Chapter 46

It was four o'clock in the morning when Ajax was awakened by loud voices. He was still half asleep and could only differentiate a few words: "It's...fire...cafeteria...fire..."

Ajax planned to just ignore it and continue sleeping, determining that someone had drunk more than they could handle and set the cafeteria on fire. But as he grew more aware the voices became clearer and Ajax realized that something was wrong, so he got up and opened his door in his shorts.

From his doorway, he could clearly see the blazing fire in the cafeteria area that was reaching toward the night sky and lighting up its surroundings like a torch in a dark room. His vision pandered to the defense area and he saw that it too was on fire, which immediately made Ajax nervous.

A fire in one place can be said to be an accident, but a fire in two places at the same time must be intentional. The fire in the cafeteria area wasn't worrying, at most, the food in the warehouse would be lost, but the defense area was different. There were ammunition depots and a lot of vehicles there, it would be catastrophic is they exploded.

More and more operators woke up, sobered up from the night of drinking, and were going to put out the fire in their big undergarments.

Monkey had hurried over to Ajax, "I don't know how but the defense area and the cafeteria have caught on fire!"

"Where's Bomen? Are you able to contact him? Are you sober?" Ajax frowned as he watched the growing fire.

"No, still a little buzzed and my Vox can't get through. He should be sleeping in the defense area, I'll go get him." Monkey was about to leave after responding Ajax's questions.

"No, stay here and continue to watch over the situation, I'll go get him." Ajax took off his shirt and entered his mech.

"Your pilot credentials have not been detected. Forcing the connection may have unknown consequences. Please confirm if to connect."

"Confirm."

"Connecting...1%2%3%...100%."

"Connection complete. Connection stable. Welcome, this unit's Callsign is 'Reaper'."

As soon as his field of vision adapted, Ajax moved out. His intuition told him that something was wrong with the fire, it may or may not be an attack, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Seeing Ajax's actions, Monkey hurried back to the room, grabbed his rifle, and stood guard at the door of the tool room.

The speed of the Reaper was fast, allowing Ajax to run from the camp to the defense area in just a few minutes. The location where the fire broke out in the defense area was very close to the ammunition depot. The fire had not spread much as dozens of people were there trying to put it out.

Seeing that there was nothing unusual at the gate of the camp, Ajax heaved a sigh of relief and made his way to the defense building. On the second floor was the conference room, the third floor was the war room, the fourth floor was where Bomen lived, and no one knew what was on the fifth floor.

As soon as he arrived on the fourth floor, Ajax found Bomen's door open and found a trail of blood on the ground causing him to rush in and searched the whole floor but found no sign of Bomen. Instead, he saw more bloodstains, as well as traces of struggle, plus a Vox with a bullet hole in it.

Following the bloodstains, Ajax made his way to the stairs leading to the fifth floor, raised his rifle, and moved up. The door was still open, and inside was a large room similar to a warehouse, where various parts of the barrier device were placed.

No wonder this floor was off-limits. It turns out that the barrier device that can protect the base is stored here. It's just that this expensive device was emitting black smoke at this time, and its core had been destroyed.

Ajax also found Bomen, who was panting heavily, with three gunshot wounds to his stomach and one gunshot wound through both his cheeks.

"Bomen! Fuck! Hey, hey, who did this?!" Ajax, half-kneeled in front of Bomen and looked him over. He wanted to stop the bleeding, but looking at the blood gushing out, he didn't know where to start.

"...it was Alex..." Bomen looked at Ajax, struggled to sit up, and leaned against the wall behind him, "You were right...motherfucker...I should've...split his head....open myself..."

"I'll call someone for you. Just hang on."

After Ajax made sure that there was no threat around him and was about to use his Vox to call for someone, but he immediately realized that he had rushed over and had no clothes on and his Vox was not on him.

"Listen...to me..." Bomen grabbed Ajax with his hand, "Alex attacked me...destroyed the barrier...and set fire to things... He must have colluded with...the Hell's League to attack the camp...go sound the alarm..."

Just then continuous explosions rang out from the gate of the camp.

"Damn it!" Ajax raised his head and cursed loudly before turning to Bomen, "Let me get you to safety first, hold on!"

"No, I won't...I won't make it..." Bomen gave a wry smile, "Now you listen to m-" *cough cough cough* Bomen coughed dryly while holding onto Ajax, the wound on his face made it difficult to talk, "If you can't hold them off... you take our men... and evacuate to the mining area...as long as you can fend the mines off... the Hell's League will never... be able to dominate the border..."

Bomen began to cough violently again, spitting blood everywhere.

"Bomen...I...I..." Ajax's eyes began to well up. He could tell that Bomen was confessing his last words.

"Hehehe, look at you kid...I told you before...you have the ability to lead... you've proven yourself, they'll listen to you... I entrust the Lazoole Society to you...here, take this..." While talking Bomen handed him the key hanging around his neck with trembling hands. "There is a safe in the mining area that has just what you need... I wanted to surprise you tomorrow... but it turns out I won't live to see the sunrise..."

The explosions outside became more intense as shouts and firefights could also be heard.

"Go! Now!" Bomen didn't know why, but he felt revitalized, full of energy and strength. He pulled Ajax closer to him, "Remember my faults... Forgive when you have to, retreat if you must, but you must kill those who deserve death..."

Bomen couldn't see Ajax's face clearly, but he could feel the anger seething from Ajax.

After the dinner party, he came back to sleep drunk when Alex suddenly knocked on his door and woke him up. He thought that Alex was here to say goodbye or plead one last time, so he let him in.

After Alex came in, he knelt on the ground and started begging, saying that he knew he was something and didn't want to leave the camp. However, when the sleepy and still buzzed Bomen was about to say something he suddenly got a glimpse of a fire in the cafeteria and went to pick up his Vox to ask about the situation.

Alex suddenly took out his pistol and shot Bomen in the stomach a few times before turning to his Vox and shooting it too. Bomen endured the pain in his abdomen and punched Alex on the jaw then tried to grab Alex's gun.

Alex's pistol went off again in the struggle, striking Bomen in the face, causing Bomen to fall to the ground. Alex was afraid that the gunshots would be heard by the nearby operators. He didn't even bother to check Bomen's body and instead ran up to the fifth floor and destroyed the core of the barrier device.

All of his actions were according to the agreement he had made with Bach a few days ago, setting the fire, killing Bomen, and destroying the barrier device. The previous attack by the Hell's League failed because of the barrier, so this time the same mistakes will not be repeated.

Alex then sent the signal to attack to Bach as he ran away from the defense building, his mind occupied of how he would spend the five million eddies...