"So, that is all the information you have available, correct?"
The restrained mercenary guards trembled with fear as they bounced their heads. Then, a moment later, without hesitation, Nathan struck them all down in one fell swoop with a supercharged blade, which he had snatched from one of the mercenaries, while had all closed their eyes, ready to die.
Or, he would have, before he stopped at the last fraction of a second.
"Hm."
"You're all so willing to die, huh?" Nathan questioned, "But, before that, let me tell you this: you won't die if you tell me everything. I'll make sure you all are free to go, back to your families, which I'm sure you're trying hard to feed, correct?"
They didn't respond. Simultaneously, their heads drooped down. Even before the supercharged blades reached them, they bit down on their tongues so that they wouldn't be able to speak either way.
"…Strange. It is a pity that they have such loyalty to whatever organization besides the Salvation Church is controlling these Slave Camps." Nathan said before he beheaded them in a single slash.
"It's also quite disgraceful that the only sort of information we were able to find was regular information about the slaves and obscure words sketched on every single surface which have little to no meaning."
"Though, I don't doubt that one of the mercenary guards from the other Slave Camps that we will be visiting will slip up eventually." Nathan mumbled, before telling the others, "All soldiers, head back into the main tent, we'll regroup."
This was back when Nathan and the other soldiers had infiltrated the first of the Slave Camps, which had often performed slave trades in the wastelands.
But, unfortunately, the only important information they could gather currently was the fact that the mercenaries had little to do with the Salvation Church, even though Nathan knew that they were hiding something deeper that they wouldn't dare reveal.
"This means we'll have to investigate the other Slave Camps more thoroughly," Nathan said, "But, if it's the same there as well… ha, what a bother. It's a shame Zoom can't extract their memories or something."
The tent opened, and one of the three Superior-Rank Soldiers entered. All three of them were friendly, respectable men, who highly valued Nathan as a Special Officer, and as a Mecha Knight who could potentially be putting his life on the line to cleanse the filth from this planet. But, they were also different from him, as they had already vowed to stay in the planet's Mechanical Legion until they reached the end of their lifespan.
Thus, Nathan made sure not to get attached to them as teammates, because he didn't want to be hindered by joining another Mechanical Legion.
"What is it?"
"Special Officer Nathan, we discovered an electronic tablet in one of the tents that was almost outside the range of the Slave Camp, almost deliberately, so that it would be harder to find it before the fire burned it all down. However, we only barely managed to retrieve it."
"Here, sir."
He passed the tablet along to Nathan, who inspected it and saw many words appear at once, but, for reasons unknown, some of these words were not even formed by letters at all, but a garbled mess.
And, to make things worse, it was not written in the main and only galactic human language across worlds, the [[Imperium-Humanic Language]], instated by the administration of the Imperial Alliance of Human Worlds millennia ago, but was instead written in the old human tongue, the [[Old World Language]], which was often and only used by the Salvation Church. Yet, Nathan could still roughly translate and decipher it.
"…Hawk's journal… days before… 12 days. Huh…? That's all I could translate. What does this mean? What does it mean by hawk's journal? I'm assuming that is a name, so could be the executive I saw before?"
"It also says, …Obtain 8 jewels… Emperor's Crown… one to achieve the dream…? …This is a large mess of words, just like the nonsense written all over the Slave Camp's tents.
"But, perhaps this may have some meaning. It could be that they are planning to excavate jewels with the help of the slaves, so when we get back, I'll hand it over to the higher authorities."
"Yes sir!"
<<…>>
Nathan observed the destruction from above, and couldn't watch for even a second longer before he activated his plasma cannon, which he often refrained from using otherwise due to its overly destructive potency.
Once it activated, a quarter of a swarm of Xenophages burst into bloodied guts and sickly-green flesh.
"…Shit… I can't believe it, they're planning to grow a swarm here? These Xenophages will turn the entire planet into a barren wasteland in no time, so what will they do then, when they become uncontrollable?"
Nathan shook away such thoughts for now and landed where the second group, led by a Superior-Rank Soldier was, once he cleared away the Xenophages that were dripping saliva and screeching at them.
"Officer Nathan? What's happening currently? Why are there swarms of beasts half the size of my body suddenly flying up in the air?" The Superior-Rank Soldier asked, confused and slightly panicked.
"Those are Xenophages. You know what they are, correct?"
The Superior-Rank Soldier's eyes dilated immediately, and he nodded quickly.
"We must clear them all before they become uncontrollable. The second group, you know this as well, right?" Nathan asked through the Radio Hand Gloves.
"Yes, sir!" They replied.
They readied themselves and aimed for the flying beasts, while Nathan contacted Admiral Viarak from his Radio Hand Gloves, for a call for reinforcement.
"Nathan? What's the matter?"
"Sir Admiral, we need reinforcement. A lot of it! Due to my blunder, a third of the soldiers deployed with me have perished, to a swarm of Xenophages!"
"Xeno… Xenophages… shit… after we cleanse the filth, those who are behind this will never escape our wrath! The reinforcements that the Vice Admiral and I meant to send out are surely coming to your aid, so, do your best to endure their onslaught for now!"
The Radio Hand Gloves went silent, as Nathan grew infuriated. The battle senses he had grown over countless wars under the Kalpas Empire had faded, and now he couldn't even handle a situation such as this.
The turmoil within his heart that he had for these Slave Camps, combined with the anguish of knowing he had lost what made him a great soldier in the first place due to his loss of memory, turned into his acrimony.
"…A Mecha Knight isn't supposed to be as helpless as this… forget enduring, I'll destroy all those beasts!"
A Xenophage alone was slightly weaker than a Beta-1 depending on the circumstances, so it was the propagatory swarm of them that made them a catastrophe for many planets. And so, the only thing they needed to do, was to wipe them all out.
Nathan activated his plasma cutters and decimated multiple Xenophages at once. His Plasma Saber was unleashed, and he slaughtered endlessly, using it to fuel his anger more and more until he had killed more than one hundred of those foul beasts.
"Damn it…" Nathan breathed out, "I'm getting even more infuriated, but... I don't even know why I'm angry, and, these beasts spawn endlessly, consuming all life, regardless of whether we kill them or not…"
"Indeed, they do!" A voice exclaimed, and Nathan could tell at once that it was him, once again.
The executive Nathan met before had shot a beam at him, using a Directed Energy Cannon. Nathan luckily avoided it, but he knew fighting the executive was too great a risk while the Xenophages were still around.
"Do you like it? This was such a long plan to fulfil, a plan I formed with both the Abyssal Sea Cult and that fellow."
The Abyssal Sea Cult?! That cult that worships the All-Consuming Whirlpool? Did he just reveal one of the other mysterious forces behind this?!
"We get to eliminate all the filthy secular individuals that thrive on this rebuilt planet, they get to have something to present a tribute in devotion to their God, while that Mr Hawk fellow gets one step closer to that unthinkable dream! Hahaha!"
"Why… why are you announcing this?" Nathan said, preparing his Plasma Saber.
"To mock you, of course, just before you die!" The executive replied, with a sinister tinge to his voice.