Large industrial lights illuminated the entire Federation outpost. Guards could be seen patrolling the perimeter and the lookouts overlooking from the alternating watchtowers.
Julian investigates the compound with the PCS-MD-102's magnifying optics. "There you go, your usual Federation watch. Two broken-down ships, some watchtowers, at least a hundred armed personnel, and probably some more mecha suits hidden from sight."
His eyes narrow down as he thinks deeply of the outpost's defenses. 'My intuition is right. Something must've come up internally. Those ships should have blasted off to space right now but that is obviously not the case here.'
He reset his optics and tapped into communications. "Status report."
"Eagle 1 in position, successor."
"Eagle 2 in position, successor."
"Tiger 1, 2, and 3 in position, successor."
"Fox 1 and 2 in position, successor."
Seven automaton squads sequentially reported, and Julian makes up his mind about the lack of firepower.
"Okay team. Let's do this just like in textbook style." He returns into the side of the PMS-MD-103 piloted by Avina. "Eagles 1 and 2, take out the lookouts in the watch tower on my command. Fox 1, get into position and flank them from their backyard. Prevent them from releasing their mecha suits and other mechanisms. Fox 2, remain on the perimeter and keep an eye out for stragglers. Tigers 1 to 3, lead the charge together with Avina."
"What will you do, successor?" Avina asks.
"I'll search those ships first, then signal the command to start. I'll infiltrate the base during the chaos." Julian explains. "They must be holding up prisoners or other things. I don't want whoever's in charge here executing them in the nick of time."
He accesses the PMS-MD-103's subspace storage device which now had a whopping 5,000 storage units compared to the previous 2,000.
The integration of villium ores in the suit increased the amount of energy it could handle from the miniature nuclear fission energy core at once.
This led to a comprehensive overhaul of the PMS-MD-102 to the new PMS-MD-103, which now has stronger offensive and defensive capabilities.
Carrying a 10mm rifle, a 0.5 CLkV laser rifle, and a 25mm grenade launcher, Julian sets out to the landing pad on the far side of the outpost.
Four guards could be seen patrolling the area, oblivious to Julian's creeping presence. He equips a suppressor to the 10mm rifle and crouches in position. His eye lays over the 8x magnifying scope and watches the targets.
He holds his breath and touches the trigger.
Eight semi-automatic bullets were fired out in rapid succession and precision, riddling each of the guards with one hole in the neck and nose bridge.
Their spacesuit's helmet cracked, diffusing out the air circulating inside.
Julian stared at his arms and was surprised. 'Body agility cycle can improve my performance this way too?'
He grins and sprints into the landing pad, arriving at the open cargo doors of the large space shuttle. The gun's muzzle points in front of his vision, his feet slowly feeling the coldness of the metallic floor.
A lot of static could be heard on the other side, blocked by a closed metal door. He lightly knocks on it, drawing attention to whoever was inside.
"Yeah? What's up?"
A young guard opens the door and falls down after being hit on the head with a fist. The other guy tries to get up, but Julian quickly points and shoots him in the head.
The young guard struggles and reaches for his pistol. Julian stomped his head and knocked him out. 'Can't kill them all. I must set things up in the future...'
He continued to the next few rooms but found nobody else even in the cockpit.
"The controls are all fried. Repairing this will take a while..."
Julian wondered if it was that psionic woman's doing, or somebody else's. Nobody would suspect anything until they attempted to activate the vessel and realized that something had happened far too late.
He exits the first space shuttle and enters the second, clearing out the guards and knocking out the rest.
"Okay, the coast is clear. Eagle 1 and 2, drop them."
Long rays of laser strikes broke the glass of the watchtowers and killed the lookouts in one clean shot.
The alarm blared out, alerting the entire outpost.
Three groups of eight automatons each charged towards the outpost from the west, south, and east simultaneously.
The guards take up their positions, with a few stationed on the rooftops carrying large lock-on missile launchers.
One of them puts their launcher over their shoulder, targeting Tiger 1 who had approached the gates.
