Chapter 60

---3rd Person POV, Two Days Later, Heavy Armor Division (HAD) Space Station---

Receiving deployment orders from the Supreme Commander, Victor, the Heavy Armor Division began gearing up for their first planet side mission. Having served as a glorified security detail for the teams mining asteroids off world, they had yet to see any real fighting yet outside of simulations. Having been informed of their deployment for the final part of the invasion a few weeks ago, the automatons and troops had been waiting for this moment with bated breath. Gathering in the pod hanger once their preparations were complete, they stood at their stations while their leader, Commander Lawson stepped behind his podium.

Crafted to be Victor's answer to a potential Imperium threat, Commander Lawson and his men were outfitted with pseudo-space marine augments. Working off memory, as Victor did not have any specimen to work from at the time, the men were forty percent cyborg and sixty percent human. Making them as tall, muscular, and intelligent as the available gene pool would allow, everything he could not improve genetically was augmented with technology. Designed to be his most rugged and terrifying division, the nine-foot-tall giants in their matte black armor certainly invoked the fear he desired.

"Today has been a long time coming, ladies and gentlemen. We have trained countless hours and watched our fellow soldiers get all the glory till now, but today is our turn to make a name for ourselves!", Lawson said, slamming his fist onto the podium, "Right now your HUD computers are being updated with photos of military and noble targets from in and around the capital. Our orders are to soften up resistance in the capital, capture these targets, and avoid civilian casualties at all costs. The Supreme Commander has made it clear that anyone caught harming civilians will be publicly executed by him personally. Does anyone have any questions?"

"Will we be redeploying to join the fight against the Holy Kingdom, sir?", one of the men inquired.

"Yes, we will, but not immediately. Commander Yoma's division is currently compiling a list of targets for us to strike. Once I have that in my hands, I will provide you with further details.", Commander Lawson acknowledged, "Any other questions?"

"Sir will our full battery of support equipment be available to us?", another soldier asked.

"Yes, Luxion will deactivate certain support options based on where you are in the city to prevent potential friendly fire and civilian casualties.", Lawson replied, "Anything else?"

Surveying the sea of troops for any further questions, no one spoke up or raised their hands. Satisfied with this, Lawson initiated the deployment of the automaton units while his men were lowered into their Planetary Entry Pods. Once everyone was locked in and ready, Lawson initiated the sequential deployment of his men before go to his own pod.

'I have waited a long fucking time for this day. Time to show the Supreme Commander that we are capable of handling anything he can throw at us!', Lawson said, as he was lowered into his pod.

---Victor POV---

Currently a few miles away from the principality's capital, things had gone rather smoothly since massacring the principality's Strike Force. Having prepared no defenses, in the event their Strike Force lost the battle, we encountered almost no resistance up till this point. As ninety-nine percent of the principality was under my control now, the last place we had to capture was their capital city.

<Master, the Heavy Armor Division has been deployed. Impact in ten minutes.>

Turning my gaze up toward the sky, hundreds of small red dots began to glow in the upper atmosphere. Imagining how much fun those meatheads were having; I made a mental note to give their pods a try sometime soon.

"Thank you, Luxion.", I replied, "Yamato, how is our blockade looking?"

<A gnat could not get past without us knowing, Captain!>

"Haha, very good! Beginning playing the audio notice for the citizens of the principality's capital. Hopefully those smart enough to understand the situation will take shelter in their home and stay off the streets. So far, we have managed to get by with only a handful of civilian casualties, I would like to keep it that if possible.", I said, as I gave the order to prepare for combat.

Giving the citizens of the capital eight minutes to react to our notice, I headed down to the hanger and jumped into Nova Gundam. Deploying immediately, the troops and I began flooding into the capital as the Heavy Armor Division began touching down. Shaking the island violently with every impact, the automatons and soldiers began pouring out of their pods, quickly overwhelming the defenders in those areas. Heading on ahead of my forces, my goal was to capture the Royal Castle and secure the Royal Family.

As I drew near the structure, several dozen mechanized units launched into the sky from behind the castle's walls. Flying straight at me, half of them began firing on me while the others surged forward with lances in hand. Noticing that my shielding was barely being hit, most of the shots aimed at me were striking nearby civilian structures.

"What the hell are you doing?! Why are you attacking your own people!?", I shouted, shooting past the lancers wanting to finish off the riflemen first.

