Interstellar: Return of the Villain
Chapter 135: AMAT (5)

Chapter 135: AMAT (5)

When Vice Admiral Myer and Ansel arrived just outside the island, the recon team was already locked in a standoff with the spies holed up inside.

"If you want these students to live, stay where you are and don’t do anything stupid!"

The live broadcast showed the students, captured by Carniflora and Twistmaw, still alive but in rough shape.

Tied up and tossed together like luggage, they were covered in slime, looking both miserable and terrified.

Most of them hadn’t even realized what was happening until someone who resisted got killed. That was when the gravity of the situation really hit them.

With the broadcast still rolling, Myer and Ansel were in a bind. They couldn’t risk the students’ lives, not with the whole Alliance watching their every move. The stakes were high, and to top it off, the Third Prince of the Alliance had been taken hostage too.

Now, while the royal family held no real power after the revolution, they were still symbolic. Even if the prince was more of a "national mascot" these days, having him snatched up was a huge embarrassment.

Just when it felt like things couldn’t get worse, Myer’s adjutant rushed up with some news. "A level-eight Peculiar named Frei is asking to meet with you. Says he’s here on behalf of someone on the island and wants to discuss strategy."

Myer perked up at this. "Bring him over, quick!"

Frei turned out to be a middle-aged guy in a black suit, looking a bit like a government official at first glance. But his rough hands and sharp eyes gave away that he was no pencil-pusher.

"Hello, my employer, Miss Lyra from NMA, would like to speak with you directly." Frei handed over a tiny communication device, no bigger than a fingernail.

Myer felt a flicker of annoyance but couldn’t afford to worry about protocol right now. After exchanging a quick glance with Ansel, who wore a grim expression, he accepted the device.

Lyra’s voice came through, calm but clearly out of breath. "Vice Admiral Myer, we’ve located the enemy. They know we’re here, and their target is the contestants. Can you tell me what’s happening on your end? Or is the situation outside so bad the military can’t get in?"

Her last question made Myer’s face flush a little. "Uh, are you still broadcasting?"

Lyra caught on quickly. The military’s reputation was on the line, and not everything needed to be aired out for the public.

"How do we stop the broadcast?"

A nearby technician chimed in, "It’s satellite-based. Destroying your team’s terminal should cut the feed."

Lyra gave a quick nod to Elsie, who wasted no time shooting the terminal, destroying it in one shot. With the broadcast down, the spies could no longer track them.

"We’ve cut the broadcast," Lyra confirmed, finding a moment to hide with her group. "So, with hostages in their hands and the Aegis Shield malfunctioning, the military can’t get in, right?"

"You’ve summed it up," Myer replied with a heavy sigh. "We’re stuck waiting until they leave or until the admiral shows up. Best to keep hidden for now. I suspect they’ve got a Master Peculiar on their side."

All the military could do from outside was sit tight and wait.

Everyone who had been holding onto the hope of rescue fell into a heavy silence.

Lyra shut off the communicator and stepped back into the cave. "We’ll wait for the rescue."

"How long will that take?" Daire slumped against the stone wall, sounding defeated.

"Myer said we have to wait until the enemy retreats, but we don’t even know when they landed here. They’ve clearly got a way to slip in and out without being spotted," Elsie muttered, her brow furrowed. "And they’re picking off contestants one by one."

From what Carniflora and the massive sand spiders had done so far, it was clear the Empire was after the students.

Lyra sat at the mouth of the cave, eyes scanning the forest. "The higher-ups won’t ignore what we’ve figured out. If the enemy could quietly take over the island’s control system, it means there’s a mole. Let them handle that part."

Her laid-back attitude got under Nicholas’s skin. "Let them figure it out slowly? They’re hunting us down all over the island! We’re just supposed to sit here and do nothing?"

"Or would you rather run out there and get yourself killed?" Lyra shot him a sharp look. "We’re lucky we dodged their surveillance. They’ve got a Master Peculiar with them. What else can we do but hide?"

Nicholas clenched his jaw, momentarily at a loss for words. After a beat, he said, "At least we should try to find a way out."

"If getting out was an option, don’t you think the Vice Admirals would’ve already broken through?" Elsie gave him a pointed glare. "How did you end up president with ideas like that?"

The Aegis Shield was still in place. They couldn’t even dig their way out if they tried.

Her frustration with Nicholas, of all people, being in charge, made her irritation worse.

Embarrassed, Nicholas turned red and sank to the ground, covering his face. His voice cracked a little as he spoke. "I’m just scared we’ll be taken to the Empire. I don’t even know if we’ll survive."

That one statement shattered the thin layer of courage the students had been clinging to.

But Lyra wasn’t fazed. "It’s not as bad as you think," she said, her voice steady and cool.

Her calmness seemed to inject some confidence back into the group. They all looked at her, waiting for more.

"First off, there aren’t that many of them. They couldn’t bring a large force onto the island without being noticed."

"Second, we’ve cut off their surveillance, and this island’s big enough for us to play a decent game of hide and seek."

"And third, they won’t stay long. They’ll leave before the admiral arrives."

There was an unspoken rule in the ongoing war between the Empire and the Alliance: no Peculiar on the battlefield was ever supposed to exceed level nine. Breaking that balance could trigger a disaster big enough to wipe out humanity.

That was why the Alliance admiral, a level-nine gravity Peculiar, was more than enough to keep the enemy in check.

Hearing her lay out the situation, other students realized that things didn’t seem quite as hopeless as they had before.

Still, there was something Lyra kept to herself: all her confidence relied on the assumption that the enemy would focus on targeting other contestants first.

But plans have a way of getting interrupted when you least expect it.

As evening rolled in, a rustling noise came from the forest outside.

Kolan’s alarm vines had been cut.

The group, already on edge, immediately snapped into alert mode.

"Don’t shoot! It’s us!" A few figures emerged from behind the low palm trees.

It was a group of contestants from Elden Prime.

"Looks like something’s gone wrong with the competition. Do you guys know what’s happening?" The young man leading them glanced at the NMA group. Seeing that they weren’t surprised, he gave a grim smile. "Guess you’re already in the loop."

Elsie and the others didn’t know what to say. Not only were they fully aware of the danger, but they also noticed something chilling—the leader from Elden Prime still had his official terminal strapped to his wrist.

Which meant the enemy had already found them.

Without a word, Elsie raised her gun and fired, shattering the Elden Prime leader’s terminal in an instant. The sound of the shot made his team flinch, almost triggering them to retaliate out of pure instinct.

"The enemy has control over satellite surveillance," Elsie explained calmly, lowering her weapon. "As long as you have that terminal on, they can see your every move."

The EPMA leader’s face tightened in frustration as the truth sank in. "So that’s why we kept getting found no matter where we went!"

"Less talking, more moving!" Lyra snapped, already on her feet and ready to relocate.

The group wasted no time, quickly moving deeper into the forest while exchanging bits of information as they went.

The Elden Prime team was especially shaken, piecing together just how much danger they’d been in all along.

Every detail made their situation seem more dire, and their shock was evident with every new thing they learned.