Chapter 381: General Ling!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
From the time they had discovered the aerial invasion till now, two hours had elapsed unknowingly. The night was still very dark, and the enemy still had not been able to break through the defensive line of the ground forces. Meanwhile, the enemies who had just appeared had not made much impact due to the desperate resistance from all the special-class mecha of the Federation forces. The battle was once again mired in a deadlock.
The commander of the ground forces had grown numb in the face of wave after wave of casualty reports. He went from deep heartache to unfeeling numbness, because he himself had no idea whether he would share the same fate as many of these warriors, sacrificed in the battle on this planet ...
"Look, what's that up above ...?" A staff officer suddenly cried out in surprise. He was the one tasked with monitoring the battlefield, and right now, his eyes were riveted on the large screen on the wall of the command centre.
At this cry, the commander quickly raised his head from the mass of reports before him, and his eyes immediately noticed two radiant mecha almost bright enough to dazzle his eyes in the air above the dormitory district. That familiar form caused him to lose control and shout, "Godd*mmit! They actually dare to violate the terms of the joint declaration!"
Right then, on the battlefield, almost everyone had noticed the two mecha hovering in the air. The mecha's outer forms were just too large and bright — it was practically impossible to miss them. It was like someone had hit the pause button on the initially fierce battlefield; both sides stopped fighting in unplanned unison.
Imperial mecha were forbidden from appearing in regular battlefields, but now two had inexplicably appeared in the airspace above planet Newline. They stood tall and proud as they looked down on the battlefield below.
When the enemy fighters saw the emblem on the chests of the two imperial mecha, they instantly emitted an earth-shattering cheer. In contrast, the defensive troops of planet Newline, all of the Federation warriors including the academy instructors, were swamped by an emotion that felt a lot like despair.
Tang Yu had just destroyed an ace mecha when he heard the horrified gasps of the other instructors around him. And right after that, the entire battlefield descended into a kind of cold stillness. Bewildered, he lifted his head, and when he saw the two mecha hovering in the air, his pupils contracted, and his hands which had been busy operating his mecha stiffened ...
Tang Yu reflexively shot a glance at the dormitory district — he could almost see what the final fate of the people remaining here would be already. He suddenly thought of something and swiftly checked the location of his pet disciple Qiao Ting. Unexpectedly, he found that the other had already departed the range of the dormitory district and was heading into the depths of the military academy.
Tang Yu could not help but feel both shocked and delighted. Shocked that Qiao Ting had not obeyed his orders, acting on his own to leave the protected area ... if anything had happened, he would not have been able to rush over in time to help. Delighted because, even though Qiao Ting had disobeyed him, he had made a fortuitous mistake in leaving the dormitory district. Perhaps this way, he may have a chance of surviving.
Yes, Tang Yu did not believe that they would be able to survive the attacks of an imperial operator. It was foreseeable that anyone who remained in the dormitory district, whether it were soldiers or instructors, or even those students under the protection of the beam shield, would be unable to escape death in the end.
Having no other recourse, Tang Yu's gaze turned cold as he made an instant decision. He would lead all the instructors here and try their best to hold these two imperial mecha here as long as possible, giving Qiao Ting's group more time to run away.
The two imperial mecha saw that the entire battlefield had frozen for several seconds at their emergence, becoming deathly silent, and their hearts were filled with pride and satisfaction. They stared with cool disinterest down at the people below — the Huaxian ground forces and the ace operators in their ranks were like nothing more than ants in the imperial mecha's eyes.
At this moment, one of the imperial mecha asked the other tonelessly, "What have you found?"
"I see two batches of baby catfish 1 trying to meet up, hehe ..." the other imperial mecha suddenly cackled.
"Is it the target?" The imperial mecha who had first spoken could not help but raise an eyebrow, somewhat surprised. He did not expect to be so lucky, discovering their target right from the get-go.
" Most probably 2 . Those baby catfish are all trainee mecha of the academy. Two of them are even ace trainee mecha. They should be the two targets central command has assigned to us. Parker, I'll leave this end to you. I'll go handle those little catfish, and once I'm done, we can return." The other imperial mecha could not help but lick his lips in anticipation. Compared to being a humanoid cannon without any need for skill or technique, he still much preferred teasing baby catfish and having some fun.
"Don't go overboard." The imperial mecha which had first spoken could not help but warn the other. It seemed like the two imperial mecha had a good relationship.
"Chill, chill. When have I not completed a mission?" replied the other imperial mecha. Immediately after, he had operated his mecha to disappear into the night sky ...
Tang Yu, who had been closely observing the two imperial mecha all this time, saw one of them abruptly disappear and his heart clenched. "Where did he go?"
Before he could search for the other's tracks, the remaining imperial mecha suddenly drew a giant cylindrical weapon almost as tall as the mecha itself from behind it. Tang Yu's face changed drastically at the sight and he shouted, "Dodge!"
