Chapter 288: Extermination

Owens was relieved and ordered all his troops to withdraw. The large whale-ship did not resume to attack and began to retreat.

The last words of the mysterious and eccentric man called Vender were broadcasted one last time.

"I don't want to stick around with you two having a phallic battle. See you!" And with that, the Kyogre disappeared underwater.

The fight immediately began.

The pair began to fly at outstanding speeds that released radiation and electric signals that defied all the known levels that the Caliphates have recorded.

"Admiral… Did Commander Salathiel…?" Drinths asked as he noticed that the Exoskeleton suit was much more powerful.

"Yes. It seems he activated his protocol and made the Heart of Atlantis enhance his Exoskeleton. But it shouldn't reach the level of Supreme. We have to hurry! We find those weapons and detonate them! We can take that Commander along with him if we play it right!"

"Commander! We are in the base! Follow my orders. You are to keep the enemy from attacking the base itself! If she does, the battle will turn even more chaotic, and we may not find the Metal cube, and it may destroy the Lightning rods! We use the Lightning Rods to blow up this base and kill that Commander all at once!" Magantae ordered as she contacted Salathiel's suit.

Commander Salathiel heard it and gritted his teeth. It was as LennoxV2.3 explained. Fleet Admiral Magantae had been held 'hostage' and sent inside the base. With that, Lennox threatened to kill her and offered to save her if Salathiel agrees.

"Say it," Lennox warned.

"Commander! This suit is equipped with your Nuke Emitter! But its usage is locked! I need the codes to activate it! I can fight the enemy with this!" A quarter of a second later, his answer was sent back to Magantae. LennoxV2.3 allowed Salathiel's response to be sent.

Magantae cursed. The Nuke Emitter was the one weapon that could have easily decimated this base. But since this was a covert op, she didn't equip her suit with it, fearing detection. If she activated this, it would alert the WGP. Her mission to secretly spy in the Caliphate and draw out the traitors of the WGP would fail. But as things progressed, she regretted not equipping her suit with it.

"I am Tanya Magantae, Fleet Admiral of the Atlantis! I enable protocol Nuke Emitter! Code Zulu Tango Zero Five Hotel Hotel Seven Charlie!"

"Protocol code accepted. Nuke Emitter tech online." A voice prompt replied.

"Can you kill it without using over thirty percent of the Nuke Emitter?" Magantae asked.

"Yes, Admiral!" Salathiel answered.

"And thank you, Salathiel. For the WGP!" Magantae cried as the call ended.

"I've done as you said. Promise me!" Salathiel screamed.

But Lennox was too busy to reply.

The Heart of Atlantis received the protocol and allowed access to the Nuke Emitter. With the same command, the various locked protocols were all activated. Lennox V2.3 had found out that there was one voice command that would unlock the various techs provided it was from the confirmed voice of Fleet Admiral Magantae. Certain intonations, tones, and pronunciations were necessary to complete it. And the Heart of Atlantis could only activate one tech at a time.

But Lennox hacked into the programmed code and allowed that rule to be disregarded.

"I am… inexorable." Lennox muttered in a maddened and almost titanic tone. The Exoskeleton that stood near Charles snapped its finger.

And then it happened.

All the techs of the Heart of Atlantis appeared became accessible to Lennox as the recorded voice was used to unlock them.

"Yes… Yes… These techs will be perfect. Yes! Yes! With that programming language, I could create better emulators! The DS Generation games will be available soon!" Lennox began to talk strangely as the entire Heart of Atlantis began to use its techs to readjust itself.

As that happened, the ship that the real General Vender rode also began to reform.

Up in the sky, Salathiel and two Alean had flown higher and higher in the skies. And there, they continued their fake fight.

Fleet Admiral Magantae and the Commanders continued to move towards the area where the medical facility was. Now that the sandstorm only focused on the Behemoth's area and the chaos all over the base, the WGP Commanders were able to activate their mirage techs and made it look like they were a Caliphate soldier. Even their signals reverted back to the previous signals they had used.

