The Cardinal Directive: Mission Log #48

Trust Fall Exercise

[Start of Season 2]
[Previous]

---

>> ...
>> ERROR: Due to PRIOR CATASTROPHIC SYSTEM FAILURE, File for MISSION LOG 47 has suffered SIGNIFICANT LEVELS of CORRUPTION
>> System in process of restoration.
>> No further data uncovered
>> No further data uncovered
>> Confirmed.
>> Now playing Mission Log #48...

---

The footage opens with a shrill, ear-piercing grinding noise, immediately shattering the silence. It lasts for an agonizing five seconds as the footage clicks and clicks, attempting time and again to return to the abandoned greenhouse and the conversation therein.

It focuses with painful clarity on only the image of the Outrider’s eyes, the intensity they bear and the distorted sounds of Solena’s breathing—

But finally dissipates into static.

The feed stabilizes, clearing to the view from Solena’s camera.

At long last, they’ve cleared the swirling dust and are able to remove their facial protections, though from the amount of suits tied around their waists and sweat beaded onto their foreheads and arms, they’ve entered an area that’s significantly warmer than the ones previous.

Half of the procession now stands at the base of a steep, 15-foot drop-off. A somewhat frayed rope seems to have been tied around the base of one of the trees some time ago, which an operative is using to lower himself down.

The rest of the group is still at the top of the cliff, sifting through thick tree cover. From the sounds of draconic huffs and barks, it seems they’re having difficulties getting their mounts past the barrier. Jovis tries to coach Bam through using her horn to clear some of the “foliage”, but the trees are hardier than expected, and even when she does get one to move, their branches only scrape and catch on the branches of neighboring trees, entangling the entire web further in on itself.

Meanwhile, Outrider, Wendy, and Solena are all part of the lower crew, Outrider observing Wendy while Solena slowly paces the open grounds just behind the stationed lookout operatives, eyes flitting between them and the forest.

Wendy has knelt down, running her fingers slowly along some of the pebbles at the base of the cliff.

---

Solena couldn’t help a deep curiosity about what Wendy was doing. What she was seeing and how it told her anything about where Alison and Sebastian had gone.

It wasn’t like Solena herself didn’t know a thing or two about tracking when it was necessary, but whatever Wendy was doing was on a completely different level. For only a few moments, Solena had a good angle to watch the way Wendy grimaced slightly, taking in whatever it was that she was seeing. She murmured a few words to the Outrider, too low to catch. There was something odd to that look. Involuntary. Not bad news, but physical pain, not unlike she’d seen before.