‘Well then, that’s a rather grim suggestion, Aea…’

Matthew quietly observed Lea as she entered a strange trance as she glanced into the future once again, this was the 6th trance she had entered since they had agreed to work together in their effort of not nuking the entire Willmir empire, from each glance Lea took the picture got increasingly clear

‘Still, what are the chances of me kicking the bucket like that?’

It appeared that Matthew had become past tense just before the Willmir empire had been relegated to the past

[Chances would normally be slim to none, but this appears anything but normal, immediate retreat after mistress Alina have been secured is highly suggested]

‘So you value Alina’s life higher than mine? Well I do too, but still that stings Aea’

[I apologize, I have neither been designed nor constructed to care about cuddling your delicate feelings at all times, master]

Matthew let out a sigh, even though Aea was an A. I. construct without gender he still felt its cool emotionless voice had a particularly high amount of a certain saz which Matthew found rather odd, still he cleared his mind of this rather quickly

“Well, whatever… Can we assume the person or organization that is out for my life is tied to the Willmir empire?”

[While that would be the likely causation, but with the existence of the so called ‘Skinweavers of the far east’ which sabotaged with the previous negotiation with the late Marquis Maitner and the true identity of Saratheen and her brother things might not be that clear]

Matthew nodded and thought for a few moments before he suggested

“Well, one solution would be to prove Lea’s visions of a Nuclear winter true and demand the release of Alina from the Willmir Empire with that as lavage, you know, proving to them that all my death would earn them would be rendering the entire Willmir empire entirely uninhabitable for the next 80 years even with our tech, along with the inevitable nuclear winter”

[While it is a fine suggestion, it would likely put too much spotlight on Mistress Alina, leaving her more exposed to the imperial whims of Willmir, it would also mark her as a prime target for any enemy of the empire before she is handed over to our custody]

Matthew let out a sigh, the risk of exposing Alina was too great, from the information they had gathered she were held in a publicly available museum in the capital, on display along with numerous other relics and other sorry remains left behind by people that had crossed the Willmir empire

[My first suggestion stands]

Matthew let out another sigh, he still would not agree with Aea’s suggestion

“I won’t do that, Aea… It feels like a waste”

[That is fine too, please just keep the option in mind]

“Will do… I wonder what Ripper is doing to pass the time while Wicka is rearing its ugly presence…”

[It is generally frowned upon speculating what a lady does in private]

Matthew let out another sigh and slumped further back in his chair as he muttered

“It’s not like there’s much else to do”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

He and Lea had already been trapped in the house for 2 days, besides piling the bodies of 4 unfortunate bystanders into a closet he had not really done anything besides sitting on his ass and watching over Lea and reviewing what they had learned and theory craft… By now the boredom had started to turn into full on cabin fever, no doubt the maddening pale blue light had something to do with it

However, just as he was about to complain about it Aea sounded out an alert

[Alert to all personal: Code blue lifted, local net reconnected]

Matthew walked over to the thick curtains and snuck a glance of the outside, sure enough, just as he complained, Wicka had disappeared once more like morning dew in the sunlight the maddening comet had vanished

“Ripper, are you awake?”

[...I am now, how did it go with the little lady?]

“I’ve taken her in for now, she has some sort of precognition, and apparently I kicked the bucket so the Willmir empire got nuked back to the Stone Age”

[Woah, sounds like you’ve been busy, I’ve caught up on my sleep, nothing like a solid 37-hour nap]

“Come over here then, we’ve leaving Tweni as soon as the princess snaps out of her trance”

[Roger, I am 3 minutes out]

Matthew turned back to look at Lea, she were still in a trance, this one was the longest so far

‘How does her vitals look?’

