radicalducati Chapter 50 Interference
Chapter 50 Interference
The transport ship landed on the southwestern edge of the basin. The hatch opened, and grayish-yellow sand rushed in. A pungent chemical odor penetrated the power armor's visor filter, but the acrid smell of sulfur mixed with burnt metal still managed to get through.
Liu En stepped onto the gravel. Under his feet were fragments of rock that had broken off from the edge of the bombing crater, covered with a thick layer of grayish-yellow gravel. In the distance was a gentle, saucer-shaped basin, and further still, an arc-shaped ridge rising from the outer edge of the crater.
On the sensor panel, the last coordinates of the first batch of missing soldiers were still lit—slightly east of the center of the basin, less than twenty kilometers in a straight line. The signal indicator lights for the second and third batches flickered around the site, both waiting in place.
He pressed the communication button. The Black Pearl's signal had weakened considerably, but intermittent carrier waves could still be received.
Switch to the mech command channel. This channel writes directly to the mech's command buffer as binary pulses. The Thinker interface inside his skull silently outputs a series of pulses.
"The second batch will advance five kilometers forward, conducting exploration step by step."
Three seconds later, the confirmation pulse was transmitted back. The thermal signals of the second batch of mechs began to move deeper into the basin.
"The third batch involves establishing communication relay nodes."
The antenna array unfolded amidst the smoke and dust.
"Fourth batch, on standby."
Four Casterland mechs emerged from the sides of the transport ship. Their heavy, humanoid silhouettes advanced slowly through the grayish-yellow dust, their rounded shoulder armor gleaming a dark gray under the searchlights. The repulsive mesh was in standby mode, with subtle electrostatic patterns visible at the seams, like a breathing spiderweb. The engines hummed dully, the thrusters spewing weak streams of ions, the kicked-up sand hitting the powered armor legs. A second wave of thermal signals moved slowly across the sensors, while a third deployed its antennas in place.
Kara led the veterans in a search formation behind her, their explosive guns pointing in different directions. No one spoke. The only sound on the communication channel was the hissing static of electricity, occasionally interspersed with location pulses sent back by the mechs—pulses that could only be heard on the mech command channel, not on the human voice channel.
Liu En extended his consciousness outward. Several kilometers away, the half-open hatch came into view—metallic, cooler than the surrounding rocks, with a gap between the door and the frame. Deeper, beneath the rock strata, the extremely low-frequency pulsation persisted. It wasn't the sound of machinery, but a standby signal from equipment, almost inaudible due to the attenuation of the earth's layers, yet it was still there.
He continued walking.
The background noise in the communication channel grew increasingly louder, bursting out from the signal's underlying layers every few seconds and fragmenting his conversation with Marcus. But Marcus had already increased the power to maximum, and the directional beam was locked onto the transport ship's frequency. The carrier wave was still there; that was enough.
Marcus's voice broke through the noise: "...Captain...signal attenuation...maximum power..."
Liu En pressed the call button but didn't answer. No need. Marcus was just confirming the connection was still active.
The heat signatures of the second wave of mechs moved slowly across the sensors, flanking the basin from the flanks. The third wave established a firing stronghold on the high ground, their antenna indicator lights faintly visible in the smoke and dust.
The basin deepened. The rocks beneath their feet transformed from gravel into large chunks of igneous clastic rock, their surfaces displaying textures of molten and reformed material, gleaming a dark gray sheen under the searchlight. The piles of rubble grew larger, with chunks of debris stacking upon each other, and the power armor's servo system automatically adjusted its gait.
Liu En's consciousness kept scanning ahead. The hatch was getting closer and closer. The mech's heat signal was also steadily advancing.
Then the laser came.
Not a single beam, but a cluster. Emerging from the fissures in the ravine-like rock strata, pale red beams flickered in and out of the grayish-yellow smoke. Each beam wasn't powerful, but dozens of beams striking the same area simultaneously would cause the armor temperature to spike within seconds.
The sensors of the Casterland mechs at the forefront locked onto the incoming laser the instant it was fired. The repulsive grid activated at full power before the beam hit, and the grid nodes burst forth with dazzling electric streaks.
The beams struck the grid, deflected, and scattered. Some reflected back into the cracks, blasting out more debris; others diffused along the grid surface and were expelled through the cooling grates. Only a very small fraction penetrated the first layer of defense, striking the thick terracotta armor and leaving shallow scorch marks. The machine gun engines hummed briefly, the energy feedback fluctuating within a stable range before returning to normal.