"Let's go! I doubt that anyone will have time to detect how these signals returned with all the chaos happening! If someone contacts us, we just claim that our Exoskeleton lost power, and we were able to tap back into the sensors when the sandstorm disappeared." Magantae explained.

Meanwhile, inside the headquarters, the chaos was now contained. The soldiers were back to business under the amazing leadership of Commander Owens.

"I want full guards and searches on the region above us, and keep your eyes for those WGP suits!" Owens continued to relay his commands to defend the base. Most of the Planteds were now detained. With the chaos occurring, there was no time to ask them any more questions.

"Send all our forces all over the base! We need to identify if any other Exoskeletons are entering our base!"

"Sir! What if they have already entered the Caliphates and evaded this base!"

"I have already considered that and sent emergency requests to the nearby bases. They are now focusing their scanners on detecting everything! Anything that is made of metal is being scanned by our satellites. But what the enemy wants isn't just to bypass our scanners and sensors! That may have been their objective before and why they attacked the base! But they think we've captured General Vender! And I'm almost certain that anyone who claimed to be a Planted could be that Vender!"

Owens immediately explained and then answered an important call. He had requested an emergency meeting on all Commanders who were guarding the bases in the nearby sectors.

The Commanders all went to their private office to answer this important and private call, which Owens requested that only Commanders may answer.

"Owens. You have some explaining to do! We've already detected the signals and reports of a battle, but you just asked request now! You've already activated the Behemoth without approval!"

"Commanders, I called you now on the brink of my defeat! I don't care what happens to my career as I probably will die here. But I am calling to tell all of you that General Joab Barak has betrayed us! I have evidence! And you have them too!" Commander Owens interrupted.

The Commanders were startled at the sudden declaration.

"What are you saying? We know that your grudge with-"

"I don't have time for this. If you don't believe me, then do this! Speak to all in your respective command centers and tell them that General Joab Barak is requesting for a Planted to reveal himself as you are to give him a specific instruction directly. If one admits, have him gather all the Planteds. Once you ascertain the existence of Planteds in your headquarters, interrogate them about their leader. It is a mysterious entity called a Presider! There is also another entity that they call a Pioneer!" Owens declared.

"What are you-?"

"And right now, I have just proven that Commander Chrishel is one of them! Observe!" Owens immediately played back the video of their very call. The moment Owens mentioned the words Presider and Pioneer, the female Commander's expression changed as if she was shocked and almost horrified.

"Question these Planteds and threaten them with death! You don't have to kill them, so you will have nothing to lose but threaten them as hard as you can and make them believe that you will kill them! If you do what I just said, you will come to the conclusion I reached. I beg everyone to do what I just said! I may not be here tomorrow so please, believe me. You have nothing to lose! Do not believe everything Commander Chershel will tell you! Goodbye!"

Owens disconnected the call.

Maver lost color as he heard all that Owens said. If the Commanders did what Owens suggested, many Planteds would die. The entire existence of the Planted, the Pioneer, and even the Presider in the Caliphate region would be revealed. No Planted would ever betray their own race. They would betray each other if needed and even fought along with the political, religious, and personal battles with each other. And so, it was impossible for this scenario to play out. They didn't know that Planteds would die if they were to be interrogated and when various keywords would be stated. But now, this safety measure backfired.

"Since I can't get the answer out of you since you'd just blow up, at least this country will be free from your clutches! Never mind death. I am a Commander, and I will serve my Caliph till death!" Owens growled at Maver.

"It's all a misunderstanding! We are not betraying this-"

"Oh really? Who do you think told me all this! It was that soldier whom you called! He must have been freed from the bomb planted in your hearts because of whatever electric shock or torture he received inside the WGP's vessel. Or it could be the one claiming to be the Lost Primordial. I don't care anymore! Regardless if it's the WGP, the Lost Primordial, or Joab Barak, I will not hand over this country to them! That is my oath as a soldier!" Owens claimed.

