Black Site Cyratia

Black Site Cyratia - Branch 3
"The geothermal pools near the equator provide enough ambient warmth to keep you moderately comfortable. EDEF says not to ingest the water or get it in any orafice, but going for a swim never hurt anyone."
Hierotia exclaimed, her pitched excitement clipped by the audio equipment strapped to her face, making a sharp hissing.
Annaliese leaned forward on the metal railing lining the upper platform, her bulky blue jumpsuit collecting a thin layer of black dust.
"I haven't been yet. I get a day off in two days if you want to go? Do we walk? The nearest thermal pool is used for industrial stuff I thought." She responded.
"Oh we can get dropped off at the best one," Hierotia continued as she turned to stare out over the blackened valley with slate sand flowing over dunes of black set against the low dark cloud cover, thin rays of scarlet breaking through, "Eucti can 'acquisition' a drop ship and if it's flight path happens to go to the beach, who's to say." she chuckled.
"Sounds like a good time," Annaliese said, "I haven't been to the beach for a while. Not since leave after we finished training before we slipped off two years ago."

The turbines began to spool up, kicking up tufts of sand scattered around the concrete landing pad. Flicking various lever and knobs with gloved hand, the yellow suited pilot went through the preflight checks. The copilot read off checks in the laminated booklet: "Engine 3 speed. check. Engine 1 speed. check. Gyros read stable. check. backup gyros read stable. check. magnetic attitude set. check"
Sitting on a set of benches along the wall of the dropships bed, the group looked around at the base as the ship pitched up and began hovering higher into the sky. Hierotia reclined in the seat, crossing her leg over her knee, stretching out inside her orange jumpsuit. She turned her head inside the helmet slightly, marking with a frown how she'll have to get the foam refitted.
Annaliese sat forward, elbows resting on her thighs, as she looked across the pressed metal floor to the orange suited Pill Farnham standing, one hand holding the overhead bar, the other hand flipping idly through a small leather bound notebook.
"Lieutenant Colonel," Annaliese shouted over the violet spurring of the turbines.
He tilted his head to her, looking up from his notebook.
"Lieutenant Colonel Farnham, are you coming with us to the thermal pool?" she queried.
"Of course. I asked Eucti why he was coming to the flight line when there were no sorties today and he can't lie to me. Also, you can call me Pill today; we're off duty." Farnham shouted over the engines.
"Sounds good, Pill!" Annaliese exclaimed.
"Major Halifax—err—Annaliese, you're Colonel Greech's exec, right?" Farnham asked as he closed the notebook and returned it to the Velcro'd breast pocket tucked beneath a shoulder strap.
"Indeed," she responded, "You worked with her back in Delta-17, right?"
"We did work with her--Me and Azza. She was General Derrigt's deputy back then before getting her own installation. If she talked about us I'm sure you've heard some stories--from her perspective." Farnham added.
"She sighed audibly when your transfer to Cyratia got to her desk."
"That makes sense. We got into a lot of trouble in the early days when Greech was our CO." Farnham recollected.
"Oh?" Annaliese shot back.
"Well, after the incident in '99, there weren't many with extra-dimensional experience. I was a young lieutenant then but when Branch-3 opened, we literally were the first ones in. I was one of Schaacta's guys, as was Keziah Azza."
"Wow. so you've been a 'naut since the beginning."
"Since before the beginning. We were on an admin tour with Colonel Schaacta in Washington when the incident happened."
"oh. Did you know anyone at Salasad?"
Farnham looked over the railing at the ashen world beneath, glowing rivers of magma stretched in jagged etchings along the basins. Turning his gaze to the volcanoes pluming massive clouds of dense smoke and airborne sediment into the black sky, he looked back at Annaliese in silence.
"Sorry," Annaliese began, "I shouldn't've--"
"No it's fine," Farnham continued, "I knew a lot of people in Salasad. More or less everyone, but..."
He looked back over the railing at the valley speeding away beneath them, the swooping chop of the turbines ricocheting in his helmet.
"...It's fine."
Annaliese leaned back in her chair, stared up at the columns of dark red streaking through the cloud cover, and closed her eyes.


