Our Intel was wrong right from the start - we were never meant to make it back. Of course we didn't realise this until we were forty or so miles into the Dead Zone and encountering our first sentient life form that wasn't supposed to exist.
The mission brief was so simple a child could have succeeded, that is, if the Intel had been correct and not at all a means to dispose of several overly curious agents who were getting in the way of less-than-savoury operations within the Dead Zone. All we were told to do was head to an old lakeside resort and investigate the signs of movement that had been identified by the routine drone loops.
We thought it might be a stray wolf or something, lost and dying in the middle of an unstable and rather radioactive former patch of paradise. Still we all had our collective suspicions that the Dead Zone was not and there may even be residents continuing to live there illegally, just as they did in Chernobyl.
Basic life still existed, albeit a little deformed. The trees had a tendency to burst into mushroom-esque spores that cling to any moisture they come into contact with, expanding rapidly until they gradually take the shape of tree stumps. We passed a fair few of these that had once been birds, rats and even a few deer. At that point it was likely that the potential life form had already met its end.
Our planned route was a little too circuitous for us to have been at our peak by the time we found the old resort. It had clearly been planned to wear us out and weaken the group but we had little other choice, any deviations would be met with the order to terminate what would be perceived as a "rogue" agent.
It's the main reason we didn't spot the creature until we were almost on top of it. I mean, who expects to see someone fishing in the heart of the Very Radioactive Dead Zone? They even looked human, responded to our yells with a cheery "Hullo!" and had us utterly fooled until they turned around.
Nothing should have that many tendrils and certainly not on such a dainty looking neck, though we mistook most of them for particularly long hair at first. Hair shouldn't move like a slug's eyestalks and yet it did, following us as we circled around the lake in the hopes that the resort would provide us with a better defensive position. Just in case.
And just to spite us, the resort was full of the creatures, all glistening as they slunk out of the indoor pool and headed straight for us. The roof was our best bet and though we lost Smythe and Sadiq on the way, we still made it in time to be spotted by the routine drone loop.
HQ was there with air support within twenty minutes, the resort was bombed to smithereens and we've been in quarantine ever since. So I suppose in a way they killed us, I mean we don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of seeing the sun any time in the next thirty years at least - and that's if none of us develop cancer from this.
Whatever is still living in the Dead Zone, creating itself from pollution and forming their own civilisation, we won't be ready for them. HQ won't let this get out, it makes for bad publicity that they've potentially committed genocide against a new species.
The mission brief was so simple a child could have succeeded, that is, if the Intel had been correct and not at all a means to dispose of several overly curious agents who were getting in the way of less-than-savoury operations within the Dead Zone. All we were told to do was head to an old lakeside resort and investigate the signs of movement that had been identified by the routine drone loops.
We thought it might be a stray wolf or something, lost and dying in the middle of an unstable and rather radioactive former patch of paradise. Still we all had our collective suspicions that the Dead Zone was not and there may even be residents continuing to live there illegally, just as they did in Chernobyl.
Basic life still existed, albeit a little deformed. The trees had a tendency to burst into mushroom-esque spores that cling to any moisture they come into contact with, expanding rapidly until they gradually take the shape of tree stumps. We passed a fair few of these that had once been birds, rats and even a few deer. At that point it was likely that the potential life form had already met its end.
Our planned route was a little too circuitous for us to have been at our peak by the time we found the old resort. It had clearly been planned to wear us out and weaken the group but we had little other choice, any deviations would be met with the order to terminate what would be perceived as a "rogue" agent.
It's the main reason we didn't spot the creature until we were almost on top of it. I mean, who expects to see someone fishing in the heart of the Very Radioactive Dead Zone? They even looked human, responded to our yells with a cheery "Hullo!" and had us utterly fooled until they turned around.
Nothing should have that many tendrils and certainly not on such a dainty looking neck, though we mistook most of them for particularly long hair at first. Hair shouldn't move like a slug's eyestalks and yet it did, following us as we circled around the lake in the hopes that the resort would provide us with a better defensive position. Just in case.
And just to spite us, the resort was full of the creatures, all glistening as they slunk out of the indoor pool and headed straight for us. The roof was our best bet and though we lost Smythe and Sadiq on the way, we still made it in time to be spotted by the routine drone loop.
HQ was there with air support within twenty minutes, the resort was bombed to smithereens and we've been in quarantine ever since. So I suppose in a way they killed us, I mean we don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of seeing the sun any time in the next thirty years at least - and that's if none of us develop cancer from this.
Whatever is still living in the Dead Zone, creating itself from pollution and forming their own civilisation, we won't be ready for them. HQ won't let this get out, it makes for bad publicity that they've potentially committed genocide against a new species.
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