Interstellar Survival: Invasion

"Who are they?" I asked immediately, my voice lowering to a whisper.

"They look like a group of laborers. Two giant paw worms are supervising them. There's also a tiny fellow clad in an attire resembling the Sacred Wing race's clothing," said Anxashe.

"Are you sure they're heading toward the warehouse we're in?" I asked.

"Yes, and they're about to enter. I need to hide. Wargods, take note of my signal," said Anxashe as he hurriedly hid.

A minute later, the sounds of movement came from the warehouse's door. Shortly after, the door opened.

"Faster, faster. Move these raw materials to the workshop ahead of us," said a voice. Surprisingly, the language was the Eternal language.

I hid in the darkness behind the pile of crates as I observed them. There were two giant paw worms supervising more than ten chubby beasts in the group. They were walking straight toward our hiding spot. It was clear the crates piled in front of us were their target. A Sacred Wing race official wearing a black robe walked behind the group, barking one order after another.

A flash suddenly appeared in the darkness. Three figures darted out from three different directions. Without making a noise, the two giant paw worms and the Sacred Wing race official dropped to the ground.

At the same time, four burly Wargod soldiers rushed forth and shut the warehouse's door. The other Wargods raised their weapons and took the chubby laborers captive. The laborers were too shocked by the sudden change, so they all lay down on the ground with their arms over their heads in fear.

The entire thing had happened in less than 10 seconds. Anxashe and his fellow Wargods had been efficient at their work. Seeing that, the rest of us rushed out from the darkness. I ran straight toward Anxashe.

"The giant paw worms are dead. The Wargod soldiers had stabbed right through their necks," reported Zhang Bao'er.

Immediately, I noticed that the man in black under Anxashe's foot was also dead. An arrow had stabbed down through his neck and into his spine.

"Anxashe, why did you kill him? You should have left some alive for us to interrogate," I said, somewhat angered.

"Sorry, Commander. It was an emergency, and I attacked too harshly to prevent him from alerting the soldiers outside," said Anxashe apologetically.

Since it was done, there was no point in blaming him. Suddenly, I recalled how I had never seen the appearance of the Sacred Wing race. In fact, this was the closest I had ever been to a member of the Sacred Wing race.

At that thought, I removed the cover from the corpse's head. When my flashlight shone down, a familiar face entered my gaze. I was so shocked I took a step back. Beside me, Zhang Bao'er and Old Du noticed my action and rushed over to also take a look at the Sacred Wing race member.

"Th-th-this, isn't this Domo?" exclaimed Zhang Bao'er.

After looking at the corpse in more detail, Old Du said, "No. This isn't Domo. But this is a Jido."

"I had not expected Domo to actually be a member of the Sacred Wing race," said Zhang Bao'er in disbelief.

"Don't come to any rash conclusions. Perhaps this is a Jido in Sacred Wing attire. If Domo is really a Sacred Wing, I believe there must be a unique reason for him to be with us now," I said, stopping Zhang Bao'er from generating more distrust of our fellow comrade.

"Yeah, Bao'er. Don't come to any rash conclusions. We had even met Domo's countryman, Kado. Both of them should be Jidos," said Old Du.

"Could it be that this Jido had been placed under the control of the Sacred Wing race?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"There is also a possibility that the Sacred Wing race is basically the Jido race of a different branch. We still need to investigate it more to reach a conclusion," I said.

Old Du crouched down and searched the Jido corpse for any other clues. However, he only found a pentagram with a dragon-like crest on it and a translation device. Nothing else of value could be found on the corpse.

"This fellow is certainly not a Jido if he's so poor. Someone like Domo would have a bunch of treasures hidden in numerous pockets all over the body," said Zhang Bao'er, slipping the pentagram into his pocket.

"Anxashe, see if this is the Sacred Wing race's crest," I said as I spread my palm in front of Zhang Bao'er, asking for the crest.

Seeing that he couldn't get away with it, Zhang Bao'er could only grudgingly take the crest out and place it in my palm. Anxashe picked up the crest and studied it. He said, "Yes, this is definitely a crest of the Sacred Wing race."

"Although we don't have any other information, this Jido is definitely working with the Sacred Wing race," I concluded.

"I wonder what they're trying to get from this warehouse," said Zhang Bao'er.

Hearing Zhang Bao'er's words, I turned around to look at the chubby laborers lying on the ground. These beast laborers had thick yet short limbs, and each had an oval head decorated with a mouth and nose that seemed to fuse together and protrude from the face. Every laborer was also wrapped in heavy chains.

