Nothing, Miley thought to herself. There’s nothing out here. That wasn’t entirely right, there are new holes around the base now and the shack has been burned to a crisp.

“Good riddance.” Miley said aloud.

They intended to build a watch tower but like most of their construction projects it was left unfinished. It did end up being used as another storage space and then as cover for the enemy. She took another look around and nothing peculiar stood out to her.

“Guess they didn’t leave anything behind.”

Miley headed back towards her base which now looks even worse than before. The door was gone, a bunch of windows were shattered and now there was some commotion going on in the reception room. She could probably walk away right now leaving this all behind but there was nowhere to go. She didn’t know much about the world outside, all her information about it came installed in her. As she got closer to the entrance she could clearly hear what was going on inside.

“T-those armbands, you’re part of the UCNA military right? Well I’m a citizen of the United Countries and I need your help!”

That came from a voice that she didn’t recognize. She paused for a bit before deciding to walk through the door and face whatever is happening on the other side.

“Oh good you’re back Miley!” Shouted Catherine as she ran up and pulls Miley towards the new visitor, a man in his late 40s who looks like he was about to die of a heart attack. “Alrighty, you can explain the whole thing now.”

“You have to help me! My fellow researchers have been kidnapped!” Uttered the man.

“Slow down a bit, who exactly kidnapped them?” Miley also wondered what the hell he is doing all the way out here.

“I had two others that were travelling with me, we were trying to find an important location then suddenly these goons in black grabbed my companions!”

“How did you escape?” Engie quietly said from the back of the group.

“Well I… I came back to the scene while it was happening and hid. In a bush. For about an hour. A couple even.”

“Yeah yeah that’s nice and all but what are you looking for and are the assholes that jumped you related to it?” Miley continued to question the stranger.

“I don’t know! That’s the problem, I have no idea why we were targeted!” The man looked like he aged a couple of years during just this conversation. The group looked on as he struggled to catch his breath.

Great… Miley thought to herself. The guy wasn’t very descriptive of his attackers. Goons in black? It couldn’t have been anyone from the US army since they just attacked… unless they have more soldiers, then this would be a bigger problem. Should she report this back to Command? Despite technically being in charge she hasn’t talked to Command yet, it wasn’t her job before so she wasn’t sure how to go about reporting things.

Another problem is the identity of the stranger, he doesn’t look like a military personnel since he is kind of scrawny. But the main point of being a spy is not to stand out so this raised Miley’s suspicion.

“You still didn’t answer my question on what you’re looking for out here.”

“Chill out Miley, he doesn’t look so good we should get him some water.” Catherine interrupted.

“Water would be nice, my water canister has run dry. I’ve been running for 7 days, well actually I’ve been crawling and hiding but I’m still thirsty.”

“Fine.” Miley crossed her arms before looking at her team. “So do you guys remember where we put all the water bottles?”

“I think I saw some in the medical bay.” Engie paused for a moment. “Why did you guys put them in the cooling unit?”

The three senior members of the base didn’t answer her as they also have no idea who put them there.

“Annie is still in the medical bay, right?” Miley saw Engie and Catherine nod. “Alright let’s get some water and make sure everyone knows what’s going on.”

Catherine motioned for the stranger to follow them as they head back to where Annie is. This, of course, upsets Silver as she had to go back and forth already. She slowly trails behind the others.

“You guys are back fast!” Annie shouted in surprise as they entered the room.

“Well we didn’t expect a civilian to be showing up.” Catherine points at the stranger. “This is, uh, we didn’t get your name.”

Engie went off to grab a bottle of water. She grabs a hammer and nonchalantly smashes the top of the glass to pull out a bottle that was floating in the liquid. After quickly wiping it with a cloth, she gives it to the stranger who opens and drinks it in a few seconds.

“Thank you. Where were we? Oh yes, my name is Anthony Doogledert and I’m a paleontologist. We’re looking fo-”

“Oh is this a religious thing?” Miley cut off Anthony.

“I think he’s looking for dinosaurs.” Annie tilted her head.

