Aidan just nearly slapped himself on the forehead after he was given the permission to follow the ground team, not believing himself for doing such a rookie mistake by saluting his superior in the open of the battlefield. He knew that it gave away his inexperience on the field when it came to being a part of an on foot squad, but he promised to himself not to ruin his image more than he already had, so he quietly followed the captain and kept his muzzle shut for the rest of the op. When they approached the entrance of the dreaded mine, Aidan silently gulped his worries down and marched against his survival instinct that screamed at him to pull back and stay out of it. Once he passed the threshold of the entrance, everything suddenly became loud: footsteps sounded like hammers, GEARs were vacuum cleaners and as soon as the firefight started, everything became somewhat muffled by the explosions of bullets being fired out of firearms. All that he could do was to follow the team and keep his sound profile as low as possible; the fire team was most likely used with tight situations like this one, but he on the other hand, had a very bad vibe in his chest about whatever was waiting for them around the next corner. The tunnel itself wasn't all that menacing, electricity cables running along the walls with chemical lights shedding an unnatural white hue to the otherwise dark space. There were some lost tools scattered on the floor, as if the mine was abandoned in a rush, crates littered the place along with electricity generators and some other machineries the doctor couldn't really identify. The firefight intensified back in the main room, sound traveled in a loud echo along the walls of the tunnel, Aidan instinctively looked over the shoulder without really knowing why. As soon as he realized it was just the acoustic reflex, he quickly turned his head back forwards only to be greeted with enemy fire. Esailia was saved in the nick of time by her vixen subordinate, Aidan instantly dropped on his belly and crawled to the side until he could feel the wall of the tunnel press against his leg and elbow; he pushed himself away from the floor and kept a crouched stance while supporting most of his weight against the wall on his right. He took a deep breath and shook his head with a quick twitch to quickly recover from the startling effect the encounter had.

"Is anyone hit?" He muttered as low as he could through the commnet he established with the fire team and Nawlin at their back.

Aidan then waited for the report about the barricaded troops. Given the situation, Aidan was too inclined to believe it was someone unaffiliated with the bandits they were hunting, but they couoldn't be miners.

"All due respect, but it can't be the miners, this place's been abandoned." Aidan chipped in. "But if they aren't OPFOR, it could be the hostages trying to take a stand, like Edward suggested. If that's the case-" 

Then came his brilliant idea. Aidan lifted his left arm and stretched it out so he could pull the white and red medic armband off and lay it on the ground to look for a long object laying about. He found a rusty metal rod stuck into a soft spot of dirt, which he pulled with his whole body until it came loose; he then carefully hanged the band on one end of the rod so that the red cross could be visible for the guys that were trying to shoot at them and took a long glance at his masterpiece in diplomatic relations.

"They won't shoot me. If they do, its safe to assume they're hostile. Alright."

He was once again fighting his survival instinct as he dropped the kit on the floor behind cover and exposed a bit of the rod with the band dangling loosely from it; he didn't listen to any of the warnings and waited for a reaction from the people on the other side, but no one shot at it. Feeling his courage coming back to him, Aidan released his PDW from the strap holding it on his chest and placed it over the kit, then went slowly further out from the safety of cover. Aidan chuckled to himself, seeing that his quick plan worked out pretty nicely and felt confident enough to walk out and have half of his body exposed towards the defenders.

"It must be the hostages! I think they have some wounded among them too; alright, ma'am, I suggest we approach slowly an-"

In a fraction of a second, blinding muzzle flashes filled the end of the improvised barricade, but everything went completely silent, his entire body went numb and he could swear he saw stars; it must have been from the acoustico-visual shock of real gunfire pointed at him that made his body freeze in place like that, but after his brain recovered from the short-circuit, he found himself again behind cover with someone frantically yelling at him. He didn't remember if he was pulled by someone or if he lunged away from the line of fire and it took him several more seconds to identify the people around him. He wasn't laying on the floor, so he didn't loose consciousness, but he felt his left hand trembling a little. With everything ringing around him and with the person that was once yelling at him turn its attention to something else, Aidan quietly returned to his kit and restrapped his PDW on his chest, threw the kit on his back and secured it; finally, he retrieved his armband and as soon as he stretched his left arm, he realized he couldn't straighten it out completely. Curious about this anomaly, he looked closer at it until he found a small hole through the fabric; amazed by it, he examined it thoroughly until he realized there was a faded red ring around the circular hole, then tugged at the fabric until he found another hole on the other side of the suit.

[i]I was shot[/i] he calmly concluded, quickly grasping the situation. It was the second time during his career. He nodded at himself as to confirm that it was real, he even stuck a finger through the fabric.

The rest came automatically. He threw his kit back down, sat next to it and pulled out a few articles he needed: a scissors to cut through the material and reveal the wounds, some surface antiseptics that surprisingly didn't sting, another gunshot wound syringe he carefully stuck through the bicipital opening of the wound and injected some microsponges, then through the tricipital exit wound, which he had to use more of the syringe to fill it up. A bandage on both wounds and then a nice and tight gauze to keep everything in place. He sighed as he took an appreciative look over his handiwork and raised his wounded arm up and above his heart for a few minutes. During this time, Aidan tried to recollect everything that just happened, but other than the events he witnessed, he couldn't recall the moment the flying lead projectile pass clean through his left arm. He didn't feel pain just yet as adrenaline was still present in his blood and tried to not concentrate on the wound; he knew it wouldn't be a lethal wound, since it didn't hit the humerus bone or the brachial artery. He wasn't sure if the cephalic vein or the anterior branch profunda artery was still intact, as both would be positioned right where the hole was; either way, he knew there was no real risk and it was enough to have him stand back on his own feet in a matter of three minutes, kit stowed safely behind cover and the safety pin of his PDW switched off.

"Orders?" He briefly asked captain Sprinsteam.