Ascenders Rift

In the eastern areas of the Morning Star Empire, within the MSS Headquarters. A meeting was currently in progression around a wide central table; looking from left to right, one would see that other than the Section Chief Sigor, Special Officers Hank, Thomas, Angeline, and Breya were present. Evan, Alan, Layla, Emilia, Rick, and Cline were also gathered around a unique group.

There was a dark-skinned man with dreadlocks that wore a combat suit that seemed different from the typical ones with the symbol of a scythe on his chest. Not too far away, was a beauty with a bob cut, her hair was white, and she wore a tight-fitting black spandex suit as if she had just gotten off important work.

The final individual that sat around the table was a bulky fellow with cornrows; he had tattooed arms and a thick beard on his square-shaped face. Right now, he even held a small trinket in his hands that he was fiddling around with a screwdriver.

Nelly was also present; he stood at a nearby wall leaning his back onto it as they watched the proceedings in silence.

Section Chief Sigor upon seeing everyone gathered, gave a deep look at Evan's party before he finally spoke a greeting, "Everyone, I've called you here to try and wrap our heads around this mess, especially this recent attack we've experienced. Most of you already know each other, so I won't get into too many introductions here. Spider, you may start..."

As Section Chief Sigor said this, he glanced at the woman with the bob cut who pressed a button on the table, causing a holographic display to show.

She then spoke after fixing her hair, "Greetings, for those who don't know, I am code-named Black Spider of the MSS Intelligence Division, and I have been tasked with the mission to connect with our satellites. After going through a bit of obstruction, we've have managed to connect with only three, and these are the footages we've received."

When Black Spider spoke, the display screen flashed, showing three different scenes. The first showed scenes of the five supercontinents, from a glance, it would seem that nothing's changed. However, if one looked closer, they would realize that the space between each continent had considerably shrunk, making them just a few hundred kilometers away from each other.

Curiously, despite the change, the continents weren't obstructed, and as if by some strange power, the climate system had remained the same. The other most unusual thing was that a barrier of pure white lights was erected around the entirety of the five supercontinents.

Following this screen was another, this one showed the views from a strange region; this was a land that was never seen before as it had completely surrounded the entirety of the five supercontinents. An ocean that surrounded the five supercontinents had spanned out for about 400 kilometers before it connected to this unknown land.

Finally, the last screen showed a recording of a horde of strange-looking insect type flying monsters, each of them was as big as a fighter jet with the largest being no smaller than a commercial class airplane with even larger wings. They zipped across the sky, traveling towards distant areas filled with tall trees and jungles.

When Black Spider showed all of the details, she looked at everyone in an expressionless manner and spoke, "As you can now see, the words spoken by that voice were quite accurate. Our world is most definitely not in the same plane, we've arrived at the center of this strange land filled with terrifying creatures. The footage showed by that insect type creature was only one of many, and if what the system said is correct, then once our barrier fades, we should be expecting attacks from their kind as well as those of that Mother Breed."

The now carried a solemn air as everyone looked at each other in silence, Section Chief Sigor then took this chance to ask a question, "Well, what do you all think about this? We must face that their creatures in six months, do you have any suggestions on how we could prepare to fight against them?"

Upon hearing his words, the room remained silent until the man with the dreadlocks spoke, "Section Chief, if it's like this, then we'll have to use as many resources as we can and make more battle-ready mechs for our Reaper Unit. With the combat efficiency of our mech squad, we can easily decimate even those so-called Level 3 lifeforms..."

Section Chief Sigor, hearing this shook his head, "Reaper... it won't be enough, that insect we just saw was in no way a Level 3 lifeforms. It's highly likely that it is more than a few levels beyond that, and even with our most advanced missile, we won't be able to kill, much less cause a grievous wound to its skin. A creature like that can already be considered an overlord to our kind, yet, we have to face the more dangerous race known as the Mother Breed... more mechs will only waste our resources."