His head suddenly burst into pieces, shocking his colleague. "Snipers! Take cover!"
"He's out." Eagle 1-1 comments.
"Nice kill steal." Eagle 1-2 responds.
"You're slow, Eagle 1-2." Eagle 1-3 adds, killing the colleague who tried to look for cover.
The automatons bickered with themselves as the entire place was riddled with countless gunfire.
"Cut the chatter, Eagle 1." Julian reprimands. He was searching for a path into the two-storey HQ building. "Fox 1, what's your status? Tiger squads need fire support!"
"On our way out, successor!"
One of the large warehouses suddenly opened its doors, revealing a 5-meter-tall combat mecha armed with machine guns and missiles. Its weapons start pointing at the guards defending the outpost, shocking both sides greatly.
'What the fuck!' Julian was mesmerized. "Fox 1, are you controlling that combat mecha now?!"
"This is Fox 1-1. Yes can do, successor! You have taught us very well about this, or have you forgot? Intellus gave us your mecha piloting skills if you did forget!"
The cheeky Fox 1-1 pilot responds while rampaging with the combat mecha. The missile pod shoots out four missiles in succession, targeting the watchtowers with lookouts returning fire.
The guards jumped out of the watchtowers in fear only to be shot down by the precise and speedy Eagle squads.
Julian was speechless about the automatons' behavior. It appears that his craziness was also instilled in their programming.
Seeing that the situation was under control, he pushed inside the two-storey HQ building undetected.
He looks around the corners, noticing the emptiness of the area which should have been filled with guards. Julian checked the balconies of the second floor only to be met with nothing but himself.
He lowers his rifle, searching for the set of stairs leading underground where the prison cells were located.
"You won't be finding anything else but you and me in this building, Captain Julian. Or should it be Ex-Captain?"
A rough voice calls out to him. He turns around and points his gun to a man four years older than him. The man's wavy black hair emphasizes the evil grin on his face.
"Captain Rooks. It's you."
"It is me, still loyal to the Federation after all these years." Captain Rooks points at himself then at Julian. "While you... You dared to associate yourself with these expired civilizations. A menace to our society!"
He spits, staring at the young man he once admired of. "They're long lost in the history of time, Julian. Why do it? Why betray the motherland? You could have been a sentinel, a first in the Common Quarters. You could have made history yourself!"
"Heh, as if the Federation was always loyal to its soldiers. Had to find that out myself the hard way." Julian stretches his neck, unmoved by Captain Rooks' words. "Things just don't go the way we want them, Captain Rooks. You and I, we don't share the same path."
"I agree with your words, ex-captain. Things just won't go the way we want them to!"
Captain Rooks dashes while Julian fires a few 10mm rounds. The former's kinetic barrier shows up, deflecting the bullets off his path.
Unhindered, Captain Rooks clenches his fist for a punch.
Julian let go of his weapons and sent out a punch in reply.
Their fists impact one another, producing a powerful shockwave that cracked the wooden stairs beside them.
"I'm still powerful than you, boy!" Captain Rooks suddenly grabs Julian's hand and locks it in place.
He pulls himself closer to Julian and strikes with his left hand.
Julian calmly dodges the attack by bending his back and evades the strike, staring blandly at his predictive hook. He returns the favor by grabbing Captain Rooks' wide open arms, interlocking themselves with one another.
Captain Rooks tried to use the entirety of his strength but couldn't budge at all. "You! What kind of a monster are you to be growing this quick?!"
"Big mistake, Captain Rooks. You've pitted yourself against a star graduate like me!" He increases the strength applied on his fingers grasping Captain Rooks' left arm.
The latter squeals as he witnesses his elbow being pulverized by raw strength alone. The gruesome sight almost made him faint, worsened by the arm grimly dangling in the air, on the brink of separating itself from his body.
Julian watches Captain Rooks back away in fear. His cold eyes staring straight at Captain Rooks' frightened expression.
"I can't believe it! I can't believe it!"
Captain Rooks punches again and experiences a deja vu as Julian crushes his remaining fist.
"Aaaahhh!!!"
