The old Basecamp was a wreck, their home was mostly in ruins and destroyed androids and turrets were strewn all over the place, however neither the 3 Titan automaton nor Alina were anywhere to be seen at first look, so Matthew followed the plan and slowed his sprint down to a jog, he reached the wall of his and Alina’s home and punched into the wall with his fist where he grabbed a bundle of wires and pulled them out before he drew a knife and cut them apart and grabbed the exposed wires

‘Start the manual master override Aea’

[Confirmed, starting override…]

While Aea worked its magic, Matthew kept alert of his surroundings and after a few minutes Aea finally reported back

[Manual master override completed, command structure restored, running diagnostics…]

Matthew let go of the wires and walked away from the destroyed wall as he kept check of the surroundings while Aea delivered another report

[Diagnostics completed, all defensive structures destroyed, 1 layer underground bunker 82% collapsed, 2 layer underground bunker 61% collapsed, 3 layer underground bunker intact, generators and fabrications arrays intact, nutrient vat 1 cracked, nutrient vat 2 operating at 28% 14 out of 18 single cell rooms reads: subject deceased]

‘...How about the perimeter sensor network?’

[Sensor network operating at 58%, scope is clear at the current time]

‘Start complete maintenance cycle’

Matthew lowered his coil rifle and after a few moments of through he walked over to the entrance to the underground bunker network and found the entrance collapsed, though there were clear signs that someone had tried to dig through the collapsed parts

‘How does the perimeter look, Ripper?’

[Well, other than some obviously hostile wildlife it's clear]

Matthew scanned the area once again before he let out a sigh and spoke

“Operation over, unload Haliea-002 on the double… Ripper get over here”

‘On my way~’

Matthew stepped out of his Mk. 22 and asked Aea

‘Who is our lucky 4, Aea?’

[Princess Klara, Duke Adam, Rosa Weber and Emilio Glaser, however in their current physical and mental state I doubt they would agree with your assessment of luck]

‘Well… They’ll come around… At some point… How long has it been since I got divorced with my lower half?’

[Local time distortion indicate 7 months have passed]

‘...Put them to sleep and hook them up to a digital interface, then give them the full phycological work over while their bodies heal’

[Confirmed]

Matthew sat down on a piece of debris and looked around, the place was trashed and there were no trace of Alina anywhere

“What have you found, Ripper?”

Ripper came into view as the optical camouflage disengaged, she reached up and removed her helmet before she spoke

“Well the place is trashed, but there was something interesting over here”

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

Matthew rose to his feet and followed after Ripper as she led him over to what she had found, 3 bases of perfectly flat and smooth blue crystal around 2 meters across and a few meters apart from each other, the pale blue crystal jogged Matthew’s memories at once

“Wait a moment…”

Matthew turned back towards the ruined house, he walked back towards it before he walked over towards the place he remembered clearly, it was etched into his mind and at that spot he found a flat black crystal base much like the 3 blue ones

“...Son of a bitch”

Ripper looked at the black crystal base and didn’t get what Matthew had put together until he spoke again

“When we were assaulted by 3 Titan automatons coiled up in liquid blue crystal… And Alina was struck by a spear of black crystal that engulfed her body”

Ripper blinked twice before she finally understood and muttered

“Son of a bitch, they stole your woman Major”

“Aea, are there any high endurance drones left in the network that caught sight of the thieves?”

[Yes, rewinding playback… Analyzing video data… Completed, starting playback]

Matthew’s vision distorted as he saw the Basecamp from above, the large Willmir empire army had arrived a few days after the fight, destroyed the last defensive structures, attempted to dig up the collapsed entrance to the bunker for a week before they had retreated carrying with them the 4 large crystals, one of which imprisoned Alina

“...Aea, ship in all the weaponry and stored drones from the outpost and put in an order for a complete replenishment, we are going to war”

The air around Matthew shimmered with intense heat as he started at the frozen image of the Willmir soldiers loading the black crystal that imprisoned Alina into a large transport carriage

“What’s the plan, Major?”

