Chapter 81
Chapter 81
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 81
Chapter Title: Serpentine Mech Clash
-----------------------------------------------------------------
In that moment, the emperor and the marshal both fully demonstrated their prowess as veteran generals.
The intruder pushed open the door without even raising his head when the emperor shot forward like an arrow, clamping the man's jaw and wrenching his neck around with one hand while delivering a brutal palm strike like a sledgehammer with the other.
With a loud clang, the man slammed back into the wall. Fortunately, the patch of leather on the back of his black armor absorbed most of the impact. He swayed twice but somehow stayed conscious. "Wh-what the hell—guards!"
It all happened in a flash. The marshal charged to the bathroom door and hurled something with a backhand toss. The emperor caught it without looking, swinging it down with crushing force.
Clang! The impact rang out like thunder as the emperor smashed the object right into the intruder's face. The poor Dark Star warrior could only twitch twice before blood poured from his mouth and nose, his eyes rolled back, and his head lolled to the side as he passed out.
"Phew..." Heinrich let out a breath, then glanced down at the weapon in his hand, instantly developing three black lines on his forehead.
It was a boot.
Water roared in the bathroom. Celia tossed him a damp towel with a slap and shot him a look that said to wipe himself down properly. "Sorry, per Alliance Military Code A932, Article 1, your shoe has been temporarily requisitioned. File for reimbursement with the Alliance Council after the battle."
"..." Veins throbbed at Heinrich's temple as his gaze flicked between the unconscious man on the floor and the boot in his hand. After a long pause, he asked, "Celia... think he passed out from the hit or the smell?"
·
Five minutes later, in the command hall.
The emperor and marshal finally appeared before the crowd, surrounded by dozens of Dark Star warriors, all their black gun barrels trained on them.
Osroed's face was frosted over with chill. "Why'd you take so damn long?"
Heinrich slept in his clothes, so he still looked somewhat presentable—if you ignored the shirt tail half-tucked into his pants and half-hanging out. Celia was in worse shape: shirt collar completely unbuttoned, disheveled black hair dripping water, back soaked from un-wiped moisture, which contrasted strikingly with his pale, icy complexion and sparked all sorts of imaginations.
Heinrich glanced at him, then turned to Osroed with utmost sincerity. "Junior Brother, your senior brother needed a shower."
"..." A ridiculous surge of fury rose in Osroed's chest. "Shut up! I'm asking you—"
Boom!
Before he could finish, the battleship shook violently, nearly toppling everyone. Osroed, Celia, Heinrich, and the others immediately dropped into defensive crouches, hands to the floor. Moments later, a shout came from ahead: "Red alert! Red alert! Black Mamba Hydra has mobilized—Yunes is heading for headquarters!"
The Black Mamba Hydra was Yunes's personal mech. It had been crippled by a joint strike from Bi'an and Phoenix at the White Heron Star Military Academy, fleeing into a dark spatial rift, never to be seen again.
But it hadn't been scrapped. After repairs, it emerged even more ferocious and massive—a triangular head like a metallic hill, black scales bristling across its body in a shape so bizarre it chilled the blood on sight.
It burst from a ghost ship, now buried under a surging tide of snakes on the ground. The Black Mamba Hydra blasted the hatch into a massive fireball, rocketing into the sky amid a rain of snake corpses. Like a prehistoric dragon soaring at heaven's edge, it circled a few times before locking onto the battleship on the ground and diving headlong!
"Surface-to-air missiles, ready!" Inside the ship, Osroed roared over his shoulder. "Open the mech bay! Launch Red Python!"
The command hall floor split open. Amid a thunderous rumble, a half-complete massive python mech rose slowly—dark red with black patterns, its back bearing six folded steel wings like ten thousand razor-sharp blades standing on end.
Outside the ship, twelve surface-to-air missiles streaked upward trailing white smoke toward the Black Mamba Hydra. They detonated simultaneously in the sky, turning the heavens into a vast sea of fire. But just over ten seconds later, a long hiss pierced the air as the triangular head burst from the roiling black smoke, hurtling straight for the battleship!
