章節 22: Forgive and Forget: Gone With the Wind
*Third Person POV: Ajax*
Ajax and Renzo had spent a few days scouring the hospitals of the city of Peim and its outskirts along with some nearby and surrounding towns in their search for Aspen. However, they had come up with nothing. No one had heard of the man, no one had heard of anyone fitting his description, it was as if he had disappeared.
While Renzo and Ajax were on their way back to base, Kai and Elara had contacted him to let him know that they had not found anything on Aspen. It was as if he had fallen off the face of the planet. Completely gone. However, they had acquired information on 2 new mercenaries that by the sound of things, were either retired pilots or were at the very least combat veterans of some sort.
They sounded like men Ajax would like to have under his control. They had reportedly accomplished a surprising feat as the convoy they were escorting was ambushed. With 2 of their mercenaries dead, 2 heavily injured, one in shock, and the drivers of the cargo they were escorting dead, the 2 fought and eliminated all of their attackers and then proceeded to complete the dropoff of the cargo.
So Ajax gave the go-ahead for them to track them down and offer them a job. Things remained quiet after that, with a few updates from Kai and Elara every other day about the two men they were tracking down, Reaper and Ghost.
Based on their latest update, they got their asses handed to them. They weren't even able to put up a fight against the two who unsurprisingly, did not like people snooping into their business. They were obviously spared, but they were at the two's mercy, only spared because it would become inconvenient for them to have a military group hunting them. About 4 hours after their update on the two men, Valina and Mateo had returned from their own tasks. So they proceeded to have a small meeting to discuss things.
Mateo decided to go first and explain what he had seen and discovered at the site of the battle. "So when I reached the battlefield, there was already a fuckton of scavengers ripping the destroyed mechs to more manageable pieces. There wasn't really much to find in the mechs but I asked some questions anyway."
"From what the scavengers were saying, not a single mech had a corpse in them. They had residue of human remains, but not a single corpse in them. Also, Aspen's mech was missing, but I'm guessing it just had its reactor meltdown since there was a crater with some metal scraps in it. I then noticed that there was an area that wasn't being touched at all. It was more like they were avoiding it. It had some crosses on the ground so I can only guess that it was a burial ground."
Valina raised an eyebrow at this last piece of information. "You think the scavengers did that?"
Mateo shook his head at her question. "No, I asked them and they all said that they were already there when they arrived. They also said that some of the mechs had been partly stripped, which leads me to believe that whoever this scavenger was, they must have been the ones to bury the corpses of the fallen pilots. Though I don't understand why they would put a cross on them." Mateo started scratching his head as he wondered why they would do that.
Renzo scratched the bottom of his jaw as he asked, "You think it's got something to do with the blinding cross and the figure we saw from the drones?"
Mateo measured his words before answering. "Probably. Also, there was something weird about the ground. Apart from having been obviously dug to make graves, the ground was scorched as if something really hot was placed over them, but the metal that the crosses were made was bright white. If something burned there, then those shouldn't be as clean as they were unless they were placed after,"
They all nodded at this as Valina cleared her throat to talk. She described how she has been searching the hospitals of the city of the city of Amdon. However, she also had not found anything on Aspen or related to Aspen. She also brought up some interesting information with her.
"So, here's something new and weird." She said as she waved over the table which caused a hologram to pop up. "Anything and everything in relation to Aspen Del Santo has been completely erased from all databases. What we have downloaded is the only information that we have on him."
Ajax gulped when he heard what Valina had just said. "What do you mean by that? Have you tried using your father's databases as well?"
Valina nodded. "That was the first thing I tried, seeing how my father has more influence in the intergalactic trading community. But nothing, it was as if the man himself never existed. The same thing for his wife and daughters. Though they are obviously dead. Apparently, there was a data outage in the database HQ of the Empire shortly after our battle. Talk about perfect timing. Anything that wasn't already downloaded in relation to him was lost. We may as well have the last remaining copies of his records."
