Rex looked at Mini Cleo for a few monts in silence. Then, with a soft chuckle under his breath, he gently reached out and patted her head.
For the first ti, his entire hand fit comfortably over her head, sothing that hadn’t been possible before. In her current battle doll form, she was finally at a "normal" size. There was sothing almost childlike about the gesture, but it wasn’t mocking. It was warm. Reassuring.
"This is all part of mastering what you already know," Rex said in a calm voice, the audio slightly filtered through his power armor’s helt.
"Even if you’ve got a hundred thousand skills or a hundred weapons more powerful than the last, they’re all aningless if you don’t know when or how to use them. Think of this as another step in the learning process."
Mini Cleo didn’t respond right away. Her chanical expression remained still, but her sensors picked up the subtle tone in his voice. She couldn’t see his face through the helt, yet sohow, she could tell that Rex was smiling.
And in her own quiet way, that ant sothing.
As the second day of the all-out war dawned, the first rays of starlight filtered through the smog-choked atmosphere of the planet. The chaos of the previous day still lingered, the smoke curled up from shattered chs, and scorched terrain glowed faintly with leftover plasma heat.
In orbit, the great battle in space had finally settled into a tense stalemate.
After hours of intense combat, the rcenary fleet had pulled back, putting distance between themselves and the Kaelzar fortress. Despite their best efforts, they had failed to breach its shields. The defensive barrier surrounding the colossal structure had held firm.
And its overwhelming firepower had taken its toll. The fortress was now being compared by military analysts to one of the gacorp’s legendary Titan-class warships.
Cleo, analyzing the situation with her usual precision, allowed the enemy to withdraw for now. She took advantage of the lull to reposition the fortress into an optimal location, one that offered tactical coverage of the surrounding region and kept it within effective range of the warp ring network on the planet’s surface.
At the sa ti, she established a protected corridor through which supply convoys could begin arriving. Food, energy cells, ammunition, raw materials, everything needed for long-term warfare.
But down on the ground, the fighting didn’t stop.
The planetary warzone raged on without pause. Kaelzar units continued their relentless advance. The infected kept spreading. And caught between them were the rcenaries that were made of flesh and blood soldiers not ant for prolonged, high-intensity war.
They were used to hit-and-run skirmishes, not grinding, endless battles. Their stamina, morale, and supplies were beginning to crack under the pressure.
Facing the Kaelzar front line was like charging into an iron wall that was cold, unyielding, and equipped with logic-driven efficiency.
anwhile, the mutated infected road freely across the battlefield, attacking anything they ca across, including the rcenaries themselves. Survival was no longer about victory; it was about enduring another hour.
Things were clearly going south.
Inside a heavily reinforced command tent on the rcenary side, Supre Commander Valxir sat at the central table, surrounded by holographic maps and flickering strategy displays. He exhaled deeply and looked to his subordinates.
"Zanar, Report," he ordered; his voice was low but firm.
Zanar stepped forward and dropped to one knee out of respect.
"Understood, sir. The enemy I fought... she commands an absurd amount of stellar energy. Based on my readings, it was on par with a Tier 7 powerhouse. Even after I was nearly depleted, she kept launching massive fireballs like it cost her nothing."
He paused for a second, glancing at the floor. "And... her final attack was seen by everyone. You couldn’t miss it. The mont I left the field, she fired sothing... I don’t know what to call it. It was like watching a sun being unleashed."
Valxir gave a slow nod. His fingers tapped thoughtfully on the armrest of his chair. "Yes. That heatwave reached our sensors even from this distance. For a mont, it felt like a second sun had risen right over the battlefield."
He turned toward the next figure.
"Volkong. Your assessnt?"
The towering warrior stood with arms crossed with his expression grim, and unlike Zanar, he didn’t kneel.
"We’re outmatched, boss. Plain and simple," Volkong said with a tired sigh. "They’ve got better tech, better coordination, and their forces just keep growing. I don’t know how, but I swear their numbers are increasing, not decreasing. Even when we kill them... they seem to co back, or worse, change."
Another heavy sigh escaped him, as if the weight of the war had finally settled across his shoulders.
Valxir shifted his gaze one last ti.
"Zorbag. What’s the status of the fleet?"
