Moving through the winding trenches, Jul saw nothing but a shattered trap and a ravaged battlefield. The trenches were filled with the corpses of armed men wearing ordinary civilian clothes. The bodies were so heavily mutilated that these armed men, who had been waiting for them, felt less like a potential danger and more like a pathetic threat. At that moment, Azrak even considered pitying these mangled forms.
Parasites like earthworms and others emerging from the soil were having their first feast in a long time, thanks to the blood spilled onto the barren and mineral-deficient land. That was why, when Azrak tried to lift a corpse that hadn't been completely torn apart, he dropped it back to the ground upon seeing that the front of the face-down man was being shredded by dozens of parasites. As the corpse hit the blood-soaked earth, the maggots within the blood came to life and began crawling around. Looking through the rain, he called out to Hikmar, who stood atop the trenches, staring at the horizon:
"All these corpses have already become fodder."
"The maggots probably haven't had such a feast in centuries," said Hikmar.
"Whatever happened here, it was a massacre rather than a battle."
"Something powerful must have come through here…" Azrak said. "…Jul found overturned armored vehicles and much more further ahead. The weapons are newer models compared to the scrap used by Uruzen robots."
"Do you think they could have harmed us?" Hikmar asked. As wise as Hikmar was, Azrak, as a hunter, understood war and its consequences better.
"Probably…" Azrak said with a smile. "If they hadn't fought us face-to-face and if their ambush had been successful, they could have caused damage." He covered his left eye with his hand, allowing his right eye to focus better on Jul's vision. "It seems Jul found the planning rooms. They built a small wooden shack inside the trench. Their commander blew his own head off with a gun… The plans are covered in blood, but with a few intuitive methods, I can more or less guess the plans, envisioning them without the bloodstains. From what I can see, they had two Nova Rocket Launchers…"
"Nova Rocket Launchers?"
"Yes… The kind used in TerraNova that fires rockets that eat through and shred metal. Hitting a cybernetic with that rocket is quite difficult because it moves quite slowly, but I think their aim was…"
"To release the one in the back of the truck?"
"Yes… That must have been their goal."
"Then they must know about that creature," Hikmar said. He turned around and looked toward the vehicle. With the clouds gathered so heavily above them, it was impossible for Labiba to listen to them via the SWR (YDC) satellite. They were also quite far from the vehicle.
"Are you trying to say they knew about Volem?" Azrak whispered.
"Or they knew a very powerful weapon was being carried in this truck. According to the map I'm following, we are taking this creature somewhere near the TESO2 factory in Calos. Do you think this Volem could be used as a nuclear weapon?" Hikmar asked.
"Are you asking me, Wise One? Usually, you are the one with the answers to such questions."
"No… War is your area of expertise, dear Azrak. I want you to think for a moment."
"Before I think, I need to ask you this…" Azrak said. "…what did you talk about with the creature during your meditations?"
"Ah… Let me tell you gladly. It told me about its creator…"
"And who is it?"
"I don't know, but I think I can track them. I am wandering through the memories of the creature named Volem. The creature is very eager to talk to me…"
"It's telling you its memories?"
"Because it is also looking for an answer. Waking up in a Cryo-V crate must be terrifying for it too. That's why it wonders why it was inside that crate. But since it has just woken up from Cryo-sleep, its memory is a mess… I am trying to help it regain its memory with my nano-bits."
"Well, have you learned anything so far?"
"It… Volem… is telling me quite a lot. For instance, it thinks the team coming from the west, following us, did this," Hikmar said.
"So, it's saying the team from the west that Jul warned us about actually helped us?"
"Yes… That is exactly what it says…"
"Very strange…" Azrak said. "…what else does it say?"
Hikmar scanned Azrak out of the corner of his eye and simply said: "There is a time for saying certain things, dear Azrak. And now is not one of those times."
Jul flew over to Azrak's side. He made several robotic noises to warn of danger coming down from the hill north of the trench and hopped in place to get Azrak's attention.
Three armored vehicles were descending the hill from the north at full speed. On top of these metal scraps—which were barely standing, patched together with various metal pieces and trembling as they descended the rocky hill—were men with hands full of weapons. These people, dressed and equipped just like the hundreds of Calosians who perished in these trenches, were hanging out of the armored vehicles' windows, shouting war cries. They were spraying fire with their weapons, trying to strike fear into the two cybernetics before them.
"Looks like a team that arrived late…" Azrak said.
"Would you please deal with them?" Hikmar said, stepping onto a rock.
"With pleasure, dear Wise One…"
As bullets flew toward Hikmar one after another, he struck his staff on the ground and opened an energy shield.
Azrak could feel the energy surging within him. As his cybernetic joints and eyes filled with a faint blue light, his body—entering combat mode—became electrified. When the bullets started coming toward him, he suddenly began to run. He was running so fast toward the east that he left nothing behind but a cloud of dust. First, he ran east, then carved a slight crescent shape and turned toward the armored vehicles. He shoulder-tackled the first vehicle, launching it meters away. As the armored vehicle flipped, a Calosian who had stuck his head out had his neck snapped, and his broken neck fell to the ground somewhere far from the vehicle.
