It had been eighteen years. Eighteen years was long enough for hope to turn to dust, for the memory of sunlight to become a sad fairy tale.
Ever since the Imperial Legion attacked, most of Hopeland's residents had been living underground, in what they called the dome. The cramped residential area had been there ever since, the air suffocating not only from the lack of renewable energy, but also from the fear that was choking their hearts. Without energy, like a drained river, only dry, cracked mud remained. If they remained silent and did nothing, the people under the dome would fall into eternal sleep, not a peaceful death but a slow decay.
They needed a miracle. They needed hope.
...
The heavy armored vehicle sped out of the last dark cellar of the dome. The roar of the jet engines gradually faded, fading into the deathly silence of the world above.
The air under the dome was stifling and unpleasant, but the ground of Klush still emitted a deadly scent that made people crawl out. What the soldiers felt was energy, which the people living under the dome considered pure life, but to them was no different from the smell of poisonous gunpowder.
"We have arrived at the fourth industrial zone, west gate. The jamming system has been activated!"
The soldier in the lead quickly took off his cloak and stepped out of the car, revealing a gray uniform that smelled of metal on his body. His white hair blended with the snow above. He stood still, his blue eyes filled with energy reflecting the dim red warning lights still installed nearby.
The threat in front did not make the soldiers like them nervous.
The ivory-white walls were towering, protected by a series of electronic signal codes that ran continuously.
This is the technology zone that the person under the dome had spoken of, a bright red color, like Klush's bloodline.
As if the soldier felt something, he raised his trembling hand to the dark sky in front, receiving an indescribable feeling, like an electric current was trying to run inside his body.
A clear voice also excitedly followed behind, raising its hand.
"Hey Huy! Raise your hand, I can feel something crawling into my palm!"
"There is a cold feeling, put on your gloves!"
The last person in the car to get out, a handsome young man with black hair, completely different from the tired tone he spoke. Ngo Quang Huy, the captain who was promoted for this campaign, to put it bluntly, was a true daredevil.
Standing next to him was a girl with shoulder-length blonde hair and a windshield on her forehead, her black eyes showing pride and confidence at all times. Ellen Scott, Huy's long-time friend, was also the deputy captain of the operation.
Behind the vanguard soldier, several soldiers wearing the same uniform as the two officers hurried forward, each wearing a blue armband as a mark. The Swallow Brigade, they called themselves, a group of daredevils who thought they were revolutionaries, with the blind belief of stealing the energy stone on the ground with only this many people. Unlike the vanguard soldier, he was only following them for personal gain, this didn't need to be said.
Ten adventurous soldiers stood proudly in front of the enemy base, it was true that only movies could make these people look glamorous.
"Point! Are you sure we're going to the right place, there's not a single guard in sight?"
"If your senses are sharp, go check it yourself, I'm not your soldier."
Taking a cold breath, the vanguard soldier didn't bother to look back at Huy.
The reluctant captain Huy hoarsely let out a doubtful sound, holding the binoculars in his hand and pointing at the tower above the wall. Work before office hours was always like that. All the bright red lights were almost swallowed into those cold black eyes.
The energy stone, everyone called it without thinking of another name. It contained a huge amount of magical crystals, if not an infinite amount. The light shining down from the tower had provided energy to the entire Klush land serving the imperial army for so many years, but under the giant dome, only a few rays of light could get in.
But soon. That beautiful light from above was about to become something in my pocket. That was also the target that the Swallow Brigade was aiming for
"The stone is above that tower, it's exactly what the report said!"
The vanguard soldier was not interested in what Huy said, his hand still checking the electronic lock.
"Call me Alex." The vanguard soldier replied coldly. "I have no obligation to inform you, we came here for the contract. You will get the stone, that's enough."
"Do you think there's something more valuable inside than the stone?"
Huy finished speaking and put his hand on the gate and knocked lightly a few times.
"What if I said it was human life on the ground?"
Alex looked straight up at the sky for a while, thinking.
During the eighteen years of being under the dome, Alex had never made friends with anyone, just hiding alone in a narrow corner of the street. Every day, looking at the artificial sky under the dome, he felt so fake, then when he went up to the ground and looked up at the sky again, wondering if it was a lie created by someone.
Not only did he want to go to the ground, he also wanted to reach a higher place.
If the people under the dome died because they had no more energy, would it change anything if we took the stone from the ground down there? Like day and night, if people did not die under the dome, they would die on the ground, it was still just a cycle.
"Everyone must die, if life is lost, can the current stone save everyone?"
"..."
Both of them were silent and did not say another word. Huy did not understand and did not want to say these meaningless things anymore.
The person who broke this cold silence was Ellen Scott.
"Come on, if you two want to talk about your thoughts, then finish the matter at hand!"
The blonde girl quickly took off her windshield, her eyes focused on the protruding electronic lock.
"Luckily, this area still uses an outdated locking system, just cut off the circuit and it can be broken."
After speaking, Ellen glanced at Alex and then laughed happily.
"Contract soldiers, if you point us here, there must be a way."
"You guys..."
Being cheerful in a dangerous situation doesn't suit Alex.
Alex then tightly grasped the iron door lock, a purple electric current ran around his hand. The dim light immediately wrapped around his hand and shot out a lightning bolt, the circuit board of the lock immediately changed color and was broken.
The gate immediately created a gap between the two sides. Alex glanced at it, inside was a deep white corridor ahead. There was still a figure moving around inside.
The system here was not completely broken by electronic devices, the electric energy Alex activated inside only paralyzed the power source, perhaps the people inside did not hear any sound.
"There are only two Retian guards, one sword and one gun."
"Is that too easy?"
Huy was not surprised, there were too many cases for the scattered soldiers standing guard outside like this. What awaited them inside was even more terrifying.
