Nico stood at the entrance to the cave where the SAR team had huddled down with the Major's party. The wind and the storm had peaked and ebbed since the team arrived on site, but it finally looked like the storm was started to break a bit. At least the winds were down quite a bit and not gusting to extreme levels. Nico brought up his suit monitor and frowned at what he saw. His suit was almost down to field reserves, which was a dangerous situation. Once the Bloodhound lost power, he might as well be sitting in a tin can. Since he did that once before, Nico had no desire to repeat that situation. Shuddering from semi-repressed memories, Nico tried to change his mental tack. He wasn't sure if the Major had read his profile, but it wouldn't be good to have a relapse in the field.
As Nico studied the weather outside, he became aware that his suit was starting to pick up a repeating signal, which was gaining in strength. As he filtered the signal, he realized that the pilot on the Pennine was finally finally able to punch a comm signal through the interference. Which meant that the pilot could not only locate them, but pull them out. None too soon. Any longer and I might be working with a new Major, Nico thought as he toggled his suit system to full power on the repeating channel.
"Rescue 1, this is Donovan. How copy?"
After a few minutes and several more tries, Nico was finally able to raise a response back. "Chief, Rescue 1. How's the camping?"
Nico thought for just a sec before replying, "Well, Petty Officer. It's so good that I'm about to run back there to haul your sorry butt out here."
"Ahhh, Chief. You mean that you'd take me out of this nice, warm runabout just to abuse me?"
"Yup, Petty Officer. What say you mosey on over this way with that nice, warm runabout so that we can have a nice, big reunion and get the Major back to the civilized world."
"Right-o, Chief. Be there in just a few, make sure you leave a light on for me. I'd hate to overlook you in these big mountains."
Nico just snorted as he pulled out a disposable rescue beacon and activated it. "Beacon active on SAR 1029. Bear right in on that." As he got a response, Nico headed back into the cave to spread the word to the rest of the party. Stopping at the still sleeping Major, he made sure that she was safe for transport before marshalling everyone to the front of the cave.
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