“No one survived?” asked Cillin with a frown on his face.
“That transport ship currently has zero gravity and very low oxygen content. An energy scan on the engine compartment revealed that it is currently inactive, and I haven’t picked any life signals from the ship so far. Of course, there’s still a chance that there are survivors on the ship, but it is a very low chance,” Moon replied, “Moreover, I can’t obtain more data because the ship’s power system and main control system are currently shut down. Of course, that changes if we’re going inside. Are we?”
Cillin thought about it for a moment before walking toward the exit of the control room. “I, Czedow, Shusag and Moon will be entering the ship to take a look. Cary, inform the crew to be on standby in case we need you to join us.”
“Roger that!”
Shusag went to the equipment room and took out a protective suit, a breathing mask, a gun, a wrist blade, a pair of gravity boots and more from a locker. Some of these equipment were different from what he was used to in the army, but he was able to adapt because their functions were the same.
Not far away, Tesoro called out to him, “Hey old man! Be careful and don’t embarrass yourself too much, yeah?”
Shusag put on the gravity boots, shot Tesoro a glance and clicked his tongue audibly. “Do you think I’m as weak as you?” After he was fully ready, Shusag rubbed his son’s hair until it was a complete mess and escaped before the boy could give him hell.
At the side, Asiya couldn’t stop herself from shaking her head. Both father and son just couldn’t be honest with each other, could they?
Cillin and Shusag had to put on protective suits, but Czedow and Moon needed no such thing. Moon was clearly excited to embark on the exploration mission because he loved to go on adventures and experience new things. In this regard, the infinitely patient Sigma was the complete opposite of him.
As the starship slowly approached the transport ship, Cillin, Czedow and Shusag waited on top of an extended bridge while Moon flew over to the hatch and clung to its surface. The flashing blue strip on his faceplate indicated that he was decoding its control mechanism.
Sssh—
It didn’t take long for the hatch to open. Just as Moon had said earlier, the interior was shrouded in darkness because the ship’s power system was either damaged or shut down.
Cillin made a hand gesture, and all three of them leaped toward the open hatch. When they landed, their gravity boots clung to the surface and kept them steady.
Wheeze was about to charge head first into the ship when Cillin stopped in and said, “Don’t. Stay with us.” Reluctantly, the gray cat sat back down on his shoulder and looked left and right, observing the ship with its senses.
“We’re going in,” Cillin informed Eudy before he started walking.
“There are a lot of dead people inside,” Wheeze said. It had already detected the passages not far away from them.
“Do you want me to hack into the main power system and turn on the power, Cillin?” Moon asked.
“No, not yet. Find out what exactly is wrong with the power system first, but leave no traces.” By this, he meant that he wanted Moon to find out if the power failure was caused by an accident or a sabotage.
“Understood.” Moon was very confident in his own abilities.
As they ventured deeper into the ship, they quickly saw the dead bodies Wheeze mentioned earlier. Due to the lack of gravity, the bodies and the blood spurting out of the wounds were all floating in mid-air. Some parts of the walls were also marred by bloody drag marks and bloody palm prints left behind by the victims.
“Who are these people?” Shusag asked. “They look like normal workers."
“I don’t know.” Cillin looked at their clothes but couldn’t find anything that might identify them. That being said, he could tell that their employers were powerful people judging from the material of their space suit.
“Avoid touching the blood droplets and blood clots as much as you are able. Keep them the way they are,” Cillin said to Shusag and Czedow. He then looked at Wheeze and put extra emphasis behind his tone, “And don’t leave any paw marks!”
“Fine.” Wheeze withdrew its claws and showed Cillin its tiny paw pads. “You happy now?”
“Their killers…” Shusag checked out a nearby corpse before pointing at a knife wound. “Are very professional.”
It was possible to judge how good a person was with their blade from a cut, and everybody here only had one, clean knife wound on their vitals. It was enough to tell Shusag that their killers were professionals.
