Chapter 321: Show of Strength [Part 2]
Shaped like a knife, the new ship got everyone’s blood pumping in excitement. Wheeze, Snowball and Dough had left a footprint at the spot where the logo of Vanguard and the series number of the B Squadron were displayed. Although the footprints were practically microscopic compared to the whole ship, it still filled the trio with an immense feeling of satisfaction.
A hunter belongs in space, and the maiden voyage everyone was looking forward to was about to begin.
Cillin had a mind to collect the logbook Genya had told him about, but now wasn’t the best time to do so. The situation at Sector S was currently unclear and pending investigation. There were a ton of acquaintances he were unable to contact or find out about such as Mo Heng, Lung, Knight, Ci Jincheng and more. Heck, his own squadron had a lot of urgent matters that required his immediate attention, so he had no choice but to push the matter to a later date.
Among these urgent matters, one of them was getting back the items he had left behind at the Sixth B Squadron such as the ones at Enji’s laboratory where the parasite samples were stored. Most of them were transferred to the base since the very beginning, but some records, Enji’s personal property, Chamodine’s diary and more were left behind on the ship. He had to retrieve all of them.
Enji was a member of the Sixth B Squadron, so Cillin needed to negotiate with their current commander, Simon first because he could retrieve his items. And since Simon was dispatched by the A Squadron, Cillin decided to speak with the A Squadrons directly and contacted Nata.
Nata had always favored Cillin because of his friendship with the late Chamondine and Enji, and he saw no reason to change his mind when Cillin requested his help to retrieve the items. In Nata’s opinion, Cillin was the best person to complete the “Parasite Code” Chamondine left behind right now.
During the conversation, Nata mentioned that Simon would probably act less than friendly toward him because he was a former member of the A Squadron, and told him to plan accordingly. The warning was unnecessary, however. It was natural for a person who grew up in the A Squadron to feel superiority and arrogance toward the squadrons below him.
A while later, Cillin informed Simon that he would like to meet up with the Sixth B Squadron and retrieve the item he left behind on the ship, but no more than that. He didn’t tell the commander exactly what he was there for.
“I don’t like that guy,” Wheeze commented immediately after the call ended.
The way Simon acted as if every word he spoke was a favor he granted to Cillin irked Wheeze greatly.
Cillin simply gave its ear a flick without explaining anything.
“Go prepare whatever it is you need to prepare. We’re departing.”
“Okay!” Wheeze dashed out of the room with its tail raised. Despite the seriousness of the message, it really just wanted to remind Dough and Snowball to load the starship with a ton of food.
The commander of the Eleventh B Squadron was Cillin, and the lieutenant commander Eudy. He was also the only lieutenant commander because their numbers were few. Of course, more lieutenant commanders would be added after the number of their crew increased.
The robots were guarding the base, and the base itself was one giant mechanical agent that required minimal supervision. It was why everyone including Moon and Sigma had boarded the starship. Every human, creature or robot onboard the ship got to choose their own cabins, and researchers such as Shi Tang, Tico and Xi Kai got their own separate labs as well. The starship was also equipped with machines such as molecular synthesizers, medical equipment etc that Cillin thought was essential.
Right now most of their warehouses were empty, but they were called hunters for a reason. It would only take a spin to fill up the space up completely.
The flight deck was manned by Cillin, Moon and Sigma. In reality, either Moon or Sigma was enough to pilot the starship—they could even make it run on autopilot if need be—but they didn’t want to be alone, so that was that. While they were fooling around, Cillin was reading books on his seat and gleaning the information posted by the big medias. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough for him to get an outline of things.
When the starship finally took off, a chorus of cheers broke out from every corner of the starship. It was the maiden voyage of their new group. Cary and Xiao Shang even ran a circle around the entire ship while screaming like a pair of madmen.
During this time, Shusag sparred with Cary, shared some techniques and exchanged battle experiences with everyone who was interested. The youngsters were able to learn a lot of practical battle techniques thanks to him.
