Cillin’s group did not partic.i.p.ate in the mixed battle. Their job was to secure the area Moon had requested him to protect and to eliminate any intruders.
Tang Qiuqiu’s combat effectiveness improved by leaps and bounds ever since she obtained the Purgatory Thunder Snake. Add to the fact that she was unnaturally calm in any combat situation, and she was able to pop a dozen of heads in just the blink of an eye.
Barring the Eleventh Squad, everyone who landed on the planet had to wear a protective suit to survive its harsh environment. However, it also slowed them down so much that most of the were dead long before they could even train their scope onto Tang Qiuqiu.
Aikenseth snuck a glance at the Eleventh Squad in between gunning down the enemies in front of him. He regretted it immediately because it was revealed just how pitiful his forces were compared to them. It was common sense that a protective suit restricted the wearer’s movement in some ways, and not even the most genetically enhanced person was an exception to this rule.
The protective suits the Free Army was wearing were more or less on the same level as their enemies’. This did not bother Aikenseth because it simply meant that they were fighting on an equal footing. However, the Eleventh Squad’s protective suits were clearly on a whole different level. The young girl with incredible shooting skills was waltzing across the battlefield with insulting ease, and even the fat bear sticking by her side at all times was moving as lithely as a b.u.t.terfly.
To say that they put him to shame would be an understatement. It was bad enough that their s.p.a.ce fighters being behind the Eleventh Squad’s, but protective suits as well? Actually, that’s no protective suit. That’s what they call an Armor, isn’t it?
It would be lying if say I’m not envious, Aikenseth and Blue thought at the same time.
So far, not a single person managed to break into the area Cillin was guarding. Every time he squeezed the trigger, at least a couple of people would drop dead on the ground. He was using the PTS K right now because the PTS S would be way overkill on these people.
Wheeze was focused on mining the energy ores and paid no attention to the chaotic battle at all.
Boom, boom—
Fighters were being shot out of the air every few seconds or so, so debris was raining all over the place. Some people failed to get out of the way in time and were crushed like pancakes, and some were hit by the shockwaves. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they still had to battle the enemy and avoid the fighters’ cannon shots all the time. Practically everyone on the ground was as tensed as a guitar string right now. However, to the denizens of Sector V, the razor sharp tension only brought excitement, not fear.
The flames of war scorched the sky, the sounds of explosions deafened the eardrums, and the blood that splattered across their bodies every time they took a hit excited them so much they could die.
Cillin could sense clearly that none of the enemies he killed had been afraid to die in the slightest. Or rather, their mind seemed to transition into a state of utter fearlessness and excitement every time they entered an environment that was similar to a live warzone. In a sense, they were similar to the soldiers many families trained specifically to carry out missions that were extremely high risk or straight up suicidal. In this state, these people would not feel the slightest fear even if they were going up against White Night herself.
The reason most people would not interact with a denizen of Sector V with a ten foot pole was because the latter was utterly numb to many things in life. Take the combatants on this battlefield for example. They were so intoxicated on bloodl.u.s.t and the joy of killing that they had completely forgotten about their original objective; the energy ores that once enticed countless people to go to war against each other. They didn’t even try to dodge as Cillin gunned them down one after another.
This reminded him of a conversation he had had when he first joined Vanguard. They had said that battling against the crazies of Sector V was supremely dissatisfying because you could kill them all and barely feel any sense of accomplishment. In some cases, you might even feel like you had just destroyed a moving piece of wood.
Cillin was in the middle of cleaning up the intruders when Xi Kai’s voice crackled through his communicator.
“Should I send over some robots to help you out?”
Cillin observed both the sky and the land for a moment before replying, “Not yet. How much longer do you need?”
“We just need another five—no, three minutes.”
“Roughly or precisely?”
“Precisely.”
“Good!”
It should not be difficult to hold out for three minutes.
As if on cue, Moon’s voice rang from the communicator almost immediately after he disconnected from Xi Kai’s transmission. The robot said in an unusually urgent voice, “Cillin, White Night just told me that we are not the first ones to land on the planet. The reason our scanners didn’t detect them is because the planet’s magnetic field, and because they were hiding up on the other side of the planet.”
Someone was here before us?
“Do we know who they are?” Cillin asked while gunning down all the enemies who entered his range.
“They’re mostly robots.”
“So, the Robert Family?”
“Most likely.”
“Understood. How's it going on your end?”
