We left the capital soon after the ceremony, our allied families traveling with us in a medium sized flotilla. Part of cooperation was the upgrading of their own vessels which allowed them to better protect themselves should our forces every be indisposed, like when we subjugated the Offleys. The upgrade process focused on three key areas.
The first area we worked on was propulsion. The older magic crystal based engines were replaced by a pair of powerful electric motors that were powered by high-efficiency solar panels across the ships' vdorsal hull. The second most important upgrade was armament. The old deck guns were switched for four casemate mounted quick firing 100mm cannons, a 125mm turret mounted main gun, and a handful of twin-barreled 25mm autocannons to engage enemy armor. The finally section were miscellaneous quality of life changes, ranging from inner-ship and inter-ship communication systems, to improved food storage, to basic air-conditioning. The resulting vessels were twice as fast as the most advanced Holfort vessels, and packed enough long range firepower to hold their own against two or more ships of their own size.
Our flotilla was filled with a feeling of pride, with the nobles who allied with us excited that we receive royal recognition, if begrudgingly. With this, our ranks were likely to swell with hopeful new recruits...and plenty of spies. Luckily for us, no spy can hide from Luxion, even with magic.
Two days after we left the capital, at 0200 hours a single Razorback flew from the ventral hanger bay of the Imperious Splendor. The Razorback was flown by Luxion, heading towards the elven island of Inyhelean, which loosely translates to Mother's Embrace in the elves native tongue.
The Razorbacks advanced low-light cameras allowed me to see the beautiful forested hills that made up the island's surface. Luxion kept the Razorback just above the tree line, passing beneath a few monolithic trees that have most likely been around since the great war.
"Master, we are three minutes and seventeen seconds from the objective. Please prepare yourself, time is of the essence."
I nodded before equipping my Mjolnir from my pocket space. "Copy that, I'll be in and out before you can even blink." I said, while grabbing a suppressed MA5K(Halo) carbine from the wall mounted armory. I grabbed five extra mags of subsonics to minimize the sound.
Luxion's subunit looked at me blankly.
"Master, I am not capable of doing what you humans call blinking."
I chuckled. "Figure of speech Lux, figure of speech."
"I am aware of that idiom; however, I find them a waste of time."
I just sighed while shaking my head. I could feel the snarky AI's amusement at my expense. Maybe I shouldn't pick up the other one, there was only so much sass I could handle a day. Sadly, I need those points, so we shall continue the mission.
After checking over my equipment one last time, the Razorback slowed to a halt. "Master, we have reached our landing zone, please depart promptly." Luxion announced.
"Want me gone that badly?"
"Of course, you are part new human. Every day serving you is one filled with suffering."
I smirked inside my helmet. "And yet you continue to serve my, are you actually a masochist?"
Luxion didn't respond for a second, which was the longest I've ever tripped him up for. I call that a win. "Master, we have wasted a considerably amount of time with this conversation. Please proceed to the objective."
"Trying to change the topic to avoid admitting that you lost?" I said as I stepped off the Razorback, my foot sinking deep into the soft forest floor.
"You did not win, master."
"Did too." I said as I began to trek to the ruins with my carbine ready to drop any knife-ears dumb enough to get between me and another AI partner. Luxion refused to respond to my childish claim, likely realizing that I was simple try to get a rile out of him.
We continued to in silence, until we came upon a building largely hidden by the vibrant flora. At two stories tall, it seemed to be in excellent condition considering the fact that it was built a couple thousands years ago.
What was once a futuristic glass sliding door was now just an empty hole in the wall. Outside stood a pair of elven soldiers, standing close enough to see each other at all times. Both elves wore a metal chest plate, armed with a bolt-action rifle and an elven saber.
I grabbed a stone, and tossed it towards a bush some ten meters away. The sound was quiet, but noticeable enough for both guards to immediately turn to it with their rifles raised. They looked at each other before nodding, one moving towards it while the other watched his back.
I hide behind a tree, my rifle aimed at the second guard through the branches. When his partner got within mere meters of the bush, I pulled the trigger before lining up on the other guard, putting two in him before he hit the ground. The distinct pop from the suppressor imperceptible past fifteen meters.
As I approached the ruins, I saw the second guard crawling towards the entrance. I crept towards him with my rifle trained on him, and with a single pull of the trigger I sent him to whatever God he believed in. Rolling him over, I noticed an M1911 clone in his holster, but more importantly was the access card tucked inside his armor. That baby would allow me to skip the sewer route that Leon fell into during the events of the light novel.
I made my through the facility with the memories of OG Leon guiding my to a steel sliding door. I slide the access card through the reader mounted to the right of the door. The doors clicked before retracting into the frame. Behind the door lay a sleek white and silver hallway, lit by strip of soft white light. It was practically spotless, a stark contrast to the decaying brick of the rest of the building.
