Chapter 136 - Swarm (Patreon)

<---Chapter 135 - Not Alone | Table of Contents | Chapter 137 - New Front--->

The next day...

The condensed sprawl of ancient red oaks trees and never-ending ferns that snaked around the trunks, climbing ever upwards, were a homage to the enduring nature of the Keru Forest. Despite the encroaching flames of war, the battles were only fought around a tiny section of the Keru Forest, the rest hardly changing and surviving the test of time.

Yet deep in the undergrowth, the visage of longevity was instead overtaken by a constant battle for survival, food chains changing rapidly as complex interactions intermingled in a web of prey and predator. Even a single patch of mossy soil bore numerous struggles between micro-organisms and small detritus feeders, clashing in a brutal brawl for resources wherever possible on a micro-scale.

Every plant, fern, fungi and animal was locked in a constant tug-of-war to survive, and the hulias fox was no different, its long-whiskered snout protruding out from beyond its hiding den dug between decaying roots and stumps of long fallen trees. It snorted and twitched, shaking its shimmering fur violently to deter clinging mites and insects that clung to its underlying skin. With each sniff, its pointy ears perked up, acting like reflector dishes that honed in on signals. It stared with glistening black eyes into apparently nothing, before suddenly sprinting out of its hiding spot on all fours.

Snaking through the piles of leaves and numerous bushes, its fur changed with the colors around it, melding its figure into the background till it was barely visible as nothing more than a blur. It slowed to a prowl as it navigated the dense forest, remaining elusive. Even wandering mammoth hogs who shook the very earth as they grazed past were unable to detect the fox.

Soon, the hulias fox had laid its eyes on its target that it had smelt a mile away - a single dead Tusken rabbit, ensnared by a strange vine that wrapped around its hindlegs. The fox carefully watched the environment, waiting with bated breath for any movements. It noticed a few beetles and ants scampering towards the dead Tusken rabbit, the smell having attracted many other would-be consumers.

Still, it did not move, covering itself within the deep recesses of a bushes, peeking through a curtain of leaves as the beetles approached the dead rabbit, about to begin gnawing at the rabbit. However, as soon as one of the beetles stepped onto the strange vine, a sharp thorn lanced out from the surface of the vine, impaling the beetle through its underside deep into its exoskeleton.

A sickening belch of yellow liquid erupted from the wound, dissolving the thorn rapidly while the beetle writhed from the gaping wound. The burning sensation had the strange vine recoil in pain, letting out an unnatural hiss as it reared up, the tip of the vine shooting straight up.

In the blink of an eye, a surge of arcia jolted into the hulias' fox legs, increasing its pounce speed as it immediately lunged at the vine, its jaws clamping down on the vine tightly. The fox's serrated canine teeth gnawed into the surprisingly meaty flesh of the vine, revealing it to be a corpse snake in disguise. The two animals tumbled and rolled about in a heated struggle, the fox not letting go while using its empowered legs to forcibly kick away the snake's attempt to wrap around him.

With a sharp flick of its neck, the fox jerked the neck of the snake about, its powerful teeth ripping off the corpse snake's head with ease. The headless body twitched mindlessly as it slithered around, its head landing with a soft thud on the ground. Before the body even realized it was dead, the fox began chewing and eating at the writhing body, enjoying its fresh meal and already planning to bring the Tusken rabbit back to its den.

Yet a sudden loud shriek frightened the hulias fox, who turned around only to see a large slivery orb twice its size charging right at it from the branches of the nearby trees. The fox immediately let out a yelp as it dropped the snake, bolting back to its den without even looking back for a second. It wasn't dumb to fight something that big, not when there were plenty of other sources of food to find elsewhere.

Except as soon as the hulias fox had left, the large slivery orb deflated rapidly, retracting into a saggy sack of flesh that hung at the base of a sliver carant's neck, the carrion bird's slivery wings dazzling in all ways. It was far smaller than the hulias fox, though by inflating its neck it could frighten off any possible predator or contest.

It greedily marched over to the dead Tusken rabbit, about to dig it, when it suddenly heard a rumbling tremor that seemed to never end, the pace getting closer and closer. Before the source of the sound appeared from beyond the bushes, the sliver carant inhaled sharply, inflating itself outwards once more.

Yet this time, it picked the wrong fight, as from the depths of the bushes sprung out an outstretched metallic hand that grabbed onto the edges of its inflated sack, the grip so strong that it pierced the skin. The sliver carant began to rapidly deflate, but it could not fly off, not without the owner of the armored fist relinquishing its hold on it.

