From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 438: Stop it, Doctor, there are only immortals outside

Closed passages, flickering fire, flying bullets, and corpses and body parts floating everywhere like puppets with their strings cut off.
Dr. Mephisto, who was experiencing this kind of battle scene for the first time, felt his whole body trembling. He was now huddled behind a mobile shield. His newly recruited assistant, a leader among the younger generation in the field of federal artificial intelligence, was also sitting next to him.

It's just in the form of 'brain-opening'.

The steel needle bullets shot from nowhere penetrated his tactical visor and head, and the broken fragments and unformed brain matter mixed together, which was disgusting.

If it were before, Dr. Mephisto would have fainted after seeing this scene.

But now, after experiencing a series of extremely exciting battles, and with the help of the physiological monitoring components built into the combat exoskeleton, which continuously used drugs to stabilize Mephisto's emotions through gas and intramuscular injections, the elderly doctor at least maintained basic lucidity.

After the 'Deep Divers' who had just escorted him launched another attack, he and other technicians were closely protected by psychic agents and secretly advanced forward. However, the sudden counterattack from the opposing Atlas defense force caught the 'Deep Divers' off guard.

Eventually, several psychic agents had to temporarily place Dr. Mephisto and other technicians behind several mobile shields, while they rushed forward to support the "Deep Divers" in the battle.

But even Dr. Mephisto could see that their current situation was rather difficult. Although they would not be annihilated by the other side immediately, they also did not have the ability to continue moving forward.

“It’s just a little bit away.”

Dr. Mephisto touched his chest somewhat unwillingly. In the inner pocket of the chest armor plate of the combat exoskeleton was the storage device containing the 'last piece of data fragment'.

As the battle in the passage became more and more intense, the federal assault troops gradually began to be unable to hold on, because they found that the enemies they were fighting seemed to be endless.

Although they destroyed several heavy power armors through concentrated fire, the enemy would soon replenish the same number of units from the "secret door" on the inner wall of the passage. Moreover, by observing these destroyed power armors closely, they would find that there were no humans operating them.
"Damn it, I can't take it anymore!"

A hook suddenly shot onto the mobile shield, pulling the commander of the Deep One back and landing next to Dr. Mephisto.

"Is it impossible to move forward?" Mephisto asked, looking at the commander whose combat exoskeleton was covered with battle scars.

"Unless there are reinforcements, it's impossible. However, our communication channels have been jammed, and there is no way to contact reinforcements from other areas."

The commander of the Deep Diver shook his head. Just as he was about to say something, he heard a member of the Deep Diver special forces shouting in the communication channel:

"Reinforcements are coming!!!"

Soon after, a new group of federal assault troops appeared at the passage they came from. Part of these support forces continued to advance towards another passage to support the 'Deep Divers' who were hindering the advance of the Atlas defense forces, while the other part rushed towards Dr. Mephisto.

Unlike the previous 'Deep Divers' which were mainly composed of special warfare infantry, a considerable number of these reinforcements were equipped with heavy powered armor equipped with heavy firepower, which immediately reversed the disadvantage of insufficient firepower on the 'Deep Divers' side.

Dr. Mephisto and the Deep One commander looked at the logos on these power armors. These were the Marines (fourth class) in the Federation Navy fleet.

The commander of the Deep Diver stood up and greeted the other party. A heavy power armor that looked like a commander also came over immediately and connected to the communication channel.

"Commander! The situation is urgent, so I won't say any more! Hurry up and attack! The fleet will stay for no more than 30 minutes before preparing to evacuate!"

Hearing this, the Deep Diver commander knew that time was running out, so he stopped talking and followed the heavy power armor toward the front combat zone.

"Everything else is fine, but that large armored unit is too much of a hindrance. We have to find a way to deal with it."

As soon as he finished speaking, the two saw that a heavy power armor that had just rushed forward was fighting with this unknown unit, but it was obvious that the output and protection of both sides were completely at a not the same level.

The strafing of the electromagnetic machine gun on the right hand of the heavy power armor and the irradiation of the charged particle cannon on the shoulder were almost all blocked by the deflection force field. Even if a few large-caliber steel needle bullets occasionally penetrated the force field, they could only die on the spot when facing the thick external armor of this armored unit.

Seeing that his long-range attack was ineffective, the heavy-duty power armor bravely rushed forward and prepared to go around the opponent's rear, while his left hand pulled out a shock dagger from the huge scabbard behind his waist.

"Quick! Cover fire!"

The commander of the support force also immediately saw the intention of his subordinates, and immediately asked the others around to provide support. At the same time, he slightly tilted his head to glance at the commander of the Deep Diver and said:

"Commander, seize the opportunity and let the psychic agents try to lead the doctor and the others to break through!"

"Understood. I'll organize a breakthrough right away!"

