Chapter 29: Attack on Titan

Justin Han's squadron of twelve Astral Exosuits converged upon me, unleashing their deadly arsenal of lasers and micro missiles upon me. I watched as the beams and projectiles detonate harmlessly against the glowing force field that my shield generator generated. Scanning the exterior, I waited for the A.I. to get a lock on before I vaporized a soldier wearing an Astral Crystal Exosuit with the plasma railgun, blowing up his cover and all.

Well, I didn't do that, of course. This was just a demonstration. I didn't have any intention of murdering anyone. So I reduced the output of the plasma railgun to 5% of its original power, but it was still capable of punching a hole through concrete and steel and destroy the poor dude's armor. The wearer would be left alive, just barely, though. Already medics were hurrying toward him, pulling him to safety.

Swiveling around, I took out another Astral Exosuit with 5% of my charged particle beam, and the poor wearer crashed to the ground, crawling out of his broken armor and hurrying away. I didn't pay any attention to him. For all intents and purposes of the demonstration, he was dead.

The survivors continued to pummel me from all directions, using their smaller sizes and superior agility to maneuver out of my crosshairs. The plasma railgun and charged particle cannon were powerful, but they were bulky and slow to aim. They were meant for bigger targets such as tanks, and so it was a bad matchup against the more evasive Exosuits.

That was why I had medium lasers installed on the torso of my 'mech.

Ruby beams blasted outward and took down a couple of the scrambling exosuits before they could duck. I was able to cycle through the cooling charges and let loose another volley. Only one was taken out this time, the others wising up to the new weapon. They responded by launching smoke grenades from their micro missile launchers, trying to block my view.

Unfortunately for them, my Titan was equipped with a sophisticated suite of sensors, which included thermal, radiological, electromagnetic, biological and other visual spectrums. Even night vision. It was a simple task for me to see through the smoke and track their heat signatures.

More explosions buffeted the shimmering barrier but I ignored them. Instead, I had the Titan sit back and slowly lock on. Then I fired off the smart missiles in the shoulder-mounted pods.

I caught sight of plasma thrusts as the exosuits conducted evasive maneuvers, dodging and ducking behind cover. However, the smart missiles swerved and arced, homing onto the exosuits' positions and slamming into them with brilliant explosions. A few of them tried to counter by shooting the missiles down with lasers or mirco missiles before they got hit, but I took out six of them with the smart missiles.

"Didn't you guys know that the smart missile system ignores cover?" I asked sardonically. Well, I doubted they played Warhammer 40,000, so they wouldn't get the reference.

Only one exosuit was left. For some reason, he was launching wires from his hips, which hooked onto the mock structures on the stage. Using the wires, he maneuvered himself through three dimensional space to evade my attacks and get around my Titan.

"That's quite the interesting maneuver gear," I remarked.

"I'm going to destroy all the Titans!" the exosuit wearer bellowed over the com, sounding like an edgy teenager. He grabbed two blades from his exosuit's utility storage systems and brandished them.

Then he swung around from the back, attacking my Titan from behind. Apparently he was trying to attack my blind spot and concluded that the most vulnerable area would be the back of my 'mech's neck, so to speak.

Damn, he would find out that he could bypass the barrier if he traveled less than 15 meters per second! To be fair, he was hurtling toward my 'mech at quite the insane velocity and I was tempted to see if he would disintegrate himself against the energy shield. I wasn't eager on witnessing a death, one that was especially needless because this was all a demonstration, but this was for science.

Ah, fuck it. I didn't want a death on my conscience. Also, the exosuit dude wasn't trying to kill me. He was simply doing his best to take down my Titan. Those edgy lines were simply him impersonating a certain anime character.

I decided that I actually liked him for that. I loved anime too.

So I stepped to the side and allowed him to hurtle past my Titan. While he swung past, I squeezed the trigger and activated the torso-mounted lasers. The beams struck the poor exosuit from behind and took him out. Immediately, medics rushed over to recover him.

Well, with the divine doctor Bu Fan present, I doubted any of them would die. I could imagine him shouting something along the lines of, "Even if King Yama wants to take you, he will have to ask me for permission first!"

There was a short silence, broken only by the clanking of my war walker and the clamoring of medics on the site as they tended to the wounded. I turned to face the audience.

"What do you think?"

