"Major! Major!" Takeshi screamed as he rushed with Alek to my lying body.
It is no good, I could even barely move anymore….
But my eyes, ears and the rest of my senses are clearly still fully conscious.
"That bastard!" Alek panted right behind my head as he looked at Vulture's body right across the crashed stealth aircraft.
"G- Urgh!! We must… get away… from the aircraft… and him!" I groaned hard as the unsufferable pain on my back also crawled up to the back of my head just when I started talking.
"What!? But-"
"J-just… do it! Alek!" I shook my right hand violently, signalling him to stay away from both the aircraft and Vulture.
It was because I had a bad feeling that it was not over yet even though he could not move anymore….
"Alright… no offense, Mayor… but you realize that you are rather heavy despite not too stocky even though you are indeed muscular, right?" He signalled Takeshi to begin lifting my legs while he prepared to lift both my armpits.
"So, this is going to be rough."
"J-just get on with- HARGHH!!!" I could not bear the piercing pain on my back just as the both of them lifted me.
Usually, I could even hold out a wound going straight through my body like it had been five years ago on top of that mothership… but the one caused by that beam scythe spear wielded by Vulture….
It was just too much!
Stepping away from the aircraft for about twenty meters, suddenly another rather familiar voice called out to us.
And, in an extremely bad timing….
"Put him down!" A voice said, belonging to a late middle-aged man, followed by the cocking sound of a gun.
This voice….
Shit! It belongs to Lieutenant Colonel Eustachy Adamowsky!
What the hell does he want now that Vulture is dead?!
Both Alek and Takeshi could not fight back as they are both not at the ready with their weapons and shields. Putting me down gently, they slowly raised their arms as Colonel Adamowsky's men proceeded to take off their equipment; including my Browning Automatic Rifle which had been strapped to Takeshi's back.
Whereas I… I could only lie down and not being able to move at all….
However, that being said, he seemed to move closer to us, but particularly more to me, to right in front of my feet. He must have wanted to me to be able to see him clearly.
"Huh, well… it seems you three took our trouble to rid of that pesky bird…." He spitted to the ground right after he spoke.
I knew it! They were also within each other's throat from the start even though they claimed themselves to be allies.
"Such a shame though… that this magnificent technology would not be able to be… utilized… with the very person who struggled to get it." He continued.
He was holding a Browning Hi-Power; the outdated standard issue sidearm for E.X.T.I.R.T's specialized operation units.
It became clear to me that all the traitors had been switching their weapons with the ones they had become more accustomed of which must be because their whole plan was not to terminate the terror but to steal the technology instead once the other units had done their part of the task.
"To think that one of North Korea's finest, most promising young commander would be outdone by the kid that I had met eight years ago… pathetic!" He scoffed.
Eight years ago...?
So, it was him who set the whole unit up back in Gdynia back then!
"You- urgh!" The pain on my back just would not subside!
"So, you… were the commanding officer… who betrayed… your own men back then!"
"Betrayed? Why, with all due respect, Major… I would personally call them collateral damage…." He said with absolutely no remorse in his voice.
"F-for what?! The enhanced Havoc helicopter prototype?!" I forced myself to not grunting while I spoke up.
But, shit! It hurts so much when I did it!
"Yes… exactly." He quickly crouched and looked straight to my right eye.
"And you, of all people… the youngest and most inexperienced kid back then was the center of my failure!!"
He explained that the incident eight years ago had been supposed to be just a simple transaction between him and the pirates nested in a small island some kilometers away from the air base.
His aim? It was to make as if the helicopter has been stolen due to an unforeseen hijacking, and thus he would report to the general officers that the prototype must be mass produced at once, in order to anticipate the said pirate group to do their activities with air support from the helicopter.
The mentioned helicopter was actually a Mil-Mi 28 Havoc Helicopter modified with a passenger cabin very similar to the one on the model Mil-Mi 24 Hind.
The purpose of the prototype testing was simple; to see if it had the potential in replacing Hind completely during real combat, effectively retiring Hind in the process at least for the Polish Air Force.
