The Mission [RoF]

Rite of Fortitude

Totokas: Deadly Secret 9952, Salute the Reaper 9090, Bit of Havoc 9765

Handlers: Galaxy, Remi, Casper

The Mission

    “Thank you for coming,” the man in the suit--a different man in a suit than the others the group of handlers and tokotas had met before--told them, watching as Remi, Galaxy and the nearly-blind Casper tacked up their tokotas. Bit of Havoc winced and flicked his ears as Casper tightened his saddle girth.

    “It’s no trouble,” Deadly Secret replied, speaking with the help of her collar-communicator. “Ouch, Galaxy,” she yipped, turning toward her handler, “That’s too tight.”

    Salute the Reaper tossed his snow roan mane and sighed, rolling his eyes. “So what do you suits need now?”

    “We received correspondence from a radio signal we thought was lost,” The Suit told them, “But they’re in a location we can’t easily get to with vehicles, so we need an experienced wilderness team to go out there and see if you can find the signal, and perhaps rescue those who might need help.”

    “Sounds easy enough,” Remi said with a yawn, leaning against Reaper’s side with the easy grace of a cat. The Suit shook his head.

    “The signal is weak, and the batteries that are powering it are most certainly dying. We don’t think the signal strength will hold out for any longer than five days.”

    “Five days?”

    The Suit nodded, twisting his fingers over one another in an odd nervous gesture. “Five days from your point of insertion,” he added, “It’s a very remote location and we’re not sure how ACT-3 got out that far, but now it’s clearly become a rance to find them before we lose contact with them for good.”

    “ACT-3?” Galaxy asked, and Deadly Secret tilted her head.

    “Alien Contact Team,” The Suit explained with a sigh. “One of our advance teams that we send out to make contact with known or suspected aliens.”

    “Who was ACT-3 sent out to contact?” Secret asked as Casper and Remi swung into their saddles and began riding toward the heli-pad.

    The Suit shook his head and held his hands out wide. “That’s just it,” he said, “They weren’t supposed to be out this week.” He paused, and the silence stretched on for a moment, then The Suit coughed, clearing his throat. “We’ll fly you out as close as we can get you--it won’t take long, and unfortunately thanks to the weather and terrain we can’t get you very close. We’ve been able to give you that five-day window, but that’s all you’ve got or there’s no hope of locating ACT-3.” He turned away. “Good luck.”

    Remi yawned. “He was a barrel of sunshine, wasn’t he?” The six of them--three tokotas and their handlers--were crammed into the belly of a KXC-1340 helicopter, one of those ones especially designed to airlift tokotas over long distances, although space was still tight.

    Salute the Reaper and Bit of Havoc both nodded, but Galaxy, Casper and Deadly Secret all had thoughtful expressions. “Well,” the curly tokota mused, “He’s probably worried about the team.”

    Reaper shrugged. “Their own fault they got lost.”

    Galaxy squinted at the map he held, pressed flat over his knees. He pointed to several points on the paper. “It looks like we’ll have some landmarks to follow,” he said, and Havoc and Secret both turned their heads to look.

    “Maybe that’s what ACT-3 were following and then they got stuck?” Casper suggested, just as the tempo of the helicopter’s rotors changed. The pilot’s voice came over the intercom.

    “We’re nearly there,” he promised them, “We can set down and let you off at that old Inuksuk rock pile. ETA five minutes, your five day deadline starts the moment you land.”

    “They have it timed right down to the second, don’t they?” Reaper said, flattening his ears irritably.

    “We should have plenty of time, though,” Secret pointed out--she might not be able to read words and letters, but she had taught herself to identify landmarks and distances on maps. “We won’t even have to travel too far from the last landmark, and we can cover the entire distance easily.”

    Havoc and Casper nodded, and the sound of the rotors changed again. The helicopter tilted sharply, then flattened out and settled onto the ground. “Landed,” the pilot said, the intercom crackling, “Opening the door. Good luck, guys.”

    “Everyone seems to supportive,” Reaper said sarcastically as they jumped out of the helicopter. The radio on Casper’s belt crackled to life, and the pilot’s next comment proved he’d overheard the snow roan.

    “I’m the usual pilot for ACT-3,” he said. “They’re friends of mine. I’ll be back here in a blink to pick you up when you’ve got them.”

