Half an hour after leaving the base...
"Man this thing is really comfortable and fast eh? I don't even feel the lightest bit of turbulence." Flynn said.
They all removed their helmets so that they could freely chat till they reach.
"Attention, twenty minutes to touch down." Chris said over the speaker.
Since the pilot cabin and the cargo bay were separate, they had to use comms to communicate and relay the messages.
"Acknowledged." Lyle said over his comm.
"You guys better be careful and not wander off too far, because unlike Kazakhstan where you had to go trekking for six kilometers and march on for ten more to reach the target, you can't go more than three thousand two hundred meters away from the ship since we use short distance communication, once we enter the Chernobyl airspace we will be cut off from the outside world, whatever happens in there, no one outside will know so you guys better stay close to the ship and contact us when you want to move far, got it?" Claire said.
She and her brother were really looking forward to go home this time but they were suddenly called over for an "Important mission that only you two can do", so they had no choice in this matter and had to comply.
And now.
They are piloting a goddamn spaceship "inside" the atmosphere.
"Call in you guys if we move further away, copy that." Lyle said.
"Knight leader, come in, over." Lyle's comm rang.
"Acknowledged, proceed." Lyle replied.
"We have a slight change of plans, primary objective, retrieve the fuse and search and rescue if there are any possible survivors, stays the same but we are adding some more details to it." Eric said.
Lyle can sense the seriousness in his voice.
Something doesn't seem right, Eric is an easy go kind of guy, even when it's a mission he would talk friendly to Lyle, but this time.... It doesn't add up.
"Copy that, what's the change?" Lyle asked.
"You are to proceed to the rendezvous point thousand three hundred meter northwest of the new LZ to join the Indian Paracommandos and proceed towards the crash site, the Russians and the Chinese will rendezvous with you at the crash site to complete the primary objective and proceed towards the secondary objective, if there are any survivors, send them to the nearby Ukrainian military base, they'll have everything prepared to receive the injured." Eric said in a stern voice.
"Wait what? We are going to cooperate with India, China and Russia? Wasn't the previous objective is to 'clearly' avoid contact with them and proceed with caution? What happened for us to get together and play house?" Lyle asked in a confused tone.
"Lyle, stop playing around! This is beyond just MGU now! We might be even talking about a huge terrorist movement! If Europe gets into chaos because of this, then MGU will affected by it as well! The mission difficulty had been changed to 'Hades'!Do you even understand the gravity of this now!?" Eric raised his voice.
Lyle's face had already gone pale after hearing it.
Till now the SSU had faced only two "Hades" level difficulty missions and it was a god f*cking miracle that they came out of that without any causalities.
Even for them, those two missions were like walking out of hell.
Now they had to face one more, this is like having the nightmare that you wish you'll never have.
"Hades... Level..... Are you f*cking with me? Please tell me you are just f*cking with me! Please dude I f*cking beg you!" Lyle said with his voice shaking in fear.
"I wish I was... But this is serious issue Lyle, MGU can't stand aside this time." Eric said.
"Then..... Any guess on what we're going against?" Lyle asked, his voice still slightly shaking in fear.
No one inside the ship thought that even Lyle could be afraid of something.
Untill now, this guy was really hardass.
Nothing can make him even flinch.
Even if it was something like going toe to toe with a demon, he would do it with a smiling face.
But after hearing what he said.... Even they had began to fear what's ahead.
Till now MGU only had three "Hades" level difficulty missions and one of them was a failure with everyone wiped out.
The other two were done by them and they could only complete one mission successfully and the other one was not so successful but they survived.
Both the missions were like walking to hell and back with the road filled with landmines.
No matter where they step, bullets fly, bombs explode and choppers crash.
It was truly hell.
And now they are going to face something lime that again, they have the right to be afraid.
"We don't really know.... All we know is that eight civilians, four teenagers and four elderly, all from four different towns in Ukraine were kidnapped and Ukraine seems to be hiding something because they mobilized the goddamn army and stationed them at the border, once you guys give the go, the military will move in as back up." Eric said.
"What? That's too suspicious to be true! And other three countries accepted it? How the f*ck can that be true?" Lyle said.