Ajax rubbed his face as he said, "Well, that's great. Now he's truly become a Ghost." He then went on to discuss with the group the information that had been relayed to him by Kai and Elara. Reaper and Ghost were pilots ruthless pilots who didn't want to deal with the hassle of working for someone else anymore. Things were clear for the time being and they had no information about Aspen either. He then brought up a holographic map of the location their body trackers were showing. Their trackers also displayed their vitals information in light blue, and by the look of things, they were quite calm as they were only about another 3 hours of driving away according to the speed 200 kmh they were maintaining.
"We can talk more about what they have learned when they get back to ba-" Ajax started speaking but was interrupted as suddenly all information about them went blank. It wasn't the sign of death or anything, just the sign of their trackers going dark. As if they were turned off.
Valina was the first to react and order Mateo, "Specter, get a bird up, you're going to go to their last known location ASAP. Renzo, you're with him."
Mateo immediately stood up from his chair as Renzo did the same, acknowledging Valina's commands. "That's going to take us about 7 minutes of letting her warm up, unless you want to risk us crashing."
Valina cursed, "Just get there as fast as you can."
Mateo nodded as he walked out the door, "Yes Ma'am."
About a minute had gone by when their information came back online. Elara's vital signs were black and flat, showing that she had died while Kai's vitals were red and displayed a rapid heart rate, low blood pressure, and rapid breathing, signifying that he had been heavily wounded but was still alive.
Valina's hands started shaking as she tapped her comms, "Specter I need you to get there as fast as can be. Don't worry about warming up the engines, Elara has been killed and Kai is heavily wounded. Take off NOW!"
Mateo's response came through the comms shortly after. "Yes ma'am, initiating take off. We will get to them in about 15 minutes."
Valina was growing more nervous as every second passed "15 minutes?"
Mateo promptly responded, "Would've been 10 but we won't be warming her reactor up which would mean that we can't push her to War Emergency Power as the reactor would turn us into a firework within 15 seconds of activation."
Valina smashed her fist against the table, causing a soft *thud.* "FUCK!"
As she was talking to Mateo, Kai's vitals could be seen slowing down, back to regular levels, then they spiked for a split second before going black.
Valina saw this and her knees went weak as she crumpled to the floor while looking at her shaking hands. Ajax decided to take over for the moment as he ordered to Mateo. "Specter, mission's changed from CSAR (Combat Search and Rescue) to Recovery and Search. Find who did this and capture them. You have permission to kill them if they resist."
Mateo didn't respond for a few seconds before replying with a quiet, "Yes…. sir."
*Third Person POV: Aspen and Ghost*
After breaking the hug, Aspen, with his gloved hands, deactivated and retrieved the EMP, and hopped into Kai's MRAP. He turned it on and drove in the direction they had come from. He then turned around and picked up speed to about 250 kmh before swerving and breaking at the same time, leaving some skid marks on the road. He came to a stop near Kai and Elara's corpses before hopping out, leaving the MRAP in drive while Ghost held it in place with his enhanced physique so that it wouldn't roll away.
Aspen then retrieved his Railgun and charged it up, firing 3 shots at its front and engine. Ghost and Aspen then pushed the MRAP just a little bit to the right so that it was against the guardrail. They then took the weapons from Kai's MRAP and put them in theirs, taking Kai and Elara's Nexus' before getting into their MRAP. Ghost hopped in the driver's seat and drove away in the direction they had come, picking up speed without leaving any skid marks. This all took them about 3 minutes, and now they were barreling away an empty highway at about 600 kmh thanks to the upgrades Aspen had done to their MRAP.
They moved like a blur before slowing down and switching to the other lanes as they had been driving the wrong way until now. They then picked up speed again and made their way towards Kloln at speeds that were barely surpassing 600 kmh. If they kept this speed up, they would reach Kloln, which was about 1000 km away, in about an hour and a half.
*Third Person POV: Mateo and Renzo*
They had been flying for about 15 minutes at 2400 kmh now and started to slow down as they neared the last pinged location of Kai and Elara. As they flew overhead, Renzo spotted a black plume of smoke coming from up ahead. They flew to the area and hovered over it, scanning the surroundings. They noticed the MRAP against the railing with 3 gaping holes about 8 inches in diameter on its frontal armor and engine and smoke coming out of them.
