Chapter 29 : The Price of my Arrogance

The moment I opened my eyes, I felt all the pain from my injuries at once. It was bearable under the Red Mist effect, but now that I wasn't under its effect anymore I couldn't help but moan in pain.

"Argh..."

[Do not move, Jun.]

Among all this pain, I could feel the link to Gladia's consciousness back inside my head. I was happy to hear her voice and feel her presence again, I missed it.

"Gladia ? Where...am I ?"

I was not in a healing capsule, but attached to a table by sturdy straps of unknown material. I could see many needles planted all over my body, piercing my charred Dark Armor and going through my flesh. They were connected to transparent wires through which I could see my blood flowing out, as well as various other fluids flowing in.

[You shouldn't move for now. We are not on the flagship anymore.]

Even if Gladia told me to not move, I couldn't help but try to straighten myself up to check my surroundings.

"Arghh..."

[I told you to not move, idiot.]

I didn't have the time to respond to Gladia before I heard footsteps approaching.

Actually, it sounded more as if someone was dragging a piece of gooey jelly on the floor than footsteps.

Unable to move and to see the room I was captive in, I could only wait for the being to get closer and ask for explanations. I hoped he would not be unfriendly and try some experiments on me, I've had my fill of genetic modifications with the Scyllas already.

"So you finally woke up, Lone Slayer."

I was glad to immediately recognize the voice.

"Greetings, Admiral."

"It seems like you went close to dying. What have you done to piss off the Scyllas this much ?"

I tried to turn my head to look at Admiral Aubouros, however, the straps were tightly attached to the table and I couldn't move my head by a single inch.

"Admiral, can you report me the situation ? And please remove those straps, being unable to move is frustrating."

Aubouros stood silent for a few second, before I heard him getting closer and touching a sort of command panel behind my head.

Just after this, the straps and needles all removed themselves from my body and I was finally free to move.

"If we were not in such a situation, I would haven't authorized you to leave this table until you are fully recovered. Unfortunately, we do not have the time nor the luxury to wait for your recovery. We need you, Lone Slayer."

I slowly got up, and I could finally see the room I was in. It looked like a sanitized autopsy room, the walls were all white with no decoration or windows. Although the room was wide, it was filled with a long line of tables equally spaced, all empty.

Behind each of these tables was a control panel, with several wires and needles sticking out from a hole in the floor just next to it. It seems that this place was a kind of infirmary for the legion, even if it reminded me more of a creepy surgery room than a place to treat injuries.

When I tried to stand up, I felt my energy leaving me and my legs failed me. I ended up awkwardly falling to the floor.

[You are not in a state to move, Jun. You shouldn't have asked to leave this room so soon.]

'I need to understand what's happening.'

Aubouros didn't move or talk, he just stood close by, watching me trying to get on my feet without falling again, like a dad would let his baby learn how to walk by himself.

"Admiral, what is happening outside ? Why am I here ?"

"Hmm…There is a lot to explain, but first, let me ask you a question. Was the massive explosion your doing ?"

"Yes…It was."

"Good. I don't know what happened for you to use such a powerful weapon, but you provoked huge mayhem inside the Scylla territory. We used this opportunity to resume our invasion, thanks to your bomb and the ruckus it has caused we were able to progress further inside the mother core system.

The 3 other legions joined us, and we are now about to wage the last battle against the Scylla main fleet defending the Singularity Origin."

I was surprised to hear the legions progressed so far into the core system. I don't know how much time I spent unconscious, but it seems like I was out for at least a few days.

"Admiral, what happened to my ship and my crew ?"

After asking this question, I had a weird feeling about Aubouros' reaction. I was unable to analyze his expression as his species was totally unknown to me and too far from the human species, but I still felt something strange. As if he was hiding something I should know.

I couldn't bear the wait, so I asked him again.

"Admiral ?.."

"Hm…Because we fought alongside each other for many years and I consider yourself as a trusted ally, I will not hide you the truth. Please, sit down. I don't want you to fall again in the middle of my explanations."

The serious tone with which the admiral said this sentence made me sit on the table and listen carefully to each of his next words. I was expecting the worst.

