After minutes of walking through the leaves with the voice getting closer and ever stronger. The rain got more quiet with the sky turning to a light grey color, the rain slowly got weaker with the sound of raindrops getting quieter.
Moving a large leaf i'm face to face with what caused it. A large convoy of trucks, anti infantry vehicles, and other vehicles drove through a tunnel, small enough to be hidden but big enough to let a large amount inside. Accompanying them were soldiers, running or walking around, like before i was standing on a cliff face, the soldiers varied in armor, weapons, and what camo they wore. Disorganized they moved about, running back and forth carrying anything in the area, throwing what they can on the trucks. I aimed the lens part of the stick at the view, as i stood still my thumb pressed the button at the back.
"Oh damn, how did they not see that thing." Marcel commented through the comms, chuckling as he spoke.
"They said to ignore them, the strategists have another plan. So you can go back now." Marcel added.
My task is done, I turned around to return to my team, the malice in their voice died down as the loud roars of the truck's engines dominated the area. The mud was horribly wet, easy to make a footprint in this place, each step making a disgusting squishing or splattering noise as i move my feet through the mud. The noise of engines quickly faded with the frantic footsteps of the terrorist accompanying it. We had a good opportunity to attack, why waste it?
I never expected to do this much, i only thought of just small stuff like theft or escort. But this was far better than what i hoped for, the teacher said we can earn glory from this, she was kind of right. I hoped to kill the enemy outside the alliance and the traitors inside the alliance, so here i am doing exactly that while walking in full gear through this wet forest to fight some war against fellow countrymen and countrywomen.
I continued walking through this forest following that thing on my visor that's supposed to be Marcel, somehow now he knows where i am, weird and creepy but oh well.
Walking constantly through this forest with almost no end, i expected more leaves to hit my face, instead of more leaves slamming into my face i felt the strong gusts of wind hitting my clothing, back at the building. The building collapsed with most of it burnt to black with some portions gone altogether. Soldiers walking around talking or doing other tasks. In the distance i saw my team, chatting together, sitting on boxes or squatting on the dirt. I started making my way to them happy that i got out of that forest, almost giving me the creeps.
Facing me was Thalia, with a smile on her face despite what we just did. On her left, Mary sat next to Sebastian, talking to him. I sat down in the group, most of them continued speaking to each other, in front of me, Marcel looks at me with a bottle of water in hand.
"Good job, you now walked your first baby steps in doing stuff solo Damon, now you're getting better at this like us." Marcel chuckles a bit, then lifts the bottle taking a swig from it. "Here." Marcel throws another bottle at me, i successfully grabbed it with my hand, starting to open the bottle with thirst overtaking my thinking. With the lid off i started to down the bottle, quenching this thirst i have ravaging my mind. I finished the bottle in mere seconds, putting the bottle aside I looked back at Marcel who was looking down at a digital pad of sorts.
"It's alright, Sebastian has some screws lose in his mind. Never saw that part of him before." Next to me Alina commented.
"What did you and Sebastian find in that place anyway." Alina asked with a curious tone.
"Dunno, but we were attacked by some hostiles while Sebastian and i were in a room, he was looking for something but got shot." I replied.
"No wonder Stephen sounded like a maniac earlier, i got some parts of the round from Sebastian, looks bizarre since something was off with it." Alina showed the palm of her gloved hand to me, with a small chunk of the round lying on top. "Right now he is still kinda unhinged we still don't know why you aren't unhinged or enraged as well." Alina added, she put the small piece of the bullet in a pocket.
Alina took out a rag and started cleaning her weapon, looking down at it with an emotionless stare.
"But since you heal considerably faster i cannot get anything out of you, just hope that the bullet shards aren't wreaking havoc in your flesh." Alina continued. We stayed huddled in a circle with the soldiers staying as well or moving elsewhere. Looking down i checked my rifle, dirtied with mud.
"Hey Damon." In front of me Lennox threw a rag at me, i caught the rag mid-air with my left hand.
"A dirty rifle is as bad as an unclean wound. I gave you that new one so it doesn't need inside cleaning, the academy better have a new shipment because this gun takes so long to clean. At least they give us these nice cleaning rags." Lennox explained, after speaking he looks down locking something in place and starts wiping the outside of his weapon. My rifle sat on my lap with soot and dirt mercilessly suffocating the rifle in it's grime. With what i learned, i removed the mag and the round in the chamber, after all is out i began wiping, slowly revealing the true weapon's color beneath it. Fortunately my rifle doesn't need cleaning underneath it, Stormer corps prides itself on their new tech that no longer needs deep cleaning, just water. Hopefully i find a pond nearby.
After a couple of minutes my rifle is ridden from dirt, wet but clean from the dirt. MY teammates sat around finished with cleaning and chatting or thinking about something. Sebastian looks better than earlier looking cleaner and with his wound partially healed. I inserted the round back into the magazine and stuck it back into mag well.
"So almost everything to plan." Marcel uttered.
"Hey at least you're not dead. Also this bullet is the same thing Alina pulled outta you, must be some new tech in the black market world, let's ask Marcel's daddy." Lennox replied. Resting his weapon on his shoulder.
"Hey!" Marcel interjected looking at Lennox.
"Sebastian are you better or you need a lay off?" Alina asked, with concern in her voice.
"Yeah, feel like a new bullet. You guys just get comfy for a while, I gotta talk to the leader of this mission." Sebastian stands up then walks away, heading to the command carrier parked nearby.
We finished cleaning, despite not giving the same treatment to our clothing i suppose were ready for another fight.
"Everyone well rested now?" Sebastian asked, we all replied in different responses with nods, yeahs, and yeses. "One more task and we can sleep on the nice beds again. What we need to do is find them and stop them from moving until the leader and his soldiers get there. Since it's a deep forest most likely we will get air support instead, if the trees don't get in the way." Sebastian spoke, walking back to us quickly after just walking to the command truck. One more task, i was already gunned down twice, i better not be again.
We stand up holding our weapons staring at Sebastian.
"Hey Damon do you still have that camera i gave you?" Mary asked, i retrieved it and handed it to her.
"Why do you carry that camera?" I asked Mary, putting the camera on her waist.
"When we don't have a detailed lay of the land, I'm the first to scout since they told me that, 'I'm good at recon.' So Marcel just gave me this camera to do some recon for them, he said it's a prototype of sorts he made himself. " Mary explained.
"Mary, mind going through the area you found Damon in? Just find where they are going and where that tunnel goes to." Sebastian ordered.
"Speak of the devil, I'm gonna return in about 10 minutes i hope." Mary looks at the part of the forest she found me and Sebastian in holding the tube camera in her hand, with her weapon resting on her back.
"See ya!" Mary runs into the forest vanishing in the green foliage.
The soldiers begin walking back to their vehicles, running out the destroyed building with haste.
"The tunnel goes on for miles, it looks bigger when your standing in front of it, much bigger than when Damon took a picture of it." Marcel spoke, looking at a miniature tablet, promptly putting it back.
"Marcel can you hand me the tablet?" Sebastian asked. Marcel pulls out the tablet again then gives it to Sebastian.
After looking at the tablet for some time Sebastian returns the tablet to Marcel.
"Mary, go back to the foliage and wait for us. We might either go in the tunnel or go around it, find a possible exit point." Sebastian spoke.
"Marcel once we get there, run a scan and find any cameras or electronic equipment that can help us find where they are going." Sebastian continued, this time talking directly to Marcel.
"Yes sir." Marcel replied enthusiastically.