Age of Cosmic Exploration

Ren Tao’s plan was, to say the least, insane, but it was the only hope the troopers had left. The troopers had conflicted feelings about his plan. On the one hand, they wished to know the latest information about the Hope, but on the other, they were afraid to find out. If not for their impressive constitution, they would have ended up languishing in despair.

There were two keys to pulling off Ren Tao’s plan. One of was the troopers’ combat strength. After the enemy troops fell into the trap, could the troopers be fast enough to wipe out an alien siege engine troop?

If not, the fate that awaited the troopers would be death...

The second key was if the alien merchants really surrendered, would it be like how Ren Tao predicted, there would be deserters due to a lack of military discipline? If not, even if they managed to stop and overtake a siege unit, the result would be more deaths. The whole effort would be pointless.

If there was anything wrong with any of the two key points, the plan would fall apart.

Ren Tao and Xiao Niao had an emergency meeting to discuss these issues, and their conclusion was... It had to be done!

The first issue was practically a non-issue. If the Hope was already destroyed and the entire human race was wiped out, the only resolution for this straggling group of people would either be suicide or fight to the death. There was no way they would be willing to survive to be used as lab rats by the alien merchants. Therefore, this was a risk that they had to take to know about the latest situation on the Hope.

The more troubling was the second issue, whether the alien merchants would surrender when cornered...

"I need further confirmation."

By then, Ren Tao had more or less returned to his usual self. However, the group could see that his calm façade was only a front to contain his inner craziness. In fact, the current Ren Tao was more dangerous than usual because like an active volcano, he could blow up anytime, and the more he kept his emotions in, the greater the impact when he eventually exploded.

However, the calm façade was still useful because at least he could use his Thinker power. He turned to the Black Star Unit to ask, "Who among you is the interrogator? Don’t deny that there is one! You people are from a special unit task force, one that I’ve not even heard about before, but from my observations, one of the best. Therefore, there is no reason for you guys to not know interrogation or torture skills. I just want to find out what kind of torture you guys are familiar with. Or is the interrogator of the Black Star Unit not here?"

Ying and the guys looked at each other with a knowing look before all turning to Liu Bai.

Liu Bai shrugged with his hands open to his side. "Fine, you caught me. I am the interrogator in this unit... but only because they say the one most familiar with human anatomy has to be interrogator, I don’t personally agree with that sentiment since I know a few psychologists that are better than me at interrogation, but either way, I’m sure I can handle a few alien interrogations if that’s what you’re going for."

Ren Tao clapped his hands and said, "Then that’s the plan. Even if the space merchants don’t surrender, we can use mental tactics since they’re a multi-racial unit. Divide and conquer; after we capture them, we split the enemies according to race. We pick one of the random races for interrogation, torture the few of them until they die, and then we let go of the rest. The other races will sweat and then a few of them will most likely surrender. Easy, right?"

Before Ying and the group could understand what he meant, Liu Bai nodded. "You’re right. This idea is even better than interrogating them individually. Because since they are from different races, there will be natural precaution against each other. Releasing one or two from one particular race is going to create a cleft between their trust, and that will make things a lot easier. Alright, leave it to me."

With this out of the way, the rest was a cakewalk. Ying, Ebon and Liu Bai were combat experts. After all, they were from the Black Star Unit. It would be laughable if the special ops weren’t good at battle.

With Zhang Heng’s danger detection as guidance, Ying’s group set up a simple trap with expedience. The troop was separated into two. Zhang Heng would lead a group that would act as the bait, while Ying led another that would pounce on the enemy. 10 minutes of high-speed scouting later, they found the perfect spot to lay their trap.

The contact was fierce and furious. Due to the isolated location and the trooper’s deliberate sabotage of the corridors, the carrier point they assaulted had only 200 soldiers, and they had difficulty getting backup quickly. As Ying predicted, this was a heavy machinery unit.

The unit consisted of a few siege engines. One of them was a spherical vehicle with caterpillar tracks; it looked just like an evolved tank. Instead of mobility, the tracks were used more for balance in zero-gravity space since the space merchants didn’t have access to anti-gravity technology yet.

