Into The Rift

In Pursuit (3)

Turning my attention back to my surroundings, the sight of natural greenery is the first thing that flooded my eyes, distant mountains surrounded me and by extension the rift. The military side of me instinctively assessed the weather conditions as well as the terrain and quickly concluded the surrounding lands will be quite a hassle to traverse through.

Strange thoughts occupied my mind regarding this alien world, called New Eden by the scientists. But with such earth-like conditions, it would be a stretch to classify this world as alien.

Curiously i turned around towards the rift looking for signs of my fireteam, noting them all stepping out of the blanket of light, taking cautious footsteps with heads shifting left and right. No doubt clearly stunned by the strange experience. For all of us, this moment marked the first time we crossed the portal between earth and New Eden.

The reassuring warmth of this world began to melt away the thin layer of snow that stubbornly clung to my armor.

My calculating eyes swept back forward, using the moment to desperately capture the experience into my mind. There is no doubt this is a once in a lifetime experience.

"Just what the heck have we stumbled upon?" I blurt out to no one in particular, too stunned to say anything longer than a short sentence.

It is safe to say the others had a similar train of thought, again judging by their sweeping gazes.

The towering Mountains that surrounded this area meant we are in quite an isolated position, there seems to be only a couple of areas from which we are able to leave this area by foot.

My heads up display lights up with small blue squares several dozen meters away at the forward outpost we apparently have in this world.

My analytical eyes hover over every part of it, storing the new found information to the back of my mind.

From the moderately sized prefabricated buildings to the small contingent of scientists decked in their distinctive white hazmat suits.

Nothing escapes my attention.

The perimeter was littered with well over twenty anti-air turrets, programmed to shot down anything in the air that is unidentified. Only recently installed in response to the disappearance of a certain group of explorers, serving as a stark remainder of why we are here in the first place.

My train of thought shifts upon seeing blue icons on my Heads Up Display moving towards me from the forward base. Those people stuck out like a sore thumb with their grey armor.

In total I counted four of them, the Identification Friend or Foe system tags them as members of Fireteam Angel.

All of whom are clad in the same intimidating armor my team wore. They are fellow soldiers of the secretive UN Special Operations Group.

Looking back, I direct my team to follow my lead towards the outpost, drawing their attention away from the admittedly beautiful scenery.

As we get closer to each other, I am able to absorb every detail of the other Fireteam. With keen observation, I am able to tell which one was the team leader.

There isn't a way to describe how I instinctively knew, it's simply an acquired observation skill I picked up. As a leader myself, I am pretty sure I have the skills needed to notice the traits commonly associated with being one.

Both teams continued to march towards each other, professionally holding rifles with the muzzle facing downwards, our footsteps are audible being rhythmic thumping as armored foot met hard soil.