John took one of the armor's piece from Lenny's hand and tried it out.

[Too heavy...] John frowned. Just a single piece of the armor was almost 10 kilograms of weight. This type of extremely heavy armor would work for those who seek protection above everything else, but John wasn't that type.

"I'll keep the Scouter's Set." John prefer to maintain freedom of movement and speed, this camo armor of the BSS was way too heavy for it. The Scouter's Set was sleeveless and the material was Steel, way lighter than the amount of Titanium used in the BSS's Tier 3 Heavy Armor.

Even though Titanium is lighter than Steel, the amout of such material used in the amor made for the Syndicate made the armor bulkier and heavier than the Scouter's Set used by the USCM.

"Okay... We got a few new toys." Lenny joyfully smiled while he played around with the granades that he took from the soldiers' body.

"That is a... EMP Grenade?" John recognized the granade in Lenny's hand.

"Yep." Lenny threw one at John.

John caught the object and looked closer. It was almost like a Frag Grenade, but it was blue and not yellow.

The grenades can be categorized in various types, each with a different color.

Yellow is for fragmentation grenades, red is for flammable grenade, blue is for EMP grenade, green is for poison grenade, black is for tactical smoke granade and white is for flashbang grenades.

This was the categorization made by the USCM centuries ago, but it's still under use until this day. Most of the categorization of weapons, ammunition, techs, etc, was made by the USCM mostly because they were the biggest supplier of weapons of the universe by the time they were active. It was only after their fall that Maliwan and Hyperion were able to grow, but the USCM was on the top for far too long and the people got used to their categorization, so these companies followed the trends and kept using the same as the USCM.

"This EMP Grenade can disable weak electric devices in a radius of 10 meters for about 1 to 5 minutes." John analysed the grenade in his hand. He played around with it for a while before he stored it on his PIPS.

"We can't lose our time here, let's go before their reinforcements come." John looked at Lenny and Peri. "Let's head east for now."

And so they went east, following the direction given by the soldier.

...

"What!?" The captain of the BSS soldiers in the forest planet shouted as he stood from his big chair. "The whole Sixth Squad is dead?" The captain asked again the soldier that delivered the information to him.

The soldier trembled, but still repeated the information. "Th-the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Ninth Squad were killed in action..."

"How could this happen!!" The captain threw a sharp object at the human soldier in front of him.

*Bam*

The soldier's forehead started to bleed, but he kept mum about it and didn't even groaned.

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"How many we have left?" The captain chest rose and fell very fast. His eyes were bloodshot when he glared at the soldier.

The human soldier was scared out of his mind by how mad their captain looked right now. "W-we g-got-"

"STOP STAMMERING AND SPEAK PROPERLY!!" The captain shouted with all his strength.

"We only have the Seventh and Tenth Squads here on the outpost, SIR!!" The soldier spoke with all his strength, saluted and fainted from fright.

The captain's angry eyes hovered in the human soldier for a while before he switched his line of sight. "Carry this useless guy out of my room." He ordered one of his personal guards that were by the door of his room.

The guard saluted and easily dragged the soldier away from the room.

The captain reached for his PIPS and stared at it for a while. He hesitated, to send or not send his remaining forces.

"What's the problem?" The captain heard a lazy and hoarse voice coming from the door.

[Shit... The one I don't want to meet came to find me...] The captain glared the humanoid blue beacon that liked to wear cowboy clothes known as Oscar.

"Something that you might need help...?" Oscar entered the room like it was his own and relaxedly sat on the chair with a bottle of Summerset beer in his hand.

"No..." The captain doesn't want to get Oscar involved in his problems.

"Well... If you don't need my help I'll be taking my leave." Oscar stood up and politely smiled.

"Heh...?" The captain looked at Oscar, surprised by his reaction. [Usually this guy is annoying to the extreme... What's up with him now?] The captain stared hard at Oscar.

"Oh, right, I forgot." Oscar that was about to leave the room suddently turned around and faced the captain. "I'm here just to remind you that if anything goes wrong with this operation the head that is going to be cut it isn't mine, sooooo.... If you need help, don't hesitate to call me out. Hahahaha..." Oscar left the room while gleefully laughing.

The captain clenched his fist until his veins were almost popping out.

"FUCK YOU!" The captain angrily crashed everything that was in his table.

"Sir, calm down..." A burly Apex soldier wearing the same forest camo armor that the previous soldier were wearing, entered the room.

"Leader of the First Squad..." The captain looked at the burly Apex.

"Just call me A1." The Apex fixed his full beard with his hand and glanced at the objects that were at the floor. "You really should watch out your anger, you know."

"A1... Just say what you want..."

"Hm..." The Apex sat at the opposite chair of the captain and thoughtfully scratched his chin. "This 3 Invaders... We can assume they are for us, right?"

"How can you say that?"

"Simple... The first invader came and then stopped by the Floran Colony we just burned to the ground. After that it started to hunt down our forces. I can assume... It's for revenge... Maybe?"

"So what?"

"Well... Since they are coming for us, why don't we just wait for them...?" The Apex smiled sinisterly. "I mean... We got the Floran kids. They need to come to us."

"Ambush, then?" The captain liked the way A1 was thinking.

"Not just ambush... But we can actually force them to submit, as long as we have hostages. If one plan don't work, we go with the next. Simple as that."

"Alright." The captain nodded in response. "I'll give you free reigns over this situation." He then turned around and sharply glared at A1. "You better not fail me, okay?"

"Yes, sir." A1 stood up, saluted and left the room.

...

Oscar was walking by the cages that were filled with Floran kids when he suddently felt a burning sensation on the back of his hand.

He took of his leather gloves and glanced at the burnt mark on the back of his hand.

The mark looked like one of the Ancient Runes that were everywhere in the Ark Ruins.

"So it really is you Lenny." Oscar joyfully smiled when he saw the mark glowing with a faint light.

...

10 kilometers away from the BSS Outpost...

Lenny stopped by a tree, hidden from John and Peri's line of sight.

He took off his leather glove and stared at the burnt mark that was faintly glowing on the back of his hand.

[Oscar...] Lenny's eyes sharpened when he looked at the BSS Outpost in the distance. [You are here...] He chuckled.

The mark on the back of Lenny's hand was the same that was on the back of Oscar's hand.

Both marks were in fact a single Ancient Rune that mean "Survivor".

Memories from the past flashed through Lenny's mind. He calmed down and looked once again in the distance, but this time his Omega 'Brand' flashed with a mysterious light.

"This will finally end..." He whispered to himself and started to walk again. "Today... Oscar... You must die."