WHUMP.
WHUMP.
WHUMP.
The Black Hawk continued flying through the night.
Inside the cabin, nobody spoke.
The only sounds were the rhythmic beating of the rotor blades and the occasional static from the radio.
Everyone was exhausted.
Sweat soaked their uniforms.
Several magazines lay empty on the floor.
One infantryman still had an arrow lodged through his shoulder, though thankfully it had passed through the fleshy part without hitting bone.
The dic was already treating him.
Yet despite surviving the encounter, nobody looked relieved.
Because what they had discovered tonight was far bigger than any of them had imagined.
Rolf sat against the cabin wall.
His helt rested beside him.
His face looked pale.
After nearly ten minutes of silence, he finally spoke.
"...Did we just get hunted by an entire civilization?"
Nobody answered.
Because everyone was asking themselves the sa thing.
The wounded soldier winced as the dic disinfected the wound.
"I’d honestly prefer another dragon."
Several n laughed weakly.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was true.
Dragons were simple.
Kill the dragon.
Collect the reward.
Go ho.
This?
This was different.
A hidden civilization.
Hundreds of prisoners.
Organized patrols.
Maps.
Writing.
Dosticated tracking beasts.
And giants.
Lots and lots of questions.
Tomas finally broke the silence.
"We got lucky."
Nobody disagreed.
Because luck had played a role.
If the helicopter had arrived even five minutes later...
The outco would have been very different.
The pilot looked over his shoulder.
"Those things almost hit us."
The cabin beca quiet again.
The giant’s throw replayed in everyone’s minds.
The tree trunk had missed by re ters.
ters.
That thing had thrown an entire tree trunk dozens of ters through the air.
The implications were horrifying.
Rolf slowly shook his head.
"I’ve decided I hate giants."
"You hate everything."
"Correct."
This ti, the laughter sounded more genuine.
The adrenaline was slowly wearing off.
Reality was setting in.
They were alive.
Barely.
But alive.
The radio suddenly crackled.
"Rescue One, this is Atlas Actual."
The pilot answered imdiately.
"Go ahead."
"ETA?"
"Approximately twenty minutes."
"Copy."
The radio clicked.
Marcus leaned back in his chair inside the command center.
Twenty minutes.
Then the real work would begin.
Because tonight’s events had changed everything.
Absolutely everything.
The Predator feed still occupied the main screen.
The hidden settlent remained active.
In fact, it looked even more active than before.
Patrols.
Torches.
Movent.
The entire place appeared to be awake.
The giant had returned.
And now it stood at the center of the settlent once again.
Watching.
Thinking.
Marcus stared at it.
The thing bothered him.
A lot.
Because of one simple detail.
The smile.
That damned smile.
The giant had smiled.
Recognized.
Observed.
Reacted.
Then later, after seeing the helicopter and the gunfire, it had changed.
Its expression had beco... thoughtful.
Almost analytical.
As if it had been learning.
That wasn’t sothing animals did.
That wasn’t even sothing primitive monsters did.
The giant had intelligence.
And intelligent enemies adapted.
Marcus didn’t like adaptive enemies.
At all.
Elaina approached carrying a folder.
"Casualties?"
"One wounded. No fatalities."
She visibly relaxed.
Good.
Very good.
At least nobody died.
Then she looked at the giant on the screen.
The creature looked tiny from the drone’s altitude.
Yet she knew exactly how massive it actually was.
"...That thing scares ."
Marcus nodded.
" too."
She blinked.
"You admit that?"
"Only an idiot wouldn’t."
That actually made her laugh.
Because it was true.
Being brave and being stupid were two entirely different things.
And marching blindly against five hundred unknown hostiles led by giants definitely qualified as stupid.
One of the analysts suddenly spoke.
"Marcus."
"What?"
The analyst looked toward another monitor.
"We’ve updated our estimates."
"How bad?"
The analyst grimaced.
That alone answered the question.
"Population estimate now sits between six and seven hundred."
Silence.
The command center beca deathly quiet.
Marcus looked up.
"Repeat."
"Six to seven hundred."
Nobody spoke.
Because the numbers had almost doubled.
Again.
The hidden civilization just kept getting bigger.
Every hour brought worse news.
Every new discovery made the operation more complicated.
Six hundred.
Seven hundred.
And that was only one settlent.
One.
The analyst continued.
"We’re also seeing evidence of agriculture."
Marcus slowly turned.
"What?"
The analyst enlarged another image.
The Predator had captured it earlier.
Areas beyond the settlent.
Cleared fields.
Rectangular plots.
Irrigation trenches.
Small structures.
Marcus stared.
Then stared harder.
Then rubbed his face.
Farming.
Of course.
Why not?
At this point, nothing would surprise him anymore.
The civilization wasn’t rely surviving.
It was thriving.
Agriculture ant permanence.
Food production.
Population growth.
Expansion.
The room suddenly felt smaller.
Because once again, the implications grew larger.
This wasn’t a hidden tribe.
This was a hidden nation.
Twenty minutes later, the sound of helicopter rotors echoed outside Atlas Base.
Everyone in the command center looked up.
The Black Hawk had returned.
