Corpo Age-Chapter 260: Forceful Measures
I banked my points as we continued to ambush enemy fleets with the deep strike force. I could make the decision at a later date. For now, I had to focus on surviving while earning more experience points.
“The fighting on all fronts has eased,” the captain of the deep strike force announced. “After this next raid, we will start evacuating from this area.”
“Understood. Thank you for informing me, Captain.”
The call cut off, and I turned to my companions.
“You heard the captain. Time to pack up.”
“As if we have anything to pack,” Thorne retorted. “More like we need to get these new ships functional.”
“Same thing.”
“Hmm, do we really have to leave already? We are only getting started. We’re still quite far away from your master plan of amassing a large fleet.”
“It’s inevitable the enemy would respond to us by now. I don’t want to wait around and find out what they have in store for us. Anyway, let’s go back. It’s about to start.”
We made our way out of the meeting room and back into the bridge area. On the screens, we had feeds from various angles on the asteroid belt we were in. We had been here since yesterday, waiting to ambush a logistic unit.
Our target only consisted of two or three ships, so the plan was to capture at least one of them. That meant doing minimal damage, and the best method to do that was to board them.
It didn’t take long before our sensors picked up the small flotilla on schedule. There were numerous other similar logistic units supporting the frontline, so it wasn’t that hard to find.
As we waited for them to close the distance, I couldn’t help but glance over at the feed that showed a quarter of our ship that was entirely exposed. It was where we kept one of our earlier trophies, a medium-sized vessel, that we were working hard to upgrade into something we could use. Very soon, we would be adding another hull to the mobile shipyard’s queue.
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“Report. Target vessel will be arriving at the designated point in ten minutes.” Lanus’ robotic voice resounded in my SAID.
I didn’t dawdle any longer and went to the hangar bay where one of our boarding shuttles was waiting. Everything was routine by now. A small security team accompanied me, including Thorne, and we set off from our mother ship.
Our shuttle slowly positioned itself on a nearby asteroid and waited.
I watched as three pings on my sensor closed in on our location. When it was within a few hundred meters of the target location, several bright lights flashed by for an instant. Our ships opened fire on one of our victims, holding nothing back. With a concentrated volley from not only my fleet but my allies’ as well, the lone ship we targeted had their shields overloaded immediately. They were instantly decimated.
Without pause, our armaments turned to the remaining two ships. We spread our fire across the two hulls, focusing on disabling their weapon systems as our shuttle began closing the distance. While our enemy was busy with damage control, our shuttle discreetly latched onto their hull and began cutting our way in.
Everything was business as usual. We went in, snuck around, and subdued the crew. We started from the most critical areas, like life support and engineering, trying to stay undiscovered for as long as possible.
We would then proceed to the bridge and subdue the brain of the entire ship. The main reason we didn’t go to such a vital place first was because it was usually the most well-defended area in any starcraft. Layers and layers of checks were in place, with constant monitoring. While it wasn’t impossible to circumvent, the chances of being discovered were just too high.
Now that they were in the midst of combat, the entire place would be under lockdown as well. The doors wouldn’t budge, and only methods that would alert them would work. That’s why we were currently outside their bunkered door, preparing to blow our way in.
“Wait for my signal before you go in this time, please, Rollo.”
I shrugged at Thorne’s suggestion.
“Not that it makes much of a difference. Whatever our Nyes see, we all see. Not that much of a difference between hanging back and rushing in when we have it under control.”
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He grunted and tapped on the shoulder of Andrew, who was placing the thermites.
With well-practiced movements, we immediately threw in a stun grenade as soon as a path opened up. Thorne and Peng rushed in as I provided support from the back and covered our flanks.
“Clear! Come in.”
Just as I stepped over the melted slag into the bridge, I felt something push me to the ground. It happened so fast and with such force that I got the wind knocked out of me. Alarms rang out in my ear as the operating system of the power armor desperately tried to notify me of all the urgent damages.
Instead of dismissing the alerts, I struggled to look around for my assailant and assess the situation. It took me a good moment before I realized there was no one there. Only my companions who were similar were knocked onto the ground.
That wasn’t someone tackling me. It was a bomb going off! How did our scanners not detect anything? Right, SocialCorp. Big corp, good tech. How dare they equip such a remote logistic ship with such devious means?
