Going Native: Smell of Battle (ch.19) (Patreon)

“Planetary elite squad, assault these coordinates. All of them are high-value targets, so don’t leave anything left of them. Be sure to save some fun for the rest of us,” Queen Teach spoke in my ear as the fleet was ripped apart all around us. I saw a scrolling text on my scouter that highlighted several positions on the planet when I looked down on it. Using the coordinates to cross-reference the info I had downloaded into my scouter, I noted that most of them were factories while one was a research facility. 

I nodded, waiting for Bardock to- right. 

“Fasha and I will hit the lower left quadrant,” Tora informed, his voice booming in my ear as he spoke as an oozaru. I winced, not only because of just how loud he was, but I realized what he was doing. He was assuming the role of the leader in this mission, to this squad. And he did it so naturally. Because it was natural for him, I reminded myself, he was the vice-captain for years, and the team was used to taking orders from him as he was to giving them. 

For the briefest of seconds, I was struck with indecision. Should I let him be the leader? This wasn’t the time for arguments or pissing contests, but if I let him be the leader now then it was going to be next to impossible for me to step later. My hands curled into fists as I tore off my breathing mask, gritting my teeth. 

I had to step up.

“Take Shugesh with you,” I ordered before Tora and Fasha could take off. I had to be a leader. I had to step up. “Borgos, and Fasha, you’re with Matillo. The three of you will hit these coordinates,” I told them while highlighting a major factory district. “I’ll take these,” I informed, highlighting the research facility. 

““Of course, my prince-””

“We can hit more target before they can react if we break off in pairs,” Tora argued while Matillo and Parslee agreed. I had to ruthlessly crush a flash of annoyance -- I got it. He wanted to be the leader. He didn’t want to follow the orders of a toddler. I understood. But now was not the time to argue.

“This is one of their industrial worlds, it’s going to be crawling with scarabs. Three of you should be enough to stop yourself from getting overwhelmed, and I’ll be close enough that you can reinforce me if I need it,” I stated, trying my best to sound authoritative as I began to drift towards the planet. 

Thankfully, there wasn’t enough air to go around for him to argue with me further. With our coordinates set, we began to fly towards our targets. At the very least, we were able to travel at far faster speeds. I cut off my transformation, my body shrinking as I traveled through a cloud of smog.

Now that I was so close, I saw that the planet was one giant city. The districts seemed to take a circular pattern, some circles intersecting others. It was relatively easy to mark out where the important districts were from the clouds of smog that they were emitting. As soon as I entered the atmosphere, I performed a general scan centered on the research facility-- both to pick up on power levels, and to see if I needed to worry about air. 

80,000, 80,000, 80,000, 80,000, 80,000, 80,000, 80,000, 75,000, 75,000, 50,000, 50,000, 50,000, 50,000, 50,000, 50,000, 50,000, 50,000, 50,000, 50,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,00, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 8,000, 8,000, 8,000, 4,000, 4,000, 4,000, 4,000, 4,000. 

Oh.

Well...at least the air was breathable? Barely?

As soon as I performed the scan, it seemed to alert them to my presence. A small twinkle on the ground was all that alerted me to a giant beam of plasma that shot towards me, forcing me to fly to the side sharply. The attack missed me by hundreds of feet, but I felt my eyebrows singe from the intense heat that radiated from the beam that punched through the atmosphere and into the ships above. I’m not sure I was the target. 

The beam of plasma was a prelude to what came next. The defensive positions went hot, lesser beams of plasma firing up while hundreds of missiles streaked upwards, each one a flash of light that seemed to glimmer on the metallic world. There were too many to keep track of, not all of them aimed at me, but it was impossible that they could miss me. 

Undeterred, I continued downward as balls of ki formed in my hands. Thrusting my hands outward, I fired off dozens of ki blasts down at the missles, trying to clear a path for me to descend, all the while wondering if it would have been better to stick together instead of going off on my own as the odd man out. 

Explosions lit up the sky, only they weren’t of fire. A black mass erupted from some of the missiles that expanded outwards, almost as if it were a black hole. Then, in a wink, the mass was gone and so was everything that it had touched. Right. Don’t let one of those touch me. Got it. 

Despite the overwhelming firepower, I continued downward, punching my way through their offensive salvo. I couldn’t warm up for this fight -- there were too many scarabs down there for me to take out alone. I had to go full throttle, right out of the gate. I wasn’t here for fights, but to take out an objective. 