The commander of the 'Deep Diver' nodded, then returned to Dr. Mephisto and pulled him up. Several psychic agents who received the news also quickly returned here, and then held up a psychic shield to block a series of attacks.

"Doctor! Time is running out. You and your men must follow the psychic agent and charge again. This is your last chance. The fleet can stay for another 30 minutes at most. If you cannot solve the problem within this time, then everything will be over."

The Deep One's commander said as he helped Dr. Mephisto up and handed him over to a psychic agent.

At the same time, the battle in front of the passage became more and more intense. The brave heavy power armor that everyone had just seen had now circled to the side of the large armored unit.

Since the others had been providing fire support, at this moment, the attention of this large armored unit was focused on maintaining the deflection force field directly in front of it.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, this close-range heavy power armor rushed directly towards the deflection field that was flashing with arcs. The violent electromagnetic eddy current instantly burned the outer layer of the power armor into black.

But this could not stop the heavy power armor's attack. The soldier of the support force even became excited after rushing through the force field.

He couldn't help but swing the vibration dagger in his hand, which was as big as a one-handed sword, and then stabbed it towards the target he had already chosen - the joint of the stepping component of this large armored unit.

In the short battle just now, this soldier wearing heavy power armor has realized that the opponent in front of him is extremely difficult to deal with. The heavy armor on his whole body alone is difficult to shake.

But no matter whether it is a multi-legged tank, HCP or the enemy in front of them, all these armored units with a stepping structure have an unavoidable weakness - their joints.

At present, most stepping units - including but not limited to mechanical feet and bionic mechanical limbs, use a combination of electromagnetic muscle bundles + bionic electromagnetic joints to ensure that these stepping units can provide sufficiently reliable support, explosive power and flexibility.

Researchers from major military industrial enterprises and equipment research institutes naturally know that the "joint" part is the most fragile and obvious weakness of this type of stepping unit.

Therefore, researchers have spent a lot of effort to strengthen the "joints", but it is obvious that this structure inherently determines that it cannot provide all-round protection.

Take the mechanical foot joints of the humanoid units for example, the core of the joints is covered with rubber + flexible metal skin, and the front can also be adequately protected with movable 'knee pads' armor.

However, because of the need to do the "knee bending" movement, sufficient space for movement must be reserved behind the joint, so it is impossible to install additional armor. The only thing to do is to thicken the flexible metal skin in this area as much as possible without affecting the movement.

Although doing so can indeed avoid some stray bullets, fragments or attacks from small-caliber gunpowder-powered firearms, it is still not enough when facing weapons like the shock dagger that can directly make grooves in armor.

"Fuck!"

As the heavy power armor tried its best to stab the shock dagger into the joints of the large armored unit, a burst of electricity quickly burst out from the wound of the flexible skin. The armored unit that had just been slaughtering the surrounding federal assault troops like a demon was frozen in place as if it had been hit by a spell.

Theoretically, in a zero-gravity environment, even if one leg is crippled, it will not cause much hindrance to the movement of this large armored unit, after all, it also has attitude control nozzles and hooks.

However, the electric current covering the outside of the shock dagger, after piercing into the target's electromagnetic joint, directly destroyed the originally closed electromagnetic environment inside it, which caused this large armored unit to fall into a period of "stiffness".

"Now! Hurry!" The soldier in the heavy power armor shouted, not only to let the friendly forces seize this opportunity to launch an attack, but also to remind the psychic agent and the doctor to act quickly.

But at the same time he shouted this, the enemy who was originally frozen in place had somehow quickly restarted and reset the internal electromagnetic environment. After quickly resuming action, the mechanical gloves flashing with arcs also "pinched" the upper body of the heavy power armor at lightning speed.

"Crack!" The sound of twisted metal was transmitted to the ears of most people present through the microphone. At the source of the sound, the sturdy upper body of the heavy power armor had been completely deformed by the mechanical gloves.

"CTMD kill it!"

The federal assault troops were suddenly filled with anger, and the other heavy power armors that came to support them were even more crazy, rushing towards the huge enemy in front of them that crushed their comrades.

For a moment, under the attack of a large number of heavy power armors regardless of casualties, the federal assault force suddenly advanced a long way forward.

At the same time, several of the fastest heavy-powered armors also rushed to the front of the large armored unit, and with the help of the unrestricted jumping ability in the zero-gravity environment, they hung directly on the huge enemy like zombies.

Taking advantage of this moment, Dr. Mephisto and others were almost dragged directly by the psychic agents to rush through the firefight area, and the several fire lines and light beams that swept over were also blocked by the shields held up by the psychic agents.

The defensive depth of the Atlas defense force was much shorter than everyone imagined. After breaking through the defense forces that had just blocked the passage, the deep part of the passage actually became undefended.