Moon opened another door, and they went into the control area of the main hold. There were even more floating bodies here, and some of their faces were marred by fear and disbelief. Perhaps the slaughter had come too sudden for them to react.
Most of the victims weren’t carrying a weapon. A genetic analysis revealed that most of them were ordinary people.
“What do you think about this?” Cillin asked Shusag.
“It’s a one-sided slaughter committed by a group of well-trained, well-equipped killers. They barely even left any traces behind. Also…” Shusag pointed at a body floating not far away from them. “This guy’s stronger than the others, am I right?”
Cillin looked at the person Shusag was pointing. Unlike the others, this one had died of a gunshot. A genetic analysis also told him that he was an A-rank.
In GAL, strength was measured by the rank of one’s genes. Therefore, it was unwise to underestimate someone with A-rank genes even if they hadn’t received any professional training before. It was probably why the killers had decided to shoot him instead of knifing him like the others. The bullet that took his life seemed to possess incredible penetration power considering that his heart had almost been completely destroyed by it, but the bullet itself possessed little defining characteristics that might reveal the gun model that was used to fire it. The killers had clearly prepped for this as well.
Everyone here wore the same space suit, but the killers were able to separate the A-rank people from the others. This meant that the killers had come up with their murderous plan with clear knowledge of the crew on this ship all the way down to the level of their individual strength.
Cillin asked Shusag, “Do you know how to write a report?”
Shusag answered, “Yeah. Back in the army, I used to write summary reports every time I came back from a mission.”
“Write one after we get back to the ship.”
“No problem.”
They went around the area one time. The cargo hold had been emptied of its contents, and judging from the residue there were high quality energy blocks, some rare metals and high-end equipment.
“So much valuables. I wonder who the owner of this transport ship is? I can already imagine them puking blood after learning of their loss,” Wheeze said lazily and disappointedly. It had hoped to loot some valuables and fatten its secret purse during this trip, but there turned out to be nothing at all.
“These people must’ve hired powerful guards to protect their valuables, right? Well, where are they?” Shusag asked. So far, he hadn’t seen anyone who might be a guard yet. Although there were some strong people among the bodies, there were too few of them to be the security team.
“There’s one guy over there who might be who we’re looking for,” Czedow said while pointing down a passage. His senses told him that the body was clearly stronger than the others.
The passage Czedow was pointing to was connected to the cargo hold, and there was a spiraling staircase leading to the upper floor around a corner. The corner led to the control room and the cargo hold on one side, and the toilet on the other. There were two more guards floating at the corner besides the one Czedow had pointed out earlier. They had all succumbed to a single gunshot.
“Do you need reinforcements, commander?” Cary asked through the comms.
“Not yet.” Cillin was afraid that too many cooks would spoil the dish. He didn’t want to let anyone know that they had been here before.
“I’m guessing that the upper level is the security team’s lounge area.”
Shusag was about to head up when Czedow grabbed him.
“Wait. Poison.”
“What?” Shusag immediately withdrew his feet.
“It’s barely noticeable on this floor, but the concentration level is much higher upstairs,” Czedow said.
“He’s right. This poisonous gas is fatal to the human body past a certain level,” Moon confirmed Czedow’s scan.
Cillin and Shusag inspected their protective suit once before putting on the breathing mask. It expanded and covered their heads completely. There were no gaps between the mask and the suit.
“Let’s go.”
The higher they went, the thicker the poisonous gas became. After they went up the stairs, they discovered that the entrance leading to the next floor was partially closed. There was a gap just big enough for the gas to seep through.
“Ready?” Moon looked to Cillin. Once Cillin had given him the OK sign, the door slid open fully.
The sight behind the door was very revolting.
The poisonous gas was a corrosive agent that destroyed the nerves of anyone who inhaled or came into physical contact with it. The necrosis gradually spread throughout the entire body and caused the flesh and the fat to swell up like a bubble. When the process was complete, the victims looked more like malignant tumors than human. The room was filled with them.
The gap between the door was the result of a gunshot, but the poisonous gas was so deadly that that was all the guards managed before they breathed their last.
