Chapter 284: Vexical Prime: Battle Status
Jace crouched on the second floor of a building and looked out the broken window. He was staying to the side of the building as he looked over the Holy Empire’s base. They had patrols and lookouts outside of their premade metal walls. Inside of the enemy compound he could see the destroyed building that used to be the Holy Palace.
It was not by any measure a shaky piece of hardware. But he was right about the roof being a weak point along with the idea that they would not store the civilians they kidnapped in the Holy Palace. They used that place as an ammunition and weapons depot along with their central base of operations. Unfortunately his barrage did not set off any of their stored ammunition.
The civilians were being held in the landing ships that were off to one side of the compound. There were three of them total. They were built for moving large quantities of slaves. He could tell because the cages were built into the transport ship. He could disable them, with a few well placed shots from his sniper. But he was starting to form a better idea.
It seemed this was the base of the mech he had fought earlier. Along with several different other mechs. All of them looked damaged in some way. It seems the Holy Empire’s situation was more dire than what they initially thought. There were five other enemy ships in the compound. Three of which were designed to carry infantry and soldiers. Meanwhile the other two were used for large vehicles and mechs.
At the moment the base seemed to be in an uproar as they ran around moving ammunition and repairing mechs. He could even see what looked like a meeting occurring near a medical tent. It looked like an injured woman in a white and gold adorned robe was leading the meeting as she slammed her hand on a table.
Unfortunately they were too far for him to hear but he could tell they were adjusting plans after losing contact with their ships in orbit. Not to mention how the Vexical Military was already deploying space craft to take out enemy bases.
The patrols were not frequent and the front of the base was open. But there was enough of a presence that they could just normally walk right in. But he was planning to form an idea in his head. But he needed a few pilots and a distraction.
He opened a channel directly to both Shepard of the Union, and Director Fenrir. It only took a moment for Director Fenrir to respond. "What is it?"
"I have a plan to rescue the civilians from the Holy Empire’s central base. Have you found the other bases?" Jace asked, deciding to wait to explain his plan until Shepard connected to the channel.
"We have." The Director audibly sighed as she clearly moved something around to begin giving him numbers and written observations that were likely made by long range sensors and pilots flying overhead. "There are three Holy Empire bases. You are at the largest and most well defended one. We are moving ground troops in position to take out the other two."
"What about the Circle of Yuri?" Jace asked, feeling a sneaking suspicion.
"There are five enemy bases. But they have scanning jammers and are already setting up for the long haul. They will be more difficult to get into. I believe we will need your touch to take care of them. They have a central base and then a base in each cardinal direction. Their central base is in the middle of a business district so it is difficult for us to get an accurate visual." Director Fenrir explained. "They are already proving to be our most difficult problem."
Jace glanced out the window for a moment before turning invisible and moving through the building. He could see a patrol of Holy Empire soldiers moving his way. He should be careful about being spotted. "Then how about the Crystoph Federation?"
"Never landed on the ground. Their fleet was able to pull back and escape when our full fleet arrived. It seems they sent down a few transport ships but then quickly left. We have already gotten reports that the Archduke has defected to the Crystoph Federation and they are reinforcing their control of his system." That made sense, they probably did not want to get caught up in the battle and were already aware that what they were all looking for had already been moved off planet. Archduke had probably delayed his warning to them to get more benefits out of whatever deal he concocted.
He arrived at the stairs just as the enemy did as well. He could hear them moving down at the bottom of the stairs. He glanced up making sure there was a path and began slowly moving to avoid causing anything to creak or shift. "Montez Kingdom?"
"They had started pulling up stakes before we even arrived. A few of their ships escaped with several civilians on board. They abandoned the few groups of soldiers that were on the ground. It seems the Holy Empire declared war on them and the Circle of Yuri in the confusion, the vampires were ready but the Kingdom was not. They decided to focus on their most urgent war. Not to mention the civil war that is a distraction as well." She explained with a sigh as he could pick up the sound of her doing something else in the background.
"We will have to do a full invasion to save our people. We could do the same with the other countries." Jace pointed out as he reached the upper floor of the building and then entered into a destroyed office area where the roof and ceiling had completely caved in. The stairs had ended as well with the last set having partially collapsed and barely staying together. He was not going to risk walking up those.
"It is the perfect opportunity. We will discuss it later, I am sure the Victorium would jump at the chance to absorb a large swath of human territory." Director Fenrir agreed, "now about the New Hexarian Republic. The Union is doing a full coup de tat in their country so they are completely cut off. So they are digging in, using a military compound they set up at as their base of operations."
"I suppose that is all of them." Jace agreed with a grunt as he was beginning to wonder what was taking Shepard so long.
"Hey those mercenary buildings you sent payments to are empty. How did you evacuate them?" Director Fenrir asked, causing Jace to roll his eyes.
If he was going to do this he might as well write his report up at the same time. "I had each of the mercenary groups make mining lasers and dig into the ground and into the massive underground structure the Union uses. Then they brought the civilians along with their weapons down into the underground. But one group had Circle of Yuri vampires and traitor mercenaries keeping their people hostage. So I had the Union start digging through the ground while I tricked the Holy Empire to act as a distraction. At the same time my orders to them had them disabling their buildings shielding. Which allowed me to kill the people holding the civilians hostage. Then I killed the traitors among the mercenaries and put the shielding back up. The only thing I did not account for was the Holy Empire arriving so quickly. But it worked out in the end." Jace then stored his report in his armor so he could just upload it later. He then thought of something and sent the map to Director Fenrir.
Not a moment later, Shepard joined the channel. "Sorry we were having an issue with sorting. I was making sure my people would not steal any of the borrowed equipment or military equipment since we are strictly here on a relief mission here. What did you need?"
"I have a plan to free the civilians from the Holy Empire. It should not be too difficult for you two to do. So listen closely because this will require some precision timing and cooperation." Jace declared he could feel his grin turn vicious as he looked out the large opening and turned his gaze to the Holy Empire compound.