One of the mechs took a step forward, using its shoulder armor to block a scattering laser, shielding the veteran behind it in shadow. Its shoulder armor temperature jumped two notches, and its cooling system hissed briefly, but it didn't hesitate and continued its advance.
A laser beam shot straight at Liu En's left chest. The field shield activated automatically, and a pale blue energy membrane exploded at the point of impact, deflecting the beam to one side. The deflected laser struck his left shoulder armor, causing the temperature to jump a notch, and the cooling system emitted a faint hum.
Kara's command boomed through the garrison channel: "Suppressive fire! Open fire!"
Explosive gunfire erupted simultaneously from multiple directions. The veterans didn't need to see the enemy; they fired in the direction the lasers were coming from, and the explosives detonated in the cracks of the rock, sending debris flying.
The Casterlan mechs led the way. They were natural shields, drawing most of the fire with their clumsy yet sturdy bodies.
Liu En sent a series of pulses to the mech command channel through the Thinker interface: "Second batch, eastern ravine, suppressive fire."
Pulse feedback confirmed. A barrage of explosions echoed from the eastern side of the basin. The sensors of the second batch of mechs completed rangefinding and trajectory calculations. Six mechs deployed in a skirmish line on the scree slope, each fifty meters apart. Heavy artillery fired simultaneously, muzzle flashes exploding into orange-red halos hundreds of meters away, as the shells, trailing contrails, plunged into the firing ports deep within the fissure. Several laser firing positions were eliminated, and thick smoke billowed from the fissure.
"Third batch, western highlands, block the firing range." Another batch of pulses.
The third wave of explosions came from the west, suppressing the firepower that was trying to flank.
On the sensor panel, new heat sources appeared ahead of the second batch of mechs, and there were more of them. Those things crawled out from deeper crevices, their six legs moving quickly across the rubble—they were no longer Laser Sentinels, but heavier models, their torsos equipped with live ammunition.
"Second wave, fire coverage. Range 800 meters, free fire."
The pulse feedback was confirmed. The sensors of the second batch of mechs completed ranging and trajectory calculations within seconds. Six mechs opened fire simultaneously, not in bursts, but with a fully automatic barrage from heavy explosive cannons. Muzzle flashes exploded hundreds of meters away, and explosive shells detonated at the entrance to the fissure, sending debris flying. Several hexapod units were directly hit, their wreckage blasted away by the shockwave. The remaining units began to move laterally at great speed, attempting to approach from the flanks. But the mechs' fire control systems continuously updated their trajectories. The barrage wove a moving fire net at the fissure entrance, each shot precisely adjusted for lead.
Liu En bent down and picked up a piece of wrecked machinery from the rubble. It had an ellipsoidal shell, six legs, and an integrated laser array on top. It bore no Imperial double-headed eagle insignia, and no serial number. A probe of consciousness—a shallow level of perception was sufficient.
Unmanned patrol and blockade units. Long-term standby, automatically identifying intruders. This low-powered surveillance loop has been operating for thousands of years. Liu En was not alarmed but rather pleased. What he needed was underground.
He tossed the wreckage back into the rubble and sent a series of pulses through the Thinker interface: "Continue the advance. Second wave advances to the 400-meter line and establishes a suppressive firing range."
The second wave of mechs began to advance. Six heavy combat machines deployed on the scree slope, each spaced fifty meters apart, forming a crossfire network covering the frontal sector. Four hundred meters—the ideal suppression range for heavy explosive cannons. Laser sentinels fired pale red beams from the fissures, but at this distance the beams had already diffused, and the energy density decreased. The mech repulsion grid flickered at the point of impact, and the energy feedback pulsated within a safe range.
The group continued forward. The rock walls on both sides narrowed, and the passage became narrower. Liu En's consciousness swept across the rubble several hundred meters ahead and found twelve humanoid heat sources behind them—the twelve mechs that had lost contact in the first batch.
They emerged from behind their bunkers, forming a sparse skirmish line, their optical lenses completely extinguished. Their gait was uncoordinated, their limbs moving as if being pulled by different signal sources. The repulsive grid was not activated. They did not respond to any identity verification in the mech command channel.
Kara shouted in the garrison channel, "Captain, ahead—our mechs!"
Liu En did not reply. He sent a final identity verification pulse to the mech command channel through the Thinker interface—standard encryption, retransmitted three times.
no respond.
Liu En responded to Kara: "They are contaminated."