They saw Kai and Elara's bodies lying on the road about a meter from the MRAP. They then noticed some skid marks a little further back down the road and pieced things together.
Renzo clicked on the comms and reported back to their base. "We're at their last known location. We have identified Kai and Elara's MRAPs as well as their bodies nearby. Their MRAP is damaged too. They seem to have taken 3 Railgun rounds to the engine which caused them to swerve. They then got out of their MRAP to fight but the ambushers must've got them quickly as there doesn't seem to be any more damage done to the MRAP. This was a precision strike."
"We just did an X-ray scan and scanned for electronics, nothing. Their Nexus' are gone, their MRAP has been cleaned out, no weapons at all. We also have no tracks leading anywhere, we're guessing at least one of teh vehicles we flew over on the way here must be responsible. We advised the roads to be blocked for the next 200 kilometers. We'll fly 150 km in the direction they were coming from just in case they turned around."
Ajax's voice came through the comms after Renzo was done reporting. "Alright, we'll do that, search around the area. They couldn't have gone far unless they were flying."
Mateo nodded at this and replied, "Roger, initiating search," as they picked up speed and flew for almost 4 minutes but didn't see any vehicle in the vicinity.
"Nothing in sight either," Mateo reported back as he gripped the stick of their VTOL. "Whoever did this knew what they were doing. Caught them off guard and got in and out quickly."
Ajax sighed as he ordered them. "Alright, go back to the Kai and Elara, land, and secure their bodies. Valina is on the way and should be arriving shortly."
Mateo turned the VTOL around as he said "Roger." They returned to the site and landed, grabbed some sheets, and walked to Kai and Elara's bodies.
"Bloody hell," Renzo called out as he saw Elara's head barely attached to her body and Kai's body missing most of his head. "MRAP must've rolled after they got killed."
Mateo walked over to Elara's corpse, her eyes half open as she had fought to stay awake in her dying moments. He knelt next to her and closed her eyes, a tear rolling down his face. "Descansa, tu batalla ha terminado." He examined her body, noticing that she had been hit in the chest first before being shot in the neck. He then started laying the blanket over her.
"What do you think did this?" Renzo said, bemusement in his voice. He then whistled in surprise, "My call is… maybe a 107. The wound has a large hole, but not large enough to be a railgun, so I'm guessing an anti-material rifle. Smallest caliber by the look of things." Renzo said as a chuckle escaped him.
Mateo stood up and threw a punch at Renzo, "Fuck's your problem man? They were our comrades, our friends."
Renzo rubbed his jaw as he backed up. "I deserved that. But listen, kid, we all know what we signe-"
He was interrupted by Mateo who shouted at him, "Fuck you! You think that because we know what we signed up for we all have to be like you and become desensitized to seeing our friends die?"
Renzo stayed quiet for a second, locking eyes with Mateo. "No kid. I… It's just my way of dealing with it."
Mateo glared at Renzo before snatching the blanket from him and covering Kai's body and covering it. "Fucking old cunt." he said under his breath.
They went to inspect the MRAP when they heard engine noises coming closer and saw another VTOL approaching to land. Once it landed, Valina hopped out one and walked over to the bodies, but was stopped by Mateo. "Don't," she warned him before he moved out of the way.
She approached Kai's body and took off the blanket, examining his wounds. She then did the same with Elara's body before covering them back up and walking away to the front of MRAP. She looked at its front and examined its holes. She knelt down and pretended to be examining them closer but in reality, she was barely holding herself together. She let out a few tears and bit her index finger. "A leader must never show weakness," she told herself as she wiped the tears away, got herself together, and stood up.
*First Person POV: Aspen*
We drove in silence the entire ride back to Kloln. We ended up slowing down about an hour and 10 minutes into the drive to about 300 kmh when traffic started to pick up. While we were driving back, I decided to look into the System shop and look for things now that I had enough CSP to buy something.
