Chapter 3: Chapter 3 : The Forest

    The forest was like any normal one you'd find on earth, the only difference was the eerie silence. There was no chirping of birds or movement of squirrels. Only the howling wind and the sound of their footsteps could be heard.

    "why the hell is this planet so… lifeless, what happened here?" Shepard was thinking out loud while looking around the forest. its high trees and lack of life crept him out.

    "it doesn't have to be that way you know. Maybe life as we know it didn't even develop on this planet, it is not only outside of our solar system, it is outside of our entire galaxy. Our rules and understanding of life don't really apply here." Sarah, the head of the Biology team, replied to Shepard's inquiry.

    Shepard looked at Sarah, surprised that she left her two friends behind, and decided to walk with him and the other soldiers, "well these trees look perfectly compatible with my understanding, the grass and air too. this whole place looks like any typical forest on earth, minus the wildlife and the occasional candy wrapper. By the way, won't your friends back there miss your company?"

    "the trees and grass might only look like those of earth but be completely different when examined under a microscope, and those two have been going on about mitosis in plants for the past 10 minutes, I can't take it anymore."

    The two walked ahead of the others talking about the new planet and the possibilities it holds. Donut and James, noticing the lovely atmosphere their leader had going, chuckled and spoke in hushed voices trying to get a rise out of him.

    Shepard turned around, annoyed by their remarks, to give them a piece of his mind. As he turned, however, he noticed that the Geology team along with Rodriguez were missing. "what the hell, where are the others?"

    They all turned around, looking behind the trees trying to spot them. After confirming that they didn't just lag behind, Shepard took charge of the Biology team and the two remaining soldiers.

    "Donut do a perimeter check but stay within our line of sight, James and I will keep eyes on the Biology team… also, prepare your weapons, ill radio Libertas to unlock them for us." Shepard shouted orders, completely dropping the friendly, polite attitude he had while talking with Sarah.

    "HQ, we have a situation here, the Geology team along with Rodriguez are missing. I request the activation of our weapons and a 10-20 on the missing members, over." Shepard spoke into the radio with hast.

    The radio buzzed, and the voice of DR. Moore blared out to Shepard's surprise. "relax, soldier. George and the others are just a short distance away, although "Rodriguez" was it? seems to be alone, further away in the opposite direction. They probably just drifted off while taking samples, ill send the coordination to your pathfinder, so there is no need to activate your weapons."

    The radio went silent, and Shepard cursed under his breath. He pulled up his pathfinder, a wrist-mounted computer that displayed their current physical state, ammo count, and much more. A holographic map appeared from it, displaying the location of the missing members.

    "Alright, here's the plan, we'll head towards the geology team first, get them and then circle back for Rodriguez. Remember, your guns aren't activated so in case something happens, just run for it. let's move out."

    They moved deeper into the woods, heading for the location of the missing members. They jogged quickly causing Sarah and the other two scientists to tire and start wheezing.

    Before long they arrived at a large clearing where the three missing scientists sat on their knees examining an oddly shaped rock. Seeing them caused Shepard to breathe a sigh of relief.

    "Hey, you idiots think it's a good idea to split from the group? It's a damn alien planet. For scientists, you guys sure are dumb" Donut, annoyed that he had to run through a forest for nothing, threw an insult at them.

    George shot up to his feet wanting to escalate the situation with the soldier only to be stopped by a sweat-drenched Sarah who isn't thrilled about their jog either. The two argued with each other while Shepard scolded Donut.

    "Alright, what's done is done so everyone just settle down. I'll report to HQ, we'll go get Rodriguez and head back to the ship. The sun will be setting in half an hour and I think we got enough samples for today."

    "wait, I need to take of few pictures and a sample of this" George objected to Shepard's order, and pointed to the rock they were examining. A large rock with jagged edges on the sides of it, with what seemed to be a metal coating on them.

