The job that he had to do was making sure that the recovery efforts of certain facilities are up to standard. It was a disaster during the world’s end when many of the research facilities were abandoned or swarmed with monsters. Hence, there was a reliance on CERN and many new organizations. Facilities in Vienna, and all over the old Europe were destroyed or barely maintained.

Gaston recalls the STORMING event made BEHEMOTHS appear all over Europe, causing many nations and ill-equipped armies to be wiped out by this threat.

The one that saved the whole of humanity during that era was the fast-movers. The fighting jets of humanity that brought them down and flew the skies so boldly.

Most of the battles in the first years relied on fighter jets and overwhelming use of artillery. Most of the wars still used artillery and air superiority.

Artillery is the God Of War. Although breakers are heavily used in the field because of their superhuman strength and ability to become precise artillery shells.

Yes, Breakers are available in the market, and although there are a lot of Breakers that are strong and resilient. Breakers are still a minority, and not every Breaker wins the ability lottery.

Some can manipulate their bio-energy to create flames. Some even have mutations that allow them incredible strength. Hilda Valeria is one of those rare cases where she has incredible strength. Jakob has the speed that makes him a speed demon.

Together the two are what makes them dangerous and popular. There were cases that breakers seek popularity and become celebrities themselves. The rest become mercs.

The idea of being one had been attracted. If it was the old society before the end of the world. There would have been so many that went to using their abilities to earn money through view counts and streams. It’s still the case and yet there was an odd number that wanted to become breakers who fought monsters.

Why was that?

It was a rather simple answer.

The wounds of the tragedy never healed.

If humans can hate each other just for the color of their skin.

Humans can form grudges that can’t be easily forgotten.

They call them belua. But officially they’ve been named as Biomass Entities.

But to those who suffered the tragedy. To see their loved ones being chewed up, defecated, and then used like straws to create flesh eggs covered in mud and rocks.

One can either become so afraid or angry enough to want to kill them to heal that trauma.

Grudges. Hatred. It’s the kind of pain that never leaves the mind. It can turn the cowardly into a butcher. Hard times create strong people and these strong people have focused their efforts into killing the monsters that they see as the cause of their tragedy.

It was because of this tragedy that the BREAKER business is profitable and practical to the current lifestyle of the humans involved. They’d do anything to kill monsters and earn money from it.

It was two days ago Gaston got attached to the Rook Squad again. This time they were recovering a piece of equipment that was said to have been ‘digested’ by the belua. Normally, they’d just think of it as a consumable equipment

But what they have right now is the Pacific Beacon Standard. It was said to be an experiment, a side project from the scientists in Vienna and Franco-Swiss researchers.

The ichorium has a similar composition to that of irradiated materials. There are many organizations that are rather interested about the ichorium, but during that time, when the world ended, it was CERN that was still functioning or at least had the manpower to loan their scientists into researching the birth of ichorium.

It was not a matter of who was the right one for the job. But to who might be able to do it. They didn’t have the luxury to think of the proper people when the world literally ended.

The Pacific Beacon Standard is an instrument. It functions as a stake plunged in the middle of the pacific ocean to monitor, test, and return readings to the nearest organization. CERN lately has been rather adamant in their stake of monitoring the Pacific Ocean.

From the start it was already weird to send someone to be an adjutant and CERN’s research has taken a weird step forward. You could say that they are branching a different path that they usually take.

The Pacific Beacon Standard was one of their alternate works after the end of the world. It’s rather similar to LIDAR in a way, but is refined to map SPARTICLE readings and other energies that they have not disclosed.

Think of it as a giant net that catches these readings. Once they catch these readings they would examine them. Then they use these readings to catch the movements of the belua and warn the closest Consortium about it.

It was the reason why he was sent here in Japan to warn the Consortium and in a way part of the reason why he was still here was because they still haven’t found the entrance to the split-realm.

Gaston thought that there was a deeper reason to it. If anything CERN acting beyond their original purpose is already suspicious enough.

Whatever deep reason or profound move they are making. Gaston wanted to keep away from it. The work alone was beyond his pay grade and he was the kind of fool that didn’t want to work so hard after getting his sponsor.

Still, just because he was already sponsored. He didn’t want to lose focus or get sloppy about his job. In a way he didn’t mind being busy. Janna was always accompanying the Lady and was keeping a close eye to her activities while keeping contact with the Consortium.

If anything they needed the work to put it into their savings and the joint bank account that had recently dried up.

The operation started before 6AM. Gaston had to stay in the research ship while the Rook Squad combed the part of the ocean. The work was gruesome and although they are only for guard duty to the operators who are actually operating the machinery.

