The Ghosts Left Behind - Part 2
Major General Jihu Lee, head of the United Nations Mission in Korea's international force, took to the front of the auditorium to begin the briefing. As the lights, dimmed a large projector screen turned on displaying a topographic map of Mount Mantap in what had once been North Korean territory.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," Lee said stoically, placing his hands behind his back, "this meeting and subsequent mission have been deemed classified." Lee began pacing across the screen. "As you are all probably aware, thirty-two days ago we lost contact with a science team sent to Mount Mantap, the former North Korean nuclear test site, to determine the stability and contamination level of the area. After eight confirmed tests, each one larger than the last, we know the mountain, at least from satellite and seismic observations, has weakened substantially. There is a possibility that it could collapse and in doing so," Lee sighed deeply, "could release vast quantities of radioactive material across the peninsula and to surrounding countries."
The general stopped his pacing, motioning to someone in the audience to come forward. "This is Colonel Thore Groenlund, commander of the mission he is about to explain. Colonel…"
"Thank you, sir," said Groenlund, taking over the presentation. Isaac, who was sitting with his squadron a few rows up from the screen, saw a Danish flag on his military uniform. "Now," Groenlund bellowed, "as the general said, we lost contact with our science team thirty-two days ago who were surveying Mount Mantap. The public believes they died in a landslide caused by heavy rains." Groenlund slowly looked over the audience and said, "They didn't."
Isaac leaned forward in his chair. Aasav, sitting next to him, did the same.
Groenlund pulled up an audio file on the screen. "This is the team's last known transmission to UNMK headquarters before they went silent," he said, pressing play.
At first the recording was just static, interrupted only by indistinguishable noises. The noises soon morphed into a singular frightened voice and screams. Each scream pierced through the auditoriums speakers, chilling the air in the room into a heavy medium that pressed the mood in the room to dread.
"Everyone… is dead!" a man shouted in terror. "Don't… Mount Mantap is… I repeat, do not…"
Isaac and Aasav looked at each other with troubled confusion.
"Fog… Fog is dan- dangerous…" Someone screamed again; a woman. Then the sound of machine gun fire started, leading to more screams. "Get away from me! Get away! The fog is death… Don't go in the fog! The fog is…"
The transmission cut back to pure static and ended.
"That transmission was sent by the team's head scientist, Dr. Barker," explained Groenlund. "The public does not know of this. Clearly, a landslide did not kill them."
"Have attempts have been made to determine what happened or to find their bodies, sir?" Isaac asked.
"No," answered Groenlund. "Shortly after this transmission a new plume of radiation was detected around the mountain by one of the US's WC-135 Constant Phoenix sniffer aircraft that coincided with yet another subterranean explosion, the fifth in last three months. Levels have been too high to safely mount a search and rescue mission."
"Our latest readings now indicate that radiation readings have returned to safe levels, similar to those seen around Chernobyl," Lee cut in. "That is why you are here, Colonel Anderson. It is time to put UNIRO to its first test. Your squadron, along with one of our platoons, will determine what happened to these people, survey the stability of the mountain, and attempt find the cause of these explosions."
"Based on their seismic signature we are pretty sure they are manmade. Seeing as how no one has been on this peninsula for four years the possibility of that fact being true is quite… unsettling," said Groenlund.
"What of the fog, sir?" asked Aasav.
"We don't know," the colonel replied honestly. "The weather forecast for the night they disappeared did not indicate there would be fog present. Satellites did not catch anything either. It is a mystery."
Groenlund changed the screen to show some bulleted mission details.
"We will have exactly twenty-four hours on the ground in full NBC gear. My platoon will go in via two Chinooks and Colonel Anderson's via one of UNIRO's Phoenix 10 aircraft. You are to never take off your breathing apparatuses unless instructed otherwise."
Groenlund put the topographic map of the mountain back up, this time with four highlighted areas.
"The LZ will be here," Groenlund showed with the help of a green laser pointer, "at what used to be the South Portal of the test site into the mountain. From here, my platoon and Anderson's men will split into four teams. One team will take this portal, another the east, another the west, and the last the north. Once each team has completed their site survey, they will summit the mountain and wait for extraction. We'll have a comms check every two hours. If a team misses two check-ins then we know something is wrong. We land at o-eight hundred hours tomorrow and leave at o-eight hundred the next day. A Global Hawk will be our eye in the sky and a sniffer our nose for radiation."
Major General Lee looked directly at Isaac and his team and said, "If this mountain is still hiding something, we need to know. The timeline laid out for repopulation by the UNMK, the United Korean Republic, and UNIRO is extremely sensitive. An hour's delay in understanding could translate to years for the citizens who once called this land home."
Lee suddenly slammed his fist into the wall behind him. "The curses of our fallen brethren will no longer forsake this hollowed land. Haeng-un-eul bibnida."