"No! Impossible! This can't be!"

Justin Han dropped onto the ground, flailing about on his back. He resembled a sobbing child who was throwing a tantrum. You know which gif I was talking about. The toddler with the hat who was wailing. Justin was screaming his lungs out as he raged and thrashed about on the floor.

The generals, bureaucrats and other corporate officials turned to watch him, not sure how to respond. Evidently they all thought he had gone mad.

"President, sir…" one of Justin's aides tried to yank him to his feet, only to receive a fist to the face for his efforts. He grunted and fell, sprawled on the ground and rubbing his face.

"Sir! Please! Behave yourself!" A female aide pleaded. "You're ruining your image! You're in public, right now!"

Actually, we weren't in public. We were in a restricted military base camp. But we knew what she meant.

"President, come on!"

"This is embarrassing!"

"Somebody throw that baby out," one of the generals growled, his temper snapping. "This is a military base camp and we are holding a demonstration for military products! We are not looking after spoilt brats in a daycare center!"

"Yes, sir!"

A squad of uniformed sentries saluted and hurried over, shouldering their guns. Upon seeing them, Justin froze and sat up. Adjusting his suit, he brushed the dust off and cleared his throat, trying to restore his reputation.

"I apologize for that. I don't know what came over me."

"Out," the general snarled. The sentries nodded and gestured for Justin and his entourage to follow them.

"This way, sir. You too, sirs and madams."

"What?! Is this the way you treat a valued partner? Don't forget, I'm the CEO of Han Industries, the largest provider of military armaments…"

"Right now, you are nothing more than a child throwing a tantrum. This is not the place for you to misbehave. Also, I can press charges on you…are you the real Justin Han? I didn't know the real Justin Han would behave in such a childish manner. Perhaps we should investigate…"

Justin turned pale and shook his hands frantically. "No need for that, General. I apologize, I will leave right away."

Before he departed, he shot me a glare.

"This isn't over yet, Trevor Shen!"

"Are you threatening Mr. Shen?" the general snapped. "We have reason to believe that you or people related to you have been sending assassins after him…"

"That's outrageous!" Justin protested. "I don't know who has been throwing such accusations at me, but rest assured, I will sue them for slander."

He whirled about to point at my Titan.

"Is it you, Trevor Shen? Not only are you determined to embarrass me in public like this, you want to smear my good name?"

"Are you an idiot?" Another bureaucrat burst out laughing. "Mr. Shen doesn't need to embarrass you. You're doing plenty to humiliate yourself right in front of us right now."

"Ugh! You had best remember this!"

Justin spun away and stomped out of the auditorium, followed hastily by his panicking aides. They filed out, their footsteps fading as they got further away.

"What the hell was all that about?" William asked, contacting me over the coms. I shook my head, looking just as baffled as he did.

"I have no idea."

"He's just jealous," the bureaucrat who spoke up earlier said.

"Huh? Jealous?" I couldn't help but scoffed. "Why the hell would he be jealous? Of what?"

"Not of what…but of you." The bureaucrat turned to grin at me, amused. "He feels that his position as the biggest supplier of military armaments is being threatened. His profits are being reduced and channeled away to buy your energy shield generators…as well as this new war walker."

"It's not a given that you'll buy this Titan yet," I pointed out. I was never one to count my chickens before they hatched.

"You kidding?" the general blurted out. "With an energy shield generator and unprecedented firepower? Why the hell wouldn't we want your war walker? This will revolutionize the way wars are fought! It will give us the edge over our military rivals! We will be near invincible! Imagine an army of your war walkers, impervious to almost all conventional weapons yet possessing enough firepower to level city blocks…who can oppose us?"

"If I can invent this, our overseas rivals will certainly find a way to do so as well."

I wasn't being humble. Much of the technology I used was derived from theories and knowledge I had learned from the university I studied in – an overseas university from a superpower that was on the opposite side of the globe. It was only a matter before they found a way to put their technical knowledge to practical use like I did.

"Well, we'll discuss more about this later. For now, the demonstration is over, so…"

"Ah, right! Sorry about that!"

I quickly directed my Titan back offstage and toward the cargo trailer. Even as my war walker climbed up the ramp, I couldn't help but feel great satisfaction.

It was damned good seeing Justin Han lose his s like that.