Arthur leaned back on his seat and looked at the holo-map still hovering above the center of the table.
There were a lot of red sections marking enemy territory.
Kane tapped it and the projection zoomed in, sections expanding and shrinking as he spoke.
"I believe you've already gotten a partial info about the state of the war from Obasi," Kane began. "But I'll summarize the important parts."
The admiral pointed at three large red clusters forming a left-right-center wedge.
"These are the current Chimerian spearheads. Alpha Front, Beta Front, and Gamma Front. A year ago, we held all three with relative stability. We were even pushing back in some sectors."
Kael spoke up. "That was when your Chi cultivation method started spreading through the ECHOs."
Lira joined in. "Once Chi circulated through the ECHO ranks, our combat efficiency jumped across the board. Commanders that used to be a problem became manageable, even killable."
Kane swiped the map again, showing flickering yellow dots in each red cluster.
"But six months ago," Kane said, "the Chimerians changed the rules. They started sending Champion-level units in groups, not just one at a time. They stopped testing us… and started treating this as a full-scale extermination campaign."
Kane continued, "We had no one who could reliably kill them. So every time one appeared, we were forced to fall back, evacuate, or sacrifice half a fleet just to slow them down."
"We haven't managed to kill even a single Champion since you went missing," Lira said quietly.
Arthur frowned. "…Not one?"
Kael shook his head. "We've wounded a few. But they always retreat, heal up, and come back."
Kane sighed and changed the projection again. One of the three fronts, Gamma, expanded into a detailed layout with three Champion icons clustered around a single region.
"This," Kane said, tapping on the central red flare, "is where we will make our stand, system G-117. The Chimerians renamed it in their comms as a 'testing ground.'"
Arthur's eyes narrowed. "Testing ground?"
Kael's expression darkened. "They treat that system as their lab. They send their scientists there and experiment on the humans who were living there."
Lira gritted her teeth as she said. "We've lost thousands of ships, millions of lives. And the worst part is they take all the humans from the captured areas there like it's a sport."
Silence stretched for a moment.
Kane's voice hardened. "So we'll turn their 'testing ground' into their graveyard."
Arthur's gaze shifted from the map to Kane as he suppressed his anger hearing the Chimerians were treating the humans as lab rats and said. "You said you had a plan. Something that depended on not broadcasting my return."
Kane nodded. "Yes. The Chimerians think you're dead. The 'Demon' they consider the greatest variable in this war has already been removed."
Arthur snorted. "Yeah… I remember hearing them call me that."
"And we're going to weaponize that assumption," Kane said.
He flicked his wrist and the holo-map shifted again, overlaying human fleet formations, launch vectors, local space terrain, and projected Chimerian patrol routes.
"We're going to leak a piece of important intel," Kane said. "And we're going to make it look tempting."
Arthur squinted slightly. "Elaborate."
Kael stepped forward, gesturing at the projection. "The Chimerians monitor our encrypted channels. They can't fully decrypt them easily, but they're good at pattern recognition. They rely heavily on predictive models to track where we'll attack or reinforce next."
He zoomed in on a small, seemingly insignificant blue dot near the G-117 system.
"We're going to let them 'overhear' intel about a new weapon test, a supposed superweapon prototype. We'll make it sound like an act of desperation, ready to be deployed in the G-117 region."
Arthur leaned back. "You're going to bait the Champions into chasing the superweapon."
Kane nodded. "Exactly. The Chimerians will see it as a threat, and an opportunity. They'll send their Champions to destroy it and demoralize us."
"And that's where I come in," Arthur concluded.
"Not just you," Kane said. "But the weapon itself."
Arthur tapped the table lightly. "So the weapon is real?"
Kane straightened. "Technically it's not a weapon per se. You remember Professor Eamon Carstairs right."
Arthur nodded hearing that name, as he was one of the most renowned experts in dimensional studies.
Kane continued seeing Arthur nod, "He has finally built a prototype called 'The Second Space' which allows us to tear open a gap in our universe to an unknown dimension. Though the device is not complete and is extremely unstable, it sucks everything near it towards the unknown dimension, once started. But it can open a gap momentarily in our universe, and we can use it to trap a few Chimerian Champions."
Arthur widened his eyes, as he felt it was similar to his Obelisk but was at the initial stage. He was amazed that the professor could build something like this in such a short time.
Kane continued "And when they come near it we will start the device…"
Arthur asked, "What if they destroy the ship from a distance?"
Kane smiled as said, "We have taken that into consideration, and that is why the three ships we will deploy with these prototypes were built with the toughest material we possess and have the best shield technology integrated in them. We have tested them against the champions and they are unable to destroy them with long range attacks."
"Let's assume you can take down three of them, what if they all attack a single ship together, I believe even if a single champion cannot destroy a ship they can do so together."
Kane became serious, "That's where you will play your role. If they target one ship at a time, I believe you are capable of distracting them." He paused for a moment and asked in a worried tone, "Can you handle more than one of them?"
He believed Arthur had a huge secret, as he had seen Arthur becoming stronger extremely fast, just when he arrived in this universe, he was much weaker than an ECHO, and within just a few months he was strong enough to kill a Champion. And now that more than a year had passed, who knew how strong he had become, he was betting on Arthur's growth.
Arthur smirked hearing Kane, "Don't worry… You might not even get the chance to use those prototypes." Hearing Arthur's confident proclamation Kane laughed heartily.
He again became serious and said. "For maximum psychological damage," Kane added. "You should kill them and record everything. We will broadcast the footage across our networks."
Arthur tilted his head. "You're banking on fear."
Kane nodded. "The Chimerians are fearless, but their strategists are not idiots. If they realize you survived, and came back stronger…"
Lira added quietly, "They will start hesitating to deploy Champions, with the risk of them getting killed. Even a six-month delay could let us reclaim a dozen sectors."
