Chapter Eleven: Southward Bound
July 20, 2016. BAINE Headquarters.
"Alright, everyone, listen up," Bridge said as he stepped into the briefing room, causing FIreteam Victor to fall silent. "Now, I don't know if you heard, but talk has been going around that our very own Dr. Rhodes has managed to narrow down the probable location of the Xevellan mothership."
James, Like, Hester, Ichigo, and Vargas listened intently as their Captain delivered this news. It just so happened that they hadn't heard such talk. "Huh. Y'know, all things considered, that was pretty fast!" Ichigo observed.
"Yes, well, hence why it's only the 'probable' location," Daniel continued. It was clear that he was a bit skeptical of Rhodes' findings. Though, as Rhodes hadn't steered them wrong so far, he was willing to trust him at his word. "By means of tracking the ships' trajectories and other such high-level mathematics that I won't pretend to understand, he believes the mothership is located…" He clicked a button on a remote, showing a map of Antarctica on the screen, where a small circle was highlighted. "...right here, at the South Pole."
"That has to be at least seventy square miles across," Hester observed. "Either that's one enormous ship, or it'll take forever to find!"
"I vote for the former," said Luke. "How else would they take all of the planet's resources?"
Bridge silenced them with a stern glance. "Speculation aside, we've been given orders to move in, along with several other fireteams and aerial squadrons. The plan is to either destroy it, or force it to leave the planet; you'll be briefed on the specifics once we arrive."
At this, Daniel paused, as though waiting for one of them to ask the obvious question. James was the one who did: "And, exactly where will we be arriving?"
"Glad you asked." Bridge pressed the button again, and the image changed to a snow-and-ice-covered compound likely located on the same southern continent. "This is Research Station Delta," he explained. "It was set up in the eighties by the UN to investigate gravitational anomalies in the area, but has since been repurposed by BAINE. This will serve as our home base during the strike."
Hester raised her hand. "And what exactly are these 'gravitational anomalies' they were studying?" she asked.
"Nothin' we need to be worried about," Bridge assured them. "From what I understand, it was just something to do with underground caverns and craters and the like–nothing to do with Gems. Now then… The facility is under the command of a Dr. Hayley Xu, who will be coordinating our efforts to prepare for the strike." Another press of the button revealed a screen with the doctor's credentials. She was somewhat pale looking, likely from her place of research, and had wavy black hair almost to her shoulders. "We ship out at sunset, so everyone get packed up."
With that, Daniel switched off the set and unceremoniously stepped out of the room. Used to this by now, the rest of the team got up and filed out the door as well, back to the barracks.
"So," Luke said, stepping beside James, "better bundle up, huh? Antarctica, never thought I'd be going down there!"
"I figured it had to happen eventually," said Vargas, passing by the two.
"It was never out of the question," James replied. "We should pack everything, not just warm clothes. We have no idea what could be waiting for us down there." He noticed that Luke was giving him a look. "I meant besides the cold!"
Somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico.
"Hey, uh, boss?" said Leon, snapping Emett out of his daze. "You alright? You seem a little tense…"
Emett sighed, leaning back in his seat. "No. Just thinking." It was only after being jostled out of his trance that he realized he had been tapping on the armrest.
"Huh. Y'know, I never took you as the kind to be afraid of flying, all things considered. But hey, no judgement here."
"No, it isn't that." Although Emett didn't enjoy flying when he wasn't the one at the controls, it was something else that was on his mind. "I… It's just that we know so little about these beings, these Xevellans. All we have is guesswork and what little Peridot told us–and are we sure we can trust her?"
"Didn't she cuss out Yellow Diamond to her face?" Sara had joined in the conversion from the other side of the isle. "Anyone willing to do that to their old boss has definitely burned all their bridges!"
"That's true," Emett admitted. From what little he knew about the Diamonds, Yellow in particular, that sort of stunt was not one that would have been easy to fake. "But something about them still rubs me the wrong way. So far, they haven't gone after any civilian targets, and any casualties that resulted from their raids have been entirely incidental. What if…what if they're not aggressive?"
Leon looked at him like he had just suggested they go sky-diving right there and then. "Who, the Xevellans? What, you aren't suggesting that they're secretly the good guys or something like that, are you?"
"No, no, nothing like that," he said. "I'm only saying that there's a possibility that they aren't as big a threat as we're making them out to be. Leon, do you really believe that they'll destroy the world if they don't do something?"
"I…I don't not believe that they won't destroy the world," Leon said, still a bit baffled by Emett's claim. "Look, all we know is that they're stealing stuff and attacking people, including us. If we find out that we did something to provoke them, fine, but until then, they're the bad guys."
