Chapter 2
Echo team made their way to the stairs leading up to the second level. Lloyd took point as he cleared the stairwell of hostiles and led the way up followed by Reaper, Angel, and finally with Boomer taking up the rear. The sounds of their boots clanging against the metal of the stairs reverberated around them due to the perfect acoustics of their surroundings. As they exited the stairwell a grey hallway welcomed them. It seemed that from the very beginning that this outpost was nothing but grey rooms, hallways, and ceilings. The designer obviously didn't have an imagination when it came to picking colors.
By all appearances it was clear, but they didn't take any chances. Slowly the four of them walked down the hall until they came up to a door on the left. Stopping before they got to it, Lloyd motioned for Reaper and Boomer to move up. Reaper took position on the right side of the door while the big guy stood directly in front of it waiting for his next orders. Lloyd gave a nod and Reaper reached over and turned the door handle. Boomer then moved forward sweeping his heavy machine gun in a wide arc as he scanned the room for hostiles while Reaper came in behind him to help clear the room as Lloyd and Angel stood guard out in the hall. The comm. crackled and Reaper's voice suddenly relayed what he saw.
"All clear."
Over and over they continued this process. Each and every room they came to and swept gave few clues as to what happened during the three days of silence. After two hours they had cleared the entire second level. No other personnel from the science or security teams had been found. The members of Echo Team were beginning to become ill at ease with this place.
After clearing the last room the four of them began heading back to their point of origin, looking into each room they passed to make sure there were no surprises. The idea that this mission was going to be a simple op was beginning to fade from their thoughts. Finally in sight of the stairs, Boomer took point as they made their way into the stairwell and began their descent. Reaper, Lloyd, and Angel following close behind.
Other than the sporadic mutterings of all clear, and Lloyd giving the occasional order, the fireteam had remained quiet. That was up until the point that Boomer couldn't take it any longer and decided to voice his thoughts.
"This is some messed up shit. How the hell can over a hundred people just vanish and no one knows where they are?"
"We're in a huge facility big guy. There's no telling how many levels there are beneath us that are buried in the ice," Reaper gave him a reassuring pat on the back, "besides this is a nice change from garbage duty. Good to be back doing what we were trained to do."
Boomer grunted, "Yea well this place is starting to creep me the hell out."
"Me too big guy . . . me too."
Continuing the rest of the way in silence, they soon found themselves back to where they separated from the others. Reaper scanned the room to see six of the seven scientists sitting on the floor with their backs against the wall and the flight crew from the Pelican standing guard. The seventh was standing away from the others along with the Boss and the rest of Delta Team. It seemed the two of them were in a heavy argument. More of what they were saying became clearer as Echo Team came within earshot.
"I'm not going to argue with you lieutenant. Everything that I know has been told to you. Quite frankly I just want to get out of here. You don't know the things we've been through since the power went out."
Anger was plain on the Boss' face as it steadily began to grow even redder, "No Doctor Graham, I don't know what you and the others have been through. In fact you have been rather reluctant to really tell me what did happen these past seventy-two hours other than the fact that the power went out and you tried to call for help."
Dr. Graham removed his glasses and ran a hand through his thinning grey hair. Frustration could be seen in his eyes, "Look lieutenant, I know you're just doing your job, and I, as well as my colleagues, appreciate your being here. But I am afraid that there is little more I can tell you."
Lloyd seeing it was time to interrupt stepped forward to inform the Boss of what little they had discovered, "We've finished our sweep of the second level sir. No sign of any of the missing personnel."
The Boss turned his attention to the sergeant, "Same here. We scouted the entire ground level and didn't see a thing. They must be further down. Doctor, how many more levels are there below us?
Returning his glasses to rest on the bridge of his nose the Dr. Graham answered with a slight annoyance buried in his voice, "Two levels on the surface and five more below us."
"What are their purposes?"
"The two surface levels contain recreational and housing facilities. The three residing directly below us consist of several sectors of research and test labs. Below that is the weapons research and the last level is where we test and contain our most unstable materials. Connecting to this level as well as the one above us and the three immediately below is the bio-dome which contains a nice habitat for our people here to visit when the isolation of this base and the bleakness of the ice that surrounds us begins to become too much to handle."
Whereas the rest of 2nd squad looked at each other with curiosity due to the mentioning of the bio-dome, the Boss was too focused on the task at hand to let anything to stagger his train of thought, "have you entered the dome since the power outage?"
Graham shook his head, "no . . . we stayed in the area where you found us."
Boss's eyes narrowed, "Doc, what is it you aren't telling us?"
Dr. Graham seemed reluctant to share any more information. A shadow seemed to cast itself over the scientist after he mentioned the bio-dome. After a few more moments of fiddling with his glasses, he decided to share what he knew.
"I'm not sure exactly when it started, but after the lights went out people started disappearing. One could argue that it would make since seeing the power was out. However, we managed to round everyone up in the clearing at the center of the bio-dome a few hours into the blackout. The commander of the security team came up with the idea of everyone staying in the clearing while he took a small team to try and get the power back on. That's when it started. One or two went missing at first. We just assumed they were out in the dome somewhere taking a leak. But as time went on more and more people went missing. It wasn't until we heard gunfire coming from somewhere in the dome that we started to panic. Everyone started running in different directions screaming. The handful of security personnel tried to keep us under control, but it was too late. Our group decided to head to the location where you found us. It was there we remained until you showed up. I can tell you no more."
Silence filled the room. Dr. Graham's tale lead to more questions rather than answers. Boss opened his mouth to say something, when suddenly, the lights went out.
