Transcendent Gene
Chapter 61: First Mission [3]

Chapter 61: First Mission [3]

The zephyr’s operation center was designed in accordance to the military’s standards.

It had two doors on the right and left sides of the front and back walls, each reinforced and equipped with the proper safety measures to ensure the room couldn’t be breached easily.

Other than those four doors, all other open space on all four walls was in use.

There were three rows of holographic monitors that lined the entire wall. They were sectioned off in groups of nine that surrounded stations which were basically desks containing anything the operators using them needed.

The central portion of the room was mostly open. There was a main terminal in the absolute center that was made for a single person to stand in. It was a platform slightly elevated off the floor surrounded by railing.

There was a podium in that terminal that could be used to even take control of the zephyr if one had the right codes, but for Gio, it was nothing more than a place to put his things.

There were tables on all four sides of him that held various documents and items, but he didn’t pay them any mind.

Gio only grabbed the earpiece sitting on the podium and equipped it.

"Check, check..."

He tapped the earpiece once before speaking. His words were transmitted into many ears, but he only received one response.

"We can hear you loud and clear."

The voice belonged to Raymond.

"Since you’ve put the headset on, does that mean you’re ready for the briefing?"

"Negative," Gio responded.

"I was just testing equipment first. I still need to take a moment to speak to the operators, and, well..."

Gio flicked his eyes to the documents around him.

"Do we need to do a briefing when you prepared all of this?"

He thought they were unrelated to him at first, but when he was randomly glancing around the room while listening to Raymond’s response, he happened to take note of a few of those documents.

All of the papers in Gio’s general vicinity were related to various beasts in the Wilds. Considering that papers like these would be useless to anyone else on the ship, it was obvious why they’d been placed at the podium.

"Were you this confident I’d take your gamble?"

"I was. We might not know each other well, but I’ve met people like you before."

Gio shook his head wryly.

"Well, give me a few moments and I’ll get back to you with final confirmations. Are you guys on the ground already?"

"We’ve left the zephyr, but we’re following close behind in twinjets. While you’re getting situated, I’ll explain the basic abilities of our members, so keep an ear on my words."

"Understood."

Gio didn’t know how Raymond got them to accept this mock subjugation, but nobody else on the team was interjecting anymore.

He didn’t know what had happened in the five minutes since they separated, but it proved that either Raymond was very trusted by his subordinates...

’...or he’s a lot scarier than I thought.’

Gio took his mind off the squad’s captain for a moment and returned it to his words instead.

’This team’s abilities have been interesting thus far. I’m excited to see what the rest are working with.’

Natalia’s darkness, Jason’s strength and lightning, Ulver’s mental manipulation...

What abilities complimented these?

"Jax is fast and barely perceptible. He’s good at striking weak points and landing kill strikes, but the amount of damage he can do isn’t as high–"

"Gio! My main Sequence is almost a spatial ability, so remember that. I’m as fast as Natalia, but I’d say I can move even better than she can."

Jax cut into the explanation with his own little excerpt, but it wasn’t unwelcomed.

’He plays a similar role to Jason or Natalia depending on circumstances, but they’re versatile in completely different ways.’

They had enough similarities to cover each other if necessary, but enough differences to not become redundancies. It was quite a good team layout thus far.

"Amaya has the ability to channel beasts. She can use a portion of the power of any beast she’s personally killed and absorbed," Raymond continued.

"How many beasts is that?" Gio asked immediately.

"Amaya?"

Raymond didn’t answer himself and instead allowed her the chance to brag a little.

"Yo! It’s our first time talking, so I won’t say too much, but if you can see more than two of them on one trip to the Wilds, I’ve probably killed one. Go wild with your suggestions if you have any. I’m always excited to see what you operators can come up with."

"Are monsters included?"

"Through a different Sequence, but not to anywhere near the same level. Focus on beasts if you can."

"Roger."

She spoke like she had a grin on her face the whole time. The tone she used was even more casual than Jax’s as if her words were meant to calm people down and relax them.

Gio ignored that effect and only noted her words.

