Shattered super-soldier

With Winmond’s destruction being confirmed by Imperial forces 2 days after the unkown assailant had delivered the message to the crown prince, slaughtering 18 imperial knights in the process, Emperor Erik Willmir who already were underway West steeled his heart, he had left his 2 son’s behind in the capital to manage the empire while he went to meet with The Trerubic Empire’s representatives, and on the eve of the 3rd day he arrived at the destroyed Fort Adam with an elite force of 400 escorts, there he spent a sleepless night awaiting dawn with the grim realization that he could become the last emperor of the Willmir empire…

-

Matthew slowly opened his eyes, his headache was getting worse but shortly after wiping the trail of blood that had flowed down from his nose while his body rested he stood up and spoke out loud

“Showtime, Aea would you address the cast?”

[Start of operation confirmed, notice to all personal information control is now in effect, all purposeful deviations from planned operation will be met with immediate lethal force, move to holding pattern A9]

As Aea sounded out the alert, the Heliea which currently held Matthew, Rosa and Emilio, the two former Willmir knights held no illusions about the seriousness of this operation, Matthew had already informed them about what would happen to them if they failed to follow orders, the Major glanced at the readings of R2 and E1 in his display and let out a sigh

‘...In hindsight, telling the recruits about digital purgatory might have been a mistake’

Not exactly being the most charismatic of leaders, Matthew let out another sigh before he spoke to the two

“This is it, as long as we follow the plan Aea and Lea cooked up we will be fine… And after this you will be free to chose where you want to continue or quit”

Rosa showed a wide smile as she immediately spoke up

“I will follow you anywhere, Major”

Rose had indeed adapted, however she might have adapted a little too well, while Matthew hadn’t seen the data logs of what things she had used her neurological implant to access, it was clear from her newly acquired and rapidly increasing sadistic behavior that it wasn’t anything nice

“I understand, Major… I will do my duty, both to you and to my old home”

Emilio’s tone was tense but steady, he was currently being treated for mild neurological implant phycological disorder, NIPD as the lap coats referred to it as, was just as it sounded, there was nothing biological about the rejection and while it was completely curable through gradual neurological adjustment it took time which they didn’t have at the current moment, so Emilio was on a heavy pharmaceutical cocktail which Doc had cooked up for him to alleviate his symptoms that were automatically administered through a bionic implant

[Please rest assured Matthew, success have been almost guaranteed with Miss Lea’s assistance]

‘I know, the hard part is of any operation is, as always, the “doing” part of it, not the planing’

Matthew rose from his seat and entered the Mk. 22 before he picked his coil rifle off the rack and faced the ramp

“Just as we trained, slow is steady, steady is fast”

“Roger”

“Roger”

Rosa and Emilio took their positions to his right and left, equipped in the lightly armored Mk. 8 powered armor they both wielded Mk. 46 High-voltage Coil rifles, furthermore each held command over 8 Golem-class combat androids and 4 Hound-class combat and suppression androids, a few moments later the ready lamp over the ramp lit up followed by Aea’s announcement

[Touch and go in 15 seconds, stand ready]

As the entirety of the current cargo of the Heliea was magnetically locked to its floor and in the spirit of showing the Willmir delegation “What’s up” as Matthew would say it, the Heliea’s frame creaked slightly as it rapidly decelerated while the ramp opened it preformed a sharp J-hook right before touching down, just as the light switched to green

“Alright, let’s get this done”

Matthew quickly stepped out, followed by E1 and R2 along with their drones that quickly swept out as the Heliea lit its afterburners and rapidly rose into the sky once more, a few moments later Rosa’s voice sounded out over the local net

[I think there’s a couple of code brown’s ahead~]

Matthew could see it too on his sensor overlay too, they had touched down a little over 100 meters away from the Willmir delegation that, understandably, were fighting to keep their pants unsoiled, still Matthew couldn’t really complain as this had been the intention from the start, after the 3 walked out of the dust cloud followed by the 24 combat androids, the entire Willmir empire delegation camp turned into a flurry of flustered activity to respond to the sudden arrival, however before any of the knights charged Matthew’s voice boomed out over the open field through the external speakers on his suit

“I am Major Matthew Rockwell, I have arrived for diplomatic mediations with Erik Willmir regarding the illegal incursion of Trerubic Empire territory”

Having announced himself, the hostility on the Willmir empire side cooled significantly, however they were all still clearly on guard as a group of 20 or so knights approached, the most senior in the group, a grizzled looking knight in his mid 30’s, he greeted Matthew

“Welcome, I am—”

“I know who you are, Captian Peter Loos, while your personal actions of illegal looting doing the unlawful incurtion of our territory is something I would love to make you shit out all of your inner organs after I liquified them with my fist, your presence wasn’t requested, remove yourself or be removed by force”

