"Are you sure you want to come?" Sarah asked for the third time.
"I can't board off now, can I?" Varian smiled, attracting the attention of others in the cabin.
The next day after the dinner, Sarah was to join the mission. Varian insisted on joining and despite their persuasions, ended up with everyone.
For this matter, he even took the help of Richard.
Sarah ignored the weird gazes and nodded seriously. "Say yes, I can return you."
The average strength of a cadet for this mission was high level 5. But they didn't know Varian's strength was significantly higher than what he showed. And besides, his life saving ability was the highest.
Still, Varian was taken aback by Sarah's words. If she really did that now, she'd be punished.
Rubbing his temple, he gazed out of the window.
Earth was slowly diminishing in size. They just paused at the Space Station's check up.
Any space shuttle must undergo an inspection before it can leave Earth's space zone.
A couple of space shuttles were connected to the space station for an inspection.
"Cadets, let's go." Dhruv, in his combat uniform ordered.
There was a space bridge connecting their space shuttle to the adjacent one. Varian and others crossed the bridge and entered the other space shuttle.
As he found Sarah was still waiting for his answer, Varian nodded strongly.
Sarah saw that he was strangely confident and didn't try persuading him anymore.
The space ship they boarded now was less luxurious but also less eye catching.
The squad of twelve sat down in what resembled a hall. They were all from Military Faction headed by Dhruv.
Even though Sarah was the head in name, Dhruv had more experience leading the team.
After a brief introduction, the cadets were discussing the tactics. But sometimes, they would throw a glance at Varian.
Why the hell did he accept the mission?
Varian ignored the weird gazes and reviewed the information about the mission.
"I hope things go well." Sarah sighed from the side.
Varian's face twitched at her words.
Things never go well. Especially since he was coming, things were bound to go wrong.
Perhaps another way of thinking was—things were going to go wrong regardless of him. He was going to participate in one of those disaster times.
But what should he do?
This was his best option for merit points.
Soon, the space shuttle took off from the space station and quickly accelerated.
Even though it was much slower than the type 1 space shuttles, they'd arrived at their destination in an hour.
Varian observed Sarah staring at the moon with nostalgia.
"I'm surprised we have to resort to such steps for secrecy." He remarked about the process.
They boarded a couple of space shuttles from the academy. Then at the line of space stations, they moved into one of less conspicuous transport shuttle.
The original passengers of this shuttle were soldiers going to planetoid Rena.
Essentially, Varian's squad was disguising themselves as those soldiers. Those soldiers would, on the other hand take up a mission on moon for a day before returning.
So much for secrecy.
"Secrecy is a must." Dhruv, sitting across them in a sofa, said sharply.
"There have been…various leaks from even the academy as well. Some genius cadets were ambushed and lost their lives." Mia added.
The enthusiastic atmosphere tensed as everyone realized they too were in the danger of an exposure.
"You don't have to worry. We are not going to Rena." Dhruv smiled at them and snapped his fingers.
Varian, along with others, caught the box they were given.
"This…" Inside it was a facial skin and a wig.
Varian recognized those faces. They were the soldiers who were originally in this shuttle.
"Yes. We'll impersonate them to the very end." Dhruv said and put on his face mask.
His handsome face vanished in front of their eyes before turning into an ordinary face with a mole under his eye.
"Pfft." Mia tried to stifle her laughter, but to no avail.
Everyone else used their face masks.
Varian saw himself in the mirror. His young face was now masked as one of a thirty year old's.
"I hate this." He heard Sarah's voice and glanced to the side.
"Woah." He saw a very chubby face.
"Is that you?" He tentatively asked.
"...yeah. I don't know how her face and body were so out of proportion." Sarah groaned in frustration.
"Tsk. You look beautiful Sarah." Mia snickered. She was still holding a grudge for Sarah skipping the meeting.
Sarah snorted.
"Alright. A small briefing." Dhruv clapped his hands.
"We'll be acting in two teams of six. One will be lead by me and the other by Sarah."
Sarah was a low Level 6 whilst Dhruv was a mid Level 6. Mia was only at the peak of Level 5, about to advance anytime soon. She was the third strongest.
Considering Varian was only a Level 5, Dhruv assigned her to Sarah's team.
With six members in their team, they could take on even the peak of Level 6. After all, every cadet of Imperial Defense Academy was a genius.
But without exception, people in Sarah's team felt unlucky. The three of them were high Level 5. So a Low Level 5 Varian would only drag them down.
Thankfully, Mia could fill the gap.
"Rena commander knows our identity. He assigned us a patrol mission. We'll be patrolling the area Astors are likely to appear. If you encounter other teams, cooperate." Dhruv said.
"Remember to restrain your aura. Let out the aura of Level 4." He added before turning to Varian.
"Varian, it takes time for any cadet to control their aura. Can you—" Dhruv's words were struck as everyone turned to Varian in shock.
His aura dropped from low level 5 to low level 4 in the blink of an eye. Dhruv probed his aura deeply, but couldn't break through his disguise.
"Hiss!" The cadets took a deep breath to calm themselves.
They could only restrain their aura. Upon closer inspection, they would be easily found.
To reach Varian's level of masking, one needed a very fine control over Aura.
Dhruv finally nodded with a complicated expression. "Good."
{Space Shuttle AEx132 confirmed.} The AI announced.
Varian took a deep breath and gazed out of the window.
Battleships each sizing at least a kilometer appeared above the planetoid.
Varian saw the federation flag on most of them, but others had no flags.
"Abyss ships." Sarah muttered.
Planetoid Rena, like almost all planetoids was contested by both humans and Abyssals.
Thus, they too had a military presence in the planetoid. That included the battle ships.
But this was the space of humans, so the density of Abyssal ships was far weaker.
Soon, under the escort of a battle ship, their space shuttle landed in an air base.
The door slowly opened and in an orderly line, the cadets, disguised as soldiers, deplaned.
What greeted them was a busy airbase. Space shuttles took off and alighted in a matter of minutes.
The base soldiers were inspecting the incomers and letting them into the base after a genetic test.
Dhruv already explained to them that these tests was taken care of.
"Welcome, team Yano-3423. You'll be allowed into the sixth base after an inspection." A soldier saluted and led them to inspection.
His aura was that of a Level 3 Awakener. In the planetoid where the highest combat power was Level 6, level 3 was not bad.
But Varian's attention was drawn by the soldier himself.
Unlike the so called genius cadets of the academy, despite his restraint, he exuded a fierce and blood thirsty aura.
Even his current posture allowed him to quickly draw the sword and block any attack.
'When you fight with your life on the line every day, this is what you become.' Varian empathized with the feeling and sighed inwardly.
After a quick check, their team was escorted by a soldier to a military transport vehicle.
They were going to report to the sixth base's commander.
As the vehicle left the airbase, Varian finally got a chance to see the planetoid.
As far as his vision stretched, he saw golden sand. The sand was lifted by the fierce gales and formed clouds of dust.
Sometimes, it resulted in a Sand Storm. But the military transport vehicle had no qualms in maintaining a high speed on such a terrain.
After all, it was a flying truck.