Jake pulled out his token and activated it. Moments later, Alric was floating beside the three.
“Sir, why would you make a territory in a place like this?”
“We are making a base on the moon. This will be the area for the ships, while the next one will be for housing, security, and maybe mining if all goes well. I'm hoping we can dig a tunnel to it from here,” Jake said, then followed up with, “You should go talk with James. If he expects he will be in charge here, well, other than you, that is.”
Seconds later, James and his team exited the ship from the ground level and walked directly into Alric and the others. “How did you get out before us?” The two guards behind Jake just pointed up in response. James just shook his head, then headed over to Jake. “So, what is the plan, boss?”
Jake shook his head at the whole boss thing, then said, “Send a team to the entrance and the others to secure the area and any tunnels. We don't know if there are any more entrances here. But make sure everyone is within radio range. I don't want people getting lost down here.” Some time later, Jake left with a group of seven people heading down the tunnel, all bouncing along the ground as if they were astronauts.
“Here's the intersection, sir. It looks like we have a small tunnel. Would you like us to check it out?” Annabel asked.
“Send some people down. Also, try to map out where it goes and if we can use it for later.”
“Yes, sir. You two go check it out,” Annabel ordered, then
added, “Leave one more person here to tell the two I brought to head back to the ship, and take the rest with you to the entrance while I take this path.”
Jake set off down the tunnel alone, his pistol in one hand as he bounced down the tunnel, until he came across a small tunnel only big enough for one person to crawl down. Jake marked the tunnel before moving on. Moments later, he found another one followed by fifteen more. Jake was starting to get a bad feeling as he continued down the tunnel until he reached the cavern that he was told about. Jake's face sank the moment he turned on his helmet lights. The report he got said this cavern was full of crystals, but what he saw were not crystals as he knew crystals to be. As the moment Jake lit up the cavern, some of the crystals moved away from the light. Lowering the intensity of the light and identifying one of the creatures, Jake's heart sank.
S:\>auto-identification
Race: crystal cutter hive drone
Grade: F
Level: 2
Weakness: unknown
“Oh, fuck,” Jake muttered as he activated his radio. “Everyone fall back to the ship now. All explanations have been cancelled and all security teams are to go on high alert. We have natives on the moon.” Jake slowly walked backwards down the tunnel. Only once he felt he was far enough away did Jake activate his wings as he flew as fast as he could.
Down in a tunnel, the two guards Jake had brought with him were looking at a creature with six legs and a body shape similar to that of a green lacewing, only they were the size of a pre-system kelpie.
“Jo, what am I looking at?”
“I don't know, but don't get any closer. Let's just leave this place to it.” The two slowly walked backwards until the creature's mouth started chattering as it ran back into the tunnel it came from. Moments later, its chattering stopped only to begin again, but this time it wasn't one crystal cutter, but the sound of thousands of them.
“Run,” Jo yelled as the two took off up the tunnel, the sounds behind them getting louder with every step.
Jake rounded the corner just as the two guards jumped out of the tunnel, followed by five crystal cutters snapping at their heels. Raising his pistol, Jake fired round after round into the first crystal cutter as it flew into Jo and knocked him out of the way. Every round that Jake fired bounced off the creature as Jake rushed past. He quickly contacted Annabel and told her to wait at the entrance, then he grabbed the two guards and told the other person to run.
Annabel ordered her soldiers to make a perimeter as she and her men were surrounded by these strange creatures. She tried everything to kill these things, but the best they could do was to slow them down as they continued to fall back towards the intersection.
“Nightwitch, how do we kill these bloody things?”
Annabel didn't answer the man; instead, she ordered him to fall back as the next person took the point, with rounds continuing to burst out of every rifle her team had as explosions rang out. As one of her men said in a flat tone, “I thought no one could hear you scream in space; that's just ruined my plans for later.” Then laughter could be heard on the team's radio. Through her laughter, she commanded the next soldier to fall back, leaving her at the point. She continued firing until her ammunition ran out; then reaching into her storage, she grabbed a satchel charge bigger than anything that had been used yet. It was at least the size of a suitcase, and its fuse was already lit as she threw it towards the exit and deep into the horde.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
On the bridge of the Hecter Amir
“Sir, this planet's moon is infested with high-rankers. We have lost twenty thousand F-grade battle cultivators and one E-grade, plus the territory token and all of our native slaves we had onboard. It seems the creatures down there have D-grade monarchs, and not a small number. Not even Karak was able to come back unscathed.”
