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being disturbed. Still, he kept his weapon trained in front of him as
he made his way into the cabin of the vessel. As soon as he stepped through the
small hatch he had to clench his jaw in order to keep from gagging. Three
skeletons in full uniform remained locked in their seats. Their flesh had been
scavenged by local wildlife at some point. Staring at them, he found himself
hoping there’d been a crash and these poor unfortunate souls had died upon
impact. To be locked in restraints while animals picked at your body. He
shuddered at the thought.
    He took a moment to push the image out of his head before
approaching the remains. After he’d holstered his weapon he pulled his reader
out of a pocket and then used the device to scan the tags on the men’s
uniforms. He wasn’t shocked when each scan came back with a name, rank and
missing-in-action status. He took a picture of each of the corpses and filed
them in the database. These men deserved the dignity of closed files and their
families deserved their military death benefits. He couldn’t give them much but
he could give them that.
    After Julian pulled the men’s readers out of their uniforms
and stowed them in his backpack he did one last visual sweep of the shuttle
before leaving it. He needed to find Diller so they could get to the rendezvous
point. He didn’t want to be alone and unprepared when night fell in the jungle.
    He made his way to the east as he kept his attention focused
on the landscape around him. His hand rested on the gun’s grip but he wasn’t
just keeping an eye out for hostile life forms. He also made sure to watch for
any trace of Diller. The man should’ve found him by now. Julian had only gone
twenty yards farther when he discovered the nature of Diller’s delay. The man was
squatting close to the ground as he examined the remains of five men.
    “I found their shuttle about thirty yards west of here. The
hull was reflecting sunlight. That’s what Gates saw.” Now that the threat had
been identified they didn’t need to remain silent. Actually a little chatter
might even help keep some of the smaller local wildlife at a distance.
    Diller looked up at Julian and nodded before returning his
attention to the bodies. They were picked clean like the men in the shuttle but
vines and weeds had started growing over what was left of their bones. “Were
there any men in the shuttle?”
    “Three. They’d been scavenged. I scanned their tags and
filed their identities in the database.”
    “Eight soldiers. Either they had a small team or there are
more of them yet to be discovered.”
    Julian leaned over and grabbed the soldiers’ readers out of
their pockets and then put them in his backpack with the others. After being
exposed to the elements for god only knew how long, chances were they didn’t
work. Still, he’d hate to leave any evidence behind based on an assumption.
    “What are you planning on doing with those?” Diller looked
up at him as Julian closed his backpack.
    “Hand them over to Gates. Figure there might be some helpful
information on them.”
    The man stared at him for a moment longer as if weighing the
truthfulness of his answer before nodding. “That’s a good idea.”
    “Thanks.” Julian took a deep breath and forced himself to
relax. This was one of those times being a super-soldier wasn’t so super. When
Diller had openly challenged him, Julian’s body had flooded with adrenaline. He
wanted to fight. Now he had to keep himself in check until his endorphins were
regulated again.
    “Should’ve thought of it myself.” Diller shook his head and
then took out his reader to scan and catalog the remains. “I swear. Being on
this planet has me so on edge that I’m not even thinking straight anymore.”
    “You and everyone else, man.” Julian put his backpack on
again before offering the man a hand up. “As far as first missions go, I think
I got screwed. I’d rather take the damn shot for the rest of my life