Mushi ordered each DDL to drop fifty seeds and he sends them in different directions. The first objective was to determine where the enemy ships were. In the remaining time, he located the DDLs forming a perimeter over the area that he had to protect.

Then came the most boring part: waiting. As the DDLs moved slowly towards the places he ordered them to go and the hovercrafts explored the surroundings he couldn't think of anything to pass the time besides listening to music while looking at the holographic cube that as he explored, the dimensions inside of it increased.

In other missions: on one occasion he was distracted by a toy that he smuggled without anyone noticing, and when his sister found out, she scolded him for a little over an hour. And in another moment, he fell asleep, his enemies appeared and annihilated his fleets that did not possess true autonomy.

Looking up Mushi could see how everyone was doing something. There were people leading battles in their cubicles, examining maps, planning strategies, and even consulting adults.

Looking towards the place where her sister directed everything, he could see how Latispora reviewed document after document. Behind her was the scoreboard. That was the place where each of their contributions was represented in numbers. This was how the adults evaluated them and determined if any had sneaked in among the selected youths.

Apparently through events like this and expeditions in dangerous places in Lhimkio the high commands that helped his father were selected.

Mushi was relatively the youngest among those who had been selected. Some Ubax and Endur were younger, but that was due to their short life expectancy. If compared under the same parameters for example a hundred years, the next youngest person would be seven. However, the little lepiota cared little for this. He was not aware of how incredible his presence was in this place.

For Mushi participating in the war had a different connotation. This was the way to get away from the concept that he was alone. He had grown accustomed to always being accompanied by Shimu and his new villa seemed empty to him no matter how many toys, pets, or servants there were. Unlike his friends who constantly distracted themselves with new and striking things, taking advantage of their immaturity to forget in the depths of their memories the friend who lost his life saving them. Mushi saw his brother on every surface that reflected his face. As a reminder that he was alone now. A small seed of hatred for his ineptitude, cowardice, and especially for insects began to germinate inside his little heart.

No adult found out. As much as they tried to help him cope with Shimu's loss, no one at any time imagined that his own face reminded him every day that his brother was dead.

“Beep! Beep! Beep!”

A red dot appeared on the holographic cube and was soon joined by several more. It was a representation of the enemy ships. The system was able to receive orders by voice commands but did not speak back.

Seeing the enemies approaching from the right side of his formation, he called all the hovercraft back except for the ones that had found the enemies. If they did that they would realize where his fleet was.

The enemy fleet consisted of an orbiter, two T1s, 5 eagles, and 15 falcons.

The orbiter was a vessel that looked like an egg. It was designed as an air fortress that functioned to house other ships. Its circular shape allowed it to react against attacks in any direction.

The T1s had a complicated name that was abbreviated. But in the war room the young people called them Pizzas because of its triangular shape. These vessels were designed with a large open platform that covered a large area of ​​the ship. On these, birdlike quinoid warriors were ready to take flight when fighting began.

Eagles and falcons were quite peculiar ships. They received their name for the shape they had. They looked like the beaks of the birds with which they shared names. Apparently their only difference was that the hawks had a tomial tooth. As for their functionality they were quite different.

Eagles were slow but very resistant ships. Their main weapon was designed for close range. They are generally used to open holes in shields or cause strategic damage to enemy ships.

The hawks on the other side are agile and fast. They are in charge of protecting the other boats and eliminating other small ships that seek to approach.

Both ships are for one person. Much more modern versions used on higher islands are accompanied by droids.

Mushi grabbed his sketchbook and began to outline the silhouettes of the enemy ships. Seeing combat in 2D made it easier for him to understand the situation.

In the center of the enemy formation was the orbiter and the pizzas flew to its sides. The eagles and falcons that came out to take down Mushi's hovercraft scouts were returning to the orbiter.

The little lepiota pondered the possible formations that he could take taking into account the limitations of his ships. His objective was to destroy the orbiter if he eliminated the fuel source and refuge of the eagles and the hawks, his victory was guaranteed.

The problem lay with the available ships. DDL's possessed powerful primary weapons, but were too slow to be able to surround their enemies in time. The seeds on their part were much faster, but neither their attacks nor defenses were relevant. Hovercraft were scouting ships rather than battleships.

Drawing the orbiter and the two pizzas Mushi understood that he could not approach the egg without first immobilizing the T1s. The number of eagles and falcons within the orbiter were the greatest uncertainty.