"I don't know how many soldiers you had before your last battle, but I guess this number has been greatly reduced.

When we recovered your ship, we tracted it to one of our advanced spaceports. Seeing the critical state of your ship, we honestly thought you and your crew were already all dead, so we decided to enter the ship wreckage and scavenge everything that could be useful for us."

The more I listened to the admiral, the more my fists clenched and I began to get both upset and nervous.

"However, we didn't expect your soldiers to have survived in a destroyed ship bereft of air for so long. When my troops tried to enter the ship, they got stopped by your weird-looking black soldiers and their drones. Many of them were injured and damaged, and still, they stood guard and were ready to defend your body with their life.

I guessed that maybe, you were still alive, so I tried to communicate with them, and the one who responded to me was a female voice, the one your troops call 'ship-mistress'."

[...]

Gladia didn't say anything, probably afraid of my reaction. I decided to let the admiral finish explaining to me what happened while I wasn't conscious before I could make a judgment on the situation.

"We were surprised to hear that both you and your squad members were still alive, but your état was the more worrying of all. Your ship-mistress accepted to let us go through the ship on the condition of taking care of you, your squad and your crew until you wake up, as all your healing facilities have been destroyed.

We accepted."

Aubouros took a brief pause, he sit down on the table next to me and resumed.

"To be honest with you, I received the order to scavenge your ship no matter if you were dead or alive, but as I said earlier, because me and the whole Third legion respect you, we decided to wait for you to wake up.

My Third legion isn't cowardly, we would not loot the ship of a fallen brother, especially not if he's still breathing."

I was surprised by Aubouros' words, when I was still in my sea of consciousness Tassadar already told me that the Third legion greatly respected me. Never would I have expected them to have so much respect for me.

This admiral, despite his hideous appearance, is by far the nicest living being I met since I woke up in the Scylla mother-ship.

I couldn't help but smile and feel happy to have met such a good ally. I now understand Tassadar's words better. Having loyal allies is much more valuable than fighting on his own.

"Thanks you, Admiral. I won't forget it."

The tension dropped and it seemed that the admiral was relieved to hear these words. Perhaps he was afraid to have made a mistake in his judgment, and that he would have to eliminate me if I decided to be bold and ungrateful to him.

"You don't have to thank me. While I receive my order from our War Chief, I am still the one leading the Third legion and I wouldn't obey an order that would bring more harm than good to my people.

Anyway, I am sure we have a lot to talk about but before that, go back to your ship and meet with your army. We do not have much time left, we planned to resume our advance and launch our last offensive two days from now.

Even if I kept you alive and didn't scavenge your ship, we still need your help. As for those bombs you used..."

"Don't worry Admiral, the Third legion will have full support from me and my army. I will also give you a few of those anti-matter bombs if they didn't get destroyed and we still have some on the ship.

By the way, you didn't ask me why I used one of those bombs. Aren't you interested ?"

"I didn't, but I know that you probably had a good reason to. You still have a lot of things to tell me. Am I wrong ?"

I didn't know if it was a trait from his species, but Aubouros was always so perceptive it was frightening. I always considered myself good at judging people and understanding the hidden meanings behind every word and gesture, however, I'm still an ignorant newbie compared to Aubouros.

"Yes…I have a plan to decimate the Scyllas, I originally planned to do it alone with my ship and my troops but as you can see, an unexpected event has made my former plan obsolete. I now need your help, if you are willing to fight this last battle with me.

I will come back to you and explain everything once I checked my ship and army condition."

"Alright. I'll call someone to help you walk, I see your état is still worrying."

"Thanks, Admiral."

After Aubouros left, I was left alone in this disturbing white room. I used this time to ask Gladia.

'You have to explain me in details what happened while I was on the mega-structure. I know you did your best to save me and the reapers who fought Legatus with me, but I don't understand why it took you so long to destroy the jamming corvette.'

[...]

'I am not blaming you, Gladia. I'm the sole responsible for what happened, I'm aware of it. However, I still want to know what happened while I was fighting Legatus.'

