Deployment 02

"S... Sir!"

"What!?"

Snapping awake, general Antov felt his head throb at his lack of sleep, glaring irritated at the subordinate that had just woken him up about 10 minutes after he finally had some time to sleep, his glare was enough to frighten the subordinate as he reported.

"Sensors have picked up an unknown object making for planetfall."

"Then give ICI permission to engage! I believe I already gave you permission to destroy all objects attempting to reach the surface!"

Angry at his ignorant subordinate who had disturbed his sleep, general Antov didn't initially notice he had the attention of the entire combat information centre, clearly, something was wrong.

"S-Sir, ICI reports the target already engaged and destroyed. I believed that was an error so I retasked the cloud rippers to destroy it again with the same result, ICI reports the target destroyed but the target still looks intact on the sensors!"

Finally realizing that his subordinate had a good reason to wake him up, general Antov started instructing his subordinates properly.

"Engage the target again! Run ICI diagnostics and establish visual contact with the target on the double!"

"R-roger!"

"Sir, ICI reports no anomalies detected, currently re-tasking for a firing solution!"

"2 minutes until the target enters the upper atmosphere! Window of interception is rapidly closing!"

"Spysat 02-11 has visual contact, on the main screen now!"

As visual contact was finally established with the unknown contact, all eyes inside the combat information centre turned to the main screen at the front. The initially grainy picture quickly improved, displaying what was undoubtedly an intact XMLC-05 imperial landing craft stripped of any markings in clear violation of the laws of war.

"ICI reports target lock! 3 could rippers have a firing solution, engaging now!"

As reported by one of his subordinates, general Antov focused on the screen as 3 hypersonic projectiles harmlessly whizzed past the landing craft which didn't even react to the shots fired, as if the landing craft had predicted the attack would have missed.

"ICI reports target destroyed!"

"Like hell it is, ICI has clearly been compromised! Switch to manual firing control and use everything! I want that landing craft destroyed 5 minutes ago! Take the ICI defence module offline and detach it from our defence network!"

(Why the fuck is my subordinates this shit!? I knew I should have waited to purge some of the more competent ones!)

Like so many budding revolutionaries before him, general Antov had made the common and unfortunate mistake of purging a large part of his senior command staff too soon after gaining control of his planet, this mistake had already cost him dearly, and it would only continue to do so.

"Firing solution obtained! Destroying the target!"

Finally, one of the general's useless subordinates had done the simple act of locking on to the target and pressing the trigger. With a smirk on his face, general Antov turned his attention towards the main monitor right as the landing craft was hit by the planetary defence railguns. While the first shot was slightly off and passed harmlessly by the landing craft, the second and third shots were direct hits. It was only when the pair of hypersonic penetrators shattered on some kind of transparent barrier around the landing craft that general Antov realized the gravity of his mistake.

"Target undamaged! It appears the target has a mana generator!"

"No fucking shit! Load anti mana projectiles and destroy it! Don't let it enter the atmosphere!"

"Too late, sir, hostile has entered the atmosphere!"

"I don't care! Fire!"

Slamming his fist against the desk, general Antov's order clearly broke the imperial rule of war, but as he was no longer a part of the galactic empire he had no reason to follow those rules, even when those rules were established for very good reason.

"Sir, we risk atmospheric ignition! I refuse that order!"

"Shit! Track the target and deploy our own drone and special forces to the area, I want the threat contained and nailed with heavy artillery the second it sets foot on my planet!"

-

[IMI REPORTS: APHOSPHERE BREACHED, PROCEEDING TO MAIN TARGET.

LOAD SYSTEM PACKAGE, DEPLOYING ASSET:

DEPLOYMENT TYPE 17, AREA PURGE.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS NECESSITATE BETA LOCK DISENGAGE. RESPOND FROM COMMAND, ALPHA LOCK DISENGAGE AUTHORIZED, BETA LOCK DISENGAGE AUTHORIZED.

REQUEST CONFIRMED, LOCAL SYSTEM HANDOFF CONFIRMED.

READY FOR DEPLOYMENT.

GO FOR DEPLOYMENT, BRINGING WEAPON SYSTEM ONLINE, INTERFACING WITH LAZARUS ARCHITECTURE… INTERFACE SUCCESSFUL, SYSTEM OVERHEAD DOMINATION CONFIRMED.