“How bad is he?”
“He's taken soul damage and won't be able to wake for at least a hundred years, sir. That would make you the new commander of this sector, would it not?”
“Yes, it would. That stupid brother of mine pushed too hard; he should have just stuck with the original plan.”
“Sir, what's your orders? Do we call off this invasion? We have limited manpower in this solar system.”
“The rats in this solar system are weak, but I will need to take most of the fleet back to the Mara sector to inform the local branch elders of the incident. I will leave this invasion in your hands, Kai, but stay away from that moon till I get back. Also, transfer over to the Orka; I know it's an old ship, but it will do the job.”
I finally have it, and that man said I would never surpass my brother, and now look at me, a low E grade cultivator with no talent, actually in control of an entire sector.
Hecter Amir thought as he got ready to leave this high F grade planet and head back to one that can at least support D grades.
How can anyone think this place is a good cultivation planet? These rats should be begging for us to take them away, but no, they continue to fight us, and they even have those irritating fles they call runabouts. But at least those fles can't get up here.
“All right, everyone, we are taking this ship and the two corvettes and five gunships of House Tain with us. The rest of you will continue the invasion under the command of Kai Bak. The new flagship will be the Orka. Remember to work hard for the Red Rock Slavers and the United Commerce Guild.”
If it wasn't for this unjust system and the overpowered Banking Guild and their stupid rules, we could have wiped this planet clean in seconds. Kai Bak thought to himself as he sat in the back of a transport ship on his way to his family's fleet and the old corvette class he was now to make his flagship. In its heyday, the ship was a powerhouse, but now it can only be relegated to an armed transport ship.
Fuck that Banking Guild. If it wasn't for them and their loan collectors, the Bak clan would be in charge of this invasion and not that idiot and his family of fanatics.
“Sir, we are coming up on the flagship now.”
Kai Bak walked up to the cockpit of the ship; two red-skinned men sat side by side at the controls of the ship. Looking at the view screen, Kai sighed as he looked at the image of his family's ship and the three old escorting gunships with the two fighter wings of six old automated fighters.
“These old ships, I can't believe this is what my family has left. We were once rulers, but now what are we? A fleet of antique transport ships and this rusty piece of junk,” Kai said before heading back to his rusty metal seat.
Moon base
Alric floated in the void world between territories when he felt a new connection appear as flashes of old memories entered his mind, followed by a rush of energy that entered his chains, forming a single link. “999,900.92 left. I’m sorry, I shouldn't have left you,” Alric said as his eyes closed once again.
In the moon beside the rusty bucket, Alric stood when suddenly he felt a new territory appear not far from his current location. His image instantly vanished as a new one appeared in front of Jake.
“It's good to see you, sir.”
“Alric, it's good to see you too, but as you can see, we have a bit of an issue here. Can you help us out?”
Alric looked around, then without hesitation, stretched the barrier back towards the ship, pushing all the crystal cutters out of the way or crushing them against the wall till the barrier reached all the way back to the cavern and butted one up against the other, then weakened the two touching parts. Then, with what was left of the barrier, he pushed it towards the exit, the barrier blasting through the collapsed part of the tunnel, only stopping when it reached the exit.
“That should be enough for now,” Alric said before vanishing.
Jake stood up and rushed forward to the bodies lying on the ground. As he got closer, he relieved his stress as he breathed out before reaching out to Annabel, checking for a heartbeat from the suit's monitoring system.
“Good, she's still alive. But she's not in a good way. Jo, take them back to the ship and request help; it seems the radios are out of range or damaged.”
After Jake got Jo and the others out of the area, he slumped to the ground, his hands on each side of his head.
“I shouldn't have come here. I need to stop doing this; I just keep getting people hurt,” Jake said before he brought out his runabout and flew out of the tunnel into space.
After Jake had left, Alric reappeared, staring off into the darkness of space. “Be safe, young master, and leave this to me.”
Jake flew across the moon's surface, ducking from shadow to shadow as he headed towards the location the scans showed lifeforms on the surface. Just before he reached the location, Jake stopped the runabout and landed before putting it away as he moved in on foot, only stopping when he reached the outskirts of what looked like a mining facility.
“It would seem they are not just here to steal people but also our resources as well. This is not going to go well for us,” Jake said before sliding back down the hill. Only then did he realise there was no movement inside the mining facility.
“Did they abandon it or did something worse happen?”