District 42-Chapter 122: Awaited encounter

By that time, the two sides, prisoners and Ridires, were clashing with each other in different parts of the prison. It was noticeable that the first ones were taking advantage of that battle.

Differently from those warriors, the inmates had taken the initiative since the first act, they were better positioned than them, and the firepower was nearly equal. Not to mention their numbers, which were far more superior than the Ridires’.

With Casper still operating the cameras and spreading information to his troops, as well as orders to coordinate them to make the right decisions and take the better paths through the complex, that advantage raised even more. The prisoners had a way to communicate, which was something that the Ridires lacked completely, particularly with Anton’s ability as weak as it was by that time.

Freygar had a lot of pressure on his shoulders. At some point, he had no idea how his warriors were doing. Even Casper himself knew the number of casualties among them, but the Aesir didn’t. His troops were being wiped out slowly, but he couldn’t say for sure what was going on with the unities he left behind.

However, the leader showed amazing emotional control, and reasoning capacity, since he could hold his men until that point, taking the right decisions to keep them alive.

The White warrior, who was witnessing the Ridire’s desperation to keep surviving, needed to admit that he himself couldn’t act as cold as Freygar did during that battle.

However, both Casper and the Aesir knew well that, if the battle kept going at that pace, the time would come when the Ridires would be entirely split, and then the prisoners would just need some minutes to finish with them.

Casper was calling out his troops, guiding them, distributing the unities through the complex. He had to make detailed work there, in which he would anticipate the enemy’s actions and lead them to do what he wanted. He was basically making the Ridires take the paths that he was planning all this while.

"That’s great... In just some more minutes it will be ended. Our freedom is at reach by now. It’s not impossible anymore. The biggest mistake they made was to step inside our trap, and now they will keep going further and further until my troops can close their siege and take them out completely..." That master key was showing to him different screens of the cameras, that were being analyzed by him and some other people that offered to help.

Thankfully, the complementary group didn’t need to move so much as he supposed they would. The other groups were doing perfectly in their actions, and because of it, the enemies couldn’t corner them so easily.

Casper spotted the main group of the middle guard, in which Freygar and Anton were. The clamp was still closing, and soon they would be taken by it. They were running through the corridors more desperately than before. Casper thought that the Aesir finally was losing his cool and that now was the time when he would start to take his first bad decisions and sink the Ridires with him little by little. That had happened to Casper that day once, and he could recognize well the symptoms of being cornered and without any options.

"Hey, you..." He called one of the prisoners that were watching a different group of cameras. "They will pass for a blind spot now and probably appear in the cameras you are watching now. Remember to stay tuned and to report me if they do something that can be troublesome."

Casper waited for a while, those people lasted for a long time at that blind spot until they came out again, returning for the way they had just come.

"Ah, never mind, man, they retrieved. I will keep watching them here."

The prisoner beside him faltered for a while, looking at Casper with confused eyes.

"Is there something wrong with the cameras, maybe?" The man asked, peeking at the screens that were showing in front of Casper.

The soldier typed some things in the holographic keyboard to see if there were any delays in the images, but it was still in real-time.

"No. They are working perfectly. Why the question?"

The prisoner gave Casper space to see what was going on in his screens, and the White warrior frowned hard at that sight, nearly jumping from where he was.

Those cameras were also showing Freygar and his group, running in the direction they were meant to go before.

Casper looked back and forth to both groups of cameras, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. His mind had just stopped for a while, and he couldn’t bring a conclusion to it. The soldier kept doing the same motion with his head until he snapped back to reality, finally organizing his thoughts and reasoning properly.

"I don’t know what the hell is going on over there, but it has something to do with their technology, for sure. I don’t know if it’s something just to trick us or if they really doubled before our eyes, but either way, we need to keep up with the plan and find a way to stop them."

Casper stood up, looking at the complementary group’s members. They were all paying attention to the cameras now, as astonished as Casper was a while ago. He could see a hint of desperation inside their eyes, and he knew that he needed to raise their confidence again.

"We can’t trust in what the cameras are showing to us anymore... I will turn off the master key. Since they are doing this mysterious trick, there is nothing we can do instead of letting go of this idea and just go ahead to face them directly. I will communicate some group near them to pay attention to one of the clones, and we will try to corner the others, am I clear?" They nodded, getting prepared, though hesitantly.

"I think I should have had done it better... But nothing is helping it. I can’t fill their heads with fake hope and make them watch it shatter before their eyes if something goes wrong. They need to face reality to not be shocked by tough times." Casper also prepared himself, picking up his rifle and pistol, wearing again the bulletproof vest.

Before he turned off the master key, he communicated with Alfar’s group, which was the closest one to one of the "clones".

"Hey, Alfar..." Casper was still a bit hesitant to talk with him, even though he didn’t show in the slightest. Alfar, however, was another issue, since he wasn’t so good to hide his feelings.

"Hi..."

"Freygar’s main group is heading towards you. They are pretty weakened because of the previous attacks, regarding their number of warriors. If you and your group can corner them and utilize our advantage in numbers to catch them by all sides, I think it’s more than possible to win this battle."

"Right. We will do as we can. Do you have their positions?"

"No. Something happened and we can’t use the cameras anymore, but gather your unities and pay attention to the corridors. Eventually, they will be spotted." Alfar left after that orientation without asking anything more.

The soldier organized the lines of his group, leading them through the corridors afterward. He tried to be the most straightforward as possible, willing to find Freygar’s group as fast as he could and finish all that battle.

The White warrior didn’t want to make his comrades get too worn out. They couldn’t spend more time resting. Soon, the Ridires in the levels above at the Third Lab would surely find a way to get back the Systems of Halden and infiltrate there to execute them. He needed to find a way to go to the lower levels before they could make it to Halden.

He had a scheme in his mind of how he would escape from that prison and the Laboratory all at once, but for this, he needed to arrive at a specific location when he got up there.

"We need to be brief and straightforward here. I will feel bad if we lost more people, but there is nothing we can do about it for now. It’s one of those times when I need to do sacrifices..." He thought.

Casper had let between the lines that they would go to an action that could cost much. After all, they were heading to the final battle they would have in Halden at that point.

Casper arrived at a certain part of the complex. He was walking at a high pace until that point, which was letting his men even more anxious.

In the middle of it, he clearly heard footsteps and some words said here and there. He was sure that they were arriving.

His group descended some stairs, getting to another corridor, following the noise. Their hearts were almost jumping from their throats. In one second, all they were seeing were the white walls of Halden’s complex, in another, they were facing Freygar’s group.

Casper tightened his grip on the rifle.

"Finally, I got the chance to beat you again..."