"I know and there is not only three countries, Russia, Ukraine, India, China, German and Poland all sent their special forces for this mission, seems like something isn't right and something big is happening in Chernobyl, we can't stay quiet because we also have our reasons this time." Eric said.
"This is not looking good, cooperating with five other countries..... Are we going for war or something?" Lyle asked.
"I don't know, but all those civilians who were kidnapped were from the towns which border near Chernobyl, it might be something related and plus, we can't have you walking into a gun fight, so we had to come clean and cooperate with them for your safety as well." Eric said.
Lyle was having a headache, he closed his eyes and massaged his temples while thinking.
"Eight civilians, two from each town, teens and elderly, four towns, kidnapping, Chernobyl border... Plane crash....!" He suddenly realized something found a connection.
"Eric! The plane crash and the kidnapping might be connected!" Lyle suddenly said.
Even his teammates were surprised by what he said.
Even Eric was shocked a bit.
"What did you find? Tell me!" He hurriedly asked.
"This is just a guess but If you want to know about the military power of a country, what will you do?" Lyle asked.
"Hmm... Send spies or bribe a military official I guess? But what does it have to do with this?" Eric asked confusedly because the ones kidnapped weren't military personals but just ordinary civilians.
"There is also another way, kidnap a military personal and torture them for information." Lyle said in a cold tone, this type of underhanded tricks like kidnapping, he doesn't like them, but that doesn't mean he disagree's with it either, at the end of the day, it works and that's all matters.
"Yes there's that but all those who went missing were civilians with no connection, just random people." Eric said.
"But what if you already have the military personal you are looking for falling down from the sky and all you need now is the local information about terrains and civilizations?" Lyle asked.
"Kidnap..... Civilians for information..... You done mean its.....?" Eric said while shaking a bit.
"Eric, relay my words to other countries who are participating in this mission, 'No one should act alone and stay weapons locked until they join with the teams from other countries who are also participating in this and then, they are weapons free, all bets are off' pass this message to everyone, we are now officially DEFCON one, tight MGU's security and triple the watch, we might be facing some unknown extraterrestrial enemy, they could be friends as well, but we better be safe than sorry." Lyle's voice was cold as ice.
"You can't joke in this issue Lyle, this is not a matter of MGU but several nations." Eric said.
"Eric, have I ever joked to you when it comes to issues this big?" Lyle asked.
"..."
Eric couldn't answer that.
It was true after all.
Lyle might be friendly and joking at times, but when he's serious, he means business.
"Fine, but what makes you say the word 'Extraterrestrial'?" Eric asked, this is already reaching the level beyond worries.
"A whole region blacked out, connections to that region is totally cut and we can't even break in with our most advanced techs, weird activities spotted in space by our moon base, Locals being kidnapped, all leads to one conclusion no matter how you look at it, advanced techs and higher intelligence and then interests in knowing the local, what can I say if it's not 'Aliens'? Al-Qaeda and ISIS joined hands and are trying to invade Ukraine? Come on!" Lyle said.
"Fine, you convince me and I'll try to convince the other countries, but if things go South, I can't help much." Eric said in a helpless tone.
"I'll take care of it on ground and take the blame, but you better get our defense solid just in case, something bad might happen." Lyle said.
"Copy that and good luck, come back alive, MGU needs you." Eric said.
"You don't have to worry, you know us, we're the hardass." Lyle said with a laugh.
"Yea yea, MGU out." Eric said and hung up.
"LT..... Is what you said is true? Are we really gonna face aliens?" Guido asked with an unsure voice.
You can see the fear in his tone.
"I don't know, possibly? So what if we face them? We have the newest and most advanced gears designed for space combat plus the Ukrainian military is just a call away, what's there to be afraid off?" Lyle said with a smile.
His words eased the tension among the group.
The chatted all they way to Chernobyl.
Back in MGU.
"Prepare a conference call with all countries bordering Chernobyl and also contact the countries we are allied with and as well as those who are participating in this mission ASAP!." Eric ordered.
Lyle's gut feelings have never been wrong, not even once.
So when he said that this is serious then, this is serious.
He had to alert all the countries and they will alert the others, this is turning into a global level crisis.