Jensen sat in the armory of the Wall of Dawn fortress, wiping his shells clean.

  Categorizing the shell-wielding equipment as a type of ordnance was certainly a little odd. Those things look nothing like modern firearms. Of course, for the people who knew how to wield them, Shelling Bubble and the shells might possibly be the deadliest weapon in the entire armory.

  "How about sending you back tomorrow?" The man sitting across from Jensen said. There was a thermos bottle in camouflages sheath in front of him, as well as a pack of opened food ration.

  "Trying to get rid of me already?" Jensen lifted his head and glanced at the man. His hand reached for another piece of shell before he started wiping it clean again. Even though those shells weren't made of metal, they still needed to be stored and maintained like guns; else it would easily get blunt, the compactness would also worsen.

  "Oh, Jensen. Give me a break." The man in an S.D.A uniform opened the thermos bottle. He slowly poured the liquid inside into the cap that was made like a cup. "You know how much Sahil loves to have you by his side." He shook his head, giving a wry smile.

  "Not even for a couple more days?" Jensen squinted slightly. "Just tell him that I scraped a bit, and I'll recuperate here for a couple of days." He suggested, expecting affirmative feedback.

  The man sitting across from him pondered for a while, before letting out a sigh. "Fine, perhaps I can let you stay for another two days," he said. "But you can't leave this base."

  "Jotunn!" Jensen's eyes suddenly widened. "I thought you knew why I wanted to stay." He said.

  "And I thought you've desisted." The man named Jotuun replied in a serious tone.

  "Tsk." Jensen averted his eyes annoyedly. He went silent for a few seconds before opening up again. "I need to know, Jotuun." He looked back at the man again. "Where they're heading to might be—"

  "Might be what?"

  "... I don't know. I just feel like I have to get to the bottom of this. Maybe it has something to do with the purpose of their invasion."

  "That's just your blind guess." The man holding the cup shook his head. "You said that they're trying to get into the Death Rim the last time. I've sent some people to do the research. They've discovered that sometimes some of the individuals will move towards a certain destination at the same time, but overall there wasn't enough evidence to support your theory. The Star Creatures' moving patterns might be simple, but there really isn't any coherence. They either cause chaos anywhere they go, or they hug themselves tightly and stay still."

  "That's because you can't sense their behavior." Jensen retorted, picking up another shell again to clean.

  "To be honest, I don't understand why you're so persistent on this." Jotuun placed down the thermos bottle. "You clearly have the power that no other Chasers can compete with, yet you stress yourself with the research department, or the CIC's business."

  "God, you think I find battling easy?" Jensen arched one of his brows.

  Jotuun stared at him and only shrugged. "Seems pretty reasonable for me."

  "Every time I connect to the Shelling Bubble and battle against them, I would feel some sort of... emotion. Some kind of emotions from those monsters." Jensen shook his head as he said. He placed the cleaned shells back into the container they belonged in. "It's like someone's forcing you to watch those boring propaganda videos."

  "Does that mean you know what they're thinking about?"

  "No... I don't think they are capable of conducting complex thinking like us humans. What I felt was more like physiological needs, something like sexual desires, like..."

  "Primitive impulse." Jensen tried to explain.

  "Sexual desires?" Jotuun frowned. "My God, Jensen. I thought that experiment only made you into some Shell-wielding genius."

  "That was the original plan, yes," Jensen agreed. "Guess this was an unexpected... variation for them too."

  "You're not going to turn into one of them, are you?" Jotuun asked as he raised an eyebrow.

  "It's very unlikely. I just somehow formed a connection with the Star Creatures. I'm still a human."

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  "So you said that you can sense those monsters. Them wanting to go to a certain spot in the Death Rim was also what you got from you sensing?"

  Jensen nodded as he continued on rubbing the shells.

  "How are you sure that every single one of them wanted to do so?" Jotuun questioned. He then picked up a piece of cracker from the food ration before popping it into his mouth. "Maybe you've just coincidentally ran into the ones that wanted to move towards the Death Rim. Also the fact that the Death Rim is a considerably large area, who can be certain that they're all wanting to go to the same place?"

