After Xiao Ran piloted the Variable Fighter into this American military base, all he saw was the ruin left behind by war. Destroyed M6s lay scattered across the ground, along with armored vehicles and tanks blown apart by shells, and a handful of damaged anti-aircraft installations.
But aside from those things, the entire base was silent. Other than the sound of the Variable Fighter's MS Form running across the ground, there was nothing else to be heard, nor was there any sign of living creatures moving within the base.
"Something's not right. Why does the whole place feel so empty?"
The strange situation made Xiao Ran even more cautious, though his movements grew faster and faster. He quickly reached the warehouse where the American hostages were supposedly being held before slowing down.
"Still no one, and not a single sound." Xiao Ran frowned slightly. He controlled the Variable Fighter to draw its Beam Saber, then slashed several lines across the warehouse doors in front of him. The doors immediately broke into several pieces and crashed to the ground with dull thuds.
When Xiao Ran looked through the breach he had created and saw what was inside the warehouse through the machine's display, a sharp gleam flashed through his eyes, while disbelief appeared on his face. In the blink of an eye, the Variable Fighter abruptly retreated. After bursting with red light, it shot into the sky in fighter form.
There were no so-called hostages inside the warehouse at all. At least, Xiao Ran could not see a single human being inside—or rather, he could not see a single living human being.
The warehouse was instead filled with corpses sprawled across the floor. Bodies dressed in military uniforms, their eyes wide open and bulging outward, their faces deathly pale with a