The soldiers heard this and were somewhat motivated, and began to do their best to help them. Aside from Maver and the other Planteds, many of the soldiers under Commander Owens followed him out of respect.

The battle between Alean, who was pretending to be a Lost Primordial, and the WGP Commander Salathiel had explosive results.

Through the Heart of Atlantis's hijack, Lennox managed to deploy a miniature version of the Nuke Emitter, and thus, the battle was becoming more chaotic.

Huge explosions occurred above the skies, and the nearby cities were finally alerted. The civilian cities received orders for evacuation, and the entire Caliphate was pulled into chaos.

As the Commanders and nearby Generals began to communicate to each other, they realized that General Joab Barak was no longer where he was expected to be.

When Magantae attacked, General Joab Barak personally moved towards that location. But suddenly, he left without warning or informing everyone.

Even the Planteds and fellow Pioneer didn't know of this.

And so, his disappearance urged most of the Commanders to follow Owens instructions.

"Tell me, who the Presider is!"

"I- I- Don't know!"

"Then Die!" The Commander shouted.

"Wait! It's!"

BOMB!

The insides of the person blew open as his guts spilled out.

"Wha-What happened?!" The Commander saw it and was horrified.

"No! No! I'm not scared! I'm not-"

Boom!

Another person exploded.

The Commander looked around and witnessed the very gruesome expression of the other Planteds.

"So that's why they are called Planteds! How barbaric of Joab!" The Commander dialed his comm device and called another Commander.

"Did they also explode?"

"Three. Oh. Wait. Four. I'm not even doing anything now. Some of them are already peeing their pants. Owens is right. Should we send reinforcements to him?"

"No! Joab Barak is a traitor. These Planteds worked under him. He may have been planning a coup. Owens made his choice and stand. He sacrificed himself for this information. The best thing we can do is tell the other Commanders and report to our Caliphs. And we must immediately launch a joint attack against Commander Chershel!"

"Good plan. Let's inform the others. Let's exterminate this Planted infestation within the Caliphates and kill that arrogant Joab Barak!"

Lowengren was secretly listening to Owens when he made those orders. The signal was never cut. Lennox disrupted it so that it would only be in receive mode. Although Owens removed the comm device, it was still near him, and Lowengren's Unlocking allowed him to hear whatever Owens would say.

"Brilliant! I must get this Owens for my team!"

"It seems our way into the Caliphate region will be paved open. This brings our plans ahead by months. The City of Refuge that Eagle talked about can finally be built."

"We have the techs, and now we have the means. Alean's Path is amazing!"

"That's not half of it." Lennox smiled.

"What?"

"We now can create a base. Get me close to the cubes. I will set all my Lighting to put many in a near-death state."

"We're not killing the soldiers here? We need to silence them!"

"We will. Many will die. But we can earn a few men. These will have the potential for the Unlocking. Whoever survives my lightning ought to have a high chance of seeing her."

"What? Wait… You mean… She's here?" A powerful chill gripped Lowengren.

"Wait… You mean… All of this… It's for her?!"

Deep underwater, the Kyogre and the Heart of Atlantis had met, and with Lennox's preparations, bot vessels were actually merging.

Charles and General Vender were together, and newer techs were applied on the daughter.

Vender Hirock and his wife watched as their daughter's health began to stabilize with the new treatments that Lennox and Charles applied.

Suddenly, a strange sensation could be felt. It imparted a strange desire for curiosity. And a strange wonder that made Charles and Vender want to see it.

"Oh? She's finally near."

"What is that strange sensation?"

"Well, I didn't know what to do with her, so when I controlled the pod and decided to keep it close to me. But since I went around the world, I couldn't get it to go near my location. She's gotten stronger. Although I haven't seen her, I couldn't feel this sensation before. My God. Just what are these Overcomers? I better follow Lowengren and get out of here once she gets out." Charles sighed.

"She? Who is she?"

"The most terrifying existence here on Earth. The Tyrant Empress."