Omnium Rerum Principia Parva Sunt

C1El was just outside the cargoship, he camouflaged it with its environment, so people wouldn't find it so easy.

He was slightly waddling like a penguin.

As more and more ships landed, he got more and more cautious. He heard a rustling, he hid very fast behind bushes.

They were two soldiers, patrolling the surrounding area. They talked to each other.

"You know, I don't even know why we are here..."

"Shut up man, we don't get paid for thinking, just follow orders soldiers, or else you will get us both in trouble, you hear me?"

" yeah, yeah I hear you man, its just kinda weird, like come on man, why now' hmm? Just think about it, whats good about this planet? You feel me right? Like no resources, no political bargain chip nothin'. "

"Can you just don't talk?"

"How else do we spend the time? I mean they say patrolling this, securing that, but come on we are in the middle of god nowhere, even the fuckin' animals are bored."

"*sigh* fine you want to talk, then just talk, I knew it was a mistake pairing up with you."

"Hey dont say that, i for one like being pared up with you" he was pouting slightly.

"Fine, fine, i got you, im sorry, we good?"

"Yeah I guess? Back to the topic man, our commander got kille--"

"SHHH!! you can't say stuff like that, what if somebody else hears you?"

He looked around, just to be sure no one heard them.

Then there was a rustling..., it alarmed the soldiers.

The first soldier put his finger on his own mouth to gesture that he should be quiet.

He aimed at the bushes.

It kept rustling. Then it suddenly stopped.

"Oink, oink, oink"

From the bushes you could hear the sounds of a pig.

The soldiers let their guard down with relief.

"Man that scared me"

"Not only you"

The soldiers giggled.

C1El heaved a sigh of relief.

'Good thing, I am prepared for every possible scenario.'

C1El then waited until they went away.

He made his way to the cave entrance, what astounded Raven and Elisa, was nothing to C1El.

He only diverse crystals, not the beauty in it. With his inbuilt scanner, he followed the tracks, they left behind. On his way he found more and more corpses lying around, mostly from Avarus Malum, including the soldiers from the patrol. Their corpses were still fresh. They left a look of terror and anguish behind.

Suddenly there were stomps, making huge dust clouds with every step!

In its glory, there was he standing, Luduan, the auspicious beast, with blood smeared around its mouth, it stared menacingly at C1El, who seemed unfazed by the emitted danger in front of his eyes.

"Excuse me, Sir, im in search of a young boy and a little girl, they may have wandered in your territory, and for that you have my utmost apologies. Would you be so kind Sir...?"

"Luduan"

"Ah yes indeed, Sir Luduan it is. Would Sir Luduan be so kind as to guide me to them, or show me the way. I would be very much be obligated to be utmost grateful to you Sir."

Luduan didn't say a word, he just turned around and made a gesture with his head to follow him.

" very well, this humble one will follow yours truly!"

C1El waddled behind the beast.

Avarus Malum was slowly gaining more and more ground. They won at multiple fronts. So it bewildered commander Rockwell, why they couldn't capture a small island, in the middle of nowhere.

He was in the outer atmosphere, in the command center of a giant ship.

"So you are telling me, that this damn island destroyed more platoons then our worst front?"

Rockwell didn't take it well that he was losing, especially not to the blue army, the army of earth, but to an island with backwater people.

"Sir, it seems there is a cave, that leads to the part of a tower, but the more we send people in, the more people we lose. We have little information about them too, mostly because no one gets out. So whoever is in the tower, doesn't want us to get in..." explained officer Wellington.

Rockwell tapped his finger, he was thinking about the next course of actions that he should take.

The whole room held their breath.

He stopped.

All the attention was on him.

"Corporal Grizzworld, the counter attack from earlier from the blue army, took a few ships from us, they dared to even hit us. Well it doesn't matter, since we set the barrier up around the planet. They are sitting ducks. It is surprising that this earth that lost everything what makes it valuable, has a tower, the most important thing is they don't know. They would otherwise use it. So Corporeal what do you think we should do?"

Corporeal Grizzworld took time to take the question in.

He looked straight at his commander, without an ounce of hesitation.

"I think we can send in, an elite squad, we can have the majority on the island to secure the parameters, but for the rest we can use them on fronts that are still struggling with the blue army."

"An elite force to tackle the problem, tell me what you need, I will provide. But don't forget that mistakes or any other mishaps aren't kindly taken corporeal, I want results. Understood?"

"Yes sir, I will not disappoint your trust!"

"You better not, what are you standing around for move at once!"

Corporeal Grizzworld made a salute with his fist to the heart and a bow, he turned around and didn't hesitate to order a bunch of soldiers to follow him. Seeing that made officer Wellington jealous. Rockwell took notice and smirked.

"That reminds me officer Wellington what about the artefact? Any new updates?"

Snapping out of it and getting back to reality once officer Wellington heard him, he immediately answered back nervous.

He opened on his tablet a video, he threw the video to the giant table in front of him with a swipe.