    "This is the first time I've seen such a weird rock formation. Even if its placement is unnatural, what the hell is this massive rock doing in the middle of a forest? also, it has jagged points with metal coating which is …" his tangent was stopped by Shepard who had enough.

    "Whatever, I don't care, just hurry it up. I have a missing soldier and I'd like to get to him soon"

    "HQ, we've regrouped with the geology team. We'll start heading toward Rodriguez's location after we collect some samples. Over."

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    The radio buzzed to life in response, and DR. Moores voice blared again. "Shepard, I advise that you move quickly, it seems that Rodriguez hasn't moved since we located him. There is a chance that he's incapacitated."

    "God damn it, who's idea was it to give us only one fucking radio? If we had comms none of this would've happened"

    "calm down soldier, you were already debriefed on this. The electromagnetic waves travel much differently here than they do on earth, so we had to re-invent the radio in such a short period of time and the materials required were rare to boot. So, we only have a limited number of them on hand for the moment." She said calmly.

    Shepard was furious, his voice and tone turned from professional and calm to angry and anxious as soon as he got the unfortunate update on Rodriguez.

    "damn it, just keep me updated on his location, Shepard over and out."

    By the time their conversation ended, George and the other geologists were done taking the pictures and collecting the samples needed. before long they were on the move, jogging across the forest once again.

    The sun was beginning to set when they reached Rodriguez's location. But found no one there. Only trees and tall grass surrounded them; confused by this, Shepard contacted HQ again for location updates only to be told that it hasn't changed.

    He and the others looked frantically, looking under and behind every tree. "Shepard, Donut, come here." James's voice rang out, catching the group's attention. They walked towards him as he pointed to an old tree.

    "what is it?" Shepard asked, his anxiety now higher than before.

    James only replied with two words, 'look up'. Everyone looked up just to witness a bizarre sight. A Pathfinder, one that belonged to the missing Rodriguez, was stuck on one of the branches. Donut climbed up and brought it down to examine it.

    The Pathfinder's strap was clearly torn apart and the screen smashed to bits. There were no tracks or footprints belonging to Rodriguez on the ground nor up on the trees, which crept the soldiers out.

    The scientists, who were calm and collected up until now, felt fear for the first time since they they were selected for this mission. They were in an alien forest with night quickly approaching, and something just took a highly trained soldier without leaving a track.

    They all stood in place shocked and paranoid, even Shepard found himself staring at the destroyed Pathfinder and trying not to panic as he decides on their next move, but before he could make a decision the radio blared to life. Making one for him.

    "Shepard, we have an emergency. return to the ship immediately, there is no time to waste" the voice coming out of the radio was no longer calm and collected, but anxious and panicked.

    "but-" Before Shepard could get a word in, DR. Moore shouted at him, breaking her calm façade completely.

    "NO BUTS SHEPARD, COME BACK TO BASE. NOW" her scream was heard by everyone causing them to panic even more. Rebecca Moore was a stern woman, not the type of person to easily lose her composure, so whatever made her act like this had to be really bad.

    "FUCKING BITCH…. DAMN IT… let's move. We'll run as fast as we can, stick together, and NO ONE LAG BEHIND." Once those words left Shepard's mouth everyone started running. Fueled by fear-induced adrenaline, they made their way out of the forest much faster than it took them to go in.

    Once out of the forest only a small stretch of grass was between them and the safety of Libertas's thick metal walls, however, the closer they got to the platform the more watched they felt. Shepard would look back again and again but spot nothing but the trees looking back at him.

    Their quick pace paid off as they got to the platform in a flash, and as soon as their feet were on it, it started slowly ascending. However, the forest was holding one more surprise for Shepard. with only the dwindling light of sunset illuminating the forest, he spotted something moving. It darted across the trees and disappeared again to Shepard's shock.

    Before he could have a second look, the platform reached its destination. Blocking his line of sight and delivering him to the safety of the ship. He stood staring at Rodriguez's Pathfinder in disbelief, realizing that the worst-case scenario was happening right now, and Rodriguez was only the first of many victims to come.

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