Chapter 288 Recovering
"It has now been two months since our first mission..." Mako wrote in his diary that he had started maintaining since returning from the mission.
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Commander Sable alongside a handful of privates and doctors had reached the the village an hour after Mako had passed out after saving Angela's life.
They quickly scanned the area and discovered the entrance to the underground base. The privates quickly arrested all the gang members who were still on the ground after being knocked out by Mako and his friends.
Pushing through the tunnels, the commander quickly reached the final room where the massive battle occurred. The commander was shocked by the scene and state of the area as the whole room was destroyed with cracks and craters everywhere. The boxes that lined the wall of the massive room full of things that the gang had stolen were broken and in ruin.
The privates carefully maneuvered around the guts of the gang member that Mako had killed and quickly approached the center of the room where Leon, Angela, and Mako were lying on the ground, unconscious from exhaustion.
The commander first and foremost ordered the doctors to check whether their condition was stable and to see how far along had Angela's body been decayed by the poison, only to be shocked by the doctors who reported that Angela's body was void of poison and was recovering naturally.
Commander Sable was quite confused after receiving this information as the group wasn't equipped with a cure that could affect a poison that could put Angela in the state in which she was during the virtual call he had with Leon.
So the question was who could have possibly saved Angela's life?
The commander definitely wanted to get to the bottom of this but knew that he wouldn't get any answers right now and would have to make all the members of Mako's group give a statement to piece together what had happened down here.
He ordered the privates to carry their bodies out of the underground base and have another doctor take a detailed examination of their bodies and administer any emergency care needed to ensure a fast and full recovery.
With that, the commander and two more privates ventured further into the hideout, following along the passage where Bill and Victor had their battle.
Their path was blocked by a lot of rubble, but the commander could sense auras on the other side so he knew that this was not the end.
He lifted his hand forward which began to glow bright and with a single flick of his fingers, Commander Sable blasted the rubble apart revealing the massive hole that had been made by Bill's use of abilities that Victor had continued to dodge.
This area was in even worse condition than the area where they found Mako's body and since this wasn't actually a room with proper supports and was on the verge of collapsing onto itself.
The commander started walking through the room with his every step sprouting several earth pillars that stabilized the roof and stopped it from collapsing on top of them.
The earth pillars were quite refined and had an actual architectural design that resembled that of the ancient greeks.
The commander's eye color had changed from the regular light brown to a hazy purple as he had activated yet another ability that was guiding him through the room even though it was absolutely dark with two final rooms awaiting him in the end.
The privates followed closely behind the commander until they arrived at two gates. The commander could sense several auras with one being extremely weak behind one of the doors while there were none in the other.
He ordered his privates to search through the room where there was no aura which was in reality, Victor's makeshift office. Meanwhile, he opened the other gate that led to the torture chamber.
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The commander was left speechless by what he saw the moment he opened the door as he observed Bill who now was frozen in place as he was about to strike Victor's bloody face with a metal bat.
Bill couldn't because of the heavy aura that the commander was releasing such that it was affecting his own nerves and muscles, restricting his movement.
"What is going on here?" The commander asked as he entered the room only to find Erin breaking into tears at the sight of the commander and Nathan sitting in one corner completely unphased by the commander's arrival.
Erin rushed towards the commander with tears in her eyes as she embraced him in a hug. She finally released all the emotions that were building inside of her, crying her eyes out and hugging the commander tightly.
The commander hadn't felt such strong emotions in such a long time that he was caught a bit off guard, but he allowed Erin to calm herself down as he held her while she continued to sob.
The commander lifted his aura and Bill was finally able to move again. He looked toward the commander weakly before landing one more hit on Victor's face that wasn't even recognizable at this point.
With that final hit, Bill had used up the last of his energy. His face was crusted from all of the dried-out tears he had been shedding and his eyes were red from all the crying.
