The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 120

Chapter 120: First Assignment
Reid and his team stood at attention in the briefing room as they waited for the Colonel standing before them to start.

They had been informed of an assignment the previous day that’s why they were gathered here this early.

But the Colonel had an annoyed look on her face, after all she wasn’t the one that was supposed to brief them on this assignment, that was the responsibility of their senior officer.

But no, Owen was too lazy for his own good. Worse still, he hadn’t arrived yet, which meant she couldn’t start the briefing—he was, after all, the mission leader.

Team 7 just awkwardly stood in the room, watching as the Colonel’s mood worsened by the second.

At this point, her annoyance had formed a visible aura around her. The tension in the room just kept increasing as the seconds passed.

Just as it seemed like the Colonel was about to explode, the door finally slid open.

Owen strolled in at an almost infuriatingly slow pace, his uniform slightly disheveled, his hair still a bit messy from sleep. He let out a long yawn as he stretched, rubbing his eyes like he had just woken up.

“Morning,” he muttered lazily, barely sparing the Colonel a glance as he made his way to the front of the room.

The Colonel’s eye twitched. “Officer Owen,” she said through clenched teeth. “Care to explain why you’re late?”

Owen blinked at her, looking genuinely surprised, as if he hadn’t realized he was late.

“Ah… yeah, see, I set my alarm… but I must’ve hit snooze a few too many times,” he admitted shamelessly.

Reid fought the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose while Lisa let out a heavy sigh and Clara stifled a laugh.

Marcus was feeling second hand embarrassment and as usual, Ethan just quietly observed, though his eyes slightly twitched at the words of their senior officer.

The Colonel took a deep breath, clearly debating whether to reprimand him further or just move on. Eventually, she exhaled slowly and turned back to the rest of the team.

“Since your leader has finally decided to join us,” she said, her tone dripping with sarcasm, “we can begin.”

She pressed a button on the console beside her, and a holographic map of a remote region popped up above the table before them.

“This is your assignment,” she continued, gesturing at the highlighted area. “Primal activity in this sector has been increasing at an alarming rate.”

“Normally, low-level Primal sieges are expected, since we just reclaimed that part of the wildland” she took a pause.

“But this time, the reports indicate something even stranger” she tapped on the console beside her and the hologram switched to video “this was the last recording we received from the team responsible for ridding the sector of the remaining primals before they went missing.”

The video started playing and it seemed like a body cam. The footage was shaky and the sound of heavy breaths was heard. It seemed the person with the camera was running through a forest.

“HQ, come in!” The voice was trembling, barely above a whisper, but the only response was static through the radio “HQ… anyone… please come in.”

The sound of their ragged breathing filled the silence, quick and uneven as the person tried to stay calm but failed.

“Please… someone help,” the voice cracked, the terror in their voice evident “I don’t… I don’t want to die.”

Their breathing hitched, turning into panicked gasps. A rustling noise came through, likely their shaking hands gripping the radio tighter.

The static remained unbroken. No reply. No reassurance. Nothing.

A choked sob escaped them. “Oh God… oh God… please…”

That’s when they heard it, it sounded like someone stepped on a twig, breaking it.

The one recording quickly turned around, towards the source of the sound but found no one.

The camera wobbled as the person’s breath grew even more frantic. The lens darted left and right, scanning the dense forest, but there was nothing—just the swaying trees and the endless dark.

The silence stretched, thick and suffocating.

Then—another sound. Closer this time.

A soft, unnatural chittering, like something exhaling between jagged teeth.

The camera jolted as the person whipped around again, the movement too erratic to make out details. Their breaths turned into short, panicked whimpers.

“Who’s there?” they gasped, voice barely above a whisper.

No response, only the rustling of leaves was heard.

The feed crackled as the person stumbled back, their boots crunching against the forest floor.

That’s when a blur passed in front of the camera, too fast for it to capture.

The person let out a scream, the camera shaking wildly as they turned and ran. The trees blurred past him as he continued running.

But the sound followed and it was quick catching up to the recorder.

BAM!

Something slammed into the running military personnel causing the camera screen to flash with static.

The sound of the person crashing into a tree was heard, followed by a crack and the camera falling to the forest floor.

The feed tilted at an awkward angle, the lens half-buried in dirt. The person was on the ground, their body visible just at the edge of the frame.

They were struggling to move but they seemed to have broken quite a few bones from crashing into the tree.

“No… no… please…” they suddenly started pleading as the snapping of twigs increased.

Whatever was chasing them had caught up and it was slowly approaching, seemingly taking pleasure in the person’s desperation.

The thing walked into frame, but all that was revealed was a shadow in the shape of a human.

The thing crouched down, outstretching its shadowy hand towards the soldier laying on the floor.

“No… Please, no” the person pleaded again but the thing ignored them and continued moving its hand forward.

The creature seemed to drop something on the person when its hand was close enough before standing up again.

The soldier’s body started convulsing and they started screaming in agony.

The humanoid creature, whatever it was left the soldier screaming on the floor as it approached the camera that was still recording.

Suddenly, silence. The screaming soldier had gone completely silent when the creature got close enough to the camera.

It raised its foot high up before stomping it down on the camera, and the video cut to black.

The briefing room was extremely silent after the feed was cut off.

“As you can see, whatever that thing was,” the Colonel’s voice broke the silence “its extremely intelligent and since they started appearing, the primals have been moving a lot more organized now.”

“We have reason to believe that this thing is acting as their leader” she finished.

“Permission to make a request, ma’am?” Reid suddenly stepped forward.

“Granted” the Colonel answered. Of course she had heard of the kid, heck, he was the one everyone was talking about so she was curious about him.

“Can you rewind the video?” Reid said, he spotted something extremely familiar in that video and he wanted to confirm.

The Colonel nodded and tapped on the console again, rewind the video as Reid requested.

“Right here” Reid said as soon as they got to the part where the thing started advancing towards the camera.

“Zoom in on our man behind it” he requested again.

The Colonel did as requested zooming on the soldier writhing in pain on the ground.

Reid’s eyes immediately widened as he spotted what the creature dropped on the soldier.

After all, he faced a similar creature just the previous day.

“That’s not good” he said.

“Do you know what that thing is, Officer Fletcher?” The Colonel asked. Any information about the what they were against was welcomed, even if it’s just a speculation.

Instead of directly answering the question, Reid stretched out his hand and called out.

“Beel” he said and the gluttonous fly immediately came out of his inventory. This caused the Colonel to tilt her head a bit but didn’t say anything.

Reid then proceeded to order Beel to transform which it immediately did. Taking the form a black viscous liquid in Reid’s palm.

He then proceeded to explain “The creature in the video looks similar to the forged beast used by Darren during our duel yesterday.”

“I don’t remember the kid’s forged beast being liquid like” The Colonel said.

She had seen the video of the duel and even though the match ended quickly, she was sure that she had clearly seen both forged beasts used in the match.

“That’s because that was not its original form” he said “when my forged beast absorbed it, we found out that this is its original form.”

He gestured to Beel who was still in a liquid form before continuing “the creature has the ability to hijack the body of living beings and use them as vessels.”

“And why didn’t you report all this yesterday?” The Colonel asked with suspicion.

“After absorbing anything” Reid started “my forged beast takes some time to absorb their abilities, so I only found out this morning after Beel finished assimilating.”

“If that thing in the recording is anything like what I faced yesterday, then this means that all our soldiers out there are most likely vessels of those things by now.”