102: Chapter 103 Nine Names

C-19 stood beside the wreckage of the walking vehicle, watching D-01 direct the soldiers in clearing the battlefield.

The ruins of the port were covered in the scars of battle: craters, scorch marks, shattered bricks, and twisted metal. The air was thick with the mingled scents of gunpowder, molten metal, hydraulic fluid, and blood.

The walking vehicle lay on the main road. Its six legs were sprawled awkwardly across the ground, and its crimson armor plates were riddled with scratches and dents. The turret's cooling fins had gone completely dark, and a gash left by a Chainsword was still oozing black coolant.

C-19 looked down at his left arm.

The coating on his power armor had completely peeled off, revealing the metal skeleton underneath, blackened by hydraulic fluid. He tried moving his fingers. They worked. But with every movement, a sharp sting shot through the inside of his forearm; his skin was blistered and raw, and the seeping interstitial fluid had caused the power armor's lining to stick to the wound.

Not serious. Functional.

He shifted his attention away from his left arm and looked toward the docks.

Beside the ruins of the lighthouse, the survivors of the Tracking Squad sat on the ground. Twenty-one men. Some were checking their gear, some were tending to wounds, and some just sat staring at the gray sea.

TW-078 stood by the lighthouse entrance, leaning against the wall. His power armor was covered in dust and concrete debris, with a dent at the knee. He still held that Bolter, the muzzle pointing down.

C-19 walked toward him.

TW-078 saw him approaching and straightened up.

"Sir."

"Casualty report."

TW-078's lips twitched.

"Nine KIA," he said. "TW-304, Underground Workshop, thermal weapon. TW-217, TW-331, TW-089, TW-156, TW-402, warehouse breakout. TW-119, TW-267, during ruins transit, thermal weapon. TW-345, sniper."

He recited the nine designations one by one. No pauses, no hesitation.

But C-19 noticed that his fingers tightened slightly on his weapon as he spoke the numbers.

"TW-188 is critically wounded," TW-078 continued. "Three penetrating chest wounds, left knee joint destroyed, requires evacuation. The rest have minor or no injuries. Ammunition is essentially exhausted."

He paused for a moment.

"Mission objective, the Manila Fort Underground Munitions Factory, is confirmed. The Sun Warriors garrison has been routed. The enemy Commander escaped."

Report finished.

C-19 looked at him.

TW-078's fingers gripped the Bolter's handle so hard his knuckles were white. Other than that, he betrayed nothing.

"You took thirty men in," C-19 said. "Twenty-one came out."

TW-078 said nothing.

"What decisions did you make?"

TW-078 glanced at him.

"I collapsed the underground tunnels, sealing the walking vehicle below. Then we held for the night. When our ammo was nearly gone, the walking vehicle dug its way up from beneath the floor. I blew the warehouse's rear wall and led a breakout into the ruins, holding out there until you arrived."

C-19 nodded.

"Where were you when the tunnel collapsed?"

"The tunnel entrance. I set the grenades."

"You were the last to withdraw?"

"Yes."

He nodded again.

A few seconds of silence passed.

"Nine men," TW-078 said suddenly, his voice very low. "TW-304 had been out of the factory for only three days. He was running at the very back. A thermal weapon shot through him from behind. I was in front of him. I didn't stop."

C-19 said nothing.

"During the breakout, I ordered everyone to rush through the gap in the rear wall. I knew some would be caught. I knew. But I gave the order anyway."

TW-078's voice remained flat, but his fingers gripping the gun were white.

"Did I make the right decision?"

Under the gray sky, the sea breeze blew in from the docks, carrying a salty, fishy scent. In the distance, soldiers from the reinforcements were hauling away the wreckage of the walking vehicle, the intermittent sound of metal clashing ringing out.

C-19 looked at him.

"You took thirty men in."

TW-078 looked at him.

"Twenty-one came out."

His voice wasn't loud, and his tone held nothing special.

TW-078 looked down at the Bolter in his hand. The magazine indicator was still lit. Two rounds.

He hadn't fired a single shot from beginning to end.

He clicked the Bolter's safety on.

"Understood," he said.

Seven hundred kilometers away.

A series of notifications popped up in Li Cang's operation pod.

The first was the report on the conclusion of the battle.

[Manila Fortress Campaign Concluded]

[Friendly Casualties: 9 KIA, 1 Critical, several minor injuries]

[Enemy Casualties: Approx. 35 eliminated, 8 captured, 1 walking vehicle destroyed]

[Enemy Escaped: Commander K + approx. 15 to 20 personnel, direction unknown]

The second was the loot list.

[Loot Recovery in Progress]

[Hexapedal walking vehicle Wreckage x1, thermal weapon core destroyed, mechanical structures partially salvageable]

[Sun Warriors Standard Equipment x35 sets, including Crimson Gene-Enhanced Armor, standard rifles, Communication Jammers]

[Underground Munitions Factory residual equipment, including some lathes, forging furnaces, and parts inventory]

[Prisoners x8, awaiting interrogation]

The third was something he had been waiting a long time for.

