Chapter 134

Silence lingers over the vast plain.

In this grayish-white space, the only vegetation is decaying trees with exposed roots and holes riddled across their trunks.

The wind blows turbulently through the holes in the trees, emitting an ominous sound that makes an Ustansha Empire Army soldier wince in discomfort.

“Damn it, isn’t there any way to stop that noise?”

The soldier, clearly exasperated, keeps aiming and lowering his weapon toward the tree.

The fellow soldier paired with him glances over briefly before waving his hand dismissively.

“Forget it. Unless we blow it up entirely, nothing will change the sound.”

Saying this with resignation, the soldier wipes dirt off his gear.

At that moment, a voice comes from behind the soldiers.

“Smell…”

“Unbelievable, doesn’t anyone make a different size?”

Turning their heads, the soldiers see comrades climbing down into a deep trench, their expressions filled with dissatisfaction.

Two soldiers in newly issued infantry gear walk past them.

Their footsteps fade into the distance.

Noticing the blue cloth on their arms, signifying naval personnel, instead of the green of ground forces, causes the soldiers’ expressions to sour.

“Damn bureaucrats, complaining so much after getting new equipment.”

“Let them be, they only know how to mess with machines on the ship.”

“Tch.”

Spitting towards the naval soldiers who are heading towards the other side of the trench, one soldier mutters.

Again, the wind blows.

Whoosh…

The soldier frowns deeply at the unpleasant sound.

“Ugh, seriously.”

The soldier starts rummaging inside his infantry standard gear.

“What’re you doing?”

“Just wait.”

While giving a vague response to his companion’s question, the soldier continues searching.

This time, a cube-shaped object appears in the soldier’s hand when it reemerges.

The object expands with a “snap” sound as the handle on top is pulled, revealing its true form.

“Are you crazy!? What are you going to do with a grenade?”

“I’m doing this!”

With that, the grenade is flung towards the tree from the soldier’s hand.

The grenade spins in the air before steadying itself upon detecting an obstacle.

The device sticks to the tree with a noise and emits a familiar warning tone.

“Beep…beep…beep…”

Recognizing the sound, the soldier ducks his head.

“What, are you insane?!”

Though cursing, the fellow soldier reacts in the same manner.

By the time the alerts fade into an eerie silence,

BOOOOOM!!

An explosion shakes the ground.

Soldiers in the trench instinctively flinch at the sudden explosion and vibrations.

“That’s it, why use a grenade for that!”

“It’s fine, we’ll blame it on some native organisms.”

Giving a shrug to the whispered complaint from a fellow soldier, the soldier points a finger toward the fog-covered battlefield.

“Look, those guys are always around there-”

At that moment, a flash of light appears from within the fog.

BOOM!

A soldier, missing his head, collapses lifelessly as the sound follows after a beat.

“Attack!”

Without time to mourn the fallen comrade, the soldier shouts and retaliates.

With a zap, a red beam shoots into the air from the rifle, lighting up the center of the battlefield. Red sensors continue to light up amidst the fog.

Clang-clank-clank.

The heavy footsteps splashing through the muddy ground.

Reacting to this, the soldiers crouching in the trench rise together, aiming their guns.

“Fire!”

With that command, weapons fire begins.

Bullets fly overhead as the formerly quiet battlefield is now alive with the blooms of fatal exchanges.

…

Meanwhile, over a colorless, ash-gray city, a heavy shadow looms.

High above, far surpassing the city’s tallest skyscrapers, floats a golden flagship.

The disc-shaped hull rotates in opposing directions at regular intervals.

Within the flagship,

Inside a large and ornate room designated as the captain’s quarters, the voice of Admiral Ligerda from the 1st Interstellar Fleet can be heard.

“…The 3rd Interstellar Fleet has been entirely annihilated. Moving forward, we need to establish more systematic communication and information exchange-”

Bzzt.

With the press of a button, the video feed cuts.

The voice of Admiral Ligerda within the room also stops, leaving silence in the air.

“Admiral? Aren’t you planning to finish watching?”

The captain asks.

“We should only continue if there’s something worth watching. Isn’t this just a useless waste of words?”

Replied the Admiral, whose insect-like features twitch with dissatisfaction. His outfit, gold and purple in color, denotes a high-ranking military officer in the Empire. Like the other admirals, his uniform is covered in various decorations sparkling in the light.

“Regardless, if there’s something to cooperate on, wouldn’t it be better to watch and work together?”

The captain cautiously suggested.

But the Admiral was resolute.

“Cooperation? Bah, I have no need to listen to the coward’s words who thought only of their records!”