For a moment he thought about sending all the seeds to attack, but if his enemies had enough eagles to destroy their DDL's and the orbiter resisted 5 hours, the quinoids would win.

Releasing a yawn and stretching his hands, Mushi looked around. He didn't understand how everyone enjoyed these things so much. Turning his eyes to the holographic cube, he thought how great it would be to have a dragon eat all its enemies for him.

At that moment his eyes lit up.

“Sister!” shouted Mushi.

Latispora raised her head and seeing Mushi's raised hand she got up and started walking towards his cubicle.

“Lati, can I remove the energy cannon from the dandelions and load it between several seeds?”

“In theory you can, but I don't see what advantage we would gain with that,” Latispora answered a little surprised with her brother's question.

“Will you give me permission to dismantle three dandelions?” Mushi asked consolidating his new plan.

“Are you sure you will achieve what you plan? If you fail, we will not only be penalized for defeat, but we will be punished for wasting resources.”

" I don't see any other way to stop them, " Mushi replied.

Latispora looked at her little brother's holographic cube and although she found a strategy that had an 80% chance of success, she remained silent. Her father had ordered her not to help Mushi. This was all part of the learning experience if she helped him it would be hurting her brother's development.

“Very well, but if it doesn't work, you have to give me your desserts throughout an entire month.”

Latispora's words sowed doubt in Mushi's mind. Was he able to do it? A month of dessert was like two a day, that would be a lot.

“And if you succeed I will give you my desserts for two months.”

Mushi's eyes widened that was twice as much as two a day. If he knew how to multiply, he would know that she was offering him a little more than one hundred and twenty desserts.

“Deal done Lati,” Mushi said smiling for the first time in a long time.

Giving the necessary orders he began to dismantle the three DDLs. The other two were on the expected course that the enemy fleet would take. The moment they arrived the battle would begin.

Due to lack of time, the wooden puppets ended up removing crudely the energy weapons from the DDLs. They were still working, but reinstalling them would cost a lot of resources and time.

Placing the weapons on five seeds, he ordered approximately two hundred ships of each DDL to depart in the direction of the dandelions that were still intact waiting for the enemies.

Within half an hour the troops of the quinoids appeared on the horizon. The orbiter's slowness had given Mushi time to bring his troops and power weapons closer. If the DDL's were not much slower, he would have opted for the strategy of surrounding them.

Ordering the two dandelions to release all of their hovercrafts, Mushi arranged them in a formation that resembled an object he had seen in one of his sister's books.

The dandelions remained in the center while the seeds formed rings around them.

And just then a wave of hawks and eagles came out of the orbiter as if it were spitting them out. The two pizzas filled with soldiers, all waiting for the opportunity to earn war merit.

The two enemy fleets soon collided. The quinoids did not use any special tactic. Their ships seemed like a runaway river trying to create chaos everywhere. Their confidence in their numerical superiority had made them complacent.

The losses on Mushi's side were 5 to 1, but he had accomplished something he had not planned: all of the quinoid ships specialized in aerial duels were focused on combat.

So the entry of his ace under the sleeve was uninterrupted.

What looked like three flying snakes appeared from the quinoids' rear. The soldiers on the T1s reacted immediately by casting powerful spells and projectiles that managed to destroy several ships with a single blow.

Swooping down the seeds that had taken an elongated formation dodged the attacks of their enemies. The quinoids were forced to take flight to continue attacking their opponents.

Separating the three snakes, each of the ship formations sped toward their targets.

The quinoid soldiers targeted the formations that were heading towards their boats for being closer and made the mistake of not protecting the orbiter.

The central formation of ships, moving like a snake, when it got close enough to the huge egg began to expand as if trying to eat it. The self-defense weapons of this flying fortress were soon busy trying to eliminate as many enemies as they could.

And without anyone seeing them came the five seeds carrying the DDL energy weapon and attacked at point-blank range. The powerful weapon, being so close, pierced the shield as if it was paper, wreaking havoc inside. And before the quinoids could react the five seeds entered the considerable gap they had opened, activating the self-destruction of the energy weapon.

“Boom!”

The sudden explosion of the orbiter stunned everyone who saw it and while most of the quinoid warriors were stunned trying to understand what had just happened, the other two snake formations performed the same action against the two pizzas.

“Boom!”

“Boom!”

Heaven was baptized in fire. Those who survived soon ordered a retreat. Their morale on the floor.

“That was amazing!” shouted Helvella from the seat in which he saw the preceding the war.

“Now it's time to teach Mushi that by suicide you can't always win.”