Editing KSGU:Volume 2 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 12===

“Game is up. Hand ‘her’ over to me.”

Zinnerman points the wireless speaker over at him, and his subordinates do the same, holding down Gael and company who reached their hands into their coats. Is it a bluff, or are there really bullets inside the speakers? Before he can even think, Zinnerman’s hand let out a flash and an explosive sound, and sparks fly beside Cardeas’ feet.

Zinnerman then points the speaker at Gael, not letting him get the chance to move forward. Both of them are staring at each other, and Cardeas senses that the other party’s serious, whispering, “Calm down, captain!”

“I intend to do that right from the beginning. Even if I plan to set you up, I won’t use such a stupid plan.”

“Your words and actions already proves this. You never said that ‘she’s in your hands, and this happened.”

Another rumbling occurs as he finished, and the explosion rang. A lot of dust land behind Zinnerman. Cardeas can tell that there isn’t just a a battle inside the colony, and that someone’s trying to barge into this <<Magallanica>> to take control. The phone that was ringing until now is suddenly interrupted, so the intruders must have cut off the line.

There’s no need to suppress the entire <<Magallanica>>, which means that the army—the ‘higher-ups’—intend to use this chance to get the <<Laplace Box>>. They’re just eliminating the ‘Sleeves’ out of convenience, and their top priority is to secure the ‘box’. He can imagine the higher ups giving an order like ‘Eliminate any obstacles, even if it’s the leader of the Foundation. If anything happens, the successor to the Foundation is amongst the higher ups’…

Zinnerman should have realized that this attack wasn’t just targeted at them, but his thinking is hindered by the fact that ‘she’ is in the Foundation’s hands. Cardeas watches him as he’s unable to distinguish between deliberation and coincidence as his expression is just showing that he’s intent on getting her ‘back’. He admits, “That’s true.” and quickly scans around everywhere, remembering where the tables and chairs are.

“I’m thinking the same way. What are you going to do? If you shoot here, everyone will die, and we can’t save ‘her’.”

Zinnermans’ eyelids tremble as his expression drifts. The tense killing intent is wavering, and Cardeas watches his expression show a somewhat comprehensive look like before as he raises the back of the chair nearby.

Due to the low gravity, the chair floats up higher than expected. At this close distance, it’s still not a strange thing to fire, but Cardeas believes that Zinnerman won’t fire that easily. A louder explosion rings, and everyone’s attention is diverted. Cardeas then throws the chair at Zinnerman and immediately gets down on the ground without waiting for the chair to create a sound.

Numerous gunshots ring above Cardeas’ head, and Gael’s large body presses down on him. Two gunshots can then be heard beside his ears. He lets out a slight moan and hears people being slammed on the wall. Cardeas’ pulled up from the floor by someone, and is about to be brought out of the room when there’s a louder cracking sound than a gunshot. The white smoke fills the reception room. Numerous gunshots can be heard through the smoke, and he feels that there’s a lot of heat beside his ears, and his right shoulder got hit with a huge impact.

It feels like he’s hit by a hot rod. Cardeas feels faint, and Gael catches him before his hand touches the ground. Gael continues to shoot back as he drags Cardeas to the lift. Cardeas watches his escort get shot, and blood scatters in the white smoke.

On the other side of the smoke, it seems that Zinnerman’s large profile has gotten away. Before they can recap on what happened in this worst outcome, the smoke from the smoke grenade rolls onto the corridor, covering him. Cardeas and Gael enter the lift, and rise from the living block to the central block.

The smoke that seeps in irritates the eyes, and for every cough made, the shoulder will hurt. It’s a graze, but a hot gunshot wound that’s like a slash will hurt a lot. “Your wound…” Gael approaches, and Cardeas interrupts, “I’m fine. You?” as he picks up the intercom phone at the control desk.

Even though they knew that it’s dead, they’re still trying their luck. Amazingly, the phone links to the command console miraculously. “Chairman! Thank goodness you’re alright!” Cardeas asks back, “What’s the situation?”

“We’re invaded by land forces. Looks like it may be the special forces of the Federation.”

Cardeas feels some chill, and he exchanges looks with Gael. This is the truly scary part of the Federation when they’re serious; using special forces as thieves in a hit and run operation—‘Hurry up and delete all classified information regarding the <<Box>>.” Cardeas says,

“Scrap the data for the <<UC Plan>>. Let all the Anaheim workers escape in the capsules. You too, hurry up and leave. The enemies are professionals, so try and avoid a meaningless battle…”

Thud, the phone’s suddenly cut. Cardeas put down the phone at looks over at Gael.

“I’m going to the command console. How’s the situation with the radio?”

“We can’t use it normally. The Minovsky Particles are too much…”

Gael’s bloodied large body is bent down, using his handkerchief to press onto Cardeas’ wound. Since they can’t use radio, they can’t rely on their surviving subordinates. Having realized that only he and Gael are the only ones who can complete this job in this worst case scenario, Cardeas says, “I’ll go alone to the command console. You’re to go over to the <<Unicorn>>.”

He’s worried about ‘her’, but he can only believe that Zinnerman and the rest will save her. Cardeas stretches his arm out at Gael “But, chairman, you alone…” He’s not agreeing with this verbally, but Gael hands over to small handgun in his ankle holster. 

“Sorry…I got betrayed by my relative, and things ended up like this.”

He endures the pain on the shoulder and slides the sleeve open, putting the first bullet into the chamber. “Madam Martha?” Cardeas doesn’t answer Gael’s question as he puts the small handgun into his pocket.

“The 100-year alliance is so weak…we’re the ones who broke it first, but they intend to use this chance to snatch everything away. I’ll leave the <<Unicorn>> to you. If it’s about to be taken away, destroy it.”

He has a premonition that this may be the last time they’re meeting each other. After taking a slight breath, Cardeas sees that Gael’s straight expression is talking to him wordlessly, and says for the final time.

“We must not let that fall into the Federation’s hands…!”