The admiral of the 4th Interstellar Fleet, Gelang, dismisses this with a huff and turns away.

Deep within Gelang’s darkened heart lies a rooted distrust.

“Hmph. They ignored all the requests for support then, now frantically contacting us since their fleet’s in potential danger? Such despicable types.”

Grumbling to himself, Gelang expresses his anger towards the 1st Interstellar Fleet silently.

“And what did those from the 3rd fleet do to get wiped out from the rear? Stupid bastards.”

Gelang’s dissatisfaction and complaints continue to bubble up within.

And the captain watching him lets out a small sigh.

“He wasn’t always like this.”

Once, with the 3rd Interstellar Fleet relatively detached from the front lines and enjoying some ease, and the 1st Fleet retreating all its ships into space to avoid encounters, the situation was different.

However, the situation was different for the 4th Interstellar Fleet.

The relentless attacks from the native organisms on the frontlines continue to deplete both troops and supplies daily.

There was a time when they too had retreated their ships and forces into space, but the rapidly changing situation on the planet’s surface brought them back down.

It must have been then, when Gelang, once calm and warm, became irritable and easily angered.

“What’s the situation on the front?”

“Still not good. After switching to trench warfare, losses among our troops have decreased… but…”

“Damn native organisms…”

Gelang mutters while grinding his teeth.

At that moment, the door to the captain’s quarters opens and a junior officer rushes in.

“Admiral! Captain!”

“To enter the captain’s quarters without verification… What is the meaning of this!”

The junior officer lowers his head under the captain’s stern reprimand.

“My apologies, Captain. But it’s an urgent matter…”

“Etiquette aside, what is it?”

As Gelang interrupts the captain to inquire further, the junior officer responds quickly.

“Survivors from the 3rd Interstellar Fleet have appeared, claiming to be such.”

“What? Survivors from the 3rd Fleet?”

“Yes.”

Gelang falls into thought.

‘What is this? Weren’t we informed that the 3rd Interstellar Fleet was completely annihilated?’

The doubts that arise in Gelang’s mind make his antennae twitch slightly before settling.

‘We’ll find out soon enough upon meeting them.’

“So, who’s their commanding officer?”

“They are named Tork, Admiral.”

“Tork?”

…

Bzzt.

An alert sounds from the front.

Freya glances at her right hand before turning her head toward me.

“Edu, it seems they’ve made contact with the 4th Fleet.”

Taking a moment to gather my thoughts after Freya’s statement,

Since Tork left the forward base in the shuttle last week, this would be the expected time for contact.

Nodding slightly while still on Freya’s back,

“Everything’s going according to plan.”

“Will they betray us?”

“Probably not.”

Tork was so overwhelmed with self-loathing for betraying his comrades that he’d be easily swayed by my words, but only to someone who knows his weakness.

In fact, he can act far more brazenly towards those unaware of his vulnerabilities.

“Even if they do betray us, it doesn’t matter much.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. While it would be nice if Tork pulls it off, the mission itself won’t be critically jeopardized either way, right?”

Just an auxiliary disruption operation that would be pleasant if successful, but nothing too significant if not.

Even in the case of failure, all we’d lose would be the shuttle and a few prisoners.

“Hmm, that’s true.”

Freya moves towards the academy after passing through the main gate.

At that moment, a large object flies up over the lush flower bed.

“Bungbungi! Did you come to greet us?”

[Beep! / (｡˃ ᵕ ˂ ) bied]

Approaching and stopping before us is BungBungi.

Freya sets me down onto BungBungi and pats my head once.

“Alright, I’ll see you later at Edu’s ship.”

“Yes, see you later.”

Waving goodbye as Freya departs,

I wave back and then issue an order to BungBungi.

“Bungbungi, can you take me to where Edward is?”

[Beep! / (｡˃ ᵕ ˂ ) bied]

BungBungi quickly moves.

BungBungi brings me to the academy library.

Peering through the window into the library, I notice Edward looking up, catching sight of me.

“Hmm?”

Closing his book, Edward steps outside of the library.

“Edu, what’s the matter?”

“Edward, I-”

“Denied!!”

A sharp response.

“…But I haven’t even said anything yet?”

“Ho ho, Edu, I’m no fool! There’s no need to listen any further! It’s 100% certain you’ve come for some strange proposal!”

Edward confidently declares, standing tall.

“I won’t fall into your traps anymore-”

“If you cooperate now, you’ll get new Invader parts, with combat data, all meals provided as well as a free research space.”

“Ugh, uh… My intelligence… has decreased. I am… a fool. Edward! Let Edu do as he pleases!”