Touching down on the smooth face of a hardened basalt flow miles beneath the nearest volcano, the dropship's skis jostled as the crafts full weight compressed the pneumatics and brought the vehicle to a stop. Eyes squinting open to the sky, Hierotia leaned forward and stood up.
"Let's go!" she shouted as the engines began to spool down.
Annaliese looked up to find Farnham sitting stiffly in the opposing seat, his orange jumpsuit tight to his body. He stood up and in a few quick bounds jumped from the dropped back gate and landed softly on the stone.
Hierotia hadn't made it halfway down to the grey beach stretching around a bubbling lake of liquid water, before she had unlatched half her pressure suit. Pulling at the metal buckles, she undid the rubber neck bracing, and the several radial couplings keeping the suit together. She tugged at the zipper swiftly separating the material and stepping out in just compression underwear. Turning back to look at the group, she smiled from beneath the pearlescent visor from cheek to cheek.
Annaliese chuckled as she carefully removed her boots and began making her way up her body unlatching the braces as she sat on a large rock.
"Are you gonna keep your helmet on?" she shouted at Hierotia.
"I'm not trying to get ash and sulfur water in my face. I'll breakout if I do that." she responded as she slid the life support pack onto her shoulders.
"Fair enough." annaliese trailer off, looking back down at the boots she kicked off lying in the sand.

Waist deep in bubbling blackened water swarming in chunky ripples around his skin tight compression suit, Pill Farnham waded further in the pool, feeling the mushy alien sand squish under his feet.
Leading with a splash, Eucti Pebermin sprinted up to him.
"Been a while since we've had a day off, huh." Eucti exclaimed gleaming through the visor of his white helmet.
"Indeed. This was a good idea. They had nothing like this back in Delta-17."
"Oh for sure. If you told me this was a mud bath at a resort I would believe you."
"Imagine that? If EDEF built a resort?"
"I mean there was a Starbucks in delta-17. Annaliese also told me there considering building civilian housing, too. So a resort isn't out of the question." Eucti explained.
"That's true. I've heard rumors about 'colonists' moving in."
"She said EDEF is getting pressured by UNADCO to expand the utility of branch-3. Apparently the Directorate doesn't see the value of our solely military interest in the slipmesh. Bremis already has contracts to begin industrial facilities in delta-8."
"That's a big step from how it was when I joined," Farnham responder, "Back then Salasad was classified beyond belief. Even the president had to get read in on a need-to-know basis."
"Life was certainly different before '99. Living in the ol' USA."
"A different time indeed. Does Saltz not want to come for a swim?" asked Farnham looking back at the dropship up the beach.
"He says one of us should stay with the ship, but I doubt he'd want to come in either way. He's been nose deep in graduate work for the past couple months."
"Getting an advanced degree?"
"Yeah. He's researching something about slipgates and hawking radiation or something smart like that."
"That's pretty advanced. I'll have to ask him about it later."
"There's room in the cabin if you want to talk on the way back to Cyratia."
"Sounds good."

Staring through her visor half submerged in the murky water, Hierotia watched the stark difference between the hazy dim atmosphere and the semi-transparent water. Turning to face Annaliese, she chuckled seeing half her friend baked in the ambient grey-red glow of the sky and the other half warped and murky in the liquid. The water lapped at the bottom of her neck, splashing a little through the secondary seal in the helmet so that the air smelled fetid with a mix of sulphur, wet ash, and an assortment of pre-biotic odors.
Coming fully out with a deliberate splash towards Annaliese, Hierotia stood up, elbows slightly above the bubbling surface.
"Knock it off!" annaliese retorted half irate as she swept a clump of water back at her.