Planet Master

167- Battle Inside The Spaceship

The child and his fellow marines were exploring near the entrance but it was already teeming with so many Glings.Their sensors showed that there was more Gling inside, so they were on a tight formation, aiming their weapons outside the formation.

The child knew that the real test started now. He often looked at his sensors before looking up and aimed with his assault rifle at the direction where the Glings were likely to appear.

Worse, he realized that this was just an ordinary Gling. From what he knew, there was definitely Glings who had transcended its normal life level, walking on the path of transcendence.

‘This is just on the periphery of the biological spaceship. Worse, this is just the Gling who attacked us in this position.’ The child thought while looking around and saw the grotesque flesh and bones forming the interior of the spaceship.

The Marines were in formation, tightly huddling since they had power in numbers as a strategy. But so was the Gling. Then the next wave approached with a large red dot on the sensors, indicating that a Gling on the path of transcendence.

‘Transcendence…that’s something straight out of the storybook.’ The child breathed in the air which was familiar to him. The damp smell and the smell of something else. He and the marines were only wearing a body armor as well as the weapon in hand.

The interior of the spaceship was suitable for them to enter.

“This is a biological spaceship. Our objective therefore, changed. Destroy the command center, which is on the center of the spaceship. We will be the ones who destroy this monstrosity.” The child explained what he knew and set an objective for the rest of the marines.

Unexpectedly, the marines that went to the biological spaceship with him needed such figure and their eyes unconsciously lit up.

“Then where is it?” one marine asked.

“Go straight ahead. There is a cluster of Glings there. From there, search for the most condensed area and you will find the Gling. Stay together, we are not losing in numbers!” the child said loudly as he became the one who guided the others.

Although the child was leading, he was still on the forefront and prepared something for the transcendent Gling.

“Prepare for a fierce battle. This one is a bit special!” the child pointed his muzzle at the direction where the large red dot was and saw that it was moving around them.

The others also became tense, with the searchlights on them aimed at the Gling, but this Gling was smart. It waited until there was an opening.

They could guard against it for a while but could not do so indefinitely.

‘Damn it, this one is definitely smart. This is not the usual behavior of the Gling at all!” The child became frustrated but decided to gamble away.

Then he moved separately from the group intentionally.

On the communicator, he said, “Aim around me, I will become the bait.”

Seeing this caused the others to feel that this one wanted to sacrifice himself for them. Therefore, they aimed their weapon around the child.

After twenty steps, the Gling then lunged at the child. The child placed a bayonet on the assault rifle which became a melee weapon.

“Bring it on!” he said out loud as he finally saw the Gling.

It radiated an otherworldly power, something that transcend the mundane. The pressure was making the child tremble from head to toe. But he bit his tongue as that cause him to be able to move at the last second when the Gling, which appeared dark, reflected light, and its slender head had a huge mouth.

Its built was perfectly made for hunting, its hind legs were like spring which made the Gling jumped at him with ease.

The child shot at the Gling for a bit before realizing that it was ineffective, then the creature’s front limbs grabbed toward him and the child crossed the assault rifle in front of his chest, holding the creatures from biting him.

“Shoot!” the child ordered while trying to hold the Gling in place. His arms went numb, but he forced them to struggle against the Gling.

Then the Marines complied and a barrage of shots from assault rifles hit the Gling. Although ineffective, it was still a nuisance for the Gling, but it was now locked with the Rodent in front of it.

Then the child seized the opportunity, where the Gling was stunned by the barrage of shots it sustained and used the bayonet to slash at the creature’s head. Then he impaled the bayonet to the head but he suffered scratches from the Gling, and it was unusually painful.

But he deepened the wound, and the Gling then let out a wail before it twitched and eventually stopped moving.

But the child saw the wounds it had suffered. Even with the Gling defeated, he was the one who had to bear the brunt. He saw that the wounds were quite severe and even felt quite dizzy. Evn with body armor, that was eventually penetrated by the transcendent Gling which showed how strong its penetration was. Perhaps that was its characteristic so he felt lucky not to die.

“Are you alright?” one marine got closer to the child and then saw the wounds.

“Quick, give him something that can heal him. Fast!” another suggested.

The child then remembered that he also had a healing ampule used to treat wounds like this. But he could not raise his hand as it was already numb and the adrenaline had worn off.

With the help of his fellow marines, the child’s wound slowly closed and he felt a slight warmth sensation on his stomach.

‘Ah, could it be…the transcendent energy that invaded me now becomes part of me? That means, I become a transcendent? The child could not believe that he could change misfortune into fortune like this.