“Holy shit guys, paleontologist means he’s a guy that studies fossils.” Catherine disappointingly looks at the two. “How was Annie closer to the definition than you?” Miley looks away embarrassed while Annie smiled at the fact that she was close to getting it right.

“Right, paleontology helps us get a better understanding of the history of life before us through the examinations of fossils. I’ve always had an interest in the world before the third war since so many records and documentations have been destroyed or loss.” Anthony explains to the group.

“Does that mean you were searching for a fossil before you got attacked?” Inquired Engie.

“Yes, my team and I were out scouting for the location of an extremely rare fossil.”

“And you think that it would be somewhere in Former North Dakota?” Miley didn’t believe anything interesting could be found here.

“All of my research has pointed to the region of Former North Dakota, it is most definitely here. Now the question I have for you is what are you doing here?”

Miley thought it was dumb to question someone with a gun who also happens to outnumber you but there was little harm in answering honestly. If he was a spy, he wasn’t asking the right questions since the US should know why the UCNA is stationed in the area.

“Aeternilite. We’ve been instructed to secure this area so that an extraction team can come in and get it.”

“DAMN IT! Why does it keep getting in the way of further scientific discoveries?” The researcher surprised everyone in the room with his outburst.

“What do you mean?” Engie sheepishly asked.

“Do you know how many times dig sites get destroyed because of the discovery of aeternilite nearby? How many times a project that is already underway gets cancelled because some guy in a fancy suit calls up the government because a small trace of it was discovered? Too damn many! All for a stupid pile of purple dirt! Yes I get that it’s a very efficient energy source but screw that, fossils are so much more interesting! ALSO we still have other sources of energy that are still available for use so there is no need to hurry and rip it out of the ground that fast! Companies would bulldoze entire housing areas just to get a sniff of that dirt. Why would they do that? Aeternilite last for a damn while too and I know for a fact that most of these countries have a whole vault full of it!” Anthony ranted.

“S-so you think it’s because of the aeternilite in the area that you got jumped?” Said Catherine.

“It’s the only explanation, those goons were most likely hired PMCs sent to stop me!”

Miley wasn’t sure about what to do with the man, she no longer suspects him as a spy since he’s a little too passionate about fossils. He is a United Countries citizen so she has to help him out if some mining company is after him. But what if they were a UCNA company, should she let them take him captive? It’s one thing to stop a foreign invader from snatching one of your own during a time of war but an internal affair is much more complicated.

“So what’s so important about this fossil that you went out of your way to come here?” She thought she might as well roll with what’s ever going on right now. Once those words escaped her mouth the researcher turned to her with a glimmer in his eyes.

“I found an antique newspaper article that dated back to 20th century, in fact it was from 1933, and what was on it caught my interest. Since then I’ve searched all over the internet and even dug up some old servers that I had to get fixed, just to get more information about it.” Anthony made some motions as if he were acting out a play. “Each one talked about an ancient beast that swam in a large lake, with rows of sharp teeth, the body the size of a truck and a neck as long and thick as a… as a thick and long bendable… tree.”

Catherine couldn’t contain her laughter at his struggle to describe it while Annie wasn’t sure what was going on as she was lost when he started rambling, she was just glad to be here. Anthony continued on.

“Well anyways they call it…” He paused for dramatic effect. “The Loch Ness Monster. And I think the remains of this creature can be found out here, somewhere.”

“You don’t sound so sure about that.” Miley tried to think of any large bodies of water nearby. “How would you even get to it if it’s underwater?”

“I started my search to the West at the top of the Missouri river and slowly went eastwards. We were attacked during the search and I had to run south. What we were looking for isn’t a large lake filled with water but a deep depression in the ground. That was why we had to check all the major lakes around Former North Dakota, to see if any of them were dried up.”

“A dried up hole? We have a map of the entire region and I don’t think they have any landmarks for big-ass holes in the ground.” Catherine stated.

“No you see what we are looking for is a Scottish lake named the Loch Ness, it wouldn’t be on any maps of North America.”

A majority of the group was following along with the researcher’s words until now. Now they were questioning whether this man was sane or not. The looks that they shot at him didn’t go unnoticed as the researcher tries to find the right words to make him not look crazy.