"They seem to be slaves," said Old Du as he looked at the chains.

Upon hearing that, Anxashe crouched down and placed one hand on a laborer's shoulder while holding a sharp arrow in his other hand. He questioned loudly, "What are you doing here? Answer! We don't have much patience!"

The chubby laborer seemed terrified by the sharp arrow. They turned limp as they frantically made some gurgling noise from their mouth.

"I reckon this fellow's language is not in our translators. We can't understand them," said Dodo.

"Dodo, try using this translator," I said as I handed them the translation device I had gotten from the Jido.

Dodo took the device before repeating the same question to the beast laborer. This time, the beast laborer seemed to understand the question. The laborer pointed at the pile of crates to the side and started gesturing with their arms. However, we were still hearing the unknown language from their mouth.

"Looks like the Sacred Wing race's translator can only allow these beasts to understand us. Their language, on the other hand, can't be entered into the imperial database at all. We won't be able to understand their speech," said Old Du.

"This could be intentional on the emperor's part. He was ensuring that these beasts would not develop too many unwanted thoughts when communicating with outsiders. This will make controlling them easier," I said.

Dodo continued asking the laborers questions. They couldn't exactly speak to each other, but the laborers could clearly understand our questions. The laborer scared by Anxashe hurriedly stood up and led three other laborers to carry over a large crate from the pile.

The laborer signaled the other three with their eyes. One of them then took out a crowbar, seemingly from thin air, and pried the lid open. When we looked inside the crate, we saw numerous black block-like ores.

"Heavens, aren't these source ores?" exclaimed Anxashe with excitement and envy.

"What are source ores?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

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"This is the best raw material for arms manufacturing. Arrowheads and bullets made from this material will be strong enough to easily penetrate battleships. This ore can only be found on a planet in Betelgeuse called Source. The planet has an average temperature of negative 50 degrees, so the work conditions are atrocious. However, that harsh environment is also how a material so excellent had come into existence," explained Anxashe patiently.

"I did not expect the emperor to have these ores sent here after mining them. What I don't understand is, why hadn't we noticed their transport ships? Which direction are they entering the Horsehead Nebula from?" asked Old Du doubtfully.

"The space fortress and the wall of light are both constructed by the empire. It won't be much trouble for them to sneak in. Their stealth system is good enough to hide the appearance of an entire nebula, so it won't be an issue to also hide those transport ships," said Dodo.

"Dodo, ask these laborers what they are making with these ores," I said.

Dodo immediately relayed the question. The laborer gestured and made a series of unknown sounds. From their gestures, they were referring to some massive object, but none of us understood what they were trying to say.

"Looks like the Sacred Wing race is manufacturing a terrifying weapon. We need to enter their arms factory as soon as possible and see just what terrifying weapons they're building. We need to destroy them," I said.

"But how are we supposed to enter the factory? The square is filled with giant paw worms and steel spiders," said Anxashe.

I gave Anxashe a glance before lowering my head in thought.

"Canyue, I have a good idea," Zhang Bao'er exclaimed abruptly, his declaration coming as a complete surprise to me.

"Bao'er, do you have a good way for us to sneak in?" I asked.

Instead of giving a direct answer, Zhang Bao'er said, "Canyue, do you see those crates? Do you remember the Great Squirrel Battle we played when we were kids?" 

"Of course," I said. "It's a virtual game from quite a while ago. Wait, do you mean..."

"Exactly. The core of the game is to have two squirrels hide in crates. With the crates as cover, the squirrels can approach the enemy," said Zhang Bao'er smugly.

"Bao'er, do you mean that we should hide in these crates and have these laborers carry us in as if they're carrying some ores?" asked Old Du.

"Yes. Apart from that, I can't think of any other ways," said Zhang Bao'er.

In fact, that seemed to be the best idea we had at the moment.

"What if those beasts decide to inspect the crates? Wouldn't we be trapped?" asked Dodo.

"I doubt that any of the beasts expected their clock puzzle to be solved and for some intruders to travel through time and come here. The inspection should be quite lax. I'm not worried about any inspection. I'm more worried that these laborers will betray us," said Zhang Bao'er. It was rare to see him display such wisdom.

"That's easy. I'll deal with it," said Anxashe as he took out a shiny dagger and walked toward the leader of the laborers.