"Boom!"
Kevin dodged the bullet aimed at his head. In the shaking cabin, he protected the high-ranking official being escorted by the First Squad and commanded his team to counterattack.
"This is Kevin. Suppressing the rebels. Headquarters, please respond."
"..."
Under the hail of bullets, Kevin's expression was grim. Communication with the headquarters was cut off. Then, Dr. Einstein's Armed Puppet informed him that there was a bomb on the transport plane and that the main culprit was the Chairman. Just as he sighed in relief, the transport plane was rammed by another faster transport plane, and a group of well-trained people wearing fox masks invaded their cabin.
Kevin quickly determined that they were using the standardized equipment of the Fire Moth. In other words, this group was also made up of Fire Moth members.
After recovering from the initial chaos of the attack, Kevin quickly fought back and estimated that a complete suppression wouldn't take long.
However, Einstein's communication was also cut off. The headquarters must have been attacked too. Kevin worried about Mei at the headquarters and was frantic to return immediately.
"Damn it... why did it come to this..." Kevin clenched his teeth, watching all this. Something in his heart shattered, then pieced itself back together in a different form. "What exactly was Lin doing this for... what are we doing this for..."
Why were they, the protectors of humanity, raising their weapons against each other?
He rolled up, leaped out of cover, and calmly took in everyone's position. He repeatedly pulled the trigger in mid-air, each bullet precisely hitting an enemy. In the blink of an eye, a wave of rebels fell.
Kevin caught sight of a gun aimed at him. Before it could fire, he threw his dagger, which drew a perfect arc and cut through the gun's chamber.
Rolling and taking cover, the space for dodging was limited in the cabin. Even Kevin couldn't guarantee he wouldn't be injured. To maintain his condition to assist the headquarters, he had to be cautious.
The Armed Puppet also joined the fight. Its flexibility was beyond imagination, and it was reducing the number of enemies at a speed comparable to Kevin's.
"Captain, what should we do next?"
A squad member, also behind cover, asked Kevin.
"Follow my orders. Do not leave cover without permission. Avoid the vulnerable parts of the aircraft body."
"Understood."
The squad member raised his gun, quietly aiming at Kevin's back. His expression and tone were unchanged, revealing no trace of abnormality.
"Boom!" A burst of chaotic gunfire erupted.
Kevin's pupils widened. He stared blankly at the smoking muzzle of the gun amid the gunfire.
Another squad member was raising his trembling gun toward the space behind Kevin. Kevin saw tears, terror, despair, and his own dumbfounded reflection in the man's eyes.
He had shot at the space behind him.
He turned his head with difficulty and saw a squad member lying in a pool of blood.
A fox mask had fallen out of the squad member's clothing.
His blood-soaked face was filled with determination.
This was his final expression before death.
"Kosma, watch out behind you!"
Kosma suddenly spun around and delivered a side kick that shattered the fox mask, along with the rebel's nose. The force was so immense that it sent the person flying backward, crashing into the cabin wall and falling unconscious.
Elvin, who had warned Kosma, looked with distress at the blood-filled cabin. Unlike the Honkai, it was living humans, their own compatriots, who were slaughtering each other now.
"Thank you. You are..." Kosma wiped the sweat from his forehead after dealing with the last person and thanked Elvin. He didn't have a strong impression of Elvin.
"It's nothing," Elvin shook his head, not giving his name. "You seem quite experienced..."
"Just past experience."
Kosma didn't want to bring up the past. He was already very adept at dealing with humans before joining the Fire Moth, especially since these people felt exactly like those he used to deal with through vigilantism.
Kosma asked Hen, who was checking the personnel one by one: "Hen, should we return to headquarters now?"
"No..." Hen instructed his team to treat the wounded rebels and tie them up. His brow was tightly furrowed. Looking at the battered transport plane, which could no longer fly long distances, he said, "We will land along the original route, and then support the other squads."
"Understood."
"Rebels, huh..."
Einstein paced back and forth in the locked bunker. Her communication had been forcibly cut off moments ago, likely by the Chairman's people within the headquarters.
This sent her a signal: the headquarters, with nearly all combat personnel dispatched, would be vulnerable to attack.
So, after issuing an evacuation alarm, Einstein entered the bunker, intending to use its command system to contact Mei.
"Static—This is Mei."
Upon hearing Mei's calm voice, Einstein immediately told her: "Dr. Mei, please immediately enter the nearest shelter. The headquarters will soon suffer an attack from the rebels, and you are their primary target. I will have the Armed Puppets suppress the rebels after everyone enters the shelter."
Mei's position of power was delicate. Logically, she shouldn't be on the Chairman's purge list, but her MANTIS plan was the catalyst for the division, so the likelihood of her being targeted was not small.
What Einstein worried about more was that the Chairman himself might no longer intend to eliminate Mei, but some of his allies might not think the same way.
The Chairman had said that these rebels were not his subordinates but people with the same ideology and ambition, so they might not completely obey his orders and might view Mei as someone who needed to be eliminated.
"Rebels? I've already met them."
"What?"
"But don't worry. Someone is protecting me."
Mei looked calmly ahead. The two armed assailants had already collapsed on the floor, unconscious. They showed no external injuries, having been skillfully knocked out by someone using a very precise technique.
Hua inhaled and exhaled, removing her outer jacket. She asked the long-haired girl behind her: "Dr. Mei, are you alright?"
"You are Hua, correct? One of Lin's squad members." Mei quickly retrieved the data of the person in front of her. She had seen her at a gathering—a very introverted girl who rarely spoke to anyone other than Immer, Himeko, Seele, and Lin.
Her file noted expertise in close-quarters combat. It seemed to be accurate... Mei glanced at the unconscious rebels on the floor.
"Yes, Dr. Mei. Since I was unable to execute the mission, I stayed at the headquarters," Hua said to Mei. "I will protect your safety."
"Hua, I need to go to the R&D department now. Please protect me."
Mei said without hesitation.
"The R&D department? Understood." Although Hua was confused about why Mei needed to go to the R&D department, she complied without question.
Obeying orders—this was the first lesson Lin taught her.