"I DO NOT WANNA DIE!!!", a child's voice cried over the radio, "PLEASE GO AWAY!!"

Stopping dead in my tracks, I immediately had Jarvis hack into the enemy's systems and toggle on their cameras. To my utter shock, only three of the units had actual adult men in them…the rest were boys barely thirteen years of age. Noticing that they had small bombs strapped to them, I erupted into a fit of rage.

"Commander Dance and Commander Lawson, any nobles you find can be taken dead or alive now…preferably dead! They are forcing children to fight us with bombs strapped to them. I assume this is to prevent them from fleeing the battlefield.", I stated.

"WHAT?!", Dance howled, "THOSE RABID BASTARDS!!"

"YES SIR, WE WILL TEAR THOSE FUCKERS APART!!", Lawson acknowledged.

Turning my attention to the children, I knew disarming those bombs was the highest priority now. Using my speed to quickly get behind them and disable their mechs, I gingerly carried them down to the streets below telling them to wait there for me. Taking all the mechs out of commission, I had Jarvis take control of the Gundam while I went to assist the children. Ripping the armor off the closest mech, the twelve year old boy inside let out a horrified shriek as he curled up into the fetal position. Repeatedly telling me he was sorry and had no choice, he begged me not to kill him.

"I may be many things in this world, but a child killer I am not.", I told him, in a calm voice, "Let me look at that bomb they have strapped to your back. Once I disable it and remove it, I want you to go back home and stay there till the fighting is over. Can you do that for me?"

Sheepishly nodding his head, the boy turned around and let me examine the bomb. Thankful that it was a relatively simplistic bomb so disabling it was very easy. Undoing the bindings that held the unit to his back, he began to bawl his eyes out with utter relief. As I stowed the bomb in my storage, the boy turned around and gave me a grateful hug.

"Th…tha…thank you!!", he wailed, as snot and tears ran down his face, "I…I…I did not want to…do this!! The…the…the guards made us do it!! They…they…they beat my parents…and…my little sister...!"

"Everything is going to be alright now. When this is all over, have your family come get medical attention in the central market. I will have medical teams on standby to help anyone in need of medical attention there.", I told him, as I patted his head, "You do not have to worry about fighting anymore. Just focus on enjoying your childhood from now on and leave the adult things to adults."

Nodding his head, the boy made his way out of the cockpit and ran off into the city. Making my way from mech to mech after that, I heard similar stories from the other children. Forcibly recruiting young children to fight as ammo carriers and mech pilots, their families had been beaten within an inch of their life to strong arm the kids into submission. Vowing to make the military leaders and noblemen pay dearly for this, the one who would shoulder the initial punishment would be the King himself.

As I finished up with the last child, the Heavy Armor troops had breached the castles defenses with the aid of the automatons. Rapidly securing the premise, I led a detachment of soldiers straight to the throne room where I proceeded to blast the massive steel doors off their hinges with the Force. Catching a glimpse of the soldiers on the other side run for their lives, I heaved the doors into the air and launched them toward the throne. Imbedding them in the wall a foot above it, I turned my gaze upon the cowering royal family and several military leaders.

"Guard the entrance and do not let anyone in here.", I commanded my troops, "I will deal with this personally."

Nodding their heads, my men formed a wall with their backs turned to me. Menacingly approaching the group, the aura around me reflected the rage I had burning my chest. Fainting immediately, as she had no tolerance for bloodlust, Hertrauda collapsed onto the floor while the guards made themselves scarce.

"Whose idea was it to strap bombs to children and force them into military duties?", I asked, as Force Lightning crackled around me, "If I do not get an answer, I will infer that all of you came up with the idea together."

Looking at one another, each of those present expected someone else to take the fall for this. Deciding not to waste my time figuring out who did it, I moved Hertrauda away from the group before unleashing my anger on them. Blasting them with Force Lightning and repulsor blasts, the surrounding area became filled with their screams of agony and suffering. Killing all of them, save for the King and Queen, I tortured the two of them till they were reduced to a vegetative state. Glancing over at the guards, who had bore witness to the entire scene, they screamed like little girls as they began clawing at the wall to flee.

"Drop your weapons and get the hell out of my sight! Make sure the public knows what happens to those that use children in this fashion!", I roared, as they dropped everything on them and ran for the door.

Stepping aside so the guards could run past, my soldiers began to snicker as the guards ran by them butt naked.