The knight’s face flushed red with anger and humiliation, however before he had a chance to argue back the knight next to him grabbed his shoulder and gestured back towards the center of the camp where the knights parted as Erik Willmir, followed by a flank of 8 elite guards walked straight towards them, within a few moments the emperor of the Willmir empire stood in front of Matthew

“Major Rockwell, I am here as you have requested”

Matthew kept silent as he stared down the emperor, before the back of his armor opened up, and he stepped out of the Mk. 22 armor and walked right in front of the emperor where he reached out his hand for a handshake

“Greetings, emperor of Willmir”

Erik Willmir gazed at Matthew’s outstretched hand for a moment before he shook it and spoke

“Apologize for the delay Major, I was sure you would have preferred to keep your armor on for this meeting”

Matthew showed a smile and after shaking the emperor's hand he made a show of looking around at the gathered knights before he shrugged and spoke nonchalantly

“It is not my choice if you violate the sanctity of this meeting, if I were to die then your empire will die with me shortly after”

Erik narrowed his eyes and spoke in a low tone of voice

“I do not threaten lightly, Major”

Matthew chuckled and plainly stated

“If I die today, my 2nd in command have received my orders and Emperor Samual Junathan Trerubic blessing to reenact the operation we performed at Winmond a few days ago with a few changes… The target have been set to your capital city, but I am not sure if she will bother evacuating the city first, so please keep your people under control”

The Willmir emperor nodded and gestured for Matthew to walk with him as he spoke

“I understand, then let us start our talks, come we have much to disc—”

There was indeed much to talk about, however the diplomatic meeting that Erik Willmir had envisioned would never take place as even before he finished speaking, Major Matthew Rockwell’s figure disappeared in a blinding light as a pillar of fire shot out from the ground immolating him, in an instance not even ash remained

“Assassin!”

The knights exploded into a flurry and quickly covered for their emperor against possible retaliation from the other two Trerubic soldiers, however the two showed no such action, in fact they showed no reaction to the Major’s sudden violent death as they stood quite still

[Target located, R2, B1 move to sterilize]

With Aea’s report the two soldiers and accompanying drones sprung into action, they rushed into the Willmir empire camp, swiftly dispatching any knight that stood in their way as a hail of autocannon fire rained down from 2 Heliea’s that circled above, within moments the assassin had been flushed out from their hiding place and out into the open as they attempted to flee, however this would quickly prove to be the wrong choice as the Heliea’s opened up with rockets

[Continue suppression of target]

The two fanned out as they kept up their fire into the cloud of dirt that was being kicked up by the rocket barrages, on the overhead sensors a single figure could be seen, protected by some sort of Mystic energy shield the assassin didn’t get very far before they were suppressed in place, from there it only took another minute before the Mystic artifact that covered them in their shield were depleted of energy and the figure was turned into a vaguely human mess of blood and gore, at this the heavy suppression finally stopped

[Operation complete, M1, R1, S1 go for operation start, R2, B1 move to extraction]

4 drones quickly moved in and secured the corpse of the assassin in the Mk. 22 armor Matthew had arrived wearing which quickly moved onto a Heliea along with R2 and B1 that quickly burned off

As for Erik Willmir and the so-called diplomatic mediations? That had never been the objective, killing the assassin and securing their corpse, that had been the one and only objective before securing Alina

-

“Ugh… Fuck me sideways, I never really get use to these things…”

Matthew complained loudly as he pulled the long cable and neurological interface out of the back of his head, the open wound quickly closed as he continued complaining

“Was a neurologic-linked clone really necessary?”

The Matthew that had meet the Willmir emperor a few moments ago had been a clone that had been remotely controlled by him through the large, half a ton clone interface that took up half of the Heliea’s cargo bay

[Yes, we have gone over this 14 times before the start of the operation, your presence, the location of the meeting and the threat of the Willmir empire's destruction was all required for the assailant to expose himself]

Matthew let out a small sigh, but before he could continue to argue with Aea, Saratheen that sat across to him asked

“So was it really him?”

Matthew nodded before he spoke in a completely neutral tone

“Yes, your old man was quite tough, it took the murderer of his son and daughter, the death of the empire he was betrayed by and the proximity to your last known location to draw him out”

“...I see”

Saratheen fell silent, so did Matthew that decided to let her have some quiet

‘How is the assault of the Willmir capital going?’

[18 combat androids have been disabled, however resistance inside the imperial museum have been sterilized, and a 2 block perimeter have been established, remote charging of the Mistress’ body is currently underway]

Matthew let out a sigh of relief before he muttered

“Good… Wait for me Alina… I’ll be there soon…”