The second armored vehicle was driving straight toward Azrak. The Calosian driver, eager to crush Azrak, let out a massive war cry to soothe the adrenaline within him. Azrak reached for the plates on his right and left legs and equipped his crescent-shaped weapons. He channeled all his strength into his legs and leaped into the air just before the vehicle hit him.
As the armored vehicle passed under him, the gliding Azrak scanned through the roof and killed the Calosians inside one by one.
Though the first vehicle had turned into scrap after the flips, one Calosian had survived. Before he could prepare his rifle to fire, Jul, watching over Azrak, flew toward the man and completely fried him with an electric current.
The third vehicle had noticed Azrak's physical strength and tried to stop by braking, but it slid on the muddy ground. Losing its balance, it began flipping toward Azrak. Azrak aimed his weapons at the vehicle with both hands. Even though all of this was instantaneous, the energy circulating within him—accelerating him and his heartbeat—caused time to flow slowly. Therefore, he shot all five men in that flipping vehicle one by one with his weapon.
Despite the Calosians being dead, the vehicle continued coming toward him. He ran toward it and slid under the vehicle just as it bounced off the ground. To prevent the vehicle from flipping further, he took it onto his shoulder after going underneath it, and with the strength from his arm, he plunged the vehicle into the ground like thrusting a sword. As the nose—the front of the vehicle—sank into the mud, some of the people inside were scattered onto the ground.
Azrak knew he had slightly wounded a few of them. Only one was still alive; after sliding several meters on the muddy ground, he had stopped by hitting a rock. Azrak ran to this man, whom he had shot in the shoulder, and grabbed him by the throat.
"Who sent you?" Azrak shouted. "Tell me quickly! Who sent you?" But as soon as these questions were uttered, the man began to vomit, foam spurting from his mouth. As blood flowing from his eye sockets mixed with the foam in his mouth, Azrak dropped the agonizing body to the ground. "Damn it… He's killing himself."
"Of course he was going to," Hikmar said. It was curious when he had gotten up from his seat and arrived at the battlefield. The man writhing in pain on the ground looked at Hikmar out of the corner of his eye. Hikmar began to disembowel the man, using his hand like a knife. Then he reached into the man's stomach and tore it in two. He leaned toward the stomach and began scanning it with his eyes. "We must examine it before the maggots start swarming the body…"
Azrak shuddered when he looked at the other men and saw the maggots already starting to appear in the pools of blood. Humans weren't the only ones starving on this planet; even the maggots must have been tearing themselves apart from hunger. Maggots were even starting to sprout in the pool of blood at Hikmar's feet.
"Just as I thought…" Hikmar said.
"Just as you thought what?" Azrak asked.
"These have a high level of physical conditioning, unusually so for this planet… They feed on meat; it's quite clear from the enzymes in their stomachs."
"No factory on this planet gives meat to its local workers," Azrak said.
"The meat they eat isn't animal meat anyway…" Hikmar said. "Nor is it processed food."
"Then what meat are they eating? There's nothing on this planet!"
"They eat human meat…" Hikmar said. "…these are cannibals."
"What do you mean?"
"The clothes they're wearing aren't their own; they're the clothes of the Calosian natives they killed and ate. But no Calosian wears such nice clothes… In fact, if you look, both the vehicles they use and their clothes are patched… as if they came from skillful hands…"
"What are you trying to say?"
"These are heretics from outer planets," Hikmar said with a smile. "They've come here to eat human meat. And it seems these people aren't such ignorant folk either."
"Humans living on another planet? Without being cybernetic or advanced…"
"Probably illegal colonists who took refuge on this planet illicitly. I have no idea how they could have arrived but… but one thing I'm sure of is that someone wanted to incite these cannibals against us. Someone is using these cannibals."
"Is that so?"
"Yes… I think these cannibals' only concern is eating human flesh. Someone might have learned about them and threatened to expose them to the SWR (YDC)." Hikmar opened the man's mouth and ran his hand inside. His molars seemed quite developed. "These people could also be fugitives from an experiment… They have overly developed molars and their tongues are slightly serrated, just like the felines of the old world…"
"And their clothes are a distraction…" Hikmar added. "…they were made to wear Calosian clothes because someone intended to drive a wedge between Calos and Uruzen. A very clever plan…" Then Hikmar remembered his conversation with the creature named Volem.
"Then we won't explain this situation to Labiba."
"Absolutely not!" Hikmar said. "We must continue to let the game play out. We don't know who is on our side."
"Side? What side? We're working for Labiba…"
"Do you think Labiba is doing what is best for herself? Does she even realize what might be best for her?"
Azrak stood frozen at this question.
"There are three groups…" Hikmar said, straightening up and pointing to the West. "…one group watching us from the west and clearing the trap here."
"The second group is the cannibals…" Azrak said, looking at the corpses on the ground.
"And then there are those controlling the cannibals—that's the third group," Hikmar said. "These three groups know about our cargo and want to intervene."
"Are you saying Calos is unaware of all this?"
"They might know what's happening. Maybe they even know about the cannibals, but they don't know about the cargo we're carrying in this truck," Hikmar said and looked toward the vehicle. One of the truck's cameras was watching them quite intently. "Let's go back and say we found no evidence. Then we'll wait for our move."