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Captain Sam Wychin looked at the line of Cold Force troopers, carrying heavy-looking backpacks towards a Russian APC. It was obvious that 2nd Lieutenant Julius Heide was enjoying directing the soldiers. A few grumbled and scowled when the officer wasn't looking at them, but nobody thought enough of it to drop their backpack. The backpacks themselves contained Elerium-115. Both Mike Thornside and Heide assured Wychin that this was what ran the alien war machine. Wychin dimly remembered a college chemistry class, where the professor was talking about the half-life of materials... and most elements beyond uranium had half-lives of microseconds. Apparently, elerium was the exception rather than the rule. A few of the troopers liberally told stories of suits of powered armor powered by this element, and of the fact that each clip in a plasma rifle contained one of these crystals. Wychin separated out enough of the hype to realize that this material would be extremely valuable. So, he ordered the power core of the UFO that got stuck in the ice outside the base just a few weeks ago stripped of elerium.
Wychin's musings were interrupted by Kathrina Bowman walking up to him, saluting and saying - "We're done, sir."
"All right. Take a break guys... we've got a whole bunch of UFO plates to load... and then we're moving to dismantle the other alien ship." Wychin breathed out a cloud of steam. Although he'd never admit it to anyone, it was damn cold out here... back in Boston, you never had this biting, dry cold...
"Uh... sir... what other ship?" Bowman asked.
"You're still here, squaddie? Oh, that's right... you weren't there when we got our second alien stuck to the ice... I bet that thing is still out there in Hicktown, Alaska... " Wychin grinned slightly. Then he noticed that Bowman still wasn't leaving. "Didn't I tell you to go take a break, squaddie?"
"Right, sir... permission to speak freely?" Bowman shifted uncomfortably on her feet.
Wychin sighed. "Yeah, squaddie. What's up?"
"It's Harrison, sir. I'm worried about him. He doesn't do much of anything at all... he just sort of sits there, staring at something. He doesn't talk to anyone except to shoo them off... " Bowman paused to rub her gloved hands together. "I thought maybe you should talk to him. After all, you're the captain... you might have better luck getting him to wake up."
Wychin resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "All right, Bowman. I'll try and talk him back to the real world... now go get some rest. We've got a short drive and a lot of plate-cutting to do later today..."
"Yes sir." Bowman answered. She made a half-hearted salute as she turned away and walked towards the warmth offered by the cave complex.
Wychin himself stared at the sky for a while. Feelings of guilt could eat a man alive. Emotion like that would turn the best warrior into a twitching vegetable. He knew - he'd seen it happen to his own men back in the Delta Force.
'Dammit Harrison... I need you. You may be a moralizing asshole, but you're a damn good commander. Don't go and turn into a god damn emotional vegetable on me...' Wychin thought as he walked towards the caves. 'Time to talk some sense into you, lieutenant.'
Written on November 4th by Andrew Pokrovski AKA Captain Samuel Wychin"