“I’m communicating with White Night and sorting out some of the settings. It’ll take a while, but I should be able to separate her from this place.”
He sounded pretty busy. Cillin could even hear Moon touching some equipment with his metallic hands.
“Got it. I’ll handle everything on the outside, so keep doing what you’re doing.”
“Sure.”
Cillin had been doubtful from the moment he learned about the planet from Blue, and she had claimed that someone from Sector V had discovered it by accident. While he couldn’t deny that it was a possibility—coincidences could happen after all—but he found it extremely unlikely that someone from Sector V could escape this place, especially considering that they had no knowledge of the planet’s environment beforehand.
The reason he thought this wasn’t because he believed that the people of Sector V was inferior, but because he was viewing this from a different angle. In addition, the colonists of this Sector were busy finding refuge from the chaos that had overtaken the galaxy of GAL, and the factions fighting each other to expand their power. With that in mind, did it really make sense that someone from Sector V just happened to pa.s.s by this area and discover the planet by “accident”?
Even if the rumor was real, someone had to have leaked the information to them.
Now Cillin understood what the Robert Family had been silent for so long. It was because they had been aiming for the top grade energy ores of this planet. Not only that, they were planning to kill two birds with one stones by luring the more influential factions of Sector V to this place and killing them all!
This way, they would obtain both the energy ores and reduced the number of hostile factions on Sector V, which would benefit the military forces behind them.
“All fighters, come to me within a minute and clean up these areas…” said Cillin while explaining their new operation plan. He also contacted Aikenseth to explain things and have him rearrange his forces.
He ordered Scarlet Wind to come back and told the rest of the squad to get ready. By the time Cillin had counted down to fifteen, everyone was in position, and the fighters were circling around Cillin at a low alt.i.tude.
Cillin made a ready hand sign at Aikenseth’s direction. The red-eyed commander nodded to indicate that his side was ready.
“Five… four… three… two… one!”
A beam of light rose into the sky before expanding outward like an umbrella. It enveloped the area Cillin had mentioned in his plan.
“An energy s.h.i.+eld!?”
“Butwhy is it so big?”
It cost a lot of energy to support an energy s.h.i.+eld this size, but they were on a planet filled with top grade energy ores right now. All it took was a little bit of setup.
In fact, Xi Kai and Xi Mu had been doing just that from the moment they came here, and so far they were very satisfied with the strength of the energy s.h.i.+eld, or more accurately, the quality of the top grade energy ores of the planet. Their devices were displaying wonderful numbers.
The appearance of the energy s.h.i.+eld instantly lightened the Eleventh Squad and the Free Army’s burden. Now, all they needed to do was to clean up the enemies still within the energy s.h.i.+eld. Even if the enemies outside suddenly came together and attacked them as one, they would not be able to break through until some time later.
Aikenseth looked back and forth between the chaotic battle still going on outside the energy s.h.i.+eld and Cillin’s group. It was then he experienced a moment of enlightenment. Fearlessness and people with excellent genes were great things to have, but it was one’s technology and talent that truly determined how far a group could go most of the time.
From the moment the Free Army encountered Cillin and the Eleventh Squad, they had been outmatched in nearly every area. It made Aikenseth realize that the only way the Free Army could continue climbing to the top was to acquire technical support. Sector V was an extremely isolated sector, so the Food King’s support alone had accelerated their growth far beyond the factions that had risen to power at the same time as them. What if they could acquire more technology?
It was around this time Reysen suddenly interrupted his thoughts with an elbow b.u.mp before pointing toward a certain direction with his chin. Aikenseth looked and saw Czedow pulling out a ma.s.sive piece of energy ore from the ground with his bare hands. Yes, the man wasn’t wearing any protective suit at all.
If Cillin was a mystery, then Czedow was an unidentified object Aikenseth had never been able to figure out even now. Cillin was the commander of the Eleventh Squad, and while information on him was spa.r.s.e there was at least something to read. However, information regarding Czedow was non-existent, or more accurately, everything they could find about Czedow was fake. It was to the point where they didn’t even know if he was human or not.
He probably isn’t human. I don’t think it’s possible for a human to survive in this environment without a protective suit.
Some of the people outside were attacking the energy s.h.i.+eld in anger, but there was no way they would be able to make it in in a short time. Moreover, there were a ton of energy ores within the energy s.h.i.+eld, so waiting for the s.h.i.+eld to run out of energy was unfeasible either. As a result, the factions chose to battle each other twice as hard to vent their frustration.
