Chapter 3

The next three days were hectic. I had to deal with a full report of the missions incident and deal with the letters to the family of the deceased soldiers along with having to attend a quick trial against the one who injured the other soldiers, not to mention getting the details for the next mission.

I got a stern lecture and warning from one of the higher Commanding Captains.

Harold Smith was standing beside her smugly as she yelled at me. I didn't understand why he was in the room as well until she said that he would be joining the squad as a second supervisor. I groaned internally.

Now I had to deal with an obnoxious prideful guy who just happens to also be trying to become a Commanding Captain. His mannerisms and pridefulness matched his sponsor, Daphne Taylor. It was as if this guy was her son.

She then gave me the mission details. Because of the lack of people remaining in my platoon, we would no longer be going on a usual Echo extermination mission. Instead we would be searching multiple sighting areas of Echos in a certain area and either destroy them during contact or make a report on how big the situation is.

Making my way over to the warehouse alongside Harold, I wondered how many would even be left after the disaster. I heard that besides for my platoon everyone else's missions went fairly safe, granted that it was only the first week and that the missions would only get harder each week.

Harold looked straight ahead and talked out loud as if he were talking to himself, but I knew he was trying to mock me.

"How does one fail as a leader during the most easiest mission in the program?"

He scoffed and cleared his throat.

We arrived at the spot at F12. Four people stood up immediately in the group and it was Gaurav, Anthony, Elizabeth, and Samantha. The rest slowly got up and looked over to me.

I counted the number of people in the group. I was surprised that I still had double digits. A total of 14 people were present. It was a sizable amount for our recon mission, but definitely not big enough to take on a regular nest even with two Commanding Soldiers.

Harold steps in front of me as I open my mouth and he begins to speak. Irritated, I step to the side while he explains to the rest of the team about the mission. We will be leaving tomorrow on a regular plane and will be equipped at a small base. Afterwards we would then drive for a couple hours to visit each reported sighting and then return.

I spent the rest of the day slowly reading the files for the remaining 14 members in the group. There was a good chance that they would still end up leaving by the end of the month, but it wasn't big enough that it would be useless. It was the reason why I didn't bother to look at all 70 background checks because I knew the majority of people in the platoon would leave before the end of the month.

The next day we took an empty minivan to the regular airport to take our flights.

When we landed, we drove to the small base at Fernand city to be armed and have some late breakfast before driving for a couple hours near the outskirts of the forest of Everglade.

We arrived on rocky terrain and had to get out of our vehicles.

Splitting our group into two, we would circle the perimeter and meet up halfway.

We walked and made our way to some of the marked locations of the sightings. After looking and finding no evidence of Echos in the area such as crushed and bitten rocks, footprints and feces we would walk back to our vehicles and continue on with the search.

It was late afternoon when we arrived at the last reported sighting. The rocks and slopes of the terrain was much harsher as we continued during our search. We ended up at the foot of a bunch of cave entrances.

Climbing up the slopes we reached the mouths of the various caves.

The group used their flashlights to look into the dark tunnels.

Harold was the first to notice a non-natural hole in the other cave.

"Ren get over here!"

"What do you want?"

I walk over and look in the direction where his eyes were watching. It was a fairly sized hole that slanted down. Some rocks and debris fell through the hole.

I inched closer to the hole and touched the outer inside of the large hole. The dirt was perfectly carved in spiral form leading further down the hole. Only one type of Echo could make something like this.

A Mole Echo. These aliens would clasps their arms together and spin underground as if they were a drill itself to search for minerals and metals to eat.

"This was created by a Mole Echo!"

"I knew that you dolt, I just needed you to confirm that!" he hissed at me with his eyes furrowed.

"Sure you did. Let's get out of here and get another team to investigate"

I walk back over to my group. Gaurav, Anthony, and the others were looking at a different cave on the side, one of them raising their assault rifles at the ready and two of them crouched down. I looked over to the one alone by the cave holding the flashlight ahead.

"What are you doing?"

I looked over to the direction of where his flashlight was pointing. One of the soldiers in my group was pissing in the corner with a flashlight to the back of him.

