Leon Pride: A World of Demons

Chapter 62 - Rematch?

~*~*~*~Nick~*~*~*~

"How're they holding up?" The General asked looking over Nick's shoulder at the dozens of tiny screens that he was monitoring, while simultaneously having his nanites construct more and more of the upgraded mech-suits.

"Not quite as well as I'd hoped." Nick admitted, stealing occasional glaces at his live feed monitors. Each new suit he'd made to help the humans also had a camera on it so that he could see what killed the soldier wearing it so that he could make another version to counter it. "The Chain is still pushing inward, but their progress dropped significantly ever since your DDF troops started using my new tech."

"That doesn't matter one bit if they're still making progress." The general said leaning over the monitors, his old eyes looking over them as if he could figure something out. "It's that damned Skorge, up to this point all we've been able to do is slow them down...and lost hundreds of lives to be able to just do that."

Nick gave the general a sideways glance at that. He knew that was a jab at him and how his plan to try and stop them was a reactionary one. Using his nanites to speed the process up, Nick had built three of his own Adapt androids using the military's full resources and the data that the previous ones had. These ones though he synced up with his headband much the same as he did with the nanites, only these androids were built for the sole purpose of transport, not combat. Using the data that he had on the old one's that Vega had made he'd given them the ability to use Roy's ability, and it was with that ability that he was having these three androids travel back and forth between the front lines and their base of operations. They were carrying standard gear at first, with cameras attached, and it was thanks to those cameras, and the sacrifices of the men on the front lines that Nick was able to do as much as he could.

Every time a soldier was killed he'd quickly make an adjustment to the next wave of gear to help better counter what'd killed them. The upgraded Cyberware suits was doing the job for the ground forces, but it was the high-class demons that he had to contend with. That's what these mech-suits were for. The military's original design was fine as it was, but when it came to the upper class demons they needed a significant upgrade. He'd managed to strengthen their defenses by giving them plasma shields, and the plasma canons on their shoulders were now nearly four times as powerful as the ones that they originally had. Unfortunately, due to the mass production and lack of time Nick wasn't able to do anything with their standard armor which any high class demon could rip apart with their bare hands, making the plasma shield absolutely essential. He'd also managed to turn their arms into electric conductors which would give them a temporary boost in physical strength and speed.

Unfortunately he kept running into the same problem over and over again with these things. "A machine's fine and all, but at the end of the day a machine has limits that it can't overcome without destroying itself. A demon on the other hand- well a demon can overcome any limit set before them." Those were Leon's words to Nick when he'd told him that he wanted to try ad help Leon out in the field by giving himself cybernetic augmentations. They'd gone back and forth between it until finally Leon told him to make a suit that augmented his physical abilities and they'd see who could do more. Nick set to work right away making what was essentially the very first set of Cyberware components.

He was soundly beaten by Leon in every category that they competed in, so Nick scrapped the plan. Not more than seven months later did Vega Industries reveal their first set of Cyberware. Like that first set that Nick had made, these machines just couldn't compete with everything that the demons of the Chain could do. Some were faster, others were stronger, all and all they were just preforming better and Nick couldn't think of a quick fix for this. He needed time to make a more advanced version, and time was something he didn't have.