“It’s finally done!” bellowed Luon as he completed the repairs of his last assigned section. Looking over the progress the other girls Luon estimates that there were only a few hours left before the outer wall of the outpost was completed.
Currently, Tyron was out hunting, so Luon left him a message relaying that the outer wall’s repairs were almost complete and that he is going to check the progress on the inner side.
Tyron replied back almost instantly with a thumbs up emoticon, and Luon smiled at how simple the message was.
After glancing over his work one more time to make sure everything was in order Luon began to walk towards the command room where Shizuka was. On his arrival he found the majority of the work was completed as the majority of the other members were cleaning the facility. Luon found Shizuka under an electronic panel tinkering at several wires, as he got up close and he asks “How much longer until the inside is complete?”
Hearing those words, Shizuka continued to work and quickly replied while still focused on the task, “About 6 more hours, all that’s left is the automatic defense mechanisms and a few other things. I left these things for last because Arisa and Belle are clearing out the Inzektors around us, so we didn’t need it yet. Is that all you came here for?”
“Well I already finished my portion of the work, so I came to see if there was any left. Also, I came to ask for some leftover materials,” replied Luon.
His bomb and run tactic earlier had cost him nearly all of his explosives he had on him and Luon was hoping to stack up some more before going back to the first outpost.
Luon felt that Gizmo and Bendan can easily handle themselves, however, he rather not stay with the girls any longer since there was nothing to do here.
Hearing Luon’s request, Shizuka agreed immediately and called Keyral over to guide him to the storage room. Shizuka knew that during the construction period Luon had some trouble with some of the other female subordinates but was too busy to tell them off.
As for Keyral, she stayed at the base as she was in charge of the defenses, and she had also noticed the other subordinates actions but did not attempt to assist Luon at all when he was being bullied. It's not that she didn't want to help, she was just under the impression that men should be more tolerant towards the simple acts and was silently noting down the names of those troublesome girls. After the expedition, they would experience some disciplinary action.
Luon oblivious of Keyral’s thoughts and followed her until they reached the storage room. There were a lot of leftover materials which could be used for explosives. Other than mending the walls and fixing the modules on the base nobody had considered creating explosives due to the lack of free time to do so.
Luon thanked Keyral and left with the materials towards one of the free workshops, although they were open for everyone to use not many people were inside. Luon quietly began to work and after a few hours in he received a short message from Tyron.
[Outbreak OOOX OOOY, numbers tens of thousands. Threat A]
Upon reading the message, Luon questioned why Tyron hadn’t messaged the ship for reinforcements as it was part of the safety procedure to report large outbreaks to secure the students safely. With that thought in mind, he decided to give Captain Waver a call only to find that other than the local messaging system his BMPU has been disconnected from the network.
Luon sensed something was odd and hurried his way to the command room. Fortunately, he had robotic assistants still crafting explosives for him so even if it was a false alarm he was making progress without being there.
Upon arriving at the command room he found that none of the students were in the state of emergency, Luon didn’t know if he should feel relieved or even more worried, so he quickly made his way to Shizuka and asked, “How is the progress on the automatic defense system?”
Shizuka who noticed Luon coming back while she was still working replied, “I need another hour or two, it’s almost done. Are you worried about how low your contribution points are? Since you’ve been working here, Arisa has almost caught up.”
“No, it’s not that it's just...” Luon hesitated a bit, he couldn’t confirm the news of the outbreak, but at the same time, he trusted his friend Tyron. Although Luon didn’t want to appear like an idiot in front of these girls the fact that he stopped to consider whether Tyron’s words were right or not made him think he was even more stupid. Regardless whether or not it was true or false, he should put his trust in him now like how Tyron entrusted this vital message to him.
Shizuka who sensed Luon seriousness stopped working and turned to face him awaiting his next words.
Luon who calmed down a bit and firmly said to Shizuka, “Recall all your subordinates there’s an outbreak happening, and I can’t contact the starship.”
Shizuka who heard the first half of the sentence wanted to question the authenticity of his words, but after hearing the second half, she felt that there was more to this than merely just an outbreak and bad connection.
She got up and face Keyral as she yelled, “Keyral contact Belle, Arisa, and all squad leaders and told them to hurry back to the outpost, class A emergency.”
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Keyral who heard Shizuka’s command began to message everyone using her BMPU, seeing her at work Shizuka quickly ran towards the PA system and bellowed, “All staff to arms! Squad Leader to the command room! Engineers from Squad 1 to 5 to the workshop and begin crafting munitions, the rest to the walls!”
She then turned and faced Luon and asked him about the details of the message, as Luon was explaining the content of the message he received another message from Tyron only more detailed.
[Inzektor Outbreak NW side of the outpost. ETA 6 hours. Confirmed over 30,000 category D humanoid Inzektors, 100 category C, and possibly 10 unconfirmed category B. I will be returning to base in an hour with more details.]
After Shizuka and Luon read the message, their worries became worse by the second. It was almost impossible to get such accurate numbers without knowing the existence of the enemy. The fact that Tyron managed to escape with the details has strengthened their resolve to defend from the outpost.