Zorbag raised his hand and summoned a holographic display into the air. Footage played from Planet orbit, showing the Kaelzar fortress in action. Bright explosions lit up the screen, but the fortress remained untouched.
"Honestly? Not good," Zorbag admitted. "As you can see, that thing down there... it’s basically a damn Titan. We can’t even scratch its shields. Our lasers, turrets, plasma batteries... hell, even our main kinetic cannons! nothing gets through. It just soaks up our fire like it’s a light drizzle."
The holo-screen flickered as another volley of plasma was absorbed by the Kaelzar shield without so much as a flicker.
Valxir let out a long, tired sigh as he leaned back in his seat, the weight of the war pressing on his armored shoulders like gravity turned up too high.
"It seems our greed has finally co back to bite us in the ass...uh," he muttered, his voice sounding like gravel. He reached down to his leg compartnt and pulled out a worn combat knife, it was old but well cared for. The kind of blade that had seen too many battles and never left his side.
His sharp eyes flicked toward one of his generals. "Zorbag. Did you find the young master who hired us to kidnap the Blood Clan girl?"
Zorbag cracked his neck and gave a shrug that was half casual, half annoyed.
"Yeah, boss. Wasn’t hard. The brat actually thought I was showing up to deliver the girl." He smirked a little. "And, well, explaining things felt like a waste of ti. So I killed everyone at his outpost and erased it from the map. Figured it was cleaner that way."
Valxir didn’t even flinch. He just nodded slowly.
"Bring him in."
"One sec." Zorbag vanished in a blur of teleportation energy. A heartbeat later, he returned while dragging soone behind him like a sack of garbage.
The figure hit the ground hard, landing face-first near Valxir’s boots with a dull thud. Dirt, dust, and blood mixed where he landed.
It was Martin... the sa overconfident young rcenary who had once approached Lyra days ago, trying to forge an alliance like he was playing so ga of power.
Zorbag grunted as he dropped him.
"Here you go, boss. This is the guy who hired us."
Martin groaned, blood trickling from a cut on his brow. His expensive-looking armor was scuffed and dirty now, and his arrogant mask had already started to crack.
"W-What the hell is this?! You’re supposed to obey ! I paid for you all! You work for ! That ans you’re mine! you’re just dogs that bark for cash!"
He tried to scramble to his knees, still trying to cling to whatever authority he thought money gave him.
But before he could rise, Zanar stepped forward and slamd his boot onto Martin’s head, pinning him back to the floor with a sickening crunch.
"Shut up, trash," Zanar growled, pressing harder. "You only speak when the Supre Commander says you can."
Martin let out a pained gasp as blood began to pool beneath his cheek.
Zorbag raised a hand, trying to defuse the situation with a dry chuckle.
"Hey, Zanar, chill out, man. Took an hour to find this idiot and drag him back in one piece. You pop his skull like a waterlon, and that’ll be a waste of my ti."
He plucked a small, black seed from his belt pouch and casually tossed it at Zanar’s helt. "Also, I’m pretty sure I heard sothing crack just now. Might’ve dented the rchandise."
Valxir let out a low sigh while shaking his head.
"Zanar. Step off the client. We can’t collect the rest of the paynt if his brain’s dripping out of his ears."
With a faint grunt of irritation, Zanar relented and stepped back. Martin coughed and groaned, clutching his bruised face.
Then, as if rembering sothing, Zanar gave him one last glare and nudged his head upward with his boot, forcing him to look up at the towering commander.
"Now then, young master," Valxir said slowly, twirling the old knife in his fingers. "It seems like you forgot to ntion sothing... rather important in your contract."
Martin blinked through the pain, his face sared with dust and blood.
"W-What are you talking about?" he stamred. "I paid! I paid the full deposit! Everything was in order!"
Blood dripped from his nose as he tried to sit up, confused and panicking.
Valxir smiled, but it wasn’t a kind smile. It was the cold expression of a man who’d seen too much, killed too many, and was tired of being lied to.
"You left out the part where your target was connected to a conqueror. You know, the one now lting cities with warp cannons. You dragged us into a war with a force that even gacorps hesitate to fight. That kind of oversight, my boy... has consequences."
Martin’s eyes widened. And for the first ti, he looked like he understood just how much danger he was in.
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