By the next morning the snowing had already subsided and we decided to pick up from were we left off.
Tracking the movements of the previous team was bound to get harder the more we ventured deeper into the snowy terrains. Molds of ice, clustered together to form something as huge as a boulder, lay from side to side on the road, hindering our speedy movements through the snow.
"This is gonna take a while" Root murmured, blowing into his hands as he spoke, his neck padded with extra clothing to help provide enough warmth in the intense cold.
He rubbed both his hands together rapidly, sighing as he put them on his face in disappointment. He spoke less and less the more the days passed, just carefully battling the cold.
Veronique leaned over towards him, hitting his shoulder slightly with hers. They were siblings and were surprisingly close taking into account their age.
"Negrons up ahead guys, time for some fun!"
The reaction on Ace's face matched his words perfectly,a sinister smile hanging on his face, as he jumped down from the truck even before it had stopped.
His symbiote took on the form of a scythe which he flung with great ease, cutting down a negron with one strike. In terms of proficiency in using weapons, he was the only person that surpassed me in the group but his ability wasn't that much of a spectacle.
Blaze, Sasha (the medic) and Veronique remained in the humvee as backup while watching the rest of us battle the negrons, they had the strongest abilities and so had to wait out till things got out of hand.
The rest of the team had already started battling the negrons and I stood a few metres from them, waiting for the perfect time to step in so as to not interrupt their fight. A stray negron escaped from the grasp of Root and moved towards me hastily, hoping it could get an easy kill but the reverse was the case.
"Oops, you might have to take care of that one Nezro"
I pulled out my symbiote in the form of a sword from my left index finger, almost making it look like I unsheathed a sword from my fingers. I swung it backwards and forwards, measuring the pace of the incoming negron as it swayed from left to right, moving it's entire weight in an aggressive manner.
Huuuu
As I exhaled, I could feel the rush of adrenaline pulsating throughout my entire body, like electrons flowing through a charged conductor.
The first strike was low and precise, hitting it's hind legs and bringing it to the ground helplessly. The resulting strikes rendered it incapable of launching a counter attack, while my final strike plunged deep into it's heart, killing it completely.
In that same fashion, I was able to bring down four more negrons that headed my way, breathing heavily like I had run a 100m race. The rest of the team were already done by the time I killed the last one so we all rejoined the captain as we continued our journey.
"Nice work back there Ace, you didn't even have to use your ability" Blaze commented, probably to boost his morale.
"Hahaha... For those flies cap, definitely not."
His ability allowed him to boost his physical strength and speed only for a short amount of time in a battle, so he typically refrained from using it everytime so as to save it as a trump card. Root's ability allowed him to mimic the hardness of any metal he touched, hence making it ideal for defense but barely for offense, as he could only mimic the hardness of a limited number of metals.
Agate had the ability to freeze objects to a temperature up to minus four degrees Celsius but she had problems maintaining it at that point as the frost would start affecting her due to lack of mastery. Veronique could produce a force field around her body granting her strong defensive and offensive benefits.
The captain, which was the strongest amongst us, could manipulate glass and although it wasn't as flashy as Veronique's or Ace's ability, he had gained an outstanding amount of mastery of it in just the short period of a month, so as to set himself above the rest of us, hence, the reason for him being made our captain.
"Good job team, we'll proceed till it gets dark then look for a place to rest for the day. Hopefully we can come across any of the teams footprints before the day runs out" Sasha commended, clapping both hands in joy.
That was the first time Sasha had spoken since we started our journey, but surprisingly the rest of the team didn't seem all that surprised and the captain was smiling as he looked at her.
'So much for limited association'
All in all, I was the only member of the team with the least of uses, my skill in combat was mediocre, I had no ability and the only thing that kept me as a member of the task force was my strange bond with my symbiote. I had sincerely hoped to gain a new ability before my first expedition, but I guess my mindless wishing was likened unto chasing the stars.
"You don't seem happy, I think you did great though"
Agate was the only sense of encouragement that existed in these cruel past three days, and I felt the need to reciprocate that kindness in some way.
"Thanks, it's kinda nice to have someone rooting for me"
"Oh, it's not-nothing"
"Not nothing?"
"I stuttered, I didn't mean it that way"
"Hahaha..... I know I was just pulling your legs"
I felt a certain joy well up within me as I laughed, it was a feeling I couldn't have grasped a few months back, it was refreshing. I pulled her cheeks lightly, letting them go when she smiled in response, I was happy she was happy and wished things would stay that way for a while.
"You too seem to have gotten awfully close" Ace taunted, walking towards us.
The awkward feeling I got as Ace tried to push his way between us, was an irritating one. The look of disgust was written clearly all over his face as he spoke, knowing fully well that I wouldn't appreciate his sudden appearance.
"You did well handling those negrons back then, Nezro"
I knew where he was heading to and just shaked my head at how childish his approach was.
"It's a pity that you can't use an ability yet, you could have been even more useful in our upcoming battles "
"Go away Ace!" Agate yelled, fuming in rage.
I looked towards Agate in shock, I hadn't expected her to speak up in our conversation at all, the look of confusion on Ace's eyes could confirm that he had fallen into his own trap, a strange coincidence. He slowly backed out, rescinding to his former position in the truck, ashamed of his actions.
PFFT
"What's so funny?"
Her prying eyes were even more colourful than how it naturally appeared and It took a lot out of me to just hold myself back from staring back intensely into them.
"I didn't just know that you had it in you. Maybe I misc-"
"COMMAND C757, THIS IS FEROL, CAPTAIN OF SQUAD 36, DO YOU COPY, OVER!"
As the sound of static on the symbiotic receiver enveloped the entire truck, so did the sudden silence that followed, all in an instant.
'Squad 36?'
That was the ID for the squad that had come before us a few days back. The message was being broadcast through the general symbiotic link the task force had implemented.
I looked at the face of our captain, as he peered at the receiver in front of him before grabbing it hurriedly, as if someone was actively trying to stow away witg it.
"Captain Ferol, this is Blaze, captain of squad 58, do you copy, over!"
There was no response for a while and I could feel the tension of the entire crew, spread throughout the confines of our motor. Two squads had been sent to the location we were headed, prior to our mission and a few days before we left earth, a distress signal was sent directly to the task force receiver and not to the branch commander of the squad.
'An encounter of a different species'
Although most details of the broadcast was hidden from us during our mission prep, it was pretty clear that the species they had encountered was the reason why they hadn't been able to report since then.
"Thank God, listen very.... Captain, what am..... Is of .... So..... "
"Captain Ferol??....Hello!, Hello!!!"