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ALIEN: "SSCCCREEEEEE!!!!!"
In shocked horror, the squad moves in to look at the lifeless remains of Ross's killer...
HARRINGTON: "GOTCHA, YOU MUTHA!! Payback's a b###h, ain't it!"
CRICHTON: "What in God's name is it? And
look at it's blood! It's eatin' into the g####m ground, like... acid!"
Knowing that they have to report this to
Capistrano Island Command right away, Stenhouse hurriedly barks orders.
STENHOUSE: "Whatever the hell it is, we've got to pull back NOW!! Harrington! Police up Harry's body! Crichton! Sutton!
You got the rear guard. LET'S GO!"
Moving as quickly as they can, the squad gathers up the body of their fallen comrade and start off back towards base to report
their horrific findings.
HARRINGTON: "I've got you partner. An I swear to God, if there's any more of those
b#####ds out there, I'll make them pay!"
DOYLE: "I'm with ya, Clay!"
STENHOUSE: "Easy people,
let's just get back. For all we know, this place could be swarming with those things."
SUTTON: "Amen to that!"
As the squad is swallowed up once more by the jungle, a second of the eyeless monstrosities lurks in the undergrowth
above them, then slowly creeps down and follows... a silent, deadly hunter...
ALIEN: "HHHSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!..."
===================================
PROLOGUE TO THE ARRIVAL OF LIGHTNING 6
Following a rather cryptic report requesting assistance from Commander Kano
(196th USDOC Reserve), the communications Supervisor at USDOC Mission Control immediately alerted the Watch Supervisor. Uncertain
of the
risks our units would soon face and recognizing that the incident could develop into a virtual nightmare, Brigade
Headquarters immediately upgraded the USDOC Alert Status to DEPCON ORANGE.
The Intelligence Division quickly alerted
the nation's top experts in the fields of electronics, physics, astronomy, space travel and many other areas, providing them
with what little information there was available and requesting their immediate response. Within hours, a hand-picked cadre
of
the most knowlegable minds was on its way to Thunder Bay.
In the days and weeks which followed, the group
studied the situation carefully. It was decided that to determine the true nature of the anomally, a team would need to study
it firsthand. Historians on the team soon discovered that there had been reports of a "glistening pool" device,
which had apparently been housed in a long-abandoned military facility in Nevada. After some extensive research and
exploration, a frame-like structure was unearthed in a subterranean vault. They were surprised to find that the area contained
in the structure appeared to shimmer slightly, almost as if it were a liquid mirror.
A team of several scientists
volunteered to study the anomally and a full CRT was assigned to provide protection for the expedition. Training began immediately
and the team finally deployed on the eve of 28 June, 2001.
Upon their arrival, the CRT was split into two squads
of eight. First Squad secured the perimeter of the building and Second Squad approached the anomally with the scientific
team. The team set up a battery of diagnostic
instruments, including cameras, audio recording instruments and spectrum
analysis systems. At approximately 2359 hours, one of the scientists, Scott Taylor, approached the anomally to place a microphone.
As he did so, he accidentally allowed his shirtsleeve to brush the surface of the shimmering field. With a horrid sucking
sound, he disappeared into the field as if it were the vortex of some insatiable whirlpool.
Second Squad Leader Ben
Simmons immediately reported the development and asked for four volunteers to attempt Taylor's rescue. Four men quickly stepped
forward to assist--Webster Johnson (Team Leader), Jim Anderson, Adam
Wilber and Tim Jacobs. The donned gas masks, fixed
their equipment and disappeared into the portal as a unit.
Several minutes after the volunteers entered the field,
the Simmons received a garbled radio message from Johnson. Johnson's voice was high-pitched and breaking as his words rushed
through the speaker in the Simmons' earpiece.
"Bravo Six...Bravo Six!"
(static)
"We're
really in it! They're all (crackle) over us! We need an assist, NOW! We...
(static)
The transmission
abruptly ended.
Before the Simmons could prevent them from doing so, two of the remaining team members (Dan March
and Alan Greenfield), dove into the field with weapons ready.
*****
EXCERPTS FROM RECORDED AFTER-ACTION INTERVIEWS
A. GREENFIELD: "As soon as we hit the field, I
felt incredible cold. I could see my rifle and my hands shimmering as if they were made out of water, and I couldn't feel
them very well. I suddenly felt very dizzy
too. When we stepped through on the other side though, everything seemed
normal--except it was still very cold. We found ourselves in a dark, large room, almost like a warehouse. There were large
boxes all around and I
could hear a great volume of small arms fire coming from our right. I heard the other members
of our first team shouting and there were strange voices replying in a strange language. It sounded to me like German."
D. MARCH: "Once we were able to gather our senses and realize we were still in one piece, Alan (Greenfield)
and I moved carefully in the direction of the firefight. We contacted Johnson by radio and communication at this
point
was crystal clear. Johnson reported that they were under heavy attack from a group of German soldiers at a position approximately
20 yards northeast of the vortex. I had him repeat what he said, because at first I wasn't sure I understood him correctly.