    The group waited until the KXC-1340 was clear of the ground and on its way back to the compound. “Right,” Secret said, turning to bump her nose against Galaxy’s shoulder. “We should get moving. We can still get some good travel time in before dark.”

    Havoc pranced a little as Casper climbed onto his back, then swung around and smacked his head into Reaper’s shoulder. “Haha, race ya!” he challenged. The snow roan flattened his ears and nearly unseated Remi as he took off after the black tokota. The alien handler scowled and held on tightly, trying to regain his seat.

    Galaxy and Secret glanced at one another, and as Galaxy swung into the saddle, Secret shouted, “Guys! The trail is this way!”

    She grinned as she watched the two male tokotas skid to a stop and turn to race back towards her. “Good thing they have us to keep them straight, huh?” Her handler giggled softly and the two of them checked the map once more before turning to follow the trail laid out for them, the tracker for the radio signal on Galaxy’s belt. Reaper and Havoc caught up to them and breezed by, still caught up in their race, no matter which direction they were headed.

    The terrain grew rougher, more broken, more rocky, and Reaper and Havoc had to slow down or risk falling and breaking a leg. Secret kept a pretty regular pace, an easy swinging walk that meant she didn’t have to slow very much whenever she needed to climb over a rock or icy patch. The male tokotas’ sense of competition--especially Reaper’s, he always felt like he had to win, even if it was just to prove that he could--still spiked every now and then, even if it was just little things. Which of them could get to the next ancient Inuksuk landmark first, who could leap the highest over the nearest obstacle, who could spot any dangers that might be approaching before the rest.

    They travelled until nightfall that first evening, and bedded down in a small, nearly flat clearing just in front of one of the Inuksuk landmarks on Galaxy’s map. Havoc lay down with a sigh, tucking his nose into his belly fur and closing his eyes. “Exciting day,” he muttered.

    Reaper yawned and shook his head. “And even more exciting things to happen tomorrow,” he huffed, and sighed, laying his head on his paws. Secret looked off in the direction their blinking radio beacon was leading them.

    “I hope we get there in time. If all the terrain between here and there is like this, it could take us every last bit of the five days we have,” the curly female said softly. Galaxy sighed, looking up from his map, where he was plotting tomorrow’s course, and patted his tokota’s shoulder as she lay next to him.

    The next morning, the sky dawned dull and gray, threatening rain, although the tokotas were quick to reassure their handlers that it didn’t smell like it was going to rain, at least not for a while. Casper, Remi and Galaxy mounted up and the group of them set out for the next ancient landmark. As it came into view, briefly, as they climbed over a set of tall, tumbled boulders, Havoc wagged his tail. “I wonder who built these things,” he mused, simply to say something. Secret doubted the black tokota actually wondered who built the giant rock structures, but he couldn’t think of anything else to talk about, it seemed.

    Reaper rolled his eyes. “A bunch of old people a long time ago,” he said with a growl. “It doesn’t mean anything. They’re just piles of rocks.”

    “Piles of rocks in a line that lead us straight to ACT-3,” Secret reminded him. “That’s all we need right now.” Still… maybe on their way back, while they waited for the heli to pick them up… maybe then they could explore around some of those tall rock stacks. The curly female was interested in them, even if it was just to see them up close and not have to just walk on past them. She wondered about the people who’d built them.

    The day passed mostly in silence, the three tokotas making their way carefully around a nest of boulders and broken ground, crossing a deep ravine that would have given even the stoutest of hearts weak knees, and then came to a river. Havoc looked at the deep, fast-moving water and grimaced, his tail drooping. “That water looks awfully cold,” he said. Casper sniffed, her ears flicking around as she listened to the water, since she couldn’t really see it well.

    “Get over it,” Reaper told him, puffing out his chest and putting a paw in the water. “The current’s pretty strong,” he said, “And I don’t think we’ll be able to touch the bottom when we get to the middle.”

    “Let’s look for a good place to climb out of the water on the far side,” Secret suggested, eyes scanning the other side of the river. “Then we’ll move upstream and swim across, and let the current carry us to the place where we can climb out.”

    The group turned and headed upstream for a short distance, before Reaper stopped. “Look,” he said, “Shallow spot right there across from us.”

