Second Squadron

C went out of the APC, aiming his rifle down. One of the soldiers commanded him to give them his ammunition, to which he quickly complied. The soldiers scouted out the APC, noting first and foremost its completely smashed-in sides.

"What happened here?" One of the soldiers quickly asked.

"I'm not sure if you'd believe me," C answered indirectly, "but-"

"We came here as soon as we heard that squad Apex and Eta were under distress, and now we find an APC reduced to rubble with you popping out from it practically unharmed!" The soldier shouted, "We're damn near ready to believe anything from you!"

C cleared his throat, his mind winded by the sudden yelling, "I... I fought off these aliens with the APC's turrets-"

"The skewers?" The soldier interrupted.

"Skewers?" C repeated in shaken curiosity.

"The aliens with three long legs; two at the front, one in the back. Were they the ones who attacked you?"

"Yes, those ones."

"They wouldn't be able to do that to an APC!"

"Well..." C paused for a moment to regain whatever composure he could, "There was something else that appeared after I fought them off. It was this hooded person that flew down from the treetops, and it was the one that did that to the APC."

"A hooded person... flew down?"

The soldier suddenly moved back, his face showing bewilderment and shock. He turned to another soldier, who, from his different uniform, C assumed was the commander.

"That matches the description doesn't it?" The soldier asked, "The Phantom's?"

"We can't be sure yet." The commander said, approaching C and the soldier questioning him, "You, what happened in your encounter with this 'hooded being?'"

C stood silent for a moment; the entire squad of soldiers around him had become more quiet.

"I remember that there was a powerful force of wind right before it arrived." C finally answered, "That wind created this... noise when it flew around. It sounded like a jet. And it scared off the 'skewers' just like it did before. And-"

"Hold on!" The commander interrupted, "What do you mean by 'before?'"

"I saw it before when I was being chased by the skewers in the city nearby. I was barely able to escape when it-"

"'Barely able to escape?' There are countless amounts of soldiers who encountered the Phantom, and do you know how many were able to survive their first encounter?"

"Maybe-"

"None!" The commander snapped at C, "The only information we have on it is from post-mortem radio calls from those who were unlucky enough to encounter it even once! And now a civilian just happened to encounter it twice and 'barely escape?'"

The commander looked back at the other soldiers, who were standing in place, not speaking a word, then looked back at C, "Speak up! How did you manage to survive both encounters?"

"I... I don't know. Both of the times I encountered it, it simply vanishes right before I would be caught otherwise. I guess I just got lucky."

"Just got lucky, huh." The commander scoffed.

A brief silence fell upon the area, as the commander paced back and forth.

"We need to get some more information on your encounters. And maybe we'll have some of that luck will brush off on us, too." The commander finally muttered, "Follow us. We're heading to an emergency bunker."

The commander rallied up the other soldiers, and told them to start marching west. It takes a while for C to follow along, with his head still ringing from the turret and the yelling.

"You, 'Lucky.'" The commanding officer called, facing towards C, "About those skewers that you faced..."

"Well, they were following me for a while." C said, answering a non-existent question, "I was just able to fight them off before you guys arrived."

"How did you hold them off? Did you injure any?"

"I got a few hits in, but they ran off before I could really tell."

"Nothing? Those things had attacked us earlier," The commander said, "Dragged off a couple of good men. If we can find a way to damage them at all, then we can prevent that from happening ever again."

"The APC's turret seemed to hurt them a bit." C noted.

The commander paused, and thought for a while, finally responding after a few seconds.

"Alright then," The commander said, "We'll set up defenses along the front of the bunker to buy time. You, head inside as soon as we get there. We'll continue our conversation there."

C marched alongside the squadron, pacing himself to match the soldiers' movement. C eventually decided to even hold his rifle in a similar way to the soldiers, although his rifle lacked a loaded magazine. There were few soldiers talking, and the noise of their gear drowned out all attempts of hearing the conversation among those who did talk. C felt a bit uneasy, but nevertheless safer than he did before. C started to wander off into his thoughts, when a pair of soldiers got his attention.

"Hey, Lucky." A soldier said to get his attention.

"Don't call me by that." C said back.

"Huh, what else'll we call you?" The soldier asked, "We never even found out what your name is."

"It's C."

"Like see, sea, or ce?" Another soldier butted in.

"The letter, I guess." C answered, with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Uh, well C," Soldier one restarted, moving the conversation back on topic, "Did the skewers really follow you from the city?"

"Yes." C replied simply.

"How'd you survive all the way from there?" Soldier two asked, "You're so scrawny and thin. I'm surprised you even managed to make it all the way here without collapsing."

"I was a police officer before this, y'know."

"Really? You don't look the part." Soldier one jested, "I don't remember officers wearing suits like that."

"Well, I was one of the top ranking officers." C explained, "But I retired to stop a friend from getting hurt."

C quickly went back to the subject, "But anyways, I was able to evade the skewers in the city until they were forced to back off by the Phantom. I also met another group of soldiers a while back."

"How'd you get separated from the soldiers?" Soldier two asked.

"It was a series of events." C said, starting his explanation, "Just a day after I was rescued by them, half of them were trapped in a zombie-filled hospital because of a portion of the roof collapsing. Then afterwards, we were attacked by a massive alien with stilt-legs, before I was split off from the rest by skewers and met you guys."

"A stilt-legged alien?" Another soldier nearby asked, before getting back on topic, "Did anything happen to the soldiers? Or, at least the ones who were with you after the hospital."

"I don't know." C replied, "One of them was... killed by the stilt-legged alien. Another sacrificed himself to let me escape from the skewers when they trapped us in a building."

"Casualties? What were their names?"

"I only knew one of them. Colten."

The soldiers looked amongst each other.

"Never heard of a soldier by that name." One of the soldiers answered, "What was he like?"

"I only knew him from a brief encounter." C paused for a bit, obviously struck by the memory, "He tried to motivate me before the skewers attacked. But I couldn't do anything to save him..."

C had a mixed weight of sorrow and anger in his voice, distraught by the recollection of that moment, "He called me a 'hero,' and said that I would find a way to defeat the aliens. But instead, I was the one who had to be saved again."

Soldier one pointed out, noticing C's discomfort, "Maybe he survived. I mean, you didn't see him die, right?"

C shrugged, "I don't know how you'd escape a building surrounded by those things."

"We also had an encounter with those aliens." Soldier one said, changing the subject, "They took off with some of our pals, while they were still alive. Maybe they took the others hostage too, and maybe we'll be able to fight back and save them."

"I hope so, too." C said.

The conversation trailed off from there, allowing C to try to regain his thoughts. "What would they need live soldiers for?" C thought. He stopped his train of thought there, not really wanting to know the answer.

"There it is!" One of the soldiers said loudly enough to snap C out of his thoughts.

As C looked up to examine the bunker's entrance, two massive steel doors cloaked by overgrowing foliage, the soldiers behind him pushed past and headed towards the slightly decayed structure. It took four soldiers to open the doors, and, upon opening it, the entrance was flooded by the entire squadron, all of which streamed seamlessly into the bunker. A handful of soldiers positioned themselves near the entrance, and kept watch over the area.