Chapter 226: Elite Galaxial Exploration Squad (II)

"Elite Galaxial Exploration Squad."

White mumbled beneath his breath.

He had never heard such words before, not even in both his lives, yet reading them aloud gave him the full picture.

Except, it was quite hard to believe.

"I..."

White began, but paused, not knowing where to even begin explaining his thoughts.

"I just want to get this straight."

He said, rising from his seat.

"Galaxial Exploration... like outside Earth. And an Elite Galaxial Exploration Squad means a highly skilled group that takes missions outside Earth...right?"

He asked, watching a gleam cross through the eyes of the seated Commanders.

"You got the main premise exactly right."

It was the Lead Commander who replied.

"Our strongest soldiers do not wrestle around on Earth completing minor missions. They go completely beyond Earth and undertake missions of the highest level."

He said, but White still didn’t fully follow.

It sounded wrong.

But instead of blurting that out, he chose to learn more, prompting him to ask.

"So what type of missions exactly do we humans carry out outside our planet?"

"The most basic are Earth Endangerment Missions."

The Lead Commander began.

"There are times when planetary bodies such as meteors are detected moving through space with imminent collision courses toward Earth."

"If they fall, we could lose entire megacities, so of course, we send people to either destroy them or at least veer them off course."

He explained, and White nodded.

"That makes sense, though I reckon that doesn’t happen every day."

"No, it doesn’t. It happens roughly once every three months or so."

A Commander added from the side.

"If Earth Endangerment Missions are the most basic, then what are the more complex ones?"

"Resource Harvesting."

The Lead Commander replied.

"You might not know this, but the space outside Earth is vastly different from the ancient understanding humanity once had of it."

"The universe out there is filled with mountain-sized gems of purity beyond anything mankind has ever seen."

"We send our EGES units to harvest these materials and use them to forge weapons and armor with durability far beyond anything humanity could naturally produce."

He explained, and White understood immediately.

Those armors the system had noted the Destroscension squad wearing, capable of nullifying fifty percent of incoming damage, must have been made from such materials.

"But resource gathering isn’t limited to materials alone. The highest and most important class of resources is the ruins."

He continued.

"Ruins?"

"Yes. The world beyond Earth is filled with vortices and gateways leading to broken worlds far beyond ours."

"By entering them, we discover treasures humanity couldn’t reproduce even in thousands of years, Combat Manuals ten times superior to our current best, forgotten technologies, and deeper histories of the universe itself."

"The ruins are everything to the EGES."

Another Commander added.

"I’m guessing they’re nowhere near as easy compared to the ruins on Earth?"

White asked.

"Of course not. Nothing valuable comes easily. That’s why only the best of the best are assigned to EGES."

"Anomalies with the most unique Awakenings imaginable. The strongest Homo Aetherius. Impossible Fusions..."

The Lead Commander said, pointing directly at White.

"Such as yourself."

"The place you would fit best is within EGES, White Sinclaw."

The way the Lead Commander said it made White’s brows crease.

It felt as though this had been the Supreme Commander’s goal all along, to place him within this elite squad.

"You know, I actually feel quite honored hearing that."

White said, sitting back down.

"I thought after my cannon fodder position got revoked, I’d have to start from the bottom, become some ordinary soldier, take on minor and obviously boring missions, then slowly climb the ranks."

He said.

"And now all of a sudden, I’m joining one of the, if not the most unique squads in the entire Powerhouse, alongside some of the most unique humans on Earth."

"That’s... unexpected."

He admitted.

"But there are still things I don’t really have clear answers for yet."

"And what are those?"

The Lead Commander asked.

"Firstly, why go outside the planet searching for resources and exploring those ruins when Earth itself already has all of that?"

White asked.

"I’m not sure how accurate Xtremecyber’s statistics are, but I’ve been told that only thirty percent of Earth is occupied by both humans and Supernaturals. The remaining seventy percent of Earth remains completely unexplored."

"I am one billion percent sure that if we explored that seventy percent, we’d definitely discover ruins and treasures beyond imagination. Ones that wouldn’t pale compared to going outside the planet searching for them."

"And while doing that, we’d also reduce the unexplored percentage of Earth and understand our own world better."

"So why ignore all of that and go outside Earth searching for things that more than likely already exist here?"

He asked.

Silence filled the room for a moment before the Lead Commander’s voice echoed.

"Continue."

"Secondly, you mentioned that EGES contains humanity’s most unique individuals."

"So we’re sending the most unique and powerful humans outside the planet to conquer ruins and gather resources, which, by the way, makes sense, but...what about fighting the Supernaturals here at home?"

"If you send your strongest people outside the planet, who remains behind to face humanity’s greatest threat? The average soldiers."

"Why aren’t the strongest focused on dealing with the worst dangers within our own world?"

"I thought reclaiming Earth from the Supernaturals was humanity’s primary goal, and such a responsibility should, of course, fall in the hands of the strongest."

White’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"So those are the two questions I want answered."

"Why outer space when Earth itself already holds everything?"

"And why aren’t humanity’s strongest focused on our original goal as a species?"

There was silence in the room for a while before one of the two commanders at the side stirred, trying to fix the awkward silence.

"Well..."

Supreme Commander Toraid didn’t say more than that when a hand rose, halting him in his speech.

As for the one who had done so, it was...