"Ah, Lieutenant Burners… we have been expecting you…" said a German Army Lieutenant General to me just as I had entered the meeting room.
"Guten Tag, Generalleutnant." I responded to him in German language, greeting him back and shook his right hand.
"Sie können also auch Deutsch sprechen, Leutnant ..." the Lieutenant General replied to me, admitting that he was pretty impressed that I could also speak German as it was also drawn on his delighted face.
"Ich kann ein paar sprechen. Ich habe es in meiner Mittelschulzeit sowie während meiner Ausbildung in der Marine gelernt." I replied to him as I nodded and smiled a little, mentioning that I had learned few about German language back in my middle school days as well as during my training days in the Navy.
The small and light talk ended at that point, and he immediately brought me to the emergency problems at hand. I sat together with him and two other high ranking foreign officers inside a relatively small room with the area of roughly about three hundred square inch, as well as about ten feet of height, indicating that the room was most likely used for any classified and/or covert operation meetings.
Just as I had myself seated, facing right in front of them who were seated in a row, they showed me a couple of footages about sudden assaults by some unknown unseen forces that took place in few villages somewhere in the archipelago of the Southeast Asia region. Each video only had the durations of less than a minute, making any early analysis regarding the assault to be extremely complicated unless several direct field evidence could be provided.
Based on the video, there were barely any hints that could point the assault as an indication of another extraterrestrial terror. That was, except for the fact where there were clearly few scenes where few blade-like things seemed to be erected out of some invisible things and then pulled inside again, a mechanism very similar to the beam spear used by the alien commander back in Chicago three years before.
I immediately told all three of them about it, to which they also confirmed that they instantly had their minds locked on that thought based on the detailed report given by Commodore Quentin, which was the reason all along on why they called me all the way to Germany on such a sudden notice. They also told me that the only active military officer able to investigate it immediately was only me, implying that I had next to no chance of refusing such task.
I went into a deep silence for a moment, and I had both my eyes looking sharply at the repeating beam blade scenes. When I looked back at the three of them, they all looked rather anxious as they seemed to be frowning at my direction. Realizing that it was indeed a time of crisis for the foreign civilians and how urgent the matter would also be for the global scale, I finally agreed to investigate.
However, as I was still a little confused, I asked them on why they held such an important meeting in Stuttgart, Germany, despite the fact that the potential extraterrestrial terror took place in Southeast Asia. They responded by saying that the first headquarters for the current half-finished global anti-extraterrestrial organization would be most likely based in Stuttgart after various countless considerations.
With my question answered, one of the foreign officials also told me that once I arrived at the destination, I would also be partnered with another commissioned officer of the destination country. I asked what country it was, to which the other foreign officials said it was Indonesia, specifically in Western Java.
Before I left and waited for my departure to Western Java, Indonesia, the Lieutenant General told me that both my partner and I would also have a direct supervisor via our earpiece communication equipment set. However, as for the names for my partner and my supervisor, none of the three of them had yet to know as they were still being urgently formed as we spoke…
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"Lieutenant, we are here…" said the plane co-pilot from the speaker to me.
It had been more than thirteen hours inside the plane where I had been flying with. I believe I somehow had the pleasure of at least sleeping for about seven hours, something that I could not do back in Chicago three year before. I also had read the documents thoroughly twice to make sure that I did not miss out any single minor obtained information regarding the assault, which was a very important thing for me to do in order to ease out any necessary coordination and decisions with my partner later on.
"We are now entering our last thirty minutes of flight, Lieutenant. Personally, I recommend you to open the window curtain now if you want to do some sightseeing…" the co-pilot said again.
That being said, I just realized that I had the curtains of both the windows right on my left side closed all the time since the plane took off. Since the co-pilot seemed to have suggested me something about seeing the view of what was outside the plane, I decided that it would not hurt at all to go ahead and take a look. As I just opened the window, a breath-taking view stole my attention in an instant.
It was the view of some parts of Panaitan Island, an island southwest of the direction of Banten, Western Java together with the gentle light of the morning sun in the horizon which was partially covered by the magnificent silhouette of another larger island. The partially hidden sunlight, lighting the beautiful island as it slowly rose and becoming less hidden, eventually revealed the eye-spoiling blue-green coastal waters with its countless sturdy sea rocks, standing tall among the beautiful colored shallow waters.
As the plane flew further from Panaitan Island, it was finally revealed that the other larger island was in fact, the Ujung Kulon National Park. I could barely believe my eyes when I saw few silhouettes of what seemed to be a very unique type of a group of five to six oxen, which I believed was called "Banteng" by the local people, gathered together in a savannah. It was the first time in my life that I happened to see such gentle beasts, feasting peacefully in their own boundless home. Such views might indeed to kill for, however it was rather short-lived as the plane eventually flew past the national park.
"I owe you one for suggesting me to look at those views, Lieutenant." I thanked the co-pilot through the responding speaker machine just under my seat handle.
"Anytime, Lieutenant." the co-pilot responded to me.
Apparently, the plane arrived quite faster than expected, as it turned out that we arrived at roughly nine minutes ahead of the schedule. Nevertheless, the whole military personnel at the nearest Western Java Military Air Base seemed to have expected our arrival to be earlier than they were told. I was then briefed by the plane pilot that I would travel to the Army Base nearest to one of the village by helicopter, before I would meet with my partner and introduced to my direct supervisor there, revealing that E.X.T.I.R.T had determined who my partner and direct supervisor would be.
I looked at my watch, and found out that the time was then 07.25 a.m. The journey by helicopter from the Air Base to the Army Base would take around thirty to thirty five minutes of journey, and as for the travelling time from the Army Base to the village, it was estimated that it would take around two hours of driving by heavy-duty Army pickup truck. I just had both my feet take another step closer on finding out the unsolved terror mystery…