Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 4 - 4 Modified Mecha

Tian Xingjian looked at the two Federation female soldiers staring fiercely at him and felt very melancholic. Maybe in face of two ugly ones, Fatty could shamelessly retort, ”I have taken care of your captor, quickly escape on your own.” However, these two attractive women filled with the allure of uniforms made Fatty unable to utter a word.

If he left them behind, they surely wouldn’t be able to escape. Moreover, there’s a high chance of getting killed or captured and then executed during the escape. There are many ways to be executed, the most likely being ”executed” by the Imperial soldiers one after another. Given the situation at the base, the purpose of these two female soldiers being escorted here is very obvious. This is an advance base of the Imperial Army with no prisoner-of-war camps built. With a little thought, Fatty understood why two beautiful Federation female captives are brought here.

The soldiers who escorted them were killed, and whether the captives did it or not, they couldn’t escape the responsibility. Moreover, Gazalin’s cruelty towards captives is well-known. Even if one captive escapes, the Imperial Army might execute the entire group of captives where the escapee belonged. And there are countless other atrocities, such as planned burial alive, burning, chemical experiments, imprisoning captives in dilapidated civilian space transport ships as target practice, due to inability to guard them or fear of becoming a burden.

Thinking of these two beautiful female soldiers being ravaged by the Imperial soldiers, Fatty felt very unsettled, angry, and even somewhat jealous. This is a common sickness among men; some things you can’t do yourself, but you also don’t want others to do. However, escaping the jungle is easy. Successfully fleeing across kilometers of flat terrain past the enemy patrols and defenses with two women in tow is harder than ascending to heaven.

”You... um, I mean... how were you captured?” Fatty felt the two female soldiers he had saved showed very unfriendly expressions. He checked himself over and found nothing wrong. He had no sense of shame about stripping naked in front of them earlier.

”The airport northeast of the city was captured. I was caught there,” the beautiful pilot quickly recovered from the embarrassment brought by the Fatty’s striptease, pointed to the other female soldier beside her and said, ”She was too, she’s the medical soldier from the aviation flight squadron.”

”What about the city? How far have the enemies advanced?” Fatty cautiously observed his surroundings, making sure no Imperial patrol unit happened upon the unlucky trio of Federation soldiers.

”The first defense line was breached last night. The enemy forced their way through with nearly two hundred heavy mechas and five hundred medium-sized mechas at the junction of our two divisions. The reserve force tried to retake the position, but it was too late by then. If it weren’t for the airport being seized by their airborne troops, they would need at least a week to break through the first defense line.” The beautiful female pilot, clearly valuing appearance over safety, casually sat down, loosened her tangled hair, and attempted to tidy her hair with a pink rubber band held between her teeth.

Her movements were very charming; Fatty struggled to look away from her soft and fair hands.

”However, our situation is not too bad. The Aviation Marine Corps 6th Division and the 9th Division serving as the reserve force didn’t stop Gazalin Empire Armored Division from breaking through, but they delayed them for over three hours, preventing them from immediately encircling and splitting our forces. Most of the troops from the first defense line have retreated, and the losses aren’t significant.” Having tied her hair into a ponytail with the rubber band tightly, the pretty female pilot appeared vibrant and full of energy.

”What about now between the first and second line...?” Fatty seemed to see a glimmer of hope.

”It’s not optimistic... it’s basically occupied by Gazalin Empire. When we came through, apart from some places still resisting, most of the Federation Army had withdrawn south of the Wave-Soaring River. The enemy is now deploying forces, preparing to attack our second defense line.” The female pilot held her chin in her hands, looking gloomy.

”Finished, what I feared most has come to pass.” Fatty lamented inwardly. Though he had already deduced the general situation from the actions and arrangements of the Imperial Army here, he still held onto a glimmer of hope. Now that the situation is clear, they are surrounded by Imperial troops. It’s either playing hide-and-seek in the woods until the war ends or relying on their own strength to escape back to the second defense line.

Fatty’s expression changed unpredictably, his thoughts were spinning wildly. He was already in dire straits himself; if he dragged along these two burdens...

Just when he was thinking dark thoughts, he suddenly felt his clothes being tugged. Upon looking up, he saw the pure female medical soldier quietly holding onto his clothes. She seemed to smile faintly, as if she had already guessed Fatty’s thoughts. Her eyebrows still showed a trace of annoyance from earlier, but her clear eyes were filled with trust. Fatty instantly surrendered. Damn it, if we’re going to die, let’s die. The more people, the more strength, maybe they could use the old way to escape. But where to escape to?

