Age of Cosmic Exploration Chapter 197

When they arrived at the forest fringe during dusk, they received a SOS message from the sixth Black Star Trooper unit. They were 5 hours away, but due to the treacherous path of the forest, they would need at least several hours to reach them.

What to do?

This was a question that was faced by every member of the ninth unit.

It was not that they didn’t want to lend their hands, but the training was arranged to be one week long, and the power supply in their space armor was purposely calculated to only last that long.

Initially, they could be operated for 24 hours to ease the new cadets into training, but 2 to 3 days later, they had to be shut down during sleep and be only used during specific hours during the day. 6 days later, the battery levels of their suits of space armor was almost reaching rock bottom.

If they spent another 5 hours to rush to the scene, it would be one thing to just meet up, but another if there was combat involved. This meant that the space armors would run out of energy when they returned. The space armor weighed about 200 kilograms! Even putting it on needed help from 2 other workers. If the energy was spent, one had to be cut out from within. Without the protection of the space armor, the jungle would be a very dangerous place even for Homo Evolutis. Should they stumble into a dinosaur-like creature, the member count of their unit would most likely decrease.

This time even Haweza hesitated. Suddenly Jerry suggested, "Leader, if my memory serves me well, the 6th unit has 16 members, right? One of them is a female, and they have a bigger unit, so what kind of threat would force them to issue an SOS message? It must be quite serious, like the discovery of alien monsters planning to ambush our new capital or the tour crafts."

Haweza nodded in agreement. "What you’re saying is highly possible. After all, we have no idea whether the alien monsters have been completely cleared. That’s why the surveillance teams haven’t stopped working… So, in your opinion, we should go?"

Another trooper piped up. "Of course. Fighting alien threat is the troopers’ vocation. The issue of energy deficiency has a simple solution as well. Since the 6th unit has already sent the SOS message, I’m pretty sure the Hope will dispatch support shuttles as well. We’ll just take those home."

Haweza gave it some thought and nodded firmly. "Then it’s decided. We’ll hurry to the scene. Everyone, check your equipment carefully, and remember, this is no longer training! It might even be an actual fight with alien monsters! So be alert!"

The 14 men around him yelled loudly, "Yes, Sir!"

Haweza waved his sawblade forward. "Let’s move out!"

Therefore, the 9th ninth rushed to the 6th unit’s location. After 3 hours of silent trekking, they finally reached the battlefield where a bunch of trees had been fallen. It felt like a giant creature had stampeded through the area. "Alien," someone said under his breath.

Haweza didn’t think so; he had combated the alien monsters before. There was a layer of slimy goop that covered the aliens’ body, and their blood wasn’t red. Incidentally, most of the animals on the planet had red-colored blood, so that made for an easy demarcation between the though. The place didn’t have any alien carcasses nor slimy goop; what it had, though, were patches of bloody red spots.

Haweza signed a signal to his back, then the troopers surrounded him in a circle, their guns pointing outwards. He squatted down to inspect the liquid on the ground. He touched the liquid and spread it on a metallic slab on a part of his space armor. Very quickly, a window of numbers and words appeared before him. It was the blood’s composition. Obviously, it wasn’t human.

"It’s a native animal." Haweza sighed as he stood up, but at that moment, he felt a sudden wave of malice assaulting him from the top of his head. He kicked the floor and leaped back, carrying a few troopers with him. Like a small asteroid, something hit the spot he was squatting over with a resounding boom. All of the troopers were thrown out of formation. What followed next was a series of gunfire. A dark shadow weaved through the bullet trajectory before disappearing with a speed that couldn’t possibly be caught by the naked eye.

Haweza stood up and stared at the spot he was previously at with a complicated expression. There was a small hole about half a meter deep. Some of the new cadets were still shooting, so he yelled, "Stop shooting! Stop shooting!"

Everyone stopped and the troopers regained their formation, but this time they paid extra attention to the sky.

Haweza’s expression dimmed as he said, "It’s a super species. The 6th unit crossed paths with this thing; no wonder they issued the SOS message."

The 14 troopers were confused, so one of them asked, "Leader, the super species isn’t something you made up to scare us?"

Haweza answered with a straight face, "No, I didn’t lie to you; this planet does have its own unique super species. They can even rival the alien monsters. No, they’re more dangerous than the monsters because they have been shown to be able to take down a whole group of alien monsters. These super species are little in number and small in size; the biggest we’ve captured on video so far was only 1 to 2 meters tall, but their main food sources are the dino-sized creatures, and they are highly territorial. They will use their lives to chase away trespassers."

Fear was written on the troopers’ faces, but Jerry asked, "Leader, this means that the story about how the first, second, and third units being assigned to kill these super species is true as well? How many did they kill or capture? What did the Academy say about them?"

Haweza shook his head. "Unfortunately, so far we haven’t been able to take down even one of these super species. They are like natural killers of the forest, and they're very sneaky to boot. Some of the scientists even believe that they have some form of rudimentary intelligence, because when they realize that the possibility of winning is low, they are clever enough to abandon their territory. This has made the capture effort incredibly difficult. The dense forest also nullifies a lot of our surveillance devices, and we, the Black Star Troopers, are hampered by that as well. So thus far, we are only able to chase them away and not capture them."

The new troopers were silent. Peter asked, "Leader, then what shall we do now?"

"…We move on," Haweza answered. "That super species must be keeping a close eye on us, waiting for us to make a mistake and then give us a fatal strike like how it did just now. However, I believe it is already wounded; the blood we saw should be its. Do not fear, because we are the Black Star Troopers. How can we be afraid of some beasts? Unit 6, let’s carry on!"

"Yes, Sir!" the 14 men replied in unison.

As they marched on, Haweza used an isolated channel to communicate with Jerry. "Jerry, we are both perceptors so I want you to stay at the back of the group and I’ll lead at the front. Keep your feelers up for the sting of malice. Can you do that?"

Jerry quickly replied, "Don’t worry, I will get the job done, Sir!’

"… Be very careful, the claws of the super species are proven to be able to break through the space armor." Haweza dropped the advice as he moved to the front.

The unit moved forward carefully towards the 6th unit’s signal's location. They sighed in relief when they saw the sheen of the space armor in front of them. Their footsteps fell faster. Suddenly, a cloud of malice surrounded them. It was acutely felt by both Haweza and Jerry. They lifted their rifles and aimed at the source of the malice.

To their consternation, a second spot of malice appeared right underneath them in the middle of their unit. Before the two of them could react, they saw a shadow clamp onto a trooper’s ankle and drag him deeper into the jungle with lightning speed. Haweza was too far in front of the group to react, so it was Jerry who leaped onto the trooper’s body to stop him from moving. Unexpectedly, the dragging force was so strong that the two troopers were pulled into the deeper recesses of the jungle. This whole event lasted for only 2 seconds; that was how fast the super species was. The forest was a cacophony of rushing footsteps and screams…

"I am steel! I am mankind’s enemies’ biggest nightmare! I will fight for humanity! I am fearless!"

Jerry yelled at the top of his lungs. He tried his best to pull himself upwards. He aimed at the shadow in front of him and pulled the trigger!

Chapter end