Chapter 33: Strange behaviour
It wasn't hard for Kate to figure out that the Ramarta before her was the Commander dispatched to this planet.
Even if she hadn't seen his spectacle of an entrance, the sheer heart energy he radiated was more than enough for her to come to that conclusion.
Her mind was still reeling from the scene. The Ramarta Commander had descended into the planet with just his Heart-shard ability. Given the fact that no ship arrived after him, it meant that he had travelled all the way here that way, as well.
That was crazy!
The distance between Tomber and Tarok was so vast that it took hours for a vessel moving at near light speed to cross. The Ramarta commander was clearly not a Tarokian, and therefore would most likely not be stationed anywhere close to their planet. Which meant he had travelled through the vacuum of space from an even further planet, and arrived within an hour. Kate couldn't tell how fast he would have to be moving for that, but she knew it had to be an insane amount.
She had never seen or heard of this commander before, but she already understood that he had to be a very powerful person.
The Ramarta meanwhile, simply watched her silently. It was as if he was checking for something with his golden eyes.
"...Head Instructor Kate, I presume." He said finally, his voice cutting through the howling winds like a blade.
"Yes commander, that's me." Kate answered curtly as she straightened.
She made a guess that he'd done research on her facility through his badge on his way here. That was still insane for her to think about.
"...How strange. A member of your staff sent out a distress signal for a human threat quite a while ago. But, from the look of things, you don't seem to be in distress at all. It's quite perplexing." The Commander muttered with a raised brow.
"...it was, a false alarm." Kate reported hesitantly. "My staff made the mistake of confusing a half-human new recruit with a human, and decided to lock down the facility, per protocol."
The commander stared at her silently for awhile. "A mistake?"
"Yes, commander." Kate replied, holding her hand behind her back to steady herself as she continued. "I understand that we have committed a grave sin by wasting your time for something like this, sir. I beg you not to punish my subordinate for this oversight. I was the one who failed to mention the situation with the half-human, which led to the current incident, Sir. I'd been careless."
The commander stared at her some more, his golden eyes boring into her.
"Half-human..." The commander asked. "You're saying there's a half-human here?"
"Yes, sir. Arbus. A half-tarokian and half-human." Kate answered. "He was sent over on the approval of the council, but I had only received the information earlier today."
"Hmm, I see." The Ramarta muttered as he turned his sharp yellow eyes toward the facility.
Kate gulped, unsure of what was going to happen next.
"..."
Then, the commander's body suddenly began emitting a bright orange light that drowned out the darkness beneath the storm clouds.
Kate's eyes widened in alarm at the commander activating his Heart-shard ability.
"Sir!" She shouted.
The Commander's expression remained the same as an invisible pulse erupted from his orange aura, expanding far and fast in every direction.
It swept through the entire facility in front of him, and beyond, allowing him to sense everything within its range with almost perfect clarity.
Deep inside the facility, he scanned through several life forces until he finally found the one he was looking for. The half-human, Arbus.
But he didn't stop there. The orange glow spread out even more, until it covered even the mountains in the far distance.
When he was satisfied, he retracted his heart senses as the light faded.
Kate's tense expression eased slightly as she noticed the commander wasn't attacking.
I've... confirmed your words. There's really nothing here." The commander said with a slight frown.
Kate wasn't sure, but it almost seemed like the Ramarta commander was... disappointed.
"It seems you've simply made a mistake. A very large one, I should add." He continued as his expression returned to normal.
Kate quickly bowed deeply in response. "I realise that, Sir! Once again, I am deeply sorry for wasting your time with this!"
"... It's alright, you don't need to do that." The commander said. "Your subordinate made the right call based on the information she had. I can't fault her for this, since we expect you all to send a signal as fast as possible before it's too late."
He glanced towards the facility again. "And with the half-human here, I suppose your situation was one of a kind."
"We cannot afford to have a repeat of Terytl-B. So I'm glad you did it." The commander said with a nod. "But. I sincerely hope a mistake like this doesn't repeat itself."
Kate blinked in surprise at his forgiveness for a moment before nodding in appreciation. "Thank you, commander."
The commander nodded again in response, glancing at the facility one last time.
"Arbus... It seems the Sentinel finally made that half human a full-fledged Renegade." He mused.
Kate realised the commander knew more about Arbus's situation than she did, but, she thought better of asking him right now, despite how much she wanted to.
" I shall be taking my leave now." The commander said as he turned to her. "Be well, instructor Kate."
Yes, goodbye sir." Kate said, bowing deeply again.
He turned away, striding into the snow to create some distance between himself and the base.
Suddenly, the commander halted, his brows knitting together as his tail stopped swaying. His gaze shot downward, a worried expression slowly spreading across his handsome features.
Kate's brows furrowed as she watched him. "Is something wrong, commander? Are we under attack??"
The Ramarta said nothing for several moments as his bright yellow eyes remained fixed to the ground.
Eventually, he shook his head as he turned to Kate.
"No, it's nothing. I've heard this planet is famous for disrupting heart-shard senses. I just didn't think it would be capable of doing the same to mine. Bit of a shock, really." The commander said, continuing further into the snowstorm.
when he got far enough away, an orange light emitted from him again as he reactivated his abilities.
The raging winds all around him suddenly began surging toward him at an alarming rate.
He crouched slowly, his coat swaying in the violent breeze.
Then, a second later, the air around him ignited all at once as he shot skyward at terrifying speeds, bursting through the clouds once more.
Kate watched in awe for a few moments before she let out a deep sigh of relief.
Her gaze turned back to the facility as she headed inside with a small smile.
On a snow-covered mountain peak not far from the base, a small ball-sized creature watched the commander depart with keen interest.
It was a hybrid monstrosity with fish-like scales hugging Its grotesque body, and wolf-like features like its sharp teeth, pointy ears and short tail.
After he was gone, It's single eye turned towards Kate's retreating form.
After the hanger doors closed, its eerie gaze took in the entire training facility for several moments.
A low screech escaped its jaw before the creature borrowed back into the snow, travelling down the mountain.