It was lifted up high, its wings and legs still flailing widely as its eyes meant the deadly gaze of Kyle through the slits of the exosuit's helmet. "So this is the sliver carant. A common defensive tactic." He manhandled the bird, twirling it around and around to get a better look at its build, the bird starting to lose consciousness from the continuous spinning.

"The sliver wings go for a lot, its used for weddings and the like, and especially if the groom is an accomplished hunter," Jaden explained, hacking his way through the forest floor right behind Kyle. "Should we keep it?"

"Not right now." Kyle let go of the bird, who flopped down to the floor in a daze, staggering about as it tried to get away from the humans. "The last time we came past here, I saw an iron ore deposit right here." He pointed at an outcrop near a gentle slope, one they had seen when they were busy hunting the mammoth hogs. Instead of there being an abundance of various iron oxides glistening on the surface, it looked like it had been mined out haphazardly, with claw marks and sharp slices engraving the side of the mossy rocky slope. "Looks like it has been already taken. Are you sure there are no other humans or villages in the vicinity?"

"No one can survive here, not with the mammoth hogs and the damn creatures guarding the deposits. If the deposit is gone, they must have either eaten it or brought it for storage." Drake shuddered at the thought of facing the metal-eating creatures he had only seen once, shaking his head violently.

"What is it exactly? Is it a bear, or a bat?" Feldon asked.

"More like a swarm of monsters, something I wish I would never have to find out. All I saw was a shiny blue glint on their skins, along with razor-sharp claws."

"Like this little guy here?" Feldon picked up a shiny blue beetle the size of his hand that had been chilling out on the trunk of a nearby tree, the beetle alarmed and letting out a chittering sound.

"Except it's a hundred times larger than that." Drake scoffed at Feldon's naivety.

[Sir, I see no apparent tracks. The claw marks are only around the outcrop here.] Sasha informed while she examined the area, the other six Ghosts fanning out to secure the perimeter, rifles at the ready.

"Then we have to go deeper. Fan out and search the hills, report back if you find any clues. Feldon, do we still have communications with the observation posts nearby? Any movements from the Yual Dominion?"

"No movements reported as of the last check-in. All three Counts are still in their last reported position." Feldon answered.

"Good." Kyle motioned with his hand, prompting the exploration team to spread out, searching for any clues. Drake chose to stick with Kyle despite his misgivings about the entire expedition, knowing that Kyle had the best chance of survival, while the rest formed pairs as well, one of which was Feldon and Sasha.

"So uhh... nice day, huh?" Feldon held an awkward smile on his face as they surveyed their area, scouring the slope for any other indications of missing iron deposits and claw marks. Sasha clearly couldn't reply directly, ignoring him as she focused on the task at hand.

Feldon rubbed his neck nervously, his eyes darting about as he tried to keep the conversation going. "Say, remember that farm fish we had yesterday? Did you eat it? Man, the best part was the head, the cheeks were glorious!"

This time, Sasha gave a response, but in the form of a disgusted look. Feldon instead took it as a sign of approval and continued on. "Yeah, and of course, I ate all the eyes. I think I ate maybe like twenty eyes in total, and what do you know? Found a screwworm already living in one! Two in one, best package ever! Tasted pretty good, too."

At this point, Sasha was already mentally blocking Feldon's inane ranting, internally shuddering from the thought of eating the screwworm. It was one thing to not be picky about food, but Sasha liked to think that she at least still had standards. [Sir, how do I get Feldon to shut the fuck up?]

Kyle's reply was curt and straight to the point. [You don't.]

Sasha let out an audible groan as Feldon kept on talking. "Still, this morning, I could feel a strange wriggling sensation coming out from my butt pocket, if you know what I mean. I tried to get a look, and it looked a little like the head of something long, so I squeezed with all my might when I was at the outhouse, and I could clearly feel something come out. But when I turned around to check the ditch, there was nothing at all! You ever had that, like vanishing excretion? I really wondered where it went."

[The worm went back up into your rectum, you twat!] Sasha mentally shrieked, uncontrollably letting her thoughts out onto the telepathic channel to Kyle.

[What?]

[Shit.... sorry.]

