The Lost Martian Ch. 03

Author's Note: I never had a real plan for the story, so I took a bit longer for this one but I know the next couple of chapters will be longer. Sorry for those still wanting some hot smoking sex, good things come to those who wait.

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Earth, Undisclosed Location - 2012 April 17th 06:12

Corporal Brennan Edward stood staring in the mirror in front of him, razor in hand and his body still wet from the shower. Turning his head he saw the scar that followed him since he joined the army. The scar started from behind his ear and followed his neck to the bottom of his jaw. He remembered the woman clutching the dead-man trigger, the look in her eyes.

They were filled with anger and rage, it was his first active duty mission in the Helmand province. He and his squadmates were clearing the city, street by street. They were then attacked and bullets darted all around them. Edward's instinct kicked in and he jumped into a nearby house to take cover.

Inside a woman was standing with a suicide vest clearly visible, but before he had a chance to take the rest of the scene in, she blew herself up. It was clearly amateur's work for the explosion was minimal. But for Edwards who was right in front of the woman, it was enough to knock him off his feet. His eardrums blew, his eyes wouldn't open, and the trauma to his body knocked him out.

Edward shuddered at his past memories but brushed them off. He was recently asked to stay with General O'Sullivan. His last mission from Washington was to just deliver a Halibut suitcase to Dr. Patrick but now he was asked to stay and await further orders. Looking back up he started to shave away his facial hair, up and down his jaw, with every new swipe revealed a handsome man, with the exception of the scar.

Edward could easily get facial reconstruction to cover his battle wounds. The army was even offering to pay but Edward always wanted a reminder of his past, even if he didn't want to recall the trauma he wanted signs to know where he has been.

Every now and again his world will freeze and his ears will ring, his breath slowed down and his tongue became dry. But those weren't problems they were just symptoms, Edwards had Tinnitus. The explosion he sustained left permanent internal scarring. There were not much modern day medicine to help victims of Tinnitus, Cognitive behavioral therapy helped Edwards cope with his problems, no one knew besides him. Any onlooker couldn't even tell Edwards had auditory problems.

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Earth - District of Persia - Mid-day

Clara maintained minimum exposure to the sun, breathing through her nose to ensure her mouth remained close, she had experience traversing deserts, at least in simulations. On Cal-Nev-Ari she participated in a 100 man combined simulation. 100 of her fellow students all hooked up in the same simulation. This time she was part of the Mesopotamian campaign traversing the desert while in combat, she fought as part of the British 13th Infantry Division. Even in the simulation, she was forced to march for long days in the desert. Her feet bearing blisters and bruises could be felt even if in a simulation.

But that didn't bother her, what bothered her was her current whereabouts. She's been riding on her camel for a day now and still no sign of anything but desert in sight, something must not be right.

Remembering the stars from last night, they were different than her first night. Her first night the stars show Earth Minor due east but recalling last night she couldn't even see Earth Minor. She blamed the lack of a constellation due to miss guided orientation.

"Wait-" she thought. "If Earth Minor was above me it must be Winter and the nights would be colder, but Earth Minor is not above me, so it must be summer." She thought about her predicament long and hard. How could it be that stars are not meant to be where they are in the sky...

"Titan-" It all made sense to her now, she came from the future in January expecting to be thrown into the past in January, a residual wormhole must have stayed to show the stars of the future.

"I AM AN IDIOT!" She was frustrated at herself, taking deep breaths she tried to control her rage and lower her heart rate. She can't afford burning more energy than is required, and now that she was going in the wrong direction conserving anything she had left was crucial. With that, she took her camel and turned South-West keeping the sun at an angle.

"This must be the dehydration kicking in.". Clara tried to come up with excuses to justify her lack of foresight, but know she couldn't blame anyone but herself.

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Earth, Undisclosed Location - 2012 April 18th 16:45

General O'Sullivan was looking down at his desk alongside his senior officers, he managed to sneak out of OPS, with coordinates of where the wormhole anomaly appeared. He knew the coordinates were familiar to him but he couldn't put a finger on it. Looking at his own intel he knew why it was familiar to him, he recently had reports of rebel movements in said region.