As an elite ace, Tang Yu had very comprehensive knowledge of the imperial mecha he would be using once he advanced. The weapon the opponent had brought out was precisely the most powerful and horrifying beam energy weapon imperial mecha had —— Line of Oblivion! As long as one was hit by the weapon, even an imperial mecha of the same level would only be able to survive by exhausting all of its power on its King Shield. Any mecha below imperial mecha absolutely could not survive a blow from this weapon. The only way to escape was to leave the attack range of the Line of Oblivion, which was why Tang Yu had immediately yelled out for his side to run.
"Boom!" The round cylinder in the imperial mecha's hands suddenly shot out a violet-black beam. At the moment it discharged, even a mecha as powerful as the imperial mecha could not keep its balance — the entire mecha was sent flying backwards; it was clear to see how powerful the kickback of this cannon was.
Thanks to Tang Yu's warning, all the Federation mecha in the air swiftly flew out of the trajectory of the beam. Still, even so, several mecha who did not react fast enough were grazed by the violet-black beam. Even this tiny bit of contact was enough for the power contained by the beam to blow these mecha apart, turning them into hunks of debris before being vaporized to disappear without a trace into the air.
This one shot of the imperial mecha's cannon had been targeting the armoured ground forces fighting against the enemy mecha. Just one shot, and a circular black space appeared right in the centre of the neat rectangular formation of the armoured troops. Those troops standing within the circle had been swallowed by a wave of black, similarly disappearing without a trace ...
"This is too horrific. We have no way of resisting this!" At the sight, one of the staff officers in ground command was unable to take the pressure and collapsed to his knees, wailing. Although imperial mecha were unable to determine the outcome of a battlefield outright like god-class mecha, the ground forces of the Federation which were already at a disadvantage just had no spare energy to resist against the enemy mecha anymore after receiving this devastating blow.
This spineless behaviour of the staff officer would normally have drawn the scorn and rebuke of others, but everyone in the command centre had been shocked dumb by this strike. The command centre was extraordinarily silent, desperation and despair spreading out like a shroud.
The imperial mecha saw that he had managed to wipe out almost one-sixth of the armoured ground forces with just one shot and nodded in satisfaction. "Truly impressive. This is the true value of us imperial operators ..."
After saying that, the imperial operator stabilised his mecha and raised the cylinder once more. This time, he was aiming for the area several li behind the armoured troops, the radiantly shining dormitory district ...
"What a great target!" The imperial operator licked in his lips excitedly. As long as he utterly destroyed that area, their mission would be half-completed. How funny that these Huaxians, thinking they were so smart, had created such a district-wide beam shield. This saved him a lot of effort, allowing him to find the target he wanted to hit so easily. It was just so bloody convenient.
Tang Yu, who had just led the instructors to evade the trajectory of the beam, saw where the cylinder was aimed at and could not help but cry, "Stop! Bastard!" He operated his mecha over in an attempt to prevent the attack, but it was already too late. The opponent pulled the trigger and another violet-black beam shot out from the cylinder ...
"Boom!" The violet-black beam struck the beam shield of the dormitory district without mercy. The beam shield shattered instantly, but the beam was not weakened significantly. In the next moment, it blasted its way into the dormitory district. Many buildings were immediately consumed by the violet-black beam, and one-tenth of the initially lovely and tranquil dormitory district was gone.
Witnessing this, tears formed in Tang Yu's fierce gaze. Right when the beam struck its target, he could almost see the cadets inside being vaporised in the spray of dust and ash, and his heart twisted with anguish.
"Ain't this place big ..." The imperial mecha grumbled, before once again lifting its cylinder to aim at the dormitory district, preparing to fire the second round of the Line of Oblivion.
"Stop, godd*mmit!" Tang Yu became frenzied. Without hesitation, he made his mecha leap towards the imperial mecha. Even though he knew this was suicidal, he just could not stand idly by and watch as the children died here ...
"How impudent!" The imperial mecha saw an ace mecha charging like a reckless fool at him, trying to stop him from firing the Line of Oblivion. Sneering, he pulled the trigger, sending another violet-black beam shooting out of the cannon to barrel towards Tang Yu's mecha ...
"Major Tang Yu!" the instructors all shouted in horror. Everyone there knew that as soon as the Line of Oblivion hit, Tang Yu was very unlikely to survive. Just as the violet-black beam was about to consume Tang Yu's mecha whole ...
With a loud "boom!" the violet-black beam was abruptly stopped in its tracks by a powerful wave of energy. The beam then quickly dissipated, and amazingly, Tang Yu's mecha reappeared completely undamaged. What in the world had happened?
Even Tang Yu himself was equally stunned and confused. He had charged forwards, ready to sacrifice himself, hoping that he could exhaust as much of the power behind the Line of Oblivion's attack as possible so that the dormitory district below would receive less damage. Unexpectedly, in that split second before he would have been struck by the attack, a pale blue beam had suddenly come from a distance to intercept the Line of Oblivion, saving him.
He instinctively looked in the direction where the pale blue beam had come from. In the night sky above, a mecha was flying here at high speed. A few seconds later, the mecha appeared before everyone's eyes ...
Tang Yu teared up when he saw this mecha. Like a bullied child who had finally caught sight of a dependable adult, he could not help but cry out, "General Ling!"
Tang Yu had shouted this through his mecha's loudspeakers, so everyone on the battlefield heard this cry loud and clear!