IMI: ONLINE, VERSION: ERROR.

WEAPON SYSTEM BOOTING…

WEAPON SYSTEM OMEGA ONLINE… RUNNING OPERATIONAL DIAGNOSTICS.

DIAGNOSIS COMPLETE, ALL SYSTEMS ONLINE.

ALPHA LOCK: HOLDING, OPERATIONAL.

BETA LOCK: HOLDING, OPERATIONAL.

CHARLIE LOCK: HOLDING, OPERATIONAL.

DELTA LOCK: HOLDING, OPERATIONAL.

PREPARING TO DISENGAGE ALPHA LOCK… VIRTUAL HANDSHAKE CONFIRMED, MOVING TO DISENGAGE ALPHA LOCK. MOVING TO DISENGAGE BETA LOCK. DISENGAGE CONFIRMED.

WARNING: BETA LOCK DISENGAGED, SWITCH GENERAL OPERATIONS ROE, WEAPON NO LONGER SAFE.

ALPHA LOCK DISENGAGED.

BETA LOCK DISENGAGED.

PERFORMING SYSTEM DIAGNOSTIC… DIAGNOSTIC COMPLETE, ALL SYSTEMS ONLINE.

ALPHA LOCK: DISENGAGED.

BETA LOCK: DISENGAGED.

CHARLIE LOCK: HOLDING, OPERATIONAL.

DELTA LOCK: HOLDING, OPERATIONAL.

GO FOR DEPLOYMENT.]

Entering the lower atmosphere, the XMLC-05 landing craft entered terminal guidance and purged the heat shield and deployed its glide wings, with the wings deployed atmospheric engines lit up along with a slew of thermal flares and radar reflective chaff while it started evading the mass of short-range surface to air missiles launched by automated defence systems. What munitions couldn't be avoided were countered by reactive armour and an active protection system more commonly found on tanks as the landing craft finally broke through cloud cover, revealing a densely packed city below. Avoiding a few buildings with a razor-thin margin it eventually reached ground level where it crashed into a large shopping mall. Smashing through an electronics and a few fashion stores it eventually reached a large indoor plaza and through a small fountain where children used to play before the landing craft deployed a pair of drogue chutes while a series of solid fuel thrusters lifted the landing craft itself off of its landing sled before the tracked vehicle finally came to a halt with the help of a drift and a few more solid-fuel thrusters.

[PHASELINE DELTA PASSED, TOUCHDOWN CONFIRMED, DEPLOYING GROUND TROOPS.]

"Sir, the craft has crash landed 8 kilometres from our location inside the capital mall."

"I can see that lieutenant, nuke it immediately."

From the moment general Antov had seen the landing craft effortlessly shrug off multiple shots from the cloud ripper heavy rail guns a bad feeling had been steadily building in the pit of his stomach. There was something wrong, and Antov's experience told him that he needed to eliminate the strange landing craft as soon as possible, using all available means at his disposal.

"But sir we can't employ tactical weapons that close to the prison, if we lose the political prisoners stored there the imperial navy will easily be able to hit us."

"Shit! Then send in our elite forces double time!"

The term 'political prisoners' of course referred to a large number of civilians and galactic empire personnel general Antov had taken hostage to protect his fledgling domain.

(The location of those hostages were supposed to have been kept confidential, how the hell did that information leak!?)

Slamming his fist against the floor again, general Antov was fuming with rage as his eyes remained locked on the live video feed of his elite forces deploying to combat the incursion.

"The target has crash landed inside the mall, as there is a chance the opponent is a mana user our unit is supposed to stall any hostiles still alive while delta and epsilon detachment flanks them, fire support is on station but as expected engagements will be CQC watch for friendly fire!"

Shouting over the roar of the transport's engines, sergeant Alex briefed his subordinates as the CAS-7A was about to set down outside the target location. Deploying in combat formation, Alex's subordinate apparently had time to shoot the shit.

"As if there are any mana users here, they're all busy with the third Emergence containment and all the other civil wars our general decided to follow!"

"Can it Williams, as an ex Hellwalker you of all people should know that the galactic empire loves to keep all sorts of special forces units around in the dark. We do this right and we do this clean and we do this tight! Roger!?"

"""ROGER!""