The man called Reaper sighed, not replying, but it was at this time, the muscular man fixing the trinket stopped. He lifted his head, gazing at the crowd as he spoke, "Hmm, then what if we try to upgrade them? Won't that be an excellent countermeasure?"

Section Chief Sigor was about to say something, but Evan decided to speak at this time, "It will be futile, there will still be no way for a machine to grow comparable to even the likes of a level 6 or level 7 monster."

When everyone heard Evan spoke, they looked at him with different looks in their eyes, he was a strange one in their data files, and they did not dare to take him lightly, all except for one individual of course.

"Oh, and what makes you say that?" The muscular man asked curiously.

Evan looked around at everyone as he replied, "It's simple, the Mother Breed isn't weak, the most ordinary of a Flesh Mutators amongst their ranks are at the Level 3 to Level 5 standard. The elites are even amongst the ranks of a Level 10 to Level 13, with their strongest power being at Level 15. Even their Breed Mother Galgorax is of an entirely different scale of power. No matter which machines or weapon you send, it will be a futile attempt."

Alan had already briefed Section Chief Sigor about Evan's uniqueness, and as an information specialist, Black Spider already heard the details. Even Reaper knew how to dabble about and had his own sources, however, the muscular man wasn't too knowledgeable of this news, he looked at Evan and spoke while mocking him, "Tsk! Brat, why should I trust your information? Why would you know what the system didn't even clarify? How can you be so certain that lifeforms of such standards exist in this world? Even if they do, how do you know that a machine can't destroy them?"

Section Chief Sigor, hearing this sighed and spoke, "Conrad, your statements are valid, but I think you should..."

"I will not back down; he wants to prove me wrong, then he must do so until I'm convinced," The muscular man called Conrad said.

Section Chief Sigor hearing this shook his head while thinking, 'So stubborn,'

Reaper observed calmly, but as for Rick and the others, they looked at Conrad as and shook their heads.

'This fellow, heh, as he is now the Lead Engineer, he's grown even more ballsy I see,' Alan thought to himself while looking at him.

Evan looked at Conrad and replied, "You want to reason, then fine. First, I know what I knew due to my experiences; these are things I am not obliged to share with anyone, whether you believe me is solely up to your discretion. Second, the sole objective of ascension is to grow stronger as a race through evolution. The stronger you become, the more capable you will be in attempting to resist any potential dangers. Machines can offer short term power-ups, but in the end, they are limited by the resources and their creators. The only way for a machine to truly perform the unexpected is if it was a machine that can evolve. one that can even allow for standard humans who are its pilots to grow stronger, but that is already an impossible feat."

Conrad, hearing this paused while in deep thought, he looked at Evan deeply before he spoke, "Hmm, but what if you aren't able to evolve fast enough? What then, I don't know much about you awakeners, but it certainly can't be easy to achieve high level-ups, am I correct? What then would you do if you can't defeat your opponent? Some foes can overwhelm us with a crowd tactic, and no matter how strong you are you won't be able to beat everyone by yourself. Isn't this the place where machines come in? You cannot belittle the efforts of a machine."

Evan hearing this remained silent, he already knew how they could beat this, as this was the method used last time, the only problem was that RADA only showed their hands at the last moment to kill the Breed Mother, during that chaos many humans had died a futile death, while those machines were nothing but cannon fodder.

The easiest solution was to find means to assault the Breed Mother before her horde attacks, this, in turn, will allow for the horde to lose its central point of command allowing for more tactical solutions. He was about to make a similar suggestion, but at this time, a slightly nervous voice sounded, "I... I have a solution,"

Evan turned to the side and looked at Cline in surprise; he pondered, 'Could it be that talent of his?'

At this time, Alan's eyes brightened as if he remembered something, he looked at Cline and nodded. Cline, who had cast his sights to him, noticed this. He summoned his courage and spoke again, "I think I might just have a method to solve your current circumstances..."

Conrad, hearing this, asked, "Oh, and how so?"

Cline smiled, fixing his glasses as the light reflected on its rims as he spoke, "I have a talent..."