章 73: Help

The sudden stillness of the scene was oppressing. The recruits found themselves unclear about what to do in front of the now silent cave. The noise caused by the blood falling to the ground became deafening, and only the ragged breath of the boys and girls managed to overcome it.

Khan's group had done it. They had cleared the cave and killed every Kred. They could move to the next step of their plan, but everyone required a second to snap back to reality.

"Break the bars and free the recruits," Khan ordered when he saw that some of his companions were still in a daze in front of the bleeding corpses. "We can't stay here."

The orders forced the recruits to ignore the cold and scary feelings surging inside their minds. They all began to move and focus on other tasks to keep themselves busy, but some of them didn't miss that Khan went straight for the end of the second hall.

The cell containing Lieutenant Sehlolo soon unfolded in Khan's eyes. The wolf-shaped Kred was still facing the end of the hole when he arrived, but she turned when she heard noises coming from behind her.

Khan had crouched in front of the cave, and his emotionless eyes inspected the Kred. Lieutenant Sehlolo couldn't help but compare that gaze to the memories in her mind. Only a couple of weeks had passed since the beginning of the semestral missions, but Khan had already transformed.

"We need to talk," Khan announced when he saw a tinge of regret appearing in the Lieutenant's eyes.

Lieutenant Sehlolo opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She tried to say something a few times, but her eyes eventually fell to the ground.

She couldn't stand to look at Khan in the eyes. The stark change in his behavior reminded her of the blood spilled during the rebellion.

"Do you regret what you did?" Khan asked when he saw that scene.

Khan's words transformed into sharp blades when they reached Lieutenant Sehlolo's ears. She tried to speak again, but she ended up turning her face on the wall to hide from the living reminder of her actions.

"The situation will only worsen if you don't do anything," Khan explained. "These prisoners are nothing more than targets among the trees. The Kred will kill all of them, and their blood will be on your hands."

Khan made sure to use his entire knowledge concerning human interactions during his speech. He relied on his previous talks with Lieutenant Sehlolo to choose words that could make her mind give in. It was clear that regret was eating her insides, and Khan wanted that feeling to grow.

Feelings seeped past the mental barrier during that speech. Khan had to be cruel during the past two weeks, but he had never enjoyed that behavior. However, a warm sensation spread inside him when he saw Lieutenant Sehlolo suffering due to his words.

Still, Khan decided to suppress that dark feeling too. Revenge was useless in that situation. He had to get the Lieutenant's help to have a chance to survive the crisis.

"You can still save us," Khan continued. "You can remain inside your cave and wallow in your regret, but we need something. We are basically stranded on Istrone unless you tell us how to get out."

Khan didn't know how the Global Army behaved in that situation. Part of him even feared that the higher-ups were busy solving greater issues since nothing in the last two weeks had hinted at the arrival of reinforcements. He needed the Lieutenant's knowledge to understand what to do and devise a plan to get him back on Earth.

Lieutenant Sehlolo opened her mouth, but no sound came out of it again. Still, Khan waited in silence at that time. He let her experience the pain that her species had inflicted on the young recruits while his cold gaze remained on her.

George and the others had started to free the imprisoned recruits, and noises inevitably spread throughout the cave. Most sounds were suppressed sobs or painful cries, but a few angry voices also reached the end of the underground structure.

Lieutenant Sehlolo heard everything. Each sob made her body shake. Her hand trembled whenever one of the prisoners exploded into tears, and her eyes flickered whenever curses reached her ears.

The prisoners were reminding her of the pain that her species had caused. The rebellion had destroyed the innocent excitement of mere kids and had transformed it into despair and anger. Those recruits would turn into soldiers who hated the Kred. The grudge between the two species had only intensified.

"You can help them," Khan added when he felt that the Lieutenant was ready to break. "You can save them and help your species. Wars will inevitably happen, but your actions can reduce the damage. Talk and help both species."

Those words tore Lieutenant Sehlolo's insides apart. Khan's eyes remained still when he heard the Kred clearing her throat. He didn't need anything else to know that he had succeeded.

"The rebellious factions have destroyed the teleport and blocked the communications with the orbit," Lieutenant Sehlolo explained. "The Global Army has a space station around the planet, but its sensors can't find much without receptors on the surface. The mana in Istrone's vegetation creates a shield that stops every attempt to inspect the planet."

