"So, to reiterate the plan." Rui continued. "We have Kane infiltrate the research facility sometime prior the day of the assault and have him keep a close eye on the location of the comms and the leaders of the facility."

"Then, when the next supply shipment is enroute, we attack it and kill most of its occupants. Either we keep the driver alive or replace him with one of ourselves. Then show them the documents and once they go to the back to check up on the supply goods, we ambush them." Rui explained. "During the shipment unloading and docking, there were only two Martial Apprentices who stood guard during the entire process. If we gang up on them and overwhelm them quickly with a numbers advantage and the element of surprise, we're doing very well."

He turned to Fae. "The element of surprise is especially important and powerful. With the element of surprise, you should successfully be able to land your Whirlpool attack on one of them and I should be able to land my Stinger successfully. Once that's done, their hope of survival is absolutely zero. Taking them out early means we get to fight the remaining four Martial Apprentices with a five-on-four advantage, that should be quite solidly in our favour as well."

"While we're launching an ambush from the outside, Kane sabotages communications and leadership which shouldn't take more than a minute given his prowess. He can also stall the four Martial Apprentices from entering, although that can be dangerous. However, as long as it's merely stalling and distracting, and he's careful, he should be able to manage. The Void Step technique is overpowered, and he's grown stronger since mastering it."

"Once we enter, we regroup with Kane and fight the remaining the four Martial Apprentices while securing the secret entrance to the research facility so that none of them leave and begin our clean-up operation thoroughly and finish up the job as fast as possible, secure the data and leave."Content is © 2024 .

Rui inhaled lightly at the end of the lecture. "This will be the general gist of the plan, any suggestions? Critiques? Questions? Note that the plan is tentative, until we scour through the intelligence Kane brings back, we can't be as certain as we'd like."

"Even if we sabotage the communications, won't the fact that the convoy shipping the supplies to the research facility did not return to wherever it was dispatched from raise alarms?" Hever asked. "They would certainly try to track the location of the convoy if it doesn't return."

"That's definitely true, however, we are geographically far away from even the closest population center, which means the convoy is expected to take several hours to return back to the dispatch location. By the time the time any measures are taken due to the convoy being late, we will have long completed the mission and left the research facility." Rui told them. "It's quite likely there's a verification report sent by the facility to whatever executive branch is responsible for the supply shipments. We need to begin our ambush after the report is sent or send the fake report ourselves. The details of which will be ironed out once Kane returns."

The four, no, three of them discussed the plan and thought it through thoroughly. A few days passed as another shipment of supplies arrived and Kane was able to escape once they opened up the secret entrance once more.

Soon, he regrouped with the rest of his team, collapsing when he was finally in safety.

"Kan-." "Later! I'm sleeping first!" Kane barked at Rui.

"Ah..." Rui forgot he hadn't slept in a while and had also been keeping the Void Step technique active for extended period of time.

It was only after ten hours of sleep that Kane finally awoke from his slumber. "Oh man... That was horrific, I never want to do that ever again."

"You've mastered the Void Step technique; you'll be expected to do that by people who commission you and the Martial Union as well." Rui scoffed. "Why do you think you were assigned to this mission? Your stealth is the strongest reason why."

Rui chuckled as Kane groaned loudly, earning chides from Fae.

"Alright, now give us a detailed report first." Rui told Kane.

"Okay." Kane took a deep breath as he began narrating the entire story.

When he had first entered, he saw a large and wide room with security personnel that inspected the supply goods before sending the goods down a heavily guarded elevator. The two Martial Apprentices who had overseen the unloading and docking of the supply shipments were permanent security in the security floor.

The remaining four Martial Apprentices were guarding down in the actual research facility below. Out of which Kane only ever saw three.

"Only three?" Rui asked. "Was the grade-ten Martial Apprentice among them?"

"No." Kane shook his head. "I never saw the grade-ten Apprentice. He was probably in the core wing of the research facility that I never got visit."

"Why not?"

"Because it never opened, not even once."

"Hmmm..." Rui's eyes narrowed. "The simplest explanation is that the most important and vital research is ongoing within that core wing. Which is why he's permanently guarding it at all times."

"That's what I though too." Kane nodded.

"Tell me more about the research ongoing." Rui said.

Kane winced at those words. "Yeah. The research. It was bad. Hundreds of humans, locked in sealed glass rooms. Strapped in beds as test subjects. They would make them consume some kind of potion, subject them to some kind of torture or the other and the test subjects would all become brain-dead. They would never wake up and eventually die."

Rui frowned. That sounded remarkably bizarre.

"But their bodies were different, almost as if that procedure changed something."

"Different?"

"Yeah, improved, I guess. Whatever they did to them, basically killed them but also made their bodies stronger. Afterwards hey would conduct tests on things like toughness of the body and a bunch of other things I simply didn't understand, but basically, something was always different about the body in a measurable way compared to before. From everything I could gather..."

His eyes narrowed. "It felt like they, the entire facility, all the researchers and everybody weren't just testing the human body... I think they..."

He paused, hesitating. "I think they are trying to enhance the human body. I think that is the ultimate goal of the entire research facility."