The mission started with everybody being transported on vehicles.
Nagito overheard Carla coughing, and scooted next to her.
"You good? If you're sick you should tell captain."
Carla wiped her mouth, turning back to face forward. There was a smudge of deep red on her thumb.
"Im fine, thanks for asking, though." She kept silence after that.
For the most part, getting to the site was smooth. Probably the most you could wish for, going into an unknown place for 2 days straight and having to scout it all.
Nagito looked to his right, which was squadron 11's van. They looked like fine people, which laid some trust on them. Probably a bit older than Nagito or Ash himself.
"The forest's starting to clear up." Ryan said, reporting to the others on board.
"Can I see that?" Nagito asked Ryan to hand over his binoculars.
What came into view was what seemed like a factory. There were moss everywhere on the outside, safe to assume it was abandon. Possibly in the war.
"It's a factory, but what for?"
Ryan took back his binoculars.
"It's for the first AVALON's. This is one of the first factories for building the prototype that the Imperial Army used."
Nagito nodded. He went back to sit next to Carla, having a hunch he should keep an eye on her.
Both the squadrons reached the site, and began setting up camp. Nagito carried tents, the girls took the food, and Ryan went in first to investigate the safety of the place.
"This place is pretty clean. Despite having it's own ecosystem forming."
He traced around the place, holding on to the walls with his hand. There was nothing strange. The cleanliness was probably from the wind.
He went deeper, into the factory's machinery room itself. There were abandoned prototype AVALON parts left. He picked an arm up, but the bolts and screws fell out correspondingly, and the whole part was discarded.
Seeing this sight, he walked back out of the room and went to help setting up camp with the rest. The camp was almost done. Just lighting's left. But you could wait until dark for that.
Ryan clapped twice. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at him.
"As you know, I have been appointed the leader of this mission. I thank you all for cooperating. And what you also know, is this is a scouting mission. Me and my squadron will investigate the west of this facility, and you guys can go to the east. What we want, is at least 600 yards of ground coverage. And with that, we will begin."
He motioned the rest to follow him. Squadron 12 got into their own vehicle and started the mission.
"So is the goal just ground coverage and knowledge?" Vermy asked.
"Essentially, yes. But we are also armed, so dont be afraid to take fights."
They all got a better understanding of the mission at hand now. As they advance to the west, mostly everybody was silent. It'd be bad if someone ambushed them.
Nagito noticed something. That something, was that Carla had been mostly quiet this whole mission. Maybe she was nervous. But usually, she's the most poised out of them all, after Captain Ryan.
She coughed again, but that was when Nagito looked away just in time, to not notice the blood.
She wiped it off casually again, but this time not without having to clutch her chest, taking a deep breath for a moment.
Nagito handed her a bottle of water.
"Drink up, we can't have you coughing too much during the mission. Someone might spot us if they're in the area."
She nodded, taking the water. The car took a sharp turn, squishing Nagito between the two girls. Tony sitting in the passenger seat with the captain.
'This is comfortable.' He thought to himself in a deadpan face. Inside though, he couldn't hide the fact he enjoyed the physical touch between the women.
He leaned his head back, looking towards the star in the night, it reminded him of his old life. Feeling a pang of homesickness. But he knew, he was already dead. If he wanted to keep living in any form, it had to be this one.
Suddenly, the car stopped. Ryan got out and signaled the others to do so too.
"What's wrong?" Tony whispered to him.
"Isn't it obvious? It reeks of oil here."
Nagito hadn't noticed it while thinking to himself. But now that he did, it was unmistakable.
"Someone definitely was here recently. It could have been a neutralist, but we have to stay on our guard."
Vermy spoke up, "Let's travel on feet then. We've almost covered the goal for tonight."
They nodded, agreeing with her. Carla though, didn't seem to favor the decision. She followed it either way.
Crickets came out, filling the sound space of the night. Not too worried about the noise yet, the squadron walked normally through the dark.
They reached their goal of the mission for the day, checking if there were anything else they deemed interesting to check out any further. Not seeing anything, they turned back and started heading towards the vehicle.
Vermy sighed, "That wasn't so bad. I think i can put up with another day of this."
Ryan hushed her, she covered her mouth her mouth and started walking again, silently.
They reached the vehicle, and got back on again. Nagito went to grab a water for himself after the walk, but something was strange. Something was missing.
"Guys, did we bring guns?"
"Why?" Tony responded.
"Well, if we did, they aren't here anymore."
Ryan got up to fact check this. To his surprise, it was gone. He stood up quickly.
"Everybody, hands up. We've been ambushed."
'What?' Nagito looked around, and Ryan was right. There were eight people surrounding their vehicle, with their missing guns.
"So that's where it all went." Tony said, standing up and putting his hands behind his head as well.
After Vermy got up, Nagito helped Carla as well.
"You five are with the OWD, aren't you? Stupid, coming out here with that little caution. Least you could've done was hide your car carrying all your fire power and supplies."
Nagito was scared, having guns pointed at him. But not as much as he would've been when he first came into this world.