"Gray Phoenix, do you read me?" The sound from Nest came out from inside my helmet.
"Loud and clear, Nest." I answered right away.
"Do you have anything to let me know with?"
"Yes. I have just finished patching up about half of the patients here." Nest cleared his throat.
"Any good with the other units?" I changed the topic.
"No. Not even a brief, weak static sound was heard." Nest sighed.
"I see…" I was disappointed.
"Look, I have another thing to tell you too on my end."
I told him the chronological order on how the polar bears chased us all the way until just before we reached the second island. From how we thought it was just a large cloud of dusts coming towards our truck, our realization that it was actually a stampede of thousands of polar bears, our struggle to keep them away from our truck without actually delivering any killing shot, until one of them managed to get a grab on Yeon.
"No kidding?! So how is he right now?" Nest's voice became higher.
I somehow pictured Nest's eyes to widen up when he reacted….
"He is fine, and is still catching his breath apparently." I assured him.
"But well, the fact that he can actually hear our conversation right now and decides not to join in probably also means that he is still too tired to tell you about it directly."
"Yeah, I would not be surprised either…" Nest took a longer breath.
"But that aside, the truck can still run, and none of us are seriously injured." I added.
"We lost no weapons or other equipment inside it either. Other than that, just an overheated machine gun from the early twentieth century."
"I still have not understood yet. Why do these aliens have old firearms as their weakness?" Nest sighed again.
"I still have not figured out about that yet, either." I had nothing else to say.
"Maybe we can get more clue about it the deeper we go later on."
"My hope exactly. Watch your backs, and stay alert, Phoenix and Vulture. Nest out." He ended the call.
And now, time to get back to watch our surroundings again….
But then suddenly something grabbed me from behind, removed my helmet so swiftly that I could not stop it from doing it, and hit me in the left cheek!
.
"Urgh!" I was pushed back by a few steps.
Turned out, it was Yeon all along….
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!!" he was still approaching me quickly with complete anger, like there was fire in both of his eyes.
And hit me again on the same spot!
"Hey, calm down, Yeon!" I tried to loosen myself off his grip.
It took me a few moments before his fingers finally departed from my armor.
"Heurgh!" he pushed me back a few steps more using both of his fists.
.
"Yeon, come on. Calm yourself down." I raised my right hand towards him slightly.
"You! Easy for you to say when your own life is not the one hanging on the line!" Yeon pointed his finger right towards my face, and was completely in outrage.
He could not accept my choice to wait for the right moment before shooting the bear that had grabbed on him, instead of tossing him his rifle so he could shoot its head, in point blank range.
"Look. At that time, I was convinced that all I need was to find the gap between you and that bear, so I can shoot its leg without damaging your armor!" I tried to convince him.
"You know that our handgun caliber would still go through its leg!"
"Well, then I guess someone here prefers to take the hard and risky solution to a problem, instead of a more logical and practical one." He scoffed, clearly dissatisfied.
That anger in his face… I did not expect that he was one who was able to lose his composure if something did not go as he expected.
Or perhaps that he was still terrified since he thought he would lose his life to another wild animal like one of my men. It was natural for him if he did though, since both him and Dong were of the same nationality.
I could then see the rest of the three others approaching towards us, running, probably drawn to our direction because of the commotion between me and him. Well, he was practically yelling right after he hit me with his fist.
Also, I came to realize another thing; he looked like he was originally against Flint's idea of shooting any wild animals that could pose as a potential threat, but after what had happened just now I began to suspect that he showed his signs of disagreement only to provoke Flint. And I still had yet to know his motives for that.
But no, I would not address that thing right now. It would fan the fury inside him and worsen the air around us….
"Major! Colonel!" Takeshi had finally reached us, and so did both Alek and Derek.
"What is going on?" Alek turned to me and then to Yeon.
"I need a CLARIFICATION on why your commander decided to put me on harm longer when he could actually do something that would save me quicker from it!" He pointed his left finger towards me.
Derek fell silent and only looked towards me….
"You know what, I was also wondering about something." He continued as he furiously stepped closer to me with his finger pointing again.
"I am also wondering why those freaks did not seem to target you, AT ALL! I guess it is about time you tell us all about your little secret, huh?!"
I could not deny everything he said though. All of the aliens and even the tank back then did not even try to pursue me at all, even when I had less to defend myself with compared to the rest of them. But that said, even I still did not know why they chose to do that.
I guess the only reason for that was because they were afraid of me, for whatever reason, but… does that mean they were keeping records on their failed attempts at invading earth?
If so, then they must have known what their weaknesses were, so why did not they changed their firearms and protections? Could it be that they lacked the necessary materials?
Or did they have any other reasons I have yet to know?
The more I thought about it, the more I would likely to get lost track on the possible reason….
"What is the matter, PHOENIX? Cat got your tongue?" Yeon asked, for some reason with a tone as if he was trying to provoke me.
"Colonel, look. This will not save anything, I suggest that we-"
Derek was about to say something, but suddenly the icy ground around him caved in, making him fell down the resulted hole!
"W-wait, Derek!" Yeon reached out his hands to the hole.
"Aaaaa–ough!!" Derek screamed, and suddenly stopped as if he had hit something hard beneath the ground.
"Are you okay?!" I rushed to a spot just before the hole, before leaning my head down.
"Y-yeah, I will live…" Derek began to stand up.
I did not know about the three others, but I could still see him well from where I was leaning.
"Takeshi! The flashlight inside the truck!" I pointed to the direction of the vehicle.
"Yes, sir!" he immediately rushed there.
"Wait, wait!" Derek shouted from inside the hole.
"I think that you better take a rope and get down here instead!"
"Huh?" Yeon had his eyes bugged out a little.
"This… I do not know… cave, maybe… is apparently not that dark." Derek lifted his head and looked towards Yeon.
So the cave indeed had a light source coming in, then… it was not because of me who could still see in the dark unlike most people. I also figured out that maybe it would be best if I let Yeon decide if we should go down or just lift Derek up. At least that way, he would most likely have his fury extinguished.
"It is your call, Yeon." I cleared my throat.
Yeon turned his head slowly to me, having his eyes met mine with such sharpness but did not say a word.
"I did not want to make another shit show, if that is what you are going to call what I did earlier." I lifted my shoulder.
He fell silent for a moment, then nodded and chuckled with a hint satisfaction finally drawn on his face.
"Fine… let us forget about what happened earlier, then…" he turned to Takeshi and nodded, signalling him to take a rope from the truck instead.
"But next time a similar thing happens, I will hold you accountable for that." he scoffed.
Takeshi arrived shortly later with a rope on his hand, saying that it was approximately five meters long. Alek and I helped him in tying it to one of the nearest rocks, and finally Yeon began to descend the rope down the hole.
"Huh… he is right. I suppose it is quite bright here for a cave." He lifted his head and looked at me after he looked to what was ahead of him.
"You two go first, I will make sure our surroundings are clear." I stood by, having my rifle at the ready by my right hand.
"Yes, sir." Both Alek and Takeshi answered in unison.
The first to go down was Takeshi, and was almost immediately after followed by Alek. I did a full circle check of my surroundings for the last time, before finally following the others down to the hole.
To yet another completely new surrounding with an unknown level of potential threat….