"Anyway, like I was saying, I really wish my ex-wife could see me now. She always said I was a dumb chatterbox, all talk and no substance, but it's clear I'm so much more than that. I even felt my brain recently expanded, though every time I try to recall that moment I get a weird niggling feeling in my noggin. I don't usually talk a lot at all, you know, and I let my actions speak for itself instead of covering it up with words. Well, now, at least, not back then. I'm a changed man, and Cynthia thinks so too." Feldon seemed not to even notice Sasha changing directions away from him, clearly attempting to avoid him. "Once this war is over, I'll return to the Culdao Peaks a triumphant man. Can't wait to see the looks on my children's face, I'll be like a real life superhero to them! Say, Sasha, have you ever thought about settling down and having kids... Sasha?"

Feldon turned to find himself alone climbing up the hill, Sasha more than a few meters away and obviously not interested in patronizing him. His heart sank a little, grumbling to himself as he stubbornly continued up the inclined path he was already on. "Vipers always thinking they are better than everyone else. Just like my ex-wife. I'll show them, I'll show all of them just how tough I can be. Even a normal guy like me deserves some level of respect."

He trudged along the inclined slope, the path taking him slightly around the bend, when he suddenly heard a familiar chittering sound ahead, coming from a crevice between two sharp rocks. "Where are you... there you are, you little guy. All alone in the rocks. At least you're not like the others, at least you would listen to me." Feldon bent down, reaching out with his hand to pick up a blue insect similar to the one he had just now, the chittering sound getting louder.

"Shush, shush, it's okay. I'm going to take care of you." Feldon tried to pet the insect, but the insect instead lunged forward and snapped at his fingers, nearly slicing it clean off while Feldon recoiled in shock. "Woah! Didn't know you were nasty like the others! Though you don't exactly look like a beetle...A little bit too hairy on your legs for my liking..."

The insect immediately broke free of Feldon's grasp by squirming out, flopping onto the floor, and scampering towards the other side of the hill, releasing a strange stench that permeated the air. Feldon couldn't describe anything other than the smell of a sweet starfruit oxidizing in the heat. Despite the insect moving away from Feldon, the chittering sound did not dissipate; instead, it grew in intensity.

Before he could react to the stench, a strange rumbling began to erupt from beneath his ground, the loose earth cracking apart to reveal a far larger insect similar to the smaller one he had just let go, nearly two times his size from feeler to the end of its sting, the sturdy blue carapace encompassing his entire view as he leaped out of the way of its sharp snapping mandibles that threaten to cleave him in half. He landed roughly onto the ground, rolling out of the way as frontal claws on its front two legs swiped at him, entering an uncontrollable tumble to the base of the slope, his body slamming into a tree. As he struggled to get to his feet, he watched as two more insects began to emerge from the newly opened hole, the trio all charging right at him.

Feldon's battle instincts kicked in, quickly wielding his slung Aspis MK2 rifle and firing wildly at the insects. However, unlike the rock spiders in the dungeon of the catacombs, the hardened blue carapace of the insects facing him was nearly impervious, the pellets ricocheting off with loud twangs. Shit!

Just as the trio of insects were about to corner Feldon, a loud bang erupted as a railgun projectile slammed into the hardened blue carapace, exploding in a ball of flame that incinerated the grass around. Unexpectedly, it failed to break through the armor as well, the trails of smoke drifting off uselessly while the trio of insects turned to see a charging Sasha, wielding a simple Versian sword.

She swung downwards at the first insect, expecting to cleave through cleanly. However, the simple Versian sword was a far cry from her previous broken runic falchion, the sword easily deflected by the tough armored carapace. The rebound sent a fearsome vibration back through Sasha's arms, numbing her nerves as she staggered backward, the other two insects taking the chance to pounce toward her with leaps.

Sasha wasn't out of the fight yet, immediately recovering and dodging out of the way. Her eyes darted from side to side as she examined the nature of her opponents, noticing weak links in the joints between their flexible legs and armored bodies. Targeting the seams between the carapace, she expertly ducked and spun forward in a swinging slash, the tip of the sword neatly cutting deep into the raw flesh of the insect. The sword severed off half of the joint, causing the insect to tumble and stagger from the loss of control. [Sir, we found them!]

[Stay right there, I'm coming!] Kyle ordered.

Feldon, too, did not laze about, immediately overcharging the Aspis MK2 rifle and empowering each shot. The pellets no longer ricocheted, instead denting and lodging into the carapace though with little effect. His antics managed to draw one of the insects away from Sasha, turning the battle into a one-on-one. Feldon frantically drew out his machete, blocking just at the last moment when the insect's frontal claws slashed at him, the impact sending him flying backward.

