Chapter 153 The Kamikaze Suicide Squadron

Early the next morning, the members of the Polaris gathered at the academy gates and set off toward their destination.

After learning the general details of the mission yesterday, everyone felt rather surprised. They had never expected a Calamity-grade disaster to appear less than thirty kilometers away from Bancroft.

It was simply too close!

At this distance, although the disaster was technically outside Bancroft's immediate defensive perimeter, it could easily be perceived as a threat at any moment and targeted by a massive hunting party. Logically speaking, something that had managed to survive and grow to the Calamity grade shouldn't be so brainless!

However... disasters did not possess organs like brains.

When things go against the norm, Huo Ye and the others felt they had to take precautions.

Generally speaking, discovering a disaster required either a chance encounter by a patrolling hunting party or the appearance of victims.

This time, it was the latter.

The incident occurred in a mine, where large-scale extraction took place year-round. Although it was a fully automated mechanized operation to prevent casualties among staff within the Blightlands, the disaster struck precisely when a group of technicians responsible for maintaining the mining machinery went in for routine maintenance.

Twenty-one people died, including fifteen hunting party members escorting the technicians. For a single disaster attack, the losses could be considered devastating.

According to the final transmission sent back by the last surviving hunting party member before death, the opponent was of the Calamity grade. The number branded on its body was XII, belonging to the Twelfth Calamity, Charlotte the Phoenix, a disaster that was virtually impossible to kill.

By a stroke of extreme luck, the disaster had been cornered inside the mine by members of the Kamikaze Hunting Party who arrived in a timely manner. When they reported the situation and prepared to ask for orders on when to launch an attack, the commander, Lin Zhengfeng, gave the order to transfer the mission to Bancroft.

Consequently, twenty members of the Kamikaze Hunting Party remained on standby at the scene, ready to launch a concentrated assault and force the disaster back into the mine the moment it showed its head.

Today was the third day the disaster had been trapped. With only a single exit, guarding the mine was a relatively easy task.

At lunchtime, a group of soldiers ate from a large communal pot, dipping their chopsticks straight into the broth. Since there weren't many people around, they abandoned their usual manners and ate directly from the pot.

Meals were eaten in shifts; while one group ate, the other had to keep their eyes glued to the cave entrance without blinking. Even the group eating sat facing the cave entrance, able to clearly see the situation inside the cave with a single glance upward.

"I say... *chew, chew*... don't you guys feel like we're getting the short end of the stick?" Among the group eating, one man spoke abruptly with food still in his mouth. He was a sharp-faced, monkey-cheeked male with a slender build, prominent cheekbones, and a pair of rat-like eyes that darted around incessantly. A pair of small mustaches sat on his upper lip, giving him a look that made people instinctively want to slap him.

"What short end? What are you talking about?" another soldier with a remarkably honest and simple-minded appearance asked, looking confused.

"Why, the mission inside, of course! Think about it, that's a Calamity grade, a Calamity-grade! If we take that thing down, how massive would the contribution be? The reward money the higher-ups hand down, if changed into coins, would be enough to crush an elephant to death!"

"What kind of messy metaphor is that? It's as terrible as the butter pancakes my mom makes!" another soldier joked.

"You're not doing any better yourself!" the sharp-faced man snapped back.

He then instinctively glanced around cautiously. There was nobody else eavesdropping; these were all brothers from the same squad, and his words were meant for their ears anyway.

Therefore, he didn't bother lowering his voice as he said, "My point is, why don't we just go in there and take care of that Calamity-grade..." As he spoke, he made a throat-slitting gesture with his hand in front of him.

The dozen or so people eating understood his meaning immediately. However, at that moment, a soldier with a noticeably green and youthful face spoke up, "Is that a good idea? Weren't we ordered to hold this position and wait for the Bancroft students who are coming to take over?"

The sharp-faced man smiled with clear disdain, then pointed his chopsticks arrogantly at the young rookie and said, "Little Liu, you're a new recruit, so you don't understand. A Calamity-grade threat like this is something only a major hunting party like Kamikaze can eliminate without casualties.

"If you wait for those wet-behind-the-ears brats from Bancroft to go up there, isn't that just sending them to their deaths?

