1. AZ Mystery - chapter 4


    Date: 2/25/2024, Categories: Science-Fiction , Alien, Author: Limnophile

    ... mostly smooth desert terrain, but nothing else. The chopper wreckage would attract hostile attention but there was no significant cover between me and the cliffs. I smelled salty sea air, though our mission had been two hundred clicks from the closest major body of water.
    
    I turned on my radio and heard only a quiet hiss. I called for the squad to regroup a couple of times, but nothing. I patiently checked all the channels while keeping an eye on the horizon, but got only static. The sat phone showed “NO SERVICE” no matter which button I pushed.
    
    I checked my GPS, and it showed I was at the North Pole. The sand, warm air, and extreme lack of ice told me that was probably wrong. I always carried a small magnetic compass just in case. I took it out, and it slowly spun in a circle without stopping. Other than the cliffs on all sides there were no landmarks, so my map was useless too.
    
    I wondered what the hell was going on. This was some seriously fucked up shit!
    
    The only tracks on the ground were mine, from after I woke up. If the other 16 aboard the chopper didn’t burn up in the crash, how did they leave without putting boot prints in the sand? Where the Hell did they go? Even if they were 20 clicks away, I should have been able to reach them on the radio.
    
    I had only met the pilots the previous day, but would all 14 of my people really leave without me? Even the Lieutenant? Our squad had been together nearly a year and half of them were Black like me, so a race ...
    ... issue wasn’t it. Morale had been great when we left base, with us joking around and ready to kick some serious ass. What in all the damn Hells is going on?
    
    I found the container with the drone and launched it. I was a little surprised nobody shot at it. That was the enemy’s favorite reaction. I flew it up high, and saw I was in an almost square area bordered by thin lines of cliffs. There was a sea or ocean to what I though of as the East, a steep mountain to the North, and hundreds or thousands more square areas enclosed by cliffs to the South and Southwest.
    
    I flew the drone around close to the ground near the cliffs, following the perimeter of my area. Other than a large undetonated bomb behind some shrubs 100 meters to the northeast, I didn’t see anything of interest.
    
    The bomb looked like one of the seven-ton daisy cutters! It probably wouldn’t go off if I left it alone. Probably! I knew that if it did go off, I should be at least half a click away to avoid catching any shrapnel. With a bomb that size, there’d even be a small risk at 500 meters away. If it went off at this distance, I’d be lucky to survive. Much closer, and they could bury what was left of me in my helmet.
    
    There was a small chance lightning or even static electricity could trigger it at any time. Even if I could forget about the mission, I still needed to get out of here before long.
    
    I folded out the solar panels and plugged in the drone to charge it.
    
    I saw a hint of smoke over one of the ...
«1234...»