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C248 - Surface

The execution of the Guko turned the atmosphere upside-down. The soldiers didn't feel good after seeing the remains of their companion on the table. Still, everything gained a different vibe after Lieutenant Pouille killed the alien without a single warning.

Many instinctively opened their mouths to complain, but they remained silent when they recalled that Lieutenant Pouille had already obtained everything he needed for the escape. The Guko had downloaded the Stal's battle plans and the blueprint of the underground structure on his phone. Leaving wouldn't be a problem, but his actions had still affected them deeply.

Khan had seen enough tragedies in his life to remain calm. Lieutenant Pouille's actions had surprised him, but he understood the reasons behind them. The soldier had acted out of fear that his world could fall apart due to the revolutionary form of energy.

'How far is he willing to go?' Khan wondered as his hand casually neared the knife in his sheath.

Keeping the anti-mana project a secret was impossible since the entire platoon would go through a briefing after reuniting with the Global Army. The Lieutenant could ensure that everyone would keep their mouth shut only if he shut them himself.

"Shoot them," Lieutenant Pouille firmly ordered after pointing at the three Guko on the staircases.

"We can help you," The first Guko pleaded in a robotic voice.

"This structure is vast and complicated," The second Guko added. "Having a guide is necessary."

"We know the paths toward the other labs," The third Guko exclaimed in an attempt to use the Lieutenant's intentions to its favor.

Their aloof but honest pleads made the marksmen hesitate. It was easy to kill from the trenches or shoot the Stal that had forced them to defecate in a small hole in the corner of their cells. Instead, executing defenseless Guko who had every intention to collaborate made their triggers incredibly heavy.

"I gave you an order," Lieutenant Pouille stated in a cold voice, and Gloria ended up being the first to overcome her hesitation.

A clean shot turned the second Guko's head into a bloody pulp. Gloria's actions made the other two marksmen fire, and the area soon fell silent as the soldiers' gazes converged on the three corpses filling the narrow staircases with pale-green blood.

Lieutenant Pouille nodded before throwing his punches around. The circular tube didn't survive long under his assault, and the same went for the various screens in the second hall. He even used his spells whenever he saw a server or something that seemed able to store data.

The soldiers inspected that calm and calculated destruction in silence. They remained still, and only Khan eventually decided to step over the remains of the circular item to get close to the spherical container with the dark-blue gas.

Khan was too worried about the gas' properties to touch the transparent surface of its container. Still, he remained curious about that substance and let his senses inspect it.

His sensitivity to mana normally reacted only to that energy, but every environment featured it. The complete absence of mana was another detail that he could study with his senses, but the gas felt peculiar nonetheless.

The dark-blue gas was still mana, but Khan noticed how it released faint radiation that kept the energy outside the container away. It basically created a small area where normal mana couldn't enter.

'Is anti-mana just another element?' Khan wondered, but the arrival of the Lieutenant put an end to his inspection.

"Do you think I should disperse it?" Lieutenant Pouille asked when he gazed at the dark-blue mana.

Khan's eyebrows arched in surprise. The Lieutenant was asking for his opinion, and his firm expression revealed how serious he was about the matter. Khan could only guess that his actions during the escape had given away the power of his senses.

"We don't know what effects it will have on us," Khan responded. "It seems to push mana away, but I can't learn much more."

"Same here," Lieutenant Pouille sighed. "Though, it does feel like mana. Anyway, I guess we should fire at it when we are about to leave."

The friendly interaction reassured Khan about the Lieutenant's intentions. Yet, another doubt remained strong in his mind.

"What should we tell the Global Army?" Khan asked as he followed Lieutenant Pouille into the first hall where he was about to resume his destruction.

"We tell it the truth," Lieutenant Pouille stated before punching a hole into one of the screens. "The situation would have been different if we brought something back. Instead, HQ would prioritize destroying the project since it can't have direct access to it. Everything that comes after that is outside of our control."

"What do you mean?" Khan asked.

"You can't destroy an idea," Lieutenant Pouille explained. "I can only hope that the Guko on our side are dumber than these."

Khan let the Lieutenant complete his destruction before gathering outside the lab with the rest of the soldiers. The Guko's death had put him in the annoying situation to depend on his superior, but he could only play along.

Lieutenant Pouille studied his phone for a few long minutes as he rejoined his underlings. The device battery wouldn't last much longer after the week spent inside the cell, so he made sure to memorize the escape path in case it turned off.

The sunlight would solve the battery issue, but the group had to reach the surface first. The phones would also probably fail to access the Global Army's network since soldiers would be deep in the enemy territory, but that wasn't too important when the Lieutenant had the Stal's battle plans.

"I have it," Lieutenant Pouille exclaimed. "There is an elevator past the armory. Let's go. Gloria, blow the anti-mana up once we are set."

Khan took his place in the lead, next to Lieutenant Pouille, and the rest of the soldiers created a line behind them. Gloria peeked inside the lab with her long rifle, and a simple exchange of glances with her superior was enough to make her open fire.

