Universal Power System

Commander Sable's tone was worrying which made Mako even more anxious about what the mission was as the commander wasn't one to ever show worry or concern on his face.

"In the aftermath of your last mission, we tried everything to get Victor to regain his memory as many things didn't quite add up." The commander explained.

"Firstly, the reason for Victor and his men to be clearing out the village using that illusion device to make shadows and scare away the locals away didn't make any sense."

Mako too was quite skeptical about Victor's motives, as it didn't really make much sense to use so many resources to clear out a simple village. By the time Mako and his friends had arrived on the scene, only the rich had evacuated as they could afford to do so while the others were still entrapped within the village with occasional hauntings from that device driving more of them away.

"After doing some thorough investigation, we learned that Victor was prepping to begin a mining operation underneath the village." The commander stated.

Mako's eyes opened wide as he learned about his real motive.

'This was the reason why their lair was in elaborate underground tunnels. They weren't just trying to rob the whole village, they were also mining to extract precious resources!' Mako thought to himself.

"The hotel manager of the hotel in which you stayed was an accomplice in the whole thing as he would be their eyes and inform them of anything suspicious such as... a group of strong kids that randomly showed up in the village one day for a quote-on-quote vacation," The commander stated.

Mako clenched his fists with anger as he heard that. He already had a bit of suspicion about the manager but he didn't think too much about him as he was too focused on his first mission.

'He would have likely told Victor that Erin, Bill, and Iris had left the hotel the next day without me and that was the prime time to ambush them while I was recovering back in the hotel room. Wait... then that means... HE WAS THE ONE THAT RIGGED MY ROOM TO EXPLODE!' Mako shouted in his mind full of anger and frustration.

All that anger, grief, regret, and frustration from the past few months resurfaced from Mako's body as he now realized his critical error. If he had been just a bit more cautious and decisive instead of openly trusting the manager, he could have completely changed the outcome, and maybe Iris would still be alive.

"DAMN IT!" Mako shouted at himself.

This had always been his downfall, his defeat. He was always too naive when it came to dealing with the world and its problems. In the end, he was still just a kid who had yet to mature and become an actual leader.

Mako clenched his fist tighter and was barely able to stop himself from crying. He knew that it was his fault, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He resumed the commander's video after composing himself as he knew that the commander had found something important which was why he was using it for his help, and he was determined to redeem himself.

"We discovered that this village was actually a very old military outpost during the time when the Yalhvi were still alive and that there were reserves of Pyronite still buried somewhere underneath the village. I believe that Victor was after that Pyronite."

"Pyronite is an extremely rare mineral on earth and before we had access to planetary travel, we used what little we had of it to power very strong machines that operated with mana; Pyronite is a naturally occurring mineral with special properties being able to extract and absorb mana from its surroundings." The commander explained.

"Nowadays, we can get Pyronite from other worlds through trading but it is still very valuable and a type of galactic currency."

'What did Victor want to do with the Pyronite?' Mako asked himself.

"This leads me to our current problem. You see... Mako, the teleporters that we use also use Pyronite as one of the components to power them, and the teleporter in your school has almost run out of Pyronite and is scheduled for resupply in 6 months' time." The commander explained.

"...And I believe that someone is going to try and steal the Pyronite when the resupply shipment arrives." The commander finally revealed the actual problem.

Mako understood that this was going to be a huge problem if someone was to get their hands on so much Pronite but what he didn't understand was how the commander reached this conclusion and why was he telling him about this.

After all, he had failed and even disobeyed orders during his very first mission, a mistake that cost him his special class privileges and even put him in room arrest for 2 months.

"I know your first mission was labeled as a failure by the board of commanders, but believe me, son, I would have done the exact same thing you did if I were in your shoes that day." The commander continued.

"I have strong reason to believe that this whole operation was an inside job."

'What! How could that be!? So Erin was right, there is a traitor within the military base.' Mako thought to himself.

"This person has some level of influence over the military base as many sectors of the military base have already been sabotaged with no official report being made about it thus far and all of them have some sort of relation to your mission." The commander explained as he began to list out all the different pieces of evidence that supported the fact that this had to be an inside job.

"The venom within the dagger that poisoned Angela when she was stabbed was actually produced by the military with a report of a vial being missing from a military hanger 5 years ago which was later wiped off the records, but luckily I was still able to find it in some old personal archives."

"There were also reports of missing mining equipment and power weapons in the past 10 years that had also been wiped away by an unknown entity, but they still existed in the archives."

"After the discovery of Victor's motives, we did a detailed search about other possible locations where the military might have left reserves of Pyronite in the past and several sites turned up. We sent a high-level team to each site and it turned out that a similar mining operation was taking place there as well, but it was already abandoned by the time the teams arrived there to investigate so they had known that we were coming."

"Lastly, the most crucial and strongest piece of evidence is that Victor Voss' amnesia was starting to go away and he was making progress in remembering things such as his name, age, etc; however a week ago, something terrible happened..."

Just the mention of his name had sent a jolt of anger through Mako's spine and he was super anxious to know what had happened to him.

"All of sudden, Victor's mind completely turned into a vegetable with him not even being able to do basic human functions such as speaking. I was furious and demanded to know what had caused this, but the doctors couldn't find anything."

"They said that it was as if his soul was sucked out of his body and now his body was operating on autopilot with no emotion or will left in his body destroying all chances of us getting any information out him."

Mako was left speechless after he heard about Victor's condition. The commander showed a small clip of Victor just mindlessly moving around in his room like a zombie. Even though Mako hated that man with every fiber of his being, he couldn't help but feel sorry for him as that was fate that he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy.

The clip ended and the commander's image reappeared in front of Mako.

"Mako...this wasn't a small operation. This has been in the planning for many years and you and your team were just an unexpected hiccup in their plan which they didn't calculate for. You have slowed down their progress for the time being, but I don't think this would be enough to stop them."

"They have always been one step ahead and have covered their tracks perfectly and I don't know whom to trust with this information as it could be practically anyone within the military base with a security clearance of over level 5 which is why I am assigning this task to you and your team." The commander said as he played a different clip in front of Mako.

The clip was of very poor quality and Mako could barely figure out what was going on but it looked like a security footage of the teleporter room.

"The night before your departure to the military base, all the camera and security protocols within the teleporter room were disabled with this hidden camera barely being able to record what had happened." The commander explaiend.

The video footage was hard to make out but it showed four distinct dark figures stepping into the teleporter and being teleported away.

"The moment the teleportation was complete, all security protocols and cameras came back online with the logs of their teleportation completely wiped clean. We have no idea whose clearance badge was used to turn on the teleporter, but one of the engineers was able to reconfigure the navigation system to learn the destination of their teleport." The commander explained.

"The military school," Mako stated as he already knew what the destination would be.

"With no clear leads and the traitor's identity shrouded in secrecy, I am tasking you and your friends with this urgent mission of uncovering these culprits' identities and bringing them to justice before their actions escalate further."

"Due to me being retired, I don't have much authority over anything outside the military base as it would require permission from the commanding body of the school. I don't want to raise suspicion and accidentally alert the traitor that we are on his trail which is why I won't be able to help you from here on out." The commander added.

"It is a race against time, with the shipment of Pyronite due exactly 6 months from today. Continue to train and become strong and make me proud once more!" The commander said in his closing statement before the device turned off signaling the end of the message.

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