Before the words were even finished, the first controlled mech raised its right arm hundreds of meters away. The muzzle flash of the heavy bomb cannon exploded in the distance, and the bomb flew towards the Casterland mech leading the way.
The Casterland mech's repulsive grid activated at full power the instant the controlled mech raised its arm. The sensors completed threat assessment and energy allocation within fractions of a second of locking onto the target's gun barrel.
The bomb exploded on the repulsive grid. An electric arc erupted at the point of impact, creating a dazzling burst of sparks, and the warhead shattered. The shockwave caused the Casteran mech's hydraulic balancing system to slightly adjust its posture, but it did not retreat. The grid's energy feedback jumped briefly before settling back down.
The second and third machines opened fire simultaneously. More explosive bombs rained down on the same defensive line. Under the continuous barrage, the Casteran mechs' repulsive grid began to flicker with brief overload, but the grid nodes quickly redistributed energy, dispersing the load. Not a single bomb penetrated.
Carlos cursed, "Damn it! They're firing on their own people!"
Liu En's consciousness swept over the twelve controlled mechs. Their wet cores were filled with externally injected, forged command packets, originating from the same source as the previous "imitation pulse." The thing underground had already learned how to control the mechs.
One of the controlled mechs turned towards the veteran. Its explosive guns had just turned, but the other mechs were still hundreds of meters away, outside the area of effect. He couldn't dismantle them remotely. He needed to get closer.
"Second wave, advance to the 200-meter line, suppress with fire, do not destroy," he ordered in the mech command channel.
The second wave of mechs activated their thrusters, advancing at high speed across the scree slope. Their heavy chassis crushed the debris, leaving grayish-yellow trails of dust in their wake. They continued firing as they moved, using a barrage of fire to block the controlled mechs' field of fire. The controlled mechs' accuracy began to decline—not because they couldn't hit their targets, but because the barrage made it difficult for their sensors to maintain a stable lock-on amidst the continuous explosions.
Liu En began to run forward. The power armor's servo system was operating at full capacity, and the magnetic grappling claws on the soles of his boots gripped the rock layer tightly with every step.
Kara shouted into the channel, "Captain!"
He didn't stop. The second wave of mechs advanced on either side of him, using repulsive meshes to block most of the stray bullets. A bomb flew from the flank, hitting the shoulder armor of the mech on the left. The mesh exploded in a flash of electricity, and shrapnel grazed the side of Liu En's helmet, leaving a scorch mark.
He didn't stop.
Two hundred meters. One hundred meters. The edge of the field finally touched the nearest controlled mech. Liu En's consciousness probed in, issuing the disassembly command—not to dismantle the entire machine, but to dismantle its explosive gun feeding mechanism. The magazine connector dissolved into an atomic cloud at the atomic level, and the magazine detached.
Next one. And the next one. In less than ten seconds, all the main weapons of the controlled mechs were rendered ineffective.
But Liu En didn't stop. He continued forward, advancing to the fifty-meter mark. Now all twelve controlled mechs were within his field radius.
Consciousness reached the core of the wet device. Forged command packets, blocked data, mimicked pulse fragments—all were stripped away and wiped clean at the atomic level. The control protocol was reloaded from the backup. No hand contact was required, no physical connection was needed.
The first controlled mech's power gauntlet depressurized, its optical lens refocused, and a dark red standby light illuminated. It then sent a short confirmation pulse into the mech's command channel.
The second, the third, the fourth. Twelve mechs, twelve remote cleanup operations. Each one automatically reconnected to the mech command channel after recovery, confirming that pulses were being transmitted back one after another.
When the last machine was restored, the entire battle lasted less than three minutes.
Carlos walked up from the back, glanced at the re-formed mechs, then at Liu En—the captain stood fifty meters away, and without even raising his hand, the twelve out-of-control war machines immediately quieted down in front of him. He muttered something under his breath, but said nothing else.
Kara said in the garrison channel, "The mechs have returned to their units. Continue the advance."
Liu En nodded and sent a series of pulses to the mech command channel through the Thinker interface: "All personnel, advance towards the hatch. Maintain standard engagement distance. Damaged mechs cover the rear."
The twelve restored mechs were mixed together in the middle of the formation. The column continued to move towards the basin. Liu En walked at the very front, his consciousness stretching forward.
The hatch was getting closer. The extremely low-frequency pulsation became clearer and clearer in my perception, like a heart that had been dormant for thousands of years, slowly and irreversibly accelerating.