The enemy cruiser was five kilometers long. Counting the basement level, there were four levels in the cruiser; each level was 200 meters high. Just going from one end to another would take close to an hour for a normal person to run from one end of the ship to another.For Arran, it would only take five minutes tops to run back and forth once. It was only for the sake of caution that they slowed down their pace to a crawl. But even then, it wouldn’t take them thirty minutes to scour the entire ship once. Such was the power that surpassed mortals.Arran led his unit to the first level in a minute, and they started their sweep. The forty of them moved swiftly and in order, each of them displaying a calm attitude devoid of nervousness or anxiety.With Arran’s perception, it was easy to spot enemies from far away and none could hope to escape from his senses. When one enemy was spotted, one would be gunned down without mercy. The cadets took no prisoners and left nine standing.Like an e
Arran’s unit moved through the second floor and they found more and more traces of a massacre where the first and second teams had passed through. More broken bodies and blooded limbs were scattered everywhere along the corridors and the gruesomeness of the scene caused the cadets to fall silent in shock.“Look at all this. Are you sure they need our help to clear the way for their retreat? From all this, I don’t think we can do anything for them at all.” One cadet whispered.“Don’t say it like that,” Arran said.“It’s obvious that the first and second teams are in a hurry to make up for the time they lost moving from the southwest hangar to here. That is why they didn’t save up on any ammunition at all and blasted their weapons at full power.”“They probably went through the cruiser in a straight line and took fewer detours after getting a map of the ship. That means there are still a lot of places they haven’t cleared yet. In this situation, even if they could complete the mission,
Arran’s unit stopped at the access doors to the third level, but what was in front of them was not the electronically sliding doors but a pile of rubble. Burnt Metal sheets splayed all around the ground, twisted and deformed into several grotesque shapes like something had taken a bite out of the entrance, and chewed it up before spitting it all out in one go.The cadets were stunned by what they saw. The level of destruction here was much more than what they had seen elsewhere. Not even the hangar had been this messed up when it had been bombed from the outside.“What could have done this?” A cadet asked.Nobody could answer that question because they also didn’t know.Arran had been investigating the cause of the damage. With his perception, he was able to notice small pieces of irregular metal that did not belong with the other kinds of metals that were used to create the access doors and metal walls of the cruiser.Because of his electromagnetic special ability, Arran was very sen
Arran and his unit stopped in front of a large chamber. Like the previous areas in the third level, this place had been divided into different sections and the access door to it had been blown up by the first and second teams using their battery cells.But all of this was not surprising...What really surprised the cadets was what was on the other side of the section.The section opened up to a large chamber that was one hundred meters in diameter. At the end of the chamber was reinforced glass that showed the outside of space, but in the middle of the chamber was a small space that was covered in glass all around.The members of the first and second teams were actually trapped inside this glass space, fighting for their lives. Trapped inside with them were big fleshy tentacled monsters that attacked the cadets constantly.Arran and his other cadets watched wide-eyed in surprise at what was in front of them. They had not expected this at all.Although Arran had seen the scene inside t
"You guys, quick, help us get out of here.”The cadets in teams 1 and 2, upon seeing Arran’s unit, urged them to help them escape their cage.The battle inside was raging fiercely and the cadets could pull themselves away long enough to talk to Arran and the others cause they were desperately fighting for their lives.Arran didn’t do anything immediately. He first o served everything in front of him.With Arran’s senses, not many things could hide from perception and he was able to get detailed structures of most things like metal.Although it wasn’t easy to see the detailed structure of glass like he could with metal, Arran could still judge based on what he perceived on the surface.The glass that trapped the first and second teams had a similar structure to the same reinforced glass used on the windows of the spaceships. It was thick and with many layers beneath the surface. On an atomic level, each layer was made up of tiny prismatic molecular structures that were bonded very tigh
Arran looked at this big man that stood on the other side of the glass, staring down at him with a big grin on his face. His smile was honest, and the way he asked Arran for help was filled with sincerity. But somehow, Arran felt that this person was not easy to deal with.It was the way he still exuded an overbearing pressure despite his attitude being humble that gave Arran this special feeling. It was probably from his large size, which was quite unique among Aeth’s, whose general aesthetic was more slim and beautiful.Arran was intrigued by the big man, but it did not show on his face. Instead, a disinterested look covered Arran’s expression like a mask as he replied to the big man whom the other cadet addressed as leader.“It’s alright. I don’t really mind. It’s just that some people, even in the face of impending demise, still try to retain a false sense of superiority over others. I just wanted to reach him for a lesson on how he shouldn’t and shouldn’t act when asking others f
“Alright, there’s no need to worry. We don’t have that problem, so as long as you explain the situation to me very clearly, I’ll be able to inform Main command. Then we will figure a way to get you out.”After letting the current situation sink into the big man’s heart, Arran finally reassured him that all hope was not lost.Immediately, the big man brightened up, and he became hopeful again.Without detail, he started explaining everything that had happened to Arran.“Yes, so it happened like this...”Arran listened to the big man’s words carefully. After a few seconds, he finally understood what had transpired.It was very simple, actually. Because of their bad start where they ended up far from their target, the first and second teams were not really subtle in their methods as they hurried to make up for the lost time. Not that there was a need for subterfuge. But their methods had been too hasty, which had alerted the criminal leaders in the third level.That is how they devised a
After Arran finished speaking, he didn’t wait for the big man to say anything at all. Just like he said, they only had two minutes to break out of the trap and three more to escape before the ship self-destructed. If they couldn’t make it out in time, then they would be toast.With all these considered, Arran quickly spoke to the big man.“You’ve heard what I said. We don’t have a lot of time. We have to get you out of there in two min... no, in a minute. That’s the only way we can guarantee we make it out in time before the ship explodes.”Ha!Hearing Arran’s words, the big man laughed mirthlessly.In a self-deprecating manner, the big man said to Arran.“What is the point of that? We’ve already tried everything we can, but still can’t break through the glass trapping us inside. Main command says we should try our best, but what they are really saying is that they are leaving us to die in here.”“Well, it’s not like I can blame them. After all, I am the one who led us into this mess