Shattered super-soldier

Seeing the Marquis blatant attempt at taking control of the situation Matthew asked Alina over the local net

[...What now? Full send?]

Alina didn't respond over the local net, instead Matthew received a notification from Aea just as Alina’s internals began spiking with heat

[Artillery alert issued in current sector synchronized impact strike assigned by A1, Cluster, Cluster, HE, HE, Hammer, Hammer, updating trajectory overlay, 135 seconds until impact]

Matthew stared at the increasing amount of red lines that appeared on his visual feed and concluded

‘Pedal to the metal, got it… Hit me with a little pre-workout Aea’

[Confirmed, preloading bloodstream with biological boosters]

As Matthew’s bloodstream was flooded with biological boosters and stimulants, Alina’s voice sounded out over the local net

[The Marquis seems to be under some sort of Mystic power, Aea give me a scan of his vitals]

As Matthew prepared for the ensuring violence, Alina asked as she tilted her head slightly to the side as her knife ears began moving rapidly

“I was informed the negotiations had already been completed? Are you breaking our agreement, Marquis?”

At Alina’s question, the Marquis’ face reddened in rage as he suddenly shouted

“YOU CAN TAKE YOUR AGREEMENT AND STICK IT UP YOUR METAL ASS, YOU PRETENDER!”

[Biological readings of Marquis Elias Maitner indicate a heart rate of 180 BPM, Infrared readings indicate multiple internal bleeding, hemorrhagic stroke imminent]

As the Marquis’ yell echoed out over the courtyard the surrounding knights reacted at once and brandished their weapons, from the looks on their faces they were more than a little confused about the Marquis’ sudden outburst, but a few sprung into action at once, sadly they were too late

[Inbound, 5 seconds]

Matthew moved at the same time as the knights did, the closest knight’s spear lit up with a Mystic purple fire, sensing the danger Matthew didn’t rely on his armor and in an unexpected feat of agility Matthew’s figure flashed forwards as he slid past the spear tip and delivered a punch to the center of the Mystic knights plate, denting it inwards and sending the knight flying backwards, before any more knights reached Matthew or Alina a series of explosions echoed out over the entire fortress

-

Selina moved across the wilderness with frankly inhumane speed as her entire body silently morphed and changed, after a few moments the appearance of ‘Selina’ her name for the last 8 years when she had killed the original Selina and taken her appearance disappeared along with a small portion of her Mystic powers

‘With this the Western Region lord will perish dead and the Willmir Empire will have a new front open up on its Western fringes… I really do owe Major Matthew a dinner’

A smile showed on Eva’s face, just then distant explosions echoed out behind her, as she glanced over her shoulder she saw Fort Adam disintegrate, as her initial shock wore off she muttered in half amazement

“The Major sure does carry a big stick…”

Then a horrible chill went down her spine as she instantly dodged to the side as Matthew landed right where her original path would had led her to

“Why hi there Selina, I believe I am still owed a meal”

Eva flashed a smile to Matthew as she prepared to bolt once again, with her shedding the appearance of Selina she would soon lose most of her strength and become enfeebled for a few days, before then she had to lose the Major and find a hiding place to recover

“I am afraid that will have to be at another time”

As Eva spoke, she covertly wielded Mystic powers to distort the space in between the two of them to open up critical space between the two of them in order to escape, however unknown to Eva, Matthew had eyes in the sky and instantly pursued her

“Come on now, don’t be shy”

Eva felt the Major rapidly catch up to her and reached into her pocket to use her last resort, unfortunately Matthew wasn’t alone in pursuing her and the instant she was about to crush the gem that would displace her to a faraway location metal slugs passed through her shoulders and knees instantly disabling her as she tumbled over, a few moments later Matthew caught up to her and casually flipped her over to lay on her back and confirmed she was not only still alive but also conscious before he spoke with a cheeky grin

“Nah, let’s go for something to eat now”

