Conflicting Objectives II

Having received a list of people to select from for the mission would have been a huge help for most, but with every minute of thinking John Marlow was considering this to be more and more of a curse.

He wanted to select the best possible team for the investigation of the alien facility where Jackie lost his life. In order for the mission to be successful, reliability was the key, and the most reliable people were those he knew. The problem was that John needed specific players in his team, and did not want to expose those who he considered friends to danger.

It was a huge dilemma for him, fighting an internal conflict of being objective in his picks and keeping friends away. However, the longer he thought about it, comparing individual traits of people in the list, the more obvious it became that he just cannot play the favorites, allowing them to not participate.

In the end, aside from him and sarge Andy Krawczak, there were four more people Marlow knew really well in the team he chose, including Martin Johnson, Rashid Moussa, Stan Szarak and Alina Boskovitch. John was especially concerned about Alina due to relation she had with Jackie - though she herself said that her motivation comes from wanting to learn what happened to him, Marlow felt she may disregard orders if it is related to the person they lost.

Marlow submitted the list, including backups, to colonel Ryan McRae, mentioning the concerns about Alina's situation. Colonel approved the plan, and supported Boskovitch joining the team - after all, her personal science profile matched what they needed specifically for this investigation. Obviously, major was aware of that as this was the main reason for him considering her being a part of the team.

Having the confirmation from Ryan, John left early with advance party which was supposed to reach the destination way prior the main group from his current camp.

Part of the group was already onsite, and Marlow contacted them already on the way to give instructions for preparations they need to went into the structure yet again. Those people were sarge Andy Krawczak, Alina Boskovitch and two more soldiers. Others were to arrive about the same time as John.

- I need you to secure both entry and exit areas we found the last time - major had an open channel with everyone already in temporary camp by the alien facility - After you do that, please send the drones to see if routes are secure. Depending on results, we will decide which spot should be used for getting inside. Be especially careful with the place we got out from.

- Yes, I recall the encounter we had there - said sarge, who was one attacked by a flying lizard, replied - After getting in contact with the second group, we now have access to their equipment, so we can finally make use of wasps. Even if any beast attacks, one shot will be enough, though I doubt it will be as effective as this arm of yours.

- Wait, what do you mean by the arm? - Alina asked immediately.

- You see, one of major's arms is a cyber he got after a fight he had during emergency landing - Andy started explaining - Colonel told the meds to put him together, and he ended up with a weaponized arm...

- Sarge, that's enough of chitchat - Marlow had to stop him before something classified got leaked.

Honestly, when he first met Andy Krawczak, he would not have thought the guy would be that much into chitchats and gossip. It was either he was giving completely different impression when met or something changed on the way. John did not know him before being assigned to scouting party, so it might have been he just needed a chance to show this side of behavior.

- Either way, be cautious and notify me should anything unexpected happen - he continued talking - Don't you ever think of going inside on your own, and wait for the whole party to get there, understood?

Everyone on the other end confirmed they understood their orders. With that, John closed the channel and changed his pose in the seat, resting his tired back. When he did that, he let out a slight sigh.

- Is everything alright, major? - sarge Szarak, who was sitting closeby, asked him immediately after hearing the officer's sigh - Anything I can help with?

- No, it's just I've been up for way too long and my body decided to let me know about it - Marlow replied, showing his colleague with hand gesture that everything is alright - I guess I need to take a nap. Wake me up if something happens.

Stan Szarak noded, and spoke no more.

John put his body in the most comfortable position he could get, and set his F-suit in the rest mode, which allowed stabilization of the posture he selected, making it possible to sleep even in the hardest conditions.

Metallic sounds woke him up unexpectedly. Marlow felt as if he barely managed to close his eyes when this happened, but the landscape outside was completely different, so it was obvious they actually traveled some distance.

While looking around, he noticed everyone jumped into combat positions.

- Stan, what's this about? - he asked Stan, but the man just showed him something with hand gesture.

Based on the way sarge was reacting, John understood they needed to stay quiet. Their vehicle was no longer moving, and the whole mini-convoy was staying in the middle of wilderness.

Marlow slowly moved closer to the wall to have a better look outside. Something big was crouching outside, a long shape with the back on the height that could barely reach his knee. It was still dark as they had a couple of hours before the sunrise, so it was hard to easily tell what exactly was this creature.

Everyone was calmly waiting, not rushing to attack or perform any other actions that could bother the creature. At the same time, John launched his PEC and adjusted the sight options to amount of light outside. Once he got a clear view, he could easily see an animal which individual traits were something in-between amphibian and reptile, having eight limbs and a tail, its back covered with thick and slimy scales.

Having better visuals now, Marlow launched the built-in encyclopedia to verify the type of creature they were dealing with. Unfortunately, this one was not in the database.

- Does it show signs of being hostile? - John asked on silent channel using brainwave signals, which he did not like, but knew this would be the best choice in such circumstances.

- We drove over it, probably woke it up - he got a short reply from one of the drivers - It bumped into our brawler. Did not attack us though, just walking around like that. Database is not picking up what kind of creature it is, so we don't know how to proceed.

- Yes, it was the same for me, so it's not any kind of malfunction - John confirmed - I guess we wait until it walks away?

- What if it doesn't, though? - Stan asked, while keeping his aim on the creature - I heard your arm is pretty decent weapon, major. Maybe with this we can...?

"Damn it, rumors spreading like that", Marlow thought to himself.

- Oh, I heard it's not a rumor - another voice joined the conversation.

That was why John did not like allowing this kind of communication - it was way too easy to let some unwanted messages go through.

- No matter what kind of cybers I have, I'm not attacking unless something attacks me, is that clear? - he replied, slightly irritated - I say we wait. There's no point in risking unnecessary damage.

Marlow was the highest ranking person in the group, so no one complained anymore after he said that. However, while he did, with every next minute passing, he was growing more and more impatient. An hour into the wait, he actually started considering if maybe they should use weapons. Still, killing something that seemed harmless was not feeling well for him.

So, they waited even longer, and finally the creature started moving away.

- Phew, and here I thought it's never going to get away - Stan commented with visible relief, wiping sweat from his forehead - We've lost four hours here.

- Yeah, and no one got hurt - John replied - I prefer to be in one piece and arrive later than have a chance of arriving sooner at the cost of people getting either wounded or killed.

- That's fair point, major.

As they were about to leave, something hit the outer coating of brawler. There was no major damage done, but it felt weird.

- What's that? - Marlow looked outside, using his PEC's analysis system - Are these some kind of projectiles? Someone shooting at us?

- Negative, no thermal signature detected - he got a report from one of the drivers - Though this Ghasts analysis is picking up something. Should we check it?

- No, just register an entry about this event in journal and let us move on.