“Alright… Do me a favor and overlay the remaining time for the data glyph application in my visual feed”
[Confirmed]
Matthew raised his head, the view above him streamed in through all the different drones spread out over the area, this consisted mostly of aerial surveillance drones, sensors on his Mk. 8 powered armor as well as the sensors on his single Arial support, the Haliea that circled above
“Task the Haliea with wide area suppression at my say, there’s no need to conserve ammunition, as for the remaining cargo, scatter it over the place”
[Confirmed, contact #11 have breached interception net, impact zone marked, 13 seconds]
Matthew followed the drop pod down without much panic as it smashed into the ground a few hundred meters away from him and the unconscious Alina he still held in his hands, as the pod metal doors were blown clean off from the inside the contents were revealed to be half a dozen ‘Golem’humanoid combat androids, tendrils of pale blue light were wrapped around their warped metal frames
[Haliea-004 engaging targets]
The corrupted androids hardly had a chance to raise their weapons before a pair of missiles impacted them, this was quickly followed by an appropriate amount of 30mm autocannon fire that turned the corrupted combat androids into slag metal
[Targets suppressed Haliea-004 returning to holding pattern]
“...Keep it up”
Time seemed to stretch out near endlessly as the drop pods in the sky continued multiplying, the anti-air artillery continued drawing lines across the sky to intercept, however Matthew could tell by the cold pit that formed in his stomach that it wouldn’t be enough
[Haliea-004 engaging targets]
‘Shit…’
Even as he watched the 6th drop pod get lit up, he still didn’t feel particularly hopeful about his or Alina’s current situation
‘5 minutes… 5 fucking minutes… Any luck with the weapon shipment, Aea?’
[Not at the moment, due to the increased spacial isolation I can’t make a estimate either]
Matthew calmed himself for a moment by letting out a sigh as he looked up, at the same time Aea sounded out another alert
[Contact #89 have breached interception net, impact zone marked, 8 seconds]
Matthew kicked off and rounded the corner of a large boulder to take cover as the drop pod crashed down about 30 meters away from him, before he had to worry about the contents however Haliea-004 coasted over his head
[Haliea-004 engaging targets]
Before the drop pod could blow open its doors, Haliea-004’s auto cannon cut it into slag metal, however one of the corrupted drones inside the drop pod managed to get a few shots off from its coil rifle that impacted Haliea-004’s right wing
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
[Damage minimal, secondary fuel line ruptured… Ammunition stores are nearing depletion]
“How many more can Haliea-004 handle with the remaining ammunition?”
[At current ammunition stores, at most another 2 drop pods]
Just then Matthew felt something chance, he looked up and even with his eyes mended shut, and his optical nerves blocked he could still feel it, no he could ‘see it’
The devil comet was glowing a radiant pale blue and with it 3 drop pods shifted positions several times and instantly passed through the interception zone
[Paradigm shift observed, Contact #90, #91, 92 have breached interception net, impact zones marked]
“Come on now, that’s bullshit! Hit me with the full pre workout and switch nanite deployment to maintaining battle functions”
[Confirmed, nanite deployment diverted from restoration towards maintaining battle functions, complete restoration paused]
As his air cover moved in for a final pass, Matthew made his last preparations for the upcoming battle
[Haliea-004 engaging targets, authorize final strike?]
Matthew shifted Alina in his arms and magnetized her body on his back as he yelled over the crash of the 3 drop pods
“Go for it!”
At his command, Haliea-004 rose into the sky as its auto cannon slagged another two drop pods of drones before firing the last 15 or so rounds into the 3rd pod, then it turned its engines and kicked on the afterburner and rapidly streaked down towards the 3rd pod.
Gravity and velocity did the rest as the Haliea slammed into the drop pod and smashed it to pieces along with itself
“Godspeed… Aright Aea, put me into a level 1 overclock”
[Confirmed, all nanite patterns entering level 1 overclock, Contact #94 and #96 have breached interception net, impact zones marked]
Matthew rechecked the chamber on his coil rifle before he shouldered it and kicked off the ground to attack the nearest drop pod, he weaved in between the boulders and a moment after the drop pod slammed into the ground he popped out from cover and opened fire
‘A Mark 87 orbital assault pod, I can’t piece the shielding with this rifle which means the moment to strike is when the shielding core collapses and the assault doors are blown off… Assuming the contents is the same as the last ones and the limited time window, I can’t just hose it down… In that case’
Matthew 12 times in chest height of the drop pod before he instantly shifted targets to the next drop pod that was still screaming towards the ground, a few moments after he moved the external walls were blown off and 2 corrupted golem androids moved out, the other 4 having been successfully disabled by Matthew’s fire
‘4 out of 6, not bad…’
Matthew showed a small smile as he took his position at the next impact sight as the next drop pod crashed down, the moment after the shockwave passed him he popped out from cover again and fired, this time he let out 14 shots before he moved again
‘Don’t butt in’
Matthew moved to clean up the two drones that had escaped his fire in the first time around, as he moved in he started to fire through the boulders, the two androids quickly fanned out as they fired back
‘Ugh… Fuck…’
Matthew took a shot in his left arm as he took down the two androids
[Trauma pattern 1 and 2 assigned]
Matthew fired back and managed to disable the last android before he moved around the boulders and finished off the corrupted android, the pale blue light squirmed and writhed around for a few moments before the pale blue light faded
[Contact #96 impact warning, 4 seconds]
Matthew moved quickly, weaving in and out between the boulders as the drop pod touched crashed down into the landscape, Matthew clicked his tongue as he realized he wouldn’t reach the perfect ambush spot in time as he leaped up and landed on the top of a boulder as he began firing at the pod as it exploded its doors out
‘Come on now…’
Matthew collapsed his stance as the corrupted androids opened fire, Matthew rolled off the boulder as his previous vantage point was systematically disintegrated by coil rifle fire
“Sorry my love, hang in there”
[Trauma pattern 3 assigned to lacerations]
Matthew voiced a quick apology to Alina that was still magnetically attached to his back as he continued moving, he discarded his magazine as he slid along the ground and picked another one up from the scattered supplies and directly inserted it in his coil rifle before he moved into to engage the corrupted androids
‘I can’t let them establish a beachhead, if they get too many numbers on me, they’ll just swarm us and drown me in numbers… Shit, 4 minutes is a long time to pass on the backfoot…’
Matthew reached down and retrieved a grenade from his belt, which he chucked towards the drop pod, as the grenade reached the top point of its arch it suddenly magnetized before slamming into the drop pod that was feeding sensor data to the corrupted androids, then it fused in a bright light that quickly heated the entire pod and fired its electronics
[Contact #104, 105 and 107 have breached interception net, impact zones marked]
“Switch information relay to direct data glyph injection”
Aea remained silent, instead of the usual voice confirmation the information Aea judged Matthew needed from it was directly relayed into his mind, almost immediately Matthew felt the phycological barrier between himself and Aea blur, then shatter
It no longer conversed as an equal. He was made to understand its every input, its every suggestion, its every battle simulation and prediction, Aea seamlessly instructed Matthew, it tuned his senses to gather any missing holes in its available information network
‘...’
Matthew felt his sense of self blur as he moved with increasingly inhuman levels of perfection