"After half an hour the power system will be back on, the door will automatically turn on emergency closing mode!"
Alex finished speaking and quickly took out the rifle on his waist. Everyone understood that from now on the Swallow Brigade began to bet their lives on this battle.
As fast as a swallow, life or death is like a migration flight to a strange land.
"Okay, then quietly listen to my orders and act."
Huy quickly stepped forward, revealing a cold gray long sword from behind his cloak. The sword was almost as long as his height, but the weight in his hand was strangely light. It was the energy he absorbed that could control its grip.
As the gate opened, his legs instantly sprang forward, leaving behind a terrifying force. The two guards at the gate who didn't have time to react were immediately hacked to death by Huy.
"Alex! Shoot the surveillance camera!"
Huy shouted with all his might.
Just a few seconds later, Alex raised his rifle and opened fire, each camera was instantly destroyed.
The alarm siren quickly sounded, covering the entire corridor area. Only a few minutes later, the Retian army would immediately attack this place.
"Everyone switch to cold weapons, the energy in here is strong enough for their armor to resist long-range physical attacks!"
A soldier was about to pick up that armor. Huy immediately shouted loudly and kicked them away.
"Don't wear them, do you want to be brainwashed by the armor?"
The Imperial Army's Retian armor was contaminated with too much energy, wearing it could block all types of long-range physical weapons. This was already too good, but Huy had never seen anyone wearing it speak properly, let alone his own people wearing it.
Seeing Huy's face turn serious and angry, the silent soldier quickly withdrew, still holding the gun in his hand tightly. Although he didn't know if his captain's words were true or not, the order had to be absolutely obeyed.
"What kind of leader, at this point there's no turning back!"
Huy didn't expect Alex to leave, but this emotionless person surprised everyone with everything he did, and not saying anything made him extremely uncomfortable.
Everyone turned to look at Alex, after all, he wasn't a member of the Swallow Brigade. His only task was to find the safest and fastest way to attack, now that the gate had been successfully unlocked, leaving on his own would not be a problem.
"We need more people, wouldn't it be nice to have another swordsman to lead the way?"
Ellen walked slowly and pulled Alex's sleeve as she walked in. Her eyes were always sparkling as if she wanted to pull everything that belonged to her.
"The contract isn't over yet, besides the money, there's something else you're looking for in here."
Sweet talk.
"Sorry, we're not that close." Alex waved his hand.
He shrank back, silently walking ahead of the group.
Seeing that, Ellen smiled happily again.
The alarm siren sounded.
All ten soldiers of the Swallow Brigade immediately took action.
The main tower inside the 4th Industrial Zone stood tall, like a giant, cold metal block covered in snow. Dim red light sources from the lampposts and chimneys crept through.
"Alex, Ellen and you guys follow me. The rest go towards the energy dispersion area and absorb them all."
After saying that, Huy pulled out the jet-black, dry stones from his bag. They were elemental stones, like the energy that was emitted from the tower, they also needed to absorb energy to use for many other purposes.
After dividing the actions, Huy heavily ran straight towards the maze corridor in front of him.
The deeper they went into the village, the more everything was covered by that annoying light. If it was a normal person walking continuously through such white walls, they would probably go crazy and smear some of their blood on it.
"Hey, at least say something?"
Ellen couldn't stand the silence, she took out a cigarette to smoke.
The sound of a lighter clicking, suddenly a sword came from somewhere and slashed straight at her.
The flame flared up and then went out, leaving a heavy thud.
A Retian soldier's body lay down. He died from a gunshot to his unprotected eye, blood flowing from the eye socket above the slit of his helmet, soaking into the soft cigarette on the floor.
"That's my last cigarette, you bastard!"
Ellen twisted her wrist, her other hand retracting the gun behind her. She felt a lot of footsteps approaching here.
A door inside suddenly opened.
"Stop! Or we will open fire!"
A row of soldiers wearing green armor covered from head to toe, the only thing that stood out was their red eyes. Not the eyes of a bloodthirsty person, they were brainwashed by the energy of the stone into another person.
Retian's loyal dogs.
Alex accelerated forward, approaching the two Retian soldiers holding guns and swung a lightning slash. Almost none of them had time to react, some of them had only fired two shots before being cut through their armor by that powerful sword.
From behind, a Retian soldier rushed in and swung a slash, he only saw a purple light emitting around and then did not see Alex. Immediately, he moved behind and grabbed the soldier's neck and pressed down hard.
The energy source was so strong that it created a terrifying explosion, the enemy's body was sunk deep into the ground.
The Retian soldiers from the other room came out but were all taken care of by Alex, leaving behind the Swallow brigade with painful screams and broken metal armor.
All in less than a minute.
"Unbelievable!"
In front of everyone, everyone was surprised with various expressions. Only Huy and Ellen did not say a word.
Alex still coldly picked up his sword.
"Hurry up, time is limited, right captain?"
Hearing himself mentioned, Huy suddenly woke up. All these first-time experiences from this soldier to that soldier made him unable to understand what was wrong with the people around him. Huy could only smile and look at Ellen.
"Yeah, even someone as emotionless as him knows how to hurry!"
"What do you know, it's not my job to tell anyone?" Ellen sighed.
Following the instructions, they quickly approached the foot of the tower. Alex looked up, that huge energy was flowing inside his body.
"Alex! Alex!"
Suddenly he felt like someone was calling his name, his eyes narrowed slightly. The voice was familiar, but he didn't know who it was.
"When we merge as one, our hope, eternal life will cover all of Hopeland!"
Alex didn't say anything, eternal life, merge as one, something more important than the energy stone? He wondered but didn't give an answer.
"Are you still standing there, the elevator is about to close!"
"Stand back a little, vanguard, we're almost there!"
The thoughts in his head couldn't disappear so quickly.