    Galaxy grinned, clinging to Secret’s mane. “That’ll be perfect!”

    “Now let’s find someplace to get into the water. It’s a long way across, it sounds like,” Casper said.

    They moved further upstream, trying to gauge the speed of the current as best they could to determine how far they needed to go before they could jump into the water and swim. Finally, Reaper decided they’d gone far enough. “We can make it from here,” he said, and without bothering to consult with the others, or with Remi, he plunged into the water. Remi yowled, not very happy about the sudden dousing in the chilly water.

    Havoc and Casper followed, the black tokota laughing. Secret and Galaxy jumped in last, but swam quickly, aiming directly across the river, allowing the current to carry her to the sandy, shallow area Reaper had spotted. It was exactly what the tokotas--and handlers, especially Remi--had hoped it would be; a shallow, gently sloping place that led right out of the river. The tokotas shook the water out of their fur, drenching their handlers with water.

    “At least it isn’t all that cold outside,” Galaxy said, offering Remi and Casper a wry smile. “We won’t freeze to death.”

    “At least not during the day,” Remi said grumpily, shaking water out of his ears.

    Havoc looked like he wanted to say something, but he just grinned instead. “Come on, we still have daylight.”

    “Are we still on the right track to find ACT-3?” Secret asked. Galaxy checked his radio receiver against the map he carried in a waterproof pocket, wrapped in a waterproof pouch. It wouldn’t do to lose their map, after all.

    “Yep!” he said after a moment, then frowned. “Although the radio signal has moved a little bit.”

    “Maybe ACT-3 is trying to get to somewhere they think they’ll be easier to find?” Secret suggested. Reaper and Havoc both shrugged. Neither of them particularly cared about ACT-3’s motives, only that they could complete their mission and bring them back.

    That evening, the sky made good on it’s gray promise of rain, dropping pelting sheets of stinging, wind-driven rain onto the group of tokotas and handlers, huddled as best they could under raincoats and the tarps that were supposed to go underneath their tents. Thanks to the wind and the driving rain, they didn’t get much sleep that night, so none of them felt particularly cheery when the storm broke apart and the sun rose, shining brightly.

    “It had better stay all sunny and friendly for the rest of our trip,” Remi said with a scowl as he took a big bite of food, finishing his breakfast and turning to put his saddle on Reaper’s back and tightening the cinch. “I’ve had enough of water.”

    “Don’t say things like that,” Havoc said, glancing up at the sky, although it was clear and cloudless. “You’ll jinx us and it’ll rain until we make it back to the heli-site.”

    It did not, however, rain again. Not that day, and not the next, or the fourth day. According to the map--and the Inuksuk landmarks they were following--they were drawing very near to where ACT-3’s radio beacon was, although the signal was growing intermittent and weak. At last, Galaxy announced they were drawing close, very close. “We should keep an eye out for traces of them,” he suggested. “Keep your noses out.”

    It was growing dark on the fourth day--the radio signal had disappeared briefly and then come back multiple times throughout the day--before they finally spotted some sign the ACT-3 team had been out that way. Reaper barked, signalling the others, and pulled a wrecked and torn backpack, one of the ones often used at the compound--nearly identical to the ones Galaxy, Remi and Casper all carried--with “A.C.T” stitched into the inside of one of the straps. “Found ‘em!” he said. “They were here.”

    “But they’re not here now,” Havoc said with a sigh, sniffing the ground. “That’s been there for a while--I’m not finding any scents.”

    “The rain must have washed everything away,” Secret said, looking around. “Which way, Galaxy?”

    Galaxy checked his radio beacon. “Not far, actually,” he said, “It looks like just a few more miles. This way.”

    Deadly Secret led the way this time, Bit of Havoc and Salute the Reaper following her loosely, all of them keeping an eye out for any other signs of ACT-3. At last, the sun disappeared behind the rocks, and Havoc sighed, yawning. “We’ll need to stop soon,” he said. “These rocks are making my feet hurt.”

    Secret sighed, and it looked like she wanted to keep looking, but she knew it would be too dark to do anything soon enough. “We do still have all day tomorrow,” she said, to make herself feel better.

    “Well,” Reaper said as they bedded down in a quick camp, “Most of tomorrow, anyway.” Secret sighed and closed her eyes. They had to find them tomorrow. They had to.