The girl died silently, her neck broken and her body caught before she hit the ground.
Before the girl could exhale her last breath from her lungs, Ariana had begun dragging the body into the maintenance bay.
Video from a small reconnaissance robot flickered at the edge of her vision. A group of three men in full-coverage uniforms turned into the passage, talking with low voices and tired eyes.
She watched them pass through the shadowed cubicles and once they were gone, she got to work.
The dead girl's uniform fit her well enough, and when she put it on, she felt the rubber seal squeeze over her head, and at the same time noticed with a kind of detached interest that the clothes still carried the residual warmth of her body.
She had spent hours studying the girl's face through the scout robot's eyes.
But she looked at her again, trying to make sure that her facial features would roughly mimic the exhausted look on a dead man's face, while changing the size of her body so that someone wouldn't look at it and realize it didn't fit.
In the little time she had, she could only make a rough estimate of size and shape, even while finding the right moment to finish the girl off with an uncomfortable risk of error.
But she was confident because she was the daughter of Callidus.
Then she began her routine analysis.
Inference: There are 605 seconds until the patrol assembly time, and 907 seconds until the presumed end date.
She stood up and walked into the passage. Behind her, the body was hidden in the shadows, and some kind of potion was dissolving her.
It will be discovered, but then all that will be left is a puddle of slime with no meaning.
She began to walk quickly, rushing to the protective door leading to the assembly area, the little white hat swaying in her hands.
The whole task is actually disorganized and lacks accuracy.
She didn't like this, not at all.
Behind her, four micro-robots that were following and monitoring the passage were suspended in the air like flies, making a buzzing sound.
Soon they landed on her shoulders, then crawled into her hair, and the rest were already invisible, their silver bodies clinging to the synthetic skin beneath her uniform like larvae clinging to a queen.
Leaving the shelter wasn't a problem, but it wasn't that simple either. Entering an orbital station was a low-level sub-problem. Entering a circle she could quickly integrate into was another, but less significant, factor.
The importance of lurking targets is more important; if they are too important she may not be able to break away from them, which narrows the options.
Then it's a matter of time.
There is a high possibility that the Astral Knight will take action soon. The longer she delays in the orbital station, the smaller the chance of reaching her target.
On the other side of the calculation was the fact that she was moving quickly, and the mistakes that followed her haste like worms on a corpse.
Go too fast, take too many shortcuts, and her plan could fail.
The time when all risk factors reach critical levels is the presumed deadline for her termination, a deadline that is approaching with every second since she killed the girl.
Inference: According to the patrol assembly time of 581 seconds, the estimated deadline for termination is 883 seconds.
She walked into the assembly area. Under the stereotyped light of lighting strips and spotlights, rows of supplies and weapons and equipment stretched into the distance.
The exhaust fumes from the transport trucks stained the ceiling, and the strong smell of oil floated in the air. Metallic sounds were heard: the click of the metal shell when the ammunition belt slid into the ammunition box, the clang of the tracks pressing against the stone, The thud of a hatch opening and closing.
Most of the people here are servants of the Astral Knights Chapter, and they are nervously preparing for their master's expedition.
She sees it all at a glance and derives a series of estimates for machines and people with 99 percent accuracy.
As a result, Ariana unexpectedly discovered that the Astral Knights' armament level was astonishingly high, and the ammunition and quantity prepared far exceeded the level of their personnel.
"strangeness--"
"Which department are you in?"
Hearing the sound, she looked around, blinked quickly, and found a man in a gray and green uniform looking down at her.
Rank insignia, lieutenant, department, logistics.
She realized she hadn't answered yet and spoke.
"Benita Mars, a first-class correspondent, belongs to the third communications department of the Unbound Soul."
She took a breath, thought for a moment, and then added:
"I was on leave and now I'm getting ready to return to work."
The lieutenant sighed, frowning and focusing his bloodshot eyes.
The assassin immediately analyzed his physical characteristics. There was a 78% possibility of long-term insomnia, a 56% possibility of weakened motor function and extreme perception, and a 34% possibility——
"Are you taking drugs?"
The girl froze for a moment, the compulsion to look around filled her.
She felt blind, and her attention was limited to the data coming from her five senses. There might be eyes watching her, her footsteps approached, and her hand touched the weapon.
So she licked her lips and scanned the lieutenant's face.
"you know……"
An embarrassed look appeared on the girl's face.
"I want... to find a way to stay in shape."
She once heard a soldier say these words and then saw him drink a large amount of alcohol, which seemed to be an explanation.
The lieutenant stared at her, then nodded after a moment.
"Don't touch those things. If you want to be promoted in the future, go that way in the passenger passage, past the second row."
"Thanks."
The girl bowed, but the lieutenant was already gone.
She suppressed her instinct to run and instead walked as she remembered people doing in a hurry.
Within a moment, she saw the shuttle she was about to take.
She had seen it from a distance before and had gone over every detail of the models.
It was as familiar to her now as her own hand.
As she hurried closer, some people turned to look at her. She examined the faces, found one whose main facial features matched the commander she remembered, and saluted.
"We're about to leave, hurry up."
The female officer who spoke had a flat face that seemed to be shiny with sweat and lubricant stains, and her black hair was tangled in knots.
Lieutenant Cassandra, captain of the 9th Logistics Detachment of the Unbound Soul.
The female assassin nodded and ran towards the shuttle in small steps. The nearby passengers had already begun to enter the cabin door. They were also the crew and officers of the Unbound Soul.
She had found her spot as the engines started firing up, expelling hot exhaust fumes into the air.
At the same time, she wrote a string of data in her mind, which would be sent to another group of people on a neighboring planet by a secret device installed in the orbital station half an hour later.
[After about 30 standard Terran hours, the fleet of the Astral Knights Chapter will set off]
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