Heather, Hale, Gustav and Callum sat in the foyer. They were waiting on Kra'tak and Tol'din to either radio them or return.

In the Operations room, Amy continued working with the system. She was currently backing up any data it would allow as well as attempting to access more areas. She was working more hurriedly now. Absentmindedly, she occasionally touched the small metal case Tom had given her.

"What's in the case?" Adams asked, more to break the silence than with genuine curiosity.

"Some backups of the work we've done in the last two years." Amy replied.

She continued tapping controls as Adams watched.

Smith was sitting in the little office in the vehicle hangar a little more enthusiastically.

Arthur called over to him. "I'm going to get some parts."

Smith nodded and swivelled in his chair.

Heather watched Arthur as he walked past. "You going to the APC?"

"Yes." Arthur said.

"Make sure it's ready for the morning," Heather instructed him.

"Will do," Arthur walked out the door.

A few minutes later Heathers radio crackled to life. It was Kra'tak who'd now learnt how to radio a single person at a time.

"This is Kra'tak."

"Heather here. What is it?"

"We have found human vehicles."

Heather perked up, "more ships?"

"No. These are not flying vehicles."

"How far are you?" Heather asked.

"We are close. We will come to you and take you there."

There was a pause. Kra'tak was waiting for Heathers reply. She turned to her group.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"Might be worth it. Got some time before daybreak," Hale said.

"But it's dark out," Callum complained.

"We'll have Kra'tak and Tol'din guiding us," Gustav assured. "They seem to not have much of a problem with the dark."

"Could be some useful supplies," Hale suggested.

"We could do with some supplies," Heather said, referring to the lack of supplies back at base. "Maybe the vehicles could come in handy if they still work."

"What if it's part of a trap?" Callum worried.

Heather thought on this. She activated her radio," Kra'tak, any signs that this could be a trap?"

Heather was unsure if he would understand the word trap.

Kra'tak answered quickly, "We have come upon human traps in the past. This does not look as one to us."

"What about Aliens or those...Specimens?" she asked.

"We have searched a large area and have seen no signs of them."

She thought for a few moments. "Ok, Kra'tak. Come back and guide us there."

"Yes. We are returning."

"Great!" Callum exclaimed.

Arthur watched from the monitors within the APC as Kra'tak and Tol'din arrived at the main entrance. A few minutes later he watched as they left together with Heather and her team. No one paid any attention to the APC as they left.

Once they'd left, Arthur made his way back inside and up the stairs to the roof access.

Heather, Hale, Callum and Gustav paced cautiously into the forest in the pitch black. They were all using their standard night vision goggles. Kra'tak led them on the ground as Tol'din followed, hidden, from above.

They kept their silence throughout. The forest, earlier alive with sounds of what they assumed were the natural inhabitants of the planet, now let out sounds far different from the daytime and far less often.

After half an hour of trekking they arrived at an obvious crash site. There was a large supply truck entangled with a couple of standard armoured transports.

"Hale, with me. Let's check for anything salvageable." Heather ordered. "You two keep an eye out."

Together, Heather and Hale briefly checked the exteriors and interiors of each vehicle. They were all empty in so far as containing people.

Hale jumped into the back of the supply truck, Heather followed and they cleared it together. Satisfied, they began searching through its contents.

"Some ammo, no guns though," Hale whispered. "Huh."

"What is it?" Heather asked.

"Toilet paper," he sounded surprised. "We could do with some of that."

"Let's check the other two," she instructed.

Back at the main complex Amy was finishing up her backups when she managed to gain access to a new system. Adams was snoozing lightly. She started reading some of the documents, quickly realising that this section contained emails sent back and forth between scientists and detailed reports. She grew fascinated, started copying them for taking back and became engrossed in the contents of the report she was now reading.


Raul was asleep. Matsu sat at his console, occupying himself by doing some sketching. Arthurs voice suddenly came on the radio.

"Ca...can you hear me?" he was whispering and his voice was panicked.

Matsu jumped up from his relaxed position, dropping the sketchpad, and pressed the comms button.

"Arthur? I can hear you. What's wrong?!" Matsu asked.

The other communications operator shook Raul awake. He was about to ask what was wrong when he heard the radio crackle to life.

"Th...they're...tck..shh...dead!" Arthur answered, voice still low and panicked.

"Who's dead?! What happened?!" Matsu demanded.

"Every...shk...god, I'm go..chk...die!" Arthur exclaimed.

Raul spoke, thinking fast, "Arthur, calm down! Can you get to the APC?"

"N..No. I'm trapped. They'll kil...ftchhhh..."

The radio went dead.

The three communications operators looked at each other in shock. Raul was the first to act. He activated the radio.

"Tom, this is Raul. We just received a panicked message from Arthur."

Tom, who was still busy sifting through logs to try to understand what had happened with Santos, answered, "What did he say?"

"That they're dead and he's trapped and they'll kill him," Raul replied.

"What?! Who's dead? Everyone?" Tom asked in shock.

"The message was garbled then it cut off. Here, I'll play it back to you."

Tom listened to Arthurs radio message and felt a wave of horror at the implications.

"This can't be..." Tom trailed off, radio still active.

"What do we do?" Raul asked.

"I...don't know," Tom was still in shock.