"The higher-ups should still see the blank spot on their scanners, right?" Khan asked. "Why didn't they send someone at its edges and inspect the whole area?"

Khan didn't know how the scanners for Istrone worked, but it didn't make sense for the Global Army to be completely in the dark. After all, the soldiers must have known where the semestral missions happened. The complete lack of reinforcements in that area left him speechless and worried.

"The dark area isn't as small as you think," Lieutenant Sehlolo revealed. "The rebellious factions have deactivated the sensors in many sites."

"They should still know where we are," Khan continued.

"Not really," Lieutenant Sehlolo said while turning her face toward Khan. "The army makes sure that only a few trusted soldiers are aware of the location and details of the semestral missions. The families would find a way to help the recruits otherwise, and the Kred know that."

"I bet these soldiers aren't on the space station," Khan said.

"Leaving them there could create a breach in the security," Lieutenant Sehlolo explained. "All of them were on Istrone, and my species has taken care of them before the rebellion."

The situation appeared quite grim after that explanation. The higher-ups didn't know where the recruits were, and the Kred had even disabled many structures.

Convincing Lieutenant Sehlolo to become a guide for the group wouldn't help since Khan and the others would have to cross a long distance to reach the first working structure. The soldier could even be unaware of the actual size of the blind spot, which only worsened the overall situation.

"Do you think they are looking for us?" Khan asked.

"Definitely," Lieutenant Sehlolo revealed. "I wouldn't be surprised if many experts from the Global Army and the various families had already reached Istrone through the teleports outside the blind zone. They must be already on their way. I believe they'll converge here in a few weeks."

"But the Kred know that," Khan added when he saw that sadness had appeared in Lieutenant Sehlolo's voice during the end of her line.

"Yes," Lieutenant Sehlolo continued. "They are ready to move all of you soon."

Khan sat on the ground as he went through the issue in his mind. There wasn't much that the recruits could do. Even obtaining Lieutenant Sehlolo's full cooperation would still leave them in the middle of the rebellious factions.

"Do you think their sensors are pointing toward the blind zone?" Khan asked as a vague idea formed in his mind.

"Of course," Lieutenant Sehlolo replied, "But you would need something big to appear on their screens. Simple flares won't be enough."

Khan nodded before standing up and leaving the cave in silence. A grim spectacle unfolded in his eyes. His companions had freed most of the imprisoned recruits by then, but that wasn't enough to soothe their pain.

George, Cora, and the others had recruits clung to their shoulders and arms. Loud sobs came out of their hidden faces. Most of them were actually fine after spending so long inside the caves, but their minds were far from ok.

"What should we do now?" George asked when he noticed Khan. "Most of them aren't ready to move, and having such a large group inside the jungle will only turn us into a loud target."

"We need to get louder," Khan explained before claiming Dorian and Luke's attention. "Move everyone out and seal each passage. I don't want to see if she reacts in the wrong way."

Most of the prisoners knew that Lieutenant Sehlolo was inside a cave. The wardens had often mocked them about that, and Khan's companions had learnt everything from the cries that had reached their ears.

It was clear that Khan had something in mind. His worry about the Kred also hinted at something that the alien species wouldn't appreciate, so his companions decided not to probe further until they left the range of Lieutenant Sehlolo's ears.

It took a while to move all the recruits outside the cave. Dorian and the others even had to make sure that none of them overreacted in front of the sudden freedom. Calm was necessary, and Khan even needed everyone's help to deploy his plan.

The empty area around the cave unfolded in Khan's vision once he stepped out of the cave. Even that spot featured rich vegetation, but most of those plants barely reached his ankles.

Mana flowed inside those plants and made them quite resilient, but they were far from sturdy. A firm pull could break them, and fire could burn them if deployed correctly.

"What do you have in mind?" George asked when he saw that Khan remained silent while inspecting the various trees and plants around the cave.

"We need to create a signal," Khan explained. "I hope that a big fire will be enough."

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章 74: Fire

It took a while to make the former prisoners understand that Khan's group required their help. George and the others needed even more time to convince them to stand up and start working.

Starting a fire on Istrone wasn't an easy task due to the mana flowing inside the plants. The constant bad weather didn't help with the matter either, but Khan was out of options.

Some of the prisoners turned out to have experience with fires that involved wild vegetation. They had received special training from their families to help them with similar situations, and the other recruits did their best to follow their instructions.

Moreover, two prisoners had the fire element. They couldn't cast spells, but their training had taught them how to heat their mana. Their ability quickened the gathering and preparation of the materials required to start the fire and allowed the group to be ready many hours before the arrival of the night.

Luke, Dorian, and other recruits sealed the various passages in the cave with branches, wood, and rocks. That method couldn't stop Lieutenant Sehlolo's eventual outrage, but it could buy them some time, especially since it prevented the smell from reaching the end of the underground structure.

Khan even kicked the narrow entrance until it crumbled. The recruits showed astonished expressions when they saw him hitting rocks for almost half an hour, but the cold aura surrounding him stopped any desire to talk to him.

The rain didn't stop falling, so the group had to create a fire that could resist it. They gathered many piles of dry branches under the trees behind the cave and lit them up through rudimental methods and fire mana before waving makeshift fans toward the flames.

The resilient vegetation and the relentless rain fought the flames, but Khan had made sure to prepare enough dry materials for the task. The group had a time limit, so they had to succeed on their first try.

A few trees eventually took fire. Their large crowns ended up working against them since they blocked part of the rain, and the flames reached the falling water once they were too intense.

Also, the group was lucky enough to witness a strange reaction. The mana made the trees more resilient, but it transformed into powerful fuel for the flames once the plants died.

Starting the fire turned out to be the only hurdle in the task. The flames grew intense once the mana burnt, and the reaction became unstoppable after that event.

The flames spread once entire trees took fire. The recruits limited themselves to throw more dry materials and dig holes on the ground to keep the cave away from that destructive force.

Black smoke rose in the sky and created a long trail that spread high and wide. The beacon was in place, but everyone in the area could see it. The Kred who had gone hunting couldn't miss that, and Khan knew that they would hurry back to the cave to punish the culprits behind that horrendous act.

Khan didn't do much after the fire began to spread on its own. He sat near the cave and entered the meditative state to relieve his muscles of the stress accumulated during the battle.

He felt beyond exhausted. Khan had been awake for almost three days and had endured the blows of a first-level warrior. His insides hurt, his feet were sore, and his eyes begged him to sleep, but he didn't relax just yet.

The Global Army might arrive after the Kred, which would force the recruits to fight again. Khan couldn't allow himself to rest before such a significant event.

Anxiety built among the recruits as the minutes passed. The noise caused by the falling rain and the crackling of the fire filled their ears and prevented them from concentrating.

The recruits were basically warning the Kred about their successful rescue mission, but everyone knew that Khan's plan was their last real hope to leave the planet. Still, they couldn't help but shake as worries and fears built inside them.

The Kred had captured many of those recruits right after the crash. Those who had managed to put up a fight were too injured or inexperienced to achieve any result. They had no confidence in their ability, but a deadly battle was approaching, and they had to make the best out of that time.

A loud noise suddenly resounded while the group stared at the fire, meditated, or conversed to disperse the pressure that had filled their minds. The event startled them and even awakened Khan from his meditation, but the latter didn't move when he sensed that the sounds came from under him.

Slight tremors ran through the ground. The recruits quickly understood that Lieutenant Sehlolo was trying to escape the cave and prepared for the imminent battle, but confused expressions appeared on their faces when they saw that Khan remained in his spot.

Khan had faced the first-level warrior Kred and had sparred with Lieutenant Dyester for months. He knew how dangerous empowered soldiers could be, and Lieutenant Sehlolo was even a mage.

The chances of the group to defeat Lieutenant Sehlolo were non-existent. The situation wouldn't change even if all the recruits were at their peak condition and didn't have fears hindering their movements. Their opponent was a second-level warrior and a first-level mage. Only death waited for them if the soldier decided to kill them.

The entrance of the cave exploded and sent rocks and debris forward. Lieutenant Sehlolo's tall figure came out of the new opening before jumping next to Khan in an instant.

Her mouth opened when she looked at the massive fire raging through the forest. She appeared in pain at the sight of the burning trees, and blood even flowed out of her palms when she tightened her grasp.

"Your species has a good nose," Khan exclaimed without turning toward the Kred.

