CHAPTER 271: CH

The problem was multi-layered: the two to three dozen Minotaurs resting in the expanded area were on the far side of the junction door, while the four to six heavy guards were on the immediate side. This meant they couldn’t be neutralized simultaneously. The resting group had to be eliminated first, followed by the door guards.

To do this, the Delta Squad had to neutralize those two or three dozen Minotaurs without making a sound. If the door guards noticed any commotion, or if a patrolling team spotted the disruption and hit the alert, the mission would be severely compromised.

"Well, no worries," Kaelen thought, trying to reassure himself. "Taking care of them without making any sound is easy enough; nothing too hard." But he was far from calm; frustration was building.

The mission was heavily constrained. They were deep within the enemy’s main line, and the secrecy of the operation demanded immense sacrifice. Kaelen had even been forced to lock off his mana—a self-imposed limitation that could be reversed, but the feeling of suppressing his own power, coupled with the "stupid situation" they were in, was intensely aggravating.

For a moment, he wanted to forget the mission parameters and simply unleash his power to annihilate the Minotaurs. But he knew he couldn’t, which was perhaps the most frustrating part.

"Ah, cool down, cool down, Kaelen! Control, control!" Taking a deep breath, he managed to slightly quell his frustration.

With a satisfied grunt, he cut the channel. Kaelen and the others activated their advanced hyper-life detection equipment. An invisible quantum field emitted from their suits, scanning the perimeter. The simultaneous operation of their equipment strengthened the search parameter, providing exceptionally detailed coverage.

The squad continued silently through the corridors, bypassing doors and navigation systems until they reached a point where they had no choice but to engage—their first true engagement of the mission.

Kaelen raised his hand as he came to a stop around the corner of the corridor. The 294 Marines following him instantly halted at the simple, fist-motion gesture, which they understood perfectly from their training.

Opening his comms, he spoke to the internal speakers in their suits: "Everyone, begin scanning the area ahead of us. This is our breach point. From here on, all Minotaurs we see have to be neutralized, and I want no error. Every Minotaur should be accounted for... if I made a mistake, that is."

"Sir, yes, sir!" came the instant reply from the Marines.

With a satisfied grunt, he cut the channel. Kaelen and the others activated their advanced hyper-life detection equipment. An invisible quantum field emitted from their suits, scanning the perimeter. The simultaneous operation of their equipment strengthened the search parameter, providing exceptionally detailed coverage.

In a couple of seconds, their visors lit up, presenting a highly detailed map of the area, even more detailed than the navigation data they had (which was extracted from the wreckage of a previously destroyed Taurus-class ship).

The optical display presented a scenario that was partially expected: five corridors ahead. One led to the Power Generation Room, two led to the Shield Generator Room and Propulsion Room

(interconnected with the FTL devices), and the final two led to Minotaur resting areas.

The corridors—other than the two leading to the resting area—were swarming with Minotaurs.

Bio-Signature Count (Forward Block): 1,000+ Minotaurs.

The sheer volume was slightly less than anticipated for this critical junction, a fact previously reported by the Beta Squad. Many of the stationed Minotaurs had been pulled out to prep escape ships—a role suited for engineers and technicians. This made the initial corridor clear potentially easier.

But Kaelen couldn’t have been more wrong to rush that thought. A new, detailed analysis report appeared on his display, focusing on the two target bays:

Shielding Generator Bay: 200–300 signatures detected.

Propulsion Bay (FTL): 200–300 signatures detected.

A closer look showed about 200 signatures in each bay standing directly near the mainframes of the Shield Generator and Propulsion Engines.

Kaelen guessed that the engineers in the Propulsion/FTL bay were desperately tweaking systems to achieve a stoppage solution—a way to bypass the space lock meticulously created by the First Void Fleet. Meanwhile, those in the Shielding Bay were likely focused on restoring damage, explaining how the shields had held for so long under the fleet’s vanguard fire.

Kaelen’s mouth twitched. He felt things had been going too well earlier. Furrowing his brow beneath his helmet, he muttered, "Well, this is a bit troubling."

"Look like they are indeed becoming more and more desperate, huh," he repeated to himself. "No matter, they can’t stop us anyway, but it makes things a bit harder than expected."

The initial plan of a direct confrontation could not be implemented. A firefight here would cause too much commotion, instantly alerting the Minotaurs inside the two target bays. They would then, in turn, alert the whole ship, triggering a full alert that would jeopardize the missions of the other six squads throughout the fleet.

"No, that can’t be done!" Kaelen realized, the internal contemplation lasting less than a second. He had to abandon the planned frontal assault.

Kaelen adjusted his combat suit’s sensors and focused on the immediate entrance visible down the long corridor after the turn.

Kaelen’s visor display zoomed in on the immediate threat: four to six Minotaurs stood directly at the corridor junction. They were clad in full heavy armor, each wielding a gun as massive as their frame.

Further behind them, the life signatures revealed the Minotaur patrols. They were numerous, with each patrol continuing to contain no less than two or three dozen Minotaurs. Due to the corridor’s lack of sufficient width, they were split into three smaller groups moving rigidly, giving each other just enough space to pass.

While the sheer number of patrols was intimidating, Kaelen immediately noted their major flaw. Their movement was rigid and highly predictable; anyone watching it a couple of times could easily map their entire cycle. They followed a routine defensive cycle with no changes at all.

Compounding this tactical error, the Minotaurs were overwhelmingly casual and not at all attentive or prepared for any sudden attack. This relaxed state, combined with the flawed patrol cycle, was the perfect opening for the Shadow Division.

Upon further analysis, Kaelen found that each crucial corridor junction was secured by big, heavy armored doors, or at least that’s what his scan indicated. At each of these heavy doors stood a similar number of guards (four to six Minotaurs).

Immediately in front of the heavy door was a slightly wider resting space. Here, another patrolling team of Minotaurs was resting, some sitting and some standing, but all of them completely relaxed.

The active patrol cycle saw about two teams moving through those corridors, meeting precisely at the center gap at a maximum interval of two minutes.

He once again focused on the Minotaurs and their patrols, analyzing the exact times they moved, when they stood in front of the door, and when they were far away.

All this data ran through his mind and his suit’s tactical processor. In record-breaking time, he and his suit’s AI analyzed every possible window of vulnerability—even the micro-vulnerabilities.

Dozens of ways existed to exploit these flaws. The most promising was at each intersection: for a brief moment of one to two minutes (a minimum of one minute, thirty seconds, and a maximum of two minutes, with no major fluctuation), the patrolling Minotaurs would momentarily lose visual contact with the six stationed door guards because of a bend in the corridor.

This crucial visual break was repeated throughout all four intersections that led to the Shield Generator Bay and the Propulsion Bay.

Kaelen realized he could definitely exploit this major vulnerability, provided he made every second count. Any mistake, however, would be instantly catastrophic, as the Minotaurs were rarely silent.

They were constantly chatting with each other, and some were even momentarily zoning out—a sign of the stress of war, perhaps, or something else. Kaelen noticed a massive gauntlet on their wrists displaying a holographic screen, but he couldn’t make sense of the Minotaur speaking there, though it was clearly distracting them.

"Well, whatever it is, it should not matter to me," Kaelen decided. "Instead, I should be happier that they are distracted."

With that, he began calculating the precise cycle at which the patrols rotated, and the exact second they were out of sight from one another. He quickly found the exact optimal moment for silent and swift neutralization.

However, this plan demanded the utmost attention from him and his teammates. They had to be precise and fast, as they needed to clear a path through hundreds of Minotaurs in small, sequential, and silent engagements to avoid alerting those within the core bays, which would, in turn, alert the entire ship.