CHAPTER THREE: Inflexion point

Squads lived together, and being just a three-man team, they had a small room.  Yoona and Sooyoung had moved in hours ago. They were playing cards. Taeyeon entered the room without speaking and dumped her assault pack onto the remaining bed and emptied her duffel bag of belongings into the empty locker. 

"Are you okay?" Sooyoung asked.

"Never been better." Taeyeon stared blankly at the neatly folded stack of clothes now overturned in her locker. She picked up a shirt and shorts. "I'm going to wash up."

After a cold shower, Taeyeon went back to the room. Sooyoung put down her cards. "It's our first night as a new team. Let's get to know each other better."

Taeyeon joined them on the floor.

"I'll start first," Sooyoung said. "I'm twenty-four this year, and it's my fourth year serving. I was born in Gwangju but grew up all over the place. In Seoul, Seongnam, Incheon, Busan, Daejeon, Japan and America. As you probably know, I'm a military brat so my family moved around a lot. I went to Yong In University to study military science, and then went to officer school. Now I'm a second lieutenant. I was previously on Team Bravo before being assigned to lead Team Sierra."

Sooyoung turned to Taeyeon, so she had to take her turn. "I'm twenty. Born and raised in Jeonju, have two siblings. One older and one younger. After high school, I enlisted. Graduated eight months ago and joined Sierra. Currently ranked corporal."

"Wow, that's crazy. All the women serving who I've met are either insanely jealous or have mad respect for Team Sierra," Yoona said. "Well, I'm nineteen. Been in Seoul my whole life and have a younger brother. I also enlisted after high school, but unlike you guys I'm from the army, not the marines. I got deployed like a week ago. We were heading out when our humvee ran over an IED. Next thing I know, I wake up Chimera-ed. I'm not sure what to make of this stronger, better, faster business, but I guess we just have to roll with it, right?"

"That's a good attitude to have," Sooyoung said. "But I'm not going to lie. There's only three of us, and more than ever we're going to have to rely on each other in life and death situations. So I want us to trust each other, and to do that we have to be brutally honest. Okay?"

Taeyeon and Yoona nodded.

"Yoona, I'm going to be frank here. You're going to have to work extra hard."

"Okay."

"Taeyeon and I have worked together for almost a full deployment term, so you'll inevitably have to get used to the way we do things."

"Got it."

"And, you have less training and no battle experience, so you have a lot of ground to cover," Sooyoung said. Taeyeon tilted her head. True but rather harsh.

"I said I got it."

"Did you just raise your voice at me?"

"No," Yoona said. Her unnies just looked at her until she broke. "Kind of. I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted," Sooyoung said. "Okay. Time to sleep. Set your alarms for five tomorrow. We have a lot of work to do."

Sooyoung called Taeyeon out. They turned off the light for Yoona before leaving. Taeyeon followed Sooyoung up the stairwell to the rooftop. They remained in the staircase landing instead of going out.

Sooyoung took a deep breath. "Taeyeon, I-"

"Can I be candid here?"

"Go ahead."

"I would like nothing better than to drop kick you in the face," Taeyeon said.

Unlike with Yoona, Sooyoung's face fell. Her eyes welled with tears in the darkness.

"But I shouldn't be angry at you. You had Sierra longer than me, you were our leader, so it has to hurt you more than me. And your own father chose to experiment on you. So I shouldn't blame you."

Sooyoung's face paled. "What did you say about my father?"

Taeyeon told Sooyoung the conversation she overhead between the Father and the Medic. After thinking about it, she had realized that the Father had been General Choi. If not for Sooyoung's father, Hyoyeon would be standing next to her right now.

Sooyoung spun aroun and kicked the exit door out of anger. Instead of a simple, satisfying bang, the door exploded out of the frame and slammed into the ground outside. The sound reverbrated down the stairwell. Sooyoung and Taeyeon gaped at each other. 

"Who's up there making that racket?"

Sooyoung and Taeyeon instinctively backed away from the railings. This was going to be a thousand burpees and kitchen duty for a month.

"Answer me!"

Taeyeon prodded Sooyoung towards the exit, and they ran out to the rooftop. Sooyoung picked up the door and tried to put it back, but the damage was done, so she leant it against the wall.

"We gotta go before he comes," Taeyeon said, but there was no where to escape on the rooftop. 

Back in the stairwell, the man, who sounded like he was at least a Major, was still speaking. "Stay where you are."

"He's on the ground floor," Sooyoung said. 

They were on the seventh. They looked at each other and made up their minds. Taeyeon descended the stairs two at a time, and then four at a time because her short legs weren't a factor anymore. Sooyoung was right behind her. 