Tumbling between piles of dead leaves and squashing fungi beneath, he quickly scrambled back to his feet and dodged a headbutt charge from the insect, its mandibles crashing into a nearby tree. Feldon hurriedly took the opportunity before the insect could dislodge itself from the tree, sprinting to the side of the insect and using the machete to stab at the weak points. It took three stabs till Feldon was able to completely sever one of the legs.

Despite his small victory, the insect was still a menance, finally dislodging itself and lunging at Feldon. He used both hands to brace his machete against the incoming mandibles which clasped around it, threatening to crack apart the blade as Feldon felt his feet being pushed back by the sheer raw strength.

Before a conclusion could be made, the insect suddenly let go of the machete, its head swiveling wildly in the other direction and immediately charging off, leaving Feldon panting in adrenaline and utter confusion. Even the other two insects gave up on Sasha, sprinting along with the third insect off into the distance. Before Feldon could understand what was happening, he felt the same low rumbling sound, more and more ants pouring out of the hole till there were nearly a dozen on the surface. Instead of attacking them, they, too, took off in the same direction as the other insects. Unlike him, Sasha was already putting the pieces together one by one. [Sir, there's fifteen of them heading straight for you!]

The insects moved in a swarm, dashing toward Kyle and Drake, Drake immediately letting out a loud scream and running for his life. Kyle didn't bother stopping him, instead preparing himself for combat. It was clear as day that they were attracted to his Version 0 exosuit. Looks like we found the metal-eaters.

He didn't bother trying to shoot them with his railgun, instead brandishing his Spear of Defiance in his two hands, entering a fighting pose with legs apart. He watched through the slits of his helmet as the first of the insects charged blindly towards him with furious skittering. Before the first insect could even lunge first, its compound eyes could only see a blurred afterimage of the exosuit, the acceleration of the spear thrusting Kyle forward with alarming velocity.

The spear's tip immediately found its mark, easily penetrating the carapace of the insect. Instead of piercing all the way through with both hands, Kyle immediately pulled the spear back and flicked his right elbow forward, swinging the base of the spear's handle against the insect and sending it sprawling aside.

The insect got back up to its feet shakily, preparing to attack again, when a small thud boomed out from within the carapace, pink flesh bursting out from the punctured wound and pushing out the compound eyes in a grisly sight.

[SYSTEM MESSAGE]

You killed Mineral Ant, +50 EXP

Giant ants that can eat metal... Kyle twirled the spear in one hand, preparing for the next mineral ant only to see three lunging at him from all direction. He quickly swung the spear in an expert fashion, decades of training from his former life filling his mind as he fended off the incoming mandibles. However, another three mineral ants joined the fray as well, one of the mandibles breaking past Kyle's spear range and latching onto his armored leg.

The mandible tried to crush the armor plating and ingest it, but instead arcia energy surged out from the rows of embedded crystals in the back of the exosuit, lancing through a myriad of engravings to the targeted spot and activating the resist engraving for the armor. The resistance of the armor increased by 50%, causing the mandible to deflect off and send the mineral ant reeling with a concussion.

Kyle masterfully stabbed the spear forward in a flurry of jabs, each jab finding their marks and crushing through the mineral ants' carapace with ease. With each ant hit, he quickly repositioned himself, ensuring he was never surrounded as he continuously moved through the forest and around the hills. Each mineral ant that had been hit soon found their innards gutted by the delayed implosion effect of the Spear of Defiance, killing them on the spot.

By the time he had killed six of the mineral ants, the other Ghosts were beginning to converge on his location, fighting off the other insects along with Sasha and Feldon. Jaden on the other hand stuck close to the frightened Drake, Jaden's palm sweaty as he gripped his rifle even though he knew it was useless against the ants.

[Sir, another two dozen coming out from the hole!] Sasha warned as she also tried to intercept the mineral ants, preventing them from swarming around Kyle. Each of the Ghosts was forced to swap to melee weapons, their Aspis MK2 unable to break through the tough armor. Some of them were beginning to suffer injuries from the sharp mandibles and frontal claws that sliced at them.

"Moving to the hole now!" Kyle purposefully moved his battlefield towards the hole in the hill where mineral ants were still pouring out one by one. He sped up his jabs, ensuring that he only hit each mineral ant once. Surprisingly, they didn't have any unique powers or abilities like that of the noxious salamander, being more akin to rock spiders. He ignored the flood of System messages that crowded his vision, focusing on the growing swarm of enemies that never seemed to end.

