Chapter 2: AZAROTH

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"So what you mean to say is that the child is in a deep coma and can't be woken up?" PAPA asked Lemur.

"That's the gist of it Chairman-sama." Lemur said.

"Elaborate." PAPA asked with an authoritative tone.

"The veins in the boy's body are sucking the mana in from the atmosphere and transforming it in a way we couldn't comprehend and are simply referring to as Process Z. The mana sucked in disappears after getting engulfed by the boy's body and we don't know where they are ending up at. With our current technology, we can only confirm that the mana that is getting sucked up by the boy is disappearing without a trace. We will be conducting a planetary scale inspection to try and point out the location where the mana is ending up at in 3hrs. And it seems like the boy will be in a coma until he has completed the task he is trying to accomplish as we have found out that because of Process Z the boy's mind is overexerting itself and because of which it has put itself in a coma. It will be easier to say that the boy is trying to accomplish something but because of an intense strain to his mind has put himself in a coma to try and lessen a part of the strain. Taking all these into account we can only wait till the boy has accomplished whatever he is trying to accomplish and therefore we cannot determine how long his coma will last." Lemur said.

"Transport the boy to the main Headquarters of APE and place him in Medbay-9999#ZERO. Make sure that there are always at least 50 researchers stationed there to check on his vitals. We can't abandon a potential hope of humanity. Take the necessary precautions and make sure any information regarding the boy is not leaked and instruct the researchers who inspected the boy and everyone associated with this matter to not leak anything." PAPA said to Lemur.

"It shall be done Chairman-sama." Saying which Lemur disappeared into the shadow.

"Gather everyone present inside this airship at this moment to the Assembly Hall and operate the ship to be at Auto-Pilot mode." Lemur said to the communicator present near his ear while walking towards Medbay-6738 where the boy in question was present.

"Leave this place and go to the Assembly Hall and wait for me there." Lemur said to the researchers who quickly walked out of the room.

"I am waiting for your awakening." Lemur said to the boy who had a peaceful expression on his face and seemed to be experiencing a pleasant dream.

"Well, this should take care of it." Lemur said as he approached the core operating platform of the Medbay which controlled all its operations and recorded the inspection record performed in Medbay-6738 and deleted everything recorded in it. After which he destroyed the platform causing a blackout to occur in the room which was quickly resolved as the backup generators started operating.

After giving the room one last look Lemur headed towards the Assembly Hall where currently everyone inside the airship was gathered except the PAPA and him of course.

"I will say this only once so listen carefully. You aren't allowed to speak about anything that has already happened and will happen in this mission. You aren't even allowed to share the details with your family members and your friends. You will not share them with even your comrades who are currently here. Everything you have experienced in this mission will be forgotten by you and shall never be mentioned again after you leave the airship. You will be under surveillance for a particular amount of time after you disembark this ship and any suspicious behaviour will not be tolerated. Treachery and a similar offence would not be tolerated and you will be executed immediately if found guilty. Am I clear?" Lemur said in a strict tone.

"SIR, YES SIR!" A loud shout could be heard following Lemur's warning.

"That's all. You are Dispersed." Lemur said as he walked out of the Assembly Hall leaving behind a noisy and confused crowd.

"Is the Planetary-Scale Nuclear Scanner ready?" Lemur asked the basic Artificial Intelligence installed aboard the airship.

"Affirmative. Answering. The Planetary-Scale Nuclear Scanner is not ready for utilization and will require approximately 4 hours to be prepared completely." A mechanical voice answered Lemur

"Inform me when It's ready and notify the command centre at the GARDEN to prepare for our arrival." Lemur said as he walked towards the Chairman's office.

"Affirmative. It shall be done." A robotic voice echoed through the lonely corridor.

"Chairman-sama, we are being intercepted by 7 Standard-Class IS. They are heading towards us from the South-West direction and will come in contact with us in 9 minutes. What are your orders?" Lemur asked PAPA after looking at the Holographic-Tablet in his hand.

"Annihilate them. Rogue Bandits are not supplied with IS. They are probably trained IS pilot under the guise of bandits and taking them captives won't yield any results as they probably won't admit to anything related to whoever sent them and it's better to annihilate them as it's always easier to destroy than to take captive's. So annihilate them. Sigh! Humans are still the hardest obstacle Humanity has to overcome to be able to live freely. Quite ironic isn't it?" PAPA said to Lemur who just nodded his head and agreed with him.

"Intercept the enemy IS and annihilate them. You have permission to use Grade-B weapons." Lemur said to the control room through his communicator. Shortly after which eighteen Destroyer-Class Drones were deployed to intercept the 7-IS which were rendered vulnerable against the high firepower of the 18 Destroyer-Class drones who had the advantage in both firepower and numbers and were quickly taken care of after which AZAROTH continued its maiden voyage.

"Chairman-sama, what do you think about the specimen-002?" Lemur asked PAPA.

"Specimen-002 is a vital part of our plan to liberate humanity from the threat of Klaxosaurs and Savages. As you know Specimen-002 was produced from the DNA of the Klaxosaur princess or 001 who is a Klaxo-Sapien and the last of her kind to exist in this era. Specimen-002 is a Human-Klaxo Sapien Hybrid owing to her unique heritage because of which she is the only one except for 001 capable of operating Star Entity and Hringhorni which is a weapon capable of annihilating the whole Klaxosaur Population and bringing salvation to Humanity. This is why specimen-002 is a vital part of our plan to ensure Humanity's victory in this never-ending war. Though I have discovered another method utilizing which we can also operate Star Entity and Hringhorni. I prefer to not use it as it will be too troublesome and may put us in the cycle of another never-ending war." PAPA said to Lemur who listened attentively as even he as one of the Seven Sages didn't know much about the Star Entity and Hringhorni.

"We will be arriving at the GARDEN in 5 minutes Chairman-sama." Lemur said to PAPA.

As AZAROTH descended from the clouds everyone present in the GARDEN could see the behemoth flying fortress which would act as Humanity stronghold in the frontlines. The airship AZAROTH was one of the most prized possession of APE in this war as it would act as a flying fortress which was armed with Continental-Class weapons and was capable of erasing countries from the face of the planet if needed. Though this was from the point of view of the masses and it had even more hidden features. Though one thing was for sure. AZAROTH will be Humanity's stronghold in this war.

"The latest batch contains 24 pairs of parasites Chairman-sama." Lemur said while walking alongside PAPA towards the laboratory located in the GARDEN with their escort following behind them.

"How many Standard FRANXX do we have in our disposal currently?" PAPA asked.

"We currently have 76 Standard FRANXX which aren't piloted by any platoon currently and are in standby." Lemur said as he swiped the holographic tablet on his hand.

"Is that so. Do we have any parasite who is qualified to pilot a Special FRANXX?"

"There won't be any parasite who will be qualified enough to pilot a Special FRANXX for the next 3 years according to the Aptitude-Data graph provided by the GARDEN. But batch#1399 which will be prepared in a decade has quite a lot of relatively qualified pilots and some of them will be able to pilot Special FRANXX." Lemur said

"We will discuss this in more depth after we arrive at the APE Strategic Headquarters." PAPA said as they reached the Laboratory in the GARDEN where they were received by Dr FRANXX who proceeded to tell them about the annual progression of the GARDEN.