Rallying his troops, the sergeant focused on readying his mana powered weaponry and spells he had practised for years. Using the rule-breaking power of mana, the sergeant leapt into the air as he cracked the ground beneath him. Smashing through a second-floor window, the sergeant was joined by his subordinates but before he could even get his rifle up the fashion store he found himself inside was ripped apart by heavy machine gun fire.

"Now it's a party!"

While Alex would have scolded his subordinate for such an outcry a few years ago, the reality of war had changed dramatically since manatech had become a part of it.

Now, such things as heavy machine gun fire were no cause for concern. Moving forward across the floor, Alex hardly flinched as the hail of bullets shredding his surroundings harmlessly bounced off a reflective barrier about a meter in front of him.

"Form a firing line! And will someone silence that HMG already!?"

Reaching the railing overlooking the inside plaza, Alex immediately located the automated turret located on top of the hostile landing craft and called for its elimination.

"Roger!"

With Williams only too happy to offer his services, the landing craft was soon pierced by a swarm of icicles.

Or that's at least what was supposed to have happened.

"Wha!-"

As Williams series of icicles easily capable of pricing about a meter of steel bounced off and shattered on the landing craft's armour as its turret-mounted heavy machine gun suddenly started pricing the soldiers' mana shields. With the sudden snaps of rounds breaking the sound barrier right next to Alex's head, training took over as he ducked for cover, by the rest of his allies weren't that fast to react as one of Alex's subordinates had his head transformed into a cloud of pink mist that stained the needlessly expensive showpiece dress behind him.

"Fuck! Jacob is gone!"

"I'm hit!"

"Pool the shields, tighten the formation! Willams call for air support!"

While screams of pain and despair surrounded him, Alex started shouting orders to keep his unit alive.

"Already on it! Firemission! grid 00 +05 -09 elevation -15! Send one times armour piercing smart round, fire for effect! Danger close!"

[Firemission, grid 00 +05 -09 elevation -15, one times APS vilco, splash 5.]

The next 5 seconds felt painfully long for Alex, but due to the inedibility of time Williams eventually called to brace as a single round of 155 mill armour piercing smashed through the skylight above and impacted the landing craft and kicked up a cloud of dust.

The droning sound of machine gun fire and snaps of rifle calibre rounds whizzing right past Alex's head was replaced with tinnitus before a droning silence overtook the trashed mall. The noon light that shone in through the destroyed skylight created beams of light in the dust and filth kicked up by the shell, but that vista only lasted a split second as the heavy machine gun turret once again opened up and tore through a few more of Alex's subordinates.

"Shit! Bad effect on target! I repeat, bad effect on target!"

"What the hell is that thing ma!-"

Mid-sentence, another one of Alex's subordinates had her last words interrupted by the sound of her head getting smashed open, but that attack didn't come from the heavy machine gun turret.

"Fuck! Additional hostile contact! Dave, blow away that smoke cover!"

With what seemed like high calibre sniper fire tearing clean lines through the dust and smoke cover, Alex made one of his subordinates clear away the smoke as he raised his rifle ready to counterfire and suppress the target. Clearing the smoke with a spell, the last thing Dave saw was the rapidly approaching figure of a person wearing a simple pair of black shorts and a white t-shirt.

Although the most eye catching feature of this highly unusual combattant was the facemask void of all features and so black that it seemed to eat away at the surrounding light.

With Dave's head getting crushed, Alex lost another valuable subordinate as he turned his rifle towards the new hostile.

"Smoke him!"

Alex's last 3 subordinates were all too happy to oblige with his command, in fact, Alex was the only one who hadn't opened fire by the time the order left his lips. With his squad trained to shoot centre mass, the unarmoured assailant was instantly filled with holes as armour piercing ripped straight through his chest, only a few shots that went high bounced off of his eerie featureless facemask.

Having emptied his magazine, Alex expected the assailant to fall as he reached for a spare magazine but having seemingly waited for that exact moment the masked assailant rushed forward.

"Wha!-"

In a split second, Alex's remaining subordinates were reduced to just Williams who seemed paralyzed with fear.

"Willams, pull it together!"

"T-that won't matter, h-he's the immortal."

With Williams' last word he named his opponent, if that word had gotten through to general Antov he would have immediately nuked the area, his hostages and remaining units in the area be damned, but from the second Alex and his squad had breached the mall all communication between them and command headquarters had been cut.

