Bright yellow and flashing, an indicator light came to life on a panel.
Tracking another target, Felix fired off another load of whatever it was. The second target tried to dodge, and instead of losing their chest, lost the entire left side of their body. She went down in a screaming, bleeding heap.
The yellow light went to an orange color and began to flash more rapidly.
It only has about three shots before it’s empty or has to… something… One shot left I’m betting. Let’s save it.
Pushing the command to holster the cannon, Felix stood upright and hefted the rifle that the Fist had hooked into a hip pod.
Pulling the trigger as soon as it settled onto his shoulder, Felix felt and heard the heavy impact of the heavy railgun discharging. The rifle had an attached ammo belt that could feed into several ammo pods throughout the Fist. It was limited in ammunition, but it at least carried a significant amount with it.
Victoria and the Adrianas hadn’t been idle this whole time either. They were systematically working to eliminate all enemy combatants as they came in.
Victoria, moving at full speed and taking hits that would have killed an unarmored human, was shaking off her inexperience with her armor rapidly.
It was her first time using it, and she was now getting the hang of it.
Soon it was clear that Legion would take the victory
As if there had been any doubt.
“Deploy a boundary, no escapees,” Felix called out.
Several Adrianas darted forward and hurled what looked as if they were glowing baseballs. They soared over the fight and landed against the far wall. Each Andrea looked to their wrist terminal and entered in a few commands. Giant blue walls of light erupted from those balls, blocking the door off behind solid magical energy constructs.
Realizing there was no escape, a number of their attackers began to surrender. Another number began to beat and attack furiously at the walls preventing their retreat.
“Waste ’em,” Felix called through the War-net.
Without hesitation, the Adrianas began systematically moving into the surrendering numbers and giving them each a few rounds to the temple.
What’d been a battle, was now a bloodbath.
The forces Skipper had sent here weren’t up to the task of actually engaging with Legion. They were a cleanup crew that could deal with security forces and a number of Powereds.
Victoria took the head off a woman who had her hands up, pleading for mercy.
And the room was silent.
“Leave the corpses, take the weapons and gear. Felicia likes that stuff for scrap and testing. Once we’re out, toss in a firebomb,” Felix commanded.
The surviving Adrianas, after consuming their fallen Others, went about their business.
Operation complete. Now the question is… what happens next, and does Skipper plan on attacking Legion. If she leaves us be, then we leave her be.
But I’m not so sure Tilen will go as easily as Skippercity did. Either her confidence got the best of her this time, or she was forced to move early.
And if she moved early, why?
Chapter 25 - Self Eval -
At first, it seemed as if Skipper’s forces would steamroll right over the local police, government, and armed forces.
Then the government sent in the army and the air force. The guild dispatched numerous heroes. Vigilantes began pouring into the city of Tilen from the surrounding areas.
Doubling down on their attack, a second government army was sent to retake Skippercity, even going so far as to employ hundreds and hundreds of mercenary Powereds.
The ANet was keeping tabs on the situation by deploying a number of drone assets that Felicia had developed. Many of them would have to return and refuel, but those were exceptions with specialized functions.
An overwhelming majority of them had power supplies that could resupply themselves through other means. Solar, wind, and even a few that could tap into the grid directly. Those could remain in the field indefinitely.
Legion forces had been tasked to sweep, clear, and evacuate the upper floors of the HQ buildings for both locations.
After that, Felix had activated the security protocol, and his powers, that would seal up both locations from the outside world.
It’d appear as if there was never anything below the ground floor.
Legion was effectively safe behind a thick cement barrier and deep underground. Anyone who came to call on them would find only an empty building, and not a trace of them.
The only thing that anyone could find, and this wasn’t something they could change since it was the point to be found, were the emergency civilian bunkers.
They’d filled to capacity immediately, and immediately gone over it. Now they were locked down and closed shut. That didn’t mean the bunkers were invisible though.
Several times Legion Security had been forced to scare off, or eliminate, threats that came to the front entrance. It was an unfortunate reality, but Legion was already taking care of more than their expected responsibility.
Felix was now sitting in his actual office below ground.
It’d only been about eight hours since the attack started. Already the infrastructure of both cities had broken down. It was being carved into two different sectors: the actual government, and Skipper’s. The middle ground was a contested area where both sides clashed.
Whenever Skipper showed up at a location, the government pushed at the other. Skipper was only one person after all. The strength of her alone was immense, but she simply couldn’t be in two places at the same time.
“She doesn’t trust her people to do what they need to do. She can’t conceive of giving them the power to uphold their own sectors, because it’d be the power they need to overthrow her. Even though she practically controls them like puppets through the rings and crowns,” Felix said, reading through another report.
“Nn,” Andrea said at his side, typing into her terminal at the same time.
“Not everyone owns their employees,” Lily said. She was sprawled out on a couch nearby.
She’d been coordinating efforts between the various villainous organizations, the magical societies, and Legion.
Felix snorted at that. “Uh huh. Everyone in Tilen was never a slave, but an employee. Technically speaking, everyone who’s come to Tilen became free instantly. You’ll remember I had everyone sign a second contract when they entered. The contract breaks might be steep, but nothing someone couldn’t live with. You should know, you wrote part of it, Miss Lawyer Lady.”
Lily waved a hand at him dismissively.
“Yes, yes. I admit it. I could have walked away. Everyone could have.” Lily paused and seemed to dwell on her thoughts. “Maybe if it had happened early on I might have even left. But now… Legion feels like home. Like the place I want to return to. I have friends here. Coworkers, colleagues, respect, and a support group. Even the lowest employees are given all the same things.”
“Yeah, you’ve mentioned that before,” Felix said, closing the report and opening one from Dimitry.
“And I stand by it. Even people who fight, disagree, and argue are still coworkers at the end of the day. Everyone wants to simply better Legion. Everyone is equal, no one is different, and everyone spends their money in the way that they want. You’re somehow walking a fine line between capitalism and socialism, and it’s working.”
“A cult, maybe?” Felix said offhandedly. Skimming through the report Dimitry had sent up, he couldn’t help but be mildly concerned.
As a whole, the world of crime in Skippercity was going through an apocalyptic level of change. Dimitry wasn’t sitting on his hands either. He’d leveraged all of the assets Felix had given him, and expanded their territory, membership, and area of control by three times its original size.