"...natyan…."
"Zonat…. ..ov.."
"Major!"
"Mayor!"
"Major Xenov!!!"
I opened up my eye wide, gasping hardly as I suddenly regained my consciousness again!
…and somehow I could not feel any pain, even though I was very sure that I was shot by Yeon….
My left eyelid was opened, but no matter how hard I tried, it was only darkness on my left eye….
So, I really did lose my left eye….
"I am so sorry, Major…." A very familiar sound called me.
I turned my head slowly towards that voice. It was Alek, who had his head looking down with extreme shame….
"If only I had not moved again, then you would not-"
"No, Alek." I patted his shoulder.
"If you had not moved like that, then the magnum round would instead get stuck in my brain. You might think that you were being reckless, but I guess that it is better to lose my eye than to lose my life."
He still looked down, seemed to be still in shame.
Well, I guess I have no choice but to leave him be like that. Either he believed it or not, I was being honest with him.
But enough with that….
This room… it must be….
"We are on the fourth floor of their underground quarter, Major." Takeshi said.
"It is the emergency treatment floor."
It had been a while since I last heard his voice again. It was kind of refreshing to say the least….
Wait! I do not have time for this!
"Okay, recess time is over! We need to contact the base by using the-"
"Emergency Morse code machine? We already made one while you were being treated, Mayor." Alek brought the machine, which was sitting on top of a table on the corner of the room to me.
Made one? Then, our damaged truck was….
"Any luck with your communication?" The alien voyager commander entered the room.
"Nothing…." Takeshi shook his head in despair.
"Ah, you are finally awake, Major. Good, I will be brief…." It began to explain.
While I was still unconscious, the voyager commander told his troops to bring our truck to the cave exit by using their gunship and aided both Alek and Takeshi in constructing a makeshift emergency Morse code machine by stripping down the whole truck and using its parts. During that time, I was brought and treated in the fourth floor of the quarter.
They had removed the magnum round off of my eye, but they could not save it because the eyeball was practically ruptured due to the massive damage of the magnum round.
Also… they removed something else that I had not expected at all to be inside with me….
It was a small cast iron bar planted inside my left arm! I knew right away that the surgeons responsible for the recovery of my left arm had been working with Yeon and his unit even before the whole operation has been going on!
They had been desperate to halt my total recovery from the start! No wonder I always feel immense pain on my left arm whenever I tried to shoot with both of my hands!
I had to admit though, that I could not see any single trace of emergency surgery conducted by those aliens on my left arm. Even in medical technologies, they were far more advanced than us humans….
Just then, a message suddenly showed up on the Morse code machine.
'Can anyone read me?' The message read.
'Yes. This is Gray Phoenix. Who is this?' I immediately replied.
'Major Xenov? This is Flint. I am now still in the communication post. I need to tell you something.'
Flint! He is also still alive!
Flint explained that while he had been detained, he was held inside the communication tent and was tied there. At first, he had been trying to escape and just when he could finally free himself, there seemed to be nothing strange at all, until suddenly he heard multiple gunshots from various directions.
The gunshot noise had clearly not coming from anywhere near the tent, so he knew that it must have been fired from afar, especially since he also heard what he believed to be the sound of a Hind Helicopter approaching. That was when he decided to take a peek through the tent opening.
He could not believe his eyes that all of the men on the post had been wiped out by soldiers dressed in Korean People's Army Air and Anti-Air Force, coming with at least four Hind Helicopters! Based on the movement of the soldiers, he estimated that the numbers could reach a hundred soldiers if rounded up!
Shit! Yeon was serious about bringing his whole Air Force unit to this archipelago!
He had no choice but to wait until he felt like it was the right time to get away, even though he would not know where to go. That was when the communication post beeped; it was the morse code call attempt made by Alek and Takeshi.
I asked him if he had also seen Yeon, to which responded no. He had been nearly found out by one of the soldiers when he had been peeking, and if it had not for a strange, painfully screeching noise coming nowhere from the sky for a brief moment that had the entire soldiers there distracted by it.
A strange, and painfully screeching noise… coming from the sky….
Could that be…?!
I just realized something else thanks to that word. Ending the communication, I told him to keep on hiding, and wait for further contact from me.
"Hey, jade eyes." I called the alien voyager commander to confirm about something.
"You lost your Stealth Aircraft to the traitor from my kind, did not you?
The alien voyager commander only looked at me straight in the eyes.
I speculated that while both Yeon and Derek had become separated with the rest of us, they somehow found the Vulture Stealth Aircraft outside the, and was about to be fit together with the asteroid voyager after they had been washed outside to the shore through the underground river system.
