Shattered super-soldier

Having been delegated the job of establishing a diplomatic channel to the leadership of the Willmir army that were intruding on their claimed territory, Adam, the former ruler and Duke of the Willmir empire let out a deep sigh as he gazed at the encampment ahead of him. Then he gave the final call

“Let’s go get this over with”

[Go from squad leader confirmed, Golem and Hound pattern androids advancing, notice to all personal from command: Observe IFF, these androids have been ordered for the upcoming large scale assault of the Truman kingdom so don’t bang them up… Oh, and reign in your aggression, if I wanted this group of ragtag conscripts and knights gone we would have turned them into fertilizer with the artillery]

Adam rose to his feet and detecting his intent through his neural interface the android soldiers under his direct command moved ahead and fanned out in an assault formation, he still struggled to get used to this kind of warfare, something the Major had told him was quite normal for a person of his age that had suddenly undergone augmentation

‘Time to focus…’

Adam pushed his idle musings to the back of his mind and advanced forwards as illumination flares shot into the sky and lit up the encampment, a moment later Adam spoke, his distorted voice amplified through the external speakers of the 1500 combat androids that had encircled the encampment

“Present a representative for diplomatic mediation or be annihilated”

Finding the encampment suddenly surrounded and illuminated, a lot of the soldiers panicked, however this panic was brief before a mounted knight rode out of the camp the flag of the Willmir empire held to his side, an official signalling used doing times of war used to signal to the opposing side that they accepted the terms set forth. However, even after a few minutes had passed a mediator had yet to show themselves

“More useless pride…”

Having led the Willmir empire for over 2 decades as emperor, Adam of course knew exactly what the commander of the army was trying to pull, they were trying to have a representative come to them so they could negotiate on favorable terms. However, in the face of the overwhelming firepower that faced the Willmir empire, the useless pride was just that. Useless

[What do you want to do, Adam? Shouldn’t we just call in some artillery and get it over and done with?]

While Rosa’s suggestion revealed her heightened thirst for blood Adam didn’t really consider her suggestion, that would go directly against what Matthew had told them in the briefing, however her suggestion still gave Adam an idea

‘I have a task for you Aea, R2 and E1 continue to hold’

[Fire mission received, artillery notice, HUD displays have been updated]

[Ohh… That’s sure to light a fire under them, I like it]

A few moments later, booms of what sounded like thunder echoed out over the Willmir empire encampment, a moment later large explosions boomed into the sky illuminating in the area in a violent orange glow as the fireballs grew larger for a few moments before they disappeared, as the boom of the explosion quieted down Adam’s distorted voice sounded out once more

“This is your final warning, present a representative for diplomatic mediation or be destroyed”

This time, Adam’s command had its desired effect, and within a few minutes a squad of knights moved a large table along with a few chairs out to the edge of the encampment. Then finally, Erik Willmir, current ruler of the Willmir empire himself took a seat at the table as more than 400 knights lined up behind him, joining him at the table were 3 imperial scribes ready to record and preserve the upcoming mediations

‘K1, with me’

[...Understood]

Adam walked ahead joined by the combat androids under his personal command, a few minutes later he arrived at the table along with K1, he gazed at his son, the current emperor of Willmir for a few moments before he spoke

“Now then, I am under the designation of A1, this is K1, we have been appointed as the Major’s proxies as he has other duties to attend to”

As Adam and Klara were still fully enclosed in their armor and utilized voice augmenters, Erik Willmir was none the wiser that his lost father and daughter were standing across the table from him, negotiating on the behalf of the quite hostile Trerubic empire

“Greetings, I was under the impression that Major Matthew perished during our last talks, thus I simply sought out another representative of The Trerubic empire to continue our mediations”

Adam was about to speak when Aea sounded an alert over the local network

[Temporal forecast indicates numerous hostile wildlife will move into A1 Operating area at current negotiations pace, please expedite]

Adam quickly followed Aea’s advice and answered the emperor's first jab with one of his own

