Sergeant Hopper killed the engine of his quad and swung his leg over the seat to dismount. The surface felt a little springy underfoot as if coated in a think layer of dense leaf mould. The stuff on which he trod looked more like a pourus sponge or soft coral and made no sound at all; or none that he could hear through his sealed environmental suit.
 
"RnR report?" He set his comms to record the expected incoming reports and unpacked his theodolite.
 
"The doc and I are ready at our end" it was Hanson's voice. "just got the sizmology readings in the can. TST deployed and in position."
 
"ETA two minutes" Spector's report was drowned in engine noise despite the enclosed microphone within his suit. "advise you go ahead and shoot for doc first while we set up."

Hopper could see the pair of quads on the horizon. He had a good idea of how far away they were buy the hazy air made even detecting their movent difficult. He switched on his helmet cam and lingered on the pair for a few seconds before panning with slow deliberate fluidity across the alien landscape.

"Private Spector and Mr Wyatt," he narrated. "The good ship Imperitus" he announced as he panned over the pale lump in the hazey distance that was their spacecraft. "and... Somewhere around here..." he checked his angle against Spector and Wyatt and judged his best guess at the location of the other team. A flash confirmed his accuracy. "Doctor Mendoza and Private Hanson."
 
The five bikers of 2nd Roughriders squadron were split up and spread out as they often were on such researchanded recconisance missions. RnR as they called them. Divided in the three the squad surveyed the features of a planet which was causing the ordo xenos some consternation.
 
Previously the site of a thriving  agricultural civilazation some time in centuries past Adiera Prime was found in ruins, ravaged of all human life and yet utterly uninhabited. The inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos had their suspicions but Hopper and his team were here to find out.

On the edge of an unexplained geological feature the Inquisitor's ship the Imperitus had landed and disgorged her task force. The veterains of Victor Gorgi's Hammer had been first on the ground securing the LZ. Following close on their heels was Leo's armoured sentinel. The machine stalked the perimeter as the quads of 2nd RnR deployed. Accompanied by the veterains they advanced to their first objective; a rounded mound about as tall as a man which was part of a series of such objects forming a pattern of nodes across the landscape. Objective one reached and still no threat of danger, under the advisment of Victor Gorgi the quads split up and began maping and recording the area as far as the next two nodes. Sergeant Hopper under his own advisment took a solo trip deeper within the mysterious terrain, making the furthest point of a diamond of four nodes manned by the Inquisitor's task force.  
  
Reading the distance measured to Doctor Mendoza's instrument Sgt Hopper called for confirmation.

"I make that exactly three point one nine spans, Doc." 
 
"Yes, I can confirm that, same again. It's a remarkable uniformity, probbably across the entire network." 

"if it is a network."

"well I suspect as much sergeant. Nobody goes to the trouble of such an exacting design to no purpous. I have taken a sample of material from this Node already although it appears little different from the stuff of the surrounding terrain. No emminations either electromagnetic or..."

The xenobiologist bad a tendency to slip into lecture mode and Hopper tuned him out.  He repositioned his theodolite to face the other team. Catching Spector's signal he read another 3.19 and recorded the result.
 
"got that bounce, Sarge that's a three one niner." Spector reported.
 
"alright Spec, I'm packing up. We'll rendezvous at the Doc's node before we head back."

"copy that. Wyatt has his bag of tricks out, I think he's taking a gas sample or something."

"what gas, Private?"

"He thinks these things are letting off some kind of haze, like the stuff making the air bad. We can't see it coming out but he's rigged this thing up like a hot air balloon."

"alright, I'll give him five minutes but then let's husstle."

"Point to RnR, come in."

"RnR one receiving. Go ahead Victor."

"Veldt says she can't see you. Must be the haze and the distance. That's a recall order to get back in range."

"yes Ma'am" 

A crack at his foot caught Hopper's attention. The ground which a moment ago had been soft and springy was now become brittle and the surface powdery. He kicked up a dust cloud and marvelled at how the coral crumbled beneath his boot.
 
"Spector, Hanson, does anyone have any moisture readings on the ground. I think I just dried this node out somehow."

