The Heliea didn’t even finish landing before Matthew jumped from the ramp, dressed in his usual Mk. 22 powered armor he crashed right through a roof skylight and cracked the marble floor as he landed heavily onto it, looking around Matthew found himself surrounded by trinkets and trophies of war, proudly displayed in the halls of the imperial museum
‘Aea’
[Go straight ahead, then take the 2nd left]
Matthew followed Aea’s guidance and finally he arrived in a grand hall where a large black crystal housing a single lone figure stood as the central display, to its left was his divorced lower half too, but Matthew didn’t much care at the moment, his eyes were locked with the figure inside the crystal
“Alina”
At Matthew’s words, the black crystal shock, having had her robotic body charged remotely already Alina was already conscious, and seeing Matthew renewed her already burning intent to free herself, Matthew also felt much the same as he walked over to the black crystal and punched forwards, the entire building shock with a loud bang as creaks spread over the crystal by the enormous impact, Matthew pulled back his fist and struck once more shattering the first of his Mk. 22 in the process
[Fractures detected, please calm yourself Master]
Matthew ignored Aea and struck out with his other arm sending another loud impact echoing out through the museum as the black crystal cracked further, a moment later the black crystal shock a final time before it shattered from within, the instance after Alina flew towards Matthew that suddenly found himself Displaced out of his armor before he was hit by what felt like a cannonball in the chest, a moment later her voice sounded out
“I knew you would come for me”
Matthew felt a rush of emotions he felt difficult to describe as he answered
“I am sorry I took so long… Let’s go home”
Not even a moment later Matthew felt the space around shudder for a few moments before it shattered violently, the next moment he found himself and Alina back at the Basecamp, Matthew took a few moments to steady himself from the brief span of dizziness, after he found his focus he saw Alina sitting in front of him on her lounge chair, she stared at him for a bit before she patted the chair next to her and commanded quite charmingly
“Sit”
“Yes ma’am”
Matthew sat down next to her and for a bit the two sat and watched the sky for a few hours before Alina suddenly disappeared as she Displaced herself and landed on top of Matthew where she asked
“So… What have you been up in the past few months?”
“Well… After I was divorced from my lower half and Displaced by you, I landed South—”
Matthew continued to telling Alina what he had been up to, taking it slow the two chatted for the rest of the evening and night…
-
By sunrise the next morning however things had to get going once again, with Alina secured Matthew ordered transport and an escort fleet for Lea to be moved South, now that Matthew had held up his end of the deal, she had been enlisted into his small group
‘...Well, it’s not like she would be able to walk away even if she wanted’
Lea had undergone extensive bionic augmentation, especially in her brain, which had resulted in effectively splitting her conscious self from her precognitive visions which were fed directly to a hyper-computing core which sorted and analyzed the data, meanwhile the conscious part of Lea had long since gotten horribly addicted to full consciousness dive games and had not left her pod for the past week, at this rate she was unlikely to ever be able, or want to reintegrate into the Willmir society ever again
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
‘Well, it works out great for us, but it still feels a little dirty… Well, on the other hand, it feels rude to not take such a valuable card that an enemy had casually discarded’
Matthew showed a smile and muttered
“Never interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake…”
Alina took note of his mumbling and asked about them
“Why not?”
Matthew showed a smile
“It’s rude, you wouldn’t want your enemy of all people to point out your mistakes, would you?”
Alina made sense of Matthew’s words for a moment before she nodded
“I guess that’s true… So, when are you going to introduce me?”
Matthew stared out into space for a moment before his voice echoed out over the local net
‘Alina meet Ripper, Ripper meet Alina’
Then he cut his connection to the local net, not wanting to interfere with their talk he went to clean his coil rifle, he field stripped and cleaned it twice before Alina walked over to him, she seemed a little timid as she greeted him
“Matthew… Do you have a moment?”
Not realizing why Alina were so timid, Matthew looked up from his coil rifle as he finished putting it back together
“What is it?”
Alina mulled over her words for a few moments before she spoke them
“I talked with Ruki over the local net”
Matthew nodded, Ruki, the beastman that had been taken as a slave he and Ripper had rescued from a fleet of exploratory ships sent out by the Turman kingdom
“Oh, yeah… They finished their final regenerative surgery a few days ago… What did you talk about?”
A few moments passed, as they did Matthew felt the anger radiate off Alina via his Mystic senses and her completely cold tone of voice
“...Burning down the Turman kingdom”
Matthew spoke a brief “Hmm” before he mulled it over in his mind, Doc was about done with her secondary assignment to figure out this ‘Ture magic’ bullshit, however that could wait a bit, after all he had promised her
“Well… No time like the present… Aea get me a strike group to burn down the Turman kingdom ready for assault within 12 hours”
[Confirmed, initiating rapid resupply of forces for assault group formation… Please indicate parameters]
‘How many nuclear warheads can we detonate without worrying too much about the fallout?’
[Detonation of any CBRN warheads is not advised while hostile overwatch is still in effect]
‘...Fine, then pack enough conventional warheads to their cites with enough range to hit the entire kingdom from the Decibels of the Forge god’s mountain top’
[Confirmed, 9 hours until launch of operation]
Matthew nodded to Alina
“There you have it, we’re brining the former slaves along with us too in order to reconquer their home and secure their stock of fabrication technology”
Alina nodded, then she sat down next to Matthew once again and pulled up her knees and hugged them, her expression was hard to read, Matthew didn’t interrupt her thinking, instead he continued the repetitive movements of field stripping his weapon and cleaning it another two and a half times before Alina began speaking
“I know… Revenge will bring me nothing, no joy, no satisfaction… It will not bring back the people I lost, nor will it punish those responsible… But…”
The very space around Alina shimmered with a purplish blue light as it cracked and reformed, bending under her Mystic might as her robotic body cracked and bent under the pressure while a distorted voice echoed out over the area
“BUT THEY NEED TO BURN, I BECAME THIS TO SEE IT BURN, I REMAINED IN THIS FROM TO SEE IT BURN, IT MUST BURN, I NEED IT TO BURN! BURN LIKE MY HOME DID”
Alina continued to mutter as space around her bent and strained, Matthew tried to speak when he found his body wasn’t under his control
A moment later, Aea’s voice echoed out in his mind
[Do not]
Any attempted movement or speech he attempted resulted in the same, he knew what was happening with Alina and it would prove fatal if not stopped, however Aea appeared to have interpreted Alina’s state as something not to be disturbed
[Do not]
From Matthew’s cone of vision, he found that the rest of Basecamp had frozen just like him, Alina’s robotic body warped, melted and reformed, heated by the same purplish blue light that by now coiled around her body in robes of strange energy, her eyes lit with the same light the searing white light of purpose manifested though her violent death and past the end of her mortal life
-
With abrupt clarity, Doc’s eyes suddenly snapped open, she shuddered as she felt it, North she could feel it, something was violating her Mystic domain
“...Oh shit”
Doc sat herself up as she looked North, her stomach churned, and not from any chemical stimulant, but from primal fear
‘Aea?’
[Do not]
‘...Well, it doesn’t sound like you are going to be useful for this… My Mystic abilities have also been restricted…’
Alina sat herself up on the bed and after checking her mobility she picked up her tablet and set a timer for a preprogrammed message on a timer before she took a deep breath and muttered
“This is going to suck…”
Then she abruptly grabbed a monomolecular kinetic knife from the bedside table and in one smooth motion she stabbed into the back of her neck, severing her own spine, severing her spinal connection, but also removing Aea’s control over her, as she slumped over Doc instantly depleted her Mystic powers to open a rift in space for a short moment which her preprogrammed message successfully passed through…