"Hey!" The Major-sounding soldier started running up.

On the fourth level, they ran out of the staircase and flew down the corridor to the staircase on the other end of the building. They didn't stop until they reached their room on the second level. Sooyoung jabbed her access card at the door and they tumbled in.

All they did was climb up and down a few stairs, but they were wheezing like stuck pigs. Taeyeon collapsed on the ground. Sooyoung was on her knees too. 

"Holy ing that," Taeyeon said. She whispered because Yoona was asleep. "Holy ing this."

Sooyoung nodded. "Dr. Seo wasn't kidding about our stamina."

Taeyeon went to her locker and felt for her water canteen. She took three long gulps and then handed it to Sooyoung, who took it gratefully before draining the rest of it.

Taeyeon took the canteen back, and then lowered her voice even more. "About your father, I'm really sorry. If I'd known that you hadn't heard it, I wouldn't have told you."

"No... I needed to know that. I should've expected it."

Silence, then, "I'll continue being candid." 

Sooyoung stiffened. 

"I can't help but feel resentment towards you. I know in my brain that this isn't your fault and that I'm being an , so I'm going to trust you and I'll support your leadership the best I can. I'll take care of Yoona, so just concentrate on your other duties. I just wanted to tell you this."

Sooyoung nodded.

"And," Taeyeon said, "from the past months, I know that you're capable, that you earned your rank by your own effort. Not from your connections."

"Thanks, Taeyeon."

"Team Firefly, you're on."

On the training grounds, Taeyeon saw what she could do. She ran 100m in eight seconds, lifted the same weights as the men with thick necks, and needed three opponents to find fistfights challenging. Even so, as on the night at the stairs, Taeyeon tired out quickly. As Dr. Seo said, she was operating in her new body with her old stamina. A week of hill runs and suicide sprints was not enough, but the country needed the Fireflies, so the missions started.

Initating breaches and takebacks meant that they were first at the frontlines to wrestle territory from North Korean troops. After this brief attack effort, Team Firefly would pull out and allow other platoons secure the location.

The first week hadn't been so hectic. That week, they participated in only three skirmishes. On the second one, Yoona got shot. In one day, she was back on her feet. Then the higher-ups realized just how valuable Team Firefly was. Just a three man team that had the same effect as a full platoon, with the physical ability to recover quickly from wounds that would have decommissioned regular men. So the number of orders they received ramped up rapidly.

Their schedule was relentless. They were deployed all over Seoul, Incheon, Gimpo and Chuncheon. Pretty soon, every Army and Marine platoon knew of Team Firefly. They called them Gae-Doong, a play on the Korean word for 'firefly', 'gaettong', because they were the ones shoveling dog for everyone else. It was an insult borne out of respect. Because of the shovelers, less of their soldiers were dying. 

Taeyeon rested so little that her brain was just reacting instead of thinking. She went into every battle with a new body but with her old stamina and mind. They, especially Yoona, were getting injured more frequently. Their first skirmish lasted thirty minutes. Now they were out in five. It was only from experience that they were still making gains against the enemy. Sooner or later, one of them would screw up and all of them would die. Sooyoung was having none of it.

"We need more down time, sir. We haven't slept for more than three hours a go for a month," Sooyoung said.

"War doesn't take breaks, lieutenant," Major Lee said.

"The other platoons get theirs. Why don't we?"

"Because you can do what others can't. I know you're tired, but endure it. Are you going to let someone's son die just because you wanted a nap?" Major Lee said. He was their direct superior, but he treated them like all the other higher-ups, who had all forgotten that they were still human beings. Team Firefly was too efficient and consistent for them to think otherwise. They were looking for a gradual breakdown, but Taeyeon didn't think there would be any indication. No warning, just a clean snap.

Major Lee usually sent them off on another mission regardless of Sooyoung's concerns, and this time was no different. "We need you to go to Gimpo and reclaim Terminal 3. The Northerners have mostly moved to Terminal 7 to 10, but 3 is a semi-critical camp. Clear out as many people as you can, and then get out. Team Foxtrot will wrap things up."

"Yes, sir."

"There's an Apache on landing pad two. Grab your gear and head out in one-nine-thirty."

"Yes, sir. Your heard Major Lee, guys, let's go," Sooyoung said. There were five minutes to seven-thirty. Sooyoung stacked food rations into her assualt pack. Taeyeon broke open a can of beer and a can of Redbull and chugged both. Yoona the maknae grabbed an armload of ammo for everyone. 

"We know ourselves and we're the ones going into the field later. So stay calm, be extra careful," Sooyoung said, "It's just the usual. Take down as many North bastards as we can and get out." 