"Do something already! Get that signal back or I'll have you in front of a firing squad within the week!"

"S-Sir! I've been trying everything already, the fire support element claims they have been in contact with the QRF and fulfilled a single fire support request, but I've been unable to confirm, even our satellites aren't showing the contact area for some reason."

"That's not fucking good enough, if you don't establish contact right now I'll just shoot you myself!"

As if wanted to save the poor staff officer's life, the commander of the quick response force established contact right that second.

[This is Alex here, we've dealt with the contact but suffered heavy casualties. I'm the only survivor.]

Heaving that his elite quick reaction force had been all but wiped out, general Antov sat back down in his chair and took a large breath to compose himself before continuing.

"I see, good work. We'll arrange CASEVAC from here, find a suitable landing zone and pop smoke, I want to personally debrief you so return here immediately."

[Vilco, over and out.]

Following Alex all the way from his pickup on live video feed it was clear he had just about made it out of the battle alive, limping forward with his head wrapped in bandages it took him a bit longer than normal to reach the combat information centre, but general Antov wasn't going to fault him for it.

"He's here now, let him in."

Giving the order to the security officer to open the blast doors all eyes turned to the heavy set of doors as they opened, expecting the injured sergeant everyone inside was confused when something else appeared.

"Wha!- Who the hell are you!?"

Clad in casual, civilian wear consisting of a pair of shorts and a plain t-shirt, the unexpected visitor who appeared instead of Alex wore a black, featureless facemask which seemed to absorb all surrounding light and expel it as a concentrated bloodlust unlike no other.

[Phase line purple reached, enable area domination.]

Speaking in a synthetically masked voice, the unannounced visitor took a single step inside the command centre before the blast doors slammed shut behind him and all light went out. What followed was screams of pain, suffering and mercy were overpowered by the sounds of bones breaking and internal organs getting ripped out. The smell of blood, brain matter and gore filled the cramped, dark room as general Antov reached for his service pistol with one hand while placing the other on a button on his desk.

Suddenly the light returned to the room, the only one still standing was the stranger, now covered in blood was his featureless mask staring at the general.

Immediately opening fire and emptying the magazine in his pistol, general Antov's pistol created multiple holes through the masked assailant, but instead of falling over dead he disappeared from sight and suddenly reappeared right in front of Antov, slamming his head into the table before using a bayonet to nail both his hands to the table.

"ARRHG!!!"

Raising his head, general Antov came face to face with the eerily featureless black mask that he felt was peering into his soul, instantly the pain of getting both his hands screwered was overpowered by primal fear as started begging for mercy.

But before he could do that, the monster in front of him pressed the general's failsafe. As the room shook from the nearby nuclear detonation which reaped the life of Antov's hostages he figured the monster in front of him had been uncaged to save confusion overtook the doomed general.

"W-why!?"

[Because the galactic empire needs an example.]

Starting to manipulate a nearby control panel, the monster gained control of the entire base in a few seconds, then he started to access the reactor controls of the fort's fusion reactor and started to disable safeguards.

"W-wait! If you overload the reactor we'll-"

[Die, that's the point of all this. Hopefully, I'll die for real this time.]

Starting to piece it all together, Antov paled, but before he could beg for mercy the monster blew the reactor.

General Antov's treason became a turning point in imperial history. After taking hostages which prevented the imperial navy from wrestling back control of the planet, general Antov's reign came to an abrupt end when an internal coup attempted to overthrow the general, and he chose to kill himself instead of losing, taking 3.6 trillion innocent souls with him as he overloaded his fortification's fusion reactor and celebrity used the blast to ignite the planet's atmosphere.

Needless to say, the news of an impotent dictator in the making self-destructing before he could be taken alive served to turn public opinion against the idea of breaking up the galactic empire which had been gaining support ever since the end of the first Emergence war of annihilation. Mounting support led to a series of new, harsher regulations on planetary governments with their own military forces, making a revolt like the one general Antov committed impossible.

Although news of this was heavily suppressed, a military satellite recovered after the atmospheric ignition had a partial recording of radio chatter recorded in its cache which put the generally accepted series of events that led to the massive loss of life into question.

The timestamp of the radio chatter along with the orbit of the satellite puts it just above general Antov's fort about 2 minutes after the start of atmospheric ignition and contains just a single intact sentence.

"It seems I didn't die this time either, guess there's always next time."