Chapter 307: last parting gift

“Yes, it’s me guys”. Though it was not a question that they asked, Clark felt it was right that he announced to them again that he was fine and well.

Diana already told them that he survived and was back, but hearing it from his mouth was much more convincing. People could disguise his face, but they could not speak to them in the same way that they were familiar with.

As soon as he spoke to them, he saw them fidgeting a bit, some of them even stealing glances at him which left him confused.

At a moment, he even felt that he saw one of the female soldiers take a step forward to hug him. He didn’t know why, but seeing this made him feel goosebumps immediately.

“Umm, where is Diana?” He tried to change the topic.

“I’m here”.

Clark was startled, turning his head to the side. There, he saw a projection slowly turning visible. It took only a few minutes before Diana’s projection stabilized, she turned and flashed them a smile.

Seeing her appear, Clark heaved a sigh of relief. He didn’t know if it was because it’s been long since he saw them, but the brief reunion a moment ago was hellishly awkward.

He finally calmed down after some time before looking at her curiously. “You are just coming; you didn’t stay for the funeral at all?”

“I paid to have access to it through a virtual connection”.

“Oh!”

After that, no one said a thing again, making the atmosphere awkward again. And once again, it was Diana that came to the rescue.

“Do you guys have anything doing? If not, let’s finish what we gathered for”.

“Ok, I don’t have anything in my schedule right now”.

As soon as Clark agreed, the others consented and they turned to go inside the cemetery together.

Walking with these soldiers again after months was a new feeling to Clark. Here, they had a much carefree attitude which he was sure was the reason that caused all the awkwardness.

Back in the Everest, they were always tense, alert, and on the lookout for any danger so they didn’t have the leisure to think about something intangible like awkwardness.

Now that their brains were already detecting that they were calm and not in danger, it revealed its casual side.

It felt weird but Clark was glad that they were like this, staying in the Everest was a traumatic experience that, if possible, he wanted to be deleted completely from his memory.

That was if he was just a normal person though. But no, he was not normal, he was a soldier. It was hard for soldiers to live normal lives; their lives changed the same day that they decided on their careers.

Experiences such as what happened in the Everest mission were what defined his identity as a soldier.

As all these went through his mind, it did not take long before they came before one of the dome-shaped structures. At the top of this one, a word was imprinted in bold.

>SQUAD 06>

This was the dome structure that was dedicated to Clark’s squad. In the surrounding of the structure under the ground slept the coffins of their comrades. Some of the coffins were empty, but it didn’t matter.

Man was made from dust, and to dust will a man go back. The human body was just a shell to house the energy that defined us, losing the body does not mean that the human was lost.

That is why humans gave names, to identify.

Even if the corpse of their comrades were not there, the name alone imprinted on the coffin was more than enough representation for them to acknowledge it.

The name of the dead soldiers of the squad was written in a downward spiraling manner, and it was done according to their respective rank, contribution, and authority in the squad.

At the very front stood Benny’s name.

>Sergeant Benny Hart>

- Second in command of the 6th squad. He died heroically in battle so that his leader and comrades could escape. He is a legend of the republic, the perfect example of the ideal soldier.

>Private Lan Quiver>

- A soldier of the 6th squad. He listened to the orders of his leader despite how much damage they may cause to him, and in the end sacrificed his life heroically. A legend that cannot be forgotten.

>Sergeant Terry Tom>

- A soldier of the 6th squad. Being one of the few high-grade soldiers in his squad, instead of saving his own life he laid it down so that the mission could be fulfilled and his comrades could escape. A legend.

>Sergeant Adam Top>

>Sergeant Kuvira Lambo>

>Private Leonard Tifer>

…

Clark and the others came here with a relaxed expression on their faces, but by the time they read through the dome-shaped structure, their expressions were solemn and betrayed a little sadness.

Diana turned her face away and wiped a tear from her eyes.

Clark had a stony expression on his face as he looked down again at his friend’s name. He tried hard not to cry, he was not going to mourn again, he just had to move on.

That was the best tribute that he could give to Benny.

Standing there, he could almost see the years rolling back. Back to when he just met the young energetic soldier who graduated in the same set as he was.

“My name is Clark, what’s yours?”

“I’m Benny, it's nice to meet you”.

…

“We want to use our week of leave to go on a tour, will you follow us?”

“Yes, if you approve, I’ll love to”.

…

So it started, their journey as friends. He remembered when they visited Vatican City, Leo’s City and when they played football, when the terrorist Commander attacked them, almost leading to his death.

