Chapter 197: delegating duties

Captain Cinnabar had a curious expression on his face, as he was led by Clark from his entourage of soldiers to a corner to tell him what he wanted to say.

After getting to a distance that he favored, Clark finally stopped before turning to face the Captain.

“Sir, I’m sorry for your time”.

“No problem, tell me what you want”.

“Ok. I want you to change the squad that my friend was placed in, I want him to be in my squad”.

Hearing the surprising proposal that the Major threw at him, Captain Cinnabar was surprised. At first, he thought that Clark wanted to complain again about his forceful inclusion into the mission.

Though he was surprised, he was not slow to answer. “Who is your friend here?”

“His name is Sergeant Benny; he is among the soldiers following Corporal Jack in the 16th squad”.

“Oh, ok. If that’s all, then don’t worry, it's settled”.

“Ok, thank you Captain. That’s all”.

With that, Clark quickly succeeded in pulling strings and hijacking his friend into his squad. For such a dangerous mission, he was not ok leaving Benny in another soldier’s squad.

…

A few minutes after Clark spoke with the Captain, Benny was quickly swapped with another soldier and transferred to his squad.

The 6th squad that was under his leadership was finally set to go, all they needed now was to get their complementary equipment and basic survival resources from their departure point.

As their destination, Mountain Everest had too large an area, all the squads were assigned to enter from different angles and positions. This was to also prevent the whole mission soldiers from being annihilated, in the case of an ambush.

Their departure point was also at another part of the large Spartan army headquarters.

After being transported to the large underground building, the soldiers all came down and followed Clark inside the military fortified bunker.

Getting inside, they were not surprised at the stunning sight as they were all used to it. All of them here were veteran soldiers, and they were all used to seeing luxuriously equipped armories.

The guide that was left in the bunker to greet them quickly went to work, as he relayed the orders that were given to him to them. With that, they went to work.

In just a few minutes, they all changed from their standard army uniforms into military-grade all-black mountain man clothes. Their attire from head to toe was now all black.

The mountain clothes were extremely thick, with various technological adaptations and add-ons to help them better adapt to the extreme cold of the dreadful Mountain Everest.

After this, they continued forward to take the basic military operation kit provided by the army.

Inside, consisted of weapons, basic first aid kits, different medical enhanced injections for soldiers, military multi-environment vision goggles that can adapt to any situation of the night or day, and various other gadgets.

The Spartan army proved its determination for the success of this mission through their generosity this time for the operation kit. It was fabulously equipped, and well fit for a soldier to survive in extreme conditions.

After arranging everything and adding them to their stash of equipment, the soldiers were finally ready to depart. They finally turned to face their leader.

With them all dressed in black in a dark night like this, despite the lighting in the bunker, Clark felt like he was looking at a bunch of elite spies that were ready to spread mischief.

“Ahem…, like you all already know, I am the leader of this squad”.

“I think everyone here has heard of me before, is there anyone that does not know who I am?”

“No sir”.

“Good. Before we proceed, I want you all to introduce yourselves to me. Like you all know, this mission is of extreme importance. And for us to succeed, we need to be cohesive”.

“Getting to know each other’s names, statuses, and military ranks is the best way to go. Ok, you, start the introduction”. Clark randomly pointed at one of the soldiers.

“Yes sir”.

“My name is Sergeant Hillary; I serve under the Kraken military division in…”

“My name is Staff Sergeant Diana; I serve under the Stingray military division in…”

“My name is Sergeant Zach; I serve under the Python military division in…”

In a flash, all the soldiers introduced themselves to Clark, giving him a preliminary understanding of his men. He nodded inwardly to himself, as the average abilities of the soldiers satisfied him.

With his implant, all the information of 50 soldiers was stored in his brain, showing the convenience of technology again.

Of the 50 soldiers in his squad, he was the only 2nd rank high-grade soldier. 15 were 1st rank high-grade soldiers, while the remaining 34 were all normal soldiers.

Despite this low rate of high-grade soldiers in the squad, he was satisfied as 8 of the high-grade soldiers already learned how to execute battle arts. This alone acted as a significant strength boost to the squad’s overall power level.

“Ok, good. With this, at least, I have a basic understanding of you all which can do a lot in ensuring our survival”.

“After going through all your background information, I decided on delegating 2 seconds in commands to act as my assistants in this squad”.

“They are Sergeant Benny and Staff Sergeant Diana. If anyone has any contrary opinions to this decision, speak out now or forever hold your peace”.

Seeing that no one was foolish enough to antagonize him for such a trivial matter, he nodded inwardly to himself again before he continued his speech”.

