[ Nuclear energy utilization levels exceeding previous parameters. ]
Oh! Vlad was pleasantly surprised to see the message. "Dismiss," Vlad ordered his QC.
"Hey Kel I'm heading to where Adele is, this area is mostly cleared."
"Okay- shit!" Kel shouted into the comms.
"You alright over there? Need some help?"
"No, I'm fine, it's dead now. I'm heading over there," Kel answered.
"Okay."
Vlad turned in the direction Adele had been. His eyes caught a glimpse of a see-through balloon-like shape in the periphery of his vision. Vlad went over to it to quench his curiosity. "Oh a Floater," he said, a surprised expression on his face as the floater drifted away. "It's still a fledgling, why is it coming out of its nest?"
"Hey Kel I found a Floater nest," Vlad informed Kel.
Kel's voice spoke from behind him, "It's more of a Floater colony than a nest. And why are the little ones coming out this early?" Kel asked.
Vlad turned around, "Oh you were here already."
"Did you touch their air sac?" Kel asked.
"Of course not, I'm not that dumb. Maybe they sensed some danger or something. There are a lot of fights happening."
"Most likely yeah," Kel replied, his eyes fixated on the floater flying away.
Vlad stood from his half-knelt position, "Anyways, let's get on with catching up to that blonde flamingo," He said exhaling.
Inside the monitoring room of the base Kaff and Hax finally got their hands on the NE absorption data.
"Let's see what we're working with this time," Hax said, his voice laced with anticipation.
Kaff's eyes narrowed in concentration, "Let's see what we're working with this time," Hax said, his voice laced with anticipation.
Kaff's eyes narrowed in concentration, his analytical mind engaged and his gaze fixed on the screen in front.
"Hahah, would you look at that," Hax said with a smile, a cold sweat running down his face.
Lionheart's already on par with senior agents. Kaff thought, a smirk playing on his lips.
***
[1st] Adele Lara Lionheart: 64.8 kilobecquerel.
[2nd] Iliana Luov: 41.4 kilobecquerel.
[3rd] Vlad Romanov: 41.1 kilobecquerel.
[4th] Kel Firouza: 36.9 kilobecquerel.
[5th] Ace DeLauro: 37.1 kilobecquerel.
…..
***
The rest of them are better than I expected as well. Two on the same level as junior agents. Kaff thought, his smirk remaining unchanged.
"We got quite the monsters this time around," a female voice spoke from behind them. Making both turn their heads.
An unusually skinny woman with a tired expression wearing a white overcoat and glasses with ragged hair walked towards them, one hand in her pockets and with another having a drink.
"Oh Miss Airel," Hax said, the sound of slurping overpowering his voice.
"You shouldn't make sound while you eat Airel," Kaff said with a sigh of exasperation.
"Shut up Kaff! I've been so stressed because of the expansion mission of sector eight! I need to take my calories," She replied grumpily, her expression full of annoyance.
Kaff remained silent.
"I saw some atherions of sector eight enter our air space before I went on break. Did the commander leave?" Airel asked.
"Yes, almost an hour ago," Kaff replied.
"Those three from earlier are together again," Hax said, watching the screens overlooking the cadets.
Meanwhile, on the bustling battleground, Vlad and Kel finally caught up to Adele.
Vlad's limbs were covered in blood and other parts of mutants. He shook his limbs rapidly to get the blood off of them.
"Getting to you was a lot of work, Miss Lionheart," Kel said whilst reloading his rifle.
"You left behind quite a few mutants. Not at the top of your game today?" Vlad said, his tone full of taunting.
Adele's brows twitched at the teasing. "I had to let you get some kills at least, I wouldn't feel great getting them all," Adele shot back, a playful smirk tugging at her lips.
"How considerate of you my lady. I am truly grateful," Vlad said sarcastically.
"As you should be."
"Will you two stop it already?" Kel intervened, his voice laced with exasperation and weariness. "There's a few mutants coming towards us from the east."
Both Vlad and Adele lost their bantering demeanor and became serious like a switch was flipped inside them.
"There's a few that can fly, that's going to be a pain in my ass," Vlad said with a tone of irritation. "You two take care of those flying fucks."
Kel looked at the incoming mutants through his rifle's scope. "Those are vulturovs, and there's a red vulturov among them," he said lowering his rifle in disbelief.
"What? A red vulturov? And they're not fighting amongst themselves?" Adele questioned, her face littered with confusion.
"Vulturovs are extremely selfish, they fight with their own mates for small things. Especially red V's," Vlad added.
"Yeah I know, but from what I'm seeing they're working together and the red vulturovs leading the other ones?" Kel replied. "Are they here for the floaters?"
"Having the same goal and prey just makes them fight each other for resources more. They're behaving oddly, especially the red V they only hunt in high altitudes." Vlad said.
"Something's definitely off," Adele added, her eyes narrowing slightly.
At the same time in the monitoring room, a beeping sound took everyone's attention. A spectra-pad buffered red and blue.
"What's happening?" Airel asked with a serious look.
"We've detected more mutants approaching the area the cadets are in. There are a few vulturovs and they're showing unusual behavioural patterns," a monitoring agent replied.
"What category?" Hax asked.
"They're mostly below 2.5 but there's a red vulturov among them and that's 3.6"
"What!? What's a red vulturov doing here?" Airel asked, rushing over to the agent.
"Even if the cadets had prior fighting experience they don't know how to handle flying ones yet. Should we stop the test and call them back?" Hax asked Kaff.
"The vulturovs for some reason not attacking each other," the monitoring agent said.
"Huh?" Hax murmured, an eyebrow raised in confusion.
"The cadets can handle regular vulturovs from what they've shown so far but the red vulturov is the main issue, and the change in behaviour..." Kaff replied, his eyes narrowing, his mind racing to analyze the situation. "Where is the red vulturov headed?"
"There's a large floater nest near the large rocks and for some reason, young floaters are coming out of their nests right now. So they're probably going after them."
"What? It's been hours since sunrise. And floaters so little shouldn't come out of their nests until weeks," Airel said, confusion overtaking her features.
"That floater nest is close to two hundred meters from the gate, should we reduce the test perimeters to get the cadets away from the vulturovs?" Hax turned to Kaff and asked.
"Seems like a simple solution. Set the test promoters to 150 meters from the gate and tell everyone outside that to fall back to the newly designated area," Kaff ordered in a voice that cut through the tension.
"Alright sir," Another agent replied.
"Sir! The red vulturov changed its flight pattern, it's descending rapidly along with the entire flock behind it directly towards the cadets!" The monitoring agent shouted, his voice filled with alarm. "The mutants on the ground are moving faster than they were moments ago!"
"Shit!" Hax exclaimed, his eyes widened.
Another monitoring agent shouted, "Another red vulturov detected from the opposite direction! And it's heading straight for the gate!"
The shield is turned off right now and we're lacking in manpower but there's no way the mutants know that. Kaff thought. "Tell the defence team to deploy immediately! Prioritize the safety and retrieval of the cadets," Kaff ordered, his voice laced with urgency. "Hax let's go, we're going as well."
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Floaters are photosynthetic, floating aliens with large, gas-filled membranes. They are sensitive to touch and only aggressive when defending their young. Rising at dawn for sunlight, they possess a precognitive danger sense. They are among the very few species not affect by the radiation.
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