We found his team within
moments.
When we arrived, there was no doubt in my mind that Johnson had all his
faculties about him. There were actually men wearing German uniforms which appeared to be of World War II vintage. They
were scattered across the room behind large crates and all of them were firing at us with weapons from that era."
W. JOHNSON: "Man, I can't tell you how good it felt to have more back up with us. Until Greenfield and March arrived,
I thought we were gonna be history! I had one man down with a leg wound and one other nearly out of ammunition. But I guess
I should start at the beginning."
"When we first went through the field after Dr. Taylor, we almost immediately
observed a group of approximately fifteen men gathered around the center of what appeared to be a large, dark warehouse.
We were all surpised to find that they were wearing what looked like German uniforms
from World War II."
"Two
of the 'Germans' had Taylor by the arms and were treating him roughly. They were shouting questions at him, but he doesn't
speak German, so he didn't understand and couldn't reply. We didn't even have time to really
react, for one of the Germans
saw us as soon as we came through. He just raised a pistol and started shooting. Dr. Taylor pulled away from the soldiers
and dove for cover behind a crate near us. The Germans retreated further into the room. As soon as they found cover, they
started
firing indiscriminately at us. We managed to take down a few with grenades, but the volume of fire was incredible.
Anderson went down almost immediately and Jacobs began to run low on ammunition soon after. We were definitely on
the
losing end of things."
"It was when Greenfield and March found us that the tide of battle finally began
to turn. They were able to approach on the German's flank and provided us cover fire while we evacuated back to the vortex.
We didn't know if the thing would work in reverse or if we could even get out, but we
had to try."
S.
TAYLOR: "Well, as I was setting up the microphone, I must have gotten a bit to close to the frame. When my sleeve brushed
the field, I suddenly became quite light-headed and lost my balance. I fell through the frame and
landed on a cold concrete
floor. I was amazed to find myself surrounded by a number of German soldiers and a couple of men who appeared to be scientists.
I came to that conclusion because they had some instruments and
were writing in notebooks as I came through. It occurred
to me that this group must have been studying the frame, much as we had been doing, only from the opposite side of it. I
didn't have much time to think, because two of the soldiers grabbed me and began screaming questions at me. I was roughly
searched, then the whole group moved quickly away from the frame and closer to the center of the warehouse."
"I
couldn't understand their questions, but I gathered from the tone of their voices and their body language that they were quite
frightened. I'd imagine I would be too, if I were in their position. Anyway, fortunately for me, Corporal Johnson and his
team came through at that moment to rescue me. They and the Germans engaged in an heavy exchange of gunfire and I managed
to escape the soldiers."
"Johnson, the team and I crawled back to the frame and from all appearances, it
appeared that it was becoming unstable. The entire image started to wobble. Everything--including the wall that the frame
was in, the frame itself and the field was shimmering. When I fell through before, the field itself was the only thing that
appeared to shimmer. For some reason, the entire device seemed to be deterioriating. We had no idea whether or not we could
go back through or what would happen to us if we tried, but we
didn't think our chances were any better going on."
"Johnson and the CRT members threw several grenades toward the Germans and we ran for the field as fast as we
could."
SGT. SIMMONS: "(expletive deleted), you can't possibly imagine how relieved I was when Taylor
and most of the first team came back through that (expletive deleted) thing! All four fell through the whirlpool and onto
the
floor as if their hair was on fire! I could hear echoing explosions and noticed that the whole structure seemed
to begin fading. The frame, the wall around it and the whirlpool would start to move strangely as if it was made from a sheet
of some kind of weird liquid. I was really starting to worry when March and Greenfield came through, followed last by Webster.
Almost as soon as Webster came back on our side, the whole structure gave one last big ripple and then it disappeared completely.
Another
second or two and I don't think he would have made it back."
"When the anomally faded away,
there was nothing there except a solid concrete wall. In the days since it disappeared, they have torn down the wall and
discovered nothing at all behind it except sandstone and hard-packed adobe. The earth there hasn't been touched in decades.
I
have no explanation at all for this thing...I guess I'll leave that to brighter minds than mine. All I know is, it
scared the hell outta me!"
S. TAYLOR: "The weird thing about this situation is that the entire sequence
of events took a good 10 minutes to play out. It seemed like much longer, but I'm a pretty good judge of time. When we pulled
the tapes from the recording instruments however, it showed that just over a minute had passed. How all that could have happened
in such a short period of time is beyond me. It's physically impossible as far as I know. Our instruments were checked and
re-checked--they were (and are) functioning perfectly.
All I know is, we got a lot of data from this and we're continuing
to study it. It'll probably be years before we can find out what really happened. Right now I haven't a clue!"
******
END OF REPORT
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