Captain Rooks kneels in pain, wanting to put pressure into his right arm and ease the pain.
"How does it feel, Captain Rooks? Being looked down by a person you once looked down on before?" Julian's words rang in his ears. "You think I didn't hear the stories about you? Recruiting soldiers from the common quarters and let them live the life of a fucking pig."
"You---!!! How dare a commoner like you talk to me like that?!" Captain Rooks gives him a deathly stare. "They deserve it, you stupid moron! How can the Federation allow the likes of you to li-!"
Julian stomps over his bloodied face, pressing his head to the point that he could hear his skull cracking into pieces. However, Julian releases his foot at the last second, leaving him with a disfigured look.
"K-k-kill me! Why aren't you killing me?!"
Panic and pain overwhelm his mind, rendering him incapable of thinking clearly and logically.
"Do you remember The Authority's code, Captain Rooks? They aren't merciful to their enemies, and so am I." Julian turns around and leaves Captain Rooks lying on the floor. "Fox 1, how's the situation outside?"
"All good, successor! Why, you have new orders?"
"Get Fox 1-1 and Fox 1-2 over here. We have a special high value target."
"Acknowledged, will do, successor."
Julian searches the place for the staircase leading underground. He suddenly hears Captain Rooks cackling, unsympathetic to his current condition.
"You've fallen for it, Julian! All the prisoners are dead! I even took my time with the commoners! You should fucking see it, you fool!"
He continues to laugh and adds to Julian's plight. "If you weren't such an idiot taking your time with me, you could've saved them all!"
His voice echoes into the empty corridors with Julian no longer in sight. The latter had already found the staircase leading to the underground prison cells.
The cells were cold, damp, and dark as hell. He switches his night vision on, only to see an inhuman depiction of torture resulting to death.
Some had their heads spiked with nails like a cactus and its thorns. The others were beaten up so badly that their limbs and chest started to deform.
Julian was slowly losing hope as the pictures of the dead kept on flashing in his eyes and head.
He suddenly hears a rasp breathing not far away from the end of the long prison corridor.
"Julian, is that you?" An indistinct old voice reaches his ears.
Julian points the gun at the source, wondering how this person knew that he was coming.
"I know it's you, dear boy. Don't be afraid... Come closer to me..."
He hears the person cough and some liquid splattering on the floor. Julian's eyes widened in surprise as his vision registers the appearance of that person.
"Doctor Steve Baker? Is that you?"
"Took you a while to guess, huh?" Doctor Steve weakly stares at the PCS-MD-102 suit. "I can't live for long and not much time to explain..."
"What are you talking about, doctor?" Julian's heart races to the extreme as a dark memory glimpse through him.
"The Sentinel Program... It's your legacy... I put you... into that list... but the Federation..." Doctor Steve coughs out again, his facing turning paler.
"What about the Federation?! What about that legacy? What about my parents?!" Julian shouts at the top of his lungs and kneels, begging Doctor Steve.
Doctor Steve inwardly sighs as he looks at the fear-stricken young man in front him.
"Poor child, you have suffered... Tasha... the red-haired girl... She has all the answers you need..."
He musters every fiber of his strength in order to grasp Julian's shaking hands. The latter realizes what happened and stares at Doctor Steve with an expression of disbelief.
"Live long... Julian... Live long... and don't let your parents... down..."
The last inch of life slips out of Doctor Steve's body as the hands holding Julian's emotions fall to the floor.
"NO!"
Fox 1-1 and 1-2 arrives inside the HQ building and hears a scream of agony echoing from the underground. "It's the successor! Go find him!"
Fox 1-2 approaches the source, its blue eyes carefully assessing its unfamiliar surroundings. It followed the sound waves until it found its successor kneeling in front of a dead dark-skinned old man.
"Successor, is something the matter?"
Julian pauses his weep before his emotions overturned his mind.
"It's my fault! My goddamn fault! They're all dead because of me! Dead!"
The underground prison cell was filled with the aura of death and regrets, an experience that Julian will never forget for the rest of his life.
