Robert was sweating like a jockey right before the final turn in the Kentucky derby. Marvin slapped his long time buddy on the back. �Dude, its going to be fine, just calm down. But, just incase you get too paranoid, I brought this to take your mind off anything that might make you piss your pants.� Marv held up a playboy magazine, then when Robert gave him a slightly annoyed look, all Marv did was raise his brows twice and smile. Rob shook his head and stared at the spinning rooter blades of the dragonfly shaped machine. The helicopter was black, and fairly sized. However seemed small enough to be torn to shreds by a freak storm. All thoughts that coursed through Robert�s troubled mind.
�God this is going to be awful.� Robert mimed to himself. Melissa walked up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. �How you feeling?�
Robert froze. �Fine. I�m feeling fine thank you.� She smiled at him and walked away. He turned his vision to Marv and was given the same double brow lift as earlier. Robert rolled his eyes as Craig and the Professor approached. Robert glanced down then straight ahead, his eyes focused on the copter.
�Are we all ready?� The Claimmor asked the group. Yes, yeah, yep. All meaning the same thing was replied from the four younger people. With that note Claimmor helped his daughter into the copter. Marv�s gaze was on Melissa�s rump as she climbed in, he smiled and turned to Robert, giving the same jester as earlier with his eyebrows. A quick slap to the back of the head is what Marvin was rewarded with, Craig gave him a discipline look. The same look you get from an adult after touching something expensive.
Marv shrugged ignorantly as he entered the copter. Then Craig and finally the weary Robert who swallowed his fear as he strapped himself in to this death trap. He twiddles his thumbs as the low pitched humming sound of the rooters beginning to spiral sent him into a tiny panic attack. Suddenly the copter jumped off the ground, the same time his soul left his body in fear.
After about an hour flight�
Robert mentally prayed for his life, his eyes closed as the others chatted back and forth. By now the chopper was over open ocean. Roberts loud mind rambled on and on until a tiny voice broke its will. �Hey Robert, look at the ocean, isn�t it pretty?� Melissa asked. Robert�s eyes opened quickly and he stared out at what the girl saw, though he didn�t see the beauty of life, but the death that the dark blue sea�s offered. He just smiled a fake smile and nodded before staring back down at the floor.
Craig sat there staring across at Marv who hadn�t said much since the take off, Marv was thinking of a way to worsen Roberts situation. Marv was always good at this. �So Robert, you know what happened to the last expedition team heading to this island?�
Roberts eyes grew wide as he replied slowly. �Their ship was never seen or heard from again, just disappeared.� Claimmor shook his head. �Oh that�s not true, sonar scopes picked up the ship, it had sank during a storm after being capsized.� Claimmor said reassuringly.
�No, that�s not true, the sonar scope picked up what looked like a ship, and they weren�t sure. It wasn�t long after that, that the investigation�s funds disappeared .� Robert said staring down at his feet. Claimmor couldn�t reply to this. �How long are we going to be in the air?� Craig asked the pilot as an attempt to break the tension.
�We are landing in the center of the island, so it should only be another hour now.� Robert�s emotions stirred again. �Wait? Why the middle, shouldn�t their be dock, or something?! Why cant we land on the beach?��
�The natives are pretty superstitious about their beach, besides, its like sea snake capital of the world.� Marv said fiddling with his fingernails. �The island has barely changed in the many years we have known about it, in fact outside influence seems to forsake the entire freaking place.� Marv continued. �Impressive you know that much Marv.� Robert said with a tiny smirk on his lips.
�So it finally smiles.� Marv said to Robert who was just barely smiling. �You know Rob buddy, when we land, them islanders are going to be all over us.� Robert went silent including his breathing. Melissa rolled her eyes. �Now that�s not why we are going, we are going for research, pleasure comes after we have found what we came for.� Claimmor said in his slightly raspy older man voice. �And what is that?� Craig asked curiously. �Yeah, since we got the grant for this expedition, none of us have been told what exactly we are looking for.�
Claimmor�s expression went cold as the rooters hummed above the group. He reached into his pack and pulled out a print off of a drawing. He handed the print off to Craig �We are looking for these.� Craig looked down at the paper and saw a drawing of three disks, the drawing was painted on an ancient wall and contained many tan and pale colors. One disk was the color of a dark marine blue, the other a pale yellow, and finally the last disk was red. Craig passed the paper around. �Hey, what the hell are these things?� Marv asked in a curious tone. �Well, I�m not sure myself, but we are being funded to find those disks, anything else we find is ours to keep.� Claimmor took the paper back while explaining. Though obviously hiding something.
�Any idea of what exactly they are?� Robert said shyly. �No, but we know they are worth quite a bit for plain stone disks. Apparently each one has its own gem inside the center, that might explain their worth.� The professor spoke.
The group�s conversation lingered until they approached the island.
�Look, land!� Marv said sarcastically while pointing at the island and smiling at Robert. Robert looked out the window and saw a fair sized island that appeared flat, completely a coral island and not volcanic. It had lush jungles could be seen and Robert just sulked down in his seat. The rest of the group stared through the window like children admiring through a toy store display window. Their smiles and happiness wasn�t shared by Robert who found himself just happy to be close to land.
The copter hovered above a clearing and finally let its self down. As it did foliage yielded to the power of its rooters. Waves of air current swept over the plants surrounding it and the helicopter landed. Unbuckling safety belts and opening doors the group slowly unpacked. Robert put his feet on solid ground for the first time in a couple hours. He let out a sigh as he nearly collapsed, the rest of the group watching unsure.
