Chapter 543: Chapter 543 Assault on the Odium Syndicate (8)
"That bi*ch! How dare she mock me like that!"
Sitting in the production facility’s security command station, a tough looking old man with a full set of cybernetic limbs was red faced as he glared down at the image of Olivia displayed on one of the few still working security camera in the station.
He had been calmly watching the feed until she had personally called him out.
"Damn it! What can be expected of these paper soldiers I have to work with. They only have the barest of augmentations and basic training. All they are good for is aiming their weapons and pulling the trigger. That’s not going to be good enough against the people attacking us."
After shouting out his grievances, the man in charge of the station’s security glared at several different monitors.
Along with the team led by the giant bahnen and green haired woman, there was also two other groups of attackers rampaging through the station practically unopposed.
Any soldiers thrown at them were all killed within a couple minutes at most once they engaged the intruders.
’That young man with blond hair is especially monstrous. I don’t know how he does it, but lasers just burst apart whenever they get close to him, and his strength is abnormal even when factoring in the exosuit he’s wearing.’
The security commander ground his teeth as he looked between the remaining forces available to him, and the three invading groups.
From his experience, he knew that they were heavily outmatched. And it did not help that Bartholomew, the incompetent station manager, had ordered the strongest and most well equipped fighters to stick near him as guards.
’This is hardly the time to let that repulsive man squander what few competent troops are stationed here. If we don’t do everything we can to stop these attackers, we’re all going to be killed or captured sooner or later. They’ve already proven that they came here prepared and are highly capable.’
Despite what his supposed superior had ordered, the security commander decided that he was done listening to the fool.
Most of the troops on the station were loyal to him as their commanding officer and would listen to his instructions over the station manager’s during a crisis.
All he needed to do was arrange for Bartholomew to have an "accident" during this incident and there would not be anyone to complain.
"Call all of the units protecting the command center and managerial suite back. There’s no point in letting them pick us off slowly. We’re going to hit them with a concentrated assault."
"But Commander Dalton, Station Manager Carlson told us to-"
"I don’t care what that pig said. This is a state of emergency. All of our combat ships have already been destroyed, and the station’s been crippled. Our only hope is to stop them here. I thought the troops sent out to meet them would slow them down more and cause some casualties, but these intruders are way better than I could have imagined. They’re all top class, and their leaders are all at least as strong as I am." Dalton said, putting down the objections from the officer that was one of Bartholomew’s cronies.
Fortunately, the man shut up and kept any further complaints to himself.
A smart move on his part, as Dalton was ready to kill the guy if he kept causing a disruption.
He was already on edge due to the current situation, and the last thing he needed was dissent within his ranks.
The people attacking them were obviously highly skilled professionals.
And though he had claimed to be as capable as their leaders, deep down he knew that was probably a generous estimation of his skills.
Maybe when he was still back in his prime, but he had gotten older and it had been years since he had seen any proper combat.
’The woman and bahnen, I won’t be able to beat either of them one on one. As for the young man leading the charge through the middle of the station, I don’t dare face him head on. I’ll need several traps and strategies prepared to stop a monster like him. That leaves the white haired girl and the serious looking man accompanying them.’
As much as Dalton wanted to crush Olivia for the snide remarks she had directed at him, he knew that he needed to start with the weakest link first.
From what he could tell, the team that Liesel and Burke were leading was the smallest of the three.
Meaning it would be the easiest to handle.
After assigning troops to try and take on all three groups at the same time, he understood that it would be impossible to stop them using such tactics.
He did not have nearly enough fighters to defeat each of them at the same time.
To have any chance, Dalton knew he would need to consolidate all of the forces left on the station and take them out one at a time.
This would leave the other two groups free to run rampant for quite some time, but it was really the only option. Other than trying to reach agreeable terms of surrender that is. Though that was something Dalton did not even consider. He would rather die fighting than give up.
’I’ll be lucky to make it out of this mess, but I’ll be damned if I don’t take some of them with me.’ Dalton thought, wearing a grin of excitement.
...
Liesel was keeping her senses sharp as she advanced through the station.
Still, it had been nearly twenty minutes since their last encounter with anyone.
Some people with okay equipment and subpar skills had tried to stop them near the start of their infiltration, but after that any resistance to their advance had completely vanished.
This put Liesel more on edge than if wave after wave of enemies came at them like berserkers willing to throw their lives away just to get a single hit in.
’Could we have already taken out all of their troops already? It’s possible that there isn’t anyone left to stop us, but that doesn’t feel right to me.’
Liesel had been in periodic contact with Avery and Ezra, and neither of them reported fighting anyone recently either. So, it was not as if all of the enemy combatants had simply been slaughtered by the other two groups.
Just as she was starting to think that they might reach their destination without incident and that her bad feeling was nothing but one, Casey stopped and glared at the scanner she had been keeping an eye on.
"We’ve been surrounded. There are a lot of them. Some of the readings are larger than a person as well. We’re likely dealing with either people in heavy power armor, or mid-sized combat bots."
It seemed that the enemy had figured out their detailed detection range and set up a web to entrap them.
There was still several hundred meters between them and the enemies, but that distance would be closed quickly enough.
Liesel attempted to contact Avery to ask for support but found that communications were being jammed.
’I see, they want to isolate us and take us down since they think that we’re the weakest group. Of course they’re not wrong.’ Liesel thought, glancing around at the other forty-five people with her.
Compared to the other two teams, Liesel knew objectively that the one she was leading along with Burke looked the least impressive.
Avery had two hundred other mercenaries with him, and Ezra and Olivia both had naturally impressing figures.
If she was faced with choosing which of their groups to attack first, she would have chosen her own as well.
’Avery will probably notice that our contact has been cut off soon and send reinforcements to help within just a few minutes. But I’m going to try and have this finished up before that happens.’
Objectively, her team was the weakest, but that did not mean they were weak.
"Okay everyone, take up your positions, defense formation Gamma." Burke called out.
The people that had been under his command since before they joined up with Avery reacted swiftly and prepared themselves in coming attack.
Only Liesel and Casey were left out, as they were going to be playing other roles during the fighting.
’This will really be the first time I get to truly use the close combat skills I’ve been training since I was little. Hopefully all those bouts against the others have helped me get a bit better.’ Liesel thought as she prepared her weapons and equipment.
Up until now Liesel had spent almost the entirety of her time as a mercenary fighting with her ship. There had been a few scraps here and there, but nothing too serious.
Her first time ever personally fighting in enemy territory had been when she infiltrated Clarien’s ship with Avery and Kasandra.
But that had been more sneaking around and sabotaging key systems rather than taking on hordes of opponents.
This time was going to be different.
Liesel could feel her anticipation growing, and she glanced down the corridors around them waiting for the first enemy to show their face.
