"Damn we have a contact. I will cover us if it comes towards us. Let's get to that ridge." Jace exclaimed as he started moving. He would be stuck in a dangerous position if they stayed there. They were clearly heading in their direction at the moment. But there was a good chance they would check out the undestroyed drop pod before they decided to come after them.
He double checked his Dragon's Breath and confirmed it was completely operational. By the time the chopper flew past them and to the Parrot's drop pod they were arriving at the ridge and climbing on top of it.
Jace watched as three of those bulky square living machines that they nicknamed blockheads dropped onto the gravel beach. Following behind them, sliding down a rope was a person in less armor. They would have looked normal if it was not for the translucent dome that made their brain visible.
He glanced at them infrequently as they moved along the ridge. Parrot had begun fully waking up but was still unbalanced. So Jace was still carrying the bulk of the gear. While half an hour had passed and the chopper was still hovering over the Parrot's drop pod, its blades were beating loudly as it hovered.
Ten minutes later he could see ropes drop from the chopper. Looks like they planned to carry the drop pod back with them. But towards the islands he could see another chopper flying out to them. It was probably coming from the same structure he had seen earlier.
"They are taking the drop pod. Thankfully Shock Trooper pods won't have anything of interest aside from the bomb that will go off in roughly ten minutes." Jace explained as he double checked to see the blockheads being hauled up with the drop pod.
"How far do you think they will get?" Tako asked as he helped Parrot steady herself.
"About halfway through those islands. The explosion when it is uncontained like that will end up damaging the bottom of the chopper and hopefully even destroy it. Parrot, how are you? Still dizzy? Or am I going to have to continue to carry your gear and equipment?" Jace asked and they stopped for a moment.
"I can get my bearings if I have a moment. Why do you ask?" Parrot asked with a sigh as she kneeled on the ground.
Jace pulled out her sniper rifle and handed it to her. "We have a chopper at three o'clock. See if you can take out the pilot. The pilot is some kind of built in biotech being. Aim for the joints, I would suggest the neck. These versions of Hoodwink's creations have a flaw in the joints that-"
Jace almost jumped in surprise as Parrot fired and the high powered rifle went off. He could make out the blood spatter on the windshield of the chopper. It veered for a moment before plummeting and crashing in the distance. A moment later there was a secondary explosion.
"Nice. Are you good now?" Jace asked as he looked over at Parrot who stood up from her crouching position.
"Umm… I can walk on my own. But if you can carry my bag for a bit longer, I would appreciate it. Can you two fill me in on what is going on?" Parrot asked as she began leading the way along the ridge.
"We were separated from the others. There is a good chance they have not brought down the Anvil yet. We are not able to communicate with them anymore, a jamming signal went up soon after I landed." Jace told them as he adjusted the equipment he was carrying.
"How are they doing?" Parrot asked.
"Last I checked they were all together and secure. It seems the winds in the gas layer are moving in a very specific manner. The spires probably have an effect on the currents. We all approximately came out and crashed out of the wind at the same place. The only difference is that it looks like Parrot had an issue with her auxiliary engines. But she only landed closer to the spire. From what I could see she bounced off the ridge a few times instead of the spire." Jace explained quickly as he pointed out the marks on the ridge on the opposite side.
"So they were funneled to the spaceport while we were only accidentally sent here?" Tako was following behind Parrot, making sure she did not lose her balance.
"So it might be another trap?" Parrot asked, as she stopped for a moment to aim her sniper rifle in the distance.
"No, just a natural occurrence that Hoodwink took advantage of. There is a good chance the spaceport is the most heavily populated area of the planet. They might have the advantage of surprise but unless they keep several tactical positions they will have trouble with whatever backup comes at them." Jace explained as they watched the chopper fly past them.
"So what should we do?" Parrot asked as they continued walking along the ridge.
"Simple we just need to skip the initial plan and start up on the Spectre plans. We are technically behind enemy lines. I am sure Lord Hoodwink has figured that out as well. It is just taking him time to redirect his forces to our location." Jace told them as he checked the horizons just in case.
"You mean we are going to be swamped with opponents if we do not pick up the pace?" Tako chuckled before cursing in a dialect that Jace could not speak.
Jace hummed, "well I mean yeah but the more coming our way the less the others will have to deal with. Despite him being in control of a whole planet, as well as several off-site labs, he does not have millions of soldiers that will just come to his command. Not to mention he sent most of his living failures off to the Labyrinth, the final count for that population was in roughly thousands."
"So the successfully brainwashed soldiers and the dead could not be as much. How much are you thinking?" Parrot assumed Jace had an estimation with all of these assumptions.
"I do not know for sure," Jace answered, getting a look from both Parrot and Tako who turned around and did what he could only assume was glare. "Okay, I have a very loose estimation. Amount of people missing on a single planet, amount of people found. Assume only half of those are going to Hoodwink. Then assume that only half of those people survive his experiments. After that you will assume that only ninety five percent of those are successful. Then I would say it is in the three hundred thousand range for his entire source of manpower. Only one hundred of which will be on the planet. The rest are probably guarding his hidden labs around the galaxy."
"Sooo… doable?" Parrot asked in front while they continued walking.
The drop pod that was being carried by the chopper exploded and a moment later the chopper swayed and then exploded as well. The wreck crashed right on the edge of the swamp. Smoke began billowing out of the chopper as the flames and heat met the water.
"I would say so. Do you know why?" Jace felt like teasing them for a bit.
"I do not know." Parrot responded with an annoyed sigh.
"Because of their leadership." Tako answered, he was clearly starting to understand the point that Jace was trying to make. "They are mostly automatons. Unable to think for themselves. They instead understand simple orders and can fail when it comes to complex orders." Tako nodded and after a moment explained. "I got a chance to look at the data and autopsies of some of those creations of his."
Jace stayed silent before grumbling, "he is right. We suspect he has only a small group of sentient subordinates. The rest are like machines. We all know how the Robot Wars turned out."
Robot Wars were a small period of time where robots were widely used for warfare. But it was quickly discovered that one normal human could easily outsmart and destroy a thousand robots. So they were quickly retired because they were a waste of resources and manpower.
"So we fight smarter, not harder. Confuse not just the biomachines but also their simpleminded overlord?" Parrot was nodding at the front. "Do we have any identification on some of Hoodwink's inner circle?"
"Yin and Yang, I provided a description in the briefing and then we learned about another one from that Lee criminal from Oda. He is the head of security or something for this base. He is more cyborg than machine, we did not get anything else." Jace informed them.
"Yin and Yang, what do they do?" Parrot asked.
"Bodyguards for Lord Hoodwink. They also act as assassins when he asks them to." Jace explained. Weirdly enough he could see the sky getting darker in the distance. "I think we are about to see the day to night transition."
"That is definitely one for the book of weirdness." Tako nodded in front of him as they watched the strange transition of the gas colored sky.