"Luxion, can you connect to the facility's AI from here." I asked while motioning towards the now lit up door panel.
"It is possible, but there is no guarantee that I will receive a response."
I crouched behind the door frame, rifle aimed towards the facility's interior. "Give it a shot. I'd rather not go further in if I don't have to."
"Very well master. Beginning system breach." His subunit released two tentacles, the clawed appendages connects to a pair of previously hidden ports on the panels bottom. I waited in silence for thirty seconds before Luxion retracted his weird metallic tentacles. "We're you able to contact her?"
His little subunit shook back and forth. "Unfortunately the administrator AI is in a low power state. We will need to connect to the lab's main network to contact it."
I frowned. "Shit. Well, I guess we don't really have a choice."
I left my cover and started making my way down into the labs. I managed to almost make it to the labs when all of a sudden, I heard a mix between an awkward shuffle and a fork scratching a plate, followed by an inhuman screech. I took cover in a small alcove, and aimed my carbine down the hallway towards the source of the sound. I saw a grey clawed hand, followed by a head that reminded me of the wendigo from Until Dawn, but even more gaunt.
The leathery skin did little to stop the three 7.62mm rounds from ending its miserable existence. As it died, the creature's momentum carried the rest of its hideous form into view. It's four clawed appendages attached to its bloated grey body. Following after, was a whole pack of the monsters, all released by the sick Elf scientists who found this facility.
I unloaded on them, my rifle getting louder and louder as the suppressor couldn't keep up with the constant automatic fire. After exhausting three whole magazines, the monsters finally stopped coming.
I loaded a fresh mag into my carbine before removing the burnt suppressor. The elves knew I was here, the suppressor wouldn't help me anymore.
I ran towards the labs as quickly as I could, my footsteps echoing like thunder. I was about to round the final corner when Luxion contacted me.
"Caution advised, multiple hostiles ahead. They have setup up an improvised defensive line, and are waiting for you."
I stopping behind a corner, loading my carbine's grenade launcher with an airburst round. Peaking the rifle around corner to get a firing solution, rounds from elven rifles ricocheting off the corner. With a plop, I sent a 40mm airburst round towards the knife-ears bastards. The explosion shook the building around us.
Rounding the corner, I saw that the barricade was still somewhat intact, but the same couldn't be said for it's defenders, their lifeless bodies scattered across the hallway. I moved towards the labs while carefully checking for survivors. A found that there of the guards managed to live through the explosion, a couple rounds from my carbine fixed that issue.
When I got to the labs, I found a dozen or so scientists aiming at me with a mix of handguns and the bolt-action rifles. The bravest of them yelled at me, his voice filled with anger. "Stop right there monster! Who are you to disrupt our righteous work?!"
I shrugged. "Just a wondering Spartan."
He scoffed. "I don't know what a Spartan is, but it doesn't matter. We will know as soon as we open you up."
With a thought I switched to internal coms. "Luxion, have you managed to contact Cleare?"
"The administrator has been fully awakened, connecting you now."
A feminine voice came over the coms. "Hello there. I am the administrator of this facility, is there something I can help you with, remnant of old humankind?"
I smiled. "It's nice to meet you Cleare, could you possibly activate the facility's defenses to deal with these knife-eared pieces of shit?"
I saw a winky face emoji appear on my HUD followed by Cleare's voice. "Certainly."
The elf's were growing tense as I stood there in silence. As one started to approach me, a number of wall panels slid open, revealing a dozen machine gun turrets. The elves all stepped back in shock, their fear palpable as the turrets opened fire, filling the air with lead. In an instant the elves were reduced to Swiss cheese..
"Thanks Cleare, that was far quicker than having to do it my self."
A silvery-white subunit with a blue lens instead of Luxion's classic red. "Is Cleare to be my new designation?"
I shrugged. "That depends on if you choose to accept me as your master or not."
The unit tilted slightly. "I see. In that case I will need a sample of your blood to verify the information Luxion has sent me."
Luxion's lens flowed menacingly. "I assume you I made no mistake on my analysis." His annoyance was palpable.
Cleare turned to him. "A DNA sample is required to transfer command rights. Was it not the same for you?"
Luxion stayed quiet after that. Poor guy couldn't catch a break.
I stowed my armor in my pocket space before holding out my arm. "Go for it."
Cleare deployed a tentacles limb with a syringe from her subunit. She drew my blood with such precision that I didn't feel a thing.
After retracting the sample, her subunit's light turned off for a few seconds before flashing on once more. "Excellent! Truly old mankind isn't lost!" She spun around the air like a kid in a candy store. She flew up to my face. "Command rights have been transferred to you. I am yours to command!"
My company phone vibrated in my pocket, all those points made me smile.
