Shattered super-soldier

East of the Basecamp, the Willmir empire was undergoing a silent storm, the first to notice that something big had happened outside the governing structure were the merchants, of course this didn’t happen unilaterally, but by now, about two weeks after the event seemed to have taken place the rumors had trickled down to even the most common street stalls

“Hey did you hear the news?”

A middle-aged man was grilling some fresh skewers at the request of his current costumer, as he did, he stuck up a casual conversation with the young man he was serving, it was old news in Willmir territory by now, but the young man was clearly a traveling mercenary that had arrived from one of Willmir’s satellite states to the North

“Oh? Is there war brewing?”

The stall cook hummed for a moment as he nodded

“It sure seems that way, care for a bet young man?”

The young man showed a grin as he immediately understood what kind of bet the stall cook was looking to make

“3 more skewers if I am right”

The cook laughed as he rotated the skewers and added his condition

“A skewers tip when I am right”

The young man seemed surprised at the skewer cook’s confidence and confidently answered after a moment

“The East!”

The skewer cook showed a wry smile and shook his head, the young man let out a sigh as he handed over the tip and skewer cook answered

“It’s the West”

The young man blinked a few times as he didn’t believe the skewer cook one bit, everyone used to traveling the central continent knew the Westen fringes of the Willmir empire was just that, fringes, besides a few border strongholds set up to monitor the hostile wildlife and keep it in check a few times a season there was nothing which required a large mustering of soldiers on that side of the empire

“I know that look, I had one just like it when I first heard the rumors”

The skewer cook handed over the serving of grilled meat and leaned a little closer to the young man as he spoke in a calm, quiet voice

“Word is an expedition went horribly wrong, Saratheen the wise have been slain”

“No way”

“It’s true, the entire imperial city is in a frenzy as not only Duke Adam but also the youngest princess which were in the same expedition… According to the Mystic circles, they still draw breath confirmed by the exhaustion Imperial Bloodline Mystics, but they have yet to contact the palace or return to Imperial land”

The young man blinked a few times and after remaining frozen for a few moments he bit into his meat skewer and chewed it thoroughly before he silently presented another few coins to the skewer cook that shock his head

“Don’t worry about it, it’s old news by now since a skewer cook out in the boonies know about it”

The young man nodded and shifted the coins in his hand before he placed a single one down on the street stall which earned him a thanks from the skewer cook as he walked away still in silent contemplation, even as he reached a rowdy bar a few streets over he was still in silent contemplation, as he stood in the doorway the rowdy bar slowly fell quiet as they noticed the young man, in his silent contemplation, another few moments passed before he spoke

“Pack up, we’re moving West on the double”

The silence lasted a few more moments before every single person in the crowded bar rose to their feet at once and paid their tap in a neat and orderly fashion, after they had cleared out the young man walked up to the very confused barkeep and silently placed a substantial tip on the counter as he spoke

“Sorry for the mess my men left behind”

The barkeep knew better than to argue with a commander of such a large mercenary company, especially one that maintained such discipline over one of the larger bands the barkeep had seen in his time, only when the man truend around to leave did the barkeep ask

“Young man, what is the name of your troop?”

The young man didn’t answer he simply raised a hand in goodbye as he walked out of the bar, however the barkeep spotted it, on the young man’s right hand he wore three silver rings, one on his thumb, one on his index finger and one on his middle finger, the barkeep couldn’t be sure, but he was almost certain that those were the famed silver rings of conquest awarded directly by the emperor to generals, knights, common soldiers or mercenaries for distinguished service in battle

-

About a calendar month had passed since Matthew and Alina had captured the mystic knights, the underground complex had undergone a number of significant changes, firstly the knights had been placed in individual 20 square meter rooms which included a bathroom with a shower and a bearably sized bed, the plumbing and nutrient vat had been a pain in Matthew’s behind

‘...But I got to admit that hot shower was something I didn’t know I needed’

Matthew let out a sigh before he covered his ears and sent a metal command to Aea

‘Send it’

[Confirmed, Rail-003 firing]

A loud boom sounded out as the rail cannon turret fired its 16th shoot of the day, the rail cannon had an impressive 12-meter-long barrel that accelerated a 240mm shell to twice the speed of sound into the air

“Ah… Nothing but the echo of rail gun fire in the morning, is Rail-001 ready?”