“As I said… I am afraid I will have to take a rain check on that”

Eve showed a smile back and before Matthew was able to grab her jaw to keep her from clenching it she had bit down on her fake tooth which instantly exploded, destroying her entire head and sending chunks of flesh, bone and brain flying all over the place, Matthew stared at the gore completely stunned for a few moments before he spoke

“...Now that’s some bullshit right there”

A moment later Alina’s voice sounded out over the local net

[What happened?… Oh… Well, bring back her corpse at least]

Matthew let out a sigh and grabbed the leg of the dismembered corpse and brought it back to the ruined fortress, when he arrived back at the fort Alina stood outside the walls in seemingly full focus, Matthew tossed the corpse down on the ground and waited for Alina to be done with what she was doing, a few minutes later 3 carriages covered in high velocity blood splatter appeared in front of her, Matthew walked over to the central one and tore the side off it before he pulled out a wooden chest and placed it down on the ground before he tore it open

“...Jackpot”

Silvery metal gleamed from inside the chest, it was filled to the brim with minted silver coins Alina wielded her Mystic powers and quickly retrieved another 8 similar wooden chest

“...This feels like a lot more coin than was due for the ransom”

Matthew remained silent and walked over to another carriage where he ripped the side off it and retrieved a small lockbox and tore the lid off it, inside were stacks of minted platinum coins, Alina waved her hand and retrieved another strong box from the wrecked before she displaced the wrecked carriages away

“Now then… What are we going to do now?”

Alina didn’t answer Matthew’s question, instead she made a surprisingly humanlike stretch before she proposed

“Should we think it over at home?”

Matthew nodded, the androids would pick through the fortress ruins for a few more days to acquire any salvageable resources and intact Neurological bio data containers (Severed heads) and bring them back to Basecamp in the following days anyway, so there was no need to pick through the rubble themselves

“Yeah, let’s head home”

A few moments after Matthew spoke, the two of them disappeared as Alina sent them back along with their loot…

-

The news of Fort Adam’s destruction spread over the Willmir empire within a week, it was no exaggeration that the politics of the entire central continent shifted at once to focus on the Western fringes of Willmir where a seemingly powerful new country had not only appeared but also shattered a key fortress and assassinated the Lord of the Western region which sent the region into a brief pandemonium before the emperor wrestled back control over the region over the next 2 weeks, and finally 3 weeks after the fall of Fort Adam the emperor sent a army of 150.000 to crush Trerubic Empire outpost believed to be somewhere in the Western fringes near fort Adam

-

3 days had passed since Matthew and Alina had destroyed the fortress to their East, so far they had worked out a short term plan for dealing with the Willmir empire's military response, which included artillery, a lot more artillery, another 2 rail cannons had already been constructed and in a few days time the hybrid launch vehicle was going to be ready to put the first satellite into orbit

“So, this entire world is like a small round ball of dirt floating through water?”

WIth the concept of sending up a satellite, Matthew had undergone the task of explaining the wider galaxy and solar system in purely physical terms to Alina

“Yes, though the water is simply empty space, like gravity holds this world together this word and possible others are orbiting the central sun through the same force”

Having Aea help by displaying visual aids on a screen helped with teaching Alina on this concept, though Matthew knew Aea would explain this way better than him, he wasn’t so dense to offload this task on Aea when Alina had specifically asked him to explain it to her

Alina nodded, she was about to raise a concern when Matthew spoke again

“So by placing a satellite out in the nothingness and keeping it at a certain speed it will stay where we want it”

Alina nodded, she was trying her best to comprehend what Matthew was teaching, both as a person born in what could be considered the Middle Ages and as a Displacer with a very high, but self-taught understanding of space, after deciding she was going to have to spend some time later to fully comprehend this she asked

“So we could place a satellite over the Basecamp to keep an eye on the surrounding area at all times?”

Matthew nodded and continued explaining his vision for their further satellite and space exploitation plans, while Alina suppressed her unease