"Hey Aléssio ! What's with your sudden silence ?" Sheng Yue shouted, shaking my shoulders and lightly slapping my face,
"You can get fired for dozing off you know !"
I weakly push her aside,
"What...? How are you still alive ? I thought you were dead..."
Sheng Yue raised an eyebrow,
"Seriously ? What's gotten into you ? I'm still alive, dumb dumb !" She crossed her arm,
"I think you need to take a rest instea—"
I cut her off,
"What time is it ?"
She checked her LED watch before replying,
"10:30. Why ?" She studied my face, frowning,
"And what's with your short replies ? Before you hit me with your 'I always talk like this' excuse, I know that you're quiet, but not this quiet. This feels off..."
I froze
10:30 ?
My mind raced with flooding thoughts, Did I just time traveled 5 minutes back in time ? That wasn't logically... possible. And yet... it happened. How could something so small, just a small ChronoLume, reverse time ?
Sheng Yue sighed and slapped the back of my head,
"You know what ? Forget it."
She glanced around,
"By the way, didn't the AI voice said our next journey was a tour right ? Then why are we suddenly being told to retrieve a fla—"
I noticed the mark and shoved her aside,
"There are ambushers around ! Watch your surroundings ! Inform the others !"
I sprinted into the spaceship, heading straight for the micro-armory section. My hands moved on instinct as I grabbed two energy pistols and rushed back toward Sheng Yue.
Suddenly someone dropped from the vents.
I fired without hesitation, hitting his leg and sending him crashing to the floor. He didn't screamed, but before I could react, he vanished into thin air.
Then he appeared again, right in front of me. More of him emerged, identical figures blocking every path of escape.
Sheng Yue stepped in and shot one cleanly through the torso. The figure collapsed and didn't get back up.
She exhaled sharply and smirked,
"You're lucky I bought one for myself. Anyways, I already informed the others using the drone from our oldie captain. How bout we chillax and wait for the—"
Shin Hayato bursted in,
"What happened ? Did anyone got hurt ?"
I pointed to the immobilize body,
"He's not dead, just unconscious. I think we should stay inside for today, who knows how many more of them are outside."
Shin Hayato nodded grimmly. He dragged the intuder to the briefing nook and secured him to a chair with reinforced restrains. The room fell silent as we waited for the intruder to wake up.
◇ ◇ ◇
As the intruder finally woke up, we stared at him dead in the eyes. He tried to scream and sturggle free, but failed. Cassandra pressed her vibro-dagger close to his neck. Sheng Yue guided Arlo away with the excuse of, "He's too young."
Shin Hayato crossed his arms,
"State your purpose for coming here and interrupting us."
The intruder laughed at him,
"Cowards ! You're late ! Too late ! No matter what you do, you won't be able to wi—"
Cassandra slapped him hard across his face. Shin Hayato snickered befote returning to his usual calm, serious expression. The intruder continued laughing like a lunatic, then began coughing blood under the pressure of the vibro-dagger.
He suddenly shouted,
"You fools ! Once my team retrieve your flag, we'll burn it to ashes ! And no matter what you do, you've got nothing to stop us !"
A loud crash of a plate echoed behind us. When we turned to the doorway, Sheng Yue stood there, her mouth wide open as if she had just heard something that could cost her life.
Sheng Yue stormed forward, grabbed the intruder by the collar, and yanked him toward her. She planted her boot between his leg, pinning the chair in place so he couldn't rock backward.
Raising her hand, she threatened him while hurling rapid-fire Chinese insult,
"Do you know this program is literally my reason to live, my hope of life ! 你的脑子在哪儿啊 !? 操你妈 ! (Ni de nao zi zai nar a !? Cao ni ma !)"
Every attempt the intruder made to speak was drowned out by Sheng Yue's relentless ranting. Shin Hayato snickered, then removed the restraints and forced the intruder to stand.
The intruder stumbled and groaned before leading us to the hangar bay, where we all boarded the TerraRider.
◇ ◇ ◇
During our journey to find the flag under the guidance of the intruder, I couldn't help but admired the TerraRider. It was a rugged six-wheeled vehicle built for Earth's extreme terrain. Its angular white-and-gray chassis was reinforced with heavy plating, external cargo racks, and mounted equipment along the roof and sides.
The open cabin design allowed quick entry and exit. Overall, it resembled a hybrid between a military transport and an exploration rover, engineered to survive harsh environments and sudden ambushes.
Sheng Yue suddenly nudged me and smirk,
"Enjoying the view of the vehicle ? Guess what, I made it with my hands and heart."
She pointed to herself using her thumb and struk a smug pose, even though all of us knew it was built by someone else. I sighed and shook my head.
As I leaned back against the chair a sudden gunshot rang out. I immediately look outside and saw a group of people riding Noctryix, mechanized predators shaped like panthers, hunting with silent and brutal efficiency. The intruder suddenly leapt up and jumped onto one of the Noctryix, laughing like a lunatic.
He shouted,
"Good luck losers !"
One of the Noctryix leapt to our TerraRider and began tearing the roof, its metal jaws ripping into the plating as gunfire rained down around us. Another Noctryix raised its tail and fired a metal pin straight into one of the wheels, causing the TerraRider to spin out of control.
With no other option left... I pressed the 'Reset' button on the ChronoLume once again.