The two guards who died at the corner were probably going to the toilet when the gas attack started. Unfortunately, their luck didn’t hold against the snipers who were prowling in the area.
“Most of these people are A-rank,” said Cillin after scanning the bodies. Their armor and attire also also confirmed that they were the guards of the transport ship.
But why were they all gathered in one place?
“Can you find out who their leader is, Moon?” Cillin asked.
“I’m not sure. I’ll try to restore their communication logs. Much of the ship’s records are altered to a certain degree.”
The fact that the killers were able to modify the monitoring logs and even the comm logs probably meant that there was a spy amidst the transport ship. If they could restore these logs, they might be able to figure out the identity of these killers easier.
As it turned out, whoever altered the records of the ship was an expert. Despite the combined efforts of Moon and Wheeze, a small portion of the data were erased so thoroughly that they were impossible to recover, but only a small potion.
Looking at the communication logs, it looked like the guards had been summoned to the lounge area. The only one who had the authority to do this was either the security captain himself, or the captain of this transport ship.
“The summon was sent from the bridge,” Moon said.
“We didn’t see anyone in the bridge when we checked the control area though.” Shusag remembered this very well because he was wondering why there were no bodies there.
Cillin thought for a moment before saying, “Let’s head back and take a look. Moon, continue restoring any info you can with Wheeze, and send me the crew list as well once you have it. You can restore it, can’t you? If you can’t I’ll do it myself.”
“Of course we can!” Wheeze and Moon replied at the same time.
After he closed the staircase door, Cillin and Shusag returned to the control area and went to the bridge. Logically speaking, the captain’s body should be somewhere around here, but there was nothing. They hadn’t seen anyone who might be the captain in other parts of the ship either, although it wasn’t like they had searched every crook and nanny of this place. Maybe the captain had hidden himself in a corner or something?
“No, he’s right here.” Czedow pointed at the air all of a sudden. “Or rather, his body would’ve been here if it wasn’t atomized. The atmospheric composition of the bridge is clearly different from outside. I’ve compared them to the human body and found about two people’s worth of atoms.”
Shusag felt his back turn into ice. Who the hell are these killers, and what drove them to commit such an atrocity? It was bad enough that they massacred an entire ship of people, but to go so far as to disintegrate even their bodies into atoms?
“Two? Assuming that one of them was the ship’s captain, who’s the other person? Why go through the effort of wiping them from existence, literally? What are they hiding?” Cillin puzzled.
“Hey, this is the captain of the ship.” Moon sent them a picture with a short description. Cillin didn’t recognize the man, nor did Czedow carry his info in his database.
“Send me the rest of the profiles,” Cillin said.
Moon did just that. The pictures blurred together as they flashed across the screen.
“Wait!” Cillin suddenly said, “Move two profiles back. Yes, this is the one!”
The man in the picture was the person in charge of the security. He had average looks and almost no defining features. He was the kind of person who could blend in a crowd as easy as a breeze. But Cillin still remembered him even though it had been a few years since they last met.
The first time Cillin met Douance Aiflon was during the first mission he participated as a hunter of the Sixth B Squadron of Vanguard. He had fought two of his bodyguards at the time, and the man in the picture was the one he sent flying.
This clarified a couple of things. One, this transport ship was ferrying the goods that belonged to the Douance Family. Two, great efforts had been carried out to conceal the existence of these goods. The lack of identifiable features on the crew’s spacesuit was the proof of that. They had never planned to expose themselves, and had this been a normal robbery the space robbers would never realize whom the goods belonged to.
Who were the killers who dared to rob the Douance Family, and what faction did they belong to? With this new revelation, Cillin guessed that the second person who got atomized was this bodyguard.
“Do you know this guy?” Shusag asked.
“Yes. He probably works for the Douance Family, but it’s all just assumptions right now.”
“A family? Is there a conspiracy in the play?”
