Chapter 537 Downfall (part 1)
?“Nova,” Aron called out.
[Yes, sir?]
“Can you reprogram the surveillance nanites to search for any explosive devices and disarm them?” he asked.
[Yes. They’ve already spread through the entire city, so detection will be easy. But they’ll have to gather to disarm, won’t that mean we don’t have real-time eyes on all of the targets?] Nova said.
“It depends on how many there are. If there’s just a few of them, we can call the bomb squad for disposal. If there are a lot, we’ll have to use the nanites.”
[Understood, sir. I’ve reprogrammed them to search for explosive devices, the new scan will take a little over four minutes.]
Aron nodded and turned over on his back, gazing up at the sky above him. It was daytime, so he couldn’t see the stars, but Nova helpfully overlaid them on his vision, knowing his habits as she did.
The next few minutes passed in silence, then Nova said, [The scan is complete. The nanites found four explosives—one on the I-40/I-27 interchange, one at the airport, one at Carver Elementary School, and one at Amarillo College.]
“Have you informed the police to send out disposal experts?”
[Yes, sir.]
“Good. Retask the nanites for surveillance and monitoring again.” nove(l)bi(n.)com
[Right away, sir.]
......
ARES Reaper Command.
Athena was rather satisfied with the empire’s armed forces. Not only was each and every trooper multiple cuts above any military ever created in the history of humanity, but she even had the best special forces under her. Every single reaper was trained to a high standard, and all of them could quite easily be called a one-man army. They were proficient in every aspect of warfare, from tactics and strategy all the way down to individual skills.
Thus, each and every one of them was a highly qualified sniper. The only thing that the official snipers in each team had that the others didn’t was a personality profile that fit being a sniping specialist. Just like the demolitions experts all enjoyed the spectacle of big booms, sniping specialists enjoyed the thrill of the hunt and taking down high-value targets unaware.
“Very well, maintain course and speed. Inform higher that we’re en route and on target.”
[Yes, captain.]
[Yes, captain.]
The landing operation a few minutes later went without issue, and soon, the Beowulf reached Amarillo and the reapers spread out over its flight deck. Each was assigned a target marked with tracking nanites. A few hundred of them had obscured, or otherwise unreachable targets, so they switched out their pulse rifles for charge pistols and monomolecular-edged combat knives, then leaped off the deck of the Beowulf, engaging their optical stealth systems as they fell to ground.
Their strikes would have to be done in a much more up close and personal fashion.
Within minutes, all of the reapers were in position and ready to strike. All they needed was the final go/no-go order from Aron himself.
......
[Everyone is in position, sir. They’re just waiting on your orders,] Nova informed Aron.
“Then I guess I shouldn’t disappoint them,” Aron said, then closed his eyes and fell from the sky. He oriented himself head down and fixed his eyes on the Fisk building, where Rick was currently in his penthouse office.
The freefall from the stratosphere took three minutes, during which time Aron split his focus and crafted two equally intricate runic circles. One of them, he called the ‘phasing’ rune. When activated, it would allow him, and anything within three inches of him, to phase through solid matter.
The other, he called the ‘disintegration’ rune. It would disintegrate anything and everything around it that wasn’t protected by a mana shield.
Aron reached the window of Rick’s office. “Begin the operation,” he ordered, then stepped through the sealed window.
Over two thousand gunshots rang out from kilometers away as he walked up behind Rick, whose consciousness was currently absent from his body, and said, “This is a much easier ending than you deserve, you terrorist scum.” Then he rested the palm of his hand on the top of Rick’s head and triggered the disintegration rune.
Rick’s body broke down layer by layer, from the top of his skull. His hair went first, followed by his skin, then what little fat he had on his body, his eyeballs.... Soon, Rick had completely been reduced to nothingness.
Aron nodded in satisfaction, then walked to the center of the building, a disintegration rune around him ensuring that everything vanished when he came into contact with it. Soon, he reached the center of the building and closed his eyes.
The disintegration rune around him rapidly grew until it overlapped the edges of the building itself, and Aron let himself freefall.
The Fisk building, and all of the people within, were reduced to complete nothingness in the time it took him to fall from the top floor to the bottommost subbasement.
[Sir, we have a problem,] Nova told him when he reached the ground.