Three Arbiter X and a squad of attack choppers flew across the skies of World Alpha.

Major Blyfield looked at the blue skies through a reinforced glass window of the turbocraft. He had to admit this aircraft was a lot better than the attack choppers. A lot of Phasewalkers probably could’ve survived if these Arbiter X were available during the Battle for New Sara or the Battle of Rebirth.

Not that these ‘if’s were too relevant.

After Caity, Ryan, and many Phasewalkers on shore leave returned to World Alpha, Caity started to work on expanding the influence of the Phasewalkers in World Alpha. Throughout their time here, the Phasewalkers have identified a lot of potentially valuable targets.

Some were the courtesy of Camp York. Others simply came under the attention of the Phasewalkers from various locals or reading materials the Phasewalker hunting parties collected.

Due to their mobile nature, the 2nd Airborne Battalion was tasked with going after more distant, riskier targets while the 1st Armored Battalion and the 4th Motorized Battalion alike handled closer targets that could be easily reached by ground. With nearly 300 Airborne Troopers in the Battalion, Major Blyfield split the entire unit into two groups.

He himself commanded one of these groups, made up of three Arbiter X, squads of attack choppers, and 150 Airborne Troopers.

Across several days, the Phasewalkers have taken at least twelve objectives in total. Some were heavier defended, having been used as nests by various Mutated Animals. Others, not so much. Likewise, some objectives provided the Phasewalkers with numerous pieces of weapons, gadgets, and other technologies. Others were proven to be less critical.

These raids cost nearly 50 Phasewalkers their lives, but they also nearly doubled the number of advanced weapons and gadgets under the Phasewalkers’ command.

Major Blyfield’s current target was a military research center that was supposed to be top-secret. Apparently, the United Earth Confederacy was working on some sort of secret project in that facility. How secret? People have been executed to keep this site secure.

Thankfully, one of the locals the Phasewalkers acquired was a former soldier that has been a guard to the exteriors of the facility. He didn't know what was going on inside the walls, but he did know it was highly important.

The Mutants at Camp York didn't give a damn about some secret government project, so when the guard saw a chance at using this information as his ticket to Fortress Alpha, he did exactly that.

Major Blyfield tapped his Defender-II Gauss Rifle. Usually, officers like him were armed with Defender-C Gauss Pistols, but he had a bad feeling about this mission. Something told him he needed a lot of firepowers.

“Feeling anxious, sir?”

Major Blyfield turned and found Lieutenant Commissar Welch talking. Blyfield nodded, not quite keen on sharing his doubts. If the Commander showed his doubts, what would the foot soldiers think?

Welch grinned gently. “Relax, sir. I’m not going to shoot you for hurting morale if you get plane-sick or something.” He joked. “At least not for the first three times.”

Blyfield shrugged, not really knowing what to say. If this was a normal recruit joking, he would be quite annoyed, but Lieutenant Commissar Welch was a more than capable warrior. He has faced some of the most deadly foes of the Phasewalker Corps and he has held the line.

If everything went well, his promotion from Lieutenant Commissar to Battalion Commissar would only be a matter of time.

Thankfully, the voice of the pilot over the radio came just in time.

“Sir, ETA one minute!”

Blyfield nodded and turned to the 15 Phasewalkers in the aircraft. “Everyone, get ready.”

The Phasewalkers checked their weapons one last time.

The three Arbiter X came to a stop over an open field. One of them landed while the other two maintained their altitude and kept watch of the perimeter. The landed Arbiter X quickly unloaded all its Airborne Troopers and elevated again. Only then did the other two ships unload their cargo. The attack choppers formed a perimeter around the landing site.

Major Blyfield and Lieutenant Commissar Welch walked out of the Arbiter X. The Major tapped his radio.

“Keep watch of the surroundings while we enter the facility. Maintain radio contact. Check in every ten minutes. We’ll leave a squad on the ground here.”

This has been the standard protocol of operation for a while, but that didn't stop Major Blyfield from repeating it just to be sure.