The region has recently been hiking with large reports of rebel movements, that's bad enough but now wormholes are appearing nearby? It can't be a coincidence, they must have been involved in some way. Directly southwest of the anomaly site about 70 miles away there had been numerous reports of a large rebel hideout.

"Sir I can have boots on the ground checking the anomaly site for you" Corporal Edwards piped up.

"Thank You, the first answer I wanted to hear, screw the lab coats coming in and taking over" The General seemed to almost have a big relief lifted off his shoulder, he needed a reminder that this was still a military installation in an active combat zone.

"Edwards, what do you think? "

"Sir, I would like to assemble the troops. Also, could I make preparations for extra water rations and night vision kit to be brought along."

"Yes Corporal, I also suspect you know to get to the Anomaly site and march South-west towards suspected rebel hideouts, cover story will be checking the wormhole site for the doctor, but tell the troops the Ops will be to engage rebel troops. The Doctor must not suspect any ulterior motive for this, so make sure none of our troops have contact with any lab coats unless through you."

"Understood sir," Edwards saluted the man and left the room.

The rest of the senior officers filled the gap the Corporal left and returned to look down at the map in front of them.

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Earth - District of Persia - Sunset

Clara was leaning back on her resting camel, she managed to fasten herself a belt. She took one of the two leather bags and used her dagger to cut the straps to make a makeshift belt. With the remaining leather, she cut out a square. Took the two corners folded them and punctured a hole through them, ran the strap through it and made herself a makeshift holster for her pistol.

She started standing up, the camel gave a muffled huff. Clara looked at the lowering sun, the lowering orange glint, it slowly hid behind the horizon. She was elegant, even when hidden behind her robes one couldn't help but admire her figure. Her hair flowing as she removed her headdress, the orange glint of the sun reflecting off her blond hair.

In the Martian military, she was one of a few female officers allowed to let their hair grow out long. Her mouth opened to take a deep breath, she closed her eyes.

Her arms crossed and clung to her torso, raising her breast. In one hand she held the scarf and the other she held her water canteen, it was about empty. The sun was then out of sight.

She was then engulfed in darkness, the wind started to hug her body as the temperature started to drop. She got a hold of herself and started to dig a pit by the camel, she needed to stay out of the way so the wind couldn't touch her, and near the camel to stay warm. She dug herself into the sand, covering her body, almost every part of her body was covered besides her head.

She hated the feeling of sand on parts of her body she didn't want to taint. But she had discipline and tried to fall asleep.

*****

Earth, Undisclosed Location - 2012 April 18th 16:45

"Ah, General O'Sullivan I'm happy to see you take initiative in our project." Dr. Patrick piped as he saw the General enter the research room.

The General quickly glanced at the wall to the far side of the room covered with monitors and back to the good Doctor. It's been 16 hours and the room is still filled with researchers and just as active as it had been when he first entered the room in the morning.

"Yes Doctor, but the task force will have to first secure the sight." The general returned his gaze to the Doctor who still had a big grin on his face.

"Is it possible some of my researchers follow you, I wou-"

"I'm sorry Doctor, it is still an active combat zone down there and I'm afraid I can't afford civilian casualties." The General quickly interjected before the doctor had the chance to speak more.

"Oh well, could I at least give y-"

"It will take a few days before we can allow your Coats to get down there, do you understand?" The General just wanted the doctor to say yes, so the general can be on his way. He was under no obligation to do anything for the doctor.

"General if we don't get down there sooner or later any residual electromagnetic radiation from the anomaly could go unrecorded."

"I've had enough Doctor, I'm doing this out of goodwill, remember I am under no obligation to help you" The General piped up trying to put the doctor in his place.

With that the General turned around and left the room, he merely wanted to tell the doctor he was sending troops, not get into a fit about what the doctor wanted. The General should have known better, regardless he started to make his way into the other OPS room where a live feed was established with the troops who are currently making their way to the anomaly site.

