Chapter 16 : Protecting the Golden Door

After a short moment of silence to organize my thoughts, I began to give my orders.

"If my prediction is correct, this conflict only serves to distract the Hive and we may encounter a squad of rifters"

Kat interrupted me.

"Isn't that good news, Leader ? It means the scyllas have finally decided to get us out of here."

After all this time spent fighting together, most of the rifters began to realize that they were just tools for the scyllas. Although Scyllas' mind control still weakened their minds and made them obedient, it mostly depended on what the monolith called "submission" during the evaluation.

Mine has always been very weak, which makes me naturally able to resist scyllas orders. On the contrary, Kat and Jerome have a very strong submission to the Scyllas, which makes them more inclined to follow their orders.

Alice has an average submission and would probably not know what to do in a situation where we have to fight the scyllas. I hope she will prioritize my orders over the Scylla's.

As for Douglas, fortunately, he is like me and always had a very low submission. Although silent and taciturn, he understood the situation we found ourselves in and I am sure he will have no remorse in betraying the scyllas if it is the only way to regain his freedom.

Despite all the time we spent here, Gladia and I still haven't found a way to clear the mind of the rifters, but we still found out that it all depends on their initial resistance to the Scylla's brainwashing, the so-called 'submission'.

In a scenario where the scyllas and I give them a different order, I estimated that Kat and Jerome will follow the order of the scyllas and Douglas will follow mine, as for Alice I am not sure yet but I hope that she will be on our side.

We absolutely must prevent a situation of this kind from happening, at all costs.

"Until we are able to take full control of the flagship core, Kat and Jerome will have to stay in the hangar and defend the ship. You will be responsible for the flagship safety, and if we fail to guard the golden gate you will be our last line of defense.

Alice, I want you to continue scouting ahead in the tunnel so we know in advance the enemies' positions. If you detect the slightest presence of another rifter squad, you must tell me and return as soon as possible.

Douglas and I will defend the gate with the two guard golems. I'm still not sure of the strength of these golems, but they seem powerful enough to withstand a frontal attack from several omega swarmlings, so they might be strong enough to deal with the best surface monsters."

"Wouldn't it be better if you stay safe in the hangar and I defend the gate with Jerome and Douglas, Leader ? Jerome's defensive abilities are the highest in our group and I can use my field to greatly reduce enemy ranks."

"Normally, it would be better yeah. Except that in the current situation, Jerome and you are the weakest of our squad. You are unable to realize it at the moment, but your minds are corrupted and can be controlled more easily than ours, the enemy could use this to destroy our squad.

Especially in your case, Kat. If your field skill gets into enemy hands, you would cause us too much damage before we can even react."

"It's impossible leader ! Your orders are absolute and I would never attack you or the squad !"

"That's the problem, Kat. As you said, orders are absolute, and if the enemy manages to give you an order of higher importance than mine it would be our downfall.

I know this must be frustrating especially for you, who always dedicated yourself to the squad more than anyone else. However, you will have to stay in the hangar with Jerome this time ; it is not debatable."

Douglas seemed to have figured out where I was going with this, and surprised us all when he broke the silence to give his opinion.

"Katarina, you should listen to the Leader. I'm sure he'll find a way to open both yours and Jerome's eyes soon, until then you shouldn't put us into danger by risking the enemy to control your minds."

Kat and Jerome naturally didn't seem to understand those words, yet they didn't try to change my mind, in any case, I knew they would listen to my orders.

'Alpha Zero, I charge you to keep an eye on Kat and Jerome. At the slightest problem, if you see that they begin to act suspiciously, I allow you to neutralize them and place them in a cryogenic capsule.'

'Yes. Master.'

After briefly communicating my orders to the reaper, I gave my final instructions.

"We've spent a lot of time on this planet, and although we were 15 when we arrived, we are only 5 left. Remember the 6 rifters of another race who were sent here with us, it only took one hour on this hellish planet for them to all die and for their species to be forever extinct.

My priority is to get us out of this place, and even though the Scyllas are at war with the Void we must first preserve our race before joining such a large fight.