The tank was large in size; based on a rudimentary gauge, it could fit about 20 soldiers. There were four of them there.

Other than that, there was a 2-person controlled motorcycle-esque floating vehicle. It had incredible speed and was very mobile. There were about 40 of them floating 3 meters off the ground. At the top of each one was a large, heavy weapon, its power unknown.

Next was a composite-looking vehicle with many legs. This was the most high-tech siege engine Ying’s group had come across so far.

The way to control this machine was a complete unknown. It was made up of multiple transparent cabins, and each cabin housed a big=brained alien. The outer walls of the cabins were laced with conspicuous gun barrels, and each of the cabins was linked together via a long, metallic, reel chain. The reel chain was moving without a specific pattern. In other words, all the transparent cabins tied to the chain were moving and evading without a specific pattern either. Sometimes, the chain would materialize into two metallic legs to support its total weight, but other times, the chain would shift and materialize into three, four, five, or six legs. And each time, the point of contact they made with the ground would be different. The whole contraption was bouncing irregularly all over the place, making aiming and shooting incredibly difficult.

There was only one such siege engine, and it was right in the middle of troop, acting as the general it would seem.

When this thing appeared, Ying, who was hiding in the aliens’ blind spot, activated his Seeker power and studyied their weakness while Zhang Heng’s bait group retreated to their pre-assigned spot. According to the plan, the unit would give chase to Zhang Heng. The rest of the ambush unit waited with bated breath for Ying to issue the order.

However, suddenly, bright globes of light appeared above the few cabins, and a visible riptide that practically tore through space started to ripple throughout the battlefield. Both Ying’s group that was in hiding and Zhang Heng’s group that was retreated were caught in its snare.

At that moment, everyone felt their brains surfeited with thousands of cries from unknown origins. The sounds crashed on top of each other, and it was so strong that some of them started to see illusions of swirling colors and pictures in the air. The few business experts that had just revived started screeching and scratching at their heads crazily like they were trying to pull their heads out with the space helmets.

Compared to them, the space troopers fared better, but they weren’t exactly unaffected. They felt the echoes materializing in their brains into ants crawling and burrowing into it. Itchiness, pain, lethargy, hunger, all sorts of sensation assaulted their body. The Black Star Unit gritted their teeth in response to the assault, but the rest had started screaming, a few steps away from going insane like the group of business experts.

This was a... mind-break attack?!

Or more possibly, electromagnetic waves that could directly target mankind’s brain.

Ying gnashed his teeth in fury until they were bloodied. He knew this was the end for them. Being captured was only a matter of time. Instead of being kept as test subjects, suicide was a more honorable choice...

They truly had underestimated the space merchants. After all, their opponent had lasted so long in space, of course they wouldn’t be that weak. When they mounted a counter-attack, mankind was defenseless...

As Ying, Ebon and Liu Bai pulled out their weapons to give their team mates and then themselves a more dignified ending, their eyes unconsciously swept to fall on two people that were standing there unaffected!

They were Ren Tao and Xiao Niao. However, they looked different from usual. Their brains were working in high gear from the activation of their Thinker power, so the only thing they were heariong around them was silence...

Several seconds later, the weird-looking siege engine started to gyrate uncontrollably, and the big-brained aliens driving the cabin were screaming in anguish. Their brains started popping one after another. Not only them, the aliens close to this siege engine started rolling on the ground and screaming before their heads also burst like balloons...

One second later, the screams in the troopers’ minds suddenly stopped. It was as if everything that had happened was an illusion. Other than the few that had fainted, at least 10 people stood up with confused looks in their eyes.

Ying didn’t hesitate to give his orders. Brandishing his sawblade, he yelled, "Charge! Give them hell!"

At the same time, Ren Tao and Xiao Niao looked at each other with a curious gleam in their eyes. Ren Tao whispered, "You heard the message in the soundwave attack, right?"

"Yes, I did. It was incomplete, but... it was definitely there," Xiao Niao replied, with a curious expression.

"This space merchant unit was..."

"Cheated by another human group! They were swindled by the human officials that left Earth before us!"