Interstellar General (1)

Edited by: Kuro and Lille

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When Grey came to, he felt his body shaking uncontrollably. Red flashes flooded his eyes, and the sound of an alarm was ringing in his ears. He could see he was in a mecha, but sparks were flying everywhere. He felt like if he kept his eyes open any longer, he would lose his eyes too!

A mechanical voice rang in his ears, "Warning. Warning. Warning. Danger. Crash landing in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5…"

[Grey, brace yourself!]

He felt like his body was being hit by a truck as the mecha crashed into the ground. Luckily, his body was sturdy so he didn't break any bones. He had cuts and bruises all over his body though, and he knew it was going to take him some time to recover fully.

[Grey, you must leave the mecha now! It is about to explode. Let me open the latch for you!]

Grey crawled out of the mecha as fast as he could, but he scraped his limbs on the way out. When he got far enough, he heard System 225's warning once again.

[The mecha is going to explode! Cover your head.]

He shielded his head with his arms and felt the ground shake. He heard the explosion behind him, he could feel the flames on his skin, and bits of pieces of hot metal fell off of him.

He turned around and didn't see much of his mecha. Actually, it was in pieces.

'To have the threat of dying in a mecha immediately after transferring to a new world … the difficulty seems to have gone up a lot.'

[I'm sorry, Grey, I thought we would have a safer transfer, but it seems there was a disturbance with the transfer.]

'Is it the Villain System?'

[No, this time, the guardians of this universe are trying to prevent our arrival.]

'What can we do?'

[Not much. All we can do is complete the missions and hope the guardians won't interfere any further than this… Ah, let me send you the information for this world while you tend to your wounds. There isn't a lot though.]

There were multiple worlds in this universe, so there were multiple beings that controlled the direction the worlds would go towards. It was strange since he was used to going to individual worlds that Gods isolated. The UniOrb was quite vast. There were still many things he didn't understand about it.

This time, he was in a whole universe system of worlds. In simpler terms, he was in an interstellar universe.

There were galactic alliances and empires that ruled the interstellar universe. There were also different races, different from humans, elves, and dwarfs. Depending on the environment, they could either have skin as hard as stones or metals, or have gills and flippers, but were still able to communicate with others. Of course, there were humans, but they were different from the humans that Grey was used to.

They evolved after years of struggling in the galactic wars and trying to find a place to live after the destruction of Planet Earth. They had an energy system that they used to protect their people.

There was a system for physical and mental energy, both were used for different things. There were ranks for the energy; S was the highest and then A through F with F being the lowest rank. Both physical and mental strength were ranked with the same system. Most people had the same physical and mental strength, while it was rare to have two different ones.

The physical energy increased the strength of a person and made their bodies harder than metal. If needed, they could even make their body into a weapon. As for mental strength, it increased the speed of thoughts, and their memory, and made them capable of using high-intensity weapons like the mechas.

Mechas were powerful machinery that humans used to keep their status in the interstellar universe. They weren't the strongest species, but the mechas made sure they weren't the weakest.

General Silas Ebunox was one of the few S-ranked individuals in the whole empire.

As for the current Grey, he had no idea what his energy rank was. He could tell it was a lot, but that was about it. He would have to get it checked formally when they escape their current predicament…

The other information Grey was given was the memories of his current body, which coincidentally, had the same name as him. But he didn't have a last name for some reason. The original Grey had short brown hair and eyes. They were normal hair and eye colors, but he was reasonably handsome with his tan skin. He was also only a B-ranked soldier. It was the bare minimum for the rank requirements in the military.

There was a reason why Grey was picked out of all the other folks in General Silas' First Legion of soldiers. They picked him because he was easily overlooked.

Grey, the original, was supposed to kill the General.

[Here are your missions. Good luck with your endeavors.

[Main mission: Find and punish the mastermind(s) behind General Silas' accident.

[Side Mission: Keep the General alive until the rescue team arrives.

[That's all I have been given, Grey. I wish you the best of luck.]

'Thank you, System 225.'

There wasn't a lot for him to work with. He knew that the original followed General Silas while the other's mecha malfunctioned during a battle between unknown forces. The two crashed on a random planet a bit away from their teammates. General Silas' men killed the unknown forces and only then they realized that their General was gone!

In the original plot, it took them a couple of weeks before they would find the General, but he was in a terrible state. As for the original Grey, he died when he crashed into the planet in his mecha.

"I can't remember why Grey had to kill General Silas though… Why would he do something so reckless after the battle with the Zerg Queen."

