With the teams finally put together and space vessels made available by the empire, the defenders of humanity set a course to the outer boundaries of their star systems.
Their spaceships would be serving as their new home for the duration of their mission. For this reason, the spaceships made available for the hunters were built to resemble small cities that mimic life on their planet.
Everyone had their own private space aboard the ship and not all hunters were dispatched at the same time as a sort of shift system was put in place to give hunters time to relax and also contact their loved ones.
On board the ship where James was the head, Ross was changing into his combat suit as it was his unit's turn to go out.
During the recruitment week, he recommended his brother to the team but Eein decided to join their father's team instead.
With his brother taken, Ross recommended some people he knew back at the academy—Zen Henjok and his group of friends. Unfortunately, they were put in another unit.
Then there was Ethan Hall who once battled Alex during the sieving stage of the first-year competition and subsequently won his respect.
Abigail was still at the Class E level and wasn't qualified to be a hunter yet. Till she got to the Class D level, she was still too weak.
[You have two minutes to report to the exit bay.]
The voice of Ross's unit captain rang from his suit. Each unit had a Class B hunter at the helm and also served as the guardian to the C and D class hunters.
"Roger," Ross replied, putting his sword in his storage. "Conix, ran a diagnostic check on my suit's systems." He instructed his AI as his suit hummed for a few seconds before coming to a stop.
[All systems are functional and ready. You're good to go.]
"Thanks," He muttered softly, exited his room and headed for the exit bay where his friends and colleagues should be waiting.
...…..
Victor Hale was a Class B hunter who had served as a hunter for the Knight family since his graduation from the academy.
As a normal human, Victor stood at 1.8 meters, had short dark hair with brown eyes and above-average looks
He wielded the unique ability to manipulate gravity—Graviton Surge. This ability allowed him to pin down his targets or crush them under intense pressure.
Donned in his combat suit without its helm, he waited for his unit members to report. A few meters away from him were Ethan and Henry as well as the other members of his unit.
Ross and Julia were the only ones to report and while they weren't late, it felt that way as the others had already reported.
Sometime later, Victor and the others spotted Ross and Julia approaching with steady steps. The clicking of their amour's sol drew the attention of the working crew.
"What took you guys so long?" Henry asked the moment they arrived by the group. "We aren't late, so there shouldn't be an issue, right?" Ross replied with a question, silencing everyone.
"Forget about it. Let's go," Victor chipped in and then led the unit of forty hunters towards the deployment chamber.
"Our job is a simple one. Void creatures are appearing in the region more frequently than normal due to the veil tear a few hundred million kilometres away.
"This will be our first contact with the creatures emerging from that veil tear. You already know what to do once we get there." Victor informed as they nodded in acknowledgement.
Once inside the deployment chamber, everyone put their helms on as the teleport matrix came to life and sent them out of the ship and into the void, shortening the distance needed to get to the hot zone.
In the silent vastness of space, where no sound could travel and only the faint glow of distant stars illuminated the darkness, all eyes turned toward the distance where a massive, circular veil tear loomed.
The interstellar medium near the tear churned as it mingled with void energy, forming dense, cloud-like swirls of blue, red, and violet hues that stood out starkly against the black void.
The space around the rift pulsed ominously, rippling with an overwhelming density of void energy that distorted the surrounding region. The energy readings were off the charts, a clear warning of the tear's unstable power.
Emerging out of the veil tear and floating around the surrounding space were void creatures of different builds and figures.
Slowly and as if they sensed their presence, the void creatures turned to face them and despite being millions of kilometres apart, they could perfectly see them.
A large swarm of the creatures numbering in the hundreds split from the group as they rushed towards them.
From the readings of their system, the group determined the relative level of the incoming void creatures—below Class B with the majority of them being E-tier and F-tier.
"From here on out, stick with your assigned teams and don't stray too far from one another," Victor instructed, his voice firm as they bolted toward the approaching void creatures, weapons in hand and ready for battle.
Ross, Julia, Henry, Ethan, and another member quickly regrouped, forming a smaller squad of five.
Together with the other division, they made up a total team of eight, each member bracing for the fight ahead.
Victor was the only stand-alone as he was more than enough to handle the incoming void creatures.
In this situation, however, his job was to observe and provide assistance as and when needed.
Ross took points as he instructed his colleagues and the plan they would be using to deal with the void creatures.
"Ethan and I will take their aggro while the rest of you deal damage. Stay sharp and let's finish this quickly." Ross said, taking out his greatsword while Ethan took his twin blade.
"Right!"
With a few thousand kilometres left, the two parties clashed in the centre as abilities and attacks flew around, each team occupying a particular area to not get in the way of the other.