Ice Station (novel)

Infobox Book |
name = Ice Station
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = 2000 St. Martin's Paperback cover
author = Matthew Reilly
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = Australia
language = English
series = Shane Schofield
genre = Techno-thriller novel
publisher = Pan Macmillan
release_date = August, 1998
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 541 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-7329-0956-2
preceded_by = Contest
followed_by = Area 7

"Ice Station" is Australian thriller writer Matthew Reilly's second novel, released in 1998. It was released as a stand-alone story, but has since been expanded into a series. Its sequels are "Area 7", "Scarecrow" and "Hell Island".

Plot summary

"Ice Station" tells the story of a remote American research station in Antarctica. On a routine drill for natural gases, the scientists at the station hit something buried in the ice more than 1000 metres deep - something made of metal.

Two divers are sent to investigate, traveling down in the station's diving bell, before swimming up a large underwater tunnel. Upon reaching the underground cavern where the metal object was stuck, they are attacked by "something...coming out of the walls", and radio contact is lost.

The station's chief goes down in the diving bell with half of the station's other scientists, determined to find out what has happened to the rest of his team. They arrive in the underground cavern, keeping radio contact with the other scientists still in the station. The chief sees what looks like some kind of spaceship embedded in the ice. The team is then attacked by unknown creatures. The remaining scientists send out a distress call on an open radio channel, mentioning that they have found an alien spacecraft. Wilkes receives no answer to its call - although it is picked up by at least three separate radio installations.

The U.S. Government immediately sends in the closest unit they have available, to protect the station's residents and secure the spaceship by any means necessary. This unit is a team of twelve Recon Marines, who were stationed on a ship being repaired in Sydney, Australia at the time of the distress call. The team is led by Lieutenant Shane 'Scarecrow' Schofield.

Upon arriving at Wilkes, the Marines are met by a group of scientists who have come from the French research station Durmont d'Urville in response to the distress call. At first the French appear to be helping the survivors at Wilkes. When searching through a crate of supplies brought by the French, one of the Marines discovers a compact crossbow, revealing the French 'scientists' to be a clandestine unit of highly trained paratroopers, intent on seizing the spaceship for themselves. Although it is never fully explained how the French arrived at the base so quickly, the characters theorise that it was simply through luck that the commandos were training in Antarctica. In the subsequent battle, a number of American civilians are killed along with three marines (Legs, Hollywood & Samurai), as are all of the French Commandos, who despite having the upper hand for most of the battle, were outsmarted by a quick-thinking marine dubbed Rebound.

The Marines are then attacked by traitors from within their own unit (Snake) in the form of the Intelligence Convergence Group, a complex web of civilian and military spies whose job is to ensure all intelligence obtained by the United States of America stays solely within the United States of America. From this point on we are never sure which of the team members are ICG and which are not. This theme dominates much of the rest of the storyline. Soon after, British SAS troopers arrive at the base to find and capture the 'spaceship', soldiers who are aware of the existence and threat of the ICG. One ICG mole named Sergeant Scott "Snake" Kaplan is killed when his head is drilled through by a mining drill. Another named Montana is eaten by a giant, mutant elephant seal.

At this point it becomes known that the "spaceship" is in fact not a "spaceship" at all - it is actually a prototype stealth aircraft known as the "Silhouette", secretly constructed by the losing tenderer for the contract to design and build the stealth bomber. The facility was abandoned after it was lost, and supposedly destroyed, in an earthquake/icequake. What makes the "Silhouette" unique is that it uses nuclear-powered light refraction to render the plane completely invisible to the naked eye, eliminating the naked eye drawback to stealth planes.

The battle now leaves Wilkes, moving into the ice caverns in which the spaceship is buried in ice and out into the land and sea surrounding Wilkes. The Marines and scientists from Wilkes fragment into groups, each unsure about who is ICG, and who is not.

Finally, with the SAS troops killed and the ICG members (as far as they know) recognised and contained, the Marines attempt to escape. During their escape, they realise that Wilkes has been targeted for destruction by the French (in the form of a nuclear submarine), the British (in the form of an E-2000 fighter jet) and by the ICG (in the form of a Navy SEAL team and an Army Ranger unit). However using the "Silhouette" itself the survivors escape the ice cavern in which they are trapped and, after a brief battle in the skies with ICG controlled F-22 Raptor fighter jets (with Schofield using the "cloak mode"), they land on the "USS Wasp". The "Silhouette" is then destroyed by one of its own missiles, launched by Schofield.

Finally, one of the heads of the ICG arrive, but is caught while trying to murder Scholfield.

The novel ends with the dismantling of the ICG, and an epilogue relating to the fate of an earlier character.

This is a remake of the first Area 51 novels.

Inaccuracies

When Captain Yates fires an AIM-120 AMRAAM (BVR) Air-to-Air Missile at the Silhouette Stealth Aircraft Schofield is flying, he uses the NATO code, Fox one, when in fact, he should have used the NATO Code Fox Three. All Military Aviators who fire an AIM-120 AMRAAM [BVR] Air-to-Air Missile should use the NATO Code: Fox Three.

Several times throughout the novel, Reilly has lower ranking enlisted personnel address higher ranking enlisted personnel as "Sir". In the U.S. military, and especially in the U.S. Marine Corps addressing an enlisted man as "Sir" is seen as a slight, or at least mildly offensive.

No military unit in the United States is known to issue, or allow, the use of the Desert Eagle magnum pistol (carried by Schofield) on missions due to bulk, recoil, weight, and combat reliability issues.

Night vision goggles which act by amplifying ambient light will blind the user if a "flasher" goes off. Visible light intensity alone can blind a person.

Reilly refers to the French Commandos, the SAS, and U.S Navy SEALs as a "step up" from Marine Force Recon, calling these units "offensive units" and Force Recon "defensive." Force Recon also is used as an offensive force, performing some of the same direct action raids, hostage rescue, and special reconnaissance missions as the SAS and SEALs.

The SAS unit use a "Nitrogen grenade". A small explosive that contains super-cooled liquid nitrogen. However this device is arguably infeasible, as any explosive force used to detonate the grenade would heat the nitrogen to the point where it would turn into gas.