Just as the light from Alpha Core went out and Cage was stained with blue blood and screamed in agony, the specialized monitoring equipment carried by Sasha and Lucy simultaneously sounded a sharp alarm.
"The spacetime curvature reading has risen sharply!" Sasha's voice rose in shock as he stared intently at the curve on the screen that had suddenly risen vertically. "Energy level... unmeasurable! Coverage... global!"
Almost at the same moment, Lucy's quadruped robot's sensors also detected the same phenomenon.
"An abnormal spacetime energy pulse has been detected, originating from the same location as Cage. Pulse waveform...unable to analyze!"
Their report had just entered the squad's communication channel, and before Maine could give any instructions, an irresistible dizziness swept over his consciousness.
The feeling wasn't a physical shock, but more like being forcibly ripped from the current coordinates and then instantly stuffed back into another familiar framework.
The scene in sight—the burning beach, the billowing smoke, the rolling Cage—vanished abruptly as if an image had been erased.
The next moment, the heavy jolt and the deep roar of the engine returned to my senses.
Maine shook his head, his dark red optical lens quickly scanning his surroundings.
He was standing inside the sealed compartment of the landing craft.
The damp, cold sea breeze carried the smell of rust, not gunpowder smoke and ozone.
The ramp was tightly closed, and the indicator light was flashing red.
Beside him, Dorio, Rebecca, Pilar, Falco, David, Lucy, and all the other team members maintained similar postures, their faces showing a more or less bewildered expression as they came to their senses.
Valerie and Jackie were also visible through the observation window of the Iron Guard cockpit, and they seemed to pause for a moment as well.
Inside the cabin, the UDF soldiers remained in the same state as before landing. Some were checking their weapons, while others were talking in hushed tones, the content of which was exactly the same as what they had heard before. No one showed any unusual behavior.
"What the hell?!" Rebecca was the first to yell in the squad's encrypted channel. She subconsciously touched the plasma bombardment cannon on her back; the barrel was ice-cold, and the energy reading was full, as if it had never been fired. "Aren't we already on the beach? Where are those damn metal octopuses?"
Pilar operated his arm-mounted device rapidly, his voice filled with disbelief: "We...we've gone back to before the landing began? The spacetime coordinates are exactly the same as the first landing attempt."
The energy pulse just now... was it a time reset?
"All external environmental parameters match the 'previous' information in our memory." Falco's voice remained calm, but his speech was slightly faster. "The behavior patterns of the UDF soldiers match the initial observation records with a 99.7% accuracy."
Lucy immediately checked her quadruped: "The quadruped system log is complete, containing all the data records from the previous beach battle, and the memory is unaffected."
David took a deep breath and looked at Maine: "Captain, we all remember, only we remember."
The channel was instantly filled with all sorts of voices.
"Time travel? How is that possible?" This was Kiwi.
"That blue guy… after it died…" Sasha tried to make sense of it.
"Cage! That rookie! He got splashed with that blue blood!" Rebecca suddenly remembered.
Maine raised a hand, and although the gesture was inconspicuous in the crowded cabin, the squad channel fell silent instantly.
His synthesized voice carried an undeniable force, suppressing all surprise and doubt: "Everyone, remain calm, remain silent, and refrain from discussing what just happened with the UDF personnel."
His gaze swept over each team member to make sure the instructions were received.
He saw Dorio take a deep breath, quickly calm her slightly rapid breathing, and regain her composure.
Rebecca was still annoyed, but she shut her mouth and kicked the bulkhead hard.
Sasha and Lucy began recording the equipment data, comparing the differences before and after the reset.
David and Lucy exchanged a glance and silently began to check their equipment.
"Confirm the status of each system and record all abnormal sensations and data." Maine continued to issue instructions, his voice deep and steady. "Sasha, Lucy, focus on analyzing the energy pulse data that was just recorded and try to build a model."
Sasha, Kiwi, scan the global electromagnetic and energy background at the current point in time and compare it with 'before'.
He paused for a moment, then added, "We've encountered an unknown phenomenon, and panicking won't solve the problem. Our task is to collect data and analyze the situation."
The team members quickly carried out the orders.
Inside the cabin, only the UDF soldiers' repetitive conversations and the roar of the engines remained.
Maine himself stood quietly, processing the brief battle he had just experienced and this incredible reset.
Alpha's death was the key trigger...
Cage is the anchor point...
The value of such time manipulation capabilities on this scale is immeasurable.
"The springboard is about to be lowered! Prepare for landing!" The UDF officer's shout rang out again, exactly as he remembered.
Maine watched the green indicator light slowly light up and knew what was about to happen.
The bloody battle on the beachhead, the mimics frenzy, Alpha's surprise attack, Cage's desperate counterattack... all of this will be repeated.
But this time, they knew.
"Prepare for battle." Maine's voice rang out in the squad channel, no longer filled with doubt, only cold decisiveness. "Proceed according to the first procedure, but maintain the highest level of observation and data recording."
This time, we need to see it more clearly.
——
The landing craft's ramps dropped again, and a familiar battlefield scene came into view.
Smoke, explosions, scattered soldiers, and surging simulated tides—everything perfectly matched the scene in my memory.
The members of Maine's squad silently rushed out of the landing craft and began their operation according to the pattern of the first cycle.
"Establish a defensive perimeter." Maine's command came through the channel, his voice steady and without any hint of abnormality.
But every team member knew that the nature of this operation had completely changed.
Rebecca's plasma cannon roared again, clearing the area in front of her, but this time she deliberately controlled the firing rate, reserving more energy to observe the surrounding environment.
Dorio continued to engage in close combat on the flank, her movements efficient and deadly, but her gaze would occasionally sweep across the designated positions, confirming the timing and manner of each mimic's appearance.
Sasha's sensor array operates at full power, no longer limited to conventional battlefield data acquisition.
He specifically set aside a high-sensitivity probe to continuously monitor the changes in spacetime curvature in Cage's direction.
"The background spatiotemporal readings are stable at the baseline level," he reported in real time. "No energy signals characteristic of Alpha have been detected yet."
Lucy's quadruped machine roams the battlefield, its multispectral recorder capturing every detail of the battlefield at the highest resolution—the trajectory of sand particles, the swaying patterns of the mimic tentacles, and the angle at which UDF soldiers fall after being hit.
This data is being encrypted and stored, and is being preliminarily compared with the records from the first cycle.