After a few minutes of recovery�
The pilot made sure everybody was completely situated before he took off. Claimmor lead the group of younger people up to a rather aged man. The man was ancient, nearly ninety years old. He was skinny and the only thing he owned of weight was his stomach. His skin was a tan color, and his eyes where deep ebony. His face bore no facial hair and his hair was long and white, he was dressed in a strange loin cloth. Beside this man was a younger man that resembled him in many ways. The other man was at least half the elder�s age, but apparently had more power. The younger man�s hair was long and black and his face aged with experience.
Claimmor smiled as he stood in front of the two men, he held out his hand and the men shook it appreciatively. They seemed surprisingly in tune with the outside cultures. The younger man spoke. �Welcome.�
From that moment the two men shared smiles and a quick conversation before they where lead to out island village. The four students stood a little dumbfounded at how advanced the natives where. Robert scanned the area with his eyes when he saw a familiar toned person. It was a white man. Strangely enough the man had pearl hair, he was squatted down talking to two teenaged boys. The pearl haired man was dressed in normal clothing, and seemed to know the local language. Robert nudged Claimmor and he glanced in that direction. He saw him too, the man was obviously an outsider, but how long had he been here?
The man stood up and he had fairly tanned skin and his eyes where a strange color, almost turquoise, and those mysterious eyes now gazed at the new arrivals. As the man walked toward the others he extended his hand and Claimmor shook it slowly. �So you must be the expedition team?� The strange man spoke, his accent was a strange mixture of many different European cultures. �Yes.� Claimmor answered, a bit confused. �Oh, my name is Victor Claimmor.�
�Beta Celt.� The strange man replied, his name as strange as the man who bore it like a cross. �So, you�re not native?� Robert asked, knowing the answer was most definitely going to be no. �Of course not.� Beta answered with a smile. �I came here about five years ago with some other missionaries, I have lived here ever since.�
�I see, so you�re a missionary?� Claimmor asked Beta. �Well I was, but living here for the past five years has kind of changed my views on everything.� Claimmor listened with an interested look on his face. �The people here seem to have an understanding, a raw knowledge that has forsaken the rest of the world. Sadly they are a dieing people, only about twenty men and sixteen women, the rest are children.�
The two men�s conversation continued for a little while until Robert brought up the fact that they should probably be led to their quarters. The group unpacked and prepared for their first night on the island, because tomorrow was the big day.
Waiting for exploration�
~~~~~~~~~~
�Sir.� A young man dressed in a military uniform spoke while saluting his superior. Hemmingway returned the salute. �What is it?� Asked Hemmingway, �Sir, I need you to take a look at the latest satellite images.� The young man handed his superior officer the print offs, saluted and then walked away in a disciplined fashion.
�My god.� Hemmingway said as he thumbed through the images. An amber alert went over the com speakers and Jet was called to the front lobby. Jet�s tired sweaty form rushed out of bathroom and took off down the hall. His mind raced �What the hell is going on?�
Hemmingway nervously scrambled to gather the entire staff. Jet continued down the hall as he passed several young men and women mindlessly heading to their posts. Jet blinked, his mind began to suspect something but he wasn�t exactly sure what was going on.
Ten miles away in the surrounding waters of the UNGCC hangar base.
A radio goes dead�
�Sir, we are on wet patrol, the depth charges have been detonated and there is no sign of movement.�
�Good.� Replied Hemmingway into a radio where the voice of a young ignorantly anxious man spoke.
�Shit.� A man from with in the control room of the vessel ran out. �Water temperature has risen thirty four percent in six seconds!� The entire staff of men on the military vessel scurried about to their stations.
�Sir! The water�s boiling! It�s getting real hot�sir� moaned the radio voice. �Move the god damn ship!� Hemmingway shouted. The ships radio went out due to electrical interference�
Around that time it was way past too late. The water irrupted with bubbles around the ship and the flood of turrets shot up into the air. Showering far past boiling point water down onto the crew scaring and scolding them� but that was the least of their worries. The water began to glow a bright blue brilliance and many of the men had to cover their eyes. Light busted up through the depths of the ocean and surrounded the boat before a great heat burnt through steal, wood, and plastic. Oil lodges exploded and the ship was cut in two by this strand of flame bursting through the water before it finally caused the entire vessel to erupt in orange flames.
Before this moment of sudden death, many men with promising futures prayed to many different gods for salvation, they prayed with their entire heart and soul and they where forsaken. As the flame of the leviathan torn their vessel into shreds and left a black eerie oil slick floating on the water reflecting in a rainbow shade from the suns giving light. Dead for their country?
�Echo Nineteen?! Echo Nineteen?!� Hemmingway shouted into the radio. We have less time then we thought, Hemmingway confessed in his mind. Jet stood behind him, his arms hanging down to his sides.
�Their dead, the men on the ship� all of them, and for what? Their unforgiving countries that will forget about them in a week.� Hemmingway heard Jet�s words and as he leaned over the side of the counter which held the complex radio equipment, his sweating brow dripping. He turned and couldn�t respond fast enough to his long time friend. �Jet, its time��
Jet almost instinctively knew what this meant. He took a deep breath in and then stared down for a few moments. As above Hemmingway, a large plasma screen showed the satellite images of a info red blotch moving closer to a area on a map that was marked UNGCC�
