Chương 15: THE KUN PENG SPREADS ITS WINGS
"Are you crazy?" yelled Sean. Using their "true forms" in the selection course will be an automatic disqualification due to the massive surge in cosmic energy that enhances the physique of Sellardraxians to perverted levels, not to mention that a Sellardraxian in his or her "true form" is essentially a beast on rampage and losing most of their rational behaviour.
Louis ignored his protest, his human features completely gone now as his body morphed into the shape of a monstrosity matching that of a giant humpback whale of 40m long, with 2m long spikes and 6 long tentacles, each 3-5m long, spreading out and swatting away the bull sharks around them.
A huge tail the size of a small tank came crashing down on the water surface, sending up a huge wave that can be seen from 50m radius. Louis spread his fins out, each 4m long, leaping out of the water, temporarily gliding through the air.
The Lita subspecies are always treated with fear by humanity due to the code name of "Leviathan" sounding evil and horrifying. However, seeing the majesty of Louis soaring after leaping out of the water, a Chinese phrase suggesting auspiciousness and a bright future came to Albert's mind:
"The Kun Peng spreads its wings."
The Kun Peng is a mythical beast in Chinese mythology, characterized as a giant fish with bird features.
Louis smashed back into the water, sending huge splashes and shockwaves all over, Sean and the remaining cadets immediately hold on tightly to each other, ensuring that the wave do not sweep them away.
Jets of water erupted around Louis like geysers, creating a barricade around Louis and the cadets, separating the bull sharks away from them.
A loud, deep roar is then emitted from Louis in regular bursts, acting like a whale song of some sort, though evidently that is not a whale song, as the bull sharks around them started dispersing, as if receiving a warning from a force beyond their power and comprehension.
Once the bull sharks are chased away, Louis reverted to his humanoid form, the cadets then all swam forward at full speed, arriving at the island just within 15 minutes.
(5 minutes later)
Louis stood in front of Bryan and Nanami, in a new set of uniform now, facing them straight in the eyes. Sean, Eddie, Albert, Vera and Ariel looked away in guilt, knowing that Louis violated the rules of the course for their sake.
"Explain yourself," said Bryan sternly.
"Sir! We had a collision with a whale shark during our swim! Some of my comrades had opened wounds and bled, which attracted bull sharks over. We tried to fend them off with conventional means, but it did not work, so in desperation I transformed to chase them away."
"Do you have any idea what is the consequence?" asked Bryan.
Louis nodded.
"Then?" asked Bryan.
Louis looked firmly at him. "All I cared was that my comrades can get away to safety, I did not worry for one second what I may face as a result."
"Do you regret?" asked Bryan.
Louis turned to his comrades, and then firmly replied. "I don't!"
He yanked off his number plates and handed them to Bryan. "If I got washed out, I can always try again next year, but if something had happened to one of them, I will never be able to correct it!"
Sean bit his lips hearing Louis' words. He feels fortunate that Louis in the end did not have to face such a tragedy, unlike him.
"You're really naïve…" joked Nanami at Louis. "Do you think your comrades will sacrifice their chances for you?"
Louis laughed along. "My parents often say that."
"As for your question ma'am, all I know is that I need to be a soldier my comrades can entrust their backs to."
"But sometimes," said Bryan, pasting the number plates back onto Louis. "It's the naïve ones who reach the finishing line."
Louis is shocked. "Sir…I…" he stammered.
"Down! 100 push ups!" yelled Bryan in a grin.
"Yes sir!" smiled Louis, giving a salute and starting his push ups.
Sean and the rest are relived, putting down their worries.
"Alright!" yelled Bryan. "Next segment: VBSS and maritime operations! Go back to your teams of 9, mission brief coming up in 10 minutes."
(20 minutes later)
Sean and his team stared at a scale model of a yacht. The scenario that they are given is that a yacht is taken hostage just now by pirates in international waters. Their mission is to board and control the vessel within 10 minutes, rescue all hostages and wipe out the pirates. Any hostage or team member killed will be deemed a failure.
"Hostages are being kept in the bridge as meat shields, to ensure that no one tries to breach and regain control of the ship," reported Ariel, pointing to the bridge.
"What assets can we deploy?" asked Louis.
"One assault motorboat and one helicopter," replied Clara.
"Well then its simple, Albert and I provide sniper fire, while the rest of you insert in by helicopter on the helipad here," said Vera.
Karl rolled his eyes. "Are you stupid or something? Do you think the "pirates" are deaf? The helicopter is gonna be heard before they can even SEE us, and the next thing you know, the hostages are smoked, we fail the mission, and we go back to cry in our mommies and daddies' hugs, be the butt end of the jokes at the Tier 2 units, and someone here will retire a second time—"
"— then what's your plan?" asked Vera, cutting him off.
Karl confidently pointed to the model. "Albert and Vera take sniper positions on the helicopter, fly far away first, then swoop in and provide sniper fire once we begin our simultaneous assault on the bridge."
"The rest of us will take the motorboat and attack from the rear, once we are in swimming distance cut the engines, we will move forward using inertia and paddles. Before that, Louis and Eddie will take point, swimming forward first and boarding the vessel, their job is to clear the rear of any hostiles and form a perimeter to allow the rest of us to board. Once that's done, we storm the bridge, stop the ship and show these scums who's boss."
Sean stayed silent, thinking of the condition given to them by the instructors.
"Within 10 minutes, why?" he thought. He looked at the trajectory map of the ship. Suddenly he realised something, immediately grabbing a pencil and calculator from the table, scribbling away on the map, puzzling the rest.
"See," said Sean, showing them the result of the calculation. "From now till mission start is approximately half an hour, travelling from the start point to the ship's estimated location based on this trajectory then will take roughly around 10 minutes be it either by boat or helicopter."
"Now, if we were to assume that the ship still travels at its current speed, then extrapolate 10 minutes from when we board," continued Sean, drawing a line on the map.
"The ship will have," he said, stopping the line.
"Entered Malaysian waters."
"Remember, the reason why UNSSD is striking in this simulation is because the ship is in international waters, the moment the ship enters the waters of a sovereign country UNSSD has no more jurisdiction in principle without a host nation approval, hence mission failure," he finished.
"Ok, but how does that change things? We just need to be quick," said Clara.
Sean pointed at the yacht model "The instructors did not make a comment about destroying the equipment on the ship, right?"
"My suggestion is, send a team of 2 or 3 to the engine room. In the event of a mishap, like if we cannot control the bridge in time, we can stop the ship by destroying the power supply."
Karl folded his arms. "You want to split us up? Aren't you making things harder?"
Sean shook his head. "It won't be. The bridge is small, 4 men is enough, considering the usual antics of the instructors it's advisable to have a plan B."
Karl laughed condescendingly. "The whole point of Special Operations is to strike the enemy asymmetrically with every asset we have at out disposal, and here you are decreasing the force of striking?"
"Well, I think—" said Sean, only to be interrupted by Karl.
"We don't have time to waste to feed up your pathetic ego as a failed ex-Tier 1," retorted Karl.
"What?" exclaimed Sean, angered. "So, we're doing personal attacks now?"
The 2 bickered back and forth, their speeches fusing into an incoherent mess, speaking in their own tempos.
"Bullsh*t!" finished Karl. Having had enough, Ariel yelled at them to stop.
"I support Sean's plan," she said, raising her hand.
Seeing her actions, Louis, Albert, Vera, followed her lead, raising their hands.
"5 against 4," said Ariel. "That settles it."
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