"Don't worry, we're ready," Taeyeon said. She just needed to think about Hyoyeon, Bada, Shoo, Yoojin and Soyeon, and she'd feel the desire to kill as many North Koreans as she could.

"Yeah, we're gonna smoke them motherers," Yoona said. 

Taking Gimpo Terminal 3 went sour fast even though it was a successful mission. 

Sooyoung, Yoona and Taeyeon were extinguishing the North Korean soldiers inside the terminal like mosquitoes when a tin can clinked on the floor. The fuse attached to it was almost burnt out. They could have reacted, but their sleep deprived brains were too slow to realize that the tin can was a makeshift grenade. It exploded.

Taeyeon felt metal rip through her legs, and she slumped to the ground. That was when Foxtrot stormed in.

She had never felt something so horrible in her life, but Taeyeon remained lucid. She used to faint from less pain and less blood loss. Ever since becoming a Firefly, she never passed out, like her natural shutdown system had been turned off. She couldn't move. Couldn't even scream. She just clenched her fists and lay immobile on the floor in her sweat soaked uniform.

Two medical officers bent down beside her. She was afraid. Many soldiers lost their legs like this.

"Conducting triage. Soldier is down and requires immediate care. Secondary blast injuries to both legs from the waist down. No other critical injuries."

"Blood loss is moderate. Proposing a morphine shot."

"Approved. Go ahead."

They tagged her and hefted her onto a stretcher and she was transported to an ambulance waiting at the airport arrivals drop-off curb. They tried to stabilize her condition, but Taeyeon could only vaguely feel them working on her lower body. 

"Please don't amputate my legs," Taeyeon told them.

"Calm down, Corporal Kim. We're just stopping the blood loss. It's a good thing you were standing in the outer rim of the blast radius. Your burns aren't bad."

They reached a makeshift hospital which used to be a school. Taeyeon was received by someone from the U.S. Medical Corps. Taeyeon knew that because she could see the thumb-sized star spangled banner on the officer's lapel. She was a blonde woman, and Taeyeon knew that she was really addled on morphine because she was concentrating on how this officer was blonde and a woman. And Taeyeon's coked up brain was somehow translating the blonde woman's English to American-accented Korean. The blonde woman's hands were moving quickly. A doctor and a nurse soon joined her. 

A commanding soldier went up to the blonde woman and told her to go to another floor.

The blonde woman didn't look up from the operation. "I heard that the doctors are shorthanded here."

"You should go downstairs, American."

"Fine. Will that be alright, doctor?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but please let her stay. This is a critical operation."

The commanding soldier stalked off.

Then the doctor gasped, and so did the nurse. The blonde woman stared. The doctor had just extracted a long nail and cut away some dead tissue. The wound was healing itself like an educational video on fast forward. With a tweezer, the doctor pulled out another nail, and again the missing flesh started regenerating.

The blonde woman made eye contact with Taeyeon, who flashed her a dopey grin. The blonde woman said, "What- who are you?"

How to reply in English? "Me, superman."

The blonde woman seemed to understand her. This morphine was amazing. The doctor was pulling all this metal out of her legs and she still felt nothing.

There was little to do for Taeyeon other than to apply antiseptic, sew up the gashes to guide the regeneration, and bandage her wounds. By the next day, her legs would be whole again. The blonde woman left to help another floor.

The commanding officer that tried dismissing the blonde woman earlier came to Taeyeon's bed. His insignia and name tag indicated that he was Captain Park. "Sergeant Kim, how are you feeling?"

"Banged up, but all good, sir. The doctor estimated just three days of bed rest for me,"

"That's good, very good," Captain Park said. "Did you know that American woman?"

"No, sir."

"She's one of the Navy corpsmen that America sent to help us, so it is a pity." 

"What's a pity, sir?"

"She witnessed your healing capacity. She is not privy to classified information. That includes Project Chimera."

"But she was just helping."

"We don't want outsiders to know we're capable of this yet. She will surely report Team Firefly to her superiors when she goes home. I will tell her to come here, then you are to take her out, Corporal."

She was injured and the target's patient. "Why me? Why not get an able-bodied soldier to do the job?"

"You can still pull a trigger. You're the reason she has to die," Captain Park said. "Surely you don't want to hand that responsibility to someone else."

"No, sir."

"Good." The commanding officer folded a handgun under her blanket and left her to contemplate her newest assignment.

A/N: Thanks for the comments/upvotes/subscriptions last chapter! Really appreciate it. Lots of you were concerned about Hyoyeon... Let me know what you thought of this one:)  And... was surprised to see that CatchMeIfYouCan's concept is a military look. I wonder what the song will sound like:0