“Stand up if you are fine.”

After three breaths, the child stood up and even repaired the damaged body armor. Then the marines continued toward the center of the spaceship. Eliminating the Glings along the way and the cohesiveness of the Marines became apparent as they went on their first mission to destroy the Gling biological spaceship.

“We have eliminated three groups of Glings along the way and they started to realize where we are going. Expect fierce resistance.” The child said after seeing the red dots on his sensors gathering to the center of the spaceship.

Along the way, they went through a large corridor that seemed more like a cavern than a interior of the spaceship.

“Incoming!” the child shouted as he glanced at the sensor and knew that the gathering of Glings moved toward their position.

“Shoot!”

The child along with the marines saw the Gling group, the Crawlers coming to their direction. They shot at the incoming Glings, screams and screeches could be heard from the Glings as they were shot down one by one.

“Watch out, grenades!” one marine threw a grenade at the cluster of Glings before an explosion happened and pieces of Gling’s flesh rained on them along with their violet blood.

“Keep shooting. Take turn firing and reloading.” The child gave his suggestion before he went to reload his assault rifle.

Some of them kept shooting at the incoming Gling while the others reloaded. Their tight formation made sure that none of the Gling got past the kill zone of the barrage shot. Added with some grenades thrown toward the clusters of Gling, the number of the Gling attacking them was reduced to the point that there were none of them the moment they were done shooting.

The child and the others breathed a sigh of relief.

“For now, let’s go to the center of the spaceship.” The child suggested and the others followed it.

After arriving at the center of the spaceship, they came to a large chamber where there was one large organ resembling a heart, beating and letting out energy.

‘What is this feeling of hunger? I feel like I should absorb its energy!” The child’s thought was that, but his expression was one of intense hunger.

“We need to destroy this thing…to be able to destroy this biological spaceship.” The child said.

“We have explosives brought from our spaceship. Let’s use it.” One marine said before he opened something like a Vantablack cube and the cube slowly spun before an explosive device emerged from it.

“Are you the one who brought this into our corps?” the child asked.

“Yes, Leader.” The marine nodded. After that, he stored the cube in the back of his armor.

“You will be responsible for placing it in that thing since I believe you know the procedure.” The child said before he gestured with his head.

“Yes, sir.” The marine then quickly went to the heart and preparing the explosive device.

The child then went along with him not to watch him placing the device but to try absorbing the energy from the heart.

‘Let’s try this. Failure is nothing, but if it succeeds, then I will become stronger.’ The child then extended his short arm toward the heart.

As if by reaction, the energy from the heart slowly went into the arm that stretched toward the heart, giving it the energy it had. He also realized that the energy reacted to the bayonet that he held.

‘What is going on? I understand that the energy is reacting to me but to my bayonet…wait a minute, blood of the transcendent!’

The child realized that the power of transcendent was flowing inside him but also on the blood that his bayonet had. He did not clean it since it would just waste time and effort but who would have thought that this would benefit him greatly.

‘At least, I can become a Rank 0 transcendent.’ The child had that thought. Although the energy inside the heart of the spaceship was abundant, he could not believe that it could elevate him to become a Rank 1 transcendent.

Along with him, the bayonet had a change in properties, making it harder, more resilient and could contend with weapons of higher quality.

The marine who was placing the device on the heart realized that the heart was beating erratically and the energy was visibly drawn toward his leader. He knew that the leader was absorbing the transcendent energy from the heart.

But it did not prevent him from setting up the device and gave them some time to get out of the spaceship.

The others were watching the surroundings, in case another wave of the Glings attacked. Their worries were not unfounded since they were basically on enemy territory.

‘So I became a peak Rank 0 transcendent.’ The child opened his eyes after feeling the flow of the transcendent energy permeating his body. He could feel that the transcendent energy strengthened him in overall physical prowess.

Then he glanced at the bayonet placed below the muzzle of the assault rifle and knew that it had become his primary weapon since it was enhanced.

“Are you done?” the child asked.

“Yes. We need to get out of here fast.”

The child nodded and then ordered the rest, “Let’s get out of here in style. We may achieve what the others cannot.”

But when they strategically retreated, numerous Glings had gathered and they needed to quickly get out from the spaceship. This happened halfway to the entrance to their own spaceship and they opened fire.

Fortunately, most of the Glings were ordinary Crawlers. They were no match for the Marines who had experienced several attacks of this magnitude.

The child attacked the Gling from a distance using his assault rifle and when a Gling got close to him, he just needed to thrust the weapon and the Gling would be dead, being impaled by the bayonet.

