TUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTU...!

From the ground where they walked, swiftly escaping farther from the Megacity wall while also trying to stay undetected, the team of 4 Ascended paid attention to the sky.

The sky seemed to be burning.

The sight of 50 advanced Federation fighter jets flying through the sky in an eerily uniform battle formation was already crazy enough.

The sight alone would have struck fear into any enemy watching, and yet the sight of the Zerphyr-7 Stealth Reconnaissance UAV dancing through the combined assault of 50 Federation fighter jets was even more unnerving!

Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq threw a look at his teammate and shuddered as he remembered his very first meeting with Leon where they almost fought.

He’d seen Leon do so many things that shocked him already, and yet of them all, this was still one of the most shocking.

A single Federation fighter jet was a force to be reckoned with, afterall they were the Kings of aerial warfare and technology just behind the Synth Order. To dodge the combined assault of 50 of their fighter jets was borderline insane!

And this was despite Leon not augmenting it actively with his Enhance ability!

The stealth aircraft didn’t escape unscathed, it suffered damages but nothing too serious that it couldn’t handle and finally, it suddenly disappeared from visible spectrum like a ghost.

Even Leon who owned the stealth aircraft itself lost sight of the ghost aircraft immediately as it blended seamlessly with the sky.

Unlike the pursuing fighter jets, the Zerphyr-7 is a stealth aircraft.

...

"...!"

The moment the enemy stealth vessel became invisible, hiding from the advanced sensors of their fighter jets, the Commander of the fleet of fighter jets momentarily panicked.

Afterall, he was used to overpowering enemies with the advanced cutting-edge tech of the Omnicore Federation, not the other way round.

To be this overwhelmed technologically to the extent of losing sight of the enemy, the Commander who was the Inspector General of Police of Neo Solace himself realized that the enemy was likely a Mechanist, and not just any Mechanist.

The enemy was likely a D Rank Mechanist, and an incredibly good one at that, and he was now escaping!

’I can’t let him escape!’

With a snarl, the Synth with strange auburn hair growled at his subordinates. "He can’t have escaped far!"

"Even if he’s in stealth, we can still shoot him down with one well-placed shot! Do not allow him to escape!"

"FIRE!"

Tututututututututututu...!

They unleashed hell on the sky!

Watching the 50 enemy fighter jets focus on the invisible stealth aircraft above, a tense Leon finally heaved a sigh of relief.

This was his contingency plan.

The original escape plan A was to escape on the truck, then switch to the Zerphyr-7 Stealth Reconnaissance UAV and escape far before the Federation Army can catch up on the presence of the stealth aircraft.

But the moment 50 fighter jets came out after the Omnicore Eye detected the Zerphyr-7’s presence, Leon knew that plan A was no longer feasible.

This was why he made the decision to let the Zerphyr-7 escape alone.

The intention was simple. By making the Zerphyr-7 escape, he wanted to give the Commander in charge of the operation the misconception that they were already inside the aircraft, escaping with it.

This would make the Commander to desperately focus all his attention on the escaping stealth aircraft, forgetting about the ground which would give them the opportunity to escape on foot.

Escaping on foot was the contingency plan.

Compared to escaping on the Zerphyr-7, it was much more riskier and dangerous but they had no choice.

From the beginning, Leon knew that escaping from Omnicore territory was not going to be easy. At least, the Zerphyr-7 acting as a distraction would buy them more time.

Besides, though they didn’t plan to use it at first, Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq did not cut corners at all when making preparations for the contingency plan.

Somewhere a few kilometers away from the massive walls of Neo Solace, over a week ago, the Lt. Colonel already paid an anonymous team to dig the ground and excavate a hidden cave for the contingency plan.

And now, that was their intended destination.

Amid the sound of sirens far behind them, and the sound of gunfire in the sky, they moved silently through the wasteland on camouflage, covering distance with each second that passed.

Minutes later, the Zerphyr-7 managed to fulfill its misdirection role perfectly as with all 50 fighter jets already gone far away in pursuit of the ghostly stealth aircraft, Leon and the team finally arrived before the hidden cave.

There was no indication of a cave being here, it looked indistinguishable from any other place in the wasteland.

They only knew it was here because of the tracker that Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq carried with him.

Daren dropped his crate and immediately turned around, paying attention to the distant trucks that were pointing their powerful headlights into the wasteland, still searching for the assassins.

"We have 3 minutes, 4 at most!" He said, his voice sharp and tense.

The others didn’t answer as they looked at the Lt. Colonel, and then they crowded around him to block what was about to happen.

Bio-bot Creation!

Bzzz!

Lt. Colonel Umar’s orange ADE flared in a subtle manner and with his teammates blocking him, the light was not detected by the distant trucks.

Instantly, one of his bio-drones came to life.

Umar grabbed the drone. "Sorry buddy," he said then with his sharp fingernail, he cut a tiny hole on the drone, making it bleed bluish-black blood.

He held the bio-drone over the ground in front of him and let the blood drip.

Drip... drip... drip...

After 3 drips, the ground rumbled in a subtle manner and a human-shaped entrance opened in the ground!

The only password to enter the cave was the unique blood of Umar’s unique bio-drones. Any other blood, or forceful entry would cause the cave to implode and collapse on itself due to how it was designed.

The moment the entrance opened, without hesitation, they entered the cave.

The lid closed back, and silence finally returned.

...

Flick!

The LED lightbulbs that were installed in the cave turned on. There were 4 of them, and they were perhaps the only thing in the cave.

The cave was small, barely 10 by 10 meters in diameter. There was no furniture, no bed, nothing as this was supposed to be just a temporary shelter for them to escape the immediate storm of the assassination.

By tomorrow, with the way the Omnicore Federation worked, they were likely going to find scapegoats to parade as the assassins and execute them publicly.

After that, the storm would die down and everyone would forget about the once great Earl Joe and life would move on. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

By that point, no one would focus on them anymore and they can escape.

Panting heavily, they each sat, leaning against the walls of the cave as they listened for sounds above them.

They did hear sounds after a few minutes.

They heard the sounds of engines growling, of tires moving, and of soldiers shouting as they continued the carpet search for the assassins.

But the soldiers never found this cave; they all heaved sighs of relief.

Hours later as the night went deeper, the noise slowly tied down till it disappeared completely.

Leon looked at the time.

[11:34pm]

He exhaled and looked at the ceiling of the cave, then he finally relaxed.

A few minutes later, exhausted, Brick and Daren soon slept, leaving Leon and Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq.

Leon looked at the Lt. Colonel once, and then he also gave in to the allure of sleep. A few minutes later, the Lt. Colonel also slept.

That night, they all had a dream.

A nightmare!

...

[Special Appreciation to Jah1140, ImperialJadeDragon, and Humorousme89 for the Golden Tickets! Thanks for the support.]