The Almighty Ring

“Ah.. My apologies, little Fei. I genuinely forgot about you being human. Please forgive this one since none of us need air to breath or suitable temperature to operate,” said Straz when Jiang Fei was still caught by surprise.

“Heh. Did you really?” Jiang Fei scoffed bitterly. If the mistake was made by a human, Jiang Fei would accept it even if he or she made the same mistake a thousand times. Humans were fallible, but a machine? How could a machine forget something?

“I am truly sorry about this,” said Straz, apologizing profusely when he saw how displeased Jiang Fei was. He quickly lowered himself and acted like how a human would when they made a mistake.

“It’s fine. You didn’t mean it anyway. Let’s move on,” said Jiang Fei. Contrary to his words, Jiang Fei was not fine. Even though he was tempted to say something about it, he kept it to himself. That was the first time he had been somewhere else, somewhere unknown with only Ariel with him. He was walking on the surface of the moon. If he learned anything from movies, it was that anything that could go wrong, will go wrong. Space would never cooperate with you. A single mistake could cost one one’s life, especially when it came to someone who was still unable to achieve Level 5.

“Come, follow me,” said Straz, resuming his happy face when Jiang Fei stopped attacking him. The entire act itself felt like something that Straz had purposely orchestrated to harm Jiang Fei. Now that he had failed to do so, he wanted it to be forgotten, lest Jiang Fei realized something was wrong. The group then proceeded to march upward a spiraling staircase.

At the top, Straz faced a wall and with a wave of his hands, a door opened, unveiling a narrow, dark walkway.

“This way, please.” Straz gestured politely but entered the walkway first.

Even after entering the moon base, 0542 was still erecting the barrier even when they were already indoors. The base was made by machines and there was literally no organic lifeform living there. There was no need for any human-type life support there. Hence, if 0542 were to shut the barrier down, the Level 4 Jiang Fei would immediately be killed by the unforgiving condition that is space.

No matter whether it was the ground they were marching on, or the staircase they were climbing, everything in the facility reeked of technology advancement. It was far greater than anything Earth could have provided, anything human, that is. Jiang Fei could not shake the feeling that he was walking amongst alien species. Then again, these machines had built the entire facility based on planet Namek’s technology. Hence, it’s not wrong to say that it was an alien base!

At the end of the narrow, dark walkway, a metal sliding door opened up, revealing the coveted Braveheart that was still under construction.

The entire ship was in pieces. Many of its parts were still under construction. The hull itself was still roughly 30% done. Still, the progress they had made, even without all the original parts of Braveheart, was astounding.

“When did you start building it? Was it before or after I agreed to work with you,” Jiang Fei asked, attempting to pry some information out of him.

“The base was done a while ago but the construction of the ship had only just begun,” Straz explained truthfully.

The entire moon base had been built long before Straz had faced Jiang Fei. Z0-11 and a fraction of the Unknowns had found a Shuttle Transport that was in perfect shape. Not only did it have ample supply of materials and facility, it was more than ready to fly.

The Dragon God Straz and the other Unknowns had used this shuttle to leave Earth. Unfortunately, there was a limit to its operation time. The Shuttle Transport ship was not meant for long distance travel. At best, it was able to travel across the solar system, as it was built to transport goods and ferry ship crew. Travelling into deep space would require a more sophisticated ship. That was why they had built themselves a base on the dark side of the moon.

The base itself was a great support which allowed Z0-11 to start planning its revolution against the main faction of the Unknowns. Without it, they would never be able to survive .

However, the entire facility was only a temporary safe haven. Z0-11’s side was gravely weaker than the other Unknowns. They lacked the facility and energy required to properly launch an attack. There were no more than ten Shuttle Transports on Earth right now and who knew how many of them were still in perfect shape to fly, or at least contain supplies and materials. If the other hostiles had discovered them, they would gain the means to travel beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Z0-11 and its “men” would not be safe anymore.

As such, Z0-11 was willing to go all out, even if it meant surrendering the Core of Life to Jiang Fei to gain his cooperation. All it wanted to do was speed things up, to finish constructing the ship and get the f*ck away from Earth, away from the threats of humanity and the other Unknowns.

Of course, one could not predict what they would do when the ship was finished. Z0-11 might leave Earth as soon as the ship was ready to fly, or perhaps find and hunt down all the other Unknowns that were hostile to their faction. They might even do something else… something unpleasant to humanity.

But that was not important right now, at least not to Jiang Fei. He had a plan. Of which was the reason why Jiang Fei was insisting on knowing about the progress of the ship and he himself being present when the ship was completed. Once the second Braveheart is completed, Jiang Fei would prioritize unsealing 0541, and with its help, take back the ship.

Jiang Fei had long seen the ship as his own asset. He would never agree to let Z0-11 use it against humanity, much less to start the ship up and fly!

“Is it alright if I head up to take a look?” Jiang Fei asked.

“Sure!” Straz nodded happily. He did something with his hands and a long bridge extended out beneath their feet, connecting the platform to the entrance of the ship.

“Please,” said Straz as he bent over and gestured politely.

“Thank you,” Jiang Fei nonchalantly replied and sped away toward the ship.

On the bridge, Jiang Fei had prepared himself to see a familiar scene, yet what he saw was something different. Ignore the fact that the Unknowns had made a few adjustments of themselves, there were many icons and lights there that he had never seen before.

When Jiang Fei first became the acting Captain of Braveheart, 0541 had explained the basic controls of the ship to him. Although he was not as proficient as a real captain, he was still able to understand the meaning behind the flashing lights and icons.

“The main propulsion system is fixed. The hull of the ship is now 37% completed. The Energy Barrier system is still absent… All offensive weaponry are missing…”

Jiang Fei glanced through the board and muttered to himself as he studied each icon. At the end of it, Jiang Fei locked his gaze at the Information and Data Center.

“Looks like they are only at phase one,” said Jiang Fei to himself. From there he knew, if he wanted to unseal 0541, he needed to somehow gain control of the ship and take the position as its captain.

Just as Jiang Fei was busy analyzing the Data Center, Straz’s eyes glowed with a faint blue hue. The light in his eyes faded just as fast as it appeared but a beam of energy was fired.

“What are you doing?” Ariel asked before she encased Jiang Fei in a protective barrier.

The second when the barrier was erected, the ring in Jiang Fei’s finger released a tiny amount of energy. However, due to the barrier, the energy containing information that was being fired was bounced back in.

“I knew something was wrong!” Ariel gasped. 0542’s micro movements might be invisible to Jiang Fei but it could not escape Ariel who was hypersensitive to anything electromagnetic. It could be said that she was the ultimate ruler of one of the four fundamental forces of the universe, the Electromagnetic force.