When the number of combatants had decreased to a certain degree, the bosses were finally able to retake control of their subordinates. However, just when they were about to cease fire, powerful energy beams abruptly swept across the sky and took out a great number of the aircrafts.
Some fighters and s.p.a.ceplanes exploded into tiny smithereens, while some fell toward the ground after their wings had been cut. Before they could even hit the ground though, another set of laser beams pa.s.sed through the area and sliced them into multiple pieces.
“Here they come!” Cillin said while looking at the direction the laser beams had come from. A bunch of robots could be seen flying over from the distant, dark sky.
“Is that the Robert Family’s so-called robot army?” Xi Kai asked while looking in the same direction.
“That’s them.”
The Robert Family had absorbed the lessons they learned from the rebellion incident and made ma.s.sive improvements to their robots in just a short time. In GAL, they were definitely deserving of their t.i.tle, the Robot Empire.
It wasn’t long before most of the combatants outside the energy s.h.i.+elds were killed. The ground was littered with wreckages, and the survivors were easily cut down by the robots. Blood splattered everywhere as metal sliced through flesh and bone. The sight of bodies splayed across wreckages that were still smoldering with fire and smoke was unusually gruesome.
The people of Sector V were cold, but these robots were even colder. They had no choice but to beat a hasty retreat while they still could.
More and more robots appeared on the ground. A ton of robots were circling the energy s.h.i.+eld in the air as well.
Some of the robots had a human’s appearance, though the oddly-shaped weapons protruding out of their arms were anything but. After they had the area completely surrounded, a s.p.a.ceplane emerged from the distance and stopped not too far away from the energy s.h.i.+eld.
Aikenseth’s communicator rang at this moment. It was a call request from an unknown caller. He pressed the accept b.u.t.ton and placed the communicator on a flat surface so that everyone could see the hologram.
After the call was connected, the hologram of a man appeared above the communicator. It wasn’t Robert Frentz, but Cillin noted that his features were somewhat similar to Frentz.
The man wasn’t facing toward the communicator. Judging from the hologram, it seemed like he was staring at the ma.s.sive energy s.h.i.+eld. He began, “I’m surprised. I didn’t think people like you are capable of this level of intelligence.”
Aikenseth did not say anything. Even he knew who their enemy was now. The only faction in the world who possessed a robot army at this level was the Robert Family.
“But if you think you’re safe from me, then I must say that you’re mistaken. I haven’t brought many combat robots with me, but there is enough to take you all out. As for this energy s.h.i.+eld… huhu, it is but a trifling issue to me!”
The second he said this, the energy s.h.i.+eld started flas.h.i.+ng unnaturally. Then, it began to weaken visibly.
“He’s affecting the energy s.h.i.+eld somehow!” Cary exclaimed in surprise. Everyone got ready to rush out as soon as the energy s.h.i.+eld broke down.
Their fear never came true though. The s.h.i.+eld was thinning at the beginning, but it regained its strength almost just as quickly.
Xi Kai snorted disdainfully at the man while fiddling with his remote. “Say what again?”
The man on hologram looked shocked, fl.u.s.tered and angry all at the same time. His complexion changed visibly before he finally waved his hand. “I’ll admit that you’re not as pathetic as I thought, but how long can you hold out before my robot army? All you did is to give yourself a front row seat as I dismantle your defenses little by little and destroy everything!”
Right as he said this, a new voice entered his ears, “Did you just say, you wish, to destroy, this place?”
A white figure appeared next to the man’s hologram. It almost looked like they were facing each other.
“We meet again, ‘Guardian’,” The man said with a frown on his face. He clearly wasn’t expecting White Night to appear now. On the surface, it looked like she was bothered by his threat to turn her home upside down to take out these gnats, but if that was the case, then why hadn’t she stopped the Sector V factions from murdering each other before?
White Night did not respond to what she perceived as a useless greeting. She simply stared into the man’s eyes silently yet intimidatingly.
The man faltered first and looked away. “We may have avoided you before, but that isn’t because we’re afraid fo you. Do not forget you were just a failed experiment!”
“Is that so?”
She disappeared from the hologram, but not because she had chosen to withdraw. The next moment, a white figure appeared on the screen in front of him, the screen next to him; a third, a fourth…
“What’s going on?” Cillin looked at Moon. The robot had finally wrapped up whatever he was doing and returned to them.
Moon shrugged. “Nothing. I’d simply unbound her from this place completely.”