[Rail-001 cooling cycle is estimated to be completed in 12 minutes]

Matthew looked over at the two other rail cannon turrets that were venting waste heat from the earlier firing

[Movement detected, 4500 meters out from Eastern perimeter]

“Patch me in”

Matthew’s field of vision changed instantly, as the video feed from the surveillance drone that had spotted the convoy approaching their territory was sent into his mind, the build up of the convoy looked familiar, only much larger than the last he had seen, around 30 Racks and around 1500 people were marching towards the Basecamp, the earlier expedition had been just that, an expedition, this was a small-sized army

“...Alright, it’s showtime”

[Confirmed, emergency cooling of all Railcannon turrets started, raising Basecamp security to level 2]

“Warm up my suit”

[Confirmed, deploying Mk. 22 armored suit]

As Matthew walked into the surprisingly normal (though very modern looking) 2-story building, that stood in the middle of the Basecamp which was his and Alina’s house carbon fiber barricades rose out of the ground around the clearing as androids armed with coil rifles took their positions and the 3 Railcannon turrets raised their barrels straight into the air before the heat sink braces that sat around the barrels came loose and feel to the ground as metal arm assemblers quickly began maintenance work on them

“What, what is happening, Matthew?”

“A small army showed up to the east”

Alina had upgraded her body shortly after they had taken the mystic knights' prisoner, her new body was taller than the first but still around a head and a half shorter than Matthew, the real changes were on the inside with sophisticated hardware that had been adopted to elevate her mystic powers, externally the optical sensors looked a lot more like eyes and the face of the android body could accommodate changes in her expressions, still the two knife ears was present like on her last body, but they were a lot more sophisticated with delicate carvings that ran along them

Still for some reason the speech tick which Aea had told Alina Matthew found endearing stayed with her

“Is, is it the Willmir empire?”

Matthew nodded, he wasn’t really worried, his confidence came from the estimated 21 metric ton of metal ore that was located around half a kilometer down below the Basecamp, they had started mining and refining it about 10 days ago, while most of the metal was classified as Low-grade metal around 8 metric tons were Mid-grade metal and a little less than a ton was High-grade metal, this had already resulted in the now 53 battle androids that manned the barricades and the now well over a hundred surveillance drones that had been sent up via Rail cannon turret

“It looks that way, Aea is crunching the neurological data, but I recognize some of the insignia of the knights, it's a detachment of the emperor's personal guard”

Alina looked at Matthew for a few moments in silence to which Matthew nodded and reassured her

“I know, I know, you don’t have to look at me like that”

Having secured his promise, Alina spoke

“I, I will go greet them as planned then”

Matthew nodded

“Take care, I’ll be there in a bit”

Alina’s figure disappeared after a moment and Matthew let out a long sigh before he stepped back out of the house and walked towards the underground bunker entrance, Alina had outlawed almost all military hardware from the house, so the Mk. 22 armored suit was kept in the bunker along with most other military hardware

“There she is…”

The Mk. 22 stood before Matthew, it was a size larger than him standing almost 3 meters tall the armored suit could be mistaken for a large combat android at first glance, the flat blocky armor plating that made it look like something rendered on a 1990’s computer had given the suit the nickname ‘The Polygon Horror’ but in reality the exterior maximized blunt and sharp armor protection from most head on engagements while maintaining full mobility of its user, the suit opened and Matthew turned around and took a step backwards into the suit and closed his eyes as it closed around him

[Mk. 22 armored suit interfaces loaded, internal power storage fully charged, suit fully sealed]

As Matthew opened his eyes again he shouldn’t be able to see anything, but the multiple external sensors that fed data into his bionic spine ensured he had a full 360 degrees of vision, after taking a few moments to adjust to the sensory input Matthew picked up the arc cannon at the side and stepped back out of the bunker as a massive explosion sounded out in the direction of the Willmir empire army, Matthew broke into a sprint as he opened up a communications line with Alina

“Don’t go overboard”

A moment passed before a crystal clear, almost ethereal cool feminine voice sounded out in Matthew’s mind, he had been dumbstruck the first time he heard Alina’s true voice but he had more or less gotten used to it by now

“I am not, I am simply teaching them this the memorable way the first time around”

“...And what is it you are teaching them?”

“That they have entered the ‘Finding out’ stage you talk about so much”