The known universe, Planet Buriean, Huelin city.
Traversing through the streets of the northern area of the city, Zhenin and Ninzhe walked silently towards their goal.
Considering their options, they opted to look around the area first before they begin their operations. Whether it was the time in the underground lab, the library, or their current mission, Zhenin always opt to create a strategy on how to do things.
This was something their parents had thought them. Strength didn't just come from physical prowess, the brain is also a major source of strength.
As kids, whenever they were brought by their parents for scavenging, moving their base of operations, or just the basic hunting, they would gather in a circle and talk about the setting and properties of what they were about to do.
This was usually done by Mrs Leiman.
Pages and pages of digital documents are displayed in front of everyone as their parents explain the intricacies such as how they will enter, their escape plan, their priorities, and all the little details. With an acceptable 10% margin of error in each plan, they were able to safely do raids even when they bring their kids.
Not to mention, it was also a good experience of the twins at the time.
Nearing the target point, the twins slowed down.
"Bro, give me your watch," whispered Zhenin.
Ninzhe thought about it and nodded, Mengsk sucked the energy of his twin's watch. Immediately, he went to the process of factory reset. Without it, the biometrics won't let Zhenin use the device as long as it keeps Ninzhe's data.
Zhenin had already started the process of factory reset on his watch. The watch in his wrist currently only acts like an ordinary wristwatch.
After trading the watches, the twins climbed one of the artificial trees with holographic leaves as a vantage point.
This artificial tree is currently the source of breathable air for the city. It runs perpetually from a centralized water source and the sun's energy. This is something that everyone protected regardless of factions and enmity as no one would be able to survive without air. This is due to the planet's lack of oceans.
Once they climbed up, Zhenin switched the watch into a mask to use the holo-blocker feature, which bypasses the light emitted by holograms through polarization.
With that, the tree became a perfect vantage point.
Scanning through the area, Zhenin's hands began to swiftly move. Sometimes he was drawing on-air, sometimes he was typing on a floating keyboard.
Ninzhe, on his side, stayed still quietly. This is not his forte, nor could he do anything to help.
After a short while, Zhenin finally spoke.
"I've spotted the four. The half-elephant and half-bull, which we will tag as E1 and B1, is in that three-stories block-like house on the other side of the road. The two are currently mating over the window of the bedroom on the second floor."
With his words, a holographic display of a limited blueprint appeared, showing three floors, the window and two red dots indicating where E1 and B1 are. Ninzhe took a picture of the holo with his watch.
After showing his understanding, Zhenin made a swiping gesture, and another blueprint appeared. This time it was the building's rooftop.
"The hu-mantis with the black hair, which we will tag as M1, is currently on the lookout at the top of the block house."
In the print, there was the red dot and breaking lines indicating the patrolling pattern of M1. Ninzhe took another snap, and Zhenin swiped.
"The hu-mantis with the yellow hair, which we will tag as M2, is now at around 200 meters away from where we are on our side of the road. Moving further from everyone else, he should be our window of opportunity. The next turn is at around 230 meters, once that he passes through, he'll be at a blind spot from where M1 is."
Instead of a blueprint, it was a basic 3D model of the road. From the red dot to the tree they were currently in, a line with 200m in the label is written. Then another arrow with broken lines indicating Zhenin's prediction of where M2 will go.
"With his pace, he should be arriving at that spot in 6 minutes and 23 seconds and will take around five minutes before he shows up again at M1's LOS (line of sight)."
The current holo displays the 3d representation of the entire area with basic shapes. The timings are presented as an analog clock, while countdowns are shown as an hourglass.
"You'll take care of the man on the roof, wait for six minutes there as I'm sure he'll focus more on waiting for M2 to show up again before patrolling the other sides equally.
"This time we'll use our venom to paralyze them. Mantis has an exoskeleton, so our only point of entry is in their eyes."
Their mom, who's the half-snake, is in the line of the blue coral snake. Their venom is able to put the victim's nerves on maximum activity which makes the body spasm uncontrollably. If it did not result to death, then one would be permanently paralyzed. Due to how diluted their snake blood is and how little venom they are able to produce, the venom they had were never fatal and was only enough to temporarily paralyze the victim.
Normally, they wouldn't result to this as raw and irradiated bodies who has never showered for over ten or more years now does not taste good. But due to the circumstances of their quest, Zhenin thought that this was a good action plan to follow.
Ninzhe already knew that, but this was how his brother had always been; thus, he just kept it in mind.
After speaking, Zhenin suddenly went on a daze. He remembered how their mother was the one who made such detailed plans and how she always nags about the dangers and the things to note.
His brother saw his daze and immediately understood what Zhenin was thinking.
"Don't worry bro, there's a chance for that soon." Ninzhe spoke as he placed his hands on Zhenin's shoulder.
Zhenin nodded, remembering that the reward of their main quest is the restoration of his parents.
"Alright then, let's do this," Zhenin said with a smile on his face.
…
The White Space
Jack, who was watching all five screens, had a grave expression.
This was the first time that he watched Zhenin make action plans and strategies. While the plan sounded reliable, there were no rooms for error or any surprise.
If it was before the baptism of the four Magnafelans, he would've probably nodded and overlook the missing plan b. But now that he has access to the complete memory of the four, including the things they themselves forgot, the lack of plan B became fatal for Zhenin.
Yet, after deliberating with himself for a moment, he decided against telling them. Maybe he'll learn about his mistakes, right? And if he asks for help, it'll be a favor.
With a snap, a screen appeared in front of him, in there were the four half-lions about to escape. In one corner of the image is a window to a building; there, a seemingly distorted space was shown, and a floating pair of eyeballs.