The sweat clung to the interior of the exosuit as the heat in the armor began to build a little, the crystals in his spear shaft exhausted with every other blow. Kyle slowly began to learn the behaviour of the mineral ants, their actions predictable. Even Sasha and Feldon were learning over the course of the battle on how to deal with the seemingly mindless mineral ants that just blindly charged at them.

However, just as Kyle was about to reach the hole, the behavior of the mineral ants suddenly transformed. Instead of always charging in one by one, they began to form up into a tight defense, working together as a group. The erratic change in fighting style threw Kyle and the others off, preventing them from easily eradicating the mineral ants one by one. Kyle now faced what looked like a wall of metal, the mineral ants smartly using their sharp, sturdy metal claws to deflect any incoming spear stabs.

Doesn't matter, my follow-up explosion will blow their heads off. Kyle stabbed forward again relentlessly, but this time, he found his jabs all intercepted by the same mineral ant who swerved rapidly to take all the hits. Before it exploded, it leaped far away from its comrades, allowing its comrades to immediately exploit Kyle's opening and swarm him from all directions, not giving him any chance to breathe.

Self-sacrifice?! Kyle was astounded by the level of combat strategy the ants were employing. It was as though the ants suddenly gained sapience and were routing him about, their formation tightly and densely packed to prevent Kyle from reaching the spawning hole.

Still, Kyle was far from deterred. Instead of giving up on his spear jabs, he began to charge up a big strike, nocking his arm back before activating the acceleration on the Spear of Defiance, pushing him forward in a blur that caught the mineral ants off-guard once more. Tailoring the explosion timing to be immediate, he expended one entire poor arcia crystal to blow through the formation in a single blow. The resulting shockwave ripped and tore apart six mineral ants, sending the rest tumbling and concussed from the rippling air blast that shook the battlefield.

Before the remaining mineral ants scrambled to close the gap, Kyle finally spotted the source of the newfound tactics - a strange little ant half the size of the warriors he was fighting. It's head was discernably larger than the others, with more than ten feelers brimming with arcia energy extending outwards, twitching rapidly with each command it gave. "There's the commander!" Kyle called out to the other Ghosts, himself charging right into the closing formation of mineral ants.

The swarming mineral ants began to envelop him, intending to collapse onto him from all angles when suddenly a wave of immense pressure erupted with Kyle as its epicenter. Intimidation Aura! The surge of overwhelming fear broke the chain of command of the mineral ants, the warriors no longer holding together as half of them began to scamper away, the innate survival instincts triggering. At the spawning hole, the small ant commander twitched its feelers in agitation, trying to get the swarm under control.

However, before it could even see the result of its efforts, Kyle was already in front of it, the spear swinging in a deadly arc that sliced the feelers cleanly off, breaking off its mode of communication. Kyle followed up with a rapid stab to the abdomen, finding soft pink flesh that was immediately ruptured from within by the follow-up implosion.

[SYSTEM MESSAGE]

You killed Mineral Ant Commander, +100 EXP

Kyle didn't rest yet, immediately slamming his Spear of Defiance into the spawning hole and blasting its walls to collapse it, preventing any more mineral ants from coming up. The remaining minerals were in complete disarray from the loss of the commander, some reverting to their usual headlong assault method while others still suffered under the Intimidation Aura, slinking away from the battlefield.

Within a minute, the battle came to a close, the hill slope now littered with five dozen mineral ants, their broken carapace and seeping flesh releasing the same strange stench. Kyle hauled the dead body of the mineral ant commander onto his shoulder, motioning towards Feldon and Sasha. "Grab three bodies, and we'll return immediately. If we stay here any longer, another wave might come."

The rest nodded in agreement, nobody wanting to find out what would the strange stench bring, Drake the most enthusiastic about leaving immediately. The exploration team returned back with the corpses of the mineral ants in tow, piling them up in Kyle's workshop within the barracks of Desham. Sasha, Feldon, Jaden and Drake watched on as Hayden joined Kyle in dissecting the body of a warrior mineral ant laid out on a cleared workbench, the fluids staining the white surface.

"So you're saying this ant can eat metal... That's a little strange, from what I understand of basic reactions, they shouldn't be able to metabolize the metal." Hayden remarked as she fearlessly dug into the innards with gloved hands in a hazmat suit, protecting herself against any possible poison or acid. "Maybe they are trying to get at other elements found within such deposits."

Kyle didn't reply as Sasha helped him to disengage his exosuit, though deep down, he knew that there were many alien species who could thrive off metal, especially the radioactive ones. Still, he did not need to correct Hayden, instead focusing his efforts on dismantling the sturdy carapace once he was free of his exosuit. Any material that was good enough to deter his Aspis MK2 rifle, as well as his railguns, was worth further investigation. He finally wrenched apart one piece of the blue armored carapace, examining it under the light through all of its intricate grains and layers of chitin.