“Yes sir.”

Except for a small detachment of Airborne Troopers, the rest of the forces, over 120 Airborne Troopers, guided by their Major, turned their attention to the building before them.

The unnamed research facility they were after was located underground. Its entrance was a small, one-floor building right next to the open field the Arbiter X and the choppers landed on. One by one, the Phasewalkers marched into the dark building.

On the surface, the building looked like it was just an ordinary office, but it didn't take the Airborne Troopers too long to identify a hidden feature. A gentle tap on a seemingly innocent wall sent a set of machines moving, and the Phasewalkers watched as a part of the white wall suddenly cracked and shifted to the side, revealing a set of stairs.

“Nice work.” Major Blyfield complimented the Phasewalker who found the setup before leading the Phasewalkers down the stairs.

Despite how small the portion above ground was, the underground portion of the facility was actually a lot more impressive, consisting of multiple floors. When Major Blyfield realized that, he had to make a few accommodations.

“All units, spread out by the platoons. Commissar Welch, follow me. Maintain radio contact. Check in every five minutes.”

“Yes sir.”

The Airborne Troopers started spreading out in groups of three troopers. Blyfield and Welch led one of the parties of thirty as they ventured deeper and deeper down the stairs.

The Phasewalkers were well aware that this strategy could leave the Phasewalkers open to ambushes, which was why maintaining radio contact was critical. If one party was ambushed, the rest could group together and reinforce as soon as possible. There were still risks, but these risks had to be taken for the sake of efficiency.

Soon, Blyfield reached the bottom of the stairs. As the Phasewalker Major exited the stairs and walked down the halls, he suddenly realized something was off.

The halls were covered by white walls. Every few meters, there would be a room to the side, separated from the corridor by translucent glass windows. Even without entering the rooms, Blyfield could see into all those rooms. They were filled with all sorts of advanced equipment that Blyfield couldn’t recognize at all. It seemed like a normal UEC research facility, except there was only one problem.

“Where are the bodies?” Commissar Welch noted.

Every location the Phasewalkers raided, there would always be at least a few corpses, whether they belonged to human defenders, or the Mutated Humans or Mutated Animals that led to the downfall. But here...there wasn’t a single body here.

“Maybe the UEC forces here pulled out before the Mutations occurred?” A lieutenant suggested.

Major Blyfield frowned before suddenly walking to a wall. Most of the wall was fine. Unscathed. But as Blyfield knelt down, he realized, just down in the corner where the wall meets the floor, there was a single bullet hole carved into the building.

“Someone was here during the Mutation.” He noted. “There was a firefight. As for the bodies...”

He frowned. The bullet hole suggested when the Mutations occurred, there was UEC personnel here and there has been a battle. But what happened after? If the Mutants won, they definitely wouldn’t clean up the corpses. Blyfield has seen positions overrun by Mutants on more than one occasion. There would always be some bones and spots of blood left.

But if the UEC forces won...with the world seemingly coming to an end, why would they bother spending time cleaning everything up?

Standing back up, the Phasewalker Major tossed those doubts aside. Maybe the bullet was fired for other reasons than the Mutation. Maybe the UEC forces did leave before any fighting occurred. He quietly turned to the men in his squad.

A few mysteries wasn’t an excuse to halt their mission.

“Spread out across the floor and identify anything we can use.”

As the Phasewalkers started moving, Blyfield slowly walked along the hallway. Despite his orders, he just couldn’t shake the feeling that something didn't add up. Even as reports of conquests came in, he wasn’t feeling any better.

“Sir, the 3rd Platoon found an underground armory on minus second floor!”

“Sir, the Arbiter X spotted a horde of Mutated Birds approaching. They have been terminated.”

“Sir, all the computers here seem to be in fine shape. We are working on preparing them for transport.”

But Blyfield’s attention wasn’t on those reports. That was until a Phasewalker Private walked up to him.

“Sir, you may want to see this.” He handed a notebook to Blyfield.

