It might seem like losing a planet in the milky way galaxy was the same as losing a drop of water from an ocean but in reality?
Those planets were extremely vital for the survival of the galaxy!
That's because the moment a void portal appeared in the matter universe, the void creatures do not spread and start searching randomly for planets or lifeforms.
Instead, all of them target the closest planet to the portal like they had a GPS implanted in their minds.
It didn't matter if the distance was merely a couple of hundreds of thousands of kilometers or light-years, they always spot said planet and invade it!
Naturally, everything on their path gets hunted down as well!
This entailed that with each falling planet, the void creatures would gain more ground inside the galaxy and continue targeting the closest planets to them.
After hundreds to thousands of years, more portals would have emerged and more void creatures would follow the first pioneer mega cell that opened the way for them.
Before long, tens to hundreds of millions of void creatures would be spread all over the galaxy and no one would be able to do anything against them anymore.
If they got rid of a million, ten more millions would emerge from different portals akin to a wound that keep bleeding nonstop.
The worst part was the fact that void portals emerge in places where a high amount of void energy was gathered.
When those mega cells spread through the galaxy, those void portals would be popping everywhere!
If that happened, the galaxy would be doomed sooner or later!
So, those planets weren't just rocks that could be given up on but natural shields against the void creatures.
'Void creatures have already crawled millions of light-years away from the first portal that emerged at the edge of the Guardian Empire.' Felix sighed as he eyed those fallen planets.
Then, he focused on the red-colored missions, the most dangerous ones for any mercenary.
'Hmm, three red missions have been posted only recently.' Felix clicked on them and started reading their details.
//Mission: twenty A/S ranked squads are needed to cover the Malaria Zone on the planet Fonund.
Requirement: Clean out the area in the next four months.
Difficulty: Malaria Zone is currently infested with three void minor cells.
Rewards: Void Points rewarded for slaying void creatures are doubled. The squad with the highest points at the end of the mission duration would earn an additional 100k void points.//
Felix glanced at the other mission and found that it was also for the same planet but was more difficult.
//Mission: Sixty A/S ranked squads are needed to cover the Egunt Zone on the planet Fonund.
Requirement: Clean out the area entirely in one year.
Difficulty: Egunt Zone is currently infested with ten void minor cells.
Rewards: Void Points rewarded for slaying void creatures are tripled. The squad with the highest points at the end of the mission duration would earn an additional 500k void points.//
As for the 3rd mission, it was three times difficult as it required more than a hundred squads to clear our area that was infested with at least 20 void minor cells!
The end reward for the highest clearance rate was one million VP!
Since every minor void cell could have from hundreds of void creatures to thousands, this meant that in that area alone, there were at minimum ten thousand void creatures lurking!
"Sheesh, how can these many minor cells bypass the fleets?" Felix was at loss for words at the details of those missions.
He knew that fleets were supposed to intercept the mega void cell in space and destroy it before it reaches the planet.
If everything went smoothly, not a single minor cell should manage to escape the fleet clutches and touch the planet behind them.
"Queen, play the news on the planet Fonund." Felix requested, wanting to scout the situation ahead before making any rash decision.
The Queen displayed a few holograms in front of him, each showing a different news outlet.
There was one covering the ongoing war in space, another covering the situation within the planet, and the last one was showing a live conference.
The one presiding it was The Fang as he stood before hundreds of reporters and spoke solemnly, "We have begged the army to send more fleets to help us protect this planet but as usual, they refused our request. Even when the size of the mega cell was clearly too much to handle for the forces at hand."
"This is the consequence of their rejection."
The Fang turned around and showcased a replay of the war's stream in space between their fleets and the original mega cell.
Spaceships kept firing hundreds of deadly explosive plasma rays at the cosmic purplish entity that resembled a cosmic jelly slop.
The dark space was illuminated by those plasma rays but it didn't show something to be celebrated of.
Instead, it made the reporters show worried expressions as those explosive rays did nothing but split the mega cell into thousands of smaller parts.
In an ideal scenario, the mega cell should have been blown out entirely, leaving only a few smaller cells to escape through the chaos.
To achieve so, a massive amount of power was required to be delivered at the same time.
Unfortunately, the hundreds of spaceships weren't enough at all.
Now, they were forced to hunt those thousands of smaller cells and get rid of them before they all reach the planet.
The worst part, the void cells' speed wasn't to be joked about!
They weren't traveling the space like snails on the ground but like hummingbirds traveling from a flower to another!
Luckily, the fleet intercepted the mega cell while it was still far away from the planet, giving them ample time to minimize their numbers.
Although they did their best for days and days, it was still not enough to get rid of every one of them.
The end result?
The Fang showed an apocalyptic sight for the reporters.
Hundred void cells of different sizes and shapes all entering Fonund's exosphere in a single hour!
"Dear god…"
"The planet is doomed! It's going to be impossible to clean it in time before another major cell leaves through the portal and threatens the planet again!"
"How could the Great Commander make such a blunder?"
"In the past few decades, he truly has lost his brilliance. We keep giving up planet after another without a single victory in sight."
"You can't really blame him for not providing extra reinforcement. There are just too many planets to protect at the same time."
The reporters' opinions were torn whether to blame the Great Commander or give him a break since the army was truly running out of resources while the void portals numbers continue to rise.
"I didn't hold this conference to switch blame or such." The Fang looked straight at the camera and said, "I'm holding it to beseech the army to send more foot soldiers to help the mercenary squads clean the planet as fast as possible."
The Fang made sure to show a premade montage of mercenary squads fighting tens of void creatures all over the planet.
All of them were shown to be either running away, struggling in their fights, or dying needless deaths due to being overnumbered.
"This is simply a cry for help from the army." The Fang said with a hopeless look before leaving the conference room.
Just as a hubbub was rising between the reporters, Felix removed the holograms from his face while thinking, 'If the media applied enough pressure, the army might send more reinforcement to alleviate the situation.'
'Not that I care.'
Felix smirked faintly as he clicked accept on the three red missions at the same time.
In his eyes, the situation in Fonund couldn't be any better for him.
The planet was recently infested, which meant he wouldn't need to waste a lot of time to locate void creatures.
'Sir Felix, you can not accept those missions since you are not in a squad.'
Unfortunately, his enthusiasm was met with bad news from Queen AI.
'Shit, I forgot that all orange and red missions require a squad to apply for accepting them.' Felix rubbed his eyelids in annoyance.
'Whatever, I will create one now.'
Since he was an 'A' ranked mercenary, he had the right to create one unlike C ranked mercenaries and below.
Felix entered the official website for the Void Guild and scanned his mercenary ID on a scanner placed on the home interface.
After getting approved, he was given the appropriate access to his rank.
Felix went to the squad applications tab and clicked on it.
Then, he ignored the many squads' recruitments ads and pressed on -Create a mercenary squad-.
Felix was given a long form to fill in that was related to his squad's details.
He left most of the form empty as he wrote only the squad's name and the number of members allowed to enter it.
'Lance as its name and only you as its member.' Asna's eyelids twitched, 'I doubt your application for the mission will be approved.'
'Oh, it will be..' Felix smirked faintly as he picked a purplish snake logo for his squad, 'After all, I am an Origin Bloodliner in their eyes.'