“Ok, that’s settled then”.

“We don’t have time again; we have to go now. But before we go, I want to choose the soldiers in the squad that will act as our support line”.

“The army provided us with food supplies to support our mission, but I have no intention of taking everything along. That will only hold us back and leave us to vulnerabilities”.

“I have decided to take only 2 large bag supplies, which is enough to take care of our squad for about a month, no matter how extreme a situation we find ourselves on getting there”.

“For the 2 bags, 2 soldiers are enough to carry them for the squad, so I only selected 2 of you for the job”.

“Charlatan, Bakary, you 2 are the ones I selected to act as our support line”.

“Don’t worry, this does not mean that we are abandoning you, this only means that both of you are now the greatest and most important pivots of the squad”.

“Be rest assured that every soldier in the squad would take safeguarding your lives as the priority because we need the food and supplies in those bags to survive”.

“Though I already made the decision, I still want to give you 2 the option of choice. Do you accept this role?”

“Umm…, yes sir”. Though it took a few seconds for them to answer, they still answered positively, though reluctantly. This was what finally brought a smile to Clark’s face.

With that, everything was settled as he only had to say some simple words of encouragement to lift the mood of his men before they departed.

Getting outside the bunker again, dozens of black military cars were parked outside waiting for them. Seeing their sleek appearances that blended into the night sky, Clark could not help but associate this with spies again.

“Wait…, is this my secret agent dream back then as a cadet that is coming to pass?”

The thought did not take up to 2 seconds before he threw it out of his mind. Compared to his dream where he was badass and all that, this mission, he had no stupid illusions that he was badass. This was the frontier.

The soldiers did not waste time. As soon as Clark invited his 2 new seconds in commands and they entered the first car among the row of cars, the others also quickly entered.

After the cars activated their stealth, anti-detection, and anti-tracking devices, they finally set out in the direction of the dreaded frontier, Mountain Everest.

Their movements were completely silent in the night. Despite their speed, the car's anti-noise engines did their work perfectly by not letting a single sound out. The ride was smooth and silent.

As the large entourage of cars drove away, Clark’s emotions entered another rollercoaster, prompting him to look out through the car’s glasses. He was leaving the Spartan republic again to fulfill duty…, what a life!!

Seeing the trees that slowly appeared, disappeared, and slowly faded away from his vision, he entered a melancholic mood.

After dozens of minutes passed like this, he finally turned his head back to inside his car to see his 2 seconds in commands.

Benny closed his eyes, while his gloved hands played with a set of rubic cubes. From his expression, Clark could easily decipher that his friend was not as calm as he claimed.

Turning to the side, he saw a completely different expression on his other second in command. Staff Sergeant Diana was awake with her eyes open, but she just kept quiet while looking at the car’s floor. He could see her eyelids twitching slightly.

“Is she nervous because of the mission? Or is it because of sitting in the same car as a higher-ranked soldier?” Clark was puzzled, but he didn’t ask. He was not familiar with her yet.

Though this was his first time meeting this warrior lady, he was impressed with her at first sight.

When she introduced herself as the only Staff Sergeant in his squad, he immediately searched her background up on the internet through his implant.

He was surprised by what he saw. Just like him, this lady soldier was also a warrior prodigy of her city. Though she was not in his realm yet, just like his younger self, she already broke various local records in her city.

In her city, she was labeled as the rising star that would propel them to glory. Her status was already slightly transcendent there. This pulled him into more thought on why she joined the mission.

“Perhaps, she hit a bottleneck and is looking for a catalyst to breakthrough”.

As all these thoughts passed through his head, he leaned his head back on his chair’s headrest to rest. With that and the graveyard-like silence all around, he was slowly drawn into the dreamy realms of sleep.

As soon as the first signs of his faint snoring sounded out, indicating that he already slept, Staff Sergeant Diana finally raised her head.

She looked at Benny who was also already asleep beside her, before looking at her leader for this mission.

Though this was her first time meeting Clark, she already heard of the legends of this Major. She was a year older than Clark, but he was her superior. This was a gap that she wanted to breach.

She already researched his background, and she knew that he was someone who loved taking risks. As her secret idol, she already decided to follow the same route.

She volunteered for this mission without informing anybody in her city, not even her family members. Determination burned in her eyes, as she also rested her head back to rest.

…

Countless hours later, when it was already midnight, the large entourage of cars finally reached their destination. After parking the cars silently, the drivers woke the sleeping soldiers up.

After they woke up and came out, the soldiers raised their heads to look at the looming figure before them.

“We finally arrived, Mountain Everest”.

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