[The Mountain's Perimeter]
There were many large metal gates wide open, and hundreds of robots were emerging from them — organic-metallic robots shaped like green lizards, ranging from 3 to 5 meters in length.
It was clear that this base possessed an army composed of organic robots made from a specific creature.
On the opposite side, heavily armored combat vehicles equipped with the latest energy weapons had formed a defensive line, unleashing bursts of bullets at the fast-crawling enemy lizard-bots.
As the scene showed the wave of mechanical lizards approaching the defensive line with minimal losses due to their energy-based protective shields, suddenly numerous landmines exploded in front of the defensive line at the last moment, blowing up and destroying half of the lizard army.
Then, the machine guns on the armored vehicles stopped firing, and the weapons transformed as their components shifted to become plasma cannons.
The weapons began charging and launching explosive plasma balls every three seconds, eliminating the lizards much more effectively and with clear penetrative damage.
Despite this, some lizard-bots managed to reach the defensive line and destroyed the armored vehicles with extreme ease.
However, this didn't last long, as one of the flying mechas used by the gene-fighters from a special forces team blew up every lizard-bot that came too close to the armored vehicles.
In short, it was a one-sided massacre.
Elsewhere, a battle was taking place between elite combat mechas, and the outcome became apparent when most of the enemy's elite mechas fled, and some were killed.
This was due to the numerical superiority of the Union army and the power of their mechas compared to those of the enemy.
Beatrix was one of the individuals who managed to destroy an elite enemy mecha.
.....
[Inside the Temporary Special Operations Command Room of the Union Army for this Battle]
The old man monitored the situation, and as he scratched his chin, he muttered in a low voice:
_ Something's not right... The enemy's lower-tier forces fought normally, but the elite mechas withdrew earlier than expected.
The old man, along with some officers and team leaders, continued watching the live broadcast of the battle and the map showing force locations and movements over the terrain.
At that moment, the old man received a report of the infiltrators completing their mission and successfully escaping.
_ Connect me to the infiltrator leader.
One of the personnel sitting at a computer did so, and the infiltrator leader — the spy — began speaking through the communication channel.
_ Yes, sir.
_ Did you see anything suspicious inside?
_ Aside from not finding the enemy commander, there was nothing else suspicious.
The old man remained silent for a moment.
Suddenly, a horrific scene appeared on the live broadcast screens.
A massive explosion occurred — an explosion generated from within the mountain base, with a destructive range and force that completely obliterated the mountain, and the blast wave reached the defensive lines surrounding it.
Perhaps those who suffered the most were the elite mecha units that had been fighting on top of the mountain.
The old man slammed the table in front of him with his fist and cursed loudly.
Then he ordered a retreat of the forces and commanded the distant aerial units to move to the heart of the site to check for casualties, especially among the combat mechas.
A soldier sitting at a computer said:
_ Most of our communications with soldiers within the encirclement lines are still active, but we've lost contact with some of the special mechas near the explosion's epicenter, and we've lost all communication with long-range combat robots within that radius.
In reality, the survival of some mechas was expected, given that mechas piloted by elite gene-fighters are not easily destroyed and possess great energy reserves that can withstand explosion damage — which is typically spread out rather than focused like a sword strike.
.....
Within the blast zone
In the dust cloud that stretched across tens of kilometers, Surai and the two infiltrators beside him were regaining their senses after the shock and the recoil that threw them onto a nearby rocky ledge.
_ Damn it! ... Zeus was inside!!
Surai panicked and quickly tried to contact Zeus, but his AI informed him that Zeus's signal was no longer connected to the base.
He then contacted the rest of his comrades who were at the explosion center — like Beatrix and the other mecha pilots.
Fortunately, all their signals were still active.
Surai didn't open a communication channel with anyone; he was just rapidly checking connectivity.
Then he tried contacting Zeus again.
....
[Thirty Minutes Earlier]
Zeus entered the narrow tunnel, and after walking downhill for five minutes, he reached its end, which connected to another massive tunnel.
It was wide enough for a military armored truck to pass through.
Indeed, Zeus noticed tire marks on the ground.
The path to his right was blocked, while the path to his left was lit and its end couldn't be seen.
Zeus decided to sprint at high speed by lightly using his energy — just enough to match the energy recovery rate from the engravings.
After twenty minutes of running, a violent shockwave appeared, as if a powerful earthquake had hit the area.
Zeus stumbled slightly and stopped.
He saw the tremor subside after a few moments and wondered what kind of heavy weaponry the Union had used to cause such an effect.
Then he resumed running.
In fact, Zeus had deactivated his suit's communications and was using the stealth feature to avoid detection by enemy systems.
Zeus kept running until he reached a large closed metal door. He slowed down and stopped in front of its control panel, pulling out a small disc and attaching it to it.
Zeus waited briefly until a notification appeared indicating a successful first-level hack, followed by another notification of second-level failure — with a note informing Zeus that the failure to fully hack the system was because the door was standalone and not connected to any central system.
"" A standalone circuit... that's strange. So, does this mean this door leads directly outside? ""