The Major didn't accept it. “Why?”

The Private was obviously a little nervous. “We found this notebook by accident, in a hidden compartment. This was the only paper recording we have encountered in this facility.”

That was odd. Even though a civilization as advanced as the UEC mostly used electronics or computers to record information, they more or less still used paper for one reason or another. Individual researchers might be writing journals. Information that couldn’t risk being hacked tended to be on paper as well.

Blyfield took over the notebook and started glancing through it.

“This is a journal by one of the researchers.” He noted quietly as he read over. Thankfully, the official language of the UEC was still English. Saved the Phasewalkers a lot of trouble. “It says here that they are dispatched here from all over the Confederacy. This guy used to be a physics professor from...some sort of top university I assume. He’s here to work on...wait...oh god!”

The Phasewalker Private watched as the look on Blyfield suddenly turned from inquiring to horror. Without paying any attention to the Private, Blyfield snapped around.

“Dispatcher! Come over here!”

“Yes sir!” An Airborne Trooper carrying the radio ran over. Blyfield grabbed onto the radio and started screaming into it.

“All units, cease all activities. Drop everything and converge at the stairs! We are leaving! Move with extreme caution! Pilots, lock down the perimeter and prepare for an extraction immediately!”

“What is going on?” Lieutenant Commissar Welch frowned as he ran over to Blyfield. All the Major did was hand him the notebook and point to one of the pages. Welch looked down and snapped back up in just seconds.

“We need to get this back to Fortress Alpha immediately!”

Blyfield dashed up the stairs. Within moments, he has met up with several more platoons on the upper floors, gathering a total of over 70 Phasewalkers.

As they moved, Commissar Welch quietly reached into his pocket and pulled out a Shield and attached it to his belt. Seeing that, four other Phasewalkers quietly approached him, each subtly taking out Shields of their own.

They were all Shieldbearers.

“The situation is critical.” Welch whispered as they moved. “We must get this piece of intel back to Commissar Carlson or Colonel Hunter, regardless of the cost.”

“What’s this intel?” One of the Shieldbearers asked.

Welch quietly explained it to them. When he was done, the Shieldbearers found themselves shaking as they understood the implications.

If this intel was true, then Earth was under more threat than anyone knew.

The Phasewalkers reached another floor, but unlike before, the platoon in charge of searching this level wasn’t waiting at the staircase. In fact, they were nowhere to be seen.

“Where are they, damn it!” Blyfield growled before barking into the radio. “2nd Platoon! Report in!”

There was dead silence.

Blyfield’s expression changed. “3rd Platoon! Report in!”

Nothing.

“4th Platoon! 5th Platoon! Report in, god damn it! Where is everyone?”

There was on dead silence in the radio.

“We have lost contact with all units on the upper floors.” Commissar Welch noted quietly. “We are under siege. Someone doesn’t want us to leave this place.”

Major Blyfield was almost speechless. This was four platoons! These platoons were more like squads in terms of size, but still! Dozens of Phasewalkers! Not just any Phasewalker recruits, but elite Airborne Troopers! Best of the Regiment! Yet something took them out without as much as a whisper in the radios!

“We have to leave at once. There is too much at stake.” Commissar Welch added. “Major, do your duty.”

Many Airborne Troopers frowned. The ones in those platoons were their own brothers and sisters in arms. Just minutes ago, they were still talking and joking with each other. Now, they had to leave those people behind.

Those Airborne Troopers could still be alive. If they left, they would’ve condemned those people to die.

There was a look of conflict on Major Blyfield’s face. On one hand, he knew he had to move out at once. At the same time, it was his duty as the commanding officer to care for his men. Men who gave their lives for him. Seeing that, Commissar Welch quietly rested his hand on his Defender-C.

If Major Blyfield posed a risk to the mission, he had to be removed from command.

Thankfully, the Major quickly made up his mind.

“Move out!” He ordered quietly. “Everyone, go for the entrance now! That’s an order!”

“Move move move!”