Starting today, I want each of you on high alert. We don't have to wait more than a week at the latest before we can get away from this place. So hang in there for the remaining days and give your best as always."

Once my short speech was over, we all went out of the ship to take our positions. Douglas and I will have to defend the golden door while Alice will be camouflaged further in the tunnel to transmit us intel about enemy forces.

Although I'm still not sure if we're going to be attacked and my prudence comes only from a guess, I'd rather be prepared for the worst-case scenario than being caught unaware because we underestimated the threat, and the cleverness of the Scyllas.

__

Near the cave entrance through which the squad fled after they met the centipede, a dozen imposing black shadows were approaching silently.

"Kiichik kik!"

"Chi kikik !"

After communicating with each other in a mixture of noise and strange rattling sounds, these shadows rushed into the dark entrance followed by a small group of surface monsters, leaving behind them a trail of swarmlings corpses.

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___

The day after Alice's report, we still hadn't received the slightest visit from swarmlings, surface monsters, or hostile rifters. Although my caution was based on a simple prediction of what the Scyllas would have done if they were still looking for us after all this time, I was sure that before the flagship would be ready to go, we would have to fight.

'After all the times you called me lucky, this invasion which is happening only a few days from the ship's core being fully charged seems like a pretty unlucky event to me.'

[I guess bad luck has to befall you sometimes, to balance out the times you were extremely lucky.

To be honest with you, I don't think you're particularly lucky or unlucky. On the other hand, I think that if an event has a tiny chance of happening and you are around then it will necessarily happen.

Whether or not it will benefit you is what comes down to luck, and until now you've gotten away with it.]

I was chatting with Gladia when I received an urgent report from Alice.

'Leader, a group of more than a hundred surface monsters found a way to enter our section of the hive. They are all coming in your direction, from their speed they will reach you in less than ten minutes. Be careful !'

'Alright, stay hidden and do not reveal yourself until I ask you to.'

'Roger.'

I got up and turned myself to Douglas, who stood behind me and next to the golems, with his huge modified rifle already in hand.

"Ready Douglas?"

"I am, Leader."

"Good. Focus your shots on the faster monsters, prioritize the door safety over mine. Understood?"

"Understood."

After giving my orders, I prepared for battle. It seemed the golems also detected the threat as they both activated and started moving around the same time I received Alice's report.

After long minutes of waiting that felt unbearable, I finally began to detect our enemies.

First I heard grunts, then the sound of footsteps and metallic parts of bodies colliding themselves. I felt the vibrations on the floor and the walls getting louder and louder. Although my heart rate quickened and my entire metabolism began to fire up for the impending fight, I remained calm and focused.

This past year on this planet has taught me how to live with death, after having sliced, crushed, exploded, and destroyed so many swarmlings, after having been seriously injured to the point of not being able to move anymore, after having been covered in entrails and acidic blood during our longest and most difficult battles, I became accustomed to fighting to survive.

Perhaps this was what the Scyllas wanted when they sent us here ; to forge us by fighting for our lives, by shedding blood and tears.

When I saw the first monster at the bottom of the tunnel, I didn't even have time to analyze it that Douglas had already shot it. A lightning-fast laser blast passed inches from my shoulders and pierced the monster's head, leaving it with only a charred mixture of brain matter hanging from its neck by a thin patch of skin.

In a few seconds, everything sped up. Douglas had already eliminated many of them, killing each one with a precise and powerful shot in their vital part.

The golems behind me also started moving, while one of them stood in front of the door like a motionless guard, the second strangely placed himself at my side, as if he had identified me as an ally wanting to defend the very same door they were guarding since ages.

After that, everything went very quickly. The fastest monster managed to rush at me and was within the reach of my blade in just a few seconds. After having assimilated the dark matter, I managed to develop some of its capacities, the one I used the most is what Gladia named the Dark Blade.

This ability uses Singularity energy, opposite to Void energy, to create a high-intensity energy blade far more powerful and destructive than the energy sword the scyllas gave us before arriving on this planet.

Although I still can't use my left arm, I have long since been used to living without. I learned to fight using only my right arm.

