"Dude.... Are we even in the right place?" Lyle asked with a lot of doubts.
He never doubted Chris when it came to such missions, but he's really starting to doubt his sense of direction.
"I'm three hundred percent f*cking sure that this is Chernobyl and that is where the f*cking plane crashed!" Chris said as he pointed towards the forest at the distance.
Before them was a mountain.
A huge f*cking mountain.
A mountain that touches the sky, even the clouds!
But the thing is, there are no fucking mountains in Chernobyl!
Only a hill or two, but no mountain.
It was still miles away from where they are flying.
"How good is your geography mark?" Lyle asked as he kept looking at the magnificent mountain.
"Good, why?" Chris said.
To be a pilot, one should have a good geographical and mathematical knowledge.
"Guys, is there anyone among us with great geography mark?" Lyle asked over the comm.
"Uh..... I think Sam majored in geography, why? Is something wrong or did Chris got drunk on coke and brought us to somewhere else?" Flynn asked.
"You'll see soon enough, send Sam in and prepare to disembark soon." Lyle said over the comm.
"Copy that." Flynn said and everyone began preparing themselves.
Sam entered the pilot cabin and looked at them, who were staring before them like they saw a ghost in broad daylight.
"What's wrong?" Sam asked and looked towards the direction where they were looking.
He finally understood why they were like that.
"Can you confirm if we are in Chernobyl or not?" Lyle asked without shifting his look.
"Let me look." Sam said and began looking at the map, system map, GPS, which was still working and then the mountain.
"This doesn't make any sense...." Sam said while looking at the paper map in his hands.
"What's wrong?" Lyle asked.
They have already slowed down their approach.
"This terrain and mapping and coordinates, everything is correct, I'm sure we are one hundred percent in Chernobyl but that..... That's not supposed to be here." Sam said with disbelief in his voice.
"What are you trying to say? Speak English." Lyle said.
"What I'm saying is, that mother f*cking mountain does not exist or it didn't in the past." Sam said with a serious expression.
"What? Are you saying that someone put that mountain there like planting a Christmas tree? Get reckt." Chris joked.
Sam gave him a glare but the helmet hid his glare.
"Are you sure this is the right place Sam? Maybe it is and that mountain was there right from the beginning right? Mistakes happen when someone get too into study sometimes." Claire said.
"Claire, unlike your brother, I got one ten percent in geography which is why I became a scout in the team, I'm sure as hell I'm not wrong here." Sam said with confidence.
"Claire, are the comms working?" Lyle asked.
Claire tired contacting MGU but it didn't work.
"Negative, we passed the mile marker, we are in the black zone." Claire said as she shook her head.
"F*ck....." Lyle cursed as he began thinking.
Such a thing should be informed to the higher ups so that they can do something about it.
He's just a solider on scene after all.
A very important soldier maybe.
"OK, I have an idea, drop us in the LZ and leave the black zone, contact MGU and come back after hearing what the higher ups say, got it?" Lyle asked.
"Roger that Lieutenant, we're coming up on the LZ, get back." Chris said.
Lyle and Sam left the cabin and rejoined the group.
They stood in a 2x6 manner.
"Hiro! Guido! You two stay in ship as guards, rest on me!" Lyle shouted his order.
"SIR YES SIR!" all of them shouted at top of their lungs.
Hiro and Guido both came out and stood at each side of the bay.
Now they stood in a 2x5 manner.
The ship landed on the ground and the bay door slowly opened.
*dam*
"GO! GO! GO!" all ten of them jogged out of the ship and crouched down the moment their feet touched the ground.
They were sharp as a sword that just came out of the forge.
Their vision was locked on the surroundings while the GEAR's system scanned for any type of movements.
Their fingers were on the trigger, ready to unload a world of pain at anything that comes out.
"All units are out, Pigeon taking off, good luck boys." Chris said as the bay door slowly closed itself while the ship took off.
Hiro and Guido watched from the ship and saluted at them as the door closed.
And then the ship went invisible again and fled away.
"Is everyone accounted for?" Lyle asked over the comm.
"Everyone's here and all systems are good." Reginald said.
"Good, at ease." Lyle said, they all stood up and eased.
The system didn't show any movements in surroundings so they are safe for now.
"Now, what the f*ck is that?" Reginald asked.
Everyone looked at the huge mountain which was located north west of their position, where they exactly had to go after the rendezvous with the Indian team.
"To be honest, I didn't know thirty seconds ago and I don't know now." Lyle said as he looked at the forest which they had to go through.
"Scan the atmosphere." Lyle said.
[WARNING]
[RADIOACTIVE PARTICLES DETECTED IN THE AIR]
[STAYING INSIDE THE GEAR IS SUGGESTED]
RADIATION LEVEL: 58.7% [Harmful]
"Good, as long as we stay inside the GEAR, we are good, let's move! Keep ten feet distance and open fire if you see anything hostile!." Lyle said and started walking toward Northeast to the rendezvous point.
Everyone followed his order and followed him.
It's been exactly ten minutes since they began walking.
Reginald walked up to Lyle's side.
"Lyle, do you think everything will turn out to be fine?" Reginald asked him.
"Why? Are you scared now? It's a little too late to be scared." Lyle joked while looking at the surrounding as the system scanned everything in the view.
"Scared? Oh hell no, I'm freaking out! You suddenly brought aliens into the equation and now every f*cking thing is becoming crazy!" Reginald said.
"Chill out, even if shit hits the fan, we won't be alone." Lyle said confidently.