The results of Nathan Doom's emergency interrogation.

Li Cang clicked open the interrogation records.

Doom's answers had been organized into a briefing. He read through it line by line.

Regarding the Manila Fortress garrison, Doom said there were originally sixty men there, and it was one of his logistics bases. After he was captured, the garrison should have switched to a defensive posture.

This basically matched the actual situation. Forty men were from the original garrison minus those transferred away, and the later thirty reinforcements were brought in from elsewhere.

Regarding the walking vehicle, Doom said it was his masterpiece. He had personally participated in the design, and the thermal weapon's core was a modified reactor component salvaged from an abandoned nuclear power plant. He had built three in total across the Pan-Pacific region.

Three units.

Li Cang's hand paused.

One was destroyed at Manila Fortress. There were two left.

Regarding K.

Li Cang looked further down.

Doom's exact words were recorded verbatim.

"Kara Enzo. My third adjutant. The other two idiots were caught by you, but only she escaped. Because she's the smartest of the three."

"She's not a soldier. She's an engineer. My military industrial system—the walking vehicles, the Gene-Enhanced Armor, the Communication Jammers—were all designed by her. I was responsible for the fighting, and she was responsible for building the things for me to fight with."

"You're asking me how dangerous she is?"

"Let's put it this way. I'm half-mad, so I do things in battle that others wouldn't expect. But Carla isn't mad. Every step she takes is calculated. She won't do anything she isn't certain of."

"The ambush you encountered at Manila Fortress is exactly her style. Not a head-on fight, but waiting for you to come and then shutting the door to beat the dog."

"Manila Fortress isn't her only factory. She has at least two more. Where they are, I don't know. She didn't tell me. She doesn't trust anyone, including me."

"You're asking me how many people she has now? I don't know. But I know one thing: she didn't stop after I was captured. She's been building, she's been recruiting, she's been preparing."

"Preparing for what?"

"Preparing to kick you out."

The interrogation record ended there.

Li Cang leaned back against his chair and stared at the ceiling for a long time.

Kara Enzo. An engineer. Not mad, but every step was calculated. At least two more factories, two more walking vehicles. Constantly building, constantly recruiting, constantly preparing.

The threat of the Sun Warriors wasn't shrinking.

It was expanding.

He took a deep breath, closed the interrogation record, and opened another panel.

[Improved Stabilizer: Production Complete]

[Quantity: 3 doses]

[Effect: Reduces genetic collapse by 15-20%, stabilizes gene chain for 72 hours]

[Target: Thunder Warriors with collapse levels greater than 30%]

Three doses. Corvin's collapse level was 42%. Using one dose could bring it down to 22-27%. The remaining two doses would be kept as reserves.

Without hesitation.

[Use Improved Stabilizer x1]

[Target: Corvin]

[Estimated Effect: Collapse level reduced from 42% to 22-27%, gene chain stabilized for 72 hours]

Confirm.

Then he opened another interface.

C-19's personal panel.

[C-1121 Points]

[Current Chassis: T2]

[Available Upgrade Path: T3 Chassis Upgrade]

[Prerequisite: Gene Engineering: Advanced, Unlocked]

[Required Resources: 1500 GP + 200 units abyss alloy + 500 units High-Energy Batteries]

[Success Rate: 85%]

[Risk: 15% genetic collapse, fatal]

[Current Collapse Level: 8%, resets to 0% after upgrade]

1500 GP. He currently had 2615. After the deduction, he would have 1115.

200 units of abyss alloy. He had 323. After the deduction, 123.

500 units of High-Energy Batteries. He had 1230. After the deduction, 730.

Resources were sufficient.

But an 85% success rate meant a 15% risk of death.

Li Cang's finger hovered over the confirmation button.

C-19 was the strongest piece in his hand. If the upgrade succeeded, a T3 chassis C-19 would be a qualitative leap.

But if it failed, he would lose more than just an SS-rank unit; he would lose the core combat power of the entire legion.

Furthermore, the current situation was more severe than expected. Kara Enzo was still out there, with two more walking vehicles and an unknown number of followers.

He needed C-19. He needed a stronger C-19.

Li Cang moved his hand away from the confirmation button.

Not now.

C-19 had just finished a hard battle and had burns on his left arm. Let him return to the base first to rest and receive treatment. Once his condition had recovered to its peak, he would perform the upgrade.

This couldn't be rushed.

He closed C-19's panel and opened the tactical map.

On the map, Manila Fortress's red alert marker had turned green. But elsewhere on the map, in the jungles, mountains, and coastlines of the Pan-Pacific region, there were still vast stretches of gray areas.

Unexplored territory.

Kara Enzo's factories were hidden somewhere within that gray.

Li Cang stared at the map for a while.

Then, he annotated a line of text at the location of Manila Fortress:

"The first one."