Mineral Ant Carapace

Formed between a rock and a hard place.

An alloy of chitin and composite metal, grown naturally through the regular diet of a mineral ant.

"What the hell is thinking now?" Drake whispered urgently to Feldon as they watched Kyle stare at the piece of carapace on his hand in deep contemplation.

"Hmm... knowing the boss, he'll probably try to use it or something. Looks like you're not out the woods yet, village chief." Feldon nudged Drake in his arm.

"I think I prefer the city much more now."

"Feldon," Kyle interrupted them. "Get a furnace ready now. I'm going to run some tests."

Feldon shot Drake a knowing smile before heading off to a nearby metalworking factory to prepare it for Kyle. Kyle continued to carve pieces into usable chunks before stacking all of them into a crate and bringing them over to the prepared furnace, where the other technicians and workers were already gathered around, whispers and rumors abound.

They stared in confusion as they watched Kyle set up a few metal defensive plates meant to reinforce the walls and gates, placing them in front of the furnace. The composition of the mineral ant carapace was still far too unknown to him, and there was always the chance of a sudden explosion from reactive metals.

He then began to grind down a piece of the carapace into a powder as he best as he could, breaking it apart with a hammer that seemed to be suffering far worse than his hand was. Before long, the hammer's handle snapped off, unable to properly work the carapace. Kyle let out a sigh, before moving over to one of the installed metal press machines on the factory floor, using the plate to continuously crush it into a fine powder. Once he was done, he placed the powder in a crucible, using a pair of tongs to gingerly put it into the roaring fire of the furnace, hot enough to melt iron.

Kyle got other workers to quickly place the defensive plates around the furnace, ensuring that any damage was fully contained if it did happen. Loud cracking sounds erupted from within, an unknown reaction taking place. He gave it a good thirty minutes till the cracking died down before finally removing a defensive plate around the furnace, revealing a molten form of the insect's carapace, the cobalt blue liquid bubbling readily in the crucible.

He did not celebrate just yet, pouring the contents of the crucible out into a default clay mold, forming a bluish metal bar that cooled rapidly when quenched. Instead of breaking out into a smile, Kyle picked up the bar with a clear frown on his face.

Blue Aluminium Alloy Bar

Somehow it became worse.

A standard bar of aluminum alloy with traces of iron and cobalt. Except it's blue.

This wasn't the result Kyle was looking for - he had been expecting to extract some unique elements that he could form alloys with. It seems that the organic resin that kept the carapace together is far more important. His smelting had vaporized the original chitin layers, rendering the carapace far less sturdy than what it was before.

Still, knowing that there was the possibility of such a metal alloy gave Kyle hope. Making up his mind to continue exploring the mineral ant's habitat, he returned back to the workshop, only to see a grinning Hayden triumphantly holding a bright basic arcia crystal in her gloved hands. "The commander has a basic crystal, while the warriors have two poor arcia crystals. Looks like we found our source now."

"Hell yeah!" Feldon fist-pumped the air. "We left more than fifty bodies back there, let's quickly go back and harvest all of it!"

"Not until we're ready." Kyle tempered their expectations, though he was indeed satisfied that one problem was effectively solved. If they could break through the mineral ants' habitat, he had an inkling he would be able to find the reserves of iron ore deposits and potentially other metals as well. They couldn't have grown such a carapace without having access to the metals. "We'll prepare accordingly for a raid in a week. Gather three squads of Ghosts to -"

Before Kyle could continue his orders, a frantic veteran Ghost barged into the workshop, his face flustered. Feldon was visibly angered at the interruption: "What do you think you're doing? We're having a meeting her-"

"The observation post stationed towards Perlis has gone dark!" The veteran Ghost blurted out with clear urgency.

"What?!" Feldon exclaimed. "How long since the last check-in?"

"More than five hours ago! For all we know, Yual divisions could be on the move towards us!"

Instead of being taken by surprise, Kyle had an expectant grin on his face. "Finally, he's here."

"He?" Drake and Hayden asked in unison, completely out of the loop as Kyle placed down whatever he was holding, motioning for Sasha and Feldon to follow him out of the workshop.

"Who else? It's our ticket back to Raktor."

<---Chapter 135 - Not Alone | Table of Contents | Chapter 137 - New Front--->