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Earth, Undisclosed Location - 2012 April 18th 16:45

Edwards was sitting in the chopper with 15 other men, 5 were part of the crew who piloted and armed the chopper. The other 10 were part of his squad including himself, the US army had their special forces built like interchangeable parts of a car, even if one part broke the rest can still work and that one part could easily be changed out with another. Edward knew none of the men but he was familiar with commanding troops.

"ETA 5 MIKES UNTIL LZ!" The crew chief shouted towards Edwards indicating that they 5 minutes until the helicopter arrived at its location. Edwards, in turn, nodded back indicating he understood the message.

"SOUND OFF FOR EQUIPMENT CHECK!" The crew chief shouted at the top of his lungs.

"1 OKAY"

"2 OKAY"

"3 OKAY"

And every squad member returned with a reply of 'OKAY' in their order around the helicopter indicating they are ready to jump. 10 replies of confirmation returned and the crew chief looked at his watch and started to count down.

They were about 800 feet in the air and were in a contested fly zone due to being near to the border of another nation, hey had to deploy quickly to not raise suspicion. They had to keep the same altitude and speed so any third party observer would just see a helicopter quickly fly past and out of the way, rather than a helicopter with fully loaded special forces armed to the teeth, landing in the middle of nowhere.

"SHUFFLE!" The crew chief once again shouted, and the doors of the helicopter flew open. The men proceeded to move slowly towards both doors and stuck their feet out the side of the helicopter 200 meters in the air.

"GO!" The final command was given and slowly each and every one of Edward's squad jumped out the door in their order with 3-second intervals. The Corporal being the officer was the last man to jump out of the helicopter. He folded his arms and legs and brushed himself off the side of the helicopter and was now falling towards the Earth.

*******

Earth, Undisclosed Location - 2012 April 18th 16:55

General O'Sullivan saw on the screen in front of him all 10 men jump out of the helicopter. The General requested to have control of a nearby satellite. It's orbit meant it passed near the anomaly site. The military reconnaissance satellite could capture the visible light spectrum as well as infrared and had many other capabilities.

"Alright, they're together, show me the route they will be taking" He ordered the nearby soldier.

The ground panned and the satellite showed numerous small heat signatures. Nothing that can fit the size of a person, and as it panned it covered 40 miles within 2 minutes.

"Wait, go back." The General saw a large heat source, bigger than most of the other creatures.

The General could see it was a big mammal, but there was something out of place, it looked bigger than it should be, and it had a slightly lower thermal signature from its back. Camels also don't travel alone, something doesn't feel right.

"Sir, I think it's a camel." The soldier replied.

Looking carefully now, the General still doubted the soldier's word, but didn't think a camel could deter his troop's mission.

"Alrighty, get me when they're halfway to their objective." The General left the room still with the feeling like he missed something, regardless it's soon time for dinner.

*******

Earth, Undisclosed Location - 2012 April 18th 16:50

Everyone was safe on the ground and made their way towards the landing zone. Edward pulled out a small box from his bag and placed it on the ground. It couldn't have been bigger than an average brick. He pushed in a sentence on the inbuilt keyboard and an orange light started to blink.

"Still can't believe we have to go radio-silent." Michael, the squad's medic spoke up.

"Well lucky we have someone always overhead," Edward replied to the Medic's comment.

The box he was handling was a remodeled IR beacon, which could blink morse in Infrared at the satellite. Every man in his squad had an IR beacon on their helmets to indicate to a UAV or otherwise they were friendly and not foe.

The men were in a perimeter around the landing zone taking in the landscape around them, some on their knees but all making sure nothing was about to approach them. A few seconds later the orange light turned to green and the blinking stopped. It indicated the transmission was complete. Edwards picked up the box and returned it to his bag.

"Alrighty let's start moving" Edwards indicated with his right hand the direction they needed to go and in unison the men started to rise and got in a long single file line.