"That's not what I'm saying," Emett said. "I just can't help but feel like there's something going on here. You guys are with me, right?"
Sara stammered for a moment, trying to come up with something to say, but eventually gave up, shrugging. Oscar looked up from his book, saying "I don't doubt you, but do you know what that 'something going on' is?" Vlad was asleep–or seemed that way, it was hard to tell with his sleep mask.
As much as he hated to admit it, Emett didn't have a response. His feeling was little more than that, he had nothing to go on. "Nevermind. Move, I need to pee." He stood up, squeezing past Leon into the aisle.
He had a brief moment to stretch in the aisle before trading the cramped seat for the cramped restroom. After finishing, he rinsed his hands in the tiny sink as he examined his reflection in the equally tiny mirror. Why exactly was he feeling this way now? He thought over both of his encounters with the Xevellans, and remembered what Peridot had told them. "They only go after doomed worlds," he said quietly. Could that be it? Was the world somehow doomed in some way they didn't know about? Leon was right, there was no sense worrying about it now. He struggled through the door and headed back to his seat.
July 21, 2016. Antarctic Research Station Delta.
The first thing that struck James as the plane's door opened was the blinding light. Even in the borderline stormy weather, the sunlight reflected off of the snow, necessitating a squint as he descended the stairs. The second thing that struck him, a mere millisecond after the first, was how brain-numbingly cold it was. He was swaddled in clothes from head to toe like a little boy who couldn't put his arms down, and yet it still felt like he had just gotten on Sapphire's bad side.
Even though it couldn't have been more than a few dozen meters away, the research base was almost impossible to see through all the snow. Still, he could barely make out a waving figure just in front of it, dressed much more appropriately for the weather. He couldn't make out any of their features as he made his way over, other soldiers disembarking from the plane.
Once the entire company had set foot on solid ground, the door to the facility slid open. The figure beckoned them inside, and they followed. The door led into a big empty room almost like an airlock. It closed behind them once all twenty-odd people had made it inside. James felt it warming up almost instantly; still not toasty by any means, but enough to remove some of the outer layers, which he and some others did.
The figure removed her coat as well, revealing her to be Hayley Xu herself. "So, I trust you made it here okay?" she said cheerfully, replacing her goggles with glasses. "How was the flight?" A trio of Captains, Bridge among them, walked over to greet her.
"Smooth as it could have been in this weather," one of them said. "Let's just hope this storm clears up before we go hunting."
"I…wouldn't count on that," Dr. Xu admitted. "The weather's been like this for the past three weeks, and it shows no sign of stopping. But, at least it's nice and warm in here, right? Here, I'll show you all around!" She urged them into the facility proper, each of the many soldiers forced to squeeze through the door. This entrance was evidently not designed for this many people at once.
"Dr Xu? Are you sure this facility will be big enough for everyone? It seems a bit smaller than the files made it seem," said Bridge. At first glance, it did seem a bit too small to hold the sheer amount of soldiers they had brought with them. Xu led them past a hydroponics lab staffed by several other scientists which was only the size of the average living room.
She waved off his concern. "Oh, there's no need to worry about all of that, Captain," she assured them. "Station Delta may be a bit compact, but absolutely no space here goes to waste: you'll find that everyone here has room, even if it's a bit cramped!"
James examined the place. It looked a lot like a moon base, with the same sterile white walls and round hallways. He supposed that in a remote, harsh environment like this, it made sense that a lot of the same stuff would be used. But there was still something about this place that bothered him, which he said as much to Hester. "Bridge told us this place was acquired by BAINE a while back. But I'm not seeing a lot to indicate that."
Hester nodded. "I was thinking something along those same lines," she replied. "He didn't exactly go into a lot of detail about that, did he? Once everyone's cleared out, I'll ask her."
Most of the soldiers began to break off from the main group as Xu led the Captains along, making themselves as comfortable as they could in this place. Eventually, the doctor led the three of them into the facility's command room, which, while empty of people, was just as well-equipped as any other BAINE station of the same purpose.
"And here," said Xu, "is where your attack will be coordinated from. I was told not long before you arrived that the cargo plane bringing your fighter jets will arrive in just a few hours. Give or take depending on the weather, we should be ready to deploy first thing tomorrow morning."
"Good thing, too," said the other captain. "We've got no idea what those lizard things could be planning. The sooner we take them out, the better."
"Speaking of preparing, I think we should go do just that," said Bridge. "Like you said, we don't know what we're up against, so we should be ready for every possible outcome. Wouldn't you agree?"