He frowned, pondering the direction to run. The heavily guarded New Rome definitely couldn’t be returned to. And the cities or military bases around New Rome were almost all defended or occupied by the massively landed Imperial Army, making them inaccessible. The only possibly safe place should be the capital of this planet, Gallipalan City.

Gallipalan City is located in the Three Lakes Basin of Miloke Planet; besides the three giant lakes with complete ecological chains, the high mountains surrounding the basin also tightly protect the capital, Gallipalan. Without the destruction of the six aviation bases in the city and the over three hundred air defense missile bases throughout the mountains, the Imperial Army’s giant air transport ships cannot land. Without ground troops, occupying the capital is just empty talk.

If the Imperial Army’s ground forces landed outside the basin, facing the complex geological conditions, fluctuating climate, and steep, severe basin mountains, even the best Land Battle Mecha would be at a loss. The only way for the Gazalin Empire Army to occupy this place is to concentrate all their aviation forces for aerial strikes, destroy the air defense system, and force an airdrop while simultaneously launching a strong attack on the two highways leading into the basin. However, these highways have long been heavily fortified by the Federation Army, and the highways themselves stretch through mountains with countless bridges and tunnels, giving the defenders enough ways to create difficulties for the Imperial Army’s attack.

Since the Imperial Army’s large-scale multiple-point landings, the orders from the Federation forward command located in the capital Gallipalan have never ceased. Major communication broadcasts in the capital have been continuously urging Federation citizens on Miloke Star to carry out indefinite resistance. This means that the capital has not yet suffered a devastating blow.

Even if the capital were occupied, the surrounding endless mountains would be an ideal hiding place, with rich vegetation, dense jungles, and a variety of wildlife. For Tian Xingjian, who has received reconnaissance training, bringing two beautiful women into the mountains, building a treehouse or finding a cave, eating wild game and vegetables—life would be as enjoyable as a god’s.

After lecherously imagining a secluded life of one man and two women, Fatty made up his mind.

”Head north, bypass the enemy’s landing base, then go east to Gallipalan,” Fatty waved his hand vigorously, boosting his morale with a determined tone.

”Gallipalan? That’s several thousand kilometers away!” The female pilot widened her eyes.

”How are we going to get there?” The innocent-faced female medic blinked her big eyes with some confusion and said, ”There are enemies everywhere outside.”

”The Gazalin Empire landed in more than forty cities simultaneously. Besides guarding the traffic routes necessary to encircle entire cities and divide Federation forces, they don’t need to fully control other empty areas,” Fatty felt he had some military talent. His twenty escape experiences over the past six months made him very familiar with the Imperial Army’s tactics. Using a confident tone, he continued, ”These empty areas are too vast for them to manage. Their focus is only on our cities and military bases. As long as they keep an eye on these targets, it’s enough for them. Without the city’s supplies, these desolate areas can’t generate resistance forces. They don’t care about them.”

”Also, they don’t have enough troops,” Fatty said while contemplating, gaining a clearer picture of the situation, ”They need to control the four immigration stars of the Galileo Star System and Miloke II Star in the Newton Star System. These five planets occupy most of their ground forces. This planet should be the end point of the Gazalin Empire’s campaign. The time is too short to fully control these six immigration stars; they need time.”

”Previously, they landed forcibly in the most important cities on a planet, tearing the defenses between cities into unresponsive rags before fully landing, using superior forces to surround immigrant cities comprehensively. But this time, their comprehensive landing only targeted forty out of the sixty-plus cities. This means they didn’t have enough troops, or the follow-up forces are still on the way, unable to strike all the cities during the airdrop implementation,” Fatty confirmed his reasoning and was shocked by a startling conclusion.

He didn’t continue, as his conclusion chilled him to the core. He thought, ”Such a landing can only ensure maximum implementation by precisely striking ground forces and defense bases. Precisely destroying ground defenses and then using the minimum troops to encircle and occupy cities. Many bases are hidden underground or in the mountains, but without exception, they were destroyed. The two Space Fleets responsible for defending the Galileo Star System also lost too quickly, almost collapsing at the first clash. It seems the Federation high command has a traitor; the military deployment maps of the six immigration stars aren’t something ordinary people can access.”

With this thought, Fatty’s firm retreat plan began to waver again, ”Then, the defense of the capital Gallipalan...” He felt deeply troubled, pondering such complex issues was quite burdensome for a Mechanical Repair Soldier.

”If a Mechanical Repair Soldier can think of this, surely the Command Department can as well!” he comforted himself, finding his worries about ancient concerns somewhat laughable.

”But you still haven’t told us how to escape from here,” the female pilot said anxiously.

