A dropship approached the space platform that belonged to Colonel Orlan.

It was immediately intercepted by a squad of fighters. Three wraiths forced the dropship to come to a full stop. Their missiles could be fired on a moment’s notice.

“Identify yourself.” One of the wraith pilots ordered through the comm.

Inside the ship, Viper nodded at Isaacs.

“This is Lieutenant Isaacs.”

The leading wraith pilot immediately recognized that voice as the right hand man of the person that pays him.

“Yes sir. You’re free to go.”

Without much of a fuss, the dropship reached the space platform and landed at one of the landing zones. The three walked out of the transport. Several mercenaries were in their way, but none of them raised a question. Lieutenant Isaacs wasn’t exactly the most patient person on the platform.

Plus, Viper was cloaked already. The presence of Jean wasn’t that surprising considering Isaacs has brought other women to his house on the platform before.

Jean couldn’t access Orlan’s security network all the way from Deadman’s Port. She needed to at least be on the platform to get in. The security access code helped, but ideally she needed an access point.

Normally that would be difficult, but thankfully Jean had an inside man.

Isaacs led Jean and Viper into one of the control towers. The two mercenary marines standing at outside the entrance ignored them.

As all three entered, Isaacs tapped a button next to the door. Immediately, the blast door of the control tower snapped shut.

The marines looked at each other. The blast door could withstand several minutes of firing of gauss rifles. Normally it was only closed when hostile forces were on the ground and potentially assaulting the towers. There was no reason for Isaacs to shut it now.

Still, they decided to step aside. Whatever Isaacs was doing this for, it wasn’t their business. If he was doing it for a good reason, then they didn’t need to do anything. If he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to do, well, it wouldn’t bother them. Even if Isaac was betraying Colonel Orlan, he wouldn’t massacre the common soldiers.

There was no reason to needlessly risk their lives, especially when there was no reward.

“Sir,” The five officers in the main control room stood up and saluted, but the next second both Isaacs and Jean, simultaneous and without a word, drew their blades. Isaac slit the throat of one of the officers. Jean slit the throat of another and stabbed a second in the chest. The fourth backed off and reached for his radio, but the next second a plasma blade came out of nowhere and stabbed him through the neck, almost decapitating him.

“What the…Please...” The fifth man knelt down on his knees and begged. “I’ll do whatever you want…”

He never finished that sentence.

“Isaacs, secure the exit. I’ll clean out the tower.” Viper said in the comm before walking through a door connecting the main control room to the rest of the tower. There were dozens of people in this building, and if they were to work undisturbed they needed to take out anyone that might warn the mercenaries of their presence. There was no one better at killing quietly than a ghost.

Resting the bloodstained blade on one of the tables, Jean went to one of the computers and started working.

In one of the mercenary battlecruisers, the captain of the ship was called over by one of his crew members.

“Sir, we have received orders to lift off into the air ASAP.”

The captain frowned. “Is there any hostile presence?”

“No, sir.”

“Well, orders are order. All crew enter battle position. Bring the ship into the air on my command.”

The entire mercenary fleet received the order from the security network to lift off. Most of them was confused, but they didn’t find a reason to refuse the order.

None of them was suspicious of the source of the command.

As the mercenary fleet got into the air, the captains suddenly received a rather unpleasant notification.

“Sir, I think…”

“What is it, soldier?”

“I think we have been locked onto by the platform’s orbital defenses.”

Inside the control tower, Jean handed a comm to Isaac.

“All ships maintain your current position. Turn off your shields and bring your warp drives offline.” The lieutenant ordered through the comm.

Jean couldn’t directly take over control of the battlecruisers. After all, they had human pilots and human crew members. One false move and the captain could simply turn to manual control and everything would be fine.

However, she could open up a direct channel to all the ships.

All thirty two battlecruisers were in the air. Each of them carried several dozens of vikings, wraiths, and tac fighters. Each and every one of them was armed with defensive matrix, Yamato cannon, missile pods, and hundreds of laser batteries. One of them even carried a tactical nuke. Every battlecruiser held a hundred security troopers.

If the battlecruisers had an opportunity to use all the tricks they’ve got, they could take down the orbital defenses with some losses.

Unfortunately, the battlecruisers were taken by surprise. The fighters they carried were still in the hangers. Infantry security forces were not even cannon fodders in this circumstance. They were merely fireworks.

Yamato cannons needed time to be charged. Defensive matrix needed a few seconds to be armed. Missile pods were for anti-air purposes.