He staggered as he turned to face the commander who was still holding on to Erin and said," Give this bastard the hell he deserves, commander!" He said before staggering forward and falling to the ground, finally allowing the exhaustion to overwhelm his body and knock him unconscious.
The commander was confused at first by the extreme reaction that he received from his students, but then his eyes landed on the large empty sack that was covering something in the middle of the room.
Thanks to his hazy purple eyes, he could see right through the sack and finally realized what had happened and why his students appeared to be so broken.
Commander Sable had lost many comrades and friends in his time of service and he knew the pain of losing someone more than anyone. He quickly called the two privates from the other room and told them to carry Iris back to the jet without removing the sack from on top of her.
He then comforted Erin and told her to remain strong before ordering her and Nathan to head out of the base and wait inside the jet.
The commander put Bill's unconscious body over his shoulder and grabbed the cuffs that were holding Victor.
The anger boiling inside Commander Sable after witnessing the state in which Iris was and the illegal torture devices that were spread out on the metal table was very intense. He completely ignored Victor's unintelligent yelps of pain, begging for help and mercy as these soulless bastards weren't going to receive the slightest sliver of sympathy or mercy.
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In the following week, everyone was able to fully recover including Angela, and they all were called to a board meeting with several high-level military commanders including Main Commander Anderson, Commander Sable, and even Commander Malik amongst others.
The group had to report every single detail of everything that happened and in the end, even though Mako's decision was justified as they had already lost one of their members and if he had listened to the commander's order, all three of his teammates could have wound up dead, the overall consensus of the board was to still punish Mako for inability to follow the orders of the commanding officer.
Even though the Main Commander and Commander Sable himself were against Mako receiving any kind of punishment because they agreed with his sense of reasoning and were impressed by their skill and ability to successfully take down the enemy, the other commanders didn't think in the same manner as they labeled Mako's decision and actions as "Reckless".
They stated that Mako's decision had caused millions in property damage to the rich area of the village as the aftershocks from the powerful abilities hitting the walls created earthquakes on the surface and destroyed many homes.
Other than that the main leader of the operation, Victor Voss had suffered through such trauma and pain that he was now suffering from amnesia and was completely useless in extracting information. All the information in his office was also encrypted with a weird code that most probably only he knew how to read, leaving them with no leads as to who funded and ordered his gang to clear out the village.
For this, Mako and his team were punished by being put under room arrest within the military complex with their special class titles revoked, demoting them back to cadets and putting them in the advanced class.
Angela was punished by decreasing her ranking in the military and got fined but she was still required as an active officer, so she didn't receive any imprisonment of any kind.
The group was heavily shocked by the verdict of the board and looked towards Commander Sable for a way out as they had done nothing wrong and were suffering from a heavy loss, but the look on the commander's face said it all.
The decision was final and the punishment was set to commence after they held a short funeral for Iris where everyone who knew her showed up to pay their respects. This included her parents and close family members as well as Erin's mom and even Andrew, Sven, and Finn.
Bill couldn't even bring himself to see eye to eye with Iris' parents as their sobbing made a deep and lasting wound in his heart. Erin was also banned from interacting with Andrew or even her mom as she alongside everyone else was in punishment.
They had a simple funeral for Iris but they didn't show her body as they said it was too graphic and didn't want to give the parents a heart attack.
Soon after the funeral was over, the group was escorted to different locations throughout the military base, and then their punishment for "breaking" the code officially began.
They were all locked to the confines of their rooms which had a simple living room and kitchen. They had access to the nearest training facility and cafeteria, but due to the sheer size of the military base, all of them were placed so far apart from one another that they could meet up even during training or eating.
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This was the life that Mako and everyone who followed him during their first mission lived for the past two months.
"Tomorrow is the last day of our punishment as tomorrow will be the first day of military school," Mako wrote in his diary.
"I look forward to meeting all my friends again, but I just hope that they are able to forgive me for ruining their careers in the military from the very start."
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