Log: Date 14xx of the Sun's Glory.
A day had passed ever since we had been able to escape Val Sol. The smell of the larvae had made it clear that we found a nest. Frowner, he made our escape possible, and the cracking of his ribs still rings in my head. The weight-bearer can carry half a ton. But that thing smashed against his exoskeleton. The impact alone would damage the frame of the exoskeleton, and possibly cause concussion on the body.
We had waited in the camping site with the beacon sending a distress signal. Some rangers had perished and our fellow trainee inside that place. It doesn't take someone witty to understand how dangerous the fortress was. We had contacted the Rangers and we waited.
They soon arrived on mountain stallions. They were 173cm tall and were carefully bred. They could carry a Ranger in full gear and has been one of our companions ever since ancient times. The Rangers were cynics, pessimistic individuals with a perpetual frown in their faces, they were frosty, and their expression did not reveal anything. The Ranger said, "I see. So Val Sol has a nest and your fellow trainee has been trapped. That trainee is a trap in the middle of a nest that needs four ranger groups. He would not survive long and that is being hopeful. I would like to ask you to leave, but this is a dangerous nest and we all need hands. Can you keep up, trainees?"
It was a hard request given by Rangers on-site. Mia didn't think twice agreeing, with her shooter cocked, and ready. She was deathly silent, eyes sharpened, and her lips tightly sealed. When Mia's taking a lower stature, she was focused, serious, and determined.
The Rangers called for backup. Instructor Mari arrived with the rest of the Rangers. She was the one who assigned Val Sol as our designated location. She said, "I was the one who sent the Rangers to clear the fortress. I had to make sure that we do not lose potential soldiers for our cause. It seems that I was right in a way that we had discovered a nest of spawns. If we had discovered this nest later. The sister-cities would suffer."
When asked about why she'd send Rangers on recruit trials, she said, "I had seen the run of the missing one. His record showed promise and his run at the pits had impressed me. He had the right attitude of a Ranger and if I didn't see that run. I wouldn't have bothered. My judgment is correct, for it revealed the nest."
Cold. She was cold when she spoke those words. I don't know what look she was having inside that helmet. All I know was that she was cold at that moment. Instructor Mari has been always been the Valkyrie of the Sister-Cities. She had many skirmishes in her belt, participated in operations, raids, and campaigns. She was a veteran and one of the supports of the Volatile Excursions.
She said, "Set up the perimeters and prepare to take down the nest. The nest will continue to grow unless we destroy the main chamber and the main mother."
The aliens will dig tunnels and expand underground. Unless we destroy the mother then the mother will keep spawning offspring.
The Ranger started a perimeter check around Val Sol. Explosives were placed around the structures and a shooter's nest was placed in a high ground. A breaching unit will destroy the chamber doors and destroy the nest. After that, they will exfiltrate the nest and detonate the charges.
It was then that detonation was heard below the ground. The whole structure shook and the cobble started to fall around the area where the chamber should be. It was like the whole mountain rumbled at that blast. I had braced myself when the cobblestone came flying.
"Charge detonation," Instructor Mari said. "It looks like the Recruit was alive. He either had detonated his explosives or had done something to try and perish the nest. We will not be careless, Rangers! We will infiltrate the nest, do our jobs!"
"We'll bring their bodies back, if we can, Rangers," Instructor Mari said.
The Rangers started prying the chamber open. The door was one-hundred-fifty meters thick. Made of marble and cobble, pulled by a mechanism with thick chains. It would take hours to drill and by the time we open the door, the nest would have heard us. The fortress was unstable and detonating charges to open the door would mean that we have to dig tunnels to reach the nest. That would mean that there would be an excursion zone here. Rangers would have to watch this place and set up an outpost.
The nest was dangerous and discovering it this early was a blessing. Instructor Mari, who was leading the Rangers, stopped next to the door chamber and halted the Rangers. I saw Mia clenching her teeth, and lowering her head, turning away.
"Rangers, settle down, change of plans, we'll be setting up an outpost here. Kali, go and have Engineers here. Milton, inform Charla that we need the Rangers here. It's an excursion people, this is a critical area."
Instructor Mari arrived in front of us. Mia's head was visibly lowered, and she didn't face the Instructor eye-to-eye.
"You two, you'll returning home trainees."
"But Ma'am!" Mia protested. "We can help!"
"That isn't for you to decide, Student. Know your place, and go back home. One of you can't, and you should take note of this, Cadet."
