Chapter 1303: 422. Forcibly Board the Ship_2

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The Heavy Transport Ship had 20 shipborne shield generators.

So many shield generators made it difficult to activate them all at the same time.

According to the emergency plan devised by the ship engineers, the ship shield would begin recovery from vital parts of the ship.

The first to be connected to the emergency power pipeline was the power room of the ship, followed by the ammunition room, the bridge, and so forth, with the less important cargo corridors being last in line.

For the entire Transport Fleet including the one that Noland Lee was on, the emergency plan was the same.

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The cargo corridors thus became a critical target for the players to board the ship.

Noland had timed his move just right and was about to issue a task to the players, reminding them to board, when he saw that the players, who had been staring dumbfounded at the Artificial Angels, had already started to take action.

As if they had received orders from someone, they all charged toward the ships that had lost their shield protection, completely without the need for Noland’s reminder.

“Oh? Not bad, the commander responsible for directing the players really has some skills, not frightened by the sudden death of the Artificial Angels.”

Noland nodded slightly, his estimation of the player commander rising a notch.

He simply gave up on the idea of posting the task and instead clenched his right hand again, activating the Magic Bombs that he had set in the crevices of the external armor panels of each ship’s cargo corridors.

These bombs, protected by the “Veil of Different Worlds,” were placed by Noland in the gaps of the cargo hold’s external armor.

Once detonated, a dense and violent surge of magical energy burst forth and, guided by Noland, targeted the weak points of the external armor panels.

“Boom——”

A heavy, muffled sound came from the lower deck of the Heavy Transport Ship, causing a slight vibration through the ship’s structure.

The piercing sound of alarms rang out once more.

“Beep——”

“Beep——”

“Warning, warning.”

“Cargo corridor air pressure imbalance, external armor panels and ship structure damaged, artificial gravity field partially disabled.”

“Shipborne repair robots are undergoing urgent repairs.” noveldrama

The Angel Enterprise Alliance’s tech tree was all pointed towards the biotech integration with Artificial Angels.

While the United Bureau could use nanobots to repair ships, the Angel Enterprise Alliance had to rely on the so-called shipborne repair robots.

The efficiency between the repair robots and nanobots was like night and day; the former, roughly the size of a human, would need at least 10 minutes to repair the holes that Noland had blasted.

With the shield gone and the damaged ship body not yet repaired, it would be quite the understatement if the players still couldn’t forcibly enter the ship.

Luckily, the players did not disappoint Noland.

Over 50 players, howling as they went, charged towards the breach in the Heavy Transport Ship, braving a hail of bullets from the armed crew as they swarmed inside.

Luckily for them, the turrets on the ship had limited angles of fire and couldn’t turn their barrels to point at the ship itself; otherwise, the players would have inevitably faced a close encounter with the ammunition.

Yet, even without the turrets’ interference, there were still casualties among the players.

All of them were approaching the ship with their flesh and blood bodies, inevitably getting hit by the Organic Extinction Guns.

Amid the thudding sounds, their bodies exploded within their power armor, turning into thick beads of blood and chunks of flesh that coated the inside of their armor.

Noland did not remind the players to use the shape-shifting spell.

He wanted to see how the players would react on the spot and pick out those who truly had a talent for magical combat.

Indeed, a few of the players were exceptionally quick-witted, almost instantly recognizing that the firearms in the hands of their enemies were specifically designed against flesh and blood.

They hurriedly selected the shape-shifting spell from their spell list, clicked to activate it, and transformed themselves into various bizarre life forms such as Gas Men, Stone Men, Iron Men, and so on.

As a result, even if the armed crew put their gun barrels into their mouths, they wouldn’t be able to hurt them in the slightest.

The remaining players, though not as quick to react, still had the basic combat instinct of elite players.

Upon seeing that some players were immune to the enemy’s firepower, they immediately realized that changing their own form could effectively resist the attack.

Some of them communicated their discovery to the commander while activating their shape-shifting spells.

In no time, the player commander issued an order for everyone to transform into other life forms.