"Jarvis, Show me what I can buy with my system Points," I asked Jarvis in my mind. Jarvis then proceeded to show me a list of things out of which I ended up choosing something that would be extremely helpful to us in the long run.
"System Quad Simulator Pod Power Enhancement: With this enhancement, the Quad Simulator Pod may be used without having to plug into any energy as a self-replenishing battery will be put into it. Its power will decrease by 25% every single time a person uses it, but it will replenish the amount used over the course of a week.
Enhancement Cost: 35,000 CSP"
"Purchase it," I ordered.
"Ding! Congratulations on enhancing your Quad Simulator Pod. You may place it down wherever you like and commence using it.
Hint: It is recommended that the Host place this underground in a room built to contain energy signatures or near a source of energy with high energy readings to camouflage it.
Your Current CSP Balance is now: 1,764"
"Smart, hey Jarvis, I have a question. Can I store something in the inventory after taking it out?"
"Yes Host, the system inventory allows you to store whatever you may want within the allocated 30 slots, no matter their size, as long as they are freestanding and not attached to anything."
"That's good to know, thanks, Jarvis."
"No problem, Host."
When we got back to the city entrance, the same young guard who we had come across when we were leaving was now examining the vehicles coming in. Ghost lowered his window when it was our turn to be questioned and examined. When the guard saw who we were he stopped the examination and let us through with a smile. We drove into the basement garage of the building and parked the MRAP in there. I hadn't taken notice before, but in the garage was also Michael's truck.
I turned to Ghost and asked him "You think we ought to get another vehicle? Having the other be inconvenienced when one of us has to use the MRAP is starting to become annoying."
Ghost gave me a side glace and nodded. "Why not, just don't get anything flashy, another MRAP would be more than enough. It's armored and if you do the things you've done to this one, then it could become another great set of wheels."
I nodded at his words as we got out of the MRAP and got in the elevator and went up. "Yeah, but you know what, I think I should stick to selling energy for a while longer, create a few more arc reactors, maybe a bigger version, get what I need to and probably start a company to sell to more. Call it Azrael Technologies, or Azrael Energy? Fallcrest Energy?"
Ghost chuckled at my ambitions. "You're going to start a corporation to make money while your mission is to cleanse this universe? Maybe you should, would fund us quite nicely now that I think about it."
I smile at his antics, "Maybe taking over the planet would allow me to start the cleansing, and what better way than with clean energy? Anyways, after we rest, I have something I want to show you."
"Alright," he said as we reached the top floor and walked out into our apartment. "Have a good night, well, morning," he called out to me as he walked into his room.
"Yeah, you too man," I say as I start taking off my clothes. I grab a towel and then go take a shower. After the shower I put some shorts on and throw myself on the bed, I stretch and get comfortable, letting the stress of the day wash away. I relax and think about what I've done since I got to this universe, remembering what the Archangel Michael told me about my purpose here. Thinking of the words Autumn had told me before I left her.
Thinking of my next steps, how to make money, who I would recruit, how to finish enacting my revenge… as my mind drifted with a bunch of thoughts, I felt myself falling asleep and becoming weightless. I opened my eyes and noticed that I was in what appeared to be a hospital operating room, lying on an operating table.
I stood up from the table and looked around, noticing the blurred faces of people who seemed to have been frozen in time. I then see a man who seems familiar on an operating table next to mine. He turns around and I see my face, younger than what I've grown accustomed to seeing now, staring right back at me. "You still have a couple more to go, I just want you to make sure that Ajax suffers the most. Don't worry, I'll keep your body safe in the meantime." I said, no the man said to me.
I was able to understand that this was Aspen, the owner of my current body. When he finished speaking, he laid back down on the table and I heard a man saying "Patient Aspen Del Santo, Time of death, 12:00 am. Cause of death, trauma, collapsed lung, cardiac arrest. We did everything we could, Dr. Cabrera. I'm sorry, he was just too broken to put back together."
"I saw him this morning, he was just a kid with a small concussion, and now some drunk bastard took his li-"
Before I could finish hearing what was being said, I woke up in my room, confused.
Word Count: 3558 Words 🙂
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