Interstellar Age
Chapter 107 Escaping The Net



Erich carefully made his way through the forest. After all, he never knew when he was about to walk into a minefield, nad because of this he had to watch the ground, as well as his surroundings. If not for the advanced nature of his newly scavenged power armor helmet, then this would be a lot more difficult. But because the Heads Up Display was able to detect and highlight things like traps and land mines. He was able to more easily evade these things. 

All the while, he listened to the communications chatter of the enemy network, which he had sliced into thanks to his newly upgraded NeuroLink. The newest chatter was about the fact that he had infiltrated the ranks of the Star Marines by scavenging a set of their armor and attempting to blend in. Because of this, all units were on alert of a rogue star marine, who was potentially the target in question. 

This meant that his disguise was all but useless. However, Erich was also able to listen to the movements of his pursuers. Which, when combined with his mental imaging, he was able to effectively build a tactical map which informed him where all the Imperial soldiers were located, and how best to avoid them. 

Sadly, Erich quickly realized that he was surrounded on all sides, and any engagement with the enemy would lead to the rapid deployment of the nearby units to reinforce whoever it was that he ended up fighting. There was only one way to escape this encirclement without engaging through combat, and that was to risk certain areas of the forested moon, which were littered with dangerous wildlife. 

Of course, if he did this, he would have to rely on his own eyes, ears, and his heads up display to detect these monsters. And because of this, Erich immediately decided that was a much quicker way to get him killed. 

Thus, he had to keep moving, and while he maneuvered through the forest, he quickly calculated his odds of success with the plan he had come up with. What he needed to do was ambush the enemy swiftly, one which shut down the NeuroLink of his enemies, in a way that prevented them from easily calling for reinforcements. 

This reminded Erich of something he had heard from Mirage back in the days when they were sleeping together. She had said if she really wanted to, she could shut down his vitals with her advanced NeuroLink. Meaning that he now had the ability to do the same. In fact, he could do it even better than mirage thanks to his cyberkinesis. 

It took Erich all of two seconds to come to this understanding, which he quickly made a mental note of where the weakest link in the net that surrounded him was located. Not far away was a small fireteam of roughly three men, who if Erich managed to instantly defeat, he would be able to quickly flee from the encirclement that Mirage had caught him in. 

Thus, Erich made sure that a fresh plasma cell was loaded in his assault rifle, before stealthily making his way towards their location. Erich specifically isolated the voices of his targets from the rest as he climbed into a tree with relative ease, and sat upon a thick branch, waiting for them to sweep by his location. 

The three men had their rifles raised, as if ready to engage with their target at any moment. However, they did not spot Erich in the trees of above them, particularly because Erich's scavenged power armor gave off a friendly signal, which negated the targeting effect that the heads up display naturally had towards potentially hostile targets. 

Once they swept through the trees, one of them got on the comms and sent a signal that his sector was clear. 

"Area secured, no sign of the target. He must be somewhere else..."

It was only after the coordinating officer responded in recognition of these words that Erich launched his attack. In a matter of seconds, Erich activated his NeuroLink and sliced into those of the three Star Marines. He was able to completely bypass any security measures thanks to his cyberkinesis, where he found an enormous array of data that he never knew existed until now. Everything from bodily functions to memories were displayed to Erich in this moment, revealing just how much Mirage knew about him. 

He resisted the temptation to further explore this new feature, and instead found the nanites which maintained the heart and mind of the Star Marines' bodies. Without saying a word, Erich shut them off, dropping the three men instantly as they died on the spot. Luckily, they were within the borders of Germanic Space, and because of this they were instantly brought back to life with clones, but not before Erich could make his escape. 

Erich jumped down from the tree with a large thud, an act which created a dent in the moon's surface. He then scavenged the soldiers of weapons, ammo, food, water, medical supplies, and any other items that would help Erich survive. 

It took all the thirty seconds for Erich to loot what he needed, which he stashed away on his person, before running off out of Mirage's encirclement. But the Star Marines had no way of knowing this, and thus they kept circling back through the area until they found the three looted corpses. For which they immediately reported the news to the Agent in charge. 

"This is Corporal Larsson. I just found three corpses that belong to our boys. There are no wounds to speak of, or scars on their armor. As if they just suddenly died on the spot. No doubt they've been sliced. The bodies are not so fresh. It's been at least an hour since they expired. I'm guessing the target has escaped the encirclement and is currently retreating southward. What are our orders?" 

Mirage could not help but curse under her breath. She thought for sure that Erich would not be able to escape the trap she had so perfectly set for him. This was precisely why she had told Emrys that the man would be eliminated within twenty-four hours.

Apparently Erich was a quick learner when it came to technology. Then again, this didn't surprise her too much when she considered the skills he previously displayed in slicing before his NeuroLink was upgraded. If he was now able to terminate a Star Marine by weaponizing their NeuroLink against them, then this was going to become a much more dangerous game of cat and mouse. 

It was beginning to look like the normal Star Marines were not going to be much help, she would have to dispatch Storm Commandos and WRAITHs to deal with the man, after all they were equipped with the same standard of NeuroLink, meaning Erich would not so easily be able to kill them the same way he was able to regular star marines. 

Thus, Mirage could only sigh heavily before giving out her orders. 

"Maintain a perimeter, but do not engage the target. It looks like the time has come to dispatch our special forces...."

The corporal could only sigh as he heard this. Even though he knew that he would be resurrected after his death. As a man who had experienced such a horrific occasion five times thus far during his years of service within the Germanic Military, he did not want to do so again if he could at all avoid it. Thus, his voice was filled with relief as he responded to Mirage's orders. 

"Roger that..."