"Carry on Groyd." Jin Qi said dismissively to the soldier before her with her.
"Yes Ma'am." The andronian soldier saluted before leaving but Jin Qi paid him no mind. She had her eyes trained on the mandron who had just steeped into the Spaceship. Yang Xue. She already had everything prepared and just needed the perfect opportunity to do away with the pest.
He Yuan watched cooly as a smirk slowly formed on Jin Qi's lips before she turned around and walked away. He wouldn't waste his time trying to figure out whatever she was thinking so he went straight to the cargo area to equip Yang Xue's Tech suit.
Two hours later, the soldiers of the Special Division were properly lined up in the Spacehsips, armed in their Tech suits and ready for departure.
At that moment, an AI prompt sounded throughout the Spaceship dock.
[[All Spaceships Ready To Depart Crest. Destination, Sub-Planet Aer, Stellar System 2206. Begin Take Off in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1....]]
[[AO1, Taking Off.]]
ZZZZZZZ!
[[AO2, Taking Off.]]
ZZZZZZZ!
.....
[[AO20, Taking Off.]]
ZZZZZZZ!
At that prompt, the Spaceship containing He Yuan's Platoon also took off. The soldiers were lined along the walls of the Spaceship with their Tech suits magnetized to the floor of the Ssaceship for stability, so the soldiers were left to face each other with lots of space in the middle.
He Yuan hummed softly as he stared at the rows of soldiers opposite him. Majority of them had their helmets closed but the ones that didn't, had stern battle ready ready expressions on their faces. None of them looked nervous -if they did, it didn't show.
In He Yuan's mind space, 888 -dressed in a silky white shirt and black pants- sat cross legged with a fist supporting his chin right at the centre of the large dark metallic void. His silver hair swayed softly behind him as he lifted his other hand and slowly ran his fingers through Yang Xue's soul thread twirling in front of him.
All around him, he could feel He Yuan's soul energy. He took off his glasses and closed his eyes. There was a very faint fluctuation in the energy. Very, very, faint but still detectable for him anyways. His lips arched slightly. [Nervous?]
He Yuan took his eyes away from the soldiers opposite him at his system's question. "Not exactly." Okay maybe a little but it wasn't out of fear. He had received details about this mission and knew it was relatively dangerous.
His nervousness was born more out of the usual scepticism of the unknown and curiosity. Although it wasn't his first time in an army scene, it was his first time in an instestellar army scene and honestly, he felt more curiosity than nervousness.
There was also whatever Jin Qi had planned but, compared to the dangers of an unknown Planet, she didn't faze him much. He was in no means underestimating her. No way. He'd had several technicians from the logistics departments cross check his Tech Suit seperately and in his presence. He'd also done one or two basic research on the engineering of his Tech Suit in order not to get caught unawares.
He was definitely on high alert but Jin Qi just wasn't enough to make him nervous.
After receiving He Yuan's answer, 888 opened his eyes once more and placed his glasses by his side. With his blurry vision, he went back to running his fingers through the leaser's soul thread.
Five minutes later, He Yuan activated his Tech suit. With a soft whirling sound, the inside of the Tech suit swiftly came to life. Two long wires stretched out and attached themselves to the sides of his head and a Control Interface appeared on the screen of the helmet.
[[Welcome, Comrade Yang. Dom206 Ready For Your Command.]]
"Concerntrated Map of Aer." He Yuan said out loud which was unnecessary due to the EEG characteristic of the Tech suit but giving out instructions using his mind just made it seem like he was talking to 888 so he opted for saying out his commands.
Less than a second later, a 3D version of the mission Sub-Planet appeared on the interface and He Yuan zoomed in on a specific mountainous area. High Tech drones had been sent into the unexplored Planet months prior so there was a basic understanding of things.
The mountainous terrain was the area that his Platoon had been assigned to and even though he'd gone over every detail a thousand times in the past two weeks, he was a little bored and it never hurt anyone to be extra prepared.
-----------------------------
48 hours and after the soldiers had injested two to three vials of nutrient solution to stave off hunger and keep their body systems running, the group of Spaceships appeared at Aer's orbit.
In the reddish darkness of the Galaxy, twenty massive Spaceships stood rock still. Each of these Spaceship contained around 1000 to 1500 soldiers and out of those soldiers, 200 of them made up one Scout Platoon team. An AI prompt came then,
[[Scout Platoons, Prepare For Landing. Initiating Landing Sequence in... 60, 59, 58, 57...]]
He Yuan, just like the rest of the Scout soldiers, began giving out commands in his Tech suit. Adjusting the temperature, density, gravity and what not. As Aer was an unexplored Planet, it was impossible for the Spaceships to land in the Planet due to the absence of a dock and, of course, the presence of magnetic energy.
