Tearing His Way Through

For the past three months, Vorian had been tearing his way through the battlefield zones before he approached something called the Walls of Lion. These were basically borders between what was known as the Wastelands and Kill Zones of the Salusa Secundus and the areas that were more civilized in a certain sense.

Now, he was in front of the Safe Zone, which was being guarded by the full-fledged Sardaukar Troopers, and there were many of them. Not to mention, within the vicinity of the Safe Zone the patrols of the Sardaukar were becoming more and more frequent.

The area here was rocky, with some green highlands, cold air, and dark sky. The most notable features around the entire area were countless corpses of the prisoners that were decaying there under the sky or skeletons from the bodies that had long ago decomposed.

Here and there, there was also the corpse of some unlucky Sardaukar Trooper because their corpse was left there. For the Sardaukar to be killed by one of the initiates in the prison planet Salusa Secundus was considered disgraceful, so they always left the corpses there.

"Scout the area... search for the weak spots within the Walls of Lion; I need a solid opening to enter the Safe Zone, perhaps the place with the least number of the Sardaukar guarding the points of interest."

Vorian said to his Grynix, who gave him a meowing sound before she departed to carry out the request. Nobody really paid attention to the animals that roamed the entire place; the majority of them were even genetically engineered and released onto the Salusa Secundus to increase the lethality of the place.

It didn't take long for his Grynix to return with the information he required; obviously, Isha found a weak spot within the line that was guarded by the Sardaukar Troopers. Within one concrete place, there were only a few of the Sardaukars that were guarding the place.

Isha even found a small pathway that led directly beyond the Walls of Lion to the Safe Zone, one that was something akin to a maintenance pathway reserved for the Sardaukar Troopers, with only a few of them standing on guard.

He tapped the two knives on behind his lower back and checked the sword on the right side and the one on his back. It didn't take long for him to arrive at the hidden maintenance path that was carved into the rock. It was hidden by bushes and trees, but most importantly, it was protected by the shield generator.

Something that Isha had already disabled due to her psychic abilities was that she managed to slip through the shield generator and disable the thing. Now, what he needed to do was to pass through the narrow path that seemed like something was used to dispose of garbage.

The end of the pathway was at the other side of the Walls of Lion, the first one to exit the pathway was Isha who scouted the area, where two Sardaukar Troopers were standing on guard. 

'It seems that they are really guarding everything...'

Vorian thought as he took out twin knives that were strapped on his legs; looking at the two Sardaukar Troops that were standing there like motionless statues, he stood up, making the least sounds possible, almost none at all, as he stabbed both of them to their necks from back. 

For him, they didn't have the shields activated because they didn't really predict that someone would actually use the maintenance pathway, which was protected by the shield generator. Even their stationing there was formal, just in case, as every single entrance must be protected.

Vorian quickly then dragged the corpses of the Sardaukar Troopers into the maintenance path; it would take some time before it would be discovered that they were killed. To prolong the time, he even ordered Isha to activate the shield generator on the other side so it would take them a longer time to figure everything out. 

'The ship is located approximately five hundred meters away from this place, in a private port. Unfortunately, between our current location and the spaceship's location is one outpost of the Sardaukar with five troopers standing on guard.'

Crossing approximately five hundred meters in the area that was swarming with the Sardaukar Troopers would certainly take a lot of effort. The entire area on the edges of the Safe Zone behind the Walls of Lion was guarded especially strictly.

Still, he already had a precise path that was shown to him by Isha as he was led around by the Grynix directly to the outpost of the Sardaukar. The edges of the Safe Zone were seeded with similar outposts; it was clear that the House Corrino wasn't betting on anything, and the security was done especially well.

Soon enough, approximately half an hour later, he arrived at the hidden spot, which gave him a perfect view of the simplistic outpost manned by five Sardaukar Troopers. He observed the outpost for more than one hour, to learn the habits of the guards, only to be disappointed that they were doing basically nothing, not even moving from their position.

That only left him with the one possibility...

He couldn't sneak around because the place had a perfect view of its surroundings, and there was no way he could enter the outpost unseen. The only way for him to succeed in this endeavor was to send Isha to distract them or lure them away from the outpost and kill them one by one.

Now, distraction could be a good plan, but he didn't think that Isha could distract all five of them at the same time, which would allow him to sneak into the outpost safely. So, the only way was to lure at least one or two of them into the blind spot and kill them.

From then on, he would need to act very fast because, according to the standard protocol, they would need to report, and then the other Sardaukar Troopers would request reinforcements. 

'Isha, you are on...'

He ordered Isha to depart from the current position when the Grynix almost effortlessly sneaked into the outpost and started employing her psychic skills to lure two Sardaukar to depart from the outpost and search through the area.

She was rather apt in this area and very quickly managed to catch the attention of two Sardaukar Troops as she led them to a blind spot. Vorian put a hand on his sword as he drew out his weapon and started the countdown. 

Through their psychic connection, he could sense Isha's precise location. When they were close to him, Vorian rushed at the first Sardaukar Trooper, penetrating through his bluish shield.

Vorian was a bit surprised that they had their shields activated, but it seemed these ones were more cautious. Fortunately enough, he managed to slit the throat of the first Sardaukar, though the second one attacked Vorian even before he could draw the sword from the body of the first one.

He immediately backed away and dodged another slash of the Sardaukar Sword, while drawing out twin daggers that were strapped on his legs.

Seeing the sword incoming once again, as the attacks of the Sardaukar were rather fast, he raised the knives in the x-pattern, blocking the sword strike, while at the same time, slowly lowering down the knives so the sword slid away, as he instantly stabbed one of the daggers into his neck.

It took a bit of force to penetrate the shielding of the Sardaukar, but he hit the artery and killed the man. After that, he once again looked at the corpse before he considered the options and took the shielding device. 

Now that he was already close, it would be hard to track him. 

He knew that there were some devices that were used to monitor the area and shieldings that were activated.

He could have taken the shield generators even outside the Safe Zone because, once in a while, someone managed to get their hands on such a device, but he knew that the Sardaukars were conducting periodical analysis of the entire battlefields and searching for the shielding signals.

He tapped on the shield generator as a bluish barrier enveloped him before it faded away.

'Status of the other three?'

Vorian then looked at Grynix, who was licking herself clean, making sure that her fur was in pristine condition. 

'Still standing at the outpost like statues.'

Obviously, the rest of the Sardaukar Troopers were standing guard on the outpost, standing on the vigilant guard. Vorian knew that this was the only time when he could pass through the defenses. He was confident to handle three Sardaukars, though he needed to act very fast. 

'Go and distract them while I infiltrate the outpost.'

Now that they were down from five people to three, it was nigh impossible for another of the Sardaukars to leave the outpost. Isha quickly departed from their hiding spot and went to the Sardaukar outpost, with Vorian following after the Grynix several minutes later.