Arthur's mind ran through the probabilities.
"If the Champions decide to nuke the entire area from long range instead of engaging?"
Kane slid another layer over the map. "We are prepared for that, and proper defence against them is being prepared to deploy as we speak.
Arthur drummed his fingers on the table. "And what's the plan after we kill them?"
"We will push harder," Kane said. "ECHO fleets will strike all three fronts at once. Morale will skyrocket, and we'll ride that momentum."
Kane turned to Arthur, and asked. "What do you think?"
Arthur stared at the red-and-blue holograms.
"It's risky," he said finally. "But if executed cleanly, we can hit them exactly where it hurts."
Kane smirked faintly. "Then that's a yes, Commander?"
Arthur held his gaze. "Yeah," he said.
Kane straightened further, his posture regaining that old iron authority.
"Then we will proceed, I'll return to Solace Prime and finalize the intel leak plan. In the meantime…"
He looked at Arthur and Selene in turn.
"…you two should rest. There will be a lot of pieces moving, and the decision is a political nightmare, as most are unaware of your return."
Arthur's brows lifted. "Oh."
Kane's eyes hardened. "We don't have the luxury of sharing this information, Arthur. There are clearly spies among us, even if they are not in the top brass, they are close to them."
Arthur nodded. "Alright."
Kane stood up, setting the meeting's end, Kael and Lira straightened behind him.
He placed a hand briefly on Arthur's shoulder. "It's good to have you back," he said.
Arthur gave a small smile and nodded.
"Get some rest," Kane added. "Next time we meet we won't be in a quiet room."
With that, he turned and exited, the door sliding shut behind them.
…
The gate of the training chamber shut behind them, sealing with a heavy clank that made the floor tremble. It was one of the training chambers specially made to withstand the strength of the ECHOs augmented by Chi.
Selene leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, watching with amusement as Kael and Lira stretched, and mentally prepped like they were about to fight a beast.
Arthur just stood there, with his hands in his pockets like he was waiting for them to finish. As he was looking at their status panels.
//--------------------//
[STATUS]
Name: Kael Dorne
Designation: ECHO, Commander
Rank: Low-Grade Martial Artist
Age: 31
Height: 6'1"
Chi: 432,840 Units
Strength: 86,568 Tons
Speed: Mach 3.1
//--------------------//
//--------------------//
[STATUS]
Name: Lira Valen
Designation: ECHO, Commander
Rank: Low-Grade Martial Artist
Age: 30
Height: 5'7"
Chi: 406,875 Units
Strength: 81,375 Tons
Speed: Mach 3.4
//--------------------//
In this world though there were no resources to directly increase Chi capacity, but with the help of Gravity Chamber and potent nutritional fluid developed by the UFE, the ECHOs were able to continue improving their strength.
Kael and Lira activated their Chi. As, golden flame-like energy roared across their body.
Arthur cracked his knuckles. "Alright. Come at me, and don't hold back."
Kael grinned savagely. "You asked for it."
The next second both Lira and Kael vanished from their previous position.
To anyone else, they would've been blurs, golden streaks ripping across the chamber. But Arthur watched them approach like they were moving at a snail's pace.
Lira appeared behind him first, a precise axe-kick dropping toward the back of his head.
Kael materialized in front simultaneously, thrusting a palm strike aimed squarely at Arthur's sternum.
Arthur raised one hand behind without looking, catching Lira's descending heel effortlessly. With his other hand, he parried Kael's strike sideways, dispersing the focused Chi.
Both of them froze for a split second, as their eyes widened.
"Damn it, he didn't even use Chi for that parry!" Kael gritted his teeth, as he jumped back, his feet skidding across the ground.
Lira flipped backward in a graceful arc, landing lightly. "His reaction time's is off the chart"
Arthur shrugged. "You two are fast too, but speed isn't your problem."
Kael raised a brow. "…Then what is?"
Arthur continued seeing both of them listening intently. "You're powering your whole body when only parts of it need the reinforcement while attacking. Resulting in the output of Chi to become diffused thus your attacks becoming weaker."
Lira frowned. "But that's how we trained, full body augmentation for stability."
"Full body augmentation is good," Arthur said, "but it's step one, not the end goal. You're wasting energy reinforcing parts you aren't using. Though to channel so much energy to a specific part of your body in that short span of time, likely milliseconds, requires much better control of Chi which you guys currently lack."
Though Arthur felt it was his fault, as he didn't have time to teach them properly. Still it was amazing seeing them become so strong in just a year.
Arthur motioned again. "Try focusing Chi only into your attacking limb."
Kael nodded. "Alright."
The chamber filled with sonic snaps as the two zipped around Arthur, switching angles every second. Kael went low, aiming a sweep to destabilize Arthur's stance.
Though they were unable to do what Arthur just describes in such a short time, to compensate for that, Kael tried to distract him while Lira, who was already prepared with a concentrated attack, appeared behind him.
Before Kael's attack could land, Arthur kicked him, as Kael pinwheeled across the chamber.
"Hey…!" he yelled as he crashed into the wall.
Arthur sidestepped Lira's descending punch, as her fist cratered the reinforced floor.
Before she could retract it, Arthur lightly tapped her shoulder. The tap carried just enough force to send her sliding backward across the arena. She skid to a stop, her boots smoking from friction.
They moved again without stopping, with Kael distracting Arthur with feints, and Lira waiting for openings. Their teamwork showed years of training they'd been through.
Arthur was using the same amount of strength they possessed, and they even forced him to become serious, showcasing their combat capability.
And just like that they continued their training for the rest of the day.
***
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