Normally this shouldn’t be a problem, but in this case every move the battlecruisers made was under the watch of Jean. The captains knew if they ordered their Yamato cannons to be charged or their defensive matrixes to be armed, the orbital defenses would open fire instantly. Already armed and loaded, the Drakken Pulse cannons and missile turrets could fire much quicker than the battlecruisers.

It would be a massacre. The battlecruisers had tough armors, but tougher armors meant larger targets.

If it was the Dominion Fleet they would’ve went for it and either take back the port or die trying, but Orlan’s men didn’t have the loyalty toward their leader to put their lives at risk.

And so the entirety of the mercenary fleet parked in the air and did nothing as the undertaking occurred.

“What the hell is going on?” Behind layers of neosteel armor of a planetary fortress, Colonel Orlan groaned. His fleet got into the air without him knowing. Hell, the first hint he got that told him his fleet was not on the platform was by an accidental glance through the window.

Just that was bad enough, but now it turned out that his orbital defenses were compromised as well. All the Drakhen Cannons and missile turrets he implanted were turned against him.

He didn’t even know who his enemy was.

He immediately turned back to his officers.

“Mobilize all units! Activate the mech! Contact the fleet! Get me a computer!”

But the fact was Orlan’s orders couldn’t even be passed out of the planetary fortress. Jean hacked the communication channel and shut Orlan out, completely taking out the command structure of the mercenary forces.

Without an order from above, most of the mercenaries didn’t even know they were under attack.

“Activating all warbots now.” Jean’s finger jumped from key to key, and every single warbot, whether it was ARES, eradicators, or sentry bots.

As soon as the order was given, all the warbots on the platform, activated or not, started moving toward the main planetary fortress.

“What the hell?” One of the mercenary marines groaned as a sentry bot on patrol duty abandoned its post and marched inside. “What’s wrong with that tin can?”

His partner shrugged. “It’s probably some technical problem. It’s none of our business.”

The first marine nodded and returned to his position.

“Colonel Orlan keeps a large army next to his fortress. The warbots may be enough to break through, but it will take time. If we engage in a full front battle, the majority of Orlan’s ground forces will realize something’s off.”

Isaacs explained. Jean’s plan required a lightning strike on Orlan before anyone else have a chance to respond. Right now she was only able to gain an upper hand because she took the fleet by surprise. In reality she had no way of dealing with the couple thousand infantry forces Orlan had. She had several hundred warbots, but they weren’t enough.

“Perhaps.” Jean tapped a few keys and opened up the communication to the officer commanding the defenders outside the planetary fortress.

“Commander Joseph.” She glanced at one of the security cameras in the planetary fortress. After realizing Jean blocked out the communication with the rest of his army, Orlan did things the old fashioned way: He sent out a couple messengers. Unfortunately, the messengers never made it out the gate as Jean overrode the control of the fortress and sealed the door.

The officers were manually overriding the control, but it took time.

“Who is this?” The commander on sight quickly replied.

“This is Lieutenant Cassidy. I am delivering an order from Colonel Orlan.” Jean throw out a random name. She was fairly sure the commander didn’t memorize the name of every single officer in the army. “An army of warbots is approaching your location. You are to bring your forces back to Barrack C and ignore anything that happens at the planetary fortress.”

Joseph’s mind turned at this obviously odd order. Anyone would imagine something strange going on, but his thoughts went to the direction opposite of the correct one.

Both Orlan and Isaacs knew the full security access code, but Orlan was the master of encryption and decryption. Joseph knew Isaacs. The only things that idiot knew was sleeping with woman and sending soldiers to their graves. Hacking was not one of his skills.

Therefore, the warbots were here by the orders of Orlan. It can be inferred that so was this female officer that gave him this order. Now that he thought about it, the strange action of the fleet, lifting off and stopping above the platform, might also be the work of his leader.

But why would Orlan do that? Why would he trap all his human forces and summon his army of AI machines? The answer was simple: He wanted to do something he only trusted the programmed machines to complete.

Perhaps he was unsatisfied with the current command structure of Orlan’s mercenaries. Perhaps he wanted to execute several important officers that he felt like were threatening his rule. If that was the case, it would explain everything. Human soldiers might have affiliations were certain officers or commanders, but machines were under the command of Orlan and Orlan alone.

Thinking he understood the entire situation, Joseph understood what he had to do. If he stayed here with his men, or even if he just asked questions, he might be considered as a potential threat to Orlan. That way, he might’ve found himself a place on Orlan’s execution list.

“Orders comply. My men are moving out immediately.”

Turning off the comm, commander Joseph turned to the inner comm and passed down an order.

“Wow, that was easy.” Viper, who has executed every single mercenary inside the control tower, returned to the main room just in time to hear Joseph’s reply.