A Dark Star warrior bellowed from the observation deck: "Hydra incoming! ETA thirty seconds—twenty-eight—twenty-six—"
Clang! The cockpit hatch beneath Red Python slammed down, cracking the hall's metal floor for over ten meters. Osroed shot up the boarding ramp like an arrow, whirling to snarl at the emperor and marshal: "You two, get up here!"
Heinrich ignored the surrounding gun muzzles, standing his ground with a faint smile. "Has Junior Brother considered my proposal from last night?"
"You—" Osroed snapped in fury. "Fine, I agree! Get up here now!"
He never imagined Heinrich would bring it up in front of everyone. His face flushed crimson with embarrassment and fear. But with the hall in chaos, no one noticed. The emperor and marshal boarded the cockpit, and the moment their feet hit the floor, Osroed rushed over and slammed the door shut with a bang.
·
Far Star mechs operated on entirely different principles from those of the Empire or Alliance. The cockpit floor and walls weren't metal but a faintly warm, muscle-like material—tough yet elastic. Mech neural bands dangled as blood-red filaments from all directions, linking to a red-and-white chair-like device at the console. It resembled some creature's brain, with visible pinkish-white brain matter pulsing faintly with vascular throbs.
What the hell was this thing?
Heinrich barely had time to look before Osroed dashed to the console and bellowed: "Full form! Red Python!"
The massive serpent body extended segment by segment, head rearing back with a hiss. The six steel wings unfolded amid countless clashing blades and swords, bursting through the battleship's top hatch into the sky.
At that instant, Yunes piloted the Black Mamba Hydra diving from above, on a collision course with the ship's roof—
Boom! The two giant serpents collided viciously overhead, scales raining down like a storm!
No fancy tricks—just raw mechanical physics. The cockpit nearly flipped like a magnitude-ten quake.
Heinrich crashed into instruments in a clatter. The neural bands cushioned him greatly. Struggling up, blood streaked his forehead and cheeks. "Fuck... Celia! Celia, you okay?!"
A hand hauled him up forcefully. Celia leaned pale against the wall, panting. "St-still good... You're not used to it, huh? Far Star mechs integrate bio-neural cells—way tougher than galactic mechs, hundreds of times over. Physical strikes are their main combat mode... Come here, I'll steady you."
He could still stand steady? Heinrich marveled, then looked down to see neural bands locking his waist to the wall. He got it. "You can control these too?"
Celia nodded through gasps. Suddenly, the cockpit flipped upside down. Red Python twisted 180 degrees in midair, clamping jaws on Black Mamba's vital spot!
Even ancient myths of dragon battles paled in comparison. Firelight and black smoke blanketed the world.
Red Python and Black Mamba's scales fully flared—each tens of meters wide. Body shifts ground like massive gears. Beneath each scale lurked venom sacs and acid glands. Whenever the serpents coiled fiercely, acid corroded rapidly, spewing white fumes with sizzling hisses.
Heinrich knew that acid's terror firsthand. When Dark Star warriors ambushed the Royal Academy, Black Mamba had ensnared Bi'an, nearly dissolving its 5D alloy shell. Now the S-shaped tangle corroded scales en masse. Leftover acid with scale fragments splattered the ground, devastating the snake tide—black serpents melted into water on contact, black floods everywhere, a gruesome sight.
"Hiss—!" Black Mamba rolled free, tail-whipping Red Python into the battleship. Osroed tumbled from the command chair, scrambling up in disarray to roar: "Help now! Hurry! If I lose, you don't live either!"
Celia lunged, seizing the chair and yanking several blood-red neural lines. "Red Python?"
Thunderous rumbles echoed around them, unsteadying feet. Heinrich peered into the cockpit's dim depths, keenly noting the sound came from outside—the serpent's body responding!
"Heavy ion cannons, ready!" Celia barked in response. "Target enemy power core, 100% output!"
Two cannon turrets extended from beneath Red Python's neck scales, flipping to reveal five hundred black muzzles each. Black Mamba sensed danger, pivoting to fire first—but Celia's virtual精神 bolt control was a hair faster. Red Python charged first. A thousand ion muzzles flashed blinding white!
Seconds later, the beam torrent blasted Black Mamba's draconic form skyward!
"Osroed—!" Yunes's furious roar echoed from above. "Who's helping you, you coward!?"
Osroed flew into a rage, shoving Celia from the console and charging Black Mamba!
