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The battle in the pacific continued to escalate as the once defensive operations became more and more aggressive.

At first, countries were just securing to retrieve the submarines that they could, but for some strange reasons, various countries began to break protocol and even disobeyed the direct orders of their superiors and attacked the main fleet of Bangladesh. 

Myanmar and some independent nations began to attack a coordinated strike on one of Bangladesh's aircraft carrier. And the constant attack further escalated into a battle.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"Lim! I've done it! You better have a good reason why I should destroy all of the anti-air defenses this ship has?!" Ivan cursed as he finally reached an empty room.

Lim was seated inside with a computer that had secretly linked itself with the command center.

"Good. I can see it. Will really is a genius. Although he's a bit clumsy, when it comes to computer, he's the king." Lim praised, ignoring Ivan's question.

"Lim! I hope I haven't doomed ourselves in this!" 

"The Unlocked is a breach of the norm. Seeker showed us a very bizarre way of communicating with us. He teleported directly inside a submarine underwater without carrying any techs. While it should have made sense for him to teleport to us, as he could have had a device from where he was to send him to the sub, he still managed to teleport out without creating special effects that we often see in movies or animated shows. And he even lost an arm, and if we were to believe him, another organ as he did that. Why did he do that?"

"He's insane."

"Yes. I agree. But another reason is to show us to stop thinking according to humanly thinking. Do you know why a dog never thinks about flying in the sky as birds do?"

"...?" Ivan just gave Lim a strange look this time.

"It's because it doesn't have wings. Right now, you are a dog with wings, but you are still thinking like a regular dog. What will happen if we disable most of the anti-air techs?"

"They'll launch missiles at us!"

"Yes. Recall Epic's sniping skills when we were surfacing. He could shoot a torpedo that was not even launching yet. The enemy ships around us have shown hesitation in attacking us, except for a few that I've already noticed. They are the ones with Pioneers. They will break all protocols and launch weapons that are a step short of becoming weapons of mass destruction."

"Why would they do that?"

"Think, carefully Ivan. The worst thing they can do is sink this ship. We are Unlocked. We can survive a sinking carrier. They will lose sight of us. So they will try to blast this ship and blow it up. And we will be using that plan against them."

"My god...! You plan to blow up their ship with Epic's sniping skills!"

"Epic. Target acquired. The ship to the far east is preparing a Havoc Bomb. Its warhead's detonation is a contact type, but the proximity is an extremely small point at the tip of the warhead. Can you shoot it? The sensors indicate a missile silo opening right port of the ship."

Epic was right in the flying on top of an aircraft carrier with a Jet-Capable Exoskeleton. He managed to take advantage of the chaos and wear an Exoskeleton assigned to perform anti-air attacks to compensate for the sudden loss of the ship's anti-air capabilities.

"I see it. They're prepping its launch." Epic took aim and even stopped breathing. His form was steady, and his eyes glanced at the target with unfettered concentration. He made a careful estimate of the wind, the turbulent chaos of the battlefield and finally pulled the trigger.

BANG!

...

...

...

He was off-target by thirty-four meters.

"Drats."

"Epic? Can you shoot?!" Lim's former serious and cold expressions turned into panic.

"Yeah! Sorry... I'm just not used to this Exoskeleton. Its shooting gears are changed. Give me a few seconds."

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Epic did several test shots and aimed elsewhere to see where his bullet would move.

All shots missed the target.

"Relax, you two. You just said that we are Unlocked. Those three shots gave me a way of already gauging the direction of the bullet. Relax."

Epic aimed again.

BANG!

The bullet flew through the air and expertly struck the small point of the warhead.

TINK!

The sound of a bullet hitting through steel was heard, and a split second later...

BOOM!

The entire ship exploded out, and five smaller explosions followed it.

As the rocket was still inside the silo, the explosion occurred right inside the ship and destroyed the ship on the first explosion, that the second wave of explosions would have been considered an overkill.

Lim immediately relayed the other armed rockets she detected, and Epic began to fly around. 

The sudden destruction of one ship was so startling that all soldiers at sea.

It didn't matter what country they were at. They weren't like Australia, Pangea, and the SPU, who had a deep grudge and would fight to the death. These were just countries defending their ships and rescuing the submarines they sent out.

One ship had sunk. This would immediately lead to war. But the curious thing was no one was able to tell what was the cause of the sudden attack!

The Pioneers who had expertly executed a plan to manipulate and control several ships were also stunned. They took advantage of the few techs and information they had about the sea and carefully plotted everything. But that explosion was beyond their expectations. A team of Pioneers had died just like that.

"Deactivate the warhead!" One Pioneer immediately ordered as he was inside the main command center of one ship.

Some Pioneers were smart enough to realize what had happened. Though they were taken captives, they had the means to communicate with other teams and did the necessary experiments to attack all of the experiments.

They were warned that the Gryphon squadron would be their greatest enemies. And so, some Pioneers were in charge of killing the Gryphon squadron while the rest would wipe out the other experiments.

But as for the other Pioneers who were caught off guard from the explosions and were too late in giving out the order...

BOOM!

Another ship exploded and was wiped off the map.

One Pioneer was able to disarm the weapon that he had readied. Little did he know that if he were only a few seconds later, he would have been dead.

The ships began to distance themselves from each other from the panic.

