Chapter 273: Vexical Prime: Secure Building
They had to wait thirty minutes before they could move on. They climbed back down to the ground floor and moved through the bloody area where the Circle of Yuri Mercenary remnant was finished off by the Holy Empire soldiers. During the time they waited, Shepard was able to get in contact with the nearby group of Union soldiers that were evacuating civilians.
Apparently they were not having very good luck. The Holy Empire had rounded up a bunch and put them in chains. Already set with plans to take them off the planet. While they were here they would have to cripple the Holy Empire’s efforts. At the very least they would need to set up a way to track their kidnapped people. Hopefully the Director had thought of that ahead of time.
They walked through a few more buildings before they arrived at the location where ping was set up. Except as he arrived the rest of them noticed an issue he had noticed earlier when they first came above ground. The drop pod was not on the ground floor. The drop pod had ended up on an upper floor of a tower.
"I thought it was disguised as space debris. This area has a few downed fighter and transport craft. But nothing the size of a system hopping vessel." Barry pointed out as they looked up the side of the building they were currently outside of.
Jace was currently trying to figure out which building the drop pod was inside of. Fortunately the heavy rain and electrical storm was not a problem for them. In fact it was useful since the larger enemy vehicles and mechs had to stay hidden. While the rain was mixed with chemicals because of the ships falling out of the sky was not much of an issue for them either. Only Atlas had to grab an enemy’s cloak and cover himself to hide himself from the rain. The rest of them were Nanohumans, so the chemicals were neutralized before they could do any damage to them permanently.
"We need to get out of the rain. Which building?" Shepard pointed out as the rain got heavier.
Jace nodded at one building. It was much larger than the other buildings. There was a good chance it was a military company building of some type. He was sure there were plenty but it had to have been dumb luck for the drop pod to land in one. There should be additional equipment the others could use.
At least that was what he thought at first as he pushed open the door. But after clearing the initial entrance and moving a few feet in he realizes that he could hear others. He held up a hand once the others were inside and they stayed quiet while they shook off the chemical rain.
Jace slowly moved along the hallway they walked into. It was a backdoor entrance they came in through. But considering the lock was broken he should have figured that someone had already taken up position in this building.
He then stopped and motioned at the ground. There was a discrete patch sensor on the ground. It would trigger a sensor if they stepped on it or near it. Jace crouched down while the others stepped back. He ran a current of electricity on the ground and it sparked and broke. But it was not the only one as a chain of electricity ran out through the floor and broke several more.
Fortunately it coincided with a loud strike of electricity so there was a good chance it was mistaken as being overloaded naturally. He was not expecting all of the sensors but it worked out in the end. So he let it be and moved to the door that would lead into the main lobby.
He could hear two different pairs of footfalls approaching the door. He made two quick hand motions as he listened to their conversation. "At this rate we will not have any replacement sensors. This is the third set of sensors that went down in the building." One of them was complaining.
"Yeah yeah, just get to repairing them." The other person told them as they approached the door.
The door began opening, "I can not just repair them!" The first man began complaining, completely ignoring his surroundings and missing Jace’s group who was waiting behind the door. "It has to be replaced, because an overload destroys the wires and connections. Which cannot just be fixed on the spot." He moved over to a sensor that was on the wall. He crouched down while his guard walked in behind him with the door closing behind him.
The guard was the first to notice them but Jace was behind the man, covering his mouth and pulling his gun from his hand. The only reason he did not immediately kill him was because the patches on his clothes were of the type that Jace did not recognize on sight.
Atlas stepped up beside the other person and put the barrel of the silenced gun up against the side of their head. They froze and looked over as Shepard stepped forward and looked over them. "They are unmarked mercenaries." Shepard waved his hand at both of them. "They are from different groups but neither are aligned with any specific nation. That is why there is a lack of a second patch."
Jace frowned under his helmet and nodded at the one Atlas was holding at gun point. Jamming a signal with his armor that they tried to discreetly send out. "Tie him up, he just tried to send a signal." He then forced the one he was holding down to his knees. "Now explain, why are a bunch of unmarked mercenaries set up in a warzone."
Typically it would be highly illegal for mercenaries to enter a warzone while unmarked. But considering this was a peaceful planet before it turned into a warzone, there was probably a reason. But even then they should have joined a side by now, especially if a bunch of groups had congregated in the same location. There had to be a reason even if it had been less than a day since this all had begun.