Executor Rising: A GameLit/LitRPG Adventure (Magnus Book 2)

by Vowron Prime

  He couldn’t quite bring himself to wake the sleeping angel for a medical checkup, though he’d make her undergo a screening even if it meant chasing her down and restraining her. He had a bad feeling about her memory lapses, and his intuition rarely failed.

  To think that I’d fall for an alien, he thought. On another planet, no less. MC thought he’d seen it all, but life always found a way to throw you a curveball. Though, as he gazed upon Nova’s serene face, he had to admit that some of life’s curveballs weren’t so bad after all.

  As much as he wanted to crash right next to her, there was still work to be done. He reluctantly turned and left the room, only to find Nina poised to knock on his door.

  “I won’t fail her, princess,” he said softly. “Not like I failed our family. I’m no longer the helpless child I once was. I’m better than that, now.”

  Nina sighed and shook her head before cracking a smile and punching his shoulder. “Yes. Yes, you are. I’m expecting some serious ass-kicking out there. This fight isn’t going to win itself. So, before you get all caught up with your preparations, let’s talk logistics, shall we?”

  Fifty

  The Legatus’s scout died without a sound, his brain having been relocated into mush. MC approached from the shadows, suited up in the X42, just as First Dawn peeked above a line of hills that flanked the large valley below.

  In just four short days, there would be a war here. A fight that would be remembered for ages to come.

  MC had worked closely with Nina and Krar over the past days to ensure that they’d be set. Now he was finally back onto the field, and it felt good. Sadly, that was about all he could be happy about.

  When the Resistance had pointed the Eye in the Sky on this area, it became obvious why the Legatus had given them a week. The asshole had already mobilized his army.

  And what an army it was. More than a dozen cloaked chariots dominated the skies, while throngs of mutated beasts milled around the battlefield. The enemy hadn’t even bothered to cloak them. The abominations already numbered over a thousand. More poured in with each passing day.

  The Legatus wasn’t planning on a prisoner exchange. After all, the enemy was smart. He’d known that the Resistance wouldn’t take his bait.

  MC nodded to the Resistance spy they’d selected to take the dead enemy scout’s place. The agent knelt, playing his scanner over the deceased scout. Once finished, he detached part of the scanner and stuck it directly onto his forehead. MC looked away as the Dyn facial reconstruction nanites did their job, completely disfiguring—reshaping—the spy’s entire body to replicate the Legatus’s soldier. This wasn’t the first person they’d doppelgangered.

  Even the clothing perfectly mirrored the scout. Based on MC’s earlier conversation with Torneus, the Resistance undercover agents could fool any and all tests the Dyn might administer. They even had the callsigns and jargon down; having employed such tactics for centuries, they were masters at the art.

  MC relocated the corpse deep into the ground after the squad had stripped the body of its clothes and equipment. They left their spy at the scout’s post—a small outcropping atop one of the rolling hills that surrounded the battlefield.

  Their squad’s portable illusion field was in full effect, as was MC’s own energy dampener. Though, portable was perhaps too generous for the bulky cube—the stealth generator still needed to be lifted by two people.

  “The enemy wants to use this as an opportunity to wipe out the Resistance,” MC muttered as he looked over the top of the hill at the field below. “He knows we have a base, but he doesn’t know where it is. Even if he did, he’d rather draw us out into an open field where he has the advantage.”

  “He aims to capitalize on this opportunity,” Torneus said from beside him. “With the twin advantages of setting the location of the battle as well as the benefit of having arrived first, the Legatus’s forces will not be easily overcome.”

  “Can’t say I’m thrilled about this turn of events,” MC said, grinding his teeth.

  “Do you think he will bring Nova’s family?”

  “He has to. If he doesn’t and we find out, he loses the only reason we’d leave Sanctuary’s protection to fight out here. We can’t walk away from this, and the Legatus knows it.”

  The alien’s overconfidence would be his downfall.