Jean didn’t know why the commander trusted her order so easily, but she didn’t have a problem with that.

“Where are all the guards?” After a few minutes, the planetary fortress was finally returned to Orlan’s control. One of the mercenary officers given the job as a messenger walked out of the door and was more than surprised to realize the area that should be heavily defended was empty. There wasn’t a trace of the near hundred marines or the half a dozen siege tanks left.

No one had an answer, and the officer decided to temporarily drop the confusion and do his job. He turned toward one of the ten major barracks on the platform. It should hold a couple hundred marines, marauders, and medics. As long as he could get there, he could deliver Orlan’s orders and bring these men to secure the planetary fortress.

The sound of engines rolling suddenly caught his attention. The officer turned with a relieved grin on his face. From what he could see, with the fleet in the air, the only mechanical units on the ground were friendlies.

The sound of defender cannons of sentry bots told him he was wrong.

“Incoming! It’s the bots! They’re attacking us!” Seeing the officer get ripped open by a series of cannon rounds, one of the officers still inside the planetary fortress shouted.

Chaos immediately erupted. The men and women inside were officers, but they were mercenaries as well. Being stuck in a fortress by hundreds of machines that just so ruthlessly executed one of their own was more than what they could handle. They didn’t have the willpower Dominion and Raider soldiers had to face death with a calm face.

“Shut up!” Orlan didn’t climb to the position of one of the most powerful mercenary commanders for nothing. Instead of being overwhelmed by shock or fear, he went to command.

“Shut the door! Planetary fortress open fire on the rogue bots! If we can make enough noise, the fleet and the army will come to reinforce. Those warbots will be no match for the guns of our ships!” Noticing several men were still frightened, Orlan pushed on. “This fortress is equipped with enhanced building armor! They can’t get through!” He was almost shouting at the end. He was not only convincing his men but also himself.

Outside, hundreds of warbots scattered out and opened fire. Sentry bots made up most of the warbots present. Their defender cannons were ineffective, but they did have the numbers to make it up. The ARES had three armaments. Napalm burninators and T-82 missile pods were less effective, but the 120 mm cannons had quite the punch. Even though there were only seven ARES, which meant 14 120 mm cannons, they still did more than the hundreds of sentry bots.

The eradicators were the result of Kel-Morian attempt to copy Umojan sentry bots. They had tougher armor and enhanced weapons, but they also cost a lot. That was why Orlan felt like punching someone when he saw these bots, purchased by his own money, were pointing their guns toward him.

The Ibiks cannon of the planetary fortress opened fire. Sentry bots were taken down in one single shots. Eradicators and ARES took a few more shots, but they fell nonetheless. Within just thirty seconds, 7 sentry bots, 2 ARES, and 3 eradicators were in pieces.

“The fortress is holding. The mercenary infantry already found out something’s wrong. I don’t know why they’re not sending out teams, but we need to end this quickly.” Viper groaned as she tapped the keys on another computer. She wasn’t as good as hacking compared to Jean, but as a ghost operative she was quite capable with the computer as well.

Neither Jean nor Viper knew that after commander Joseph returned to the barracks, he went on a conference with the rest of the army commanders and told them his suspicions. He didn’t give a damn about the wellbeing of the other commanders, but if those commanders did the wrong move and made themselves the enemies of Orlan, then Orlan would want to deal with them as well. There would be battle, and battle meant death. Joseph didn’t want to take the risk.

His completely off deduction helped Jean and Viper more than any of them imagined.

Jean didn’t respond. Instead, she directed all the warbots to focus fire on one single position of the fortress: the door. The door was sealed off in time, but it was relatively fragile compared to the rest of the fortress.

Cannon rounds were exchanged. Building armor was weakened. Warbots were turned to wreckage.

One of the ARES took a shot in the front plating. The warbot shook violently and was knocked back a few steps, but it quickly recovered and fired two 120 mm cannon rounds at the gate.

As if it was the last straw, the door could no longer hold. With a loud bang, the layers of metal fell back into the fortress itself, leaving an opening in the armor of the building.

“Where the f**k are my men?” The colonel was no longer as calm as he was ten minutes before. He thought reinforcement could be here much before the defenses fell, but now it was obviously impossible. He had no idea why things were like this, but that wasn’t important anymore.

A few officers desperately drew their weapons on the warbots, but they were immediately gunned down.

Blood, along with other things, stained the ground.

“I surrender, god damn it!” Orlan and most of his men did what any mercenary would do. They held their hands up and surrendered.

To these mercenaries, no amount of loyalty or honor or pride was enough to make them sacrifice their lives.

The warbots didn’t stop...After all, Jean needed Orlan dead.