Seed of Titan-Chapter 219: Assault on the Smugglers’ Den

For the next ten minutes or so, the Seventh Squad passed by a few more small groups, none of which was able to muster much of a defense before getting neutralized in a flash. Due to this, most of the squad were starting to wonder if tonight’s operation would be way easier than expected. But upon arriving at their target, they couldn’t help but worry again, for the sheer size of the hub was daunting.

A few hundred meters ahead of them stood a hill that had been repurposed into a fortress-like structure. Unlike the dark forest surrounding it, the hub was bustling with activity. Countless people were moving to and fro, while a number of various land and air vehicles came and went, presumably transporting illegal goods.

A couple of Drai’s squadmates silently gulped as they pictured themselves getting swarmed by all these people. Although individually, the grunts were likely insignificant like the ones they dispatched on the way here, if they came at the squad in hordes, the most sensible choice would be to retreat in haste.

Under Frost’s command, Gramps was soon seated on his throne while the others kept guard around him. At the same time, Beachball was closely monitoring the vicinity in case a patrolling group headed toward their spot.

Before long, Gramps suddenly let out a rather disdainful snort before signaling Frost to check out his screen.

After skimming the readings, Frost said, "I suppose you can deal with all of these?"

"Yep," Gramps replied as he began to work. "These guys either don’t have a proper security specialist and engineer or were scammed by some shady security company. On the surface, their security might look fine and even intimidating when you just look at the numbers, but in reality, their techs and software are severely outdated, and there are barely any safeguards against external tampering like the one I’m doing. Honestly, any good technician could easily dismantle their security in hours."

"We don’t have hours though," Danny couldn’t help but mention.

"And I’m not just any good technician, Dandan. Now keep quiet while the master does his work, would ya? Or you can massage my legs if you really can’t stand idling."

Danny looked as if he was about to give Gramps a few hearty slaps, but Frost’s threatening fingers stopped him from sabotaging their own technician.

"Two people approaching from northeast," Beachball suddenly squeaked. "Walking pace and completely unalert—looks like we haven’t been found."

"Coincidence or not, make sure to dispatch them thoroughly, Nas," Frost flatly ordered, still focused on the data on Gramps’ screen.

As Ghost left without a sound, Drai looked down at his hand that had stopped trembling a short while ago, wondering if he still thought heavily of killing fellow humans when he wasn’t in an agitated state. His eagerness for draining people had also faded, replaced by the desire to quickly return to his ever-comforting training.

Seconds passed as Gramps methodically tore down their target’s cyber and mechanical defenses, and moments later, Frost finally shifted his attention from the screen.

"We’re good to go," he then said to the rest. "Based on the intel Linus gathered just now, we’ll go in from a small vacant passage north of the hill. From there, we’ll follow Linus and Eric’s lead and dismantle any production facilities we come across before targeting the command center. Their alarms are down, but maintain vigilance and take down every hostile swiftly and quietly. Is that clear?"

The squad collectively nodded, following which Cubes put away Gramps’ throne and they all moved north, circling the perimeter of the base while avoiding several passing groups and transports.

On Frost’s cue, they crossed the short clearing surrounding the hill and disappeared into the designated passage, which turned out to be a natural one, unlike the ones used by the people and vehicles earlier that seemed to be at least partially reinforced.

As the passage started to slope upwards, Gramps looked through Gizmo and briefed, "This tunnel leads to one of their larger production facilities. These guys are smart enough to not put up their production data on their servers, so I’m not really sure what exactly they’re producing there, but based on the surveillance footage, it’s probably drugs. There aren’t that many people there since the production is highly automated, around twenty people or so from the looks of it."

"...Nas and Drai, you two rush at the farthest ones. Daniel and June, deal with the ones around the center. Leave the rest to me and the others," Frost instructed after a brief pause.

"Should we chase after the ones escaping?" Mandy asked.

"Yes, we don’t want to alert the rest of the base if we can help it, but I’ll try keeping them contained," Frost replied.

The passage rapidly became much narrower, so much that the squad had to bend down while their elbows scraped against the dirt wall as they proceeded deeper. Fortunately, they didn’t have to resort to a crawl before reaching the end of the tunnel.

With his butt hanging centimeters away from Danny’s lowered face, Drai could hear low hums from the machines ahead along with faint human voices. Steeling his resolve, he opened up three small translucent screens at the side of his vision, each of them displaying the duration of his transcendence-based skills respectively.

While the squad waited with bated breath, Frost readied an impressive amount of mana. Shortly after, he cued, "Go."

Eight figures emerged in rapid succession from an unassuming opening near the room’s ceiling. Although Gramps hadn’t told them they were going to enter from up this high, everyone adapted in no time as they sped toward their targets.

Drai flew toward the far end of the room and crashed into a man dressed in a beige coat, crushing him completely against the metal floor. Without pause, Drai dashed toward another man and caved his solar plexus with a punch.

Another woman nearby had been startled by this sudden assault but managed to recover quickly and sprinted toward the exit that was right behind her. But before Drai could catch up to her, she was stopped by a wall of ice that appeared out of nowhere, covering the entire wall along with her exit.

’Well, that’s certainly one way to keep them from escaping,’ Drai thought as he gazed around the room that had been fully encased in ice aside from its floor. He then blurred forward and caught the woman by her neck.

"Sorry, but I’ll need you to sleep, Miss," he muttered before bashing her face onto the sturdy ice with a light shove.

Seeing that his victim’s head remained intact, Drai let out a smile before releasing his grip, thinking that his strength control had improved somewhat and he was able to avoid killing. What he didn’t realize was that he had actually sent the poor lady to eternal sleep since her cervical spine had been snapped apart from the impact.

Drai then looked around and saw that there was barely anyone left standing apart from his squadmates. It took the squad a few more seconds before every single person there was either dead or completely incapacitated.

Frost removed his ice and turned to the machines. He then eyed the various substances around before turning to Gramps, saying, "Disable them permanently."

Instead of complying, Gramps feigned exhaustion and turned to Drai. "You do it bud. It’ll be way quicker and easier."

Drai looked at Frost for confirmation and saw him nodding, so he went to work. He flew around fully augmented and twisted every machine there into giant messes of metal and plastic. Like Gramps said, the process was highly efficient, taking less than a minute for Drai to finish.

After making sure their brief assault had gone undetected, Gramps said, "The next facility along our route is really similar to this one. I think whatever they’re producing here might just be their bestseller. Anyway, we can either enter normally through the hallway outside or through the vents, though I’d have to shut down the fans first."

"Then shut them down now," Frost ordered as he preferred to limit the risk of them alerting the security personnel.

Before long, the squad was back at it again, ambushing the unaware workers that were handling the production. However, they encountered a surprisingly competent pair this time. It required Ghost and Drai to finish their own targets and help before Danny and Cubes could neutralize them, which took around twenty seconds.

"If our passages weren’t too small, I would’ve taken care of them easily with my exoskeleton," Cubes grumbled.

"And you wouldn’t be late in handing me new weapons," Danny annoyedly added while eyeing his severely corroded machetes on the floor. He then glanced at Drai, wondering how the monster’s hand wasn’t hurt at all by the potent acid his target was covered in.

While Drai was busy breaking the machines, Gramps consulted his device again to plan their route. However, Gramps’ nonchalant face darkened when he saw the room they’d be barging in next.

Noticing the change, Frost asked in a whisper, "What’s wrong?"

Instead of replying, Gramps showed Frost the image he was looking at through his Gizmo. And just like what happened to Gramps, Frost’s impassive look also faltered upon seeing the horrible scene on the small screen.