Slowly wading their way through the deep Jaran forests Thomas's unit headed down the center of the forest. The sun setting on them they made their way through the heavily forested area guns in hand. "Shh" Thomas said holding his hand up at the sound of crackling wood off in the near distance.
Throwing up hand signs he motioned for the team to go watch their surroundings and be prepared to fire at a moments notice. Proceeding carefully looking through his scope Thomas was surprised to see a pair of top less women standing at the ready playing with their hair seductively.
"Um...guns down I think no wait keep them up?" Thomas said as he looked around for any other signs of life to no avail. "So is it guns down in a increasingly dark jungle or continue as we were going?" Willow asked on the captains tail.
"Alright you look ahead and tell me what you think it should be" Thomas said stepping aside as Willow zoomed in on the women flaunting their natural state. "Can they see us? Yeah guns up this is too weird" Willow said staring straight ahead. "Everyone hold your ground and look out for traps" Thomas said in a hushed tone as the team proceeded forward.
Heading out into the clear opening Thomas stopped as he came face to face with the topless women. Stepping out from within the trees a group of men in grass skirts brandishing spikes held them to his sides.
"Thank fuck that worked" Thomas said breathing a sigh of relief as Jaran soldiers stepped out from the trees holding their guns to the men's backs. "Distraction tactic was pretty obvious, guessing you guys don't do this often" Thomas said looking around at the hapless villagers.
"W...w...what do you want?" the now visibly fearful women asked. A gnawing feeling in Kosis gut told him these people were not s threat. "Hey cap these people seem kinda harmless" he said looking down at a man's quaking legs. "Yeah it's like seven to twenty-five and we got guns" Willow said lowering her rifle.
As everyone else lowered their weapons Thomas held his hands up. "I'll ask this once, are you working with the Jaran soldiers?" he asked in a soft tone. Recoiling at the mere mention of the Jaran soldiers one of the women looked Thomas in the eye and said "I'd rather be dead than associate with them".
"Wait a second your all Jarans though?" Jude asked sensing the change in energy coming from the villagers. "No no we left that life behind when the war started" one of the men said stammering.
"We are not Jaran anymore than you all are. When the war escalated it got really bad really quickly" one of the women said with tears welling in her eyes.
"Okay well does that mean we should just keep going or what?" Kosi asked looking around at darkening sky. "Thomas?" the brunette man in military fatigue shorts said as he approached the group with an old rifle in hand.
Holding up their rifles at the first sign of conflict the Jaran reinforcements were quickly waved off by Thomas. "Shit everyone stand down, he's Luxen!" Thomas said recoiling with himself for even saying such a thing.
"Paul what the fuck man? We were told your whole battalion died" Thomas said recognizing the man as Paul Greig, sergeant in the Lux army and Stacy's younger brother. "Um yeah so about that...a couple of the guys and I surrendered and just started living here. We just farm, fish and just protect this place from animals" he said visibly shaken and embarrassed.
"Surrender? The fuck you mean you surrendered? Do you realize how shaken up Stacy was. It's one thing for you to sign up for this when you didn't need to. It's another thing entirely to just bitch out" Thomas said as he went nose to nose with Paul who quickly backed down.
"Wait who's this guy and what's he got to do with Dr Williams?" Jude asked looking at the fuming Thomas. "This CHILD here is Stacy's quarter brother" Thomas said before getting right in Paul's face. "Your a quarter brother cause your barely half a man" he said before shoving Paul knocking him over. "I'm twenty five" Paul muttered under his breath as Thomas turned to face his men.
"Long story short they share a mom. Stacy's half Luxen so she still got taken underground. This kid here is just Luxen so he got left. He could have been whatever he wanted. But no he had to go into the army. I told you when you were a teenager you aren't built for this kinda job you still went into it. Fuck this find somewhere to sleep everyone we take the hill first thing tomorrow" Thomas said as he stormed off.