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C245 - Advance

Many faint steps resounded in the silence of the corridor. The soldiers had instinctively arranged themselves according to their confidence against the Stal, but Khan and Lieutenant Pouille remained in the lead. The former knew that his kicks wouldn't be so helpful against that powerful species. Still, he didn't dare to let anyone else be in front of the group since his sensitivity to mana was too valuable in that situation.

The dim lights coming out of the corners of the metal surfaces allowed Khan and Lieutenant Pouille to see almost everything in the corridor. Their group crossed many empty cells before arriving at a turn that Khan inspected silently before advancing. No one was in sight, but that wasn't enough to remove the tension that filled his mind.

Random thoughts appeared in Khan's mind while the group moved silently. He didn't forget to add the new turns to the path that he had memorized, but he still spared some attention to his hand and martial art.

Khan's hand had stopped bleeding, but he didn't dare to remove the piece of armor. Yet, he forced himself to think about his failed attempt to perform the Divine Reaper barehanded to develop solutions.

Khan had confirmed that he could perform the martial art without weapons, but his body wasn't strong enough to endure the backlash that accompanied those techniques. Still, he had access to the [Blood Shield], which could theoretically solve the issue or prevent him from suffering such severe injuries.

The handcuffs and the bandages would hinder Khan from using his left hand to perform the Divine Reaper, so his attention went on his feet. In theory, he could use them for his techniques, but he decided to avoid that until he saw how effective the [Blood Shield] was. His escape would end if he ended up injuring his legs.

A change eventually happened. Khan and Lieutenant Pouille noticed a door in the distance, and they quickly informed the other soldiers about it. Everyone slowed down to reduce the noises released by their advance, and Khan suppressed his thoughts to focus on his senses.

The door was on the right side of the corridor, so the group could approach it safely. Still, the Lieutenant performed a few silent gestures to make everyone form a single line once that entrance grew close. He even tried to take the frontmost spot, but Khan didn't let him.

Khan sensed strange waves of synthetic mana, but he couldn't find anything that belonged to a living being. After peeking inside past the door, he saw a small room full of tall rectangular items with azure tubes running over their surfaces.

Khan stepped inside the room while shooting a confused glance at Lieutenant Pouille. The latter followed him inside before wearing a deep frown. Other soldiers peeked past the entrance, but they decided to remain outside after noticing that the room couldn't contain all of them.

"Do you know what these items are?" Khan asked while searching for buttons or writings that could give him some clue.

"They are servers," Lieutenant Pouille explained, "Pretty good servers. They even use an immense amount of mana."

"What's a server?" Khan asked.

"They help process information," Lieutenant Pouille replied. "The Global Army would kill to study these."

Khan dismissed that explanation after labeling it as useless for his escape. He inspected the room one last time before approaching the entrance. Yet, he stopped after seeing that Lieutenant Pouille's eyes remained glued on the tall servers.

"What is it?" Khan questioned.

"One of these would be enough for an entire space station," Lieutenant Pouille sighed before following Khan toward the entrance.

The Lieutenant didn't need to add anything else to explain what he meant. An entire space station only required one server, but that underground room had more than ten of them. Both Khan and the soldier couldn't understand what process would even need such massive technological power.

It immediately became evident that the underground structure had some important purposes. After all, something so important as the servers was in a random room that didn't feature any protection.

Khan let those worries escape from his mind once the group resumed the escape. The corridor had yet to show proper exits or actual habitation, and he didn't like remaining still without a plan in mind.

It didn't take long before another change appeared in Khan's view and forced the group to a stop. After another turn, he noticed that the corridor ended in a tall door that seemed to lead to an area featuring a different illumination instead of the dim lights around him.

Azure flashes fused with a constant bright white light, but Khan didn't focus too much on those features. He had sensed the presence of living beings as soon as the group had approached the new area.

Khan pointed at Lieutenant Pouille and the five soldiers who had taken the pieces of armor before proceeding forward. The six men and women followed him slowly, allowing him to approach the entrance before them.

Their silent movements didn't cause any reaction in the lifeforms inside the new area. Khan could get close enough to recognize the source of the presences sensed before. He could confirm that four Stal and a Guko were standing and sitting in silence, and only two of the tall aliens were first-level warriors.

'The jailer must have come from here,' Khan thought before turning toward his companions and doing his best to describe the situation.

Lieutenant Pouille didn't need Khan's descriptions, but the other five soldiers fixed their eyes on his left hand as he explained what would wait for them past that entrance. Luckily for Khan, the two species were so different that his companions understood him quickly.

The squad prepared themselves for a battle. They didn't need to speak to understand what they needed to do. Their priority was to kill the Stal. As for the Guko, they silently decided to interrogate it after dealing with the other threats.

Lieutenant Pouille raised his chained arms to perform a countdown with his fingers. Khan and the soldiers shot forward as soon as their leader closed both hands into fists, and the aliens inside the new area inevitably noticed their arrival.