Sucking in a deep breath, I closed my eyes for the briefest of seconds as I pulled from the immense well of power that resided inside of me. The power of the oozaru. It flooded my veins, my body, white-hot agony following wherever it went until pain was the only thing that I could feel. The rage touched my mind, darkening every thought with hate and the urge to destroy. 

It was my second time entering the Wrath State -- already, I could feel the well of power surging at my command easier, the rage and hate were easier to stave off, but the pain...It...It felt like I was a balloon, and the sea of ki that resided inside me was water. More and more and more of it filled me up, stretching me out until it felt like it was only a matter of time before I popped. 

Gritting my teeth, My hands trembled as I placed them over my head, forming a massive ki attack. It rapidly grew until it was the same size as the one from D’xe, big enough to take out an entire city before I threw it down. The orb of purple ki sailed down, racing towards the planet, only for beams of plasma to slam into it, halting its decent. 

Irritation fanned the flames of rage in my chest, my face twisting into a snarl, as I formed another on as I continued down. The first orb of ki wasn’t just stopped, it was being pushed back. Gritting my teeth hard enough that they could break, I threw the second orb of ki into the back of the first, and only because they were both my attacks that neither exploded on contact. Instead, they merged together, growing larger and denser, which in turn made it harder for the Reach to push the attack back. 

“Ka…,” I started, cupping my hands at my side, “me...ha...me...HA!” I shouted, firing off another attack into the back of the massive orb of ki. This time, the orb surged forward, pushing through the streams of plasma that kept it aloft, before it began to race towards the ground. As it neared, my scouter picked up on a major energy reading, similar to the one that the giant pillar of plasma, just before it fired off. 

Only it was too late. The orb of ki exploded similar to how I detonated my Hellzone Grenades, an explosion lighting up the sky, the ball of ki expanding much like those black hole missiles had, but a thousand times larger. I watched it grow, first claiming the tops of buildings, then expanding until it claimed a block, then another until the explosion kept growing and growing and growing, destroying more with every second. 

I...might have overdone it. A little. 

That thought managed to pierce my red-tinted vision as powerful winds buffeted against me hard enough I was actually pushed back by them. I squinted, watching the explosion of ki slowly fade away. For a moment, dust obscured the blast radius before it began to clear up enough to reveal a giant crater where the Reach’s defensive position once was. 

The damage was far beyond anything that I could have expected -- the crater revealing that even hundreds of feet down there were still metal levels, and only then did it dawn on me what that meant. They didn’t just cover the planet in factories, but they went deeper. For all I knew, the entire planet could be one great big factory. 

“That’s *kssht* bo- *kshhhhh*” I heard Queen Teach shout in my ear and I could only hope it wasn’t on general communications because that was the last thing that I needed. I frowned, glaring down at the crater, wondering where exactly the jammer was. Well, if I couldn’t find it, then I guess I simply had to blow everything up until I could communicate with my team-

“Tarble!” Tora’s voice rang out in my ear, making me pause as I started to form another ki blast, this one was going to be ten times bigger than the previous. “We *kshhht* back-” Tora started to shout, only to be cut off by more static. I let the ki in my hands fade in favor of blasting off in the direction that Tora’s team was in. 

The round raced by me, and once I was clear of the crater I created, it was clear that where I landed wasn’t the only place with defensive positions. As I blew past them, not bothering to weave out of the way of buildings, I fired ki blasts as I went. Smaller explosions ripped through cities, toppling buildings and sowing chaos wherever I went. 

I never appreciated just how fast I was now, I mused with as a savage grin tugged at my lips. I broke through the sound barrier, raining fire upon the enemy, racing towards where my team needed me. Before, at my fastest, it would have taken me minutes to get to them. Now, it took seconds. 

Less than a minute later, I spotted my team on the ground in their oozaru forms. Buzzing around them were a dozen scarabs, pinning them behind buildings and forcing them to accept the attacks of the pathetic machines to save their lives. I shouldn’t have argued with Tora about how to split up the teams -- I shouldn’t have split us up at all. 

My gaze landed on Shugesh his ratty old undersuit making him stand out. His oozaru form laid on the ground, protected by Tora and Parslee, but even from so far away I could see the broken and charred armor, no blood because the wound that punched through his stomach. He was still alive, judging from the rise and fall of his chest, but he was wounded. Possibly fatally. 