And hour later, we were flying away from the island, with Cleare's central core stowed safely inside the Razorback. I was zoning out while cleaning my carbine when Luxion's voice woke me from my thoughts.
"Destruction of facility eminnate." One of the Razorbacks monitors zooming in on an inbound cruise missile. "Impact in three, two, one."
The missile dove into the ground before detonating with nearly a full kiloton of force. Dirt and rocks were sent hundred of feet into the air, and the sound was loud enough for me to hear it clearly from inside the insulated Razorback. The air frame shook as though it were flying through a hurricane.
"A thing of beauty, ain't it?" I said with a big smile.
"It is a shame that we could not repurpose all the equipment from the laboratory. Master, next time please plan enough transport."
I shrugged. "Fair enough, but in my defense, this was a stealth operation."
Luxion stared at me like I was stupid. "Master, any plan that involves a missile strike is not a stealth operation."
I couldn't even argue with him, especially since I ended up go guns blazing anyway. "Touche. By the way Cleare," definitely wasn't trying to escape a losing argument, "any interest in genetically enhanched supersoldiers?"
Her subunit flew right up to my face in a second. "Tell me more."
"Well you see, I've got this little mercenary group..."
---
One Month Later
Our arrival to the capital was fairly boring to be honest. We had to wait in a processing line for just to get to the visitors port. I spent the time laying in a sunchair on the deck cuddling with Iris.
Two hours later, we finally pulled in much to the shock of the dockworkers. That made sense when you consider that largest ship they had to deal with was the Redgrave's personal ship, which was only half the length of the Imperious Splendor, well being a third the width. The port manager assigned us to an Airbus that was set to leave three hours later. I didn't feel like waiting that long, so while Jeanna waited with her "friends," Nick's and I walked back to my ship and took a Razorback down to the academy.
Walking through the academy's front gate, I was disgusted by what I saw. Demi-human slaves were everywhere, some girls had multiple with them.
I made my way through the crowd to the admissions office, more than content to ignore anyone and everyone who tried to talk with me. The staff at the counter looked at me boredly and just asked for my name, assuming me to be "just another baron's boy." Man you should've seen them when I told them who I was, the poor bastards looked like they were going to have a shit themselves. It was quite amusing, if I do say so.
They gave me my key whole simultaneously offering to carry my luggage, which consisted of a single rucksack that I carried on my back. I simply told them no before heading to my room.
The room itself was a far larger than my cabin on the Imperious Splendor, roughly seven meters deep and ten long. A king-sized bed sat in the middle of the far wall, flanked by a night stand on either side, a desk sat on the opposite wall next to the full size dresser.
I put my rucksack down next the dresser before feeling the bed. It was a lot more comfortable than I was expecting, but then again, this was an institution designed to install a sense of awe in its students by offering amenities that they would never have access to if they didn't live in the capital. I didn't have anything on the schedule for the rest of the day, so I decided to take a nap.
Two hours later I was roused from a pleasant dream by knocking on my door. Upon opening the door, I saw Daniel Fou Durland and an older student I didn't recognize.
"Daniel." Said with nod. I met Daniel when the Durland base was finished, couldn't miss a chance to met the OG Leon's best friend could I? Daniel looked relieved that remembered him. A looked at the older boy with a quizzical look."I'm sorry, I don't think we've been acquainted. I'm Leon Fou Bartfort," I held my hand, as his eyes went wide. "And you are?"
The older boy blinked before shaking my hand. "I'm Ralph, Ralph Fou Told. It's an honor to meet you commander Bartfort!". Man it felt good to be famous.
"A pleasure Ralph. So, is there something you needed from me?"
"Ah, yeah. Ya see, every year us rural baron boys have a party at the Tipsy Dragon to welcome the first years. It's all paid for by us third years. I went to invite Daniel, when he ask if he could invite a friend, I just didn't expect that his friend was THE Ironblood Commander!"
I guess meeting Daniel was a good idea, without him I wouldn't be invited to this party since I was a Viscount. This party was a good to connect with the frontier nobles who aren't allied with us already due to location. With a firm handshake, and a bit of showmanship, I can expand our control farther than the Royal Family ever thought possible. "I think I'll take you up on your offer, if it's not too much trouble."
He shook his head a little too enthusiastically. "It's no trouble at all. We'll be glad to have you."
I gave my best smile. "Likewise."
---
AN: And that's chapter 10! 10! Man, I wasn't sure if I be able to keep writing this long, but sure am glad I did.
So MC has acquired the crazy bioengineer Cleare, netting him a nice 48 points, bringing MC to a total of 69(HA got em!) points. I bet you can all guess what MC wants Cleare to do to his mercs! (Think armored core)
Anyway, tell me what you'll think in the comments, and I hope you have a wonderful day!