’A power to channel the power of beasts?’

It would certainly be fun to play with.

As for the last member...

"Mirei is a bit of a...special case. I’ll say it as simply as possible, so don’t dig further for now. Mirei has a double-sided Original Gene," Raymond started.

"I call the first side ’Creation.’ When that side is active, she has the ability to transmute material things and control them. As for the other side...I call it ’Erasure.’ She’s in that mode right now, so consider her unusable. If you hear her say your name at any point, know that her Sequence flipped."

Gio didn’t quite get it, but it was something like a split personality, right?

’I guess it makes sense. She didn’t seem like an airhead when we first met. If that so-called Erasure ability also messes with her brain or her personality, it would explain what I was confused about earlier.’

As he listened to Raymond’s explanation, he looked through the sheets of paper around him. As he learned the abilities of the group, he got a better picture of what kind of battle they would be most suited for.

"I get the abilities of your subordinates, but what about you? You’re also part of the ground team, so you must also have some abilities, right Ray– I guess I should call you Captain now..."

As he spoke, he separated a sheet of paper from the rest.

Raymond’s response came soon after.

"I control fire. Use me as a ranged dealer."

"We’ll see about that."

Even if he didn’t expand on his abilities, it was enough. Elemental control abilities were easier to understand than others.

Most were limited to a single skill. For instance, a Fireball Sequence would only be able to emit fireballs without controlling fire in any other form.

If Raymond was saying he could "control fire," then his ability must have had a scope similar to Natalia’s.

Gio didn’t need to know more than that.

He clapped his hands and looked around the room before tapping his earpiece to mute the microphone.

"Now, then!"

His words brought the eyes of the operators back to him.

"I’m sure you’ve all been informed of what’s going on here. I don’t have much to say to you all since none of you look like you want to hear my words. Just do your jobs like you usually do and communicate information to me properly."

His eyes met with theirs one by one.

"I don’t really get why you guys are hostile to me, but it doesn’t matter. We aren’t enemies, so just don’t treat me like one. There really isn’t anything else to be said."

Gio knew he wouldn’t be immediately accepted into the squad, but he didn’t want that in the first place.

All he really wanted was just a modicum of decency. The ground team had it. Even those who didn’t like him much still treated him neutrally at worst.

Yet, for some reason, the moment he walked into the operations center, he felt like he’d become a public enemy.

He didn’t care about why these people had grudges.

They just needed to make sure those grudges stayed their own business and didn’t interfere with him.

He didn’t say everything he wanted to, as if they weren’t going to keep their decency, then he had to be the one to do it. Nevertheless, the sharpness veiled in his seemingly friendly words didn’t go unnoticed.

His little monologue ended quickly and was followed by an array of "Hmph!" and "Tch!" sound effects. Still, the operators knew not to act out of line.

They didn’t have enough power on this ship to act wantonly without reason.

Shaking his head, Gio unmuted his microphone and spoke into the earpiece again.

"I’m ready. How’s everything for you?"

"We’re ready when you are," Raymond responded.

"Have you picked our target?"

Gio grinned as he pulled that sheet of paper towards himself.

"I have."

It would certainly be easiest to pick a beast or monster that was weak against their Sequences so he could quickly prove himself, but...

’...where’s the fun in that?’

"We’ll set course for Yhi Territory."

"Don’t tell me you..."

"That’s right."

The grin on Gio’s face only widened.

"If you didn’t want me to pick it, you should’ve never included it on the list."

Raymond knew exactly what beast Gio chose.

Or rather, which monster.

The Yhi Territory was ruled by a flying monster codenamed Yhia. It was far too strong for them to challenge, but Yhia was an active monster with several offspring.

Of them, there was one the monster was grooming almost the same way humans groomed successors.

"Yhien."

Roughly translated as "the First of Yhia," it was the name given to Yhia’s first child, and the name of the target the Blue Steel Squadron would be hunting today.

The entire ground team shared a thought about their future as they heard him speak.

If this was how Gio planned to start it, then whether they liked it or not, it was bound to be an exciting year.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.