I felt something inside of me snap at the sight, my power swelling as I shot forward, my vision going red as thoughts of hate and death filled my mind. A vanguard buzzed around, firing shots at my team. Right up until I approached, the sound of the sound barrier breaking announced my presence, letting it turn around so it could look me in the eyes as I punched a hole in its chest. Green blood splashed out, coating my arm and soaking into my undersuit. 

“Die” I snapped, grabbing the edge of the hole that I made and ripped the scarab in half. I tossed the two halves to the side, my opening moving putting the attention of other defenders solely on me. Perfect. They hurt Shugesh. My teammate. I'm thinking butchering a thousand scarabs would be a fitting way to repay such a thing. A dozen scout class scarabs turned towards me, their plasma blasters shining brightly but I didn't give them a chance to fire. 

Closing the distance between us in the ink of an eye, I punched a blue scarab in the face, only for its head to be reduced to a fine green mist before I moved on to the next one. Only a month ago, the scout class scarabs could put up a fight against me. Maybe not a good one, but I couldn't defeat them with the ease that I now had. 

No. Calling it a fight was too much. I butchered the dozen scouts within seconds, only one of them managing to get an attack off before I reduced it to ash was because of the vanguard units in a defensive position. They fired missiles, the same kind that had created those black holes. I met them halfway with ki blasted that detonated them prematurely. 

They took out a block, the bases of buildings simply vanishing, leaving the rest to fall underneath Screw's gravity. The blasts would have consumed my team as well, but I moved in a blur, pushing the oozarus out of the way hard enough that they flew through another building. Shugesh landed heavily on another street, but he would be fine. I was going to make sure if it. 

I surged forward, punching through the buildings that fell to the ground, each one shaking the planet as giant dust clouds formed with each one. I could barely see the ends of my arms, the dust was so thick, but they couldn't hide from my scouter. Racing towards the power levels, I formed twin Riot Javelins in my hands, impatient to just kill one at a time. 

They could have killed my team. Because I didn't tell everyone to stay together. Because I wasn't here. 

I was going to reduce this planet to ashes. 

Erupting from the heavy cloud of dust, I came face to face with a vanguard unit. Shifting my momentum, I flipped backward, my feet catching underneath its chin while it served as a convenient launching platform. Another three vanguards stood in position. There was a point where facing down three of them would have felt like a death sentence. Now, I was too pissed to care. 

They fired off beams of plasma and at that moment I acted. Hooking my foot around the first vanguard's neck, I turned it into a convenient shield as I threw my Riot Javelins. A month ago, it took two of them to travel upstream before one of them reached the source. Now, I wasn't just stronger by a fourth. I was over ten times stronger. The vanguard units never stood a chance. 

My attacks blasted through the beams of plasma, hardly slown down at all before they impacted the source. A large explosion desolated the defensive position, blasting me back as incredible heat washed over me. But, with most of my body covered, I paid it little mind as I quickly made sure the first vanguard unit was dead by ripping the scarab off of its back and crushing it. 

My scouter picked up on one remaining vanguard unit. I turned towards it, idly noting that everything was on fire from the explosion. I was on fire too. Thick black smoke poured upwards as blue-tinted flames coated what was left of a defensive position. I curled my hands into fists, striding through the fire towards the scarab. The thing was damaged from the blast, likely from my attack rather than the explosion of plasma. It looked at me, one hand sluggishly moving upwards to attack. 

I put an end to that by stomping on its head. 

A dozen scouts and four vanguards. I think I killed them all in about thirty seconds. 

Smiling savagely to myself, I turned to where I had thrown my team, blasting off and letting my scouter guide me to them. The speed that I traveled at put out the flames that coated me, and it only took a quick moment before I reached them. By that time, Shugesh had reverted to his base form and was holding a hand up to the hole in his stomach. Parslee broke off to fight a battle with another two vanguard's while Tora took up a position to protect Shugesh.

"Are you dead?" I asked, touching down- a stray plasma blast hit me in the back. Weak. From a scout. Whipping around, I glared murder at the offending scout before raising a hand before I killed it with a nameless attack. What did it think it was playing at, attacking- ah...thinking was...hard when every thought was tainted by frustration and rage, but I had a much better grip on it than last time. 

They were attacking me because I was obviously a saiyan and I hadn’t transformed yet. Or, rather, I hadn’t transformed into a form that they recognized. 

