Chapter 75: The Fortress of Vex

The Swiss Alps. A blizzard was raging, turning the world into a chaotic white void.

Deep within a mountain range that didn't appear on any public map sat the headquarters of Vex Corp. It wasn't just an office building; it was a military bunker carved directly into the granite, fortified with automated machine-gun turrets and reinforced steel walls that could withstand a missile strike.

Inside the warm, dimly lit command center, Viktor Kane watched the monitors. He was a bald man with a jagged scar running across his lip, a souvenir from a failed experiment years ago. He typed commands into a massive console, his fingers moving with frantic speed.

"General Kovac is rotting in a cell. Rothschild is bankrupt," Kane muttered to himself, his voice echoing in the empty metal room. "Fools. They played politics. They played with money."

He pressed a glowing red button on his desk.

"But they underestimated me. I don't need armies or banks. I have the future."

On the screen, a message flashed green: [ PROJECT TITAN: ONLINE ]

In the hangar bay below him, massive hydraulic engines roared to life, shaking the dust off the steel beams.

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Outside the mountain fortress, the wind howled at seventy miles per hour.

"Visibility is zero," Luke whispered over the radio. He was lying flat in the snow, dressed in white tactical camouflage that made him invisible to the naked eye. "Thermal scopes are useless in this storm, Boss. The snow is masking their heat signatures, but it’s masking ours too."

"Good," Jackson's voice came through the comms, steady and cold. "If we can't see them, they can't see us."

Jackson lay next to Luke in the snowdrift. He wasn't wearing his usual Italian suit today. He was geared up in full tactical armor, checking the magazine of his customized assault rifle. His breath came out in white clouds. He thought of Serenity back in the safe house, pregnant and waiting. He thought of his mother.

This ends tonight.

"Alex," Jackson tapped his earpiece. "Status on the perimeter sensors? We are freezing out here."

"I'm working on it, Dad!" Alex’s voice sounded tense from the safe jet flying high above the clouds miles away. "This encryption is nasty. It’s quantum coding changing every ten seconds. Give me... got it!"

"The blast doors are closing!" Sebastian, who had insisted on coming despite his old age and limp, pointed at the massive steel gates slowly grinding shut.

"Alex! Now!" Jackson yelled.

Buzz.

The red warning lights on the fortress gate suddenly turned green. The heavy hydraulic gears ground to a halt, leaving a gap just big enough for a man to slip through.

"You're welcome," Alex panted over the radio. "I've looped the camera feed. As far as their security knows, you are just ghosts."

"Move out," Jackson ordered.

The team infiltrated the base silently. They moved like shadows through the metallic corridors, neutralizing guards with tranquilizer darts before they could even raise their alarms.

They reached the central laboratory doors. It was quiet. Too quiet.

"Kane!" Jackson kicked the heavy door open, aiming his rifle into the room. "It's over!"

But the command chair was empty. The room was deserted.

Clank. Clank. Clank.

Heavy, rhythmic, metallic footsteps shook the floor plates. The sound was getting louder, coming from the shadows at the back of the lab.

From the darkness, a towering figure emerged.

It was a man wearing a prototype exoskeleton suit—heavy titanium armor plates covered his body, hydraulic arms hissed with power, and a mounted gatling gun sat on his shoulder.

It was Viktor Kane. He looked more machine than man.

"Jackson Sterling," Kane’s voice was amplified by the suit, sounding robotic and menacing. "You brought a gun to a mech fight? How cute."

"Get down!" Jackson screamed, diving to the side behind a concrete pillar.

BRRRRT!

Kane’s gatling gun spun up and tore through the room. Bullets shredded the laboratory equipment, sending sparks and glass flying everywhere. The noise was deafening.

Luke and Sebastian scrambled for cover behind steel crates.

"Bullets bounce off him!" Luke yelled, firing a useless burst at Kane’s chest plate. The bullets sparked and ricocheted harmlessly. "We need anti-tank weapons! He's a walking tank!"

"He's unstoppable!" Sebastian shouted, reloading his revolver.

"No technology is unstoppable," Jackson assessed the situation calmly, even as chunks of concrete were blown off his cover by the relentless gunfire. "Alex, bring up the schematics for the suit! Now!"

"I'm looking! I'm looking!" Alex typed frantically. "It's a Vex-Mk4 Prototype. It has a flaw! The power core on the back. It relies on air intake. If the vents are blocked, the reactor overheats!"

"The vents on the back," Jackson repeated. "Understood."

Jackson looked across the room at Sebastian. The old soldier caught his eye and nodded grimly. He knew what he had to do.

Sebastian popped out of cover, waving his arms. "Hey! Over here, tin man! Shoot someone your own size!"

Kane turned his massive mechanical body, firing the gatling gun at Sebastian.

While the machine was distracted, Jackson sprinted.

He didn't run away; he ran straight towards the mechanical monster. He moved with a speed that defied logic, fueled by the desperation to protect his family.

He slid across the floor like a baseball player, dodging a metal fist that smashed a crater into the concrete floor right where his head had been a second ago.

Using the momentum, Jackson jumped. He grabbed the hydraulic pipes on the exoskeleton’s leg and climbed.

"Get off me! Get off!" Kane thrashed, trying to reach Jackson with his robotic claws, but Jackson was too close, clinging to the back of the suit like a spider.

Jackson pulled a high-explosive flashbang grenade from his tactical belt. He pulled the pin with his teeth.

"Temperature rising," Jackson grit his teeth. He slammed the grenade right into the open ventilation shaft on the back of the suit.

Then he kicked off the metal armor and rolled away, covering his head.

BANG!

A muffled explosion rocked the suit from the inside. Thick black smoke poured out of the vents.

[ WARNING: SYSTEM OVERHEAT. COOLANT FAILURE. SHUTTING DOWN. ] The computerized voice inside the suit warned.

The exoskeleton froze mid-step. The hydraulic hiss died. The machine became a metal coffin, locking Kane inside his own armor.

"No! Reboot! Reboot damn it!" Kane screamed, trapped inside the dead weight of two tons of immobile metal.

Jackson stood up slowly, dusting off his tactical vest. He walked up to the immobilized villain, his eyes cold.

"Game over, Viktor," Jackson knocked on the metal helmet. "You rely too much on machines. You forgot about the human element."

"You ruined everything!" Kane yelled from inside, his voice muffled. "We could have changed the world!"

"You tried to destroy my world," Jackson turned to his team. "Luke, call Interpol. We have a special package for them. Gift wrapped in titanium."

As the authorities swarmed the base and dragged the screaming, trapped Kane away, Jackson walked out of the fortress.

The storm outside had stopped. The air was cold, crisp, and clean.

Jackson took a deep breath.

General Kovac was gone. Rothschild was broken. Kane was captured. The "Three Heads of the Snake" were cut off.

He pulled out his phone and texted Serenity. It's done. Coming home.

The physical war was over. The kingdom was finally clean. Now, he could go back to his pregnant wife and build the peace they truly deserved.

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