His eyes remained on the fire. He was too tired to pretend or beg for his life. The mental barrier kept out his unreasonable feelings and made the cold and cynical part of his mind accept his death.

"It wasn't the smell," Lieutenant Sehlolo revealed while gritting her teeth. "I heard the ground screaming in pain."

The Lieutenant was experiencing an internal battle, and her expression allowed the recruits to keep track of her predominant feelings. Flares of anger would often appear in her eyes, but a helpless sadness always suppressed it.

"I hope this works as a beacon," Khan sighed.

"I could still gain the Kred's favor if I killed all of you," Lieutenant Sehlolo threatened at the sight of Khan's uncaring attitude.

Humans couldn't understand Istrone's pain. They couldn't hear its screams and desperate requests. They didn't feel anything in front of the fire, and Khan embodied that feature in his current state.

Lieutenant Sehlolo couldn't help but feel hatred toward him and the recruits around her. Part of her wanted to go wild and kill everyone. However, her rational side knew how pointless that action would be.

Those recruits weren't guilty of anything. They had simply reacted to the rebellion. Burning the trees was a last desperate attempt to save themselves from a hatred that didn't belong to them.

"Can you promise me something?" Lieutenant Sehlolo suddenly asked as resolve overcame her sadness.

"Depends," Khan vaguely replied.

"Don't tell the Global Army about my involvement," Lieutenant Sehlolo announced. "I'll hold back the Kred if you promise me to remain silent."

The recruits couldn't hear Lieutenant Sehlolo from their position, and they didn't dare to get closer to the alien. They limited themselves to inspect the scene from behind the heavy rain and hope that Khan could handle the situation.

"Do you fear for your faction?" Khan asked after he thought about the reasons behind that request.

The Global Army would definitely retaliate against the Kred, and the culprits behind the rebellion would suffer a grim fate. Lieutenant Sehlolo wanted to save the wolf-like aliens from that.

"I do," Lieutenant Sehlolo revealed.

"Were they involved in the rebellion?" Khan asked.

Lieutenant Sehlolo replied after hesitating for a few seconds, "Some of them."

Khan fell silent and didn't let any of his thoughts affect his expression. Lieutenant Sehlolo often glanced at his cold eyes, but she didn't manage to understand what was going on in his mind.

"Fine," Khan eventually exclaimed. "Protect us, and I'll tell everyone that you had nothing to do with the rebellion."

Lieutenant Sehlolo glanced at the various recruits staring at her in fear. She didn't know if Khan could make all of them remain silent, especially after they experienced such a traumatic experience. Yet, she had to help her faction, even if that meant placing her hopes in a bunch of kids.

The Kred didn't say anything else. She placed a hand on the ground and closed her eyes before moving toward a side of the jungle. Everyone inspected her actions, but no one dared to stop her.

George walked toward Khan once Lieutenant Sehlolo stopped in front of the jungle's edges. His confused gaze clearly expressed his desire to understand what had happened during that interaction, but Khan shook his head before closing his eyes again.

Time flowed, and tall figures eventually appeared among the trees in front of Lieutenant Sehlolo. Angry Kred jumped out of the thick vegetation and set their bloodthirsty eyes on the various recruits.

Khan could sense that some of them had the same amount of mana as his previous opponent. That group of aliens featured multiple first-level warriors, but none of them dared to advance with Lieutenant Sehlolo on their path.

Roars and other animal cries resounded among the group of aliens. Lieutenant Sehlolo and the other Kred discussed in a language that the recruits couldn't understand even if they got closer to them. Their anxiety inevitably intensified at that scene, but all of them knew that they were powerless.

One of the Kred suddenly roared in anger and shot forward. The alien tried to run past Lieutenant Sehlolo and reach one of the recruits, but the soldier appeared on its path in an instant and pushed it back into the forest with a mere wave of her hand.

The Kred showed ugly expressions at that sight. Lieutenant Sehlolo's actions had proven her determination to the group, and the aliens couldn't help but hesitate.

Lieutenant Sehlolo was too strong, but there were many of them. They could reach some of the recruits if they charged at them together. A single soldier couldn't stop all of them.

Yet, the loud noise released by a series of engines suddenly pierced the rain and crackling fire. Everyone looked toward the sky at that point, and broad smiles appeared on the recruits when they noticed a few spaceships descending toward their position.

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