Chapter 371: Blazing Flames of the Battlefield[R-18] (88)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 371: Blazing Flames of the Battlefield[R-18] (88)
“……”
“……”
In front of dozens of screens, the control room was submerged in a silence so profound not even a breath could be heard. Aaron’s subordinates, watching Jin Seo-yun walk out of the wreckage completely unharmed, were all at a loss for words.
Some stared with their mouths agape, blinking slowly. Others dropped the terminals they were holding.
“That’s… not human…” someone muttered cautiously.
No one refuted the statement.
“I’ve… never seen anything like it…” another man said, his voice trailing off as he broke into a cold sweat.
All eyes slowly turned to Aaron Blake. He was staring at the screen in silence.
On the main monitor, Jin Seo-yun was walking away with an air of nonchalance after having destroyed every weapon in his path.
“...The dagger in his hand. What’s the analysis on that blue light?”
“Well…”
The man who was asked quickly scanned the data on his terminal. Line after line, his expression grew harder.
“We can’t analyze it. It doesn’t match any technical information we have. The only thing we know for sure is that… an immense amount of energy is compressed within it.”
Aaron’s brow slowly furrowed.
“A pure human… created something like that?”
The man paused for a moment before finally bowing his head.
“…Frankly, modern science can’t even begin to explain it.”
“What in the world… is that man…?”
All eyes were on Aaron. He closed his eyes, then slowly opened them. Staring at Jin Seo-yun on the other side of the screen, he spoke.
“...I don’t know. But right now, that thing is more dangerous than any weapon we know of.”
He quietly rose from his seat.
“I’m… self-destructing this place.”
“...Understood. Preparing the self-destruct sequence.”
“Let’s move.”
Aaron didn’t hesitate any longer. An emergency passage opened, and he led a few of his men toward the rear escape route. The corridor was sealed off behind them, red warning lights flashing as the vibrations in the floor grew more violent.
They exited the underground bunker and boarded a small transport shuttle.
—BOOM!
The moment the shuttle took off, the hangar ceiling cracked apart with a flash of blue light.
*
“…A little too late, I guess.”
A single shuttle was rapidly disappearing from view.
Aaron Blake. There was a high probability he was on it.
But it was nearly impossible to single him out and chase him among the dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of presences tangled together in this cramped bunker. Finding this place in the first place had been a stroke of luck.
[Entering final stage of self-destruct sequence. Time remaining: 2 minutes, 34 seconds.]
A warning siren blared. Red lights flooded the entire corridor, and the floor trembled faintly.
“Self-destruct, huh. To get to the surface… I’ll have to move fast.”
I glanced up at the ceiling. The hole I’d smashed through was still there.
From the heart of the underground facility to the surface. It was a bit of a toss-up whether I could break through in the time I had left.
But there was no reason to hesitate. All I had to do was get out before it blew, and if anyone got in my way, I’d just kill them.
I lowered my stance. My muscles tensed, and power gathered in the balls of my feet.
I leaped up toward the cracked ceiling. Using the steel frame as a foothold, I scaled the wall and started running down the corridor.
Th-th-th-thump!
The vibrations were getting stronger. The ceiling began to fall, and the floor started to buckle.
[Time remaining—2 minutes, 03 seconds.]
I changed direction and entered a detour passage. At the entrance, three enhanced humans stood guard—hulking figures of mixed machine and flesh.
“Move.”
Without slowing down, I swung my dagger. A blue arc cut through the air, slicing the enhanced humans’ bodies clean in two. Severed metal and bone flew, and I vaulted over the pile of wreckage.
—CRUNCH!
The metal floor shattered the moment I landed. But I couldn’t stop. Ahead of me was an automated defense drone. The instant its sensors registered me, it fired.
I twisted my body in mid-air, falling diagonally, and spun my dagger as I descended, piercing the drone’s core.
Sparks flew. I used the opening as the drone sputtered and exploded to immediately change direction.
I retraced my steps back through the corridor I’d come from. The structure was already collapsing in several places. Before the self-destruct countdown finished, I had to run all the way to the ruins on the outskirts of the city where I’d hidden my machine.
When I reached the surface, the building debris was collapsing, kicking up clouds of dust. I leaped over the crumbling wreckage.
I could see my machine. The moment it was within reach, I sprinted toward it.
I manually opened the cockpit hatch and jumped into the pilot’s seat. I switched on the panels and pushed the main throttle forward.
The instrument panel lit up. The output gauge climbed, and a low hum resonated from the engine.
There was no time. The vibrations rising from underground meant the core of the self-destruct mechanism had already begun its chain reaction.
“Going up.”
The machine lifted off the ground.
—KABOOOOOOOOOM!!
An explosion followed right behind me. The ground was torn asunder, and the structure collapsed as a wave of fire and ash surged forward.
Fortunately, I managed to escape the blast radius. After pushing the machine into the upper atmosphere, I immediately connected to the transport ship’s comms.
“There should be a shuttle that left the planet. Track its trajectory and find out which direction it went.”
[3 minutes and 12 seconds ago. A small shuttle departed from the northeastern atmospheric boundary of the planet.]
“Coordinates?”
[Its current estimated route is… toward the asteroid belt. It’s not a standard route, but an unofficial course that bypasses the debris field.]