  "I've been serving for seven years," Jensen indicated. "Even if we take away the times when I was still normal, that's still enough for the number of duties I've gone on. You think I had just randomly concluded this?"

  "That's not what I meant," Jotuun said, chewing on the cracker. "But let's settle it at that. In light of the current situation, the S.D.A won't let you chase after a Star Creature into the Rim anyway."

  "I know." Jensen flashed a smile that was hard to understand. "But if I can get closer to the Star Creatures that were already in the Death Rim..."

  "No way." Jotuun looked straight into Jensen's eyes and cut him off with a veto. "I know what you're thinking, Jensen. I'm not going to let you do it."

  "Tsk, I haven't even finished," Jensen complained. "Can't you just turn a blind eye on that?"

  "You're not a soldier at our fortress, Jensen." Jotuun pointed out. "You're not even a Border Chaser."

  "Come on, Jotuun." Jensen implored. "No one will know unless you report it."

  "You think it's that simple? Even if I privately allow you to do so, some other soldiers will see it." Jensen gave a firm rejection. "Remember the last time of you trying to leave the fortress? The commanding center wouldn't give me a break on that one, do you really want me to —"

  A set of rapid footsteps came from somewhere down the hall, interrupting the conversation.

  Jensen and Jotuun looked to the entrance in sync, only to see a soldier ran in, flustered. "Commander Branson!" The soldier hurriedly skipped over to the two men sitting in the armory. He saluted.

  "Major." He turned towards Jensen, saluting once again.

  "What's wrong, sergeant?" Jotuun glanced at the intruder.

  "Enemy attack, commander," the sergeant answered in a panicking voice.

  "Which spot?"

  "No, Commander. It's not the fortress, it's our outpost."

  "Are you saying..." Jotuun was dumbfounded, but he quickly regained posture.

  "How is that possible?" He sounded highly in doubt. "Are the waves emitters around not working properly? Or is it..."

  He trailed off, then let out a few curses before sprinting to the corner of the room. He pulled out a map before spreading it across a table. "Which one?"

  "It's the coastal one." The sergeant pointed at the map. There was a black mark somewhere next to the coastal line of the Rift Sea. "Fenix Harbor," he said.

  "Fenix Harbor," Jotuun repeated to himself, then frowned. "If I recall correctly, we've deployed quite a lot of Chasers there."

  "You're correct, commander. But now they only have two teams on call."

  "How many of them are there?"

  "If the reported number is correct, three Star Creatures had attacked."

  "At the same time?"

  "There was originally only one, but another two got drawn over as well." The talking soldier paused for a second. "However, since the wave emitter malfunctioned, without it being a bait there might be more of them coming."

  "Which's the closest outpost?"

  "Supposedly here." The sergeant said, pointing to another mark on the map. "I assume they've already sent backing, but taking a humvee over would at least take an hour."

  Jotuun didn't immediately respond after hearing the comment. His hands were pressed against the table as he fell into his deep thoughts.

  "Commander," Jensen suddenly spoke up.

  "Stay your ass over here, Jensen." Jotuun turned, his voice stern.

  "Just because I'm not a Border Chaser?"

  "You're only gonna make things worse."

  "I can save them."

  "You're gonna get yourself killed!" Jotuun refuted. "Let my men handle it. Don't underestimate the Border Chasers. They fight until the last second."

  "What are you going to do?" Jensen retorted. "Send backings from here? Fingers can count how many Chaser teams were stationed at the Wall of Dawn. It would be too late by the time you gathered them together."

  "Grouping them up wouldn't take long."

  "And I can leave now!" Jensen slammed his hand on the table, announcing it confidently.

  The commander of the Wall of Dawn lifted his head and stared at the ceiling, before he closed his eyes, letting out a long sigh.

  "Ask the people at the ramp to get prepared." Moments later Jotuun turned, commanding the sergeant next to him. He then turned towards Jensen. "You better not fuck this up."

  Jensen saluted with a clean gesture, then nodded. He reopened the trunk on the table, taking out the Shelling Bubble and shells that he had just packed in.