Chapter 193 – 03

The winter rolled in, the soldiers were freezing to the bones. The coastline was covered in snow. The beach sand was long buried by the cold.

“Winter’s really a bitch even in this continent.”

“You got that right.”

The cries of the soldiers echoed out on the radio. Zola Dawn has been listening to their complaints for days now. She hasn’t moved away from her position. She has been observing the soldiers and studied their movements and listened in to any of their conversations. She didn’t allow any single conversation they had to escape her ears.

“These soldiers are professionals and they have bearings of a 21st-century soldier while having the 20th-century equipment. Now that I mention it, their armaments resemble that of the men who live under the star spangled banner.”

“They are not Yanks alright,” she thought for a while. “Hmm, Alexander had the aura of someone coming from the nation where the Star - Spangled Banner originated. While Joshua has the European look of the old past, I think he came from Croatia?”

She has guessed that Alexander was a person from another world too. It was because Alexander spoke like a modern human and he referenced old airliners. But the one thing that made Zola recognize that he was from the past world like Joshua was because of how he acted. He could still remember Alexander’s lackluster expression as he admitted that he was from another world.

He didn’t tell the details. All he said to Zola was that he was a foolish traceur, an adrenaline junkie that fell of a building because of his stupidity. Zola asked if he was a soldier. He told her that he was only trained on boot camp once by some old SAS member and that was it. He was nothing special. Just some guy who got lucky in being trained by an expert.

Zola didn’t sense a lie so she let him go after saying that. But Zola noticed that while speaking he didn’t have this melancholic look on his face. There was no trace of sadness on his face as he remembers his past world. As if there was another world that he missed than his past home, it was odd to Zola. She wasn’t an earthling but she lived once in the earth with her mother. She learned the history of the earth but her real home was far from earth. She was from a colony planet sometimes she would miss the planet she was originally born with.

“I guess humans adapt fast, huh?” Zola Dawn muttered. She looked at the coastline camp of the soldiers. They sauntered everywhere and ever since the day she killed the snipers, the soldiers didn’t send more, they seemed to be waiting for something. She hasn’t an inch and she wanted to interrogate each and every one of them but she has to wait.

“Was I wrong?” She thought. Zola Dawn expected reinforcements and more soldiers arriving. But there was none of them arriving at all. Did she miss anything important? She wondered. She listened in to the radio and raised her brows.

“Listen to me,” said a commanding voice. “The test is successful. The Thunder of God is successful. Return back home boys, it looks like that cripple has done it.”

“Roger that boss,” the voice agreed. “You heard the commander boys, we need to get out of here before they wreck the nation. At least we can avenge our comrades this way.” He had this somber voice.

The coastline base camp started packing up. She didn’t know what they meant by ‘thunder of God’ but she had a bad feeling it isn’t good. Not to mention that they are pulling out. So she waited for the rubber boats to lessen. It was only when the last one started to move that she gestured Titus to cling to her shoulder. She pounced on the rubber boat. The ones that were driving the rubber boat panicked for a second before pointing the barrel of their rifles at Zola.

Zola released her Psion-based ability and fried the nervous system of her enemies. Titus paddled his tiny legs and climbed aboard the rubber boat. He placed himself near the steering wheel. Zola took a deep breath after killing the enemy. She smiled at Titus before putting her hands on the steering wheel of the boat. The rubber coat was simple to steer.

She looked at the beach first before pushing the lever of the boat forward. The boat hummed, it moved to the direction where the enemy went to. She could still trace their boats. She wasn’t fond of seas so she didn’t risk her life swimming towards whatever warship they have. She moved the boat through the oceans. The ocean didn’t have anything other than the view below the sea. She could see corals and different kinds of fishes. She could only recognize some of the difference of the biome made her unable to know them.

The movements of the rubber boats were predictable. She could guess where they were so she immediately covered the boat with her Psion-based abilities to camouflage them. To her surprise, there was a giant submarine floating above the water. It was obvious that the vessel could dive down and disappear.

“No wonder my tracking could not sense their submarine. At the moment it probably floated to recover the rubber boats.”

She looked at the giant submarine. It was monstrously huge. It was a metal ship that has an Imperial Eagle on the hull of the vessel. It has four artillery guns that could fire a mile away. The current distance wasn’t enough for the submarine to fire at land. Zola Dawn could understand why they don’t go near the land. They would be spotted by the skyships and certainly, they would get targeted.

Zola still remembers the giant artillery batteries that were located on certain key points. Their locations were vague, and Zola didn’t know how much firepower the artillery batteries of the demesne of the Maltius La Fende have.

Zola touched her chin. “I should be able to easily sneak inside the submarine. At best I can use my exoskeleton suit to penetrate the hull and sink it down. But If I am able to capture this submarine...it would be a great way to get a home.”

“Titus,” she said, patting her pup’s head. “Stay here and wait for my signal okay?”

Titus wagged his tail and sat quietly on the rubber boat. Zola smiled and started swimming towards the submarine.