[Alright, but be ready...you might not like what I have to tell you.]

___

After half an hour, two strange-looking creatures, walking on three legs with their head somehow floating above their chest, came into the white room and escorted me to the lance of Kar'goth.

Until their arrival, Gladia had the time to explain to me in details everything that happened in the flagship while I was on the mega-structure.

When the corvette arrived and Gladia detected a teleportation signature, she tried to communicate with me but as expected the whole area was jammed. Communication was impossible.

She deduced that an unknown device inside the corvette was responsible for these parasites waves, and she sent Alpha Zero, Douglas and Alice with a boarding group to retrieve this unknown module before they destroy the corvette.

What should have been an easy task for Alpha Zero and my two most experienced squad members transformed into a real nightmare.

They didn't have trouble boarding the corvette, and they didn't meet any resistance while entering its main hangar. All their scans didn't detect a single life form, and so they assumed that the corvette has been left alone just to gain some time so the one who teleported on the structure could assassinate me.

They were half true. While they were right, the corvette left in orbit was meant to gain some time, they were also wrong : it wasn't abandoned.

After exploring it for a few minutes, they detected the source of the jamming signal, but they also detected multiple unknown signatures.

Their previous scans didn't detect anything because these life forms were hiding too close to the jamming source.

They prepared for combat, thinking that these signatures were rifters, or in the worst case, a squad of Scyllas in their Templar clones...but once again they were wrong.

The same way I left an anti-matter bomb behind me as a parting gift for the Scyllas after having escaped the mega-structure, Legatus had the same idea and left behind him in the corvette a bunch of chimeras that he personally made in secret when working on the rifters protocols.

These chimeras were horrible monsters made by assembling parts of different species together. Although they were defective specimens, each of them still had a battle power superior to the best high lethality vectors.

The boarding group engaged them heads on, thinking that they wouldn't be a big deal, especially for Alice and Douglas as they previously killed many Scyllas...they clearly underestimated them.

While the Scyllas in their original form are nearly invincible, when they are in their clones they are just superior to their rifters. Sure, each of them is worth a whole corp of rifters, but they are still killable.

On the other hand, these chimeras were extremely lethal. Gladia even estimated them more deadly than a basic squad of Scylla defending a mega-structure, which is composed of one commander, 2 officers and 3 to 6 lower ranked Scyllas.

While I was fighting Legatus with all my might, Alpha Zero and my squad was fighting these monsters on the corvette. After an intense fight that lasted almost as long as my fight with Legatus, they finally killed all of the monsters and they were able to retrieve the device responsible for the jamming waves.

Despite their victory, they lost plenty of reapers and drones, and all of them ended up injured. The worst of all was Alice, who got deeply pierced by the sharp claw of a chimera that was able to see her through her camouflage.

Douglas had lost too much blood from his injuries and lost consciousness before escaping the corvette, and even Alpha Zero, who was the most powerful being after Jun, received some serious blows and was forced by Gladia to enter a healing capsule.

Gladia also told me that the place where Kat and Jerome were resting has been hit by a torpedo when the flagships' shields were down, and provoked a huge breach.

Hopefully, the engineer and maintenance drones who were operating during the battle on both the ship's outside hull and the inside parts that got breached were able to bring them back to safety.

They were both miraculously fine, but their cryogenics has been ended abruptly and it forced them to wake up in terrible conditions. When waking up a living being in cryogenics, it is important that the awakening of the subject's mind is done slowly, accompanying the slow warming of the body. Unfortunately, this was not the case for Katarina and Jerome.

Gladia had to urgently put them to sleep by injecting them with a powerful analgesic solution, until they could escape the battle.

When I was walking, helped by the two strange Void soldiers, Gladia finished her report by telling me the numbers of casualties.

'Did I hear right ??'

[Yes, you did...I'm sorry Jun, I did my best but…I couldn't save everyone. This is already a miracle to escape with your whole squad and so many reapers alive...]

'Losing so many in a single battle...'

I couldn't believe it.

A single mistake costed me so much...

I had to stop walking for a few seconds to regain my composure.