After a bloody massacre, the marines finally arrived at the entrance and entered it.

The connection between the two spaceships was quite long but eventually, they arrived in the outer layer of their own spaceship.

Standing at the entrance was the same marine who ordered them to enter the enemy spaceship.

“Have you gone to the center of the spaceship?” the marine asked with a heavy tone.

“Yes, sir. The detonation should be in five, four, three, two, one and…” The marine who placed the explosive device checked the synchronized number on his bracelet that was connected to the device and said.

Then an explosion could be seen on the center of the biological spaceship.

Seeing this, the marine nodded and let them in.

“Good job, Marines. This is going to be the best news in a while. Zero casualties too.”

The others could only breath a sigh of relief as they finally could return. The child learned to suppress his strength, so he could hide the fact that he was a transcendent from others.

“You’re dismissed. Rest and eat to your heart’s content.”

With those words, the Marine Corps placed all their equipment on the specialized place where the locker for the individual was located, then went to their own room to rest. The psychological pressure they felt was great and they needed an outlet to release it.

“Yippie, we can rest. Finally.”

“Damn, we have suffered zero casualties on the first mission. That’s rare, you know.”

“Thanks to our nominal leader here.”

Just as the child wanted to go to his room, his corps members were looking at him as if he was the one who contributed largely to the results.

“Nah, that’s on you for doing what you should do.” The child said while shaking his head. His tail moved slightly due to the words he uttered.

Then a small arm wrapped around his neck.

“The meals are on me. You can eat whatever you want later. Rest well, leader.”

“Your words.” The child then walked away to his room.

After the corps returned to their own room, they felt tired and closed their eyes to rest. The child was also resting but he had a nightmare.

There, he did not remember who he was. Nowadays, no one truly called him by his name. The name that his parents had given him. In it, he was battling as if for eternity.

He felt that no matter how many enemies he felled, he could not change the situation of the entire civilization. It was not a matter of killing; it was a matter of overwhelming superiority that defeated the Rodents.

He did not know why he had this dream or the meaning behind it. To him, this was just a nightmare.

When he woke up, the child realized that tears had fallen from his eyes. He wiped it out using his hand but he still knew that no one here would even care about his name; perhaps only his parents would.

He was just a member of the Marine Corps from the accelerated growth type. Sorrow filled his heart. To him, he was taught by his parents that a name carried weight and meaning.

He then sat at the corner of his bed. Although he had a room for himself, it was quite large for an individual, but crowded if there were five more people.

The light in the room was turned on since he had woken up. He stared at the wall for some time, but he did not realize how much time had passed. His head was filled with the previous mission, where he successfully brought all of his corps out from the enemy biological spaceship.

Flashes of the enemy Glings, the way he reacted, the way he could have dealt with the situation as well as the transcendent energy inside of him as well as his weapon. The weapon was stored in the locker with the owner’s name along with their armor. This was done to commemorate the success of the mission so the higher-ups allowed it.

He then felt his stomach churn and stood up and put on his usual clothes inside the spaceship. Then he headed to the cafeteria to eat something. When he arrived there, everyone looked at him as if he were some precious thing and that made him uncomfortable.

When it was his turn to get some food and drink, the staff were smiling heartily at him.

“Good lad. You successfully destroyed one of the Gling’s biological spaceships. Here, an extra portion for someone accomplished like you!” said the one who gave him extra meat on the plate.

Then he also got an extra drink and was asked for his autograph. He realized that he had somehow become famous throughout the entire spaceship.

What he did not realize was that his corps was the only one with zero casualties which surprised even the HQ. That was why the government and the military wanted to do something about him. They wanted to create a hero for propaganda purposes.

“Hmm…delicious. The sauce makes the meat flavourful.” The child had a hearty meal after the heavy battle involving him and the enemy. But he also knew that the Gling was just a subordinate race of the primary enemy race.

He had seen the appearance of the primary enemy race, which was called a human. They were on average taller than the Rodent of course but it did not matter.

What mattered was that the Undead Race was also a subordinate of the human race, making the threat of this primary enemy race to the highest order.

‘The Glings, the Undead…according to our history, they are the races that we ultimately defeated with severe casualties and sacrifices. How can there be a race that can make them both submit?’ The child thought about it and could not find an exact reason as to why humans could make them become their subordinates.

Then the child shook his head and decided to numb himself from such matters with food and drinks. Then, without him knowing, his corps members started to sit around him and speak about their previous mission.