Chapter 125: Battle Automata |
Robin did not utter a single word, merely throwing out the Smoke Grenade in his hand.
Under the swing of his arm, the white Smoke Grenade flew out over fifty meters away. After bouncing twice within the rubble pile, it began to produce strong thick smoke.
Bahram rolled out from behind the cover, braving the bullets whizzing past above his head. He sprinted forward all the way, dodging, turning, leaping, and maneuvering between different covers.
Ultimately, after arriving at the distance he wanted, Bahram lay prone on the ground. He drew out that flare gun from behind his waist, and took out a blue flare shell from his pocket.
"The God-Emperor bless and protect."
After taking a deep breath, he stuffed the flare shell into the gun chamber from the back, then raised it high up.
Only hearing a 'whoosh' sound, the flare shell—dragging a trail of smoke—surged up from the ground. Then it fell to a position approximately five meters ahead of Bahram.
Similarly, this action also exposed his position.
Amidst a burst of panicked sounds, that machine gun changed directions, sweeping its fire straight toward the place where Bahram was hiding.
For those few seconds, he even thought to himself that he was going to die.
Ten seconds later, he heard a type of roar. He subsequently loosened the two hands hugging his head, looking toward the sky.
He saw a silver-grey giant steel eagle hovering above their heads. Subsequently, the cabin doors were thrown wide open, and a massive metallic object descended from the sky.
Boom——
When it landed on the ground, the massive roar and impact force even overturned Bahram by several rolls.
"This——"
He let out screams due to fear and his expected injuries and pain. The roar echoing with it resounded through the night sky.
In the next second, a dazzling speed of light illuminated this battlefield with a hell-like light. The afterimages of the intense light flickered at the bottom of everyone's eyes.
Bahram stood up, but what he saw was not the expected fierce combat, but large boulders being smashed into powder by artillery fire and machine gun bullets.
The terrifying destructive power caused the boys' expressions to spasm and distort. There were also a few unlucky bastards, acting exactly as if they were dancing madly amidst the hail of bullets.
Fresh blood surged madly out from their bodies. Their limbs were even more so sheared off and dropped to the ground.
All of this concluded within just a few seconds.
At least four defenders were completely restored into several piles of smoking rotten meat. Meanwhile, the cover they hid in simply became some scattered broken pieces of rock.
Bahram knelt down to the ground, vomiting due to the terrifying charred stench of flesh and blood.
He was not a naturally cowardly person. It was just that corpses missing arms and short of legs looked revolting. And he discovered that he himself was unable to shift his gaze away from their remains, striving to figure out how they could be slaughtered so thoroughly within such a short amount of time.
Subsequently, he turned his gaze toward the 'culprit' who created all of this.
The thunderous ringing sounds of various weapons systems operating and the rotary machine gun decelerating finally entered into his ears. Bahram saw the sensor shielding from this machine—which was a full three times taller than him—flush with light. Several wisps of blue smoke coiled around its weapons.
He had never seen this styled automaton before. Just looking at it for one glance was enough to know that this was absolutely a genuine, true-to-name slaughtering machine.
He was staring in Speechless Amazement because of this terrifying machine. His line of sight went back and forth between the corpses and the Battle Automata.
"Please issue your command."
Suddenly, an electronic synthesized voice rang out, thoroughly giving Bahram a startle.
"Are you... speaking to me?"
He pointed at his own nose, but the machine merely stood at its original spot.
"Please issue your command. The command modes are: Attack, Follow, Defend in Place."
"Then... Attack! Attack the stronghold ahead."
"Command received. Executing. Action mode countdown: four minutes and eleven seconds."
After speaking, this humanoid Battle Automata strode its legs, walking toward the stronghold step by step. At the same time, those closed weapons systems also activated once anew.
Da-da-da——
After the Battle Automata acted, the silent machine gun rang out once again. However, this time it shifted to a position, a position that was much safer.
Bullets struck against the automaton's metallic outer shell, spurting out strings of sparks. Bahram followed behind the automaton, shrinking his head and praying that this big fellow could hold on.
Meanwhile, the other team members, similarly began to attack upward in a dispersed formation.
After walking ten steps, the Battle Automata stopped. The heavy rotary machine gun on its shoulders began to rotate.
Whoosh——
A few seconds later, a terrifying hail of bullets covered it over. The temporarily piled up cover subsequently blasted wide open. At the same time, two still-Screaming flesh bodies also flew sideways toward the two sides.
The machine gun misfired once again. But after that, it never opened fire again.
The Battle Automata's slow yet firm paces finally made the defenders' morale thoroughly collapse. They no longer defended this hopeless dead land to the death, but instead began evacuating the stronghold.
But, within this process, Oskar's squad had always been harassing them the whole time.
Amidst the panicked footsteps, people were continuously being hit by bullets and falling down. There were also continuously people being hit by laser beams, becoming a lump of smoking flesh and blood.
Ultimately, only a meager three to five people managed to escape into the darkness.
More than four minutes later, it was still that exact aircraft which recovered the Battle Automata utilizing hooks.
Seeing the might of that Battle Automata, Bahram was somewhat regretful. If he had known it was so powerful, perhaps he fundamentally wouldn't have needed to pay attention to Oskar's proposal.
With such a war machine around, they really might be able to hold out until the fifth day.
However, thinking about these things right now was useless. Because they were already on the same boat. And moreover they had also used up their own final trump card.
This night was very stuffy and hot.
Apart from the few people standing sentry outside, the remaining ten-some people were all crowded around the bonfire within the cramped and narrow stronghold.
They did not laugh joyously because of the combat victory. Between each other there was also no kind of concern or celebration. The atmosphere appeared eerie and stiff.
Or rather, they were all still guarding against each other.
"That thing is quite ferocious."
Ultimately, it was Oskar who found a topic of conversation.
Bahram took up his water canteen and poured a mouthful, nodding his head.
"Indeed, an extremely terrifying and powerful war machine."
"But surprisingly having a thing like this is still not enough. You guys say, what kind of enemies exactly require the Astartes to mobilize."
Haomo bit into a mouthful of his compressed ration stick, laughing as he said:
"Maybe it will be Greenskins that can fly into the sky and burrow into the earth. Who knows. I've heard old people say that a very very long time ago, the Astartes all fought some even more terrifying monsters."
"Ah, you better not be bragging. I absolutely know about the Greenskins. Just a bunch of dumb calves, where would there be anything like flying into the sky and burrowing into the earth."
Kerisa said this as he finished eating the final bit of rations on his hand. After that, he let out a victorious hiccup.
"If you ask me to say, it's definitely some even more formidable Xenos."
"What Xenos? Kroot with blue skin, that walk on two legs? And can even use doors that shuttle to and fro everywhere? I seem to have heard——"
"Bullshit! What kind of thing is that what you heard......"
At this time, Bahram's gaze turned toward Oskar, saying within a low voice:
"What to do after this?"
The opposing party shrugged.
"We'll wait first, but it won't be too long. Relax, I am a person who is true to his word."
As he said this, his gaze instead suddenly floated onto the body of Robin, who had been completely silent and non-speaking the whole time.
