EarthFall

Chap 10 Hitchhiker

10 minutes later, they had reached the entrance to the deep, thin Ravine that ran directly into the mountain. It was like someone had cut a very thin slice out of a very tall pie. The width of the ravine was around 40-80 feet, but the Granite walls were too straight to seem natural, Carson noted. Climbing them would be.. Problematic, as Chief would say. Carson would say impossible.

They walked across a spongy film of old, compacted dry leaves and crushed branches. There was no telling where the foliage ended and the ground began. Carson was suddenly glad for the first time that they had chosen not to land here. The phoenix's thrusters definitely would have started a forest fire.

Chief barked instructions. He spoke like he wasn't in the mood to be argued with.

"According to command there are 6 sources of abnormal electromagnetic emissions located throughout this ravine. And we're blowing each and every one of them to kingdom come. So here's the plan. We split up into two teams. Cornelius and Tucker, I'm sending you the geo cue for the first 3 locations. The Ravine splits in a Y ahead. You'll take the left path. Carson and I will go right, towards the last 3. We will keep Comm's on but only communicate to verify that the explosives are set. Understood?"

Corn and Tuck both shot Carson a quick glance. He nodded.

"Understood." Was their simultaneous reply.

Chief hadn't missed the interaction though. He glared at Carson suspiciously. But all he said was "Roger that. Meet back here in 1 hour. Move out."

The Ravine's walls grew taller as they made their way into the mountain. After a few minutes they came to a Y in the road. Tucker and Cornelius both nodded at Carson. He nodded back.

"Watch your back." Tucker saluted him.

Carson waited until they were gone from view. He had questions.

"Wartime protocol article 12 section 4 designates that you must provide a valid reason for execution of prisoners." He was proud of himself. Brianna wasn't the only one who dug her nose into the procedure books.

Chief sighed deeply and shook his head, saying nothing. He just kept walking.

"Why did you kill those prisoners?" Carson pressed again. After a few heartbeats, Chief replied.

"I'd consider them more wounded hostiles on the battlefield than prisoners, Cadet. They weren't even properly cuffed."

Carson glared at him. He couldn't tell if he was joking.

"Why did you kill your clone..." Carson ventured.

"He was trying to kill us. I don't think we would have gotten along."

Chief paused.

"And because I get enough questions from you, I didn't want to have to deal with unnecessary inquiry from everyone else until AFTER the job is done, and these charges are set. It would just slow us down. After this is over, then we can all have a nice warm family sit down and talk about our feelings for as long as we want."

Why was the Chief trying to rush things? Was he running towards or away from something?

They were within eyesight of their first target now. A large section of the ravine wall had been smoothly carved out to make a rounded cave, cut into the side of the granite ravine wall. It was maybe 20 feet tall, 20 feet wide, and 80 feet deep. There were dozens of rectangular looking stalagmites, and they were all covered in mushrooms. Thousands upon thousands of them. All different types, shapes, colors and sizes. It's too bad Tucker couldn't see this. Mycology was something like Carson's 20th or 30thth ranking skill according to the tests, but it was Tuckers 2nd. He would be able to appreciate it more. And, he would most likely be able to tell which ones were poisonous...