“Wait wait wait WAIT! Let me show you something!” He reached into his bag and pulled up his laptop. “Alright just need to open this up… annnnnd here we go.”

He showed them the map of the World and then zoomed into the United Kingdom, specifically at a large line in the ground that looked like a valley.

“See this is where the Loch Ness would be located but according to my sources the Scottish in the 2030s, not wanting the secrets of their lake to be discovered by the British, had managed to move the lake somewhere else.”

“Hold on… Did you just say that they took the lake and moved it here? Across an entire ocean?” Catherine was getting pumped up, it was obvious to everyone that she was excited.

“Yes it was theorized that they lifted part of the lake into the air on a giant platform and flew it as far away as possible. To do this they had to empty the contents of the lake, they basically removed the water because what was under it was more important. No one knows how they managed to get it across the Atlantic Ocean without anyone noticing.” Anthony continued. “But all the research I’ve gathered pointed to this area.”

“And you believe the secret to be the skeleton of this creature?” Engie also became invested into the man’s story.

“Yes, it’s the only explanation.”

“That’s dumb, I mean it. That’s really fucking dumb.” Miley was baffled by the situation. “You haven’t searched anywhere south of this place right?” But screw it she thought to herself, she might as well get involved. Command already has no clue on what was happening at this base. And it’s better than doing nothing but getting attacked by US soldiers.

“Uh, no we haven’t been any further south.”

Is this all made up? Is this man insane? None of these thoughts mattered to Miley. She wanted to do something other than just fighting, even if it was incredibly stupid.

“Alright I’ll help out.” Miley turned around to see the astonishment on the faces of her teammates. “You guys try to keep things running here.”

“What? Hell no!” Catherine was the first to speak up. “If you’re looking for a freaking monster fossil, then I’m in!”

“You are technically the leader of this base… so if you order me to help, I will.” Said Engie.

“Yep! Rule 1 is to always listen to your parents!” Annie chimed in.

Miley was caught off guard by Annie’s response but thought nothing of it. She looked for Silver who had been oddly quiet for the entire conversation. She took multiple glances around the room looking for the missing android only to spot her lying on one of the beds. She had been asleep since they entered the medical bay.

“Well it’s a majority agreement and Silver’s words hardly matter, let’s look for this lake!”

“And the Loch Ness Monster’s skeleton.” Added Anthony. “Also my missing companions don’t forget about them, we need to find them first.”

Anthony took a look at Annie and noticed she was hooked up to multiple machines, he then glance at each person in the room.

“Wait a minute. Are you guys androids?”

“Yeah. I mean, who else would be on the frontlines.” Miley pointed out.

“That’s great!” Anthony shouted. “You guys can remotely scan the area for any large depression on the ground!”

“I don’t think we can do that dude.” Catherine shook her head.

“You are combat androids right?”

“Nope.”

“We’re mostly service androids retrofitted with parts for combat.” Explained Engie. “Not sure about Annie but I can confirm that she doesn’t have any high level scanner like what you’re talking about.”

The researcher sat down on a chair for a moment while thinking about how they could feasibly search the entirety of the area for the lake as well as find his missing companions. Miley wondered how they should start. If they were to take this seriously they have to handle threats not just from the US but also the unknown intruders that could still be looking for the researcher.

“First things first, you should stay and hide here.” She pointed at Anthony to get his attention. “If anyone comes looking for you, we’ll lie and tell them we never saw anything. Secondly, the other researchers are probably held captive by the unknown forces so if we find out where they’re hiding we have a high chance of finding them there. Lastly, we’ll search for this hole in the ground in a group of two at a time. The rest of us will stay here to watch over the base, you got it?”

At that the group nodded except for Silver who was still asleep. She’ll be in the first group to go out Miley smirked at the thought of waking her up just to force her to go searching for something that might not even be real. It’s not like she can do anything about it since Miley was the leader now.

“Once I’m all fixed up can I go help?” Annie took quick glances at everyone in hopes that they say yes.

“Since you’re new here you’ll have to go with someone that has experience with the area.” Miley looked over at Silver. “Don’t worry Annie, you’ll be waiting on them.”