The leader of the newly arrived soldiers was a tall man with short-cropped brown hair, stepped forward.
His blue eyes swept over the group before locking onto Owen. "You guys are a hard bunch to track down," he said, his tone carrying a hint of irritation.
"Tell that to command," Owen replied, his usual sleepy expression replaced by an annoyed one. "We've been trying to contact you for hours."
The soldier sighed, shaking his head. "Communications have been unstable. We lost all signals when we entered this area. It wasn't until a few minutes ago that we managed to reestablish a weak link with HQ."
"What about the backup you were supposed to provide?" Clara asked with folded arms.
"This is getting annoying " the leader muttered under his breath before answering,
"About that..." He said, "there was a slight delay back at base."
"Slight?" Clara sounded exasperated "you were supposed to be here two hours ago."
