The Eternal Winter - Book 1 - Chapter 41 - Disagreement (Patreon)

                                                          The Underground Bunker
                      Half an hour before Alex and Cynthia made it to the main hangar

Silence fills the command room on BF7 as the lieutenant colonel stands at the end of the long table situated at the center of the room. Meanwhile the captains and majors are situated around the table on either side of it.

Eventually, the lieutenant colonel says, “It’s clear that we won’t be able to take the soldiers who don’t have symbionts with us…”

“Right,” major Vaugns mutters, “that’d just be driving lambs to the slaughter.”

All of the officers in the room nod their heads in agreement.

“Then it’s decided.” The lieutenant colonel says while crossing his arms. “I will bring all of the symbiont hosts except for captain Harker up to fight the monsters in the hangar. If I had to try estimating their strength, then I’d put them both somewhere between a Tier 3 and a Tier 4 symbiont host. Hopefully by now they’ll have weakened each other, but even if they haven’t, then we will still have to deal with things as they come.”

While the others are muttering their agreements to the man’s words, the lieutenant colonel can’t help but think, ‘It’s unfortunate that this base doesn’t have a Tier 4 symbiont host. Otherwise this wouldn’t be an issue.’

After the officers fall silent again, Artorius nods his head and looks around the gathered captains, only to pause as he realizes that there are two less than there should be.

“Where are captains Jackson and Isabella Fell?” he asks, his eyes narrowing slightly in the process. The other captains and the majors all look around in confusion before captain Andrew immediately frowns and mutters, “Oh no…”

The lieutenant colonel hears and turns to him to ask, “What’s wrong, captain Andrew?”

Captain Andrew salutes the man and says, “This is just speculation and what I’ve observed, but captains Jackson Fell and Isabella Fell were both constantly sending suspicious glances towards second lieutenant North. And from what I’ve heard, they’ve been rather open about their distaste for your decision to let him go free.”

This statement has some of the other captains muttering about the captain attempting to frame the other captains, meanwhile other captains begin muttering their own agreements with Andrew’s statement.

The lieutenant colonel slaps a hand on the table, breaking off a part of it in the process as he states, “Silence,” immediately getting the captains to shut up. Following that, he turns to look at captain Summers and says, “Go find the captains and their men,” before looking at the majors and asking, “Do you two know anything about this?” as she rushes out of the room.

Major Vaugns glances at major Carter before looking at the lieutenant colonel again and saying, “I did in fact see captains Isabella and Jackson sending suspicious glances towards the second lieutenant.” The other major then steps forward and says, “I didn’t see any of that, but I have heard that the captains openly despised your acceptance of him.”

The captains who had accused captain Andrew of slander frown slightly at that, but this time most of them aren’t frowning at captain Andrew, but instead the two missing captains. But a couple of the captains in particular do continue to glare at captain Andrew, showcasing their own stance on Alex’s acceptance.

“If that’s the case…” the lieutenant colonel mutters, only to turn his head to the door when it bursts open and captain Summers reenters the room while declaring, “Some of the lower ranking officers saw captains Jackson and Isabella, along with their squads all leaving BF7, going up the stairs with their gear equipped!”

“Fuck!” captain Andrew swears while slamming his own hand on the table and breaking it just like the lieutenant colonel did, and the majority of the other captains share his sentiment, along with both of the majors. Meanwhile the lieutenant colonel can be seen glaring across the room and out the open door at the stairwell.

Captain Andrew suddenly rushes out of the room before anyone can stop him and heads towards the stairs.

“Captain Andr-” major Carter begins to shout, only to cut off as the lieutenant colonel raises his hand to stop him.

“Let him go,” he says with a scowl on his face. “In fact, captain Summers, you go with him. The rest of us will deal with the monsters upstairs.”

This decision surprises the soldiers, but they all salute after just a couple of seconds before captain Summers rushes off after captain Andrew.

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                                                                                         Alexander North

Cynthia and I continue running through the hall until we make it to the large doors to the hangar, which are located nearby to the regular doors. But before we even get close to the regular doors, I call out, “Stop!”

She stops right away and turns to look at me to find me staring at the door, where I find over a dozen heat signatures on the other side.

“There are over a dozen creatures with heat signatures on the other side of the door,” I tell her in a whisper. “And they’re all human shaped and sized, so they’re not the large frozen ones.”

Before Cynthia can say anything, we both hear shouting from the other side of the door, followed by the sounds of fighting.

The two of us share a glance before rushing over to the regular door, only to stop right outside of it as we hear a man – whose voice I recognize – shout, “Stop this bullshit and get back to the others already!”

“Captain Andrew…?” I mutter in confusion, my hand pausing next to the doorknob. I glance at Cynthia to find her looking surprised.

What’s he doing here? And who is he fighting?

Deciding not to waste any time in case he’s in danger, I open the door to reveal the vast hangar with four people fighting in the center, along with over a dozen other people standing on the sides to watch. But the four people at the center don’t seem to be going all out despite their fight.

“Those are the two that were sending me dirty looks before,” I whisper to Cynthia while pointing at the two as we step into the room with none of the soldiers inside noticing us yet.

She immediately begins to glare at the two I pointed out.

“You know you’re gonna be court marshalled for your actions, right?” the captain I recognize as captain Summers shouts right as she clashes blades with one of the two enemy captains. But the captain just glares at her and says, “I find it unlikely that I’d be court marshaled for killing a monster.”

“Second lieutenant Alexander North is not a monster, and the higher ups in the military have already confirmed this,” captain Andrews shouts at him while trying to push the other enemy captain’s blade back with his own. “So you will be punished. Even just for what you’ve already done, without even finding him yet!”

Looks like they are trying to go after me after all.

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