The snow crunched with every step, his breath calm and visible in the cold. Mark was sent out on his first proper mission alone, hunting for a monster that required his unit’s specialties. His arms hung low as he carried his CheyTac Intervention, a large sniper rifle handpicked by him because it had a big enough calibre that should theoretically kill the monster he had been hunting for three days.
As he traversed the Brooks Mountain range in Alaska, alone, tired, and increasingly frustrated. He couldn’t find the creature he was hunting or any sight of it. He had only seen a picture of it just before he was sent out, a rough idea of what the monster looked like. The photo was taken right after the victim was brutally killed by the creature, it revealed the monster had a lanky appearance with pale skin that was almost translucent under intense light.
However, he knew he was close. The deeper he headed into the mountains, the more corpses he saw. The torn limbs of hikers and the mutilated bodies of campers littered the southern part of the mountain range, their chest cavities and skulls split open so the monster could consume the contents inside.
The Order made a simple cover story, using recent polar bear sightings and conflating the murder of the victims to normal environmental hazards. Mark knew it wasn’t a wolf or any kind of bear that would kill those people in such a fashion. No creature on earth could kill a human in such a gruesome way, or so he would believe. But it was a simple story to tell, one that was comfortable to anyone who would look into it.
As he hiked to the peak of Chandlers Mountain, he took a breath as he scanned the open tundra. Knowing he had to search every inch of land to find the monster or go home with a mission failed report. He looked at his watch, noticing it was the 20th of April 2018. ‘Shit!’ He mumbled to himself as he reached for his earpiece.
If there was one thing that made Order Discovery famous, it was their invention of the Slit-Net Communications Link, or SCL for short. They figured that they could transmit radio waves through the dimensional fabric of the Realm of the Dead and out of the other end to the receiving transmission device. Allowing them to have near instance communications with anyone on the planet and even on other realms like Heaven or Hell if the user is near a steady source of magical energies. Which was fortunately abundant on Earth due to the amount of how often living organisms die every second.
Because the SLC communicators and radioes didn’t require an antenna or any traditional means to ensure long range communications, a radio could be as small as a small earpiece. Communicating across realms is a different matter however, since cross-realm communications require a specialised radio and antenna tuned to the frequency of the realm the user desired to communicate to.
But despite its limitations, the SCL communications array was how the Order was capable of communicating with different independent cells on the planet without their communications being intercepted by any foreign forces. Though the Order still practised caution and prepared for the eventuality that the world outside the Order would discover SCL technology. But in the meantime, their chatter and transfer of information is well and truly hidden.
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‘I hope this thing has enough charge.’ His earpiece buzzed as it tried to get a signal. ‘Omicron, this is Oscar Mike Echo. Message over.’
Mark waited for a moment before he could get a reply. ‘You don’t have to be formal around me, mate.’
‘Frank!’ Mark replied, shocked and confused. ‘How come you picked up my call?’
It was subtle, but Mark heard Frank chuckle at the other end of the line. ‘I have priority communications with you, and I am somewhat ordered by Jackson to keep an eye on you.’
‘Really, is it because you think I would be lost?’
‘Are you?’
Mark groaned as he pinched the ridge of his nose. ‘No, not lost per-say. More like I can’t find the creature I am meant to be looking for.’
‘Have you tried calling out to it or something?’ Frank replied.
‘You can’t be serious? You want me to scream at the top of my lungs, “come get me, I am tasty and don’t have this big fuck off rifle” just so the monster would reveal itself?’ Mark sarcastically replied. ‘Aren’t we, I dunno, a secret society or some shit, isn’t revealing myself going against the point of all of that?’
Frank laughed at Mark’s comment. ‘Aren’t you a special one. You’ll be surprised at how some monsters got caught. Just screaming for it to come out of the closet and eat you isn’t a far-off strategy.’
‘I hate you, English man.’ Mark joked as he looked down his scope, trying to scan the area for any anomalies. ‘Got any wise ideas? Or am I going to think up a plan on my own for the past three days with little food and water?’
‘Well, think like a civilian. You are hiking through Alaska, enjoying the view, but you need to seek shelter to protect yourself from the elements.’
Mark rolled his eyes. ‘You want me to sleep in one of those shacks?’
‘Well, I am certainly not asking you to book a hotel room, if that is what you are thinking.’
As he pulled out a map, Mark found a cabin that was near him. ‘Fine, I’ll go there, maybe even pretend I am a tourist.’
‘You already are.’ Frank cheekily replied.
‘Smart ass,’ Mark mumbled to himself as he continued with his journey. While he appreciated and welcomed Frank’s company, he felt insulted that he had someone to babysit him on his mission. However, after days of isolation and lack of success, he wouldn’t turn down his English friend so soon.