Mia bit her lower lip. She pulled her visor down and turned away. Instructor Mari turned her attention back to her Rangers and made the driller stop. Mia sidled away from the site and kicked a rock. She was upset, even I can see that much. To think that our mission would end up act like this. It was hard to think that we wouldn't be here if he didn't stop that chamber from closing. I thought that I would feel bitter, shame, and deeply conflicted, but at that moment I only feel that I was glad to be alive.
*****
Log: 15xx of the Sun's Glory.
The situation within Val Sol had caused waves in the sister-cities. The Ranger Regiment moved out while the Guardsmen of the cities started fortifying the defenses of the city. The turrets were active and manned. The streets were filled with patrols of fully armed guardians.
The training academy was loud at the news. The situation had been turned into a piece the military could not ignore. The academy's training continued, but the lessons and the sending off were canceled. They were only a few groups who managed the mission. Mia and I had successfully fulfilled our mission. The mission was far too dangerous and we escaped alive. We were fortunate to escape a nest alive. That counts as passing in the eyes of the academy.
We weren't close. He was a strange individual with the right abilities. He had the right attitude for a Ranger. He had done the duties of a Ranger and what to expect him. He simply didn't return home. I thought of that scene again. Can I do what he did during that time?
Mia took it harder. She's headstrong and the thought of someone sacrificing his life had stirred her. She was carefree, and she would have been here with me drinking my worries. She said, "I'll go to training pits. I'll compensate while the rest of the academy does nothing. I need to fight better and think better. This won't do at all."
She had an arrogance streak as a marksman. She was a striker for the reason that she was good at it. We were good at our roles and yet we couldn't be better than him. That we know too well. That man was a born Ranger and he died saving us. It was a debt of life that I couldn't possibly repay.
The aroma of the wine and the taste of it had succumbed to my thoughts. The bar was unusually quieter with what was happening around the city. When Rangers aren't working they are drunk. That's what I had observed in my time here. I secluded my thoughts and continued drinking.
The street lights were on by the time I woke up. I hurried out of the bar and went back to the dormitories. While strolling around, I saw Mia smoking a piece. She looked at me up and down and nodded. I sidled and sat next to her, pulled a piece from my jacket and lit it up. I took a puff from my smoke
"You are drunk," she said. "That's quite rare for someone who always tells me about discipline."
"I had to pour three or two. That didn't end well as we thought it would be. Remember, when I thought that it would be a regular exercise? I was wrong about that. We weren't careful enough."
"I know. We need to do better next time. Confide in me, do you feel the same?"
She frowned under the dark, "Are you afraid as well?"
"Yes, deathly so," I said. "I thought that we'd never succumbed to such adventurers, but I was wrong. In our first outing, we had witnessed the sacrifice of our teammate. We were too complacent in our actions. Honestly, I am glad to be alive, that it wasn't me who did it. I wasn't the one that got trapped in that nest."
"I feel the same," she said, almost bitterly. "We couldn't do anything about it. I'm glad to be alive. He could have escaped on his own, but choose to save us. I should be happy. I should be glad. I should feel sorrow, but Viktor, why do I feel so happy instead? That I wasn't left behind in that nest?"
"I say the same. All I thought about was how I wasn't in his position. We couldn't do anything about it, right? That wasn't our fault at all. We haven't known him for too long. It was supposed to a simple test. It ending that way wasn't anything that we could do."
I could say anything more. The smell of the smoke drowned my thoughts. Mia had quieted and I could only stare at the sky. The smoke wafted the air and cut through it. When we were done I went out of my way to go back to my room. I tried closing my eyes and thought of rest. Yet the picture of that man holding that chamber back with barely any fear on his face shook me. The way he held it back and that chamber snapping close. I'd never felt so much fear in my life. I heard the sounds coming from that nest. Like the march of a million insects bearing down at you. A wave of horrors that would turn you into a nest.
Even when I try to sing myself to sleep. I couldn't stop myself from asking. Whether I could have done better. If there was something more that I could do in that situation. What's the point of a shielder that could not protect? I sat on my bed and lit up another piece. I opened the windows, and drag a chair beside it. The moon at its full glory with silver light reflecting. The city slowly winked out. At this time of dawn, only the lights from the Rangers and the Guardians were on. The Patrols were marching along the road with the Assaulter Units. It has been years since the city had become this cautious. One single overpopulated nest could destroy us. And if the sister-cities dies then we would have to venture out of this place. The world is hostile, and what happened had reminded me of the world I was living in. I had stayed too long inside the cities. This was a wake-up call.