Aumeha Chronicles: The Expedition

Chapter 7

After a period of time with their excitement fading away, they finally reached the location they had to land. They could see a huge mountain in front of them.

"It will be a half an hour trek till the mouth of the cave after we land. All of you will have to be cautious. The helicopter will be hovering for five minutes and then leave. It will only return tomorrow. Everyone check your equipment one last time" Instructed Ethan.

"ETA 5 minutes" said the pilot.

The pilot soon found a flat land good enough to land, else they had to grapple down the helicopter rope. This would also be their rendezvous point for tomorrow. If they weren't there in the five minutes' bracket tomorrow the helicopter would go back and a rescue team would come in its place with heavy artillery purely for kill anyone and anything other than them. The rescue teams were always made of the strongest and experienced. Every successful rescue mission was congratulated heavily.

As soon as the helicopter touched the ground the team exited as fast as possible and ran away from it. They turned back after running to a safe distance and saw the helicopter rising up. Ethan gave an alright signal. And the helicopter gained altitude but, would hover over them for the next five minutes and then leave.

They started with their trek, it wasn't very difficult. But, something else made it highly dangerous now. They could see footsteps and various trails. They took one of the trails. The mission was now a highly dangerous mission as it involved contact with trails of other humans who were presumably hostile. They immediately hoisted their white flags to signal they come with peace to any humans watching them. This also signaled the helicopter that the mission is now rated dangerous which was earlier considered to be safe. The helicopter now would stay as long as its fuel permits.

"There is hardly any peace in these fake white flags" Cassini whispered to Favian.

It came as a shock to Favian as he tried to comprehend what she just said. It took some time for him to realise. As soon as they affirm the presence of any humans, there would be a large number of troops sent to hunt them down. Any other human is a threat to them. This also meant they are now going into a suicide mission and there won't be any rescue mission if they didn't return back. It would be an extermination mission.

Some flags carried wires in them for a few of the members. But, the white flag carried the wire in every persons' flag. These wires are antennas and location trackers. Once a flag is raised these get activated. This improved the communication bandwidth and the ones in the military base can keep track of every step they took. This would help them in strategizing better.

But, a huge decision had to be taken by Ethan now. Since, it was an observing mission that got classified into a dangerous category, they could opt out of the mission, and then a more experienced and better-prepared team would come. Ethan, though senior and the leader of the team did not ask any of them about their opinions. Ethan ordered Alvis to radio that he is going to pursue the mission. If Ethan was successful in his mission, he would get a huge promotion and get much higher recognition from everyone. Ethan had been a member of three terrorists hunting missions. But, he never led any of those missions. 'And this is just an observation mission' thought Ethan.

Ethan said in a motivating voice "Come on boys! We will complete this mission."

But, everyone's faces told a completelydifferent story. Chickens just before getting slaughtered would be less afraidthan what they felt right now. With a shaky heart they continued their trek notdaring to argue with Ethan's decision since, he was a senior and their leader.