But, Colonel Adamowsky had a plan of his own…
"I was surprised to see that the gunship which have crashed on the side of the main building has some resemblance to that prototype, though." He looked down and sighed before finally got up again after he finished explaining everything to me.
"And shame for the helicopter too, since it was ultimately cancelled despite the promising performance of being able to withstand five consecutive Strela rocket launcher missiles attack."
Now what?! There is absolutely no way that he would let the three of us go after he has revealed everything!
Then all of a sudden, there was a brief quake that created cracks all along the end of the runway, up to the edge of the island.
And what happened next was beyond comprehension….
The cracked portion of the runway suddenly went down, and sunk quickly to the ocean below, together with the rest of the other part of the island and bringing the stealth aircraft, Vulture, and the scythe spear with them!
Right… the aircraft's crash earlier must have created the crack initiation points along the end of the runway ground.
I guess it is indeed just a matter of time before the affected areas could suddenly sink in….
"That takes care of the cremation…." Colonel Adamowsky cleared his throat.
"Guess we still have that stuck gunship after all. Surprisingly just barely scratched by only a bit despite the rough and violent crash."
After that, he immediately signalled his left hand to his men, about a dozen in total, to point their rifles at both Alek and Takeshi.
What a coward man! Unlike his codename Dark Bison which is supposed to be tough and courageous!
"Sir?" One of his men asked.
"Do it." He nodded.
Looking at Alek, he gritted his teeth as he was clearly unprepared to meet his end, while Takeshi… he had his mouth trembling with absolute fear. Colonel Adamowsky probably wanted me to witness my men's deaths and to finish me off last for his personal vendetta.
Despite that, there was nothing I could do!
But then, another unexpected thing happened….
"Fire- RARGHHH!" His left hand suddenly got shot off from a distance, instantly severing it!
Within less then five seconds, consecutive gunshots were fired, all coming from the direction behind me.
Seizing the opportunity, Takeshi quickly aimed with my Browning Automatic Rifle and emptied the whole magazine while Takeshi took out his handgun on his right hand with the alien heavy shield on his left hand and charged to three nearest enemy soldiers before killing two of them by firing a couple of rounds to their heads.
He spared the last one by shooting him in the leg, and held him at gunpoint on point blank range.
As for Takeshi, even though he missed about five to six shots, he managed to take down at least three with my rifle.
His right hand holding his then bleeding severed left hand, Colonel Adamowsky and the one soldier spared by Alek slowly stepped back as the man who apparently was the leader of the ambush got closer to me since my ears could clearly hear footsteps coming nearer to my side from behind.
"Mother of God… my boy, you are still alive…." Another familiar voice of an elder middle-aged man said to me, full of relieve in his voice.
"I am so glad we are on time."
As the man finally got to right in front of me, it was none other than Colonel Dmitriy Pavlov of the Russian Army and the leader of the Polar Bear unit who I had the chance to talk with briefly back before we departed to our respective area of operation.
But I thought that he was also working with Lieutenant Colonel Adamowsky….
Unless I am missing something, then this was all Gabe's plan all along….
"You should have done your homework before trusting someone in assisting you and your dirty plan, you vermin!" He pointed his finger to Colonel Adamowsky.
"You think I will let go the twenty three casualties from both the Russian Air Force and Army eight years ago?"
He quickly approached Colonel Adamowsky and grabbed his hair hard.
"You are not the only one here with personal vendetta, Eustachy! I have my own too, with YOU!" He said loudly right next to the Lieutenant Colonel's right ear.
Three of Colonel Pavlov's men forced him to move by pointing him with their rifles from three sides while he slowly walked to the rest of his other men. Another two also did the same with the soldier that had been spared by Alek earlier.
Again, the same pain on my back crawled back up to the back of my head. Only that time, it was even far worse like it forced me to get glued on the ground permanently.
And my eye… the pain just would not let me open it anymore…!
Urgh… my body… my eye… this is too much!
"Colonel! Major Xenov is losing his conscious-"
"My boy! Hang on! Come on, you have to make it out of here alive!" He rushed to me again and crouched just on my left side.
I… urgh… I think I must go… for now….