Intel mission - Tamao

- Hey, how much for this device?

- Just 50 coins; it's for one-time use.

Tamao bought an illusion-creating device a month ago; she thought she would never get to use it. But today, luck wasn't staying by her side. Just shortly after the human squad separated, Tamao found a ship to sneak onto. She tells people on her captured ship to fly at a higher height than her target, then calculates the wind force, distance differences, moving speed of both ships, and other conditions for her to land on the target ship. Tokuko was the one who calculated and made a plan to do all those things. She gave Tamao a parachute in case she missed the jump; it also comes equipped with a short-term shield to protect herself if the enemy spots and shoots her parachute. It's temporary but very durable, so Tokuko recommends turning it on when she almost hits the ground. Tamao thanks her a lot for that; she's always been so thoughtful in situations like this. But something has gone off the plan, a case that both of them haven't imagined: a friendly fire. When Tokuko opened the side door, checking through all preparations, she saw a red dot hiding inside a trapdoor of the ship's wing engine, which was used as an emergency place for engineers to use if they're fixing the wings in a rush. At first, she didn't pay attention to it, thinking it was just a signal light bulb. But it starts moving and flapping, like someone's baggy clothes were blown around by strong winds. Tokuko immediately realized what it was and what it was going to do. She screams, telling Tamao to stop, but the windy sounds are too loud; they can barely hear each other. She raised her hand to grab her clothes, but that was too late.

A short shooting sound when Tamao was fully unprepared for that. It makes a big hole in the parachute. When winds started to blow through that hole, it gave her a deadly chill run down her spine. She's done. After a short moment of falling, Tamao can't see or hear anything more. Their ship can't change direction or move fast enough to grab her; this will be a dead end.

But it's not. Tamao wakes up in the dark, her hands cuffed. She struggles for a few seconds, then already knows the only reason she's still alive. The enemy got her, and now she's under their arrest. If not, then what's this handcuff? Instead of continuing to struggle, she put all her focus on her ears to listen to the outside. She can hear some faint talking sounds; it seems like no one has noticed this room or is coming to check it for now. Sitting close to the corners, she begins to think of a solution to escape. The room is very dark—so dark that she can't see anything but the color black. But then, a soft and moist thing touched her skin. She has been through this exact same situation before; it's a huge déjà vu. When Tamao first comes to this world, she falls into the nightmarish side of Velarune, when everything is dark, and she touches a wet skin. That's her companion! It comes to the rescue! But only escaping wasn't enough; this is also an opportunity to collect intel from a mysterious vault in Arma Caeli's hand. Tamao slowly fuses her power with the companion's artifact magic to create a slime-like liquid. She fills the keyhole on her handcuff with it, then thickens the liquid and moves it out to take the shape of that hole. Done. Now she just needs to create a wooden matching key to unlock it. Having two artifact elements makes everything easy! She stretched her arms to get them some comfort before getting into work.

Tamao finds something useful in each of her clothing pockets. The little illusion machine she bought last time is just the size of a palm. And a recorder. It has a Bluetooth connection, but she has no other device to use that function on right now.

- Thank you for saving me, aliens! But it's your biggest mistake for not putting me inside your best-secured cage!

Tamao says it with a naughty smile. She hangs the illusion device on her companion and uses it to create an unreal image of herself. And with the handcuffs, she hangs them onto the fish's tail. Using the opportunity of this dark room, she hides to the side.

A few minutes later, an Arma Caeli soldier walks in. He looks at "Tamao," lying on the floor hopelessly and screaming. He comes close to her for a check, and she, the real one, quickly takes that chance to sneak out of the room. He told "her" to stand up, and "she" did. He brings her to a room full of other Arma Caelis. One or two of them are navigating the ship and watching out for enemies, and the rest are sitting around a large table with a big screen on there. They're talking about a strategy, or the same thing. One looks up, sees their new prisoner, and starts giggling. They slowly turn their attention from the screen to her; it seems like debating strategies for too long has bored them out. They mock and sarcasm her or threaten to kill her, but she dares not speak. The soldier doesn't let Tamao get close to that table, but he's just escorting an illusion. The real one is already inspecting the digital map on that table. There's an image of multiple ships in the sky; all of them were numbered from 1 to 100. There are more forces than the Fauns have estimated. Fallen ships were colored black; there are 19 of them, but the 36th ship is red. It was occupied, so they know. In the top formation, she saw a ship with yellow marks. Below it was a little note: "The Vault.".

- Got it!

That's enough for the intel. She would love to gather more and know more, but sometimes knowing where to stop can save you. Faster than ever, Tamao sits down, keeping her body close to the ground to avoid being spotted. She crouched to create a distance from the aliens around the table and that soldier, then sneaked out of the room. She walks through the hallway, keeping an eye on the cameras. Even though she watched some spaceship action films, she dares not to risk herself like those fictional characters. She avoids the hallways with too many cameras, locked doors, or sensor-lined paths. With that careful plan, it took forever to reach where she was headed. But now she has found it.

- Wait, what's wrong with this human? Do all humans function like that?

A female Arma Caeli asked. By focusing too much on the cameras, Tamao forgot to control the illusion, too. And her companion surely didn't know how to work with it either. It keeps floating back and forth, which makes the illusion move without a walking animation. She stops answering, moving, or making sounds; instead of that, there's just a blank smile on her face. They said something to her, and some tried shouting or attacking her. And when all their hits went through her body unharmed, they figured out what was wrong. The companion, trying to dodge the attack but still taking one or two of them, starts to make painful noises. It starts panicking, which makes the handcuffs fall out. Just a moment later, an attack destroyed the illusion creator, making "Tamao" show her true appearance: a tiny whale that grows plants on its body. It's bleeding and floats around in fear. Realizing the illusion has stopped working, it tries to escape, but the soldier has closed the door and hit the companion using his melee weapon. It can do nothing but scream, and that's when Tamao opens the door.

- Hello, fellow invaders! This is the human you are looking for—having a nice fucked-up day and going to die all at once! Farewell!

They start shooting at her using their futuristic gun, but Tamao gets her short temporary shield activated. It blocks all the attack as she gives the soldier a powerful kick before grabbing her companion and running away.

- Eyy, your head monitoring engine looks pretty! I did a few things for her; come take a look!

Tamao, after kicking open an emergency trapdoor, jumps off the ship while hugging her fishie. She has installed a timebomb of artifact magic wood. When it is activated, it will grow sharp and indestructible branches that destroy the monitor engine. That will bring a mass shutdown to other engines. This time, she doesn't know if an ally is coming to help, but Tamao already has a plan in mind.