Dangerous conditions like this usually mean they have to use drones, but with how eager they wanted this recovery to be done. The operators are actually wearing AR-displays that show them how to operate them while not needing to have the required training.

Rain poured hard enough that any normal human who didn’t wear any protective clothing would have felt something whipping their skin. Not to mention that there is a storm that is gathering east of the Philippines that makes reading the signals and energies volatile.

A low pressure area mixed with ichor that was causing irregular elements to ignite and create volatile storms.

“Storms are coming, Sir.”

“This is Kintoki, I see the research fleet.”

Gaston made a leap and reached the crow’s nest. He taps his earpiece and calls out.

“Sparrow to Kintoki, how is the charge of your armament?”

“I estimate that I can disperse the storm by fifty percent. No more than that. Unless you want me to become a flightless bird, Sparrow.”

“I’ll make sure that you have enough to fly, Kintoki.”

“Roger that, firing anti-cloud charge. Waiting for markers, over.”

The ships that were accompanying the research and retrieval group positioned themselves and deployed round drones that started releasing chemicals that started to create its own colored cloud that was dyeing the clouds forming. The flyer that was moving in Mach 8 zipped through the clouds, releasing this chaff that seems to trigger a reaction to the clouds.

After the flyer passed through the mark spots. The supersonic plane broke left and pointed its nose at the spots and started charging the cannon that then fired a superheated beam that caused an explosion the moment it melted with the chaff in the air which then caused the drones that was sent up to create this contained explosion up in the cloud that erased the clouds.

“Cloud dispersal, showing signs of success.”

“Readings are within standards. Kintoki, how bingo?”

“Bingo on fuel. There is a problem with the second engine, but I can land on the nearest carrier for repairs and refueling. That’s it for me, Sparrow, over.”

“Sparrow copies all.”

The supersonic jet made a pass above the ships and headed straight to the direction of the carrier while leaving a trace on the sky. The readings made it clear that despite having problems with the second engine. The craft was still flying Mach 5.

The storm that was conjuring didn’t disappear. But it was delayed because of the anti-storm chaff that contained those charges. Gaston estimated that it would take five hours before the charges are dispersed by the natural elements.

“This Sparrow, you can continue now. I don’t have to remind you about the time limit, over.”

The search effort went on without much of a hassle.

It was only when they detected the deep-sea creature that ‘digested’ it that the recovery started to become a headache.

The size of a basketball court with five meters of rocky scale to pierce through.

The operators went and set their gear on the head area of the beast. Putting a tag on the spots that needed to be drilled. The operators in-charge retreated from the scene and started to retreat ten meters away.

Another ship positioned itself above those markers. There was a five minute process as the equipment that they used melted through the scale of the beast.

They attached hooks on the beast and started waiting for one of the split-realm ships to do a transport maneuver by pulling the beast up to a certain altitude and traveling vertically instead of the usual horizontal pattern to travel the split-realm.

The split-realm that was meant for the job however didn’t arrive two hours after the call. Gaston had to keep a watch while the Rook Squad remained standby for any signs of hostile creatures.

Connecting the creature to the split-realm ship. The split-realm craft attached itself to the beast and with the ichorium-based engine started heavy lifting the beast while the operators kept the beast sedated.

Gaston contacted the operators to retreat while the rest of the recovery and research fleet kept a distance as the split-realm ship punched a hole to the split-realm and pulled the beast alongside it.

The split-realm did the heavy pulling. Gaston jumped down to the deck from the crow’s nest and contacted the bridge.

“How’s the transport?”

“We got a problem with the coordinates. The transport hit a warehouse.”

“Must be the interference here.”

“Looks like it. Is the beacon going to be retrieved? Any noteworthy damages?”

“Other than the warehouse. The split-realm that towed the beast seems to have received damage. The retrieval operation will start after we identify the inside of the beast. We’ll strip the beast of its material and process of retrieval. The rest of the process is getting handed to the Vienna team who are going to help in extracting the beacon out of the stomach.”

“Must be eager to get it back. What about the rest of the beacons, Bridge?”

“Four of five were retrieved without incident by the South pacific team. The fifth beacon was destroyed when they found it. The rest of the retrieval teams reported that the beacons were found without difficulty as well. That’s’ nine out of ten beacons. I say this is good enough.

“Copy that.”

Gaston switched channels.

“Bridge, anything else we need to do?”

“Objectives are checked, Sparrow. Rook Squad will remain on standby. It’s going to take a while before we return home, Adjutant. Bunks are free.”

Gaston switched off his channel and went to the platform. Boris, Yumina, and Shion Jin took off their helmets and took a rest as the storm that was delayed by the anti-storm charges rages on