Raul, sitting in the communications room, realised that Tom was in no position to think of their next course of action. He looked at the other communicators, "We inform the soldiers, get a rescue mission going. We've got other vehicles in the hangar."

The others nodded in agreement.

Finley and Hurst looked straight at each other as they both listened to Rauls radio message, their eyes communicating the same emotion. Immediately soldiers around the base began organising a rescue team over the radio.

"This is Finley, we only have space for a team of four in the APC," he radioed, causing the other radio chatter to fall silent. "We don't know how many we'll be bringing back or if the other APC is operational. I'll be leading the team. The three of you who'll be coming, gather supplies and meet me at the vehicle hangar in ten minutes."

"You sure about this?" Hurst asked, as Finley began packing supplies.

"Can't just sit here and do nothing," he replied.

"I should go," Hurst stated, causing Finley to stop in his tracks.

Hurst continued, "Whoever goes will be gone for at least a day. Going by today the attack could happen anytime. We need you here-"

"They'll have you," Finley cut in.

"I'm no match for the experience you have. The civvies here, the soldiers too, they need a leader like you. They already follow and trust you and you've got the skills and experience to be that leader. You're needed here. Especially for what's to come."

Finley wanted to argue, but knew his friend was right. Him and Adams were pretty much the leaders of the base, and Adams was already out there, possibly dead.

"You're right," Finley agreed, passing Hurst the pack he had been filling. "Get them all back."

"I will," Hurst stated firmly.

Hurst finished packing supplies, hugged Finley and promptly left the turret, leaving Finley to his thoughts. Hurst hurried along to the vehicle hangar. Baseer, Hartwell and Stephan were already waiting at the entrance.

"Everyone ready?" Hurst asked, he was team leader for this rescue mission.

They all confirmed as Baseer moved to the console and punched in the key code. He was met with a flashing red ACCESS DENIED message.

He looked at the others, confused, "What...?"

"Here let me try," Stephan offered. Baseer moved out of the way. She too was met with the same response. "It's always been the same code," she half stated, just as confused.

Hurst radioed communications, "Raul, we're having a problem accessing the vehicle hangar. The key code isn't working."

"It should, we've never changed that code. Give me a minute," Raul replied.

After a seemingly long minute, the door clicked open.

"I had to bypass the lock. According to the system the code hasn't been changed but I tried from here and it isn't working either," Raul informed the group.

"What does that mean?" Hurst asked, as the four of them entered the hangar.

"I don't know," Raul answered.

"There's been a lot of don't knows recently," Hartwell stated to the group as they walked towards the APC.

"Stephan, check the front consoles, you'll be driving. Hartwell, check the tires and externals, Baseer..." Hurst trailed off as they got closer to the APC.

The tires were ruined, the guts of the APC were open and all the circuitry and wiring had been thoroughly destroyed.

"What the hell...?" Baseer couldn't believe what he was looking at.

"There's nothing operational," Stephan stated as she exited the APC. "Nothings working at all."

"Check everything," Hurst ordered, anger in his voice.

They spent the next few minutes checking through the entire hangar, only to find nothing usable or salvageable.

Baseer asked the obvious question on everyone's mind, "What the hell is going on?!"

"Arthur..." Hurst answered through gritted teeth.

He picked up his radio, "Raul, everything here's been destroyed, there's nothing usable left."

"What?!" Raul couldn't believe it.

"Listen, has anyone else been in or out of this place since Arthur and the rest left?" Hurst asked.

A short pause later, "Nobody. Arthurs the only personnel we've ever had looking after the vehicles. We'd never used them until the crash."

"How sure can you be?" Hurst questioned.

"Nothings a hundred percent, but the external sensors covering the entrance show that you guys are the only ones to go there since Arthur drove the APC out." Raul explained.

"Could the system have been tampered with?" Hurst asked.

"The sensor logs only come through here. No one could intercept them or access them outside of this room. And we haven't left in days."

Hurst thought it through.

"What're you thinking?" Stephan asked, feeling sick to the stomach.

"If what Raul says is true, and no one tampered with the systems, then there's only one explanation," Hurst began.

"Arthur..." Baseer stated in a low voice.

"If he did this," Hurst gestured towards the APC, "then either his radio message is a lie, or he killed them all," Hursts voice changed at those last words.

"Arthurs lying," Toms voice cut in over the radio, almost as if he'd read Hursts mind.

"I agree," Finley added.

"How can you be sure?" Hurst asked. They were still standing next to the sabotaged APC.

"Arthur will have been the one to fix comms. If it had been a simple repair that any of them could do, the comms would've lasted longer than a few seconds. Only Arthur would've been able to fix more complex problems," Tom continued.

"And the fact that he managed to communicate with us again, with everyone else dead according to him, and now we find the vehicles sabotaged?" Finley added.

"It's too much of a coincidence," Tom agreed.

"These are still all assumptions," Hurst challenged.

"Unfortunately, that's all we have for now," Tom sounded worn down.

"Either way, there's nothing we can do right now," Finley said, though the tone of his voice suggested he didn't want to believe that.

"Fuck..." Hartwell exclaimed for them all.

The four of them reluctantly made their way out of the vehicle hangar and back to their posts, having one last look at the APC and wondering just what was really going on.