Counterfeit Hero

The fact that the 4th Camp was destroyed had already terrified everyone, including the command headquarters. Perhaps the only one who dared to boast was this self-aggrandizing Monkey!

”Group Three, go replace Group One. Stay alert,” Monkey Captain shook himself, zipped up his pants, and laid out the expanded alert task. When he turned back and saw Sedep’s Mecha, a look of contempt flashed in his eyes, and he waved his hand: ”Sedep, you also go.....”

Six Red Mechas started up, trudging over the uneven piles of rubble, heading southeast. The narrow streets were long buried in debris, and the scattered Mechas simply moved directly through the ruins where buildings had once stood. Some brick walls toppled over just by being lightly brushed by the Mechas, kicking up a dust cloud.

Perhaps frightened by the arrival of the Mechas, the pigeon that had flown into the half-collapsed roof of the church never appeared again. Sedep sighed, started his Mecha, and slowly moved past some comrades who were chatting and smoking beside their Mechas, heading southeast. As he crossed a hotel building with a large hole in its front wall, he glanced back at the church. In his ear rang the sudden burst of laughter from that Monkey Captain and his flattering comrades.

Sedep suddenly felt a pang of sadness. He couldn’t understand why he had once been so desperate to join this army. Starting as an ordinary mercenary, he, like many other youths from Mars Free Port, trained and showcased himself relentlessly just to join this Armored Camp that was almost mythical in their circles.

Back then, they were boiling with passion, always holding on to a drive to prove themselves, to make a name for themselves!

They believed there would always be a great war in the Free World. For them, who couldn’t become Core Disciples of the Mechanical Sect, it was the only chance to overthrow the world’s existing order, accomplish something grand, and completely topple those arrogant Mech Knights. They believed the Northern Alliance was the real army, and they were thrilled by their perseverance during ruthless training and the impending stunning performance of the Northern Alliance in the coming war.

Even now, Sedep recalls the vanity when he and his comrades would quietly talk about the Blood Shadow Mecha Group, observing those new recruits who knew nothing yet desperately wanted to gather around and listen. He remembers his own shallowness when he mysteriously told those recruits how formidable this mythical Mecha group was. Of course, he also remembers his ridiculousness when he couldn’t sleep for days upon learning he was chosen for training in the Blood Shadow Mecha Group, walking on the streets with his head held high, eyes straight ahead, yet secretly collecting the envious glances of people.

The Mecha moved further from the central square, and from the empty ruins, he could vaguely see the First Company and Second Company of the Second Battalion marching across the broad gentle slope of the city highland garden two kilometers away, entering the building ruins of Evgreen District.

Sedep spat forcefully.

Now, all the mystique surrounding this army had entirely faded away.

This was a group of inhumane bastards! And he, like many others, was just a pitiable wretch entangled by bastards like Monkey Captain! At first, he kept telling himself, this is war. Destroying cities, indiscriminately slaughtering everything in sight, that’s all part of war.

Until one day, he realized that many in the Northern Alliance’s upper echelon, even grassroots officers like Monkey, were descendants of the Nademick Dynasty and their aristocrats, ministers, and Imperial Guard officers. That was when he suddenly understood that, in these bastards’ eyes, the lives of ordinary people were no different from pigs and dogs. Randomly shooting civilians wasn’t a necessity of war; it was merely because they wanted to do it.

But so what if he knew? With the war reaching this point, he had no way out! Sedep glanced behind him. Perhaps he should find a chance to give that Monkey Captain, who had once killed dozens of civilians right in front of him, a deadly backstab.

With the First Squad withdrawn for extended monitoring, Sedep resumed the tedious routine surveillance, rotating the long-range viewer in a 360-degree sweep, coordinating with the dynamic target scanner to monitor every possible or moving target. Radar had little use here; a Mecha in stealth mode could reduce its detectable area to the size of a lunchbox, making it hard to detect anyway. Plus, the uneven highland terrain reduced the radar detection angle, rendering it nearly useless without dynamic scanning.

In the communication channel with the volume turned to the lowest, came the voice of Platoon Leader Elmer issuing commands. Perhaps they had received new information about that Bandit Army Mecha Team from headquarters, as Elmer cursed loudly in a tone nearly identical to Monkey Captain’s. He was furious about being led around by the Bandit Army Mecha Team.

Sedep knew that since the 4th Camp was decimated, the command headquarters had ordered the First and Second Battalions to stay sufficiently close to prevent being taken out individually by the enemy. After all, besides those low-combat Armored Camps in the Infantry Division, these two battalions of the Blood Shadow Mecha Group were the main armored force of Central City and couldn’t afford to be lost.

However, the command headquarters apparently didn’t just want to maintain self-defense, or rather, the actions of that Bandit Army Armored Team had already enraged them. They easily slipped out of the Northern Alliance’s encirclement formed by various units and attacked any target they desired along the way.