Tian Xingjian pointed to the battlefield not far away where the destroyed and abandoned mechas of both sides lay, ”Using parts from those machines, I think we can piece together a vehicle. Now this place has become the enemy’s forward base, so the giant transport ship’s landing base to the north should gradually be abandoned. Supplies and forces will be transferred to these forward bases.” Pointing to the faintly visible mountains to the north, he added, ”The further north we go, the looser their defense will be. As long as we have a chance to escape through the northern jungle, cross the plain, and enter the forests under those mountains, we can get out of the Imperial Army’s control range.”

”So, what do we do now?” The innocent-faced female medic gently asked.

”Wait until nightfall, rest well, and we’ll dig together at night. Heh, I can’t do it alone,” said the scoundrel with a lecherous grin, ”Who’ll sleep with me? It’s very warm.”

The two female soldiers automatically filtered out Fatty’s teasing. The three of them dug a hole in a shrubbery on the other side of the jungle, far from the Imperial Marching base, to rest and wait for nightfall. Outside the hole, Tian Xingjian spent a lot of effort setting traps and camouflaging them seamlessly with branches.

The three huddled together waiting for the night. Although Fatty was foul-mouthed, his first close contact with women gave him a psychological barrier, so he was not as brazen as before. Instead, he tried to keep his body against the hole’s edge, closing his eyes and pretending to sleep.

The two female soldiers actually didn’t have much concern. Before being rescued by Fatty, they hardly dared to think about the consequences of being escorted to the base—they knew exactly how they would be treated—gang-raped and executed, possibly dying before even reaching execution. That kind of fear was suffocating.

They didn’t know if they had the courage to commit suicide, but at least before Fatty rescued them, they didn’t even have the opportunity to do so.

At the moment Tian Xingjian jumped out of the grass, in their hearts, this somewhat silly, fierce, and cheeky Fatty had already become their backbone.

The disappearance of the escorting soldiers triggered a large-scale search by the Imperial base as night approached. However, this search ended quickly. There was a tacit exchange of glances among the Imperial soldiers speculating about how a male soldier escorting two powerless female soldiers could go missing. The two women had nothing to do with them; they were the officers’ prey. Some soldiers even looked a bit gloating.

Even such a cursory search frightened Fatty into trembling. Pressing his ear against the hole wall, he strained to catch every tiny sound around. An Imperial soldier approached the shrubbery but the intertwined branches and thorns deterred him from entering. He carefully inspected the outside and found no traces of anyone passing by, so he turned and left.

Fatty breathed a sigh of relief. When his tense body relaxed, he suddenly realized that two soft bodies were snuggled tightly against him, their bare arms barely touching his skin, creating an indescribable and intoxicating sensation for the virgin Fatty.

”Hey, we still don’t know your name,” the female medic whispered softly.

”Well... my name is Tian Xingjian, Corporal of the First Squad, Logistics Squad, 3rd Armored Battalion, 5th Division.” Fatty’s voice was tense and slightly trembling, an aftermath of the tingly feeling on his arm.

”I’m Meiduo,” the female medic’s voice remained soft. ”She is Nia.”

The female pilot Nia, seemingly half-asleep, murmured a response upon hearing her name.

At night, the sky had completely darkened; the only star in the Newton Star System, also referred to as the sun, disappeared below the horizon. On the moonless planet, darkness enveloped everything. Fatty groped to the edge of a mecha wreckage, swiftly dismantling the required parts with the mechanical arm. Intensive training in the mechanical repair camp made him familiar with various mecha structures, allowing him to disassemble them swiftly and without a trace, akin to a skilled butcher dismantling an ox.

The two female soldiers, assigned by Fatty, were digging the hole. They had to excavate a hole three meters deep, five meters long, and five meters wide beneath their current hideout, which would become Fatty’s underground workshop for assembling and hiding a transportation tool.

In the following two days, Tian Xingjian, like a nocturnal mouse, gradually dragged the disassembled mecha parts back to the hole. He even found some dry rations, temporarily solving the problem of the two female soldiers not eating unidentified animals or insects.

The two female ”mice” were also very effective; they excavated a beautiful underground cave, and the soil was meticulously disposed of, which even made Fatty acknowledge their tunneling skills.

Using soundproof tiles dismantled from the armor, Fatty set up soundproofing for the hole and began focusing on building his transportation tool. He first assembled an Imperial Single Soldier Mecha Cabin that could accommodate three people, using a hollowed-out cabin, then replaced the Imperial small energy engine with three powerful Federation Honor 15 energy engines. One of them was designated to provide energy for the energy defense shield.