The video was now in 3d, as it started to play you could see Grisko and John how they fought a patrol team. But it got cut off.

"As we see the man named Grisko, took out a patrol team, we assume they infiltrated our ranks, took a ship and are probably in the tower."

"How did you come to this conclusion?"

Officer Wellington swiped on the table.

The hologram video changed. You could see a man on an island, exiting a patrolship, his face was clearly Grisko.

"After we hacked parts of earths intranet cybersecurity, we took control of few important infrastructure, like patrol bots and a few satellites, which enabled us to have eyes nearly everywhere. That patrolship was not on course to any of the frontiers, they do not communicate on our channels, so I checked, and found our man."

Commander Rockwell was tapping his finger again. Then he giggled, until he laughed.

"This man, is good as caught, seeing he entered the tower. He cant get out, so what could he possibly do? He tries to clear it, but alone? No not possible, even with his little friend there. Ahh, Grisko you insignificant piece of dog shit. You could have escaped but you choose your own death and not one that will be painless."

His voice was icy cold, it sent a shiver to the people.

"Officer Wellington, go prepare to get sent down, join Corporeal Grizzworld and bring me the Artefact back."

This order of commander Rockwell made officer Wellington euphoric.

Seeing a chance to prove himself, he immediately took it!

"Yes sir !"

Officer Wellington saluted and sprinted.

Out of breath he was in the preparation room, where he found Corporeal Grizzworld getting proper armor, hoisting his weapons, double checking his gear. He was getting ready.

Without a word, officer Wellington stood next to him,in front of a locker and took gun, Armor, backpack and more.

Corporeal Grizzworld looked at officer Wellington, then got immediately back to his business.

"I don't care what you plan to do, but I promise you this, I will be the one to rise through the ranks, not some vermin like you, you think you are better than me, think again, you are wrong. I only tolerate your presence because I am not allowed to take care of you, I hope we are crystal clear."

Officer Wellington closed the locker with a slam.

Corporeal Grizzworld slowly walked up to him. Making Wellington slightly nervous.

He came closer and whispered in his ear.

"I don't give a damn about you nor about your ambition, I only care about the mission. If you mess up, my mission, I don't care about the rules. I'll drag you to a abandoned place and end you, i don't care about the repercussions, your corpse will be fed to the giant worms of grasai."

He closed the locker. Without changing an expression.

He and the other soldiers, in full gear, boarded a military cargo ship, specifically for carrying soldiers.

Gnashing his teeth in frustration, officer Wellington looked at his soldiers, feeling humiliated he punched a soldier in his stomach.

"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AND STANDING AROUND FOR, GET ON THE FUCKING SHIP, RIGHT NOW!!!"

The soldier that got hit was left behind. He was grimacing and lying on the floor.

"Oh, you want to play..., just wait you piece of shit.."

He put his helmet on and boarded with his soldiers a similar ship.

You could see, two cargo ships departing from the mothership taking course to earth.

In the hq of the federation

"Chairman, it's taking longer than planned. We didn't expect our fleet to get into a nebula storm.." zaron was nervous. He was slightly stressed, he wasn't used to report bad news, as he always uses some scapegoat to bring them.

Chairman Adamare was sitting on her throne, she frowned upon so slightly, hearing the bad news set her in a bad mood.

"Is admiral Baaruk and Goodwill encountering any other problems?"

"No definitely not, we can only hope that earth holds on long enough, so that our fleet arrives on time, before its too late."

Carley was sitting on the roundtable, facing chairman Adamare. He was known to be neutral and unpartial. If he didn't know his way in diplomacy, he wouldn't sit at the roundtable.

"Why cant they just fly through? Its just a storm isn't it?" Dako complained.

"*sigh * Dako, my dear friend, I knew you were stupid, but not this stupid..., listen here if they just fly through, like you said they should, half of our forces would be annihilated, the rest would be lost in the nebula. The only reason they are confident to fly through, is mostly because of our admiral Baaruk, he is one of the only few who got enough experience to make it through. He may be still young, but someone like him comes maybe only every century, he is that good."

Dako grimaced at Murk.

*snort*

"Murk, you are not known for complimenting others, other than yourself, what changed you calculative bastard"

"ahh, rest assured my friend, nothing, im still the schemer that you know"

Murk then turned to the Chairman and bowed.

"If you then excuse me, im rather busy"

After he went away Senko frowned.

"I dont like that guy, I don't know why we even keep a snake like him at our side."

"Well said!" Dako patted Senkos shoulder.

Senko brushed his hands away and frowned even more.

*sigh*

"I only hope Elder Goodwill, arrival will turn the tide, then at least we have the moral on our side. Im afraid this little skirmish will turn into something bigger..."

Chairman Adamare looked at the space outside, where she could see the federations home base planet with a worrisome look.

What she didn't know was that reinforcement would shortly arrive. Not for the blue army, but for Avarus Malum.

Ensifer, a lord of Avarus Malum was eagerly waiting to join the fray...