The other two captains did so. The idea was to launch a surprise attack on the mothership, but the Xevellans could have any number of tricks up their sleeves. Even with the element of surprise, it was crucial that all permutations were accounted for. Bridge and the captains of Fireteams Bravo and Yankee exited the command room, passing by Hester as she entered.
"Uh, good luck!" Xu called after them as they left, before sighing. "I don't know why I said that, it isn't like they're going to…Oh, hey there! Sorry, I didn't notice you." She turned towards Hester, startled by her sudden appearance, at least from her perspective.
"It's nothing to worry about," she said. "So, quite an impressive setup you have here. Bridge there tells me this used to be some sort of research lab…" She examined the consoles as she walked closer to the doctor.
"Oh, it's nothing really that special," Dr. Xu replied. "Actually, in a lot of ways, it still is a research facility. We mainly just use it to monitor the climate and weather down here, but it was actually originally set up because of a giant underground cavern detected just off the coast."
That must have been the anomaly Bridge mentioned. "Is that why BAINE took this place over?" asked Hester. "I imagine there must have been Gem stuff down there, right?"
"Actually, no," said Hayley. "Based on what we found, the cavern was here long before the Gems arrived. In fact, we haven't found any evidence that they ever came to Antarctica. What we did find, however, was that the cavern was created by an enormous meteor impact–it's impossible to determine the exact size, but it had to have been at least the size of a small country."
"Damn, that big?" Hester said, momentarily stunned. "Well, I imagine that must've been a pretty crappy day for the dinosaurs…"
"Oh, no, this happened much earlier than any historic extinction. In fact, it likely took place long before life as we know it had even emerged. From what little we were able to find out, the cavern contains unique minerals and algae not found anywhere else on Earth! Unfortunately, it's far too radioactive to delve deeper, even with remote vehicles."
Something about this statement piqued Hester's curiosity–at least, more than it already was. "Hold on…they aren't found anywhere else?" She began pacing around the control room. "And considering the cavern's size, there must be a ton of this stuff… Do you think it's possible this is where the mothership could be stationed?"
Xu looked around awkwardly. "Um, this isn't exactly my area of expertise," she said, "so it isn't really my place to speculate. Though if I were to guess, any sort of plantlife that saturated with radiation could have many different applications if it could be safely harvested: biofuel, medicinal…that's about it, actually."
"Then the mothership must be docked somewhere near the cavern!" said Hester. "I was wondering why they weren't up in space, but that's why, so they can harvest those materials directly! Doctor, I think you may have just saved our flyboys a lot of searching time!"
"But, how can we be sure they aren't in the cavern itself?" she replied. "If they are, we'd never be able to get to them."
"Did we ever tell you we acquired a corpse?" she said. "From the analysis, it seems that they have about the same tolerances as a human, including for radiation. And unless their mothership is much more advanced than all their other tech, there's no way they'd have the proper radiation shielding for something like this–not enough to venture out in it, at least."
Dr. Xu began typing away on one of the computers. "I'll look for places where the ceiling is thinnest," she said. "If we can determine the ideal point of entry, we'll have our target."
"Great!" said Hester. "Of course, finding it is just the first step. Let's hope we're able to actually take it down…"
The Next Morning.
"Falcon-1, conditions are as ideal as they're going to get," the voice said over the radio. "Take her out onto the runway and begin pre-flight diagnostics." The hangar doors slid open, both wind and light flooding the room. Emett gently tilted the throttle forward, and his jet crept out into the storm.
Considering the fiasco that was Falcon Squadron's last flight, their Lightrays had been temporarily traded in for their trusty old Scorpios until all the bugs could be sorted out. It was comforting to be back to something familiar, but he couldn't help but worry that going up against a foe like this without the latest tools was foolish. On the upside, they no longer needed to worry about the lack of ejector seats–plus, their missiles had been swapped out for a variety of heat-seekers that didn't need to lock on, hopefully bypassing the Xevellans' radar jamming.
Emett clicked some switches into place. "Command, this is Falcon-1, all systems are in the green, over. Ready for takeoff at your signal."
The voice responded. "Heard, Falcon-1. The skies are all yours."
With one last deep breath, Emett eased the throttle forward. His plane propelled itself down the runway, gaining enough speed for him to pull back on the handle. Before long, he was up among the stormclouds in the sky, waiting for the rest of his team to launch so they could take on this threat for hopefully the last time.
As he circled, a ping was marked on his rader several kilometers to the west: the mothership's estimated location. "Well, here goes nothing," he said to himself.