“No...don’t think so,” Shugesh answered my question as I turned my attention back to him. Even as he weakly held a hand over the hole in his sizable gut, I could see him giving me an analyzing look. It almost looked out of place on his usual careless face. “So that’s the Wrath State, huh? Your eyes are really yellow.”

“If you’re not dying, then can you still fight?” I asked- no, even as I spoke, the harshness in my voice that hinted at the simmering rage that boiled in my veins made any question a demand. Shugesh seemed to hesitate at my demand, but when a vanguard unit hit Tora with a heavy blast of plasma, it splashing over his new model armor, which seemed to be designed to take hits from plasma, and threw Tora into a building. 

“I can act as support,” Shugesh answered with a nod, which I returned. 

“Then we’ll keep them off you,” I told him, flying back up as I rushed towards the vanguard scarab. My scouter told me it was 60,000 pl, so Tora should be able to handle it. However, we didn’t have time to mess around here. Since the coms were down, I didn’t know if the others needed help or not but seeing just how fast Tora, Shugesh and Parslee got pinned, my hopes weren’t exactly high. 

The vanguard turned to me as if sensing my approach, its arms forming one massive plasma blaster. In that moment, I noticed something. Those missiles that formed black holes, and now the vanguard scarab wasn’t making the really big plasma blaster that connected to its chest. It was rather obvious, now that I spotted it. 

They didn’t want to damage the city, the planet. All of it, down to the smallest of buildings, from the highest space elevator to possibly the planet's core...all of it was one giant factory meant to churn out stuff. Weapons, supplies, parts, and tools. Each building was a cog in that machine, and the Reach was doing it’s absolute best not to willingly damage a single cog. 

That was hilarious.

What was the most destructive technique I could think of…?

“Destructo Disk,” I announced, a ball of ki forming in my hand flattening as into a thin disk that spun so fast that it became jagged at the edges, forming teeth. Just as the scarab fired off a blast of plasma, I threw my attack, the disk rushing towards the scarab. It was no contest between my attack and its, like a log, my attack sawed through the plasma as it rushed towards the scarab. 

It seemed to realize that, quickly cutting off the attack as it flew upwards, but not fast enough. My attack hit its knees, causing a chain reaction. It sliced through the nanite infused liquid metal, through flesh and bone, before it began to expand. Like an explosion, it only lasted for a moment, but the Destructo Disk shot outwards in every direction, cutting through buildings like they weren’t even there. 

Even better, because it hit at an angle, the buildings started to shift down, carried by a heavy gravity. As they began to fall, and as the vanguard was starting to cap off its missing legs, I blasted forward. It turned its attention to me, but it didn’t try to fire off another shot. That alone raised a red flag in my rage clouded mind. I slammed a fist into its face, its jaw flying off but it lunged at me. 

Memories surfaced of years ago, back when I was fighting saibamen. I knew exactly what it was trying to do. 

I kicked it in its chest hard enough that it shot away from me, slamming through a building before it impacted the street behind it, bouncing like a skipping stone. Then, as I expected, the vanguard unit exploded, another massive black hole forming that grew so big that it ate up entire blocks. Everywhere the black hole touched was simply gone, forming a perfectly spherical crater that revealed more layers of the planet. 

“I had that-” Tora started to inform, his voice booming as he spoke in his oozaru form, only to be drowned out by the sound of a dozen buildings falling to the ground- oh. One of them was a space elevator. I turned my attention, watching the thick, massive structure that once stretched all the way into space tip over and plummet back down to the ground. When it did, the planet shook upon the impact, and because of the ten times standard gravity, it broke apart as it fell so there were multiple impacts. 

Taking a moment to admire my handiwork, I turned back to Tora and the others. The ones that Parslee was fighting were either dead, or they received the order to retreat. It didn’t matter. 

“We’re regrouping with the others. Change back,” I ordered, shouting loud enough that they could hear me over the sounds of chaos. It was incredibly difficult to read expression when they had a face like the oozaru did, but for a split second, I seemed like Tora was going to argue. He didn’t in favor of obeying. That was good. I’m not sure what would have happened to him if he tried to subvert my authority with his bullshit. 

Parslee heard the order as well, landing lightly as we let the heavy cloud of dust conceal us. This was no time for self-doubt. This was a time for action, to step up and be a leader. So, be a leader. 