  “That piece of shit wants to tailor the battlefield to his advantage? Fine. Two can play at that game. We’d planned for a personal engagement, but we can fight a war if we have to.”

  The purpose of their foray today wasn’t to destroy, but rather to do some battlefield alterations of their own. Stealthy mobilization of their troops under the cover of illusion fields, tactical placement of artillery and bombs, the works. The Legatus couldn’t hold a candle to the Resistance in guerrilla warfare. They would beat the enemy at his own game.

  In a sense, the battle had already begun. The battle of wits, tactics, and stealth.

  While this operation was a risky move on their part, with the Resistance network’s spies feeding MC information on the enemy movements, coupled with the Eye in the Sky’s coverage, he’d felt the gamble was warranted. Their actions here might very well determine the fate of their upcoming battle.

  Just gotta make sure we don’t get caught.

  MC teleported them all into a large garage that he’d hollowed out under one of the hills flanking the valley. A dozen LED shop lights illuminated the subterranean chamber.

  “Sanctuary, this is Machine One. Is the package ready?”

  “Affirmative, Machine One,” the operator responded.

  They’d hauled a man-sized teleportal, which MC planned to bring weapons through. Like the M5A1 main battle tank that he was about to relocate in.

  His energy dampener bubble assured that Midar wouldn’t leak out, so he sent some pings to “find” the object through the portal, then proceeded to relocate it into the underground garage.

  The massive black tank manifested, filling the large room. Equipped with the very best twenty-second-century tech, he was glad it would finally see some use. To date, he’d only used it to go on joyrides, blasting the already irradiated craters that had decorated Sanctuary’s surroundings back on Earth. Just for shits and giggles, of course.

  Its direct-fire 140mm explosive warheads brought despair to its enemies while its ablative armor and onboard active missile defense systems protected it from a variety of threats. Though everyone had predicted the obsolescence of tanks, it’d never come to pass. These imposing vehicles still played a role in war, and the Resistance was all the better because of it.

  Equipped with graphene armor and coated in black-mirroring, Dyn energy weapons would have a hard time penetrating. As if that wasn’t enough, the Resistance had slapped on several energy weapons and even an onboard Dyn illusion field to further boost its offensive and defensive capabilities.

  “Sanctuary, we’re ready for your next package,” MC called, before initiating his next relocation.

  A High-Mobility Wheeled Vehicle—or Humvee—appeared right next to the gargantuan tank. Equipped with a more modest roof-mounted quad microwave emitter and dual Vulcan cannons, it’d be useful for transporting troops across the battlefield.

  Both the tank and the Humvee would have at least two Zevan mages onboard, ready to deploy magic barriers on demand. Or to add their own lightning and fire attacks to the arsenal.

  Leveraging both technology and magic, his troops would synergize the two into a form of combined arms warfare that was still a bit surreal to MC who had only ever known guns, grenades, and directed energy weapons.

  Exiting the chamber via one of the many subterranean tunnels he’d already bored, his squad walked directly under the valley of the battle—under the enemy—to the other side of the valley, passing several Resistance Dyn who bustled about, moving ammunition crates and power cells in preparation for the big day.

  Magically enchanted lights provided much of the lighting here. It turned ou
t such devices produced almost no heat signature of any kind, allowing the illusion generators to breathe a little easier. The bulky generators provided coverage for the entire space, preventing the tunnels’ detection.

  Halfway through, an explosion of dust suddenly filled the air. The squad halted and held their breath, anxiously eyeing the roof of the cramped passage. Low rumbling sounds grew louder. MC deployed the energy dampener around them, just in case the tunnel collapsed.

  Seconds passed in silence, but the sound finally dissipated, and everyone breathed easier. From then on, the squad moved with hushed voices and light steps. Luckily, there were no further events.

  They eventually made it to the eastern end of the network, where MC’s squad ascended to the surface before teleporting a half mile away. It was a jump made entirely by visual, which normally would’ve limited the range, but not this time. Not when his destination was in midair.

