Chapter 335: Unsure Soldier
Jace moved down the street walking along the sidewalk after he had searched. Another of the warehouses. By searching, he means he just peaked inside and saw a number of mechs that were in parts and damaged. Nothing inside he could really use.
So he moved on to the next warehouse where the other Titan-Class mech could be located. Now he was coming up on another of those warehouses when a military vehicle pulled up just outside the door where the guards were standing at attention. The guards saluted immediately before the vehicle even opened up and a young man who looked to be maybe sixteen or seventeen.
Jace slid up the side of the warehouse, moving towards the entrance as the young man straightened his formal uniform. Then he walked past the guards and they relaxed after he walked past. Jace followed the young man in while the guards relaxed.
"Just being near the genius is terrifying. You know he turned in his own squad mates for disorderly conduct." One of the soldiers whispered.
"Yeah. I heard one of them was the son of a politician. Which was why he was put on trash duty in the first place. But then he came around and joined the special interests division. Talk about terrifying, makes you wonder who he has got in his pocket." The other soldier pointed out.
Jace registered that information and then continued to follow the young soldier in. But he moved to the side behind some boxes as the young soldier came up behind the mech pilot that Jace had seen talking earlier with a scientist and the Dwarf. The young soldier stopped and saluted for the older soldier and waited for him to register his presence.
"Sergeant- actually I should call you Commander Tyler now, shouldn’t I?" The older mech pilot asked as he turned away from his Titan-Class Mech. "My assistant told me you wanted to discuss something. Right before a battle too, how ominous."
"General, I am wondering why the Republic is continuing with the war." The young man asked, he sounded unsure and not confident in the least. "I looked at the records and neither the Vexical Empire nor the Republic declared war."
"That is because it is unnecessary." The General frowned as he looked at the young man, clearly suspicious of him. "The Vexical Empire ceased to exist when their emperor died. So now they are just a mass of systems up for the taking."
"I thought the Vexical Empire’s Princess and Military laid public claim to the country?" The young man clearly did not want the violence that would come with a war. "I mean, we could avoid a mass casualty battle with them if we just apologize and reinforce that we were just trying to keep the peace."
The General scoffed, "kid, we may have started the war. But there is no way to stop it now." He pulled out a device and tossed it to him. Jace peaked out from his cover to get a better look and saw that the video was from a Whisper facility he infiltrated. The video was heavily damaged but you could still make out him tearing through an entire enemy guard unit. "Apparently that is the same soldier that turned our people away at Vexical Prime."
"So..." The young man was confused.
"That place he is ransacking is a Whisper facility. A highly classified military facility that watches and listens to enemy units. They managed to destroy all of them and we are now blind." The General informed him. "Their invasion has already begun. It might have been mine and the other Generals idea to invade Vexical Prime with the other nations. But it is clear we awoke a slumbering beast."
"I... I do not understand. How is just one soldier so dangerous?" The young commander asked as he handed back the device. He then nodded at the Titan-Class Mech. "Especially when we have mechs? From what I understand the most they have is Power Armor."
The General shook his head. "Not quite. The Vexical Empire has always had the strongest Infantry of all the human nations. They wear a form of battle armor that is better than any Power Armor. They also all have a connection to the Nanosystem. Giving them increased strength and other strange abilities. This new unit, The Spectre, is supposed to be the pinnacle of their Infantry units." The General nodded at the Titan-Class Mech.
"It may be massive but it still does come with plenty of drawbacks. For instance, in an urban setting its sensors struggle to pick out enemies from debris or civilians. They could hide and hit us from blindspots. Then there is the pilot component of the machine." The General continued his explanation as he walked over and kicked one of the feet of the mech. "This thing is just a hunk of junk without a pilot so if they manage to kill the pilot we are down a Titan-Class Mech."
The young commander looked up at the mech and sighed. "I suppose you are right. But I still think it would not hurt to attempt to garner forgiveness. But instead we are throwing a war parade before sending a Titan-Class Mech to the border."
"Hmm..." Jace watched the General’s eyes gleam in annoyance as the young commander was looking away. He was frowning but his expression went to a neutral one and then a sad expression as he shook his head. "Fine, I will ask and see about getting the Generals and others to back off. But do not get your hopes up." The General pointed out and then waved him off. "Now go grab some sleep. You have a big day tomorrow, officially becoming the pilot of the second Titan-Class Mech."
The young commander bowed his head and then turned away and walked out the front doors of the hangar. The guards saluted before the vehicle raced off. That Commander Tyler must be the one that Dwarf was talking about. The other pilot for the Titan-Class Mech. If what Jace just heard correctly then he is just a big softie like the Dwarf said.
But Jace watched as the General glanced behind him with a frown. Looking at the exit the young commander just left through. Then he pulled out a communication device and called someone. Jace listened as an older voice picked up on the other end. "This is General Kyln, I think you are right. We are going to need to find a replacement for Commander Tyler as soon as possible."
"Hehe, I told you." The voice on the other end responded. "That kid does not see the opportunity that this war provides does he? Let me guess after the carrot you went for the stick. Telling him about the infiltration unit." The man on the other end of the call guessed.
General Kyln grunted, "yeah he did not take either. I got him to hold off for now by telling him that I would talk with upper command. But we are going to need to send him into the heaviest of fighting. Hopefully he will overclock instead of destroying the mech. But I am going to need a recovery team and replacement pilots."
Overclocking was something power armor and mech pilots had happened to them. It was not as relevant in the Vexical Empire since they used infantry armor instead. It was when a user interfaced too much with the system through a mechanical to biological connection. The machines required processes became too much for the human and killed them by overheating or overloading the brain.
"Ha... so close to the big battle too. I will get it done. Happy hunting General Kyln." The other voice responded before ending the call.
General Kyln waited for a moment before turning and walking out of the room. Wearing an annoyed expression on his face as he did so. Jace waited until the General was out before he moved out from his cover and looked among the boxes for some explosives. He still had enough for one more joint. So he would have to improvise for the rest of it.
After a few minutes he found some gel based explosives. Jace moved to the maintenance rafting and climbed up it to get to the mech. He then planted his original explosive device on one of the knees. Then for the other limbs he used the explosive gel and coated the joints in the stuff before setting up a remote detonator. Hopefully the metal-on-metal friction did not set off the explosive ahead of time. But there was a good chance it would not.
Once the sabotage was done, Jace climbed down and moved to the nearest wall. He jumped the wall and made sure to get a good distance away from the wall. Then he raised Nila on comms to see about the rest of their progress and to hand out some last minute orders because of what he found out from his infiltration mission.