"Why are you going further without any supervision!" I say angrily

"He said he'd be quick since he really needed to piss and to just hold the flashlight"

Elizabeth started walking over to us.

"Get back over here!" I yell at him. My voice echoed into the tunneled cave.

The soldier zips his pants back up and picks up the gun he left beside the wall.

Elizabeth taps me on the shoulder.

"Uh Ren? Gaurav and Anthony found Echo remains on-"

I look at her.

"Say what now?"

"Behind You!" She screamed.

She started sprinting into the cave.

The flashlight was still aimed directly at him when he was leisurely walking. An Echo was carefully hiding in the shadows and approached the man until he was within a tails reach.

It snarled and sent its tail into the mans upper side and lifted him up into the air.

His gun dropped to the ground and fired a bullet randomly. He clutched the tail embedded into his body and screamed. He was then dragged away further into the cave screaming for help.

Elizabeth stopped in place

"Get back over here" I said.

"We have to help him!"

"Leave him! We don't know what's in there, we need to head back and send help!"

"He'll already be dead by the time help comes!" She yelled back.

She started running down the dark passageway.

Shit I needed to drag her back to the team before she gets herself killed as well. I ran catching up to her.

I already deemed the man dead the minute he got dragged into the darkness, I needed to prioritize getting the entire group out.

He was dragged away by a Scouting Echo. They were very agile and quick and good at ambushing, but the biggest concern I had was why was a Scouting Echo here. The fact that evidence of Mole Echos were here meant that this area would be too high for our group to clear alone. A Scouting Echos job is to report to a Guardian Echo as they almost always arrive at a location when a Scouting Echo escapes an area.

I could hear slight rumbles on the ground as it got louder and louder. A Mole Echo burst through the flooring of the ground and caused the cave to tremble.

The walls around me collapsed. Rocks and debris fell from the ceiling trapping me and Elizabeth inside with a Mole Echo in front of us.

The others called to us. There was a small hole on the other side.

"Regroup to Harold and follow his orders!"

Elizabeth fired rounds at its face. The Mole Echo shielded itself with its arms.

I clasp my sword with both my hands and run at it. The Mole Echo swings its other arm and I parry its claws with my sword. The impact sends me to the side and I hit the hard stone wall in the narrow room.

"Elizabeth get its attention!"

The mole echo jumps towards me and I roll to the side to dodge.

She fires bullets at its head again and it screeches at her. I slink into the darkness and the Mole Echo turns to face her.

Moving towards her, it brings its arms up in the air ready to slam its fists onto the ground and crush her.

I jump out from the shadows and drive my sword into the back of its spine and slicing down as I fall from the momentum. It screeches one last desperate cry before slamming into the ground.

"Close one" she heaved.

"Ya think!"

I was angry. Not only was the soldier stupid to walk into the cave, but she also went in causing us to be trapped inside.

Gunshots could be heard outside the cave. I was worried that we would attract an entire nest.

"Take your flashlight out and watch our backs"

I started removing rocks from the collapse pile to see if there was a hole or gap we could squeeze through. I continued to dig when the gunshots stopped altogether.

Light was coming through one of the holes in the pile and I closed my right eye to try to look through hoping that the others would appear. Seconds passed by in silence and I feared that the group was killed.

The sound of gravel scrunching became louder and Anthony appeared.

"You're fine! What Happened?"

Anthony jogged closer until he was on the other side.

"Two Echos appeared under the ground and several Echos appeared from the other cave entrances. We took care of them and Harold is saying we need to get out of here, but you guys are still here"

"Follow his orders, we don't know when the next group of Echos will come. Get out of here and get reinforcements. tell him that I spotted a Scout Echo. This might be a Guardian Echo nest and that we'll try to find another way out."

"Got it. Good luck"

"We're gonna need it" I replied quietly.

He turns away and jogs out of the cave.

I sighed in relief. At least the group is safe. They'll make it out.

"No way but forward huh?"

"Yep. let's move"

We walked deeper into the cave filled with darkness and uncertain dangers.