“Of course, that was one of the intended parameters of the latest operation, but please be at ease, both the Mistress that were imprisoned in the Willmir royal museum and Major Matthew are quite alive still… Of course, the fact that the spare body fooled your eyes was part of our original plan”

Adam kept a close eye on Erik as he shifted his position slightly, an old habit his son had yet to shed it would seem, to any other person this tell would most likely not have been noticed. However, a good father always knew their son the best and natural Erik spoke, while his tone were still calm, Adam saw straight through the facade

“Yes… I received a report that you raided our museum, I intend to seek reparations for this heinous act, however in spirit off—”

Before he could finish speaking, Klara cut him off

“Major Matthew excised quite the restraint, I believe the first few drafts of the operation called for something similar as to what happened in Winmond… Only without any precursory evacuation”

By now, Erik’s face had changed a shade redder as his fury silently rose, he chose his actions carefully however as he only spared a glance at Klara

“As I stated—”

However, just as he started speaking again a figure suddenly appeared next to Adam, it was Major Matthew clad in a pair of sweatpants with a coil rifle over his shoulder, he ignored startled reactions around him and walked up to the wooden table and placed the butt stock of his coil rifle down on it with a thunderous sound which silenced the commotion

“Alright, I was hoping you would have taken the hint by now, emperor of Willmir… But apparently not, so let me spell it out for you… You have ceased mattering to me”

Erik’s face flashed red with rage, however before his rage could explode out Matthew’s arm shot up into the air where he stanched an artillery shell out of the air and placed it down on the wooden table where it opened up as Matthew spoke

“I will be blunt with you, Erik Willmir, the Willmir empire consists of 38 cites, 197 towns and a little more than 400 villages, totaling about 8.000.000 souls, this amount of fully armed combat androids I would be able to field in 6 months time—”

As Matthew spoke, the shell finished opening up and projected a large holographic map of the Willmir empire along with the position of Matthew’s Basecamp, quickly red lines were drawn out from the Basecamp to each city and town in the Willmir empire

“---Or I could simply launch about half of our stockpiled monitions right at this moment and simply obliterate every single town and city in your empire, leaving you Erik Willmir an emperor of poisonous ash and ruble”

Erik Willmir girt his teeth as his rage intensified, however Matthew wasn’t done as the holographic map changed as it zoomed in on their current locations, on it combat androids were displayed with green dots, and as Matthew raised his hand the merciless androids leveled their weapons and firing lines appeared on the map. Crossing each and every orange dot at least twice

“Now listen to me very closely, if I close my hand your lives will be forfeit, no matter if any of your knights reach me… Say you do reach me, say you do kill me, then command will fall to Alina, the very person that you displayed publicly as some sort of trophy for all to gawk at. There’s a common saying in the Trerubic empire, would you like to hear it?”

Erik kept his mouth firmly shut as he continued to glare at Matthew’s calm smile with hate as Matthew calmly spoke

“Hell has no fury like that of a woman scorned, easy to understand, right? So let me lay out the details of this final diplomatic mediation between the Willmir empire and the Trerubic empire—”

At this the Willmir emperor finally had enough and slammed his fist into the table which served as a signal for his equally infuriated knights to launch their futile attack, after Matthew closed his fist it only took 6 seconds for the Willmir empire army to be reduced to one, sitting in his chair now covered in high velocity blood splatter sat the pale Willmir emperor, he gazed at Major Matthew and saw for the first time ever a hint of fury on his visage

“---Any further incursion into our territory will be met with an immediate lethal response and any purposeful interference in our matters will result in your empire to be bathed in nuclear fire…”

By now the hint of fury had enveloped Matthew in a Mystic haze of heat that scorched everything within half a meter of him, his fury had taken form as he delivered his final words to the emperor of Willmir

“Were I a smaller man, I would have ripped your entire nerve system from your body and tormented you in a digital hellscape for a few hundred years for the crime of imprisoning the only person I’ve ever cared this much for… Alas in my old age I have developed restraint”

With those words, Erik Willmir let out a terrified scream of pain as his body caught fire for a brief terrifying moment, scorching his entire body and covering it in horrible burns