“Send the coordinates to me.”
[Understood. Transmitting now.]
The communication ended with the short reply. Coordinate data immediately appeared on my instrument panel.
I changed course and began the pursuit.
‘The asteroid belt, huh…’
The most exhausting route. A triple threat of radiation interference, orbital debris, and navigational errors. On top of that, they already had a few minutes’ head start.
Still, it was just a small shuttle. At my machine’s speed, I could easily catch up.
Following the coordinates, I broke through the distorted trajectory and entered the asteroid belt.
‘…Come to think of it, choosing this place in a small shuttle doesn’t make sense.’
That meant there was something here.
And my guess was right.
A red alarm blared inside the machine. A massive silhouette appeared on the radar.
A fortress-type asteroid base.
‘…So they were hiding something like this.’
At the same time, a warning window popped up on the left instrument panel, indicating that a high-output energy signature had locked onto me.
“Tsk.”
With no time to think, I changed direction and immediately broke away.
The machine veered off its trajectory in mid-air, and a moment later, a massive pillar of light shot past where I had been.
—KWOOOOOOAAAAAARGH!!!
The entire asteroid field shook from the impact.
‘One hit from that and I’m dead.’
I glared at the center of the fortress. From the crevices of the dark rock, an innumerable number of mobile weapons were pouring out.
“…500.”
The moment I saw the number on my instrument panel, I took a sharp breath.
“The number’s increasing too fast. Just how many troops did they hide here…?” I muttered to myself.
With my machine’s specs, I could neutralize a small fleet on my own. But this was different.
A massive fortress base disguised as an asteroid. The endless stream of mobile weapons pouring out from within. And the dozens, hundreds of cannons and auto-turrets packed onto the fortress’s outer walls.
‘…Even for me, this is a bit tricky.’
The risk of charging in recklessly was too great. Above all, I was alone. If the hundreds of weapons pouring out of the fortress came at me all at once, even I wouldn’t be able to handle it.
I stared blankly at the cockpit.
‘A shame, but… I guess it’s time to fall back.’
I turned the machine around. The enemy units were chasing me from behind, but I avoided a direct confrontation and began to slip away through the debris field.
*
Arsenos Space Defense Observatory. John sipped his coffee with a bored expression and let out a yawn.
“Haaah… It’s so quiet these days, I’m bored.”
Next to him, Alex replied with his arms crossed.
“It’s better than this place turning into a battlefield. If something went off near us, it’d be absolute chaos.”
“That’s true… but still, it’d be more fun if there was at least some action. Ah, I want to go on vacation~”
“Oh? Speaking of vacation, that reminds me of the time I—”
John tuned out Alex’s words and turned his head.
‘Here we go again. Another pointless story mixed with lies.’
Alex’s mouth was moving nonstop, but John’s ears had lost interest long ago.
It was then.
—Beep!
“…Huh?”
Something had appeared on the radar panel and then vanished.
“Hey, Alex. Something just showed up on the radar. It’s gone now.”
“You sure you didn’t see things?”
John set his cup down and slowly stood up.
“There was definitely something there.”
John stared intently at the radar. Alex, still looking nonchalant, just shrugged.
“Interference is pretty common. We had something similar last time, too.”
“…I guess. I’ll check the logs again, just in case.”
John operated the touchpad to rewind the radar log.
And in that instant—
—Beep! Beep-beep-beep!
A red warning window flashed again on one side of the screen.
“…It’s back. Alex, contact the higher-ups—”
“J-John.”
A low, trembling voice.
John turned his head. Alex was staring at the screen, his face pale. John followed his fixed gaze.
And froze.
“…My God.”
Massive chunks of rock were slowly revealing their silhouettes.
It wasn’t just one or two. They were emerging from the depths of space, growing larger as they approached.
John moved immediately.
“This is Arsenos Secondary Space Defense Observatory! Multiple unidentified camouflaged structures detected on the outskirts of the 4-7 defense network! Code Red emergency. Requesting immediate connection to Central Command!”
John’s hands were shaking. Just then, Alex whispered under his breath.
“John… r-run…”
“Alex, calm down. Hurry up and—”
John never finished his sentence.
Through the observatory’s main viewport, a single red flash was approaching.
A colossal pillar of heat.
—KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
The entire observatory was washed in white light.
The fortresses passed over the wreckage of the vanished observatory. The dozens of structures formed up in unison as if on command and simultaneously opened fire on Arsenos’s surveillance bases and orbital defense network.
—BOOM! KABOOM! BANG!!
High-output energy beams pierced through surveillance satellites, and reconnaissance ships equipped with electronic jammers were blown to pieces.
They targeted the ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’ first. Reconnaissance, communication, and signal networks all began to fail.
Finally, the Arsenos Orbital Defense Force began to return fire.
—KWOOOOAAAAANG!!!
The fleet’s battle line opened fire in a single volley. Beams of light shot out from hundreds of cannons, striking the fortresses head-on.
But the powerful shields covering the asteroid fortresses simply swallowed all the attacks.
Then, from within the asteroids, hundreds, thousands of mobile weapons erupted forth simultaneously.
An order came down from Arsenos Command, and they immediately launched their own mobile weapons to counter.
—KABOOOOOOOM!!
Space was now filled with ships and machines, beams and debris, blood and fire.