Matthew remained silent for a few moments before he laid out his plan

“Well, we scale up local arms production until we’re at war capacity… While that is ongoing, we are going to gather intelligence we need to find Alina while staying covert”

Ripper nodded, then she asked

“...Do you mind handing drone control over to me, Major?”

“Nope, have fun… Information containment is top priority, also some of the wildlife around here is useful for capacitor fabrication, so feel free to hunt it all”

“Yay~”

Ripper immediately put her helmet back on and disappeared as her optical camouflage reengaged and she ran off

“Secure the perimeter while you are at it, Ripper”

Matthew retrieved no response, however he was pretty sure which direction she went from the 20 Hound androids that all ran in the same direction in a hunting formation

“Well then, let’s start the repair of the bunker complex Aea”

[Understood, however the Golem androids will do fine on their own, there is no need for you to lug around rocks, master]

Matthew squatted down and grabbed the large boulder with enough strength for his fingers to dig into the rock before he picked it up and turned his upper body before he threw it aside and grabbed the next one as he spoke

“Yes there is, it helps me take my mind off things”

[Understood, changing Golem android assignment to assist you master]

Matthew let out a grunt in approval as she chucked the next boulder, the simple work helped him clear his and calmed his impatience…

-

a week passed quickly for Matthew and Ripper while repairing the old Basecamp, well Matthew repaired and worked on the bunker complex, Ripper just ran around like an outdoor kid returning to nature after 2 weeks in the city, one day she would be hunting giant ants, the next she collected vegetation samples and insects as a favor for Doc

“Say when Aea”

Matthew waited for Aea’s response as held a ceiling section in place while 4 Golem androids quickly worked on changing the cracked support beam, the androids worked quickly and a few moments later Aea’s voice sounded out

[The structural integrity have been restored, please take a break master, the repair work on the 1st layer showers have been completed]

Matthew was about to refuse when Aea added another piece of information

[The primary surveillance of the mission area have been completed, the first operation can start as early as tonight, so please rest for a few hours before then master]

“...Fine”

Matthew let out a sigh and walked his way over towards the elevator, the operation Aea were speaking about was the first Intel collection operation, many things could be gleaned from high altitude surveillance, but the specific military details were going to have to be collected from military personnel, whether they could be extracted via enhanced interrogation or a neurological data harvest mattered not to Matthew

‘At this point in time, I will do anything to get Alina back, how many people I have to stuff into unmarked graves doesn’t really matter anymore’

[Master]

Matthew was snapped out his thoughts by Aea’s voice, after he got into the elevator he asked

“What is it?”

[The mental rehabilitation of the 4 survivors have been completed, Duke Adam wants to speak

with you, he and the other 3 have also voiced their desires to leave their cells]

The elevator silently hummed along while Matthew weighed the pros and cons in his mind, on one side he had come to absolutely despise the Willmir empire and on the other side the 4 didn’t really have connection to his current irritation, still knowing one was illogically projecting on someone or something and doing something about it were two entirely different things

“...Fine, put all 4 under and have them collared and chipped, I’ll take them topside once we return from the intel operation”

[Understood]

“Also compile some drone footage of the Willmir empire army that were here 7 months ago, we might be able to sway their allegiance if we show how their soldiers left them to rot, see if you can make a video of the raw footage ready to show them once they get topside to notch them in that direction”

[Confirmed]

Finished with the planing, Matthew went for an understandable and comforting hot water hosing, ever since he had taken that bath at Doc and Ripper’s bunker the bathroom had become his comfort place

‘...Nothing like a quick 2-hour bath to calm things down’

Matthew dried himself off with a towel, his mood had significantly improved by now, so he felt ready to take on the next operation

“Open a line to Ripper”

[Line open]

[What is it, old man? Are you done with your steam bath?]

“Yeah, have you finished selecting your weaponry for the operation?”

[Yep~ I am ready to go collect some intel~]

“Okay, meet me topside in 5 minutes, Aea go ahead and warm up our transport”

[Confirmed, Haliea-001 ready for takeoff in 360 seconds]