Chapter 270: Vexical Prime: Holy Men?
Moving through the sewers was easy since they did not run into another patrol. But as they soon arrived at a set of stairs that led above. But as they approached they could all hear voices at the top of the stairs. They set up along both sides at the bottom of the stairs. With Jace on one side with the police officers behind him and Atlas on the other side with Shepard behind him.
"It is just about time to send out the next group." Someone above ground called out. "You, you, you, not you, and you. And you will be in charge. Any questions?"
"Yeah..." Jace could hear the sloshed voice of a drunken man. "What are we doing-" *Hiccup* "-again?" The man asked, getting chuckles from somewhere nearby.
"Drunken Knights." The man setting up this next group mumbled under his breath. "You will be going into the sewers to search for possible slaves and a path into the republic dogs territory." The leader of this group explained with a clearly annoyed tone, like he had done this several times before. "Now get down there and start searching, call in if you find anything interesting." There was then a smack of metal on metal followed by groans of annoyance.
They could then hear them begin to make their way down the stairs. The front most one was lazily sauntering down, sometimes tripping and missing a step. But when he neared the bottom he slipped on a puddle of shit and sailed down the rest of the stairs and fell face first into the sewage stream.
"Oh shit hahaha!" One of his allies came down the stairs after him. "The Drunken Knight got a face full of shit!" He walked right past Jace and Atlas without noticing them and to his friend that had begun pulling his body out of the sewage water.
"Fuckin’ sewers, fuckin’ planet, fuckin’- what?" He had slowly turned around and spotted their group just as the third member of their four man squad had arrived at the doorway.
Jace pushed the third member to the side in front of Atlas and dashed into the hallway to catch the fourth one off guard. They were all in military armor but they had pieces of exposed skin in between pieces of their armor. Such as their neck, they were even more medieval Earth than the Montez Kingdom.
As he arrived at the fourth member he reached up and grabbed the enemies neck before they could even suck in a breath of air. He squeezed and there was a quick crack followed by a snap as he used a single hand to break the enemies neck. He then stayed in the shadow of the fourth member so the people at the top of the stairs could not see him and he backed up slowly so it looked like the fourth member was naturally moving forward, despite the body being limp in his hand.
Behind him he heard a quick pop as Atlas executed the third member that Jace pushed to the side. Jace pulled a visible knife off the corpse he was carrying and looked back. The second member that went to laugh at the supposedly named Drunken Knight had his throat slit by his own knife that Barry had used.
The Drunken Knight’s eyes widened as he seemed to be about to scream. But Jace just threw the knife he grabbed and it went right into the man’s eye sinking all the way to the hilt. The man had been mid weapon draw so he fell backwards back into the sewage again.
The others all looked as Jace dragged the body back into the tunnel and set it down against the wall. "Well that was efficient." Shepard pointed out as he crouched by the dead body of the drunken knight to take what he needed. Tossing the knife Jace threw back to him.
Jace caught it and put it in the sheath before he moved the sheath to the spot on his own armor that he would typically use for knives. He pulled the rifle off first, it was a cheap one with gaudy external decorations. There were no external magazines but the rifle had a large charge. So he slipped the rifle onto his back and pulled out the pistol which was similar. Then he grabbed the few grenades the enemy soldier had.
He peaked up the stairs confirming that they were not sending down anymore people. Then he pulled off the enemy soldier’s helmet and began pulling out the communication device they were using. He turned to the others as he did this to see how they were doing.
A few minutes later they were ready while Jace had broken through the enemy’s encryption. "I will lead the way. Atlas behind me. Then Shepard in the back of the pack." Jace ordered as he moved to the side of the stairs entrance.
He then moved up the stairs making sure to be as quiet as possible. But no matter how quiet he was. He could not do anything about the sensor they set up ahead of time. "There is movement in the sewers, it seems like they forgot something." Someone grunted out from above.
Jace pulled two grenades off his waist and triggered them. Tossing them up and out of the staircase just as a person walked up to the entrance. The grenades sailed over his head causing him to look at it and follow them as they landed on the ground.
Jace was up the stairs and grabbing the partially turned soldier to use him as a shield as the grenades exploded. There was an intense flash of light and screams as Jace’s armor sensed a small radioactive reaction for a moment. The flash was gone and of the soldiers that were just waiting and guarding this staircase. More than half of them were dead, many more were injured.
There were only about ten who were still moving. Not including the person he used as a shield. The part of their body that had been facing the grenades had been completely burned off making the bone and muscles visible as the blood boiled.
Jace dropped the body and walked further into the area. He dashed towards the only enemies he was worried about. The trio of soldiers that were sitting at an impromptu station that was for long range broadcasting.
He raised the pistol and fired twice at the two soldiers that were farther from the equipment. One laser bolt for each soldier, unfortunately he underestimated how bad this gun was. Because while it did burn a hole in the enemy it did not kill them. So while one was grabbing at his throat where a burned hole appeared while the other grabbed at his collar bone where a similar hole appeared, behind them the person sitting at the station spun around grabbing at the controls.
Jace clicked his tongue and threw the knife. It sank into the back of the enemy’s neck. With the enemies hunched over form it severed the spine and then jabbed up into the skull and into the brain. The enemy collapsed onto the table and then fell on the ground.
So Jace turned his attention to the two soldiers he had injured. In the moment he focused on their friend they had managed to adjust their mindset and focused on him. One pulled out a knife and jumped forward while the other one backed up and pulled out his sidearm.
"Disciple! Call in back up!" The soldier that was holding a gun called back to their ally who they had not realized was already dead. He fired a few shots but Jace just let the bright yellow laser bolts hit him. His shielding appeared and the bolts did not even cause the power to lower even a bit. Jace was almost surprised it caused his shielding to appear at all.
The enemy with the knife tried to stab towards Jace’s face. Attempting to hide the fact that he drew his sidearm and planned to shoot at Jace at point blank. Jace had a free hand so he just grabbed the wrist of the hand that had the knife and twisted the wrist.
The enemy’s wrist snapped and the enemy screamed as the knife fell out of his hand. Jace let go of the wrist and caught the knife as he shoved the barrel of the laser gun into the enemy’s chin and fired. He unloaded a few bolts which chaired the front part of the enemy’s head. He was able to ignore the few shots the enemy got off and turned his attention to the last surviving member.
The knife flew through the air and sunk into his head. Specifically the enemy’s eye, it was one of the few easy gaps in their armor that he could use to kill these enemy soldiers. They did not have armor to cover their entire bodies. Which proved to be fatal to these enemy soldiers. Once he was done he looked around to see the others were finishing off the rest of the enemies.
The initial grenades had disoriented them enough that they were able to move in and get rid of the enemies. Now they were finishing off any injured enemies. This group had set up under a bridge so they had cover. It was fortunate that they had no mechs or anything else set up. But he was sure it would not take that long for them to leave this enemy infantry base behind.