  The team began to fall from the sky, but MC created an energy dampener platform just in time, killing their descent. Sighting the summit of a small hill far below, he relocated the team to the surface. His familiar headache returned in force, forcing him to take a breather for a few minutes.

  Glancing back to ensure that their illusion field was still online, MC got to work hollowing out the ground while the squad anxiously scanned for hostiles. The subterranean volume needed to be sixty feet square and another sixty deep. Of course, he ensured that the work all happened well below the surface. The ground above remained untouched—a mysterious hole would no doubt alert the Legatus.

  After several relocations and a few more breaks to keep the headache at bay, the hidey-hole was ready.

  MC brought forth an unrecognizable mass that filled a good portion of the large space. Nine more pieces followed suit until all of the bits were in place. Due to the relocator’s size restrictions, they’d been forced to improvise, dismantling the artillery emplacement, piece by piece, in ways it was never meant to be taken apart.

  But ingenuity prevailed. After an hour of back-breaking work, a fully armed and operational 130mm artillery emplacement proudly stood, the tip of its six fifty-foot-long reciprocating barrels hiding just beneath the surface of the rolling plains.

  The XAM130 was an experimental mobile rapid-fire heavy artillery system. Just like Reaver, it was another UFN pilot project that had overrun its budget by a disgusting amount, resulting in its eventual defunding. A military failure, but the handful of units they built did their job pretty darn well.

  In fact, it kicked so much ballistic ass that MC wept with joy at the chance to finally use it. Capable of firing a range of ammunition types, from depleted uranium shells to explosive warheads to EMP, its rate of fire was one-hundred-twenty rounds per minute. Obscene, since each of its projectiles was capable of leveling a city block. And when all six barrels fired in rapid succession? Well, Hell would be a more hospitable place than ground zero.

  As usual, the Resistance had made their own modifications, replacing the unit’s diesel generators with their alien power cells, augmenting the artillery’s rail barrels to launch projectiles at an even greater velocity. They also upgraded the targeting systems to let them bombard targets with absolute pinpoint precision. One barrel could hurl an explosive warhead deep into the enemy while the next barrel could place depleted uranium a stone’s throw from friendlies.

  The placement location was handpicked after scouting via the Eye in the Sky satellite system well beforehand. The site provided the perfect vantage over the battlefield while taking the artillery’s optimal firing arc angles into account.

  Once the weapon had been set up, MC relocated explosives into the roof. They’d blow the top when the time came, but until then, there really was nothing like natural camouflage, even if the illusion fields would be running twenty-four seven. Redundancy had always been MC’s best friend; he saw no reason to end that relationship now.

  The crew wrapped up their tasks, disappearing through the portal he’d carried over, only to be replaced by Krar’eaks, wearing the new armored suit they’d made for him. It turned his spherical form into… a larger sphere.

  Perhaps somewhat underwhelming, but effective. MC had secretly hoped to see the Qephyx plugged into the center of some kind of many-appendaged mech, but no. Krar’s up-armored sphere had all sorts of built-in energy weapons, three-inch-thick Dyn alloy armor, and a bevy of other tools that would keep the alien safe during their encounter with the Legatus. It also allowed Krar to carry the heavy illusion generator that was currently mounted on his back.

  With a series of invocations, MC teleported them onto a hill that flanked the valley where the meeting—and the all-but-inevitable battle—would take place.

  “Thank you for bringing me here, Magnus. I appreciate the opportunity to view the battlefield with my own sensors. It may be an odd quirk of mine, but there is no substitute for firsthand experience.”

  “I’m right there with you, Krar. Don’t sweat it. So what’s your take?”

  “It will be a difficult fight. There are luckily no Tensas here yet, but the Legatus will no doubt field at least one in this battle. Possibly more,” Krar said, gesturing with one of the many oversized armored appendages that stuck out of his sphere.

  “Well, if those chariots are any indication,” MC replied, craning his neck toward the invisible ships high above them, “we can bet the enemy will bring out his heaviest guns.”