The indentation right next to the rear hatch of the aircraft was meant to be inserted with the asteroid. But luckily, they took the aircraft over before the gunship arrived with the asteroid that had been finally lifted up from the sea.
One of the gunship personnel tried to contact the aircraft but there was no response. Realizing that the aircraft had been compromised, the gunship had no choice but to return to the voyager with the asteroid and to patrol the area around the voyager.
Recalling when Yeon spilled to me about wiping out the enemies on land with his stealth jet while they were all 'busy hallucinating and vomiting', I figured out that he must have found out beforehand about the stealth aircraft's feature. It was something that could only be done if he had seen it with his own eyes, and the device that he had hidden within me could only pick up voices without images.
As for how he could take over the stealth aircraft, he snuck up behind all three personnel for the aircraft and shot dead all of them; for if shot to the head, both impact and penetration of .44 Magnum round is enough to take them out with one shot each and he had an excellent aim with his handgun too.
"Well, is my instinct right?" I tilted my head a little.
"Yes, it is." The alien voyager only nodded in silence afterwards.
So, with that it will not be long before they could take over the whole air base….
And from there, to launch a full scale attack to this voyager….
"We need to stop them!" Takeshi stepped closer to it.
"And that is why I am here to tell you all to use our gunship and take down that aircraft." The alien voyager commander raised his voice.
…did I hear it right?!
It wants us… to control their gunship and destroy its own stealth aircraft?!
The three of us followed the alien voyager commander back outside, with the gunship already waiting for us.
ZX-918 Phoenix….
All of the gunship personnel went out, lining up neatly right in front of it….
And the last one to come out, was no other than the turtle behemoth, wielding its beam trident halberd on its right hand.
"All of your weapons are already inside the gunship, Major." The alien voyager commander assured me.
"My Browning Automatic Rifle?" I tried to be specific.
"Everything." It nodded.
Even though it looked almost just like the Mil Mi-28 Havoc, there was absolutely no way that I would be able to operate it very efficiently.
But it told me that the controls for the gunship had been made exactly the same like that helicopter, only with more spaces between each control.
"Have you not seen enough facts and revelations to try and trust us a little, Major?" It tried to convince me.
Shit! This is exactly what I have been avoiding from the start! Us looking like we have to depend on the technology of another living creature!
But I suppose I have no choice….
Stepping forward and just about to get inside the gunship, the behemoth suddenly stopped me.
"Wait." It said in a very deep voice.
And here I thought this behemoth cannot talk at all….
"You will need this." It handed me its beam trident halberd.
"For what?" I squinted my eyes.
"That aircraft also store a scythe spear meant to be wielded by someone protecting the rear hatch while another activates the asteroid in emergency situations." It explained to me.
"Should you are able to take it down, you must expect the traitor to come out and use it to defend himself against you."
"Heh… this halberd and that scythe must be heavy like hell." I refused it outrightly.
But, it insisted….
"Try it." It said short.
At first I had my doubt, but I could not describe how surprised I was when it was in fact far lighter than what I imagined; about as light as my Browning Automatic Rifle.
" Although a little shorter, the scythe spear inside that aircraft is almost only half the weight of this halberd. Surely it will give the user more agility than you. Are you sure you still want to take the chance of not bringing it with you?" It smiled a little.
Again, I was completely forced to use their more advanced technology in order to take down my own kind….
"Take it as me returning the favor for sparing my reckless soldier back at the cave, Major." It stepped away as it finished talking.
Its reckless soldier… the alien that I had its hand and foot nailed against the ground with the ice stalactites….
Even a towering alien behemoth can still care for its soldiers, unlike countless men leading in the military….
"Major, we believe in you." The alien voyager commander said as I finally entered the gunship.
It was not lying when I looked for myself the controls for the gunship; it was like I was inside the Havoc Helicopter only with about a half times bigger in size! I peeked a little to the passenger cabin and both Alek and Takeshi were also surprised.
No, now is not the time to be surprised!
I have the rest of the other comrades in need of my help!
I first took my Browning Automatic Rifle again before taking the pilot seat, and setting up the right controls to start lifting the gunship off the ground. I also told both of them to take the heavy shield to protect themselves from any possible gunfire coming from outside later on.
When they finally already had themselves shielded and their rifles at their hands, I took a long deep breath before I began to fly the gunship to the air base.
"You two ready?!" I asked both Alek and Takeshi who was on the passenger cabin.
"Da, Mayor!" Alek nodded and Takeshi gave his thumb up.
Okay, here we go!