The mission briefing Violet talked about took place in...you guessed it...another pocket dimension.
Violet led Jean to the entrance of that dimension. There was a panel in front of the portal. Violet swiped her watch over that panel.
“Violet. 3 missions. Qualified.”
As Violet’s form disappeared in the portal, Jean walked up and did a similar thing.
“Jean. 1 mission. Qualified.”
As Jean opened her eyes again, she found herself inside of a large field. Over 50 other Voyagers were present. Jean quickly found her way to Violet. The two waited for twenty more minutes as 30 more Voyagers entered. Finally, the time for registration was over.
A Protector in white armor walked to the front of the crowd. As soon as that happened, the Voyagers went dead silent.
“My name is Captain Gregor of the Fifth Legion of the Protector Corps.” The man announced. He wasn’t too loud, but his voice could be clearly passed on to every single Voyager present. He tapped something and pulled out a list of information, as well as an image.
“Your target is Dimension EZ2943448. When a single Protector descended on the dimension, the locals refused to submit to our protection. They made the mistake of creating a barrier around their world, trying to keep us out.”
“That’s a deadly mistake on their part.”
“We don’t care about the barrier. A single Protector can pop it. What we care about is that they dared to stand against us, the Protector Corps. This insolence will not stand.” Captain Gregor continued. “Dimension EZ2943448 will burn, and you have been chosen to be its executioners. In moments, we will send you into that dimension. Your mission is simple: Use whatever means to make that world suffer. Kill. Burn. Torture. Loot. There will be no rules. Do whatever you can to make the inhabitants of that dimension beg for mercy. Any questions?”
One of the Voyagers raised his hand.
“Speak!”
“Adam. 2 missions. If I may, Captain, should we leave that dimension with another chance? If we can take out the heads of the resistance, we can convince the rest to submit. Massacring the entire dimension for one single action might be too extreme...”
“Voyager Adam! You seem to have forgotten about one thing.” Captain Gregor cut him off. “Neither I nor the Grand Protector cares about the life or death of one puny dimension. We care about the larger picture, and exterminating Dimension EZ2943448 is in the best interest of the Endless Realms.”
Adam gripped his teeth tight.
“How so?”
“Because if inhabitants of the Endless Realms know it’s possible to rebel and live, they will consider rebellion as an option. By wiping out Dimension EZ2943448, we will teach them a lesson. Any action against the Protector Corps, no matter who, no matter why, and no matter what, will be punished with the most extreme methods. The blood of that universe will teach everyone else a valuable lesson.”
Adam was dead silent.
“Now, if anyone doesn’t want to go, they can leave.”
All eyes were trained on Adam, expecting him to depart, but the man remained. Gregor smirked before waving his hand.
“In that case, let the feast begin.”
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Dimension EZ2943448
The Empire of the Sun.
80 figures descended from the skies.
As the Voyagers entered their target destination, they were already in full Voyager sets. All of them had black Voyager armors on. Some had their helmet masks shut while others had them open, but they were all expressionless.
“We should coordinate our movement.” Violet spoke up first. As someone with a mission count of 3, she was among the most powerful in this expedition. Among the Voyagers, strength equalled respect, which could be translated to the right to lead. “Perhaps to the Protector Corp, this dimension is nothing, but anyone capable of setting up a dimensional barrier isn’t an easy foe. It will be a pity if we lose here because our carelessness.”
“Also, I think there’s a reason why the Protectors added the requirement of mission count when choosing us.” Jean added. “They can easily send a Protector over and kill everyone instantaneously, but they didn't. Why? Probably because they want the death of this dimension to be as slow as possible. We should take that into consideration.”
Maybe the speed this dimension was killed wouldn’t matter immediately, but having a good favor among the Protectors was always a good thing.
Violet nodded softly and approvingly at Jean.
“Wait a second. Wait a second.” Adam suddenly spoke up. “Does anyone else think this is mad? How many people are in this dimension? Are we really going to kill them all just because they tried to protect themselves? I mean...they never even attacked the Protectors. They only tried to set up a shield to defend themselves. Is that really worth the punishment?”
The other Voyagers looked at each other. Is this guy an idiot? No one present thought this dimension deserved to die, but no one but Adam decided they were worth disobeying the Protectors for. In other words, most Voyagers were just following orders.
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Even if we weren’t talking about Jean, Voyagers were selfish people in general. They have no friend. They have no family. They have no faith or culture. Their very survival was based on the death of others. To most of them, interest was the only thing keeping them going. They were more than willing to commit genocide for the reward of Captain Gregor. Plus, Gregor did mention looting was allowed…
In a group like this, someone with a conscious, someone like Adam, was a rarely.
Finally, the Voyagers decided to just ignore Adam.
“Violet. 3. My CAS is 500. I will be the leader of this mission, if no one objects.” Violet declared. She was polite in the declaration. Who knows if there was someone else stronger than her in the crowd that might be offended.
No one objected. Even Adam went silent when he realized no one cared what he thought. He still had a sense of good and evil, but he wasn’t stupid.
“Anyone majoring in psychic powers?”
A couple of Voyagers raised their hands.
“Anyone majoring in speed?”
Another couple raised their hands. Violet called on them.