The magnetic energy of Aer was less dense than the ones a Xor would produce so it was possible for the Tech suits to easily withstand it.
Less than a minute later,
WHIRRRR!
[[Landing Sequence Initiated.]]
The underside of all the Spaceships opened up at the same time and the soldiers of each of the 20 Scout Platoons began descending into Aer at the speed of light in batches of 50. As for the remaining soldiers, they spread out in each of their Spaceship and took up different positions as they awaited feedback from their Platoons.
Three hours later,
[[Scout Platoon, AO3 Landed Successfully. Coast Is Clear.]]
[[Scout Platoon AO15, Landed Successfully. Coast Is Clear]]
[[Scout Platoon AO7, Landed Successfully. Suspicious Lifeform Detected. Carrying Out Investigation.]]
[[Scout Platoon AO15. Landed Successfully. Coast Is Clear.]]
[[Scout Platoo- AAAHHH!
BOOM!
BANG!
BOOM!
-SMALL HIVE OF XORS DETECTED. UNUSUALLY HIGH MAGNETIC ENERGY TENSION!
BANG!
-SCRRR!!! I... REPEA... XO..SCRRR!!! D....TEC...TED. CALL..ING OTHE.. TE.....AM..S..SCRRRR! SE..N.D.. B.....ACK UP!!!]]
The Scout Platoons -totalling 4,000 soldiers- landed on Aer one team after the other. Some successfully, others... not so much whilst the remaining soldiers in space, carried out countermeasures according to the feedback they received.
Scout Platoon AO20 was one of the luckier Platoons.
Jin Qi landed with her soldiers, on a fairly high valley in the mountain terrain. The surrounding was quite peaceful so she activated her communication system.
"Scout Platoon AO20, landed successfully. Coast is clear."
Looking around, she smiled. The time period was too crucial for her to be risking her life but she couldn't refuse a mission right after a vacation so she had used her connections back at the Third army to get the safest landing zone from the Technical Initial Drone Exploration team.
Her turned around to eye her soldiers. It wasn't hard to spot Yang Xue in the 200 soldiers. How? Well Ding Weimin's Special Division was no joke and each soldier had a customized Tech Suit so they were easy to recognize. Although Yang Xue's Tech Suit had been upgraded, it was still a little subpar as compared to others.
Jin Qi smiled. This was just too good. This mission couldn't have come at a better time. She only needed to go around for a bit and then look for a perfect opportunity to take care of Yang Xue. As for how...
She clenched her fists in her Tech Suit. On the ring finger of her left hand was an exqusite ring. This ring was no ordinary jewelry. She had sabotaged Yang Xue once before and it would be a piece of cake for her to do it again! She eyed Yang Xue heatedly -specifically the leg guard of his Tech suit. The mandron had gotten a prosthetic limb hadn't he? Ha.
After relishing the feeling of satisfaction, Jin Qi activated the group intercom. [[Split into ten teams of twenty, a list has been sent to you. Each group has a colour and the map is also colour coded. Spread out according to your team colour and scout. You have three minutes.]]
The collective reply came instantly. [[YES MA'AM!]]
Immediately, the soldiers located their group members and operated their Tech Suits in the direction of their designated area.
He Yuan eyed his name under Jin Qi's team and his heart suddenly leapt. He suddenly felt uneasy for some reason. He straightened in his Tech Suit as he quickly mapped out all possible scenarios Jin Qi might have planned and thought of countermeasures.
888 frowned. [Stop.]
He Yuan froze. "Stop what?"
[Get out of your head and focus.] 888 snapped.
He Yuan took a deep breath and after that and a concerntated frown settled on his face as he eyed his surrounding.
Jin Qi looked at the remaining 19 soldiers and nodded. She knew everything about this terrain and something peculiar had been discovered by the T. I. D. E team during the drone scout months ago. She had intercepted this information and prevented them from reporting to the Superiors because she had wanted to use it to gain merit.
Yang Xue offering himself up at this time was like a cherry on top. Now she could gain merit and actually take out the trash at the same time!
Another message was sent into the intercom at that time. "Sergeant Groyd, Sergeant Major Yang, flank my sides."
[YES MA'AM!]
Gryod acted immediately whilst He Yuan was a step slower. As he covered Jin Qi's right, he made sure to adjust his position in a way that he could watch both his front, back and Jin Qi at the same time.
For extra measure, he added, "888..."
888 hummed softly in reply before he could finish.
With both soldiers at her sides and the rest behind her, Jin Qi operated her Tech suit towards the bottom of the rows of mountains and valleys with a compacent smile on her face.
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