It needs to be explained that the energy engines of this era are very different from the various fuel engines before humans entered space. The invention of highly compressed solid energy, high-energy batteries, and super-light alloy micro kinetic energy cabins has transformed engines. A heavy engine made of super-light alloy can be lifted by a single person. The weight of the mecha lies entirely in the armor; no one is extravagant enough to use expensive super alloys for surface armor of land battle mechas. Aside from the huge energy requirement and the insurmountable technological challenge of anti-gravity devices, ordinary power devices have become fully miniaturized, yet the power they generate is dozens to hundreds of times greater than before.

Then, Tian Xingjian installed various undamaged instruments he had found into the cockpit. He still used the Gazalin Empire’s Holy Armor 22 Single Soldier Mecha Control System, but he dismantled the computer, converting all controls and instruments to manual. He also added six automatic retractable mechanical legs to the base of the two mechanical legs of the Imperial Single Soldier Armor. When not in use, they retract into the belly of the mecha, making them invisible.

He modified the wing-like missile launchers on either side of the mecha into jet-assisted propulsion devices, his proudest alteration—since there were no missiles available, and the appearance remained unchanged. It just meant missiles couldn’t be loaded automatically during combat.

The energy defense shield required significant effort from Fatty. Without this shield, the mecha—sacrificing all attack capabilities and most external armor—would be doomed with a single shot. However, the unique requirements for installing the energy defense shield gave Fatty a headache. In the end, he managed to form a small, inconspicuous rabbit tail on the back of the mecha as the transmission probe for the energy defense shield. Not satisfied, Fatty added a backup probe between the mechanical legs, all the while grinning stupidly at the two female soldiers, Nia and Meiduo, who were both amused and exasperated, feeling an urge to split his vulgar head open to see what was inside.

Soon, the Gazalin Empire’s Holy Armor 22 Single Soldier Mecha, outwardly unchanged, was completed. Nia and Meiduo were completely stunned by Fatty’s dazzling performance, the ingenious yet reasonable modifications, the deft speed of his hands, and his familiarity with the mecha’s structure, making them unable to believe that Fatty was just a mechanical repair soldier. He could easily be called a mecha expert. In his hands, modifying a mecha was as easy as building blocks for a child. Blending the completely different concepts and components of the Empire and Federation seamlessly required an immense wealth of knowledge! This unassuming Fatty was a genius among geniuses.

Of course, Fatty was a genius, but not a genius among geniuses. However, when a genius has escaped from death over twenty times, using these parts to assemble countless bizarre things, such a genius can become a genius among geniuses.

Fatty wouldn’t tell the two female soldiers about these embarrassing escapes; he savored the feeling of being admired with astonished and respectful looks. It greatly satisfied his vanity.

The remaining issue was energy and finding an opportunity to escape.

Next to the original Federation Army base, Tian Xingjian had buried a large high-compression energy block. The burial site was under a large tree with massive, exposed roots. Due to the remnants of ashes and debris left by Fatty’s arson at the original base, the Imperial Army naturally avoided this area, choosing instead a concealed dense forest on the south side near the former Federation artillery base.

At night, Tian Xingjian secretly dug out the energy blocks and energy machine gun, having the two female soldiers transport the energy blocks back to the underground hole. Fatty decided to create some chaos for the Imperial Army to facilitate his escape.

Dragging the energy machine gun on a cart made from bearings, he carefully avoided the Imperial Army’s patrol soldiers, taking a long detour and progressing stealthily, taking almost the entire night to reach a small slope at the southwest corner of the Imperial base. Setting up the energy machine gun, he aimed at a row of temporary barracks at the Imperial base. He installed a simple remote control device he had modified from the sensor module of an Imperial Holy Armor 22 Single Soldier Mecha, then filled the energy box of the machine gun with the broken energy blocks he had collected from the debris.

After finishing all this, Fatty felt a mischievous excitement like a playful child after a prank.

”Although I hate killing, I love eating meat more. Though I advocate for peace, my life is more precious. If you all die, I still won’t die.” Fatty, after ensuring the battlefield recorder had recorded his actions, sneaked back to the underground hole, his heart racing at the thought of the machine gun aimed at those barracks: ”Wonder how many Imperial soldiers will be killed. If I can take out a couple of officers, I’m sure to get promoted, right?”

When he returned to the underground hole, it was already four in the morning, about three hours until dawn. Fatty rested for a while and decided to act immediately, fearing that the machine gun might be discovered.

Loading the compressed solid energy blocks into the mecha’s energy box, the three of them squeezed into the mecha cockpit. Though cramped, it didn’t interfere with Fatty’s control of the mecha. On the contrary, the two hot, tempting bodies beside him gave him a feeling of his soul ascending.

Pressing the switch of the machine gun remote control, Fatty maneuvered the mecha to burst out of the ground, as the distant sounds of explosions and the machine gun’s roar faintly reached from the Imperial base barracks.