The last few days was confusing, a patrol had been missing. The transmitters were seemingly dropped, along with the gear. No signs of a struggle was shown, so it was a mystery at why 5 soldiers would choose to just drop their gear in the dark, and walk away. The Check points didn't even see them, so they didn't travel on the road.
Currently the squad was considered AWOL.
"Sir, we have 5 missing personnel. No sign of the bodies. They were tasked with investigating the area just south of Americana. They got the night patrol, left about 10, were suppose to be back by 3. They dropped their gear and vanished. Investigations and vehicular patrols have found no signs of combat, no one reported any fighting, they didn't even hear a yell." A soldier explained to General Rothchild.
"Where was the equipment located?" He asked.
"Near the crashed satellite. We haven't gotten to pulling it out. We've had some of our boys look at the thing, it's an old broadcast satellite from what they could tell." the soldier said.
"The one with the big Drive in screen, right?" Rothchild asked.
"Yes sir, the plan was to clean it up, set up a projector. Some of the boys wanted to have a movie night. The movie list just needed to be approved before we began the work." the soldier said.
Rothchild's interest was just a little peaked.
"What was the movies?" He asked.
"Spartacus, Fistful of Dollars, The Great Escape, and Doctor Strangelove. This was a movie marathon idea, mostly cause everyone no one is really budging on the choice they have made." the soldier added.
"Once the missing soldier investigation is done, get that Satellite out of the area, and you can proceed." Rothchild said.
Rothchild looked over the list. Rothchild assigned Sergeant Richard Gears, along with his squad, to investigate the area the soldiers left their gear.
They went to the drive in area, and were looking for anything.
"Found anything Daddow?" Gears shouted.
"Nothing sir. I might need to visit the doc though, my knee is acting funny." Konnan replied.
"Lewis, anything?" Gears asked.
"Nope, perimeter is still clear too, it's pretty damn hot here, you'd think with the river and Mead, there'd be a bit more rain here." Ava replied
"Watts, anything?" Gears questioned.
"Nope, I'm not seeing blood anywhere, I did see something weird, on the movie board. "The burned man lives" must have been some famous guy, or a ghoul." William explained, shining a light on the bill board.
"Miller, is there anything on your side?" Gears asked.
"Nothing but a few big ass bugs, damn those things creep me the fuck out." He said.
Everyone gathered, Sergeant Gears was about to radio in that they were returning to base, when the Satellite projected a blue light. The squad turned to look, when...the world started to be fuzzy. Something happened, and they left. Carrying their gear, but they walked off into the desert.
-later-
William Watts woke up on a bench. He groaned as his body felt like there were scars forming, or something, he just felt like he was cut up. Running a hand over his head, he felt his hair was shorter than it was before. He then noticed....he wasn't in his fatigues. He was in a patient gown.
Taking it off, he then saw a large stitched up wound that was red on his chest. He felt his forehead, and felt the stitching there as well. He got up and felt a pain in his back as well. Reaching back, he confirmed a suspicion, more stitches.
He shook his head, leaning against the railing, seeing that he looked out, and saw a broken area. Buildings, a canyon with crystals, large plants growing, pipes leading all over, what looks like a communication disk, and people....walking the area with robots too.
"What the hell? What is this place?" He asked himself.
Moving to a door, he opened it and entered a strange room. A table was in the middle of the room, with benches, cabinets, boxes and other things all around. Walking into a side room, he noticed that it had a sink, and several rows for of dirt patches.
Entering another room, he found himself in a living room, connected to a bedroom. He found his gear laid out on the bed. Taking the patient gown off, he put on his gear, and noticed, his gun near the door.
"What the hell?" He asked as he picked it up and left the room, seeing two elevators. He went down the one with "The Think tank" next to it.
As he descended the elevator, he would let the rifle hang on the sling. His hand could grab the barrel, and the grip, but he couldn't compel his finger to be on the trigger.
Walking down the hall, he saw 5 robots with different colors, and "faces" on screens.
"I thought I heard the Pacification field kick in. Alright. Shhhhhh. Nobody. Move, I'll handle this." The blue jar robot said.
Watts moved closer and the robot focused on him.
"Be warned! intruder! You are in the presence of the mighty think tank of big Mt. The Collective genius of....We!" He said in a grandiose tone, before looking around and saying in an annoyed tone "By Oppenheimer, which one of you self-professed geniuses has been adjusting my volume knob? Who was it? Was it you 8?"
Audio static was heard going in an out.
"Oh doctor O was it? Likely story, O couldn't spark two neurons if they were in a lattice of biomed gel."
"What? Me? Breaking News Klein! it wasn't me- All right! I am a Robotical Engineer, 8 is soundwaves, that's his specialty. You always do this, you always demean me in front of guests! And it's not O it's-" a nasally voice said, William guessed that was O.
"Enough! Either of you do it again, It'll be the last time, now....great, now I forgot what I was saying, what was I talking about?" He asked, looking around at the others.
"What, is happening, are you, talking from the same speaker?" William asked, confused
"Did....did it just say something? Anyone catch that? Borous, you work with animals, translate." "Klein" said.
"It's a lobotomite. Here! In the Dome!" Borous said.
"Oh! As if the situation couldn't get any worse, now we've got lobotomites. Dala, get the spray before it starts excreting all over everything" Klein demanded and panicked.
"What? What are you talking about? What's a Lobotomite?" William asked, confused.
"Dr. Klein... If my hypothesis is correct, this lobotomite is the one of the repository of the brains we sent the signal to, the skinvelope once contained it. If so, it's proof that there maybe something beyond the Crater. Just look at it. The way it blinks. It's like a big hairless teddy bear." Dala, a female voice said.
William had a feeling that his time here would be very......very......weird.
'You can say that again' a small voice said in the back of his head.