Well—I guess it was deserved, considering all the outposts we’ve been raiding in their territory.
“Rollo! Get up! Are you okay?”
I felt a sturdy force lift me to my feet. It was obviously Thorne. I knew I had to get it together quickly because our enemy likely wasn’t sloppy enough to leave it at just that. I activated the command in my power armor that made it inject some stimulates into me and my mind instantly cleared.
“Hmm, my armor is still operational, but I wouldn’t risk using it in the vacuum,” I muttered as I read the reports.
“If you’re fine, then hurry up and move! This bridge is a dead end with only one way in and out. We need to be anywhere but here right now.”
His words weren’t that of paranoia. We’ve been at this long enough to smell an imminent ambush. The only reason nothing had happened yet was likely because of the degree of stealth our opponent wanted. If they hid a large force nearby, we would likely discover it.
Only by hiding them in places we normally wouldn’t look, behind layers of advanced stealth tech alloys, could they catch us off guard. I soon learned my deductions were right on the money.
A dozen blips appeared nearby, each with powerful readings indicating they were all equipped with power armors or something comparable. Unfortunately for us, we weren’t fast enough. Just as we made it past the ruined bunker door, bright red lights were fired at us. We had to back away toward the bottom of the T junction for cover. Enemies were on both sides, blocking our exit.
“That looks like a plasma gun of some sort. Do not rush into them,” I warned my companions, particularly the largest cyborg among us.
“I’m not that dumb. I already called for backup. Andrew! Start barricading us in.”
Melting through their door came to bite us as we struggled to find materials to plug the entrance. We ripped out large terminals, wholesale, to compensate, but their durability paled in comparison to the original doors.
We didn’t get a chance to set up for long as our enemies encroached on our space. They didn’t rush and methodically fired hot jets of plasma at us, taking away our space inch by inch. Of course, we tried to fire at them, but as a proper fighting force, from what I presume to be the largest corporation around, their defenses were on a whole other level.
The previous crew we faced were all hastily put together to support their logistics. These troops before us were professional soldiers. The gap between them was huge. Their equipment was much more advanced. Even with our Light Judgement firing at full power in its rifled form, their energy shield was able to tank several shots before it was under any stress.
Outnumbered and out-teched, we could only wait for reinforcements—or so we thought. We didn’t even get a chance to do that.
Just as we were getting comfortable playing whack-a-mole with them, smacking them with our particle beams whenever they poked out to shoot more plasma at us, one of them abruptly charged us. They held a completely flat shield as they rammed into the debris we piled up. Everything in their way was blown away upon making contact. To be more precise, everything was bulldozed away!
We steeled ourselves as we prepared to reveal a few of our trump cards, but surprisingly, the figure didn’t continue its attack after breaking through. They simply stood there, blocking the doorway. It allowed me to examine the fiery red combat armor that had a reptilian-like tail attached to it.
Before we could call out to them to ask what they wanted, a holographic projection suddenly appeared in the area between us. It showed a skinny man with pale skin and short dark hair, sitting at an extravagantly engraved wooden desk. He wore a bougie suit that mixed the three colors, black, gold, and purple perfectly to harmonize an elegant look.
“Mr. Halls. It’s so great to finally meet,” the man said, looking straight at me as if he was really there. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you—privately, for some time now, but alas, your host wasn’t very accommodating. I ask that you forgive the rough means I had to resort to. Now, do you mind if we have a little chat?”
My heart skipped a beat as I regarded the man. My grip tightened around my trump card. I wasn’t confident in defeating all the enemies before me, but I was confident in surviving until reinforcements came.
Still, I didn’t dare take any hasty action. It was because the man before me was someone I had seen very recently. Not in person, but in the file I received from NPC. The person on the other end of the video call was Silas Vexel, the leader of the other faction of SocialCorp we were warring against.
If I hadn’t gone over the file, I would’ve never assumed this thin man had that sort of sway. He appeared too normal.
Maybe it was because I was comparing him to NPC, who had an eccentric appearance among corpos. The norm was to look as close to a baseline human as possible. NPC was an outlier who embraced all the cyberarms and other cybernetics that came along with it. Either way, it didn’t change the fact both men were leaders whose decisions could affect billions of lives.
What in the world would he want to talk to me about? Shouldn’t he just try to kill me now that he has the chance?
