakes if you ask me. And it might have seemed that we were flipping but I assure you I was in control the entire time.'

Shaking his head, Grey slowly got up from his seat. 'How long until we reach our destination?'

'What? Oh yeah give me a moment.' Hawthorn flicked a switch. '3 more minutes until we hit our landing point.'

'Roger that.'

The General must have a lot of faith in Hawthorn if he assigned him to this mission, but Grey couldn't help feeling uneasy about his skill. They were travelling far into uncharted territory and it would be a long and cold walk back if things went wrong.

As Grey entered the cargo hold his squad ended their conversation. Seated quietly, they waited for orders.

'Equipment check.'

The cargo hold burst into motion as his team began looking over their items. Grey grabbed his collapsed rifle from his seat and made his way towards the rear. His team began calling out as they finished each their check.

'Red, all good.'

'Wolv ok.'

'Zeke, ready.'

'Rolo one hundred percent.'

Grey scanned his squad. Specters, just like himself. Highly trained commandos in the Atlesian military. All of them wore specialised Revenant combat armour. It differed greatly from the standard armour used by Atlas soldiers; stronger and lighter their armour covered the entirety of the wearers body. The helmets were also more angular, and completely hid their faces. Usually a dark grey, their armour had been hastily painted a pure white to blend in with the snow. However Wolv had found time to paint Grimm markings on his helm.

'Grey ok.'

A red light began to blink beside Grey.

'Sixty seconds.'

Gripping onto a handhold Grey hit a button underneath the lightbulb. The dropship gently shook as the ramp slowly lowered, revealing the snow covered landscape. Wind began howling from the opening, drowning the noise from the engines.

Grey turned back towards his squad and turned on his radio. 'We all heard the General. This is a search and retrieve mission. Once we land stick to radio communications. I don't want to attract any unwanted attention.'

His team nodded, acknowledging the order. They all knew what to do; they had been on similar missions before.

The dropship lurched to a hover, shaking heavily as it stabilized. Shortly the light beside Grey turned green.

'Let's go.'

Grey jumped down into the snow.

Grey slowly led his squad east, towards the forest edge. It had been twenty minutes since their landing in the clearing. They quickly found that any signs of the lost squads had long been buried by heavy the snowfall. All they could do now was slowly retrace steps. However the landscape was almost all white. They would be able to spot anything out of the ordinary quickly, Grimm or otherwise.

Snow began to fall lightly by the time they reached the forest edge. Grey leaned against a tree, more ice than wood, and peered into the forest. The forest edge itself was decently illuminated, however just a few meters in sunlight struggled to penetrate through the trees. To make things worse, the falling snow seemed to make the distant shadows move. There was no way to see anything without moving further in.

'How inviting.' Wolv remarked over the radio, 'I hope someone managed to pack a picnic basket.'

Zeke collapsed his rifle and shouldered it. 'Yeah, we could bring it to your grandmothers place. A nice big meal after a day of hunting Grimm. Wouldn't that be nice.'

Rolo and Red soon joined the conversation, however Grey was focused on the forest. It was too dark and dangerous to simply go in blind, even if you were armed. Hunters would certainly think twice before heading in, so why would three squads of soldiers even think of going inside.

'Wait, what was that?'

Wolv raised his rifle and crouched, looking through his scope. As the squad marksman Wolvs carried a high caliber semiautomatic rifle which had the ability to also extend into a sniper rifle.

The rest of the squad moved into position, instinctively forming a defensive circle. Rifles at the ready, they waited as Wolv peered into the forest.

Wolv, still focused on the forest, tapped Greys arm and pointed. 'Sixty-five degrees. Do you see it?'

Lowering the helmets binoculars, Grey looked towards where Wolv was pointing. He saw it immediately, deep within the forest; a gaseous floating green wisp was slowly circling a the trunk of a fallen tree. Even more surprising was that it seemed to be glowing, leaving a faint trail behind it as it moved around.

'I see it.' Grey answered. 'That's most likely the anomaly the scouts saw.'

Wolv shifted uneasily. 'I agree. I've never seen anything like it though.'

'Well what does it look like?' Red asked.

'It seems to be green.' Wolv seemed to be at a loss of words.

Red snorted. 'A lot of things are green. Maybe you got spooked over some leaves blowing in the wind.'

'Hush.' Grey commanded. Red fell silent as he watched the glowing green wisp retreat further into the forest and out of sight.

'Looks like it's gone sir.' Wolv stood up, his rifle collapsed back into its standard form. 'Orders?'

The green ball must have been what drew the scouts into the forest. There was no other explanation. It certainly wasn't Grimm, the distinct lack of black and even claws confirmed that. So what could it be? Some sort of phenomenon from a hidden dust deposit? Grey glanced at his watch, it was still early in the day. They had plenty of time to find answers before nightfall. He had his orders, but more importantly Ironwood was expecting results.

'We go after it.'

Grey gestured Red to lead, and followed her into the forest. The rest of the team trailed behind. The further they went the colder and darker it got.

'So what exactly did you two see?' Red pointed at the fallen tree, strangely it wasn't covered in ice.

'It was a floating green ball.'

'Straight to the point as always.' Red gave a small chuckle.

'Just answering the question.' Grey waved his arm, giving the signal to keep moving.

'Ironwood seems to love that.' Red sighed as she kicked at a fallen branch, snow showered a nearby bush. 'You never seem to be in the mood for a conversation anymore.'

Grey stayed silent, he certainly did have a lot on his mind recently. That was just the consequence of knowing the things he did.

'I wouldn't mind having a conversation with you, over dinner of course.'

'I bet you have more in mind than that Zeke.' Rolo said, giving him a light shove.

'Heavens no. I just wish to treat the maiden a fine meal.' Zeke performed a short bow towards Red.

Red snorted. 'Not in a million years.'

'You will have better luck asking the ice queen.' Wolv called out from behind them. 'She might be disgusted every time she sees you, but at least she actually looks at you.'

Everyone laughed at that, including Grey. He remembered the first time they met Winter Schnee. Zeke had managed to spill soup all over his uniform right before the inspection. Grey could perfectly recall the look of absolute horror and disgust when Winter saw Zeke.

'She might even feed you herself,' Grey said. 'She certainly knows that you can't manage by yourself.'

'That's not funny guys.'

Grey and his squad continued through the forest, snow steadily falling. Hours had passed since their landing. There had been no signs of the wisp since they entered the forest. But even more surprising was that there were no signs of Grimm either. On previous missions they would have been attacked numerous times by now. Grey was uneasy, there was something unusual about this mission.

After signaling his squad to take a break, Grey bought up his map. They were now almost out of the forest and were nearing the lake. Just a couple hundred more meters east.

'More bullet holes.' Rolo rubbed her hand over the trunk. Ice and wood had been shorn from where the bullets hit. Signs of battle intensified as they neared the lake.