[Vital readings are normal for her current state, however the caloric burn seems to be increasing, if current state persist for more than half an hour then a nutrient drip is strongly advised]

‘Hmm… Warm up our transport, I want to have weaponry and drones available for hot deployment in case we have to hunker down’

[Confirmed, Haliea-003 on station for air support in 12 minutes]

By the time Ripper arrived, the city of Tweni were starting to wake from its demon comet imposed two day slumber, people were flooding the streets and even if the atmosphere wasn’t outright festive it was definitely lively, however this quickly changed as a large group of knights and city guard began gathering, and as Matthew watched them through the numerous eyes of the drones overhead they had finished forming an encirclement with him, Ripper and Lea in the center from 2 streets over

“Do you want me to go fuck them over, Major?”

Ripper looked eager to try out the sword she had picked up somewhere, it was a low tech thing but it had still caught her eye so Matthew assumed it was somewhat special, he couldn’t tell though, but he shook his head, he didn’t want her to run around like a crazy slasher while they still were in enemy territory

“No, we hold for now, there are only a few minutes until we have a Heliea on station, then we can hammer them from above if need be”

Just then Aea suddenly sounded out a report

[Receiving data package, Mystic precognition completed, trance suspended]

Matthew looked over at Lea that just had woken from her trance, she remains silent and were staring into empty space

“That doesn't look good, how are her vitals, Aea?

[Stable, however her ego needs some time to recover from the latest trance, relaying data package… Complete]

Matthew were hit with a brief dizziness as he comprehended what Lea had seen doing her latest glance into the future, to put a word to it was

“Awful, in the name of all that is holy I never knew Alina had such a high capacity for hatred”

[I feel your evaluation of people in love is still far from lacking, there are many examples in my achieve that far exceed the show mistress Alina is putting on in the not too far future]

Matthew let out a sigh, not only had she nuked the Willmir empire after his passing, in the latest of Lea’s visions she had witnessed her hunting the survivors for sport and torturing them to death, which now resulted in Lea’s absentminded behavior, her mind was reeling and almost completely shattered from the one and a half week she had spent under Alina’s thumb

‘Well, it isn’t something that can’t be fixed with some mildly aggressive, invasive neurological interfaced therapy in a couple of days, right Aea?’

[Confirmed, however the amount of data that needs to be transferred per micro second is beyond the scope of normal wireless operations, fabrication of interface have already begun back at the Basecamp]

“Well then… Looks like the knights are starting to move already… Aea, put Lea to sleep, we’re leaving”

Matthew walked over and picked up Lea and swung her over his shoulder before he walked out of the house followed by Ripper caught up and walked next to him before she asked once again

“So, can I test out my new sword?”

Matthew glanced over at the blade Ripper was rubbing (the flat side) against her face, and once again, he failed to see anything special about it… Still he knew when she got like this she wouldn’t keep asking, eventually she would just cut something or someone up with her new toy, so with the prospect of not being the one she could cut into later he relented

“Fine, but keep it tight, Lea is the most valuable piece of equipment we could ever get, and Mystic powers doesn’t follow genetics, so we can’t clone her either”

“Right-o, you got it, bossman~!”

With those words, Ripper kicked off the ground and instantly accelerated ahead to test out her new blade, Matthew let out a sigh and spoke out loud as he weaved in between the festive citizens of Tweni

“Deploy the drones, have the Heliea remain on station for close range fire support, if anything threatened me Ripper or Lea put it down at once, be ready for pickup on the outer walls”

[Roger, Heliea-003 hot dropping and deploying 12 golem combat androids, 18 hound class combat androids… Complete]

A low boom echoed out over the city, it sounded like distant thunder, a few moments later the large aerial transport came screaming across the sky from the west, as it entered the airspace across the city it engaged reverse thrust as it deployed air brakes which spread out like the wings of a hawk, for a few moments it rapidly slowed before rolling over to the right as it began a downwards spiral over the city, directly under the cockpit the large 30mm autocannon deployed along with its targeting sensor pod

[41 targets painted, ready to engage at command]

“Leave a few for Ripper, or she’ll be pouty for the rest of the day”

[Confirmed, engaging targets]