Shizuka once again attempted to contact the starship only to find the signal to be blocked, there was no recording of any Inzektor with the ability to block signals, so she felt something was really off about the situation. She turned commanded Luon, “For now you’re in charge of finishing the repairs on the defenses. I don’t care how you do it. I just want it done as quick as possible.”
“Affirmative,” Luon nodded, it was imperative to repair remaining defense modules and wall partitions, a single crack and lack of preparations may cost the life of one of their comrades in arms.
Luon quickly left the room to finish the repairs and Shizuka who was left in the command room began to bellow out orders. She then recalled that the outpost lifeform scanner can extend its detection radius if focus towards a particular direction. Although she didn’t doubt Tyron’s words, she did so to confirm her sanity, and as Shizuka did, she found that the information wasn’t accurate. It wasn’t that there was no horde of Inzektors, she discovered that their numbers were nearly doubled what was mentioned.
…
Within a few hours inside of the command room of the outpost was a gloomy atmosphere, there was still no words from the high command, and the Inzektors were only half an hour away. Besides securing their defenses and the development of munitions they have just crafted a few vehicles to use for their escape. Luon had told Bendan and Tyron of the news right after he left the command room and it shocked them greatly.
Luon had suggested to Arisa who took command to retreat to the other outpost where they would be more prepared to face the Inzektors. Arisa thought for a moment and agreed, but at the same time, she said, “Even though we are retreating from this outpost we need to reduce the numbers of Inzektors. First of all, we need to stall long enough to prepare more vehicles. Secondly, after retreating to the other outpost, there’s no guarantee that everything will go well after we arrive. It’s best if we can reduce their numbers as much as we can.”
“For how long do we defend for then?” asked Luon.
Arisa looked at Shizuka who replied, “The minimum amount of time we need to prepare the remaining vehicles is about an hour, if we try to hurry it fast enough we might be able to save another half an hour meaning we can leave almost right away.”
Arisa nodded at those words and faced the group. The squad leaders gulped as Arisa valiantly said, “Within the next half an hour all squads are to prepare themselves for combat, all engineers must get those vehicles going, the sooner, the better! After it is confirmed that all personnel has escaped, we will blow up the outpost taking out most of those damn Inzektors. No matter what you all got to stay alive! You all got that?”
In unison, all of the subordinates said, “Yes ma’am!”
Arisa nodded at her subordinate and pressed her fist against her chest and said, “For a new era!”
At this moment everyone in the room including Luon and Tyron did the same gesture and yelled, “For a new era!”
After confirming their resolves, all of the staff went to there assigned positions Luon took his robotic army and his explosives to the upper walls with Tyron. Once they arrived, they found Arisa and Belle facing towards the direction of the horde.
Luon walked up and asked the girls, “Are you afraid?”
Arisa turned to face Luon and said, “Who isn’t afraid? Today we may even die, and I’m more surprised to find that they had so many Inzektors that wasn’t wiped by the military, it seems some things are happening under the scenes.”
“Are you implying that Zythos may have a hand in this?” asked Luon.
Arisa nodded as she gazed outwards and said, “If he didn’t have a hand in this then how would we not be able to contact with the starship by now? That damn Zythos must have brought a signal jammer to this place. As for the signal strength, he should be within a few days of distance from here.”
Luon nodded at Arisa deduction, he sighed and thought maybe if it weren’t for him beating Zythos during their class match maybe things wouldn’t turn out like this. It was quite the optimistic thought, and he was doubtful of it as well since Zythos had huge ambitions.
Belle who saw Luon lost in his thoughts said, “Don’t worry too much. It’s only been half a day since the signal was jammed, right at this moment Captain Waver would be requesting reinforcements to rescue us from this predicament.”
“Hmm, you’re right I don’t believe Captain Waver would leave us hanging here unless something troublesome has happened,” said Luon.
It was at this moment did the people in the outpost began to hear a series of eerie crackling sounds of trees falling. The stampede caused by the horde of Inzektors shook the earth causing the people stationed at the outpost to become nervous and afraid.
“It’s… a Ravager!” one girl proclaimed.
And it wasn't just one Ravager, but about twenty of them. They were the classified category B threat averaging around the combat level of 60, they were half the size of a cyclops which compared to the defensive wall is about 1/3rd of it. They had a dark skeletal shaped body with claws as hands and feet, and a pointy tail that seemed to be able to impale and slice people in a single swift motion.
Arisa at this point was nervous, her every command may cost the lives of her people and facing this horde of beasts, she couldn’t help but feel afraid of commanding her friends.
She despaired at her fate, her sister gallantly led the allied troops to face the Inzektors while she could only embarrassingly shake in fear against them.
At this moment Luon tapped her shoulder causing her to jolt. He knew of her troubles and the weight on her shoulders as he had experienced it numerous times during his second simulations, so in her place, he yelled, “Prepare yourselves! Remember the fate of those around you rests upon yourself to take arms! Do not falter and kill the Inzektors! For a new era!”
Everyone who heard Luon’s plead regained their senses from the fear caused by the intimidating army of Inzektors, they arm themselves to protect their friends, they ready themselves to defend their own lives, and they become determined to fight the Inzektors all for the new era.