"Wyatt says he's on it, Sarge. He's setting up another..."

"Negative Spec I got a bad feeling about this. I'm ordering this RnR to go." 

"but you said five minutes!" it was Mr Wyatt, who rarely spoke on the comms, clearly annoyed.

"I think the Sergeant is right Mr Wyatt." Doctor Mendoza's interjection gave Hopper a break to kick start his engine. "Ive been reviewing the sizemology and it's indicating considerable underground movement." 

"movement of what? Rocks, groundwater?" Wyatt wasn't for moving.

Hopper gunned the accelerator kicking up a cloud of dust and debris from his back wheels. The ground powdered and cracked beneath the spinning wheels and the quad rolled forward. 

"Point to RnR one we've lost visual on your position, repeat we cannot see... Aaagh!" Victor Gorgi threw his head up in a pained yell and fumbled for the controlls of the head set as a screetching static tore through the earphones. 

"what's happening, Ghost?" he demanded. 

"looks like they're packing up over here." the spotter drawled peering through his rifle's scope. "Hopper's still not back but there's a thick cloud out yonder where he went." Ghost stopped to inspect the optics of his eyepiece. Finding them unclouded and clean he tried another look before shaking his head. "the haze is getting thicker, can't see much at all."

"Gorgi to Veldt come in.... " Victor thumbed through the channels and found nothing but static. He shut the thing off.

"Comm's dead. Valkyrie, Go find Leo and bring him up here. Ghost, keep an eye on the RnR. See those clouds rising? I don't like it." 

Hopper's wheels spun in the dust as his wheels ate up the distance to Wyatt and Spector's node. It wasn't exactly per the plan but if he knew the impetuous Mr Wyatt it would take more than a hinky feeling to interrupt his experiments. Up ahead he could see a large weather balloon floating above the spot he was aiming for. It was just as well as the haze was thickening making navigation more difficult.
 
Hopper arrived to find the node abandoned, and judging by the slew of tyre tracks and the still floating weather balloon, in a hurry. He glanced around to look back out to where he had been and his jaw dropped.

A collumn of haze was rising into the sky dwarfing his own small dust cloud trail but clearly visible silhoetted against the sky were swarms of winged things. Had they risen with the haze, he wondered. Had he released them from the node?
He scanned the horizon, dark and haze choked. No sign of the point team, no visual on the Imperitus even. No choice but to follow the tyre tracks. 

"Gorgi! 2nd Veterain squad, respond!" Veldt threw her head set down in a rage. "Keep trying!" she demanded of a bridge officer before grabbing up her pistol.

"yes, Ma'am" the man responded, despite not being technically under her command.

"1st Infantry!" She demanded, pressing hard on the ship's internal communications controls. " Gaskell, get your butts to the cargo bay and prepare for extraction!"

"On our way Ma'am" Sergeant Gaskell zipped the face mask down on his environmental suit and booted his commisar in the thigh.

"wake up Cat! This thing just went south." 

The man yawned and stretched out his considerable length before standing up. How he could sleep in a full environmental suit was beyond Gaskell.

"Was that Veldt on the comms?" Cat asked, somehow sounding not a bit groggy. He pulled his coat buckle tightening his long greatcoat which he wore over his suit. The hole in the back stretched showing a yellow flash of the environmental suit's colour through the old, worn and stained coat. Suited and booted 1st infantry beat it to the cargo bay.
 
"Extraction?" called Private Ahde as they ran "doesn't she mean rear guard?"

"Don't worry, Ahde, I'll guard your rear." 

"Typical, Rosen. Always thinking with your rear!"

"You best take thought for your rears, all of you. I've got enough butts to pull out of this mess as it is."

They formed up in an orderly drill line on the cargo bay floor and awaited the arrival of Veldt's Command. She blew in promptly in a black environmental suit flanked by four larger orange suits with fat grenade launchers. 

"1st infantry you will accompany me to rendezvous with 2nd Veterain squad and then fall back to secure this extraction point. Captain," she called on the comms to the bridge, "Open the doors!"