“We need to regroup and destroy the jammer,” I started and maybe it was because of the red mist, but I didn’t feel uncertain about giving orders. I didn’t second guess them or myself because they were obviously the right call and I was too angry to bother with self-doubt. “Shugesh, I want you to fly back up to the fleet and use them to locate the jammer. The rest of us will reinforce the others. After we take out the jammer, then met up at the staging ground for the invasion.”

Shugesh nodded, shifting from foot to foot. However, the fucking piece of shit-...Tora put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him from taking off and I felt my blood boil in my veins. My growing rage didn’t go unnoticed by Tora or Parslee, the former taking a step back while the latter simply looked concerned. 

“Shugesh? Get. Going,” I bit out, trying to put a lid on the pot of boiling rage in my chest. I took in a deep breath as he took off, heading back up into the skies. Our current orders were to hit their defenses to prep the invasion points, but there would be no point if we couldn’t coordinate. “Wait-” I called out, making Shugesh paused. “Don’t die. If you do, then I’ll fucking kill you.”

Despite the dust, I saw Shugesh grin at that. “Heh, don’t worry about that. See you in a bit,” with that, Shugesh blasted off back up to the skies. 

Turning my attention back to the other two, I saw Tora shift ever so slightly. Not exactly taking a fighting stance but appeared ready to fight. Was I glaring at him? I was. Whatever, it doesn't matter. "Go limp," I ordered, making both saiyans blink in confusion and I gave them just enough time to share a look before I tackled them both before I took off. They were too slow in their base forms, even slower in their oozaru forms, and every second could determine if someone lived or died. 

Distantly, I heard them screaming as I dragged them behind me, blasting through buildings and the sound barrier. Some defenses reacted in time to fire off a shot at me, and I returned the favor by throwing either Tora or Parslee ahead of me before blowing up a couple of blocks as we passed over. It was intoxicating, in a way, to feel just how powerful I had become. I wasn't mostly dead or going up against a Green Lantern, just scarabs and now that I was at my full strength, even stronger than before, it was...simply amazing. 

It didn't take long to approach the location of the other team. I saw evidence of their struggle from far away -- powerful blasts of plasma and ki lighting up the sky, explosions that flashed and thick black smoke that poured into the sky until it seemed to fill the sky above. Dozens of buildings lay in ruins, and in the distance, I saw the carcass of their objective. An anti orbital gun that was used to shoot down spaceships -- as always, it looked like a giant metal thing with its mouth serving as the barrel of a giant plasma launcher. Well, used to, anyway. 

To my surprise, the other half of my team seemed to be faring better than Tora, Shugesh, and Parslee. Matillo seemed to have taken charge in his stark white oozaru form, fire ki breath attacks that tore a line across buildings, blasting them away while he formed two more ki attacks with his hands. And now that I was so far away, I noticed that his ki breath attack was...narrow? It was still bigger than me, but it looked less like an unleashed torrent of ki and more of...an attack. Like the Kamehameha, or my Spiral Buster. 

I put a pin in the thought in favor of searching for my other two teammates. It only took a moment to find them -- Borgo’s size made him noticeable, and Fasha was nearby, her hot pink undersuit making her just as eye-catching. Both of them stuck nearby to Matillo, running interference for him as he laid waste to the city, letting them take care of the scarabs attacking them. 

“I’m going to drop you now,” I informed the two, who looked like they had gone ten rounds with a special class scarab. They both looked up at me, their faces covered in sweat before their expressions morphed into ones of panic as I let go of them to rush to the defense of the others. They would be fine, all they had to do was look up at the Power Ball to transform and between the rest of us, they shouldn’t have any issues. 

“My prince,” Matillo greeted, sounding at ease after he fired off a blast at the space elevator in the distance. Much like it had with me, the momentous structure began to tip over and break apart once it entered the planet’s gravity well. “My apologies for taking so long to complete our objective, we encountered greater resistance than anticipated.”

“You’re not late,” I informed, spotting buzzing around scout class trash. With a snarl, I eviscerated them with a well-placed ki blast. There wasn’t even ash left of them as I helped thin out the herd. “They knocked out our coms, and I already had to bail out Tora and the others,” I informed, earning a sharp look from Matillo as he threw his ki blasts. I’ve already seen them in action, but that was against a spaceship. 

Now, I saw just how destructive the ki attacks that he formed in his hands. They were roughly the size of the one I had formed earlier, though not quite as powerful. They punched through buildings, only detonating once they were far enough away, taking out dozens of buildings in bright flashes that lite up the place. 

I really needed to ask him about that. I thought that using ki how Matillo was doing it was impossible. The ki was too dense, too heavy to properly be channeled.