"Besides, I've already received some news. Hey, do you guys know who Bancroft sent to take on this mission?"

"Hey, stop keeping us in suspense, who is it? Spill it!" the honest-looking man urged.

The sharp-faced man let out a scornful laugh and said, "Hah, the young commander of the Reaper Hunting Party, Huo Ye!"

"What?!"

"It's that little bastard?!"

"Those motherfucking Reaper guys, since when do they have the nerve to take on our Kamikaze's mission?"

As soon as the sharp-faced man dropped those words, a torrent of curses erupted around the dining table. Lin Zhengfeng's jealousy toward Eddie had imperceptibly influenced the entire Kamikaze faction, gradually breeding an atmosphere where anyone belonging to Kamikaze felt compelled to look down on and despise the Reaper.

This directly resulted in a peculiar phenomenon: although Reaper and Kamikaze were two of the premier hunting parties in the Solar Colony, they had never engaged in any formal cooperation.

As for cooperation, Reaper's soldiers had their own pride as well. Being part of humanity's foremost hunting party naturally carried a sense of glory and distinction.

According to statistics, more than half of the top ten graduates from Bancroft, humanity's premier academy, entered the Reaper Hunting Party every single generation. It could be said that even the fresh recruits there were the pampered darlings of the heavens.

So if Kamikaze looked down on Reaper, how could Reaper possibly think highly of Kamikaze?

The sharp-faced man seized the moment to fan the flames. "That's why I say, we might as well just eliminate the disaster inside before that Huo Ye and his people even arrive. Then the achievement and the glory will be ours!"

The rookie named Liu retorted, "But... wouldn't that be violating our orders? Our orders were to..."

"Orders are dead things!" Right at that moment, another man who had remained silent the entire time suddenly interrupted the rookie. "When the time comes, we just report that the disaster attempted to break through and suddenly turned violent, leaving us with no choice but to surround and kill it. We claim the credit fair and square, and no one can pick holes in our story! Besides, since only we are here, who's going to know?"

This man was a famously taciturn fellow in the squad, speaking so rarely that people almost thought he was mute. But clearly, even he had been swayed by the sharp-faced man's instigation to steal the glory.

Another soldier chimed in, "That's right! Instead of letting those Reaper brats risk their lives and potentially throw them away—only for the Black Reaper to blame us—we might as well secure the credit ourselves. After all, this was our mission to begin with."

"Yeah, I agree!"

"No doubt about it, I'm with you."

...

Before they knew it, not just the people sitting around the table, but even those originally on guard duty had gathered around to join the excitement. Then... everyone turned to look at the squad leader, who had been sitting quietly with his bowl and chopsticks the whole time, eating silently.

The rookie pinned his final hope on the squad leader, trying to dissuade him: "Squad Leader, it's too dangerous... We..."

"Little Liu, I know you want to look after your junior schoolmates since you're an alumnus of the academy, but a mission of this tier isn't something students can handle.

"Though I don't know why the commander assigned this mission to Bancroft... everyone is right. If the son of the Black Reaper dies here, the entire Kamikaze might have to bear the wrath of the Black Reaper."

The squad leader's steady voice rang out. His talk of looking after junior students was merely a way to give the rookie a graceful way out; in his eyes, the rookie was merely cowed by facing a Calamity-grade threat on his very first mission.

The rookie refused to give up, making one final effort: "But..."

"Enough... If you really don't want to go, just stay here and stand guard," the squad leader said, setting down his bowl and chopsticks before wiping his mouth. He turned to the soldiers on guard duty and ordered, "Hurry up and finish eating. Once you're full, take an hour to regroup, and then... enter the mine to exterminate the disaster!"

Helplessly, the rookie followed his comrades into the mine. Standing at the entrance, he turned back to glance at the blazing noon sun. The sunlight was blinding, while inside the mine lay only darkness and peril—and this was his very first time facing a Calamity-grade threat.

Everyone else here was a veteran seasoned by countless battles, but what about himself? This would most likely be the last time he ever felt the warmth of the sun! Still... once you choose to become a soldier, you can never afford to retreat. Because standing right behind them were the people they, as soldiers, were duty-bound to protect!