Celia staggered, inwardly cursing the idiot—but it was too late. The world went dead silent in that earth-shattering clash. Amid violent shakes, Black Mamba—prepared—wrapped its tail around Red Python's belly, upper body arching into an attack-ready inverted U.
Its maw gaped impossibly wide, deadly white light gleaming deep in its throat—
"You're done for!" Celia snarled at Osroed in the cockpit.
"No! I'm not!! Shields and ion cannons, now—"
Celia shoved Osroed away from the wildly thrashing controls, whirling to bellow hoarsely: "Heinrich! Escape pod under the hatch—get out now—"
Boom!
The light orb from Black Mamba's jaws finally erupted, slamming Red Python's belly and nearly bisecting it midair!
In the explosion, the tail thrashed wildly. Serpent segments collapsed upward, scales showering down—heading straight for the cockpit—
No time left. Minutes more, and the cockpit would be engulfed. Heinrich lunged for the escape hatch lever. The searing metal nearly burned his palm raw with a screech.
Gritting through pain, the emperor wrenched the hatch open a crack, then smashed the lift button with a fist!
"Celia!" He spun toward the console—but after two steps, Osroed drew a gun from his waistband. "Don't move!"
Emperor and marshal froze. The barrel pressed against Celia's head!
"Get in," Osroed growled coldly at Heinrich. "Into the pod!"
The sudden twist stunned them both. Heinrich blinked. "Wait, you can have the pod..."
"Get in! Don't make me say it a third time!"
Utterly baffling—no one knew what Osroed was playing at. Heinrich and Celia exchanged a subtle glance. Heinrich backed to the hatch step by step, popping the pod door.
"You can take this pod. Your senior brother and I will take the mech back to the ship..."
Osroed cut him off viciously: "You think I want you to escape? Dream on! Pod's got railguns and A-grade shields—small enough Yunes won't spot it. You're landing on Black Mamba's vitals from above, blasting the cockpit hatch manually, and dragging him out for me!"
Before he finished, Celia snapped: "You're the one dreaming!"
"Shut up!" Osroed jammed the gun harder. "You going or not?!"
Cockpit lights flickered erratically, tension thick. Distant explosions chained like falling dominoes.
Heinrich met Celia's eyes deeply. "Fine."
Celia's face shifted slightly, but he said nothing. They nodded. Heinrich ducked into the pod. The hatch whooshed open, and the pod shot out into the howling gale.
·
Osroed lunged for the console like grasping a lifeline in desperation. But bang—Celia's fist smashed him into a metal edge. He crumpled, groaning in pain. "You—"
"You idiot," Celia pinned his chest with a boot, voice icy. "Full-power long-range barrage could've held the advantage. Who told you to ram? Yunes is a sewer rat—and you're worse. Total waste!"
Osroed choked, glaring through heavy breaths. Then he sneered coldly. "Guess why that emperor came picking a fight with Yunes?"
"..."
"How's it feel to be on the losing end of jealousy, Senior Brother? Or maybe you like it—your pious facade is fake anyway. Any dirty trick for your goals, right?"
They locked eyes. Celia sneered, kicking Osroed aside. Before he could lunge back, Celia seized the neural bands:
"Red Python, run self-diagnostics and isolate fire zones—prepare counterattack."
·
Black Mamba panted in the sky, belching thick black smoke.
The barrage had drained over half its energy. Worse, Red Python's ion strike had shattered its power system—crisis imminent.
Yunes gasped raggedly, face shadowed.
That shot's precision wasn't Osroed's doing. Years of clashes made him intimately familiar with the brute's hasty style. Osroed's mental threshold wasn't high enough for such rapid neural transmission or pinpoint accuracy. But that strike? Instant, precise, lethal—even he couldn't dodge.
Not Osroed. Then who?
Gritting teeth, Yunes gripped the fire control lever. "Hydra! Target enemy power core!"
Black Mamba shifted slowly, scales scraping shrilly. It eyed a blasted spot under Red Python's vitals malevolently, fangs bared as white light surged in its throat:
"Power reserves 26%. Full barrage will consume 14%. Confirm?"
"Confirm!" Yunes roared. "Destroy their core—now!"
"Incoming!" Celia barked in the cockpit. "Red Python!"