There were too many things missing… it seems he would have to find out for himself.

*****

After Grey patched up his wounds, he slowly got up and began walking in the direction that System 225 pointed out. About 50 feet away, there was smoke rising to the sky. It was where General Silas crashed.

Grey knew he had to hurry up and get to General Silas. He felt a tingle run up his arm. He knew this man was God System just by looking at him, but that wasn't too important. The most important thing was to stabilize his condition.

He still had enough medicine in his first aid kit, something that all soldiers kept with them. He hoped that General Silas also had his.

When he got to General Silas' crash site, he found the man several feet away from his mecha. His mecha didn't explode, but it was smoking from the impact.

General Silas was wearing a tight black body suit made of unknown materials. Armor pieces protected his vital areas. It was made of a strange metal that shaped his body quite well. Even though it didn't look heavy, he knew it had more protection than the heaviest of armors. Usually, there would be a neon blue light that could be turned on to enhance the strength of the wearer, but it was shut off, seemingly broken.

His black hair was stuck together in large chunks because of the dried blood from his head. The man was lying on his back because of the large wound on his abdomen.

Grey hurried over to General Silas, with a slight limp, and rustled around for the other's first aid kit. He had it on his belt. Fortunately, it wasn't crushed from the rough and tumble.

The medicine was quite lowkey. The medicine looked like a pen, but once the cap was opened, there was a needle to inject the person. There was one to stop the blood, it was red and yellow. He injected that into the General's arm. He also found some cleaning agents and used it to clean his wounds. After that, he bandaged General Silas.

'System, can you scan to see if there is a safe place? Like a cave or something.'

[On it… scanning of area… Scanning within 500 meters… Scanning complete. There is a safe cave 30 meters from here. Turn 50 degrees and walk straight down that path. Oh, I already checked the inside of the cave. It is safe and has no signs of living in it.]

'Perfect, thank you, System.'

Grey picked General Silas and put him on his back. He was heavy and much taller than Grey, so General Silas' legs were dragging along the floor. It took him 5 minutes to get there. The extra baggage and being injured made it hard for Grey to move.

He trudged through the forest before finally making it to a clearing where he could see the cave. The cave was at the base of a mountain in a small valley. The slopes of the other mountains weren't high but they provided extra protection from intruders. The cave entrance was slightly raised, so rain couldn't come pouring inside.

He placed General Silas behind a large rock and used their coats as mats. He didn't want the injured General to lay on the dirt floor…

Grey knew he needed to erase their tracks, but also put a sign for the rescue team to see. He also needed to find firewood to keep them warm. His food and water situation was a bit complicated. He had food and water but he had it in his System Space from the 8th world. It was from the time that he and his companions kept dungeon diving, training in the oddest places looking for the Hero's Relics. In the end, he had accumulated a couple of years' worth of rations. Since time didn't affect the System Space, the food and water in there were still fresh.

'I am a little glad for my hoarding of rations…'

[Though I tried to discourage your hoarding habits, I am glad you at least hoarded food and water… It's just…]

'Yeah, I don't know if it's compatible for us to eat. The humans here are a bit different. I will try to get some food and water from this planet if they are safe. If not, we will have to make do with the rations I have.'

Grey had to take things one step at a time, so the first thing he did was have System 225 analyze his and God System's new bodies. He went out to cover their tracks and got some firewood. All he did was cover any blood that had dripped on the ground while picking up dry wood. The branches that were still on the tree were not suitable for burning.

By the time he got back, System 225 was done analyzing the bodies they were in.

[From what I can see, the contents of the food and water in the System Space are safe for you to eat. You should try it first before giving it to God System. It would be best to do so in case I am wrong.]

He had to keep God System alive so it made sense that he was the food tester.

Grey sat down next to General Silas, took his temperature, and confirmed that the man was okay. After that, he took some food from his System Space and took a deep breath. He trusted System 225. If he said he would be fine, then he would. Grey munched on his dried meat and found that he wasn't having any adverse effects right away. He wanted to wait an hour before he would feed General Silas.

"Thirsty…" General Silas groaned in his sleep. His mouth was so dry, he felt like it had converted into a desert.

Grey panicked before finally taking out emergency rations that were provided in this world. It was a part of the first aid kit that was stuck to his side. He found some sort of liquid nutrient and fed it to General Silas. That seemed to satisfy him because he went right back to sleep.

He sighed in relief. He didn't have a lot of these nutrient solutions so he had to use them sparingly.

He knew that their comrades would rescue them in a couple of weeks. He just needed to hold out until then.