Clark felt nostalgic, it still felt like yesterday when he bought an exotic shield for Benny because he didn’t have enough money to get it.

What a journey it had been!

“We’ll miss you, Benny”. Diana finally spoke out and dropped something like petals on the structure. “We’ll miss you, Lan, Terry, Kuvira, we’ll miss you all”.

“Yes, we’ll miss you all”.

The other soldiers echoed after her before bending down to place what they came with down. Most of them dropped farewell letters, only 2 of them dropped exotic swords.

After they dropped what they came with, they all turned to look at Clark. Feeling their stares, Clark smiled and bent down.

Opening a hidden pocket in his suit trousers, he pulled and a 2-form gun came out with him.

He squatted beside the grave while holding the 2-form gun, tears flowed from his eyes but as the others were behind him, they could not see it.

This weapon was Benny’s best gun, the Chaos series 2-form gun.

Its mechanisms fit his battle art a lot, so he fell in love with it on sight. Since day one, Benny was a lover and great patronage of the Chaos series weapons producing company.

Stroking the fine contours of the gun, Clark let his tears flow.

This was what he came with to spend his last parting time with his friend physically, but he already arranged something better in his mind.

Like he vowed, as long as he lived Mr. and Mrs. John Hart would never lack. That was his real parting gift to Benny.

He knew how Benny cherished his parents when they stayed together, so he figured that helping the old couple till their death was the best gift that he could ever give as a friend.

He stroked the dome-shaped structure with a smile now on his face.

“Buddy…, rest in peace. I’ll miss you forever!”

He dropped the 2-form gun and stood up. In the process of standing up, he expertly wiped the tears away from his face so that the others could not see him doing that.

Even if the signs were still there, he was satisfied with just wiping it off.

After they left the cemetery, they didn’t leave immediately. Following Clark’s suggestion, they went to a restaurant at the side where they spent a nice time together.

This was the best way to wind up all the activities of today, but this was not all though. Of course, Clark had an ulterior motive for gathering them here.

As they ate, some of the soldiers joked about their time back on the Everest.

“Squad leader, you changed a lot after coming back”.

Clark raised an eyebrow. “How?”

The soldier laughed. “I don’t really know how to describe it, but I think you became much gentler and more easygoing. I don’t know if it’s me, I think you also grew more handsome”.

Clark felt blacklines crawling his face. “What the f*ck Lander, I never knew you were such a pervert. So you were pretending throughout the whole time during the mission”.

The others laughed at that, but one of the female soldiers could not help but comment at this moment.

“To be sincere, I think he’s right Captain. Then, you seldom spoke to us so casually like now. You were always frowning, always reprimanding us to be alert, always yelling at us to peel our eyes open”.

“Hell! You even locked us for over 2 days in a dark hole inside a tree”.

“Uhm, that?” Clark was now speechless.

The soldier laughed at seeing him like that. “Don’t worry, we understand why you did all that but it now seems so comical when thinking back to it”.

“And I agree with Lander, now that you smile more often, you look much more handsome. I always thought you were an ugly superior because of the dirt and everything that always covered you back in the Everest”.

Clark turned to face Diana. “Can you hear that?”

Diana shrugged. “You really looked hellishly ugly back in the Everest”.

“…”

“Your always messy hair, messy climbing uniform, in fact, everything about you then was ugly and messy”.

“Ugh, not you too!” Clark palmed his face.

The others laughed.

Though they were engaging in loud conversations, none of the other soldiers sitting close to them could hear them due to the jamming device and the sound dampening device that they activated.

After discussing for a few more minutes, Clark finally changed the topic and told them his upcoming plan and his need for helpers.

Hearing that he wanted to purge the Persian tigers organization from his city, the soldiers were a little surprised but that was all. They were already used to the antics of their leader.

They trusted Clark so after hearing the details of his plan, they agreed to help him but surprisingly Diana was the one to object.

“Clark, I told you that I’m a lone mercenary now. Time is money to me, to get my help you need to dangle a catch before me that can attract my attention”.

“Oh!” Clark was caught off-guard there.

In the end, he had to negotiate with Diana before she agreed to render her services. Despite the awkwardness of the situation, he was not dissatisfied at all. He was glad that Diana finally found her footsteps again.

To him, well what could he say? Another largely successful day.

In just less than an hour that he stayed at the restaurant with his old subordinates, he already got a force of one 2nd rank high-grade soldier and eight 1st rank high-grade soldiers.

The reinforcement for his plan just kept on stacking on each other.

[Thanks for reading.]