“You four be the scouts. Find a tongue and bring him back to us. When the tongue is back, the psychic will read his mind. We need to know what type of world we are in.”
Information is the key to victory.
As most of the Voyagers rested, four Voyagers departed from the main group and headed toward all four directions. They all had special skills. One of them was just plain fast. Another had a pair of shadow wings. Another could teleport. The fourth sent out a wave of rapid moving shades at all directions. She could switch places with those shades whenever she needed to.
It wasn’t long before the one with the shadow wings reached a village. A distance away, several huts made out of wood were standing. The Voyager could see women and children working. At a closer distance, men were working on a field of farmland.
The Voyager landed on the ground and started walking toward the huts.
“Howdy!” As he got closer, a man in the farms waved his hands friendly. Before the man even saw the Voyager, the Voyager’s armor has already transformed into clothing similar to that of the man. The farmer didn't recognize the Voyager at first glance, but he didn't think much of it. “You a traveler?”
He had no idea how right he was.
The Voyager quickly glanced around and confirmed no one else was watching. Suddenly, he took out a grenade-like object and tossed it to the farmer’s feet.
“What is this...ah!”
The farmer screamed as the grenade went off and formed a field of lightning all around him. He tried to escape, but every move was followed by a dozen lightning strikes. He struggled before suddenly stepping on the generator, crushing it.
The lightning disappeared.
The Voyager frowned as he transformed his armor back to its original state. That grenade was nothing to Voyagers like him, but it was still adjusted to knock out a grown man in half a second. Even larger beasts like elephants couldn’t stay standing as long as the farmer did.
The farmer screamed in both pain and anger. Out of pure fight or flight instincts, he grabbed onto his plow and slammed down on the Voyager. The Voyager fought back without faltering. He ignited his Voyager blade and blocked the plow. As soon as they made contact, the plow broke, but just before the Voyager could smile, the farmer punched him in the chest.
The Voyager was fine. His armor protected him completely. But as he took a few steps back, he quickly understood this universe might be tougher than he imagined.
Nonetheless, within ten seconds, the farmer was knocked out. He was strong, but Voyagers were stronger. Once the Voyager brought up the scale of the attacks, the farmer didn't stand a chance.
The Voyager grabbed onto the farmer before summoning his wings and flying away.
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“We are in the Empire of the Sun.” One of the psychic Voyagers explained after he extracted every piece of information the farmer’s brain contained. “The people here are abnormal. They have exceptional strength, speed, and endurance. Just this farmer’s CAS should be around 20.”
20. A zealot’s CAS is 18. A random farmer in this world is stronger than a several hundred year old alien warrior in the Starcraft universe.
“And that’s not all. This one is just a farmer. The Empire of the Sun has a regular army. Apparently, the military in this world has a power known as Formation. They can band together and get their power amplified. Also, there are powerful individuals in this world strong enough to knock down mountains and cut through rivers.”
“The Empire of the Sun has been at war with the Empire of the Moon for decades, but recently, they have signed a truce.”
“There are news of magical beasts lurking in the forests that have been devouring hunters and loggers. The local garrison has organized an extermination mission into the forests. They returned with half the men and not a single slain beast.”
The Voyager finally finished.
“The Empire of the Sun and the Empire of the Moon...whatever god created this world needs to work on his creativity.” One of the Voyagers commented.
Humor can be a great defense mechanism.
“We don’t know how powerful the military here really is. We need to use some strategies.” Violet decided. “We can use the forces of this dimension against each other to weaken them. Make them ready for the final reaping.”
“We can try to turn the two empires against each other.” One of the Voyagers commented. “The truce. I doubt that’s enough to shut down the hate caused by the decades of war. I’m sure we can do something about it.”
“Meanwhile, we can wreck chaos in the interior of the Empire of the Sun. The Protectors wanted the people of this world to suffer, correct? What’s better at making them suffer than making them fear for their lives every single day?”
“We can use the wild beasts. If we can somehow lure them into the heavily populated areas, we can inflict massive damage.”
“What about getting into the empire’s capital? I’m sure we all have objects of pleasure in our watches. If we can make the emperor addicted to drugs or other things, we can ruin the very foundation of this empire.”
“Empress.” The psychic added.
Within minutes, the Voyagers have already created countless plans. Every single one of them has completed at least one mission individually. Plus, only the brightest would consider taking a mission posted by a Protector. They were no stranger to this type of things.
“Very well. In that case, we will split up and do all of them.” Violet concluded. “Jean, Cassandra, Ares, Blink, Demon, and I will go through the empire and create chaos and death. Form your own teams and choose your own missions.”
Despite being the technical leader of all 80 or so Voyagers, Violet had no intention of actually commanding them the entire way. Almost every Voyager was proud and independent. They could function better on their own or in smaller groups than as a group. She would only make things more complicated if she was to try to lead them like she would lead an army.
Plus, if they could split up, the gains of every Voyager would grow. That was the most important part.
The Voyagers she chose were those she knew and talked to before. Jean wasn’t the first ally she recruited. To get the maximum profit in this mission, Violet did quite the homework. The team she chose might not follow her to the death, but they were definitely fierce and loyal...at least for a Voyager.