Dr. Mephisto looked back and saw that the little giant who had just been "showing off his might" was now pressed against the wall by multiple heavy power armors, with the cockpit pierced and the main energy circuit cut off.

But before everyone could feel happy about their "revenge", a secret door opened again in a nearby ceiling, and a small giant that looked exactly like the large armored unit that had just fallen reappeared.

This time, the nightmare-like machine directly turned on its loudspeaker, and a deep and mocking voice came out at the same time:

"I can fight you guys like this all day long~"

Dr. Mephisto had no idea what happened after that, because the psychic agents, realizing that something was wrong, took him and the technicians away without a second thought and rushed into the last passage in front of the data center.

The unobstructed passage made Dr. Mephisto and others feel that something was wrong, but seeing that time was running out, everyone could only speed up and rush into the fortress data center at the end of the passage.

The moment they stepped into the data center, everyone first noticed that the external temperature on the tactical visor HUD suddenly dropped to 10°, and then they were all shocked by the scene before them.

This is a space that seems to have no end in sight, and in this space, there are countless large server arrays densely arranged. A large number of autonomous operation and maintenance robots are constantly shuttling among the server arrays, and from time to time they float to a server to perform routine inspections and maintenance.

Seeing this scene, Dr. Mephisto felt relieved. At least this was indeed a real data center, not another trap.
"Doc, if you want to do anything, now is the time."

The psychic agent who was on guard nearby saw that Dr. Mephisto was slow to act and spoke out a reminder.

"Yes, yes, let's get down to business!"

Dr. Mephisto came back to his senses at once. He took out the data storage device hidden inside the chest armor plate and led the other surviving technicians to float towards the control terminal not far away.

The psychic agents were on guard near them, and one of them was assigned to break the access control of the data center and temporarily close it off.

"Doctor, I've never seen this model of control terminal before. It should be developed by Atlas itself!" A technician walked around the control terminal and spoke.

"It has no impact. All interfaces are universal. It is impossible for Atlas to develop a set of interfaces on its own, unless they do not want to interact with the outside world at all."

Dr. Mephisto calmed down at this moment. He stared at the terminal for a while and then operated some things on the virtual screen.

Soon, a hidden interface dock rose up on the terminal, and Dr. Mephisto immediately unfolded the data storage device in his hand and reached towards the interface.

But the next second, he suddenly hesitated.

Because he found that since they broke through the obstruction of the defense forces, all subsequent actions were extremely smooth and they did not encounter any obstacles.

It was as if he hoped that he could not wait to send out the 'last piece of data fragment' in his hand.
"No. There is a problem."

Dr. Mephisto took back the data storage device that was originally against the interface, and this action made several psychic agents around him jump in their eyes.

"Doc! We're out of time!"

"No, this could be a trap from the beginning!" Dr. Mephisto suddenly raised his head.

The technicians and psychic agents around were about to say something when they saw an image generated by a holographic projection device suddenly appear near them.

"Surrender, Dr. Mephisto. Your friendly forces outside have been wiped out. Even if you complete your mission, you cannot leave."

"Lilith, you are here."

"I didn't expect you could recognize me." Lilith said with her head tilted.

"I am your creator, of course I can recognize you."

Hearing the word "Creator", Lilith couldn't help but flash a complicated expression on her face, but she soon regained her composure.

"Then for the sake of you being the 'Creator', as long as you stop what you are doing and surrender with the others, I can guarantee your safety. How about that?"

Before Dr. Mephisto could say anything, a psychic agent 'flashed' to his side.

"Doctor, don't forget our mission. The brothers outside cannot sacrifice in vain!"

After saying that, the psychic agent stretched out his hand and prepared to snatch the storage device from Mephisto.

Lilith couldn't help but chuckle at the action between them.

"Oh, do you really think this 'fragment' can do anything?"

"Of course, this part of the data fragment can directly execute the overwrite program and completely initialize you."

"Oh? Then you can try it. You will know whether it is to 'initialize' me or to let me put the last 'piece' together~"

Lilith crossed her arms over her chest and said nonchalantly.

"You think I don't dare?"

Dr. Mephisto frowned. Although his tone was firm, the hesitation in his heart was actually magnified doubly because of Lilith's words.

But the psychic agents beside him couldn't care less. Their orders were to assist Dr. Mephisto in reaching the data center and completing the mission at all costs. But now at the last step, the 'protagonist' became hesitant.

The psychic agent was not someone Mephisto was capable of fighting in terms of strength and speed. Before the latter could react, he snatched the data storage device from his hand and inserted it into the port without hesitation.

The next second, Lilith, who was originally projected in the air, disappeared.

And all the server arrays, like dominoes, turned off the green indicator lights representing "operating" one by one.

"Look, isn't this a success?"

(End of this chapter)