"Are you counting on the other teams? Like they give a f*ck." Reginald said with a monotone.
"F*ck or not, they are also in this sh*thole with us and they will have to cooperate, we have no choice and they don't either so shut the f*ck up if you're gonna continue whining like a nine year old." Lyle said and went ahead.
"Ah f*ck man, when this thing goes downtown to shit town, I'm gonna f*cking say 'I told you so' right up your face!" Reginald said and went back to his position.
They kept on walking towards the rendezvous point while keeping their vigilance up.
*rush*
Suddenly, sound came from nearby.
Every single one of them pointed their guns towards the direction where the sound came from.
"What was that?" Flynn asked.
"Sam, check it out, Reginald, Arjun, Flynn keep an eye on the surroundings, do not let anything escape your view, Putok, cover Sam." Lyle said.
"Copy." the five of them said and did as they were ordered.
Sam slowly and carefully walked towards the place where the sound came from.
Reginald, Arjun and Flynn were looking and scanning the surroundings for movements, nothing can escape their views.
"Putok, get ready to light whatever comes out of there." Lyle said while aiming his gun towards the place Sam is going.
"Copy that, I'm ready to put some holes in whatever it is." Putok said with a smirk while pointing his LMG at the place.
Sam slowly reached it.
He looked around with his gun pointing wherever he looked.
He moved in a bit to see clearly.
There was nothing.
No animal or anything.
"Clear." Sam on the comm.
Everyone eased up a bit.
He was about to leave, but something caught the scanner just as he was turning.
Sam stopped.
He slowly turned around and brought his gun up.
His scanner pointed again.
He slowly walked towards it.
Everyone relaxed a bit, but after seeing Sam go there again, they were a bit confused.
They understood he found something so put up their guard again.
Lyle and the rest slowly walked towards Sam.
Sam was also slowly walking towards the marker on the screen.
It was a small yellow square box which points out if there is something that is out of place.
Sam reached the marked place and crouched down.
He was surprised and shocked for a second.
He touched the marked place with his finger and looked at it.
Blood.
It was blood.
"Guys.... Something isn't right here, in my view, retreating is the best option." Sam said as he lift his head and looked forward.
"What did you find?" Lyle asked as he stopped by his side.
They were confirmed that something very weird is going on here.
Their eyes looked everywhere.
With the help of the GEARs, they can easily find if anything moves.
Sam showed the finger with blood to Lyle while he looked forward.
More traces.
Lyle looked at Sam's finger.
He was shocked to find blood on it.
"David Fernandez, corporal, MGU." Sam said.
The blood on his finger was scanned by the GEAR, which was a surprise.
It showed him the details of the blood's owner and found a hundred percent match with one of the MGU soldier.
"David Fernandez, Corporal, search." Lyle said.
The system run a search on the name. The result was a few hundred of them from different armies in the world.
"Target country, MGU." Lyle said.
The GEAR system knocked out every other country except MGU. Even in MGU, there was at least eight of them.
He looked at the screen showing eight of them with their important details and picture.
But one out of the eight caught his eyes.
It was not due to the details or his missions or tours.
But the big red "MIA" on his page.
He opened it and looked at the details.
He skipped everything and went straight to the end.
LAST MISSION
Joint military exercise, Kavkaz.
"He's one of the missing, if his blood is here then he shouldn't be far." Lyle said.
They all understood what this meant.
There are two scenarios.
One being him surviving the crash and came out with light injuries and walked around to find a city or town with human to contact MGU or he could be chased by someone or something after leaving the crash site.
The other is, he could have been carried by someone or something from the crash site.
This meant that there is a possibility of survivors.
"Sam, can you track him?" Lyle asked while trying to get signal in his comm.
"Possibly? Because it leads to two different ways." Sam said after looking thoroughly.
"What....?" Lyle asked confusedly.
"Well one leads to Northwest where the crash site is while the other leads towards east, there's two different path and we can't afford to split up with this number." Sam said as he stood up.
Logically thinking, splitting up and following both paths is the protocol under normal circumstances, but, well, this is anything but a normal circumstance.
There's even a f*cking mountain in Chernobyl.
In Chernobyl!
Not in any other place but Chernobyl!
Where there isn't any f*cking mountains!
To Lyle, this was a hard situation.
On one hand, he wants to follow the track and find out what happened.
On the other, he doesn't want to put his team in danger.
Splitting up in such a place under such situation is very dangerous even for an elite team.
They could proceed as planned, but they might lose the chance to save a survivor.
But there is also a possibility if the survivor being dead.
Risking the living for the dead isn't worth it.
"We proceed as planned and rendezvous with the Indian team first, we will know what happened when we reach the crash site." Lyle said.
They all looked at each other.
What he meant was "We are abandoning him and proceed towards the mission objective" and they could clearly understand that meaning.
"Are you sure? If we do that then we are abandoning him." Putok said.
"We don't really have a choice here Putok, we can't afford to split up here with this number and we will be going to the crash site either way, plus there is a chance of him being dead and we might walk into a trap if we split up, we don't know who we are dealing with so it's better we play it safe." Lyle said as he began walking.
"Well I'm with you on this one." Sam said and also began walking.
"Better safe than sorry." Reginald said and went back to his position in walking.
Slowly, one by one they went back to their positions.
Now, they had to join the Indian team and uncover the ongoing mystery of Chernobyl.
The first contact of earthlings with the interstellar beings is not far away.