Before the closest monster could attack me, I had already planted the blade of black energy coming out of my right wrist inside its body.

I did not have time to inspect my victim that I already had to fight a second one, this time larger, which was running to me just behind the first one. He looked like a huge tiger-looking monster whose eyes and ears had been removed, replaced by solid horns that covered his entire body. It looked like a cross between a big cat and an otherworldly dinosaur.

When he swung his claw aiming for my face, I dodged from underneath and drove my blade right into his abdomen, which I guessed was thinner than the rest of his body, and I was right. After slashing most of his stomach, his entire intestines and organs began to protrude, they were all oddly shaped and bathed in a pool of crimson red blood.

While I was defending my position, Douglas was eliminating all the monsters who managed to pass between me and the golem next to me. We couldn't block them all, so I left a few of them passing me on purpose because I knew they would be dealt with by Douglas and the second golem behind me.

My goal wasn't to hold them all, I wasn't large and powerful enough like Jerome to act as a wall and take the aggro of so many foes rushing at me, nor did I have any anti-biological field to kill everything in a wide area like Kat, however, I could use the Void energy and its extreme power.

When the enemies were too many for me to evade or block all of them, I was forced to use a skill that I called Void Surge.

It consisted of concentrating the Void energy in my left arm, before releasing it and controlling its explosion into a microscopic point a dozen of meters in front of me. The result of this controlled explosion caused an instantaneous black hole that could obliterate everything in its range. At my current level and the 14% of the power I can control, it is effective only within a range of 5 meters from the initial explosion.

Although this is a very useful and extremely powerful skill, until my body gets more used to the Void energy I can't use this skill too many times, at the risk of getting another serious injury.

After several minutes of intense battling, when I was engaged in melee combat with a bipedal creature that had three huge arms with sharp and long blades at their ends, I heard an extremely deep growl and saw a huge colossus who had to twist himself in two to be able to move inside the tunnel.

'Alice, do you have a visual on the priority target ?'

'I do.'

'Eliminate it as soon as possible, and go back to hiding once it's done.'

'Roger.'

I didn't have to wait long before I heard the colossus roar again to finally see its enormous body fall to the ground, with a deep and perfectly circular hole having punctured its head right through it.

I couldn't help but be happy to have a rifter as skilled at eliminating high-danger targets as Alice on my team, it really made things easier.

We fought relentlessly for long minutes, which rapidly transformed into long hours. When a powerful monster which I guessed was like an officer or chief appeared, Alice appeared out of nowhere, eliminated it by surprise, and disappeared before the target minions could react.

When more agile and faster monsters managed to pass between me and the golem, they did not have time to run for a few meters before all getting shot down by Douglas and his perfect aim.

Every time too many monsters ganged up on me and I began to receive blows and wounds because there were too many for me to defend myself, I used the energy of the void and I made everything disappear 5m around where I aimed at, which gave me a few seconds to breathe before the next wave came in range.

We fought and stood in our position without letting them approach the golden door for many hours, before thinning their ranks enough so the few remaining monsters finally retreated.

Although none of us have been seriously wounded, fighting non-stop for so long tired us all, especially me. If we weren't rifters and didn't have highly modified bodies with the black matter, we could never have lasted that long, or even resisted only a single hour before getting exterminated.

When during the fight I noticed a centipede of the same race as the first monster we fought on this planet getting pierced and killed in a single blow by Alice's powerful Dark Blade, I finally realized how much we had progressed during the last year but above all, how fast the dark matter allowed us to get stronger.

I realized the potential of being able to fully control the black matter, and I finally understood why the Scyllas spent so many resources to fuse this black matter with organic beings from another dimension. If our squad, which was composed of only failures and not a single fused rifter, was able to progress this much in only a single year... I can't imagine how powerful would be an army made of perfectly fused Void Rifters.

When the monsters fled, they left behind them the bodies of their kind, all of different sizes and species. I don't know who are the guys controlling the surface monsters, but if I guessed correctly and they teamed up with the Scyllas to get us back, then the next few days might be the worst of our lives...