It was exactly 10.30 a.m. when I looked at my watch again after some long time of riding on the armored truck convoy, and it had been at least an hour and a half since we had left the Army Base. There were approximately twelve trucks in total, with an additional of four automated scouting light wheeled Infantry Mobility Robots (IMR) positioned between each of four trucks.
During the early minutes not too long after we had left the Army Base, Billy told me that the robots, which were called "Kapak Sunyi" were developed and manufactured by Pindad, the defense products manufacturing company of the Indonesian Army. He also told me that the trucks we were using to get to the nearest village, Esemka Digdaya 'Banteng', were also a joint venture product between Pindad and Esemka, a local automotive manufacturing company.
Based on what I had seen at a glance before we departed from the Army Base, each of the wheeled IMRs had the appearance of a standard 6x6 Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) but without any doors and windows. Instead, it had a couple of mounted guns on top of it, both in the same caliber of 7.62x51mm NATO.
Apparently, each of the mounted guns was only able to turn at the maximum of 180 degrees and thus two were proved to be necessary. There were also a couple of small camera-like devices on top of each of the mounted guns, most likely to visualize the robot's surroundings and to determine whether any threat was nearby or not.
I had absolutely no idea that the armored pickup trucks were in fact, full – electric based military vehicles with a fully rotatable mounted gun on its bed. Had I not ridden the vehicle myself, and witnessed how quiet the trucks were as it drove away from the Air Base all the way up to our current location. The only noise that I had heard so far were only the constant frictions between the trucks' tires and the relatively rough mountain roads, which were only heard roughly starting twenty minutes before I looked at my watch again.
The armored pickup trucks were a 4x4 double cabin heavy-duty pick-up trucks. According to what Billy had told me, the trucks were originally manufactured for civilian markets. However, a couple of years before a joint venture between its manufacturing company and Pindad, was initiated as the first step to implement all-electric based military vehicles.
Esemka Digdaya 'Banteng' was the first product of the joint venture that showed the best performance both in the prototyping procedures, as well as in field operations. The name 'Banteng', which was the very same creature that I had seen back from inside the plane, was given to it due to its excellent ability in ramming heavy objects, as well as its relative ease in accelerating on any terrains despite its bulky appearance.
Since I witnessed the truck's performance by myself especially during our journey on the mountainous roads, I could personally completely agree with the truck's namesake. Aside from that, I was also impressed by how well protected the interior of the truck as well. Each of the window glasses, and especially the windshield were strong enough to protect the crews from 12.7x99mm (.50 BMG) rounds. The body of the truck was also very durable that the crews inside the cabin would only feel vibrations should the truck got in contact with landmines.
Had it not for the dull and rather boring journey to the village, I would most likely not notice the features of the military equipment that the Special Forces Command utilized. Again, unlike the view that I had seen from inside the plane when I was on my way to the Air Base, nor it was like the tension as it was seen from above through the helicopter when I was going to the Army Base, in our current way to the village I still had yet seen any civilians walking around.
Billy did not say anything about it, but apparently every one of them had been evacuated, with considerably easier and quicker process since they were closer to where the assault had taken place. Not too long after that, I felt like the road was going steeper little by little, reducing the speed of the truck in the process. As I looked outside to take a peek, it turned out that we were no longer on an asphalt road. Instead, the ground was then a hardened soil. It was also not too long after that, when the Morse Code Watch vibrated on my left wrist for the first time.
'Travis, Billy, do you read me?' the vibration of the watch and the blinking light from the awkward part of the strap was interpreted like that, indicating that it was Commodore Quentin, our Direct Operation Supervisor who had sent us the message.
'Yes, we read you, Commodore.' I responded to the message, as I sent my response right away.
'Crystal clear, Commodore.' Billy also responded to the message, as I saw clearly that he also received the message.
Commodore Quentin told us that we were already less than ten minutes away from our dropping point. We were to first go with the Alpha Team, which was the group of the first four of the trucks convoy, to the direction of the Southwest from the dropping point for the first three kilometers, or a little below two miles. I then proceeded to ask where the Bravo and Charlie Team would go, to which Commodore Quentin responded that he was not permitted to know about such information.
Billy then decided to help me understood about it more. Although he was not included in the deeper details of the operation for the Special Forces Command, he knew for sure that while our tasks were to investigate and eliminate the root cause of the village assault, the Special Forces Command had the task to give us support and to prevent and eliminate any potential interference from outside the red zones. As if they had been briefed with each other before, Commodore Quentin then sent me another message almost exactly the same with what Billy had just told me.
To be honest, I felt like I was kept in the confusion for a moment as it seemed like there had been a rather lack of details given to me directly from E.X.T.I.R.T. However, nevertheless the operation was also the very first one and not the one where E.X.T.I.R.T had full authority of, at least not yet. Shortly after, we arrived at the dropping point for the Alpha Team and thus the two of us as well as the whole Alpha Team went out from the trucks. The rest of the eight trucks, which was the whole Bravo and Charlie Team, together with three wheeled IMRs spread out to the Southern direction and Western direction.
'GA-BOOOM'
Suddenly the wheeled IMRs for the Alpha Team exploded. In an instant, the whole team, including the Bravo and Charlie Team in the distance that managed to hear the explosion as well took up the alert position. Both Billy and I readied our submachine guns immediately as we crouched and looked at our surroundings very thoroughly. Thankfully, none of the personnel from the Special Forces Command seemed to panic and started shooting blindly. Instead, they also started to crouch and split up into smaller groups of four or five, before they began to slowly look around.
"Well, so much for the smart scouting robot that we have here…" Billy said slowly, as he sighed a little while looking at the still-burning robot.
"We should take a closer look as well…" I responded to him, as I began to crouch walk slowly and approaching the destroyed wheeled device.
Billy gave a signal to the Alpha Team just as I had started approaching the device. In response, three men from one team began to approach us while the other two merged with the rest of the other teams. Even though I wore a thick and improved boots as my footwear, I had the feeling that I still had to move carefully since the ground I was walking on was literally a steep slope. The good thing was, the burning robot did not slide down the slope, despite it was destroyed right on the ground spot that seemed to be slick.
Eventually, I managed to reach the destroyed device after several more of careful steps. Billy also arrived shortly after, with the three Special Forces Command personnel came almost together with him. We carefully took a closer and thorough inspection at the robot, and although the destroyed device was still burning, I managed to spot something that would most likely cause its destruction.
Apparently, the destruction was caused by a long and deep cut, exactly on the center part of the robot's APC-like body that was found by me and confirmed by one of the personnel. The next question that immediately emerged in my mind was what could possibly have caused the cut. Billy told me that the thickness of the robot body's armor was around 10mm, something that could not be penetrated easily by various conventional firearms rounds below .50 BMG. Even then, the trace left behind would not had been a long deep cut, but rather a pierced and bent surface.
With that in mind, there was only one thing left in my thoughts on what could have caused it - the very same beam blade that was used to attack the civilians in the footage. I gulped once as I realized that I could then be more or less confirmed that we were facing another extraterrestrial terror there.
"Well, Travis? I guess you can say the word now." Billy said to me, as if he already realized what I had thought through my reactions.
"It is them." I said, as I slowly stood up. "I cannot say for sure, but it is a very high probability. They have just sent us their greetings…"