The group began to run forward as soon as an explosion resounded from inside the lab. They had already crossed that part of the corridor, so they reached the armory in no time, but a high-pitched alarm suddenly started to echo from behind them.

None of the soldiers stopped moving, but everyone realized what had happened. The underground structure probably had protocols in place for eventual leaks of the dark-blue gas, and the destruction of the container had eventually triggered them.

Mechanical and whooshing noises resounded from behind the group as they left the armory and proceeded through the corridor that followed. The underground structure was locking down the areas affected by the incomplete anti-mana, but those effects didn't involve their location. Still, anxiety inevitably built in everyone's mind since the Stal would finally understand that something troublesome had happened.

Khan let Lieutenant Pouille get in front of him whenever a new area appeared or the corridor divided itself into multiple branches. The soldier never hesitated, so the group advanced quickly. The place was also completely deserted, so they could avoid getting into useless fights.

The escape felt endless. The underground structure was immense, and Khan soon lost himself even if he had tried his best to memorize every turn and path crossed in the past hours. Everything became more intricate as they advanced, but Lieutenant Pouille never stopped to recheck his device.

The number of turns and branches that the group had to cross made Khan question whether Lieutenant Pouille's confidence was only a pretense, but a familiar scene eventually unfolded in his eyes. The corridor ended into a large rectangular platform that brought joy to the sweaty and tired soldiers.

The group didn't hesitate to cross the corridor and jump on the platform. Still, nothing moved, so everyone started looking for buttons that could activate it.

Delia soon found a series of buttons in the corner of the platform. There were four of them, and she instinctively pressed the topmost. That ended up triggering another alarm that she quickly turned off by slamming her fingers on that key again.

Delia then pressed the second topmost button, and the elevator finally started to rise. The area above the group was dark, but a fissure soon opened and allowed the pale light of the two moons to seep inside the rectangular cavity.

"Stop staring," Lieutenant Pouille cursed when he saw that many of his underlings had fallen into a daze at the sight of the sky. "Prepare your rifles. You don't know what's waiting for us up there."

Khan had already drawn his knife, but those words made him suspect that the Lieutenant didn't mention everything about the escape. His senses and the scenes that unfolded in his view as the elevator reached the surface only confirmed that idea. He jumped forward as soon as a two-headed figure became visible.

Khan crossed the small patch of ground that divided him from the surface before the elevator even began to stop. He found himself flying toward a confused Stal, and his knife promptly shot forward. The alien fell on its back after the weapon dug a hole into its right head.

A series of azure flashes illuminated the area as soon as Khan landed on the alien. His companions had fired their weapons after noticing the many aliens that had gathered around the elevator to check who was reaching the surface.

Khan could see a few buildings and sense multiple aliens. The Lieutenant had made them come out in a settlement, but there didn't seem too many aliens there. The surprise attack had already killed fifteen of them, leaving only ten or so Stal spread among the different structures.

"Clean everything up," Lieutenant Pouille whispered before inspecting his surroundings and charging toward one of the buildings.

Khan imitated his superior as he shot toward a building that contained two first-level Stal. A tall, sleepy figure appeared in his view when he arrived in front of the structure's entrance, but the event didn't surprise him. He promptly jumped forward, and his glowing knife severed both heads in half.

The Stal fell lifelessly on the ground, and Khan jumped over it to reach the second presence. He found the second alien snoring loudly on a simple but large bed, and his knife didn't hesitate to descend. He even repeated his attack to make sure to pierce both heads.

When Khan left the building, he noticed that the battles had pretty much ended. The Stal had shown awful responsiveness to the sudden attack. Many didn't even bother to wake up among the mess, but Khan found it almost understandable. His group had come out deep inside the enemy territory. No one would expect the appearance of such a numerous and armed group of humans.

Lieutenant Pouille ran from building to building to make sure that his underlings had killed everyone. He ignored Khan's structure and inspected his surroundings again to fuse the map seen on the phone with those scenes.

The soldier eventually took his phone out again, but the device had died during the escape. He had to glance at the moons and check the hour from one of his underlings before picking a direction and starting another run. The settlement didn't have vehicles that the soldiers could use, but the Lieutenant didn't appear worried about that issue.

The soldiers seemed to run for their lives. Lieutenant Pouille often ended up distancing himself from the group to check the areas ahead, but he always let them catch up with him afterward. It took a while, but a forest eventually appeared in the distance and forced everyone to accelerate.

The sky had partially brightened by the time the group reached the edges of the forest, but that only made them run faster. They had to put as much distance as possible from the settlement to avoid getting taken by surprise by hidden elevators again, and Lieutenant Pouille never failed to urge them.

The forest wasn't too big, and its trees didn't create the best safe areas. They were tall, but their trunks were thin, and their red-brown crowns didn't have many leaves. Yet, the Lieutenant still ordered the group to stop after reaching a deep area that hid them from the barren plains around it.

"Let's rest here for a few hours," The Lieutenant ordered. "We are far from safe, but we are on the surface. Make sure to piss, sleep, and suppress your hunger. We'll get food after seizing the next settlement."

To be continued