In less than half a minute of exchange of fire, the armed crew members were stunned to find that all the enemies had changed, and their own firearms were as useless as sticks for making a fire.

“What the hell is going on with these guys?”

“How did they turn into monsters?”

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“Shoot, shoot, keep switching weapon modes and keep shooting!”

“It’s no use, switching to laser mode is no use either! Their power armor is coated! We need to use kinetic weapons!”

The chirping and shouting was incessant.

The armed crew had to give up the firearms in their hands and instead draw out chainsaw swords to meet the enemy.

Chainsaw swords… What an ancient melee weapon.

Though the teeth of the saw would spin at high speeds driven by engines and chains, in the end, it was just a close-combat weapon after all.

There was no choice, as the crew’s firearms could only fire beams that extinguish organic life and ordinary laser rays, not bullets.

Only the chainsaw swords they carried had a slim chance of cutting through the enemy’s power armor.

But the players didn’t give the armed crew any chance at all.

As soon as they noticed the other side intended to engage in close combat, the first players to board the ship immediately raised their guns to shoot.

“Bang bang bang bang——”

The sound of gunfire was intense; burst bullets flew out, hitting the crew’s armor and sparking large flakes of fire.

For a moment, countless fragments from the burst bullets scattered chaotically in the cargo hold corridor.

Although the crew also had power armor for protection, they couldn’t avoid being staggered slightly by the impact of the bullets, their steps faltering.

It was this small pause that allowed another group of players to forcefully board the ship successfully, joining the ranks tipping the balance of firepower.

Several players laughed heartily while firing their guns:

“Hahaha~ Are these crew members dumb? What era is it, still using melee weapons for boarding battles?”

“Yeah, ignoring their guns and using chainsaw swords; no sane person would use that thing.”

A young player bent down to pick up a laser gun from the ground.

After fiddling around with it for a bit, the young player burst out laughing:

“Ah yo, I wonder why they’re not using guns. Look, this piece-of-crap gun can only shoot organic extinction rays and type A laser beams, totally useless against our defense.”

“Hahaha~”

“Lucky we did our homework before setting off, removing the armor module on our power armor and installing a reflective coating that bounces off lasers.”

“These NPCs are so pitiful, suffering from a lack of education.”

The cargo passageway was filled with laughter as the players, in high spirits, quickly expanded their advantage and took more territory.

However, it wouldn’t be long before the players couldn’t laugh anymore.

In Noland Lee’s perception, several teams of armed crew from other parts of the battleship were rushing over with several electromagnetic guns.

Space Age electromagnetic guns fired alloy bullets using electromagnetism as the propulsion, much like during the era of ground warfare.

But the Space Age electromagnetic guns were more advanced.

Their bullets could be made with different cores, which could utilize the impact to trigger the cores, creating magnetic storms or flames.

The players’ power armor had laser reflective coatings, indeed capable of withstanding some laser attacks.

But when faced with magnetic field interference and electromagnetic disruption, their power armor might be compromised due to poor shielding capabilities.

Similarly, Noland Lee had no intention of stepping in to help.

The spell list he provided the players included spells to counter electromagnetic guns; it was all up to how flexibly the players could adapt.

The only thing that could compel Noland Lee to intervene was the ship shield, external armor, and artificial angels—entities the players absolutely couldn’t handle.

Noland Lee shifted his gaze to the artificial angels outside the ship.

20 artificial angels were back to normal, among them 9 paralyzed due to missing pilots.

The remaining 11 didn’t approach the ship or deal with the players inside the cabin, but instead, with long trails of flames, flew towards the distant player fleet.

This was the wise course of action.

Space Age weapons still couldn’t achieve “zero friendly fire.”

Artificial Angels could indeed easily eliminate the players concentrated within the battleship, but they would also deal a lethal blow to their own ship.

Compared with dealing with the players on board, the artificial angels might as well attend to the distant player fleet.

Noland Lee was considering whether to help the player fleet by distracting a few artificial angels when suddenly, a dense, dark aura emanated from the heavy transport ship’s laboratory.