"Looks like you boys are gonna have to do it the hard way--nowhere to set down. You'll have to repel (sic). I'll signal when I'm in position."
For a few moments the pilot's attention was totally focused on getting the helicopter stabilized above a wide ledge. The winds tested both his skill and determination.
At last he got the Blackhawk stabilized about two hundred feet from a wide ledge on the western face of the mountain, three miles from the Domuyo Volcano. He signaled the men. "In position-make it quick. I can't hold it here long."
Ten men dressed in black, wearing night vision gear and armed with automatic weapons started clipping on to a cable to lower themselves out of the helicopter. None of them spoke. There was no need. They all knew what they had to do and they were determined to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible.
This was the United States Navy's number one ETA retrieval team. They had received orders that morning. An unidentified craft had been spotted on radar and from all available information had crashed in the Andes of Argentina. Their mission was to locate the downed craft, investigate, and, if the craft proved to be salvageable, retrieve a cache of silver-dollar-size discs of an orange-colored substance known as Element 115.
Element 115 is not known to exist on earth and from all that is known, it cannot be synthesized. It was discovered by scientists who were recruited to research an extraterrestrial craft the military had hidden near the Nellis Air Force Range. Nellis is bordered by the Papoose Mountains. In a dry lake bed in the Papoose there is an installation referred to simply as "S4". It was here the element was first encountered in the year 1982. Scientists studied the element extensively and discovered that it did not fit into the known periodic table. Therefore they gave it an atomic number of 115. It had been long theorized that elements from 113 to 115 might become stable and non-radioactive, if indeed such elements existed. The element found on the ET aircraft fit this theory. Element 115 was a stable element. It was also an element with some very interesting properties. It was determined that it was used both as a fuel and as the power source of an energy field that the craft's gravity amplifiers accessed and amplified. Essentially, the alien craft was both fueled and propelled by Element 115.
Current theory hoIds that the element is naturally occurring but would have to originate in a place where there was a much larger star than our own solar system, perhaps a binary star or in an area where there had been a supernova. It would have to originate in an area where there had been enough energy released to produce such a heavy element.
Based on the data available, scientists believe that it cannot be produced synthetically. Even to produce a much lighter element, such as Element 103, is a complicated and time consuming procedure. It involves putting the element at the end of an accelerator and bombarding it with protons in an attempt to get the protons to plug into atoms. If successful, after a very long time, the best you can hope for is to end up with micrograms of the substance.
The team successfully made their way down to the ledge and the helicopter rose into the night. Within moments it had disappeared into the darkness.
The team leader checked their coordinates then looked around at his men. "Standard formation. Our objective should be about half a click northwest. Keep your eyes open."
Through the darkness and over the rough terrain, the men made their way. Twenty minutes later one of them spoke into his headset. "Sir! Twenty degrees west!"
The team leader looked in the direction his subordinate indicated and saw a dull gleam in the faint light. Signaling his men to follow, he made his way around an outcropping of rock and looked through a crevice in the direction of the reflection he had seen.
With a smile, he radioed in. "Night Hawk to nest, over."
"We read you, Night Hawk." Came the reply after a moment.
"Objective sighted."....