33 Hostage

"I wouldn't pull the trigger if I were you." A synthetic voice resounded from the mouth area which glowed with each intonation. Although it sounded much less robotic than the ones generated by AIs such as Minerva, one would still be able to notice within less than a second that the voice came from an actual human being before going through a voice synthesizer.

"Unless, of course, you want this innocent hostage of mine get riddled with holes." After speaking, a rather insidious laughter resounded from the mech suit. At the same time, its body started to open by itself, showing a rather handsome looking human being that looked to be trapped inside.

The person had his head down, looking quite pale while his arms were directly bounded against the metal armor, encasing them within the mech suit tightly to prevent the person inside from moving. The same thing was also done with the boy's legs.

The teenager immediately squinted from the light of the many laser beams pointed at him. When he realized what was happening, he immediately turned frantic and shouted in a nervous tone, "Uncle Eric, help--" However, before he could even finish his sentence, the boy suddenly writhed about, looking as though he was choking on his own saliva even though he was speaking normally earlier.

"Release him!" The commander that stood in the middle of the formation shouted, looking quite distraught even when his face was entirely covered up by his helmet, preventing anyone from seeing his facial expression. He subconsciously inched forwards, wanting to get close and rescue the person inside the mech, but was unfortunately forced to stop when he realized that the boy's nose started bleeding the second he moved.

"Nah ah. Don't even try to take a step closer, commander, or I'll immediately trigger the boy's central nervous system to collapse on its own. Since this suit is connected through the boy's spine, I would be able to do so instantaneously, before you could even make a move." The robotic voice sounded rather sarcastic, making it seemed as though he was mocking the man in front of him. Or at least, that's what it sounded like to the soldiers, since the voice might have been manipulated in such a way in order to anger them.

The commander instantly stopped. Gritting his teeth, he looked to be in quite the terrible move as he asked in a low tone, "Who are you and what do you want?"

"Who I am really doesn't matter, commander." The robotic voice chuckled for a little before it continued. At the same time, he also closed the suit back in, fully covering the boy's body making the soldiers unable to ascertain the actual status of the hostage inside the suit. "What I want is for all of you to lower your weapons and move out of my way so I could get access to the pile of meteorite fragments behind you. Then, you would just stand there and watch as I walk out of this nuclear bunker and out of the quarantine zone."

"How can you guarantee that the hostage will still be alive when you leave?" The commander sneered, obviously not buyuing into the kidnapper's demands, wanting to negotiate. However, since he was just a soldier and not a professional negotiator, he wasn't able to hide the seething hatred behind his voice.

"I'll have the boy returned to you once I've entered a safe location." The person controlling the mech suit remotely replied in a nonchalant tone.

"I'm sorry, but I'm quite unsatisfied with your proposal, since we wouldn't be able to ensure the safety of the hostage the entire time." The commander said slowly.

"Since I also do feel a little sympathetic for forcing a kid into such a dangerous situation, I'll do myself a solid and soothe my guilty conscience just this once for you, seeing how concerned you are for this child, commander." The voice spoke with the same annoying tone, making it seemed as though it was simply playing a game. Some of the less experienced officers within the formation couldn't help but get irritated and wanted to punch the person behind the operation in the suit in the face.

Unfortunately, since they weren't even sure where this mysterious person is located currently, they could only grit their teeth in silence and glare at the mech suit before them in silence. Meanwhile, the commander also felt angered by how shameless the person before him is, but could only swallow his indignance down within his heart and bear with it for awhile as he replied with a dark tone, "Then why don't you just release the boy now and let him go first?"

"You and I both know that's impossible, Commander." The mech suit shook its head, while directly playing the audio of the cracking sound of a person's neck as he moved, making the commander pale slightly underneath his mask. Although he doesn't know if this was another scare tactic from the perpetrator or not, he doesn't want to gamble using the innocent boy's life. Therefore, he decided it was best not to provoke the man behind the suit anymore and simply wait for the other to give out another proposal.

"I'll make this quick since I know reinforcements are coming at any time." The suit finally spoke after looking as though he was thinking of what he should demand out of the soldiers before it. "Instead of running off with the boy inside me, I'll be kind enough and drop him off by the entrance of the quarantine zone while I retreat from here. How's that?"

The commander looked as though he was hesitating, which made the suit speak again in less than a second. "Chop chop! I'll give you 5 seconds to decide, or I'll just self-destruct myself right now along with the kid. 5! 4! 3!"

"Okay, okay!" The commander immediately dropped his weapon before raising both his hands high up in the air. Then, he looked back to his squad and gestured for the others to the same with one head motion. Within seconds, every soldier dropped their weapons and rose their hands up as well, acting in a completely uniform manner.

"Now part for me like the Red Sea." The robotic voice chuckled.

The commander glared at the suit before shifting towards the left. At the same time, the soldiers behind him shifted towards either side of the mech suit, allowing for the latter to walk through in a straight line directly towards the scrap heap mountain at the very end of the file.

"Now that's what I'm talking about! Efficiency! What you Terrans are always proud of!" the mech commented as he walked past the soldiers that were all glaring daggers at it. If looks could kill, then the man behind the suit would have died a hundred times over by now.

After reaching the mountain, the mech suit placed his hand warily, holding it out to see if it would impact against the surface of a force field. Only after making sure that the EMP earlier had knocked out the energy field surrounding the mountain for real did he make his move, instantly jumping miles upward before landing at the very top of the mountain in one go.

Then, it started scooping up a large amount of the meteorite fragments before opening the suit's chest plate and stuffing them inside, repeating the motions until he was sure that the storage area inside was completely full before closing the chest plate back up again. If one were to look at the mech suit now, they would find that its chest had expanded outwards voluminously, looking as though it had developed huge breasts within an instant.

However, none of the soldiers were eased enough to laugh at this comical sight. They simply watched as the suit jumped all the way back down to the ground before walking past them again.

Before the suit left the bunker, he turned around and stoof by the entrance of the bunker again, observing the vigilant soldiers before him as he reminded them for the last time, "Oh, and don't try any tricks or else this boy dies immediately. Well! It's been fun playing with you guys, but I hope I'll never see you guys again! See ya!"

The suit then bolted through the corridor, leaving nothing but a speck of dust behind him.

After counting for a few seconds, the commander finally took a deep breath before yelling at the AI system within his mind, "Everyone back off from the target! There's a hostage chained inside! Wait until he leaves the quarantine zone before chasing after him!"

"But commander, that's against protocol--" One of the operators on the other side of the mental phone call protested only to be cut off by the commander again.

"That's a direct order, do you understand! I'll take full responsibility for my actions, so don't even try and go against them or I'll personally come and kick your ass!" The commander shouted back at the operator in anger, making the person on the other side slightly speechless.