Shi Tang had become much healthier ever since he started receiving proper treatment. He no longer looked like he had one foot in the grave, and his hair was growing again. He even participated in Shusag’s teaching and learned some combat techniques from him.
There were all kinds of forces in Sector Z, and the Eleventh B Squadron ran into some of them during their travels. However, these people all laughed when they introduced themselves as Vanguard’s Eleventh B Squadron. The entire GAL knew that Vanguard only had ten B Squadrons, not eleven. What did this mean? It meant that this Eleventh B Squadron was a fake, duh!
No one thought much of them at all because of this. They might have been nervous if this squadron belonged to one of the existing real Vanguard B Squadrons, but a fake? A fake made up of one starship and the number “11” on the Vanguard logo? You’ve got to be kidding me!
As a result, the Eleventh B Squadron was immediately thought of as a joke, and it wasn’t long before the news traveled far and wide. Some people were even looking forward to Vanguard’s reaction to this joke of a starship, except… it never happened. Vanguard just stayed silent throughout the whole thing.
All of the B Squadrons were informed of the new Eleventh B Squadron beforehand, so no one made a fuss about it even though they all thought that it was ridiculous, and that their very existence made a mockery of the hunter regiment they belonged to.
Right now, the Sixth B Squadron was based on a planet with a planetary habitability of A. It was a great planet they had snatched from another force when the chaos began, and they—especially those who had to stay at the underground base and suffered its “playful teasings”—very satisfied with it.
On the flagship stationed outside the planet, Simon asked the subordinate next to him, “Are they arriving soon?”
“Yessir. Looking from the signal, the Eleventh Squad should be arriving in fifteen minutes.”
“Good.” Simon sat down on his chair. “Don’t forget to carry out our plan.”
“Yessir.”
Since Cillin only said that he wanted to retrieve his items onboard the ship, that was where he planned to hold their “reception”. He had no intention of welcoming the Eleventh Squad to their planet, and he had every intention to put on a show of strength and make it clear that he was the commander of the Sixth B Squadron now, not Shawton. In short, he wanted to shame them.
How powerful could this new B Squadron possibly be? Not a lot, if he believed even a hundredth of the rumors that were spread around recently. Why would he show courtesy to the squad that had brought shame to their entire hunter regiment? It was why he wasn’t even planning to let the Eleventh Squad go through their “front door”.
Simon’s plans were sweet, but the starship was nowhere to be seen fifteen minutes later. Forget visual confirmations, they even lost track of their signal completely.
“What’s going on?” Simon looked at the subordinate beside him with displeasure.
“Commander, we lost track of them since five minutes ago. We didn’t pick up any signal, and the scans returned completely blank.”
Simon frowned. Did something happen to the Eleventh Squad?
Another five minutes passed, and the sense that something wasn’t right grew stronger and stronger in Simon’s heart. However, his subordinate still couldn’t see or hear anything from the Eleventh Squad at all. It was almost as if they had suddenly winked out of existence.
“Why did they disappear so sudden—”
“Commander, look!”
It was at this moment someone called him to attention. A starship was appearing out of nowhere on the display, and its location was right next to their starship! The logo on the starship felt like daggers in his eyes!
It was cloaking! Perfect cloaking! It also meant that the Eleventh Squad had arrived since five minutes ago, they just never realized it until they revealed themselves. If the Eleventh Squad had chosen to remain invisible, they would still be “blind” even now!
Five minutes might not be enough time for some people to take a shit in the toilet, but it was definitely enough time for the Eleventh B Squadron to deal a destructive blow to their ship. Worse, they wouldn’t even know who their attacker was until they died.
It was like the Grim Reaper had put his scythe around their necks, and they were so oblivious couldn’t even feel its chilling touch. This was a show of strength alright, but it was one dealt to the Sixth Squad by the Eleventh Squad, not the other way around!