Volume 2, Chapter 4 – The Silent Silence. Brainstorming.
And I entered the headquarters, where all the officers were still sitting, except... Where's Lelik again?
"Guys!" Lelik burst in behind me, putting on his shoes on the go.
Everyone turned their heads, the CUB clerks looked up from their briefcases.
"Lelik?" the Strategist said, a little suspiciously.
"Lelik carried out a massive strike on a cave with three Apaches on the coast," the CUB Recon Officer said with a yawn, pulling up satellite footage on the screen.
(What? What about the Tomahawk plan?)
I looked back and forth between Lelik and the Recon Officer in confusion.
"Yeah! And here's the thing, guys — they crawled out, but they died pretty quickly from the sun and my rockets. Heh," Lelik flopped proudly into a chair in front of the map.
"But the Tomahawk!" I protested, like someone who'd been made to wait an hour for candy, only to be told "we already ate it."
The Strategist switched the screen from the footage of Lelik's carpet bombing to a live drone feed hovering over a fairly wide cave — one that a tank could easily drive into, while carrying another tank on its back.
"Pssst... How are the emotions?" Arleigh "quietly" asked Lelik.
"AWESOME!" he answered loudly, still trying to put on his right sneaker, lifting his leg over the heads of the other officers.
(Heh. They look funny.) I sat down with a smile on a chair next to Paladin, who already felt like family. He says little, but he's always there. And I turned my gaze to the screen.
The image began to tremble slowly, filling with static, and the drone swayed slightly as a missile whistled past it, flying deep inside — and an echo followed it, as if it were flying into the very depths without resistance.
BOOM!
A fiery cloud burst from the ground, and the earth shattered, scattering in all directions, making the screen flicker mindlessly and fill with noise. Then everything was covered in thick smoke, and the image disappeared, leaving only the loud death screams of countless creatures, fading one by one.
The drone flew off to the side, circling the site from the other direction, downwind, and before us appeared an image of a massive hole, with creatures crawling out of it and instantly beginning to dry up.
They looked like tarantulas, only with massive legs, constantly leaving a trail behind them. There were also small creatures that jumped and, because of the sun, kept shrinking, leaving behind a small puddle of black liquid. There were also flying things with horns, like flies, only bigger — the size of a ball — but they quickly fell dead, also creating a puddle.
Everything went quiet, and something writhing appeared from the cave — and it just crawled deeper.
—
I could even hear the explosion in the distance myself. Creepy. But they all die from the sun. That looks like good news.
"So, officers. You've all seen the footage. We can conclude that the creatures cannot tolerate sunlight — and if that's the case, then flamethrowers might be lethal to them at any time of day," the Strategist began, pulling up photos from the site taken by the drone. "Now I propose we examine the black liquid [zoom on liquid] and also collect DNA samples," the Strategist finished.
(An expedition?)
"I'm going!" I shouted without hesitation, earning looks from all the officers.
"Yes, sir!" the Strategist agreed. "IB Officer — you're on escort and Bradleys. Paladin — Abrams in the vanguard, bring SPGs into firing range. Officer..." the Strategist looked at Lelik and paused.
"No problem, boss — I mean, bosses! Three Apaches, five Black Hawks," Lelik answered for himself.
"Admiral. I'll need a squadron from VFA-31 'Tomcatters'," the Strategist addressed Aviana.
She just nodded.
"One hour. Carrier basing in the Ocean... Sea," Aviana answered coldly, but stumbled slightly over the tautology.
The Strategist nodded, turning off the projector.
"We'll start without you, Admiral."
The Strategist thought for a moment and began drawing a route line on the map, avoiding all caves along the way to our target.
Then he switched the screen back to the drone.
"Officers. The dust has settled — we can go down into the cave," he announced, showing an image of a massive hole leading deep underground. "Paladin, you can handle the tank relocation to the intermediate staging point," the Strategist poked his finger at the middle of the route.
Then the drone began to slowly descend into the cave, where thick liquid was dripping everywhere, and creatures were gathering against the walls — seemingly ignoring the drone, just pressing themselves against the walls, avoiding the sunlight.
"Officers. My hypothesis is that they have no hearing," the Strategist reacted to the image, closely watching the drone's flight. "Try flying right up against them," he addressed one of the CUB clerks.
The drone slowly moved sideways toward the creatures on the walls, which were breathing rhythmically and secreting liquid.
The drone touched them. And everything froze — even the liquid stopped dripping, as if the creatures had come home, noticed someone was there, and just froze.
The drone flew back, and everything came to life again.
"One more time," the Strategist asked, not looking away from the screen.
Touch.
Same thing. Nothing moves — it feels like they're pretending not to exist.
"Deeper?"
"Signal."
"Pull it out," the Strategist finished, and the drone smoothly slipped out of the hole.
—
Huh... That was tense and interesting to watch — I even forgot I was living in this. But I don't mind. I've accepted it.
"So. Hypotheses: no hearing, playing possum, blindness?" the Strategist commented.
"Or maybe they just memorize a new creature and its smell? After all, attacking the unknown is reckless," the Air Defense Major proposed.
The Strategist nodded, sitting down across from everyone.
"If the creatures are intelligent, that's logical. Anything else?"
"They're just scared of us!" Lelik shouted, and Arleigh elbowed him.
"I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. The footage showed a larger creature. And these smaller ones aren't reacting because if the big one isn't afraid, why should they be?" Arleigh proposed her version, struggling with her hair that had attacked her.
(I need to say something too!)
"They're the cave walls during the day — and they don't attack," I blurted out, and it sounded like nonsense.
"Go on," the Strategist sat more comfortably in his chair.
"Well... In the video... from the strike... you could see the creatures running out — maybe they detached themselves from the walls and jumped out because they lost their internal clock..." I started improvising my theory on the spot.
All the officers began discussing this theory, and the Strategist thought for a moment.
"Good. All theories have a right to exist, but it's time to move out," he stood up from his chair. "To your vehicles."
And all the officers disappeared, leaving behind empty chairs — only the IB Officer remained and called me to the Bradley.
I got up and followed him.
And the convoy moved out. Two Bradleys, escorted by four Strykers and four Black Hawks — in the distance, five heavy tractors carried Abrams tanks. Three Apaches rushed ahead at low altitude.
Desert on both sides, caves everywhere — and we were flying toward our destination.