Matillo looked over at me sharply, opening his maw to ask a question, only to be hit in the face with a blast of plasma. He went down hard, the stench of burnt hair filling my nostrils as my heart went still in my chest. Even as he went down, I knew he was alive because he was already trying to regain his balance, but that didn’t matter. My teammate was just injured right in front of me. 

First Shugesh gets a hole in his gut when I’m not there, and now Matillo gets shot in the face. 

They were going to fucking die. Every single one of them. 

I snarled, roaring my rage for the entire planet to hear as my power surged, flooding to my hands as I prepared an attack that would lay waste to everything. There were dozens of pieces of trash buzzing about, putting up a pathetic defense in a foolish attempt to keep us at bay. So many that I couldn’t wipe them all away in a single attack. Or, rather, a single blast. 

Throwing my hands out, I shot dozens of ki blasts from my hands, hundreds of them. Some punched through buildings, through scarabs and everything else that got in their way. I turned, firing in every direction, then, those that managed to dodge couldn’t avoid what happened next.

“Hellzone Grenade,” I snarled, the world becoming one great big explosion as I detonated the hundreds of balls of ki. Wind buffeted my face, my ears were ringing, but I was fine. I was better than fine, I was great! My scouter couldn’t pick up any immediate threats -- in one swoop, I killed them all. My team was safe. 

Through the dust as buildings collapsed, too damaged to stand or knocked over by another, I turned to my team. My ears were still ringing, but I noticed that all of them had reverted to their base forms. My eyes landed on Fasha, who looked up at me with an expression filled with awe but tinged with fear. 

“So...that’s the Wrath State…” I read her lips, her expression mirrored on everyone’s face except for Matillo’s. He was simply smiling.

After that little tantrum, I felt the grip of rage lessen, letting me regain some control over myself. Taking in a deep breath, I flew over to my team, noting that Matillo looked fine, his transformation having healed the burn that he suffered. I might have overreacted. As I calmed myself, I glanced up and felt no small amount of relief to see that Shugesh was on his way down. 

When he neared, I noticed that he had some kind of white foam where the hole in his gut was. I’ve never seen it before, but he wasn’t holding the wound protectively anymore, so I’m guessing it was some kind of healing foam. 

“Huh, you’ve been doing some work,” Shugesh commented as he touched down, the entire team regrouping. His gaze landed on me, likely noting how only Matillo stood next to me while the others stood some distance away. I couldn’t blame them for that -- my hands shook with anger, my deep and even breathing told everyone that I was one wrong word from flipping out again. 

“Where,” I started, biting the word out despite my best efforts to calm myself down. “Is the jammer?” I demanded to know, my hands curled into fists, only for me to force myself to unclench them. Standing still was actually worse for me, I was quickly learning. When I was fighting, I had an outlet for the dark emotions swirling in my chest, but when I was standing still, twidling my fucking thumbs, it was just frustrating. That frustration turned into more rage, which made the frustration worse and that made more rage. 

Shugesh glanced over at Tora and I just about leaped at him. I might have if Matillo hadn’t placed a hand on my shoulder, taking a knee so he could. The contact was enough to bring me back, and Shugesh quickly rattled off our orders, my growing anger not being missed by him. “Uh, the tech guys rattled off a bunch of tech-talk, but they think that the jammer is coming from the center of the planet.”

I perked up at that, prompting him to continue in a rush. “The jamming field covers the entire planet, but they sounded pretty sure that it was coming from the core of the planet. The Reach hollowed it out, or something.”

So I was right. The levels that I saw earlier, they went all the way down. This wasn’t a planet anymore, not in the terms of a giant asteroid that lucked out to be just close enough to a sun. This massive planet was one giant factory, through and through. No wonder it could produce such a significant portion to the war effort on the Reach’s side. 

“But,” Shugesh continued, “Queen Teach told me to tell you that they’re going to be sending in the troops.” He informed, making me frown. With the jammer up, then they would just get slaughtered- “She said taking out the jammer was our highest priority, and to take it out now.” 

Despite the rage, I felt a weight settle on my shoulders. Not just for my team, but for the entire army. At the very least, a million lives now counted on me and my team to take out the jammer before they got wiped out. They wouldn’t be able to coordinate, from high command to squads like ours. Without fail, every single one of them would die if we didn’t take it out fast enough. 

“Then what are we standing around for?”