  “Rescuing the hostages in time will be challenging,” said Krar. “Especially since the Legatus knows that we have no intention of honoring his ultimatum. The longer this battle drags on, the more dangerous it will be for Nova’s family. That applies to our own troops as well.”

  “What about ground weaponry? What are we talking about here?”

  “Cloaked hover tanks boasting immensely powerful energy weapons, invisible armored personnel carriers stocked full with enslaved Zevan mages, and Ultimators. We have seen the Legatus employ all of them to fight Resistance cells, and I suspect this will be no different.”

  “Except this time, he’s also got a horde of mutated monsters at his command. A legion of absolutely loyal, vicious minions,” MC said.

  “Indeed. This will be…”

  “War. All-out motherfucking war.”

  The commanders fell into a heavy silence as a gust of cold wind blew past them. As veterans of numerous conflicts, they knew all too well the horrors that came with war. They knew that despite their preparations, tech, and weaponry, much of the Resistance would die here.

  Yet neither voiced the possibility of aborting the mission, for this was a line in the sand. One that the Legatus had drawn in blood, and there was only one response.

  War.

  Fifty-One

  The realization that the Legatus planned to use the upcoming meeting as a facade for all-out war only served to redouble everyone’s motivation. Nina had reached out to both Thesbea and Sorath for extra troops to aid in the upcoming battle while MC holed up at Sanctuary, working tirelessly on his abilities.

  Just three days remained until the meeting, which meant that the base was alight with activity. Krar briefed and organized the troops while Morvo scrambled to bring as many of Sanctuary’s artillery pieces online. MC had demanded that at least six emplacements be active—just in case the fight came to their doorstep. Unfortunately, time was short, so only three would be ready in time.

  Nova, for her part, was under house arrest; her screening hadn’t turned up anything immediately obvious, though certain aspects of Nova’s synaptic patterns did draw Sarek’s attention.

  She’d seen the results herself and dismissed them, but once Sarek’s curiosity had been piqued, nothing could stop the obsessive scientist. It didn’t help that MC, Nina, and Krar had all unanimously strong-armed Nova into close monitoring for the time being. The poor angel was having a hard time being treated like a test subject, and she’d grown unusually angsty, snapping at people for the smallest things. Her anxiety over her family’s wellbeing
didn’t help the situation, turning her into a nervous wreck.

  “Is it ready yet?” Nova asked, eagerly peering over MC’s shoulder, her wings whacking him with reckless abandon.

  “Hold your horses! I’m just putting the finishing touches now,” he said as he walked through a tunnel he’d bored earlier. Situated off one of Sanctuary’s hallways, the passage led to a lava-heated bath he’d been constructing to give Nova a distraction. The ploy seemed to be working, though it did cause the angel to pester MC incessantly about its construction progress. If he’d known she’d be this excited, he’d have made it a lot earlier.

  Devoid of water, the room felt more like a warm sauna, but that would change as soon as he was done. Magical lanterns floated on tiny Dyn antigravity generators around the tall dome-shaped room, making for some incredible ambiance as they cast their ethereal light on the bare granite. The sizeable space gave a feeling of openness that was sorely lacking within the halls of the base.

  MC had worked with Dyn engineers to figure out how to route the lava just beneath the floor to heat them. All that was left was to fill the pools with water. He’d gone a little overboard with that. He’d built several shower stalls along with a half-dozen pools of varying temperatures—by modulating how closely lava flowed to the pool. The largest soaking area spanned the length of a swimming pool.

  Thanks to the relocator, there was no need to wait for the water to trickle in—a handful of invocations of his ability brought fresh water from the base’s nearby reserves into the pools almost instantly, crashing down from midair, splashing against the walls of the space. Nova retreated behind MC to avoid getting wet.

  “It should be up to temp in another few minutes,” he reported, satisfied with his handiwork. The Resistance techs could figure out how to manage the water’s chemical composition to keep it hygienic.

  Nova pushed past him, marveling at the bath. “This is amazing, Magnus! Thank you so much!”