Marcus imdiately stood.
"So much for sleep."
Nobody laughed.
Because nobody was sleeping tonight.
Not after this.
The helicopter landed.
Its skids touched the concrete.
The side doors opened.
Tomas stepped out first.
Then Rolf.
Then the others.
The mont they saw Marcus approaching, everyone’s expressions changed.
Because now they had to explain what they had seen.
And frankly...
They still weren’t sure how.
The debriefing began fifteen minutes later.
The entire command center was packed.
Maps covered the walls.
Predator footage filled multiple monitors.
Coffee cups had sohow multiplied.
Everyone looked exhausted.
Nobody cared.
Tomas stood beside the screen.
"Short version?"
He looked around.
Then exhaled.
"We’ve found a hidden civilization."
Nobody said anything.
Because despite hearing it out loud...
It still sounded ridiculous.
Tomas continued.
"Estimated population between six and seven hundred."
He clicked another image.
"They’re organized."
Another image.
"They’re literate."
Another.
"They possess leadership structures."
Another.
"They maintain prisoner populations."
Another.
"They utilize trained tracking animals."
Another.
"They have maps."
Another.
"They understand formations and patrol procedures."
Silence.
Then:
"They also have giants."
Nobody laughed.
Because the photograph of the giant appeared.
Even from long range, the creature looked terrifying.
Nearly five and a half ters tall.
Broad.
Muscular.
Covered in dark fur.
Its bone armor looked primitive yet intimidating.
The room remained completely silent.
Then Rolf raised his hand.
Marcus looked at him.
"Yes?"
"I would like to formally request never going back there."
Silence.
Then several people laughed.
Even Marcus.
Because after everything tonight...
The request felt perfectly reasonable.
Rolf folded his arms.
"I’m serious."
"I know."
"No, seriously."
That only made the room laugh harder.
The tension eased slightly.
Then Marcus beca serious again.
He looked toward the giant’s image.
Then toward everyone present.
The room slowly quieted.
Nobody interrupted.
Because they could tell he was thinking.
Thinking hard.
Several seconds passed.
Then he spoke.
"Everything changes."
Silence.
Nobody disagreed.
Because everything really had changed.
Their company had begun as a private military group.
Security.
Escort missions.
Monster extermination.
Bandits.
Simple jobs.
Then they crossed the Forest of No Return.
Then ca Falmouth.
Now this.
A hidden civilization.
Hundreds of prisoners.
An enemy nobody even knew existed.
Marcus slowly looked at the giant’s image.
Its yellow eyes seed to stare directly back at him.
Sowhere in that forest...
The giant was probably doing exactly the sa thing.
Thinking.
Planning.
Trying to understand the flying steel beast and the humans carrying thunder.
The first contact had changed both sides.
The hidden civilization now knew sothing existed beyond the forest.
And Atlas now knew sothing existed within it.
The balance had shifted.
The mystery had ended.
A new problem had begun.
Marcus finally spoke.
"Tomorrow..."
Everyone looked at him.
"We start planning."
Nobody asked what kind of planning.
Because everyone already knew.
Reconnaissance was over.
The next phase would be rescue.
And perhaps...
War.
The room beca silent once more.
Because for the first ti since discovering the settlent, everyone understood sothing terrifying.
Sooner or later...
One side would have to make the first move.
And when that happened...
The sky itself might belong to Atlas.
But the forest?
The forest belonged to sothing else entirely.
Nobody left the command center.
Not even after the eting ended.
So remained staring at the Predator feed.
Others silently drank their now cold coffee.
The giant still occupied the main screen.
Motionless.
Watching.
For so reason, its presence made everyone uneasy.
One of the younger analysts finally spoke.
"Sir... if there are six hundred or seven hundred in one settlent..."
He didn’t finish his sentence.
He didn’t need to.
Because everyone understood.
What if there were more?
More settlents.
More giants.
More hidden villages beneath the endless forests.
Marcus looked at the regional map hanging on the wall.
The Forest of No Return stretched for hundreds of kiloters.
Mountains.
Rivers.
Valleys.
Areas nobody had properly explored.
Areas everyone simply avoided.
For generations.
Suddenly, he understood why.
Perhaps the forest had never been empty.
Perhaps it had never been unclaid.
Perhaps people disappeared because sothing had always been there.
Watching.
Waiting.
Hunting.
The room beca quiet again.
Elaina folded her arms.
"Tomorrow is going to be complicated."
Marcus nodded.
"Very."
Because tomorrow they would need to answer impossible questions.
Do they negotiate?
Do they rescue the prisoners imdiately?
Do they conduct more reconnaissance?
Do they request reinforcents from the system?
And perhaps the most important question of all...
How do you fight an enemy that has existed in secret for centuries?
Marcus looked one last ti at the image of the giant.
The creature seed to stare directly back at him.
Then he turned off the screen.
The room beca dark.
"We’ll deal with it tomorrow."
Nobody moved.
Nobody argued.
Because everyone knew.
Tomorrow would be the beginning of sothing much larger than a simple mission.
It might beco the first war between two civilizations.
And neither side truly understood the other yet.
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