Chapter 278: Vexical Prime: Alone Again
He walked out the back exit of the building and then used the topographical map the mercenaries provided to navigate his way around to the Talus Mercenary base. The rain had only gotten heavier as he moved. Thankfully it would not affect his equipment or ammunition. But it would probably make his armor smell funny.
At the moment he was moving toward his destination. A building with roof top line of sight of the Talus Mercenary base but enough access and cover to the surroundings that he could be an annoying thorn to the Holy Empire and New Hexarian Republic. But first he had to get there.
Which brings him to his current problem. He was situated in an alley way. But across the street, taking up residence in a large windowed restaurant was a group of Holy Empire soldiers. He can tell it was not their original intention to take up residence there. But instead were forced into the building while on their way to someplace else. They had a pair of vehicles outside along with a pair of Walker Mechs. He was guessing this was a small patrol. Unfortunately their position meant he would have to add several minutes to his walk.
He turned to walk away when he felt the ground begin to shake. He moved back to the edge of the alley way and looked down the street where the shaking was originating. He frowned as he caught sight of a large armored vehicle rolling down the street. It took up more than the two lanes that the back streets had. On a main street like this it was taking almost three lanes while the roof of the armored vehicle was higher than two floors of a human building.
Jace caught sight of the rear end of the vehicle as it moved. This colossal beast of a machine might end up being a problem for him. But as he began doubling back he could hear the armored vehicle come to a stop. So he tapped into the communication channel he was picking up.
"-unit why did you stop. You were sent to check on the team that is searching the sewers. We have been out of contact with them for over two hours." If Jace was right, that was the voice of the Holy Empire commander who was in charge of that armored vehicle.
"We had to stop, the rain is not normal. There is no telling what is in it." Jace guessed that was one of the people from the patrol. "Besides they are literally searching the sewers-"
"Shut up and get in your vehicles. If we get there before you, you all are going to undergo belief training." The woman in the armored vehicle insisted before the vehicle loudly started to move. Not a moment later the channel ended and he could already tell that the patrol inside the restaurant must be running out to their vehicles to get back on the move. He was not sure what ’belief training’ was, but it must have been some form of punishment that the Holy Empire had.
Jace moved back to the alley and then waited until all the vehicles left before he moved across the street. After he moved across the main street he continued through alleys to avoid line of sight from possible locations the enemy could have set up to avoid the rain. But as he walked down a particular alley he saw a sewer hatch slightly shudder.
He stopped in his tracks as he watched the hatch pop off the ground. Then it slid to the side. He could already hear the rush of water running through the sewer system when the hatch was first opened. The sewer system was probably overflowing with water at this point because of the heavy rainfall that was seeming to only get worse as time went on.
As the Holy Empire soldier climbed out of the sewer he was covered in various liquids. Most of which seemed to be watered down by the chemical rainwater. "Damn this planet!" The man looked around and caught sight of a building. "I found cover, come on-"
Jace kicked the soldier back into the sewer and dropped several grenades below. Then he kicked the hatch back to the hole it was covering. Then he slammed his foot on the edge of the hatch. The ground slightly shook while the edge of the hatch was flattened under the force of stomp.
Jace stepped away and could hear faint screams followed by the ground where the sewer line ran being pushed up along with the sewer hatch slightly lifting and spewing fire from the opening. The contained explosion should have killed the entire Holy Empire unit that was in the sewer. It would seem the groups that were sent into the sewers were not able to stay there.
He did not run into anything else before he arrived at the building. The building was some type of business building. The windows at the front entrance were completely broken so he was able to walk right in. Then he went to the stairs after walking through the lobby. He could not use the elevator since the building did not have power.
He could have powered the elevator himself, but there was no telling how that would work out for him. One of the groups could be watching the power grid and there was no way for him to prevent them from seeing him using power. The only reason the mercenary bases were fine was because they had their own generators that they were using to power the fortified buildings.
Near the top floor he had to stop. The stairs stopped because there was some sort of destruction that had collapsed the stairs. If the stairwell was open he would be able to move up the center between the stairs. But instead it seemed that several floors of stairs collapsed and covered the pathway up.
He walked out onto the floor. It was in an open office area. There were several cubicles set up around the room along with offices near the windows and walls. He looked around for only a moment before walking across the room toward another stairwell.
But as he was walking across the room he froze in his steps. He could hear whispering across the room. "We cannot just keep hiding. We need to get to an evacuation location."