To most of the captains, they had no idea how that occurred.

The Pioneer looked all over the battlefield in an attempt to figure out how their ships exploded. 

"What happened?" He wondered.

All of a sudden, the door burst opened.

A woman wearing a ragged outfit aimed and shot the Pioneer's head and killed all those in the room before retreating.

The woman jumped out of the window and dove into the ocean.

A jet suddenly hovered and caught the woman before backing away to retreat.

The other soldiers tried to shoot the jet, but the jet had already escaped.

The woman managed to move inside the jet and found two people inside. Piloting the jet was a woman, and a young kid sat next to her on the pilot seat of the small jet.

"Fish! Your piloting skills are amazing!" Suarez praised. He had just witnessed how Fish dove the ship and evaded most incoming attacks.

"Are you the boy that was broadcasting those strange words?" The woman asked Suarez.

"Yes! Amazing! I was right! There are more of us in this crazy experiment!" Suarez laughed.

"Right! You found them!" Fish praised.

"What's going on?" The woman pressed again.

"How many are in your team?"

"Team? There were just two of us. And he just died." The woman frowned.

"So one... And if I'm right, there were about four more who gave me that feeling. Ah... But why didn't they do what I said?" Suarez frowned.

"It was real! I heard your words, but my companion didn't. He died because he went separate ways with me after I told him I heard stuff."

"What? Only you heard my words? Lim? Can you explain this?"

"Remember Seeker's words. We are his former team. The woman you found right now is only people who manifested some traits that make them suitable to be Unlocked. But not everyone is gifted. This little experiment is something that forces others to fight. Since we are Seeker's team, it proves that we are much better and stronger than most. Fish, Suarez... Try to find and rescue as many as you can. This is also a test to make us grow stronger. If we can save more of these experiments, we have an easier chance of surviving in the future. Whether on future experiments or in the real thing."

"So this current stage is meant to help us form a team?" Ivan realized it.

"Yes. Those individuals who we met aboard this ship and who died were real Unlocked. Suarez was the first to identify them, and we failed to save them. The remaining Pioneers will be retreating. They don't know how we blew two ships. So, we have to find more."

"Alright. I get it now. Suarez! Keep up the broadcast and try to find another one Unlocked to lock in to. If you can read his or her mind and save that person just like you did with that new recruit, then it'll be good. Use that woman as a way to gather more if you need an extra hand. Lim, I assume that we don't need to continue with the defenses, right? You said the Pioneers are retreating."

"Yes."

"Then we better get out in the field and try to fight other ships to see if there are any Unlocked. The easiest way is to spot them is with their attire. Just like that woman that Fish and Suarez rescued, they should have some prisoner or rugged attire. I doubt the other Unlocked in this experiment managed to disguise themselves as we did. Epic and Will... Get ready for field duty. Are my arrangements good, Lim? Or do you have any other suggestions?" Ivan asked.

"None. As expected of our future Commander." Lim praised.

"Good! Let's go! Don't worry about shooting the possible Unlocked. You know how strong and resilient they are. Epic, just shoot ones in the leg if you found any!" Ivan ordered.

The group immediately followed their orders. Suarez gave a quick explanation of what was going on to the woman they just met, and Suarez continued to make the strange broadcast where he was talking at a frequency that humans would be unable to hear.

While that was happening, the battle between Pangea, SPU, and Australia was also coming to an end.

The three ships were now retreating as the Unlocked had completed their missions.

Hydron, Hoross, and Colestar met once more in their ship. The mission went on surprisingly well. With the numerous tacticians involved, the trio was already back before Epic destroyed two ships.

"So this is the cub tactician that is being trained!" Hydron looked at the battle occurring near the Bangladesh fleet.

"Yes. From the looks of it, the experiments seemed to be succeeding. Out of the thirty-five Unlocked, eight is already dead, though..." Colestar read the ongoing reports that were being sent back.

"How wasteful. Those Overcomers should save all the Unlocked they could get their hands on."

"No. That experiment is necessary. We are now having a glimpse of how these Pioneers think and act. These Pioneers are warned of the full number of the Unlocked that they are fighting and are systematically trying to kill them! The eight Unlocked that died has taught us great lessons to see how they act and think. While it may seem irrelevant to us, give that information to the smarter ones like Lennox or Arthur, then we practically don't have to worry about Pioneers once they come up with a strategy to kill these Pioneers."

"Still..." Hydron sighed.

"Don't be too down, Hydron. Or should I say, Mister President?" Roselyn entered as she chuckled.

"Good job in completing the mission. You three make excellent Unlocked soldiers. Especially you, Uncle! You seemed to understand the flow of the battlefield." Roselyn praised her boss's father.

"I'm a bit of a gamer, myself." Albert laughed with an embarrassed expression.

"Anyway, let's get down with our assessment. There are still a lot of things to do. Remember, while our little experiments are for Pioneers, a chess match that will change the world will start in the Trading Hub. Lara and that other Presider should be meeting with Seeker now."

Hydron and Colestar couldn't help but shiver. Both of them experienced the world-changing actions of Seeker. They could not imagine what it would be like when people who could dictate the economic, military, and political landscapes were to fight against each other.

"I wonder what this planet will be like in the next months...." Colestar gazed at one of the monitors displaying the submarine docking containing Zerahpine and Lanterk.

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