Aftermath 2

General Gordon still had an annoyed face as he made his way down the large corridor. He mostly ignored the soldiers who saluted him along the way. His fists were balled up and his steps depicted fury.

He soon arrived outside of an office and pushed the door open with such force that it slammed and came back pivoting towards him. He kicked it again before finally walking in.

There was a middle aged man in the office alongside two other people. One wore a military uniform and the other a lab coat. Gordon cast a heated look at them before pulling a chair over and sat on it the wrong way.

The man behind the desk chuckled and tapped his pen against the table top. "General Gordon, you didn't have to kick the door so hard. It did nothing wrong."

Gordon shook his head and took deep breaths to stay calm. "How can you be so calm after something like this has happened, General Murdoch?"

Murdoch smiled tentatively and pointed at the two people beside him. "Why should I vent before hearing the report?"

"Those people know about the underground lab and it will only be a matter of time before everyone knows too!"

"Not if we can suppress the news."

"It will be difficult, Murdoch. You seem to be taking this matter lightly. They have the suit!"

Murdoch sighed and shifted in his chair. It was very troublesome indeed but he was the kind of person who preferred to do things on the offside. He thought for a while. "How do you think they got so much information about the base?"

"A mole."

The two people beside Murdoch stiffened when they heard the word 'mole'. They stood straighter and looked at the ceiling, the floor, the wall…anywhere that wasn't the two Generals' faces.

Gordon also observed their reaction before adding, "I suggest we question all the soldiers thoroughly before putting them out of service."

Murdoch was amused. "Interesting."

Gordon glared at him and he cleared his throat and said, "of course we can't do anything till we hand in the report."

Gordon sighed. This matter wasn't going away anytime soon. He fell silent for a while and observed Murdoch who was more than happy to return his gaze. He had played in many staring contests before and he rarely lost.

Finally, Gordon broke the eye contact and relaxed his body. Murdoch turned to the two other people and asked, "What else did they take?"

The man in the lab coat quickly replied, "Nothing. Aside from the exoskeleton suit and the blueprint they took nothing else."

Gordon's frown deepened as he became more worried than before. Murdoch seemed to share his views as he raised his eyebrows. "What about the Monitor?"

The man nodded. "Every bottle of the Monitor is accounted for and the blueprint is as it was left. They didn't take it."

Gordon thought for a while then asked—more to himself than to the others—"why would they go through all that trouble just to take only the exoskeleton suit and not the Monitor?"

"Maybe they didn't know it existed?"

"Unlikely but possible." Gordon became quiet all of a sudden. The Monitor was the most important research and creation kept in Base 52. It didn't make sense if they knew about the suit and not the Monitor.

Murdoch turned his attention to another matter. "The suit was made to be an advanced targeting system, correct?"

"Correct." Gordon nodded his head.

"It was made with the premise that even without a human to control it, it could still be driven by having Neo-Impulse upload herself into it right?"

"Yes, but…" Gordon stopped and a smile formed on his lips as realisation dawned on him. "…it means that Maya could still track down the suit since it shares a lot in common with her."

Murdoch nodded and asked, "Neo-Impulse, can you track the exoskeleton suit?"

It took a while before the screen on the wall lit up and words appeared alongside an angry emoji. "Call me Maya."

"I'm not Gordon who sees fit to give you a fancy name. Tell me what I want to know."

The screen threw up more words followed by the feminine voice. "The exoskeleton cannot be tracked since it was not commissioned yet and I had not uploaded myself into it. Even if I had it would still be untraceable due to it being inactive."

The screen went dark after that. Murdoch sighed. "It looks like a dead end."

"What do you think?"

"About the insolent A.I. you had built?" Murdoch raised an eyebrow. "Of course I think it should be decommissioned immediately. That thing thinks it's too smart!"

The screen lit up again and threw out a swear word. "I am not a 'thing'."

"See?" Murdoch pointed at the screen. "It knows how to say that!"

"Maya is an advanced A.I. built to replicate human interaction while also being super capable. You just need to learn to adapt."

Murdoch waved his hand dismissively. "How do we proceed with the investigations?"

"We have to start with the two soldiers who were impersonated. We can find clues from there and maybe get a lead."

Gordon was a little aggrieved because of the loss of the exoskeleton suit. He knew that without it Crevania had lost a weapon that could have made the difference in the war and that along with the years of effort.

Without the military exoskeleton suit they were back to being at the basics. He also had to consider what sorts of plans Cruderia had made over the past years. Times were tough and he knew more than anyone else that a storm was brewing.

He sighed and after discussing a few more details with Murdoch, he left the office and went to his training gym. He poured out all his pent up frustration on the dummies and punched his way through them till his knuckles hurt. He sat down to take a break.

His mind wandered to the event that happened a few days ago. There had been smoke in the upper levels and the office where the file was kept had been opened. This seemed to have a connection as he came to vague conclusion.