The remote control system effectively avoided personnel losses, as training a skilled operator was both ti-consuming and labor-intensive. Using cheap, replaceable robots to protect these personnel was clearly a profitable trade-off no matter how you looked at it.
Due to the unique circumstances, the Captain had adjusted so procedures aboard the battleship. For instance, in the past, remote operators had to go through extrely complex formalities and certifications to switch to a new robot.
But now, the process had been streamlined to the extre. As long as a robot—whether too heavily damaged for imdiate repair or completely destroyed—was certified by Gwendolyn as unable to continue fighting, and as long as there were still units in stock aboard the ship, operators could re-bind to a new robot imdiately.
Under this new policy, Kari, who would have had to wait until the mission ended to begin the replacent process, was able to return to the squad and rejoin the mission.
“Welco back.”
“……”
“Hmph, I’ve already noted so of the things you said earlier. Whoever said them knows who they are—we’re enemies now.”
“Hey, don’t be so petty. It was just a joke.”
“But it wasn’t funny.”
Just as the team welcod Kari back in their unique way, Gale’s alard voice rang out again. “Be careful!”
Unfortunately, as before, by the ti the warning was issued, the target had already been destroyed. And once again, the lucky victim chosen by the Swarm tentacle was Kari.
Thus, Kari’s robot was destroyed again shortly after his return, before he even had a chance to understand the situation. Following that, a dense hail of bullets reduced the culprit of this incident to mush.
“Ah!!!!!!!!” Kari’s furious voice ca through the communicator.
“Don’t worry, Kari. We’ve avenged you—again.”
“I may have received professional training, but I can’t hold back anymore.”
“If you can’t endure it, then there’s no need to endure.”
“Hahahaha~”
“……”
A burst of laughter erupted, further fueling Kari’s irritation. He nearly jumped up to drag a teammate out of their operating cabin for a real-life showdown.
Fortunately, a sliver of clarity remained in his mind. He knew that such an act during the mission would go beyond re horseplay and could lead to severe consequences afterward. That realization stopped him from acting on his impulse.
“Kari, have you ever encountered the Swarm before?” Captain Knox’s question ca amidst the team’s laughter. After all, the others had searched the area for so long without incident, yet Kari’s robot was destroyed almost imdiately upon his arrival. This situation seed rather strange.
Though Kari was grinding his teeth in anger, he didn’t dare act out in front of the captain and simply replied, “Of course not. We ca from afar, fought as soon as we arrived, and then stayed on the battleship. How could I have had any contact with the Swarm?”
The captain thought about it for a mont and nodded inwardly. Though the team mbers liked to mock and taunt each other, it was just their way of maintaining camaraderie. In reality, a well-coordinated team operated like brothers—ones who would take bullets for each other in critical monts.
And when on missions, “brothers” wasn’t just a taphor. Since departing from their ho territory decades ago, the squad mbers had practically lived and eaten together.
There really wasn’t much choice—the livable areas on the battleship were limited, and since they were part of the sa squad, their quarters were grouped together.
During this ti, Kari had never left the captain’s sight, nor had he shown any abnormalities. From this perspective, it was impossible for him to have had any contact with the Swarm, let alone develop any grudges.
His two robot destructions were likely just coincidences. Thinking about it, Knox couldn’t help but crack a small smile—it was indeed sowhat amusing.
However, for the sake of his authority, he forced himself to suppress the urge to burst into laughter. Clearly, his self-control training was paying off—he managed to hold back despite the difficulty.
Not long after, Kari returned to the squad, piloting a spider-shaped Z-2Q-15 model robot. By this point, the other team mbers had also regained their composure, adopting a more serious attitude. Subtly, they positioned Kari’s robot in the center of their formation.
Kari was known for his big mouth and sharp tongue, but truthfully, most of the squad mbers shared similar traits to varying degrees. After all, birds of a feather flock together, and living and eating together for so long inevitably rubbed off on everyone.
Perhaps one of Kari’s remarks had offended the Swarm, and their reconnaissance units had overheard it, leading to targeted attacks on his robot.
If this were true, it wouldn’t necessarily be bad news—or rather, it would only be bad news for Kari personally.
The team surrounding Kari’s robot wasn’t doing so to protect him but to use him as bait. If the Swarm was indeed retaliating against him, they might uncover thods to deal with those invisible foes.
However, they were overthinking it. Most of the Swarm’s intelligent entities were focused on research and paid no attention to external affairs. A few military-focused command-type intelligences did monitor daily situations, but each of them held high military ranks, commanding countless troops. They wouldn’t care about a single mber of a small squad.
As for Luo Wen, it was even less likely. Though Luo Wen occasionally made mistakes, his strategic focus was imnse, dealing with power players of various races and beings like Lumina. Even the captain of this battleship didn’t catch his attention, let alone lower-ranking combat personnel.
In short, the Swarm lacked a bottom or middle layer in its structure. There was no equivalent to the personal grudges and feuds among ordinary mbers of the Interstellar Confederation. Knox and his team were simply overestimating their importance.
That said, they weren’t entirely insignificant either. At the very least, their captain had been closely monitoring them. When the squad discovered the Swarm tentacle, the captain ordered Gwendolyn to calculate important paraters about it, such as individual size, estimated weight, attack patterns, and speed.
The captain didn’t keep this information hidden. First, he communicated with the fleet’s overall commander for this expedition, then reported the data upward. Although the situation aboard the ship didn’t seem overly dire at present, the inability to detect these creatures made them difficult to control. No one knew the extent of the threat they posed.
Moreover, it was clear that their own civilization’s ans wouldn’t resolve the issue anyti soon, so they had to seek help from the Confederation. After all, the Confederation’s technological prowess far surpassed theirs.
Besides, this wasn’t just their problem. How had the Swarm managed to bypass nurous obstacles and deliver combat units onto their battleship? The severity of that question far outweighed the issue of the camouflaged tentacle.
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