“The Douance guy I know would never carry out an operation without preparation, but the fact is his people got slaughtered one-sidedly. This could only mean that there’s a spy in his midst, again. Anyway, let’s gather some more data and leave this place.”
“Why are we even gathering these data? And with this much caution no less?” Shusag pointed at the bodies, the blood, and the images Moon sent them.
“We came all the way here, so we can’t leave empty-handed. The caution is to avoid getting tangled in the web. In the future, we may be able to convert what we learned today into something profitable.”
“Nothing is ever easy, huh.” Shusag let out a sigh.
“I would like to save some time and effort myself, but each one of these old bastards are only more cunning than the next. Multiple contingencies are necessary if you wish to steal from their pockets, or they may very well turn on us even though we did them a favor.”
“How much profit do you estimate we could get from this investigation?”
“I don’t know yet. I guess it depends on how much effort we put into it.”
“Understood!” Shusag gave him the OK sign before leaving to inspect the wounds and other things in detail. The war veteran was quite familiar with the art of inspecting wounds, imagining opponents, estimating power levels and the like. He might’ve retired from the army for a very long time, but he hadn’t shedded all of his professional habits. It also made writing the report later much easier.
Cillin when to check the engine compartment. The signs of tampering were very obvious here. Someone had entered the engine compartment and cut off the main power supply to stop the ship from moving. Then, they tampered with the power system and altered the ship’s gravity. Finally, they slaughtered the crew while they were confused.
Before leaving the transport ship, Cillin told Moon to set up a monitoring program in case someone decided to board it for whatever reason.
After they returned to the starship, Cillin called a small meeting and informed the others not to speak about the transport ship. It was because it would attract unnecessary trouble.
“Alright, we can forget about this and talk about something else.” Cillin pointed at a planet on the star map. “This planet is our destination. To put it bluntly, we’re heading over to eat some game.”
“Alright! Wanna compete and see who can hunt more games this time, Xiao Shang?” Cary looked challengingly at Xiao Shang. The eight-armed man responded immediately,
“Sure! I’m not scared of you!”
“I want to join too!” Tang Qiuqiu raised her hand eagerly.
Cillin left the crew to their fun and returned to his room to take a short nap. Five minutes later, he shot a glance at the obviously restless Wheeze.
“Well, what is it? Speak.”
“Whatever do you mean? It’s nothing.” Wheeze halted in its track and looked away, but its tone was clearly devoid of any conviction.
Cillin pinched its furry ears and pulled them up slightly. “Really?”
“R-really.”
“Okay then.” Cillin let go and stared at Wheeze unblinkingly. The foolish cat’s tail started freezing more and more until finally, it gave up and spat out a red gem.
The red gem was about as big as Cillin’s fingernail and as red as blood. With a light source, the gem shone like a demonic object that couldn’t help but enchant anyone who saw it.
There was a break on its surface, however. It was almost as if the top of the gem was cut off by something.
Wheeze’s ability to identify value was growing better and better as of late, so when it saw the gem amidst the floating flesh and blood, it swallowed it the second Cillin looked in the other direction. It was certain that the gem was worth at least a hundred fish biscuits. One problem though: Cillin had explicitly told it to preserve the scene as much as possible. That was why Wheeze had been fidgeting until just now.
Cillin took a look at the red gem before placing it inside a small box. “We’ll keep it here for now. If it turns out to be useless, then I’ll sell it and buy you some food.”
Wheeze was very satisfied with Cillin’s answer. Now that it was free from its demons, it quickly curled into a ball next to Cillin and started dozing off. It had to recover enough energy for the hunt later, you see.
Cillin had his eyes closed as well, but he wasn’t truly asleep. The source of his puzzlement was none other than the gem Wheeze had stolen from the ship. The gem was obviously valuable, and judging from its shape it had fallen off a woman’s ring. However, Cillin hadn’t found anyone who might wear a ring like this on the crew profile. Less than a tenth of the crew on the transport ship were female, and they were all just normal people.
So who… was this mysterious woman who could afford a red gem like this?