Khan charged directly for one of the weak aliens. A series of desks and large chairs stood on his path, but he dodged them easily. A Stal was sitting on the opposite side of the room, but it had no time to stand up since a kick slammed on one of its heads and turned it into a bloody pulp.

Growls resounded, but they quickly turned into grunts as the soldiers began to fight with the aliens. Khan disregarded his companions to inspect the area before shooting toward an entrance on the room's opposite side. His senses reassured him, but he still peeked out of the opening. He saw the now-familiar corridor but nothing else.

The Stal did their best to fend off the intruders, but nothing could stop Lieutenant Pouille. Heads exploded, and bodies slammed on the ceiling whenever he waved his chained hands. The other soldiers were also quite strong, so all the tall aliens died in a matter of seconds.

The death of the last Stal made everyone glance at the Guko. The small alien had remained on its tall chair during the battle. It didn't even try to escape while it watched its companions die.

Delia reached the Guko and placed the piece of armor to its short throat before nodding at her companions. Lieutenant Pouille approached the first entrance to gesture at the other soldiers to advance, while Khan focused on inspecting the area.

The area was quite large. It featured the same tall servers seen in the previous room, but it also had two large desks, four chairs, and a few screens on the wall in front of the Guko.

A series of writings in a language that Khan didn't recognize filled the screens. The lack of images that depicted the cells or corridors reassured him, but he didn't let anything appear on his face. He didn't know why the Guko had remained still, but he wanted to show his coldest expression anyway.

The platoon had a bit more than twenty soldiers, and the room had enough space for them, but Lieutenant Pouille made sure to leave a few of them on both corridors. Of course, Khan decided to inspect the second entrance thoroughly before leaving his spot to someone else.

The room seemed distant to other areas or aliens, so the group slowly relaxed before encircling the Guko. Lieutenant Pouille even waited for Khan to arrive in front of the alien before starting the interrogation.

"Why didn't you try to escape?" Lieutenant Pouille asked, without trying to understand if the Guko knew the human language.

"I would have never outrun you," The Guko replied in a perfect human accent. "Also, you would have hurt me after catching me."

The alien's straightforwardness left Khan surprised, but the Lieutenant didn't seem to find any problem with that.

"How many Stal does this underground structure contain?" Lieutenant Pouille questioned.

"The entire structure currently has two battalions," The Guko replied. "Yet, I believe you are interested in the number of warriors nearby. There are only three squads in areas less than a day from here."

"Why are you collaborating so easily?" Lieutenant Pouille eventually asked the question that was afflicting everyone's minds.

"You would hurt me if I didn't," The Guko explained. "Moreover, showing my value can preserve my life, which is the ultimate goal of every living being. My actions are as logical as possible."

Khan finally understood how deep Guko's pragmatism was. Those aliens were basically robots that followed a series of simple goals, which worked in his favor.

"Why do you have no doors?" Khan asked, voicing another doubt that was in everyone's minds.

"The Stal are a dumb and short-tempered species," The Guko explained. "They would break the doors if they forgot how to open them. Moreover, being able to inspect each area helps their poor sense of direction."

"How can they get lost here?" Delia questioned. "There is only one corridor."

"I can list the number of cases involving dispersed Stal if you want," The Guko declared, but Delia quickly shook her head.

"Why are you cooperating with the Stal?" Lieutenant Pouille asked. "Is your species betraying the humans? Are there spies among you?"

"The Guko have a hard time understanding the idea behind lies," The alien revealed. "None of us can be a spy."

"How could you have kept your cooperation with the Stal hidden then?" Lieutenant Pouille continued.

"The Guko with the humans don't know about us," The alien declared. "Many of us have become prisoners of the Stal during the initial stages of the war, and some have managed to prove themselves useful enough to obtain partial freedom. I'm one of them."

"Useful how?" Khan asked.

"The Stal are aware that they can't win this war on their own," The Guko announced. "They need our weapons, technology, and intelligence, and we provided it to preserve our lives."

"What are you doing here?" Khan continued. "Why did you take human prisoners? How could you keep new weapons hidden from the humans and the members of your species helping them?"

"The majority of our species is with the humans," The Guko responded. "We couldn't win in a race toward the newest technologies, so we focused on developing a final weapon capable of winning the war on its own."

"How can something like this even exist?" Lieutenant Pouille questioned.

"It would be easier to show it to you," The Guko stated, but Delia pressed her piece of armor on its throat to stop any attempt to leave the chair.

"We aren't as stupid as you think," Lieutenant Pouille scoffed.

"I'm aware of your intelligence," The Guko explained. "I'm only unclear about the limits of your comprehension."

"Try us," Khan threatened.

"Can I have any assurance that you won't kill me in a burst of anger afterward?" The Guko asked.

"No," Khan, Lieutenant Pouille, Delia, and a few other soldiers answered at the same time.

"Very well," The Guko exclaimed in its aloof voice. "The final weapon's project is called anti-mana. The humans simply happen to be perfect guinea pigs due to their incredible diversity."

To be continued