Both stalled serpents struck like lightning—Black Mamba lunged fangs-first; Red Python surged upward, shedding exploding segments!
It unfolded in 0.01 seconds. Gale-force winds from the giants collided into a rising tornado, sucking the snake tide skyward wholesale.
The sight was nauseating even through screens. Celia reflexively turned away. "Heinrich! Accept comms now—Heinrich!"
"Zzzzt—" Static crackled, then the emperor's hoarse voice: "Here... (zzzt) ...lost my bearing... snakes everywhere... signal unstable..."
"Don't panic. Hold steady at 500 meters low altitude! Red Python, sonic boom cannons ready!"
Clang-clang-clang—a barrage of metallic booms. Air cannons primed across Red Python. A deafening blast hurled invisible blades into the swarm; snake blood sprayed, raining down seconds later. Vision cleared instantly for both mechs.
Doubt flickered in Yunes's eyes. "Sonic booms? Now, why..."
"Heinrich!" At Red Python's console, Celia clamped a hand over his mouth, coughing twice. "Heinrich! Respond if you hear!"
Zzzzzzt... zzt—
Pure static. Then the emperor's ragged voice burst through: "Trying to murder your husband, Celia?! No kid yet and you're already trying to kill me?!"
Celia: "..."
In the pod, Heinrich gripped the flight stick, panting. Red alarms flashed; screens blared system failures past redlines.
The air cannons had neatly blown off the pod's tailcone. The power pack had ejected. Its sole firepower—twin railguns—had vanished into the storm. Silver lining: nav and comms restored. The pod hovered mere hundreds of meters from Black Mamba's vast belly. Cockpit should be atop the vitals—right overhead.
"I said hold the pod steady," Celia's irritated voice crackled through the headset. "Bad piloting—who's fault is that?"
Heinrich shot back: "I'm the emperor—do I have to learn to fly myself?"
"So who made you suck at flying?"
"You knew I couldn't and still fired those cannons. That's spousal murder!"
Celia: "..."
Comms fell silent. Finally, Osroed grumbled miserably: "Are you two done?!"
Yunes panted, eyeing the monitor. Battered Red Python coiled nearby, tongue flicking tauntingly.
Idiot—still provoking at this stage... Yunes snorted coldly, lining up ion cannons on its vitals. He was about to fire when he spotted something—pupils contracting reflexively:
"—Hydra! Activate bio-radar! Something's approaching!"
Bzzz—detection waves pulsed from Black Mamba. The scan lit the monitor: a tiny black dot blinked under the belly, closing on the cockpit.
What the fuck?!
Yunes whipped the camera view. Seeing the screen, he sucked in a disbelieving gasp, eyes wide in denial: it was an escape pod!
A mere gnat against the mech titan, trailing black smoke in the gale, on the verge of crashing—but then clang! The hatch flew open. A man in black short-sleeve T-shirt, standard combat pants, and thick-soled boots clambered atop the pod. Slinging an electromagnetic broadsword on his back, he raised a grapple gun, aimed at a spot under Black Mamba's neck, and fired—
Whoosh!
"Warning! Warning!" Red lights strobed below the screen. "Foreign object attached to cockpit hatch, port side! Warning! Foreign object attached—clear immediately!"
"...Heinrich?!" Yunes's pupils quaked violently. Unimaginable rage exploded skyward. "Heinrich—!!"
Black Mamba wheeled, pouncing Red Python with hate-filled roars shaking the earth: "That's you inside, isn't it, Celia?! Betraying me again—betraying me again—"
Red Python, at its last gasp, shattered into segments under the onslaught, explosions rippling along its length. Meanwhile, outside Black Mamba, Heinrich gripped the secured grapple and leaped into the void—like a diving raptor in the storm!
Clang!
The emperor slammed onto the metal hull, rolling flawlessly into a grab on the hatch handle—body dangling in midair!
If witnessed firsthand, it'd be heart-stopping: nothing below but 100-meter drop. One slip, and he'd shatter. Yet his face betrayed no fear. Left arm bulged with muscle gripping the hatch; right arm whipped the electromagnetic greatsword from his back. Clang! It plunged into the hatch seam!
This solo infiltration was knife-to-gut surgical—textbook material for academies. But given the dire battle, no one would believe the Empire's emperor pulled it off alone.