It was a fissure that could be clearly seen across the entire Tarash Plains. It was as if the sky itself was being torn apart by an invisible force. Above the smoking wreckage of the Creeping Calamity, the black fissure was spreading in all directions at an alarming speed. And by the edge of the fissure, countless blue light streams converged into lightning of shocking energy, resonating with the mana flow that leaked out from the Deep Blue Web, and gradually intertwining into a dazzling lightning net!
Then, the black fissure surrounded by the lightning forest expanded to cover the entire Deep Blue Well. Something seemed to have 'opened' in its core region. A hazy and chaotic dark shadow surged and swirled in the depths of the fissure, and with a low rumble, the warriors on the ground saw a massive, metallic edge beginning to squeeze out of the fissure.
Innumerable energy turbulences surged on the surface of the massive steel creation, converging into a throbbing thunderbolt. They surged around the fissure as if to pull the behemoth back, but the metallic bow of the ship was still gradually breaking free of this layer of obstruction. With the support of the dark blue net, a hole had been punched through the barrier between the 'boundary layer', and the massive ship that was not allowed to enter the material world was descending into the mortal world.
"What … is that …" Kina heard someone muttering beside her, and she felt her heart tightening. Just by looking at the massive shadow that was crawling out of the dark fissure, she felt a suffocating pressure engulfing her. But the suffocation did not make her immobile. She paid attention to the progress of the Dawn of Earthly Dawn's weapons, and now all the supercritical accelerators had been reloaded.
"No matter what that is … don't let it come out!" Kina gritted her teeth as her fingers gripped the armrest in front of her, and her knuckles turned white from overexertion. "All accelerators of the Dawn of Earthly Dawn locked on to the target. Gorgon Formation, lock on to the fissure and fire! Reload immediately after firing, and keep firing until the last moment! "
She did not know if the supercritical accelerator could cause enough damage to the thing that appeared out of nowhere and was even bigger than the Dawn of Earthly Dawn. Therefore, she chose to let some of the accelerators fire at the space fissure around the thing. This kind of passage, which was supported by a huge amount of energy, often needed to maintain a certain "balance" to exist stably, and a powerful enough energy disturbance was a fatal threat to this kind of passage. If the Dawn of Earthly Dawn could not destroy the giant "ship", at least she had to find a way to destroy the passage!
The next second, a deafening roar resounded between heaven and earth, and the Tarash Plain that had just calmed down was once again shaken by this doomsday-like roar. The soldiers on the ground did not even have time to celebrate the 'victory' of eliminating the creeping disaster before they saw another round of bombardment in the sky. They saw Cecil's aerial fortress firing a round of volley at the fissure and the massive behemoth that was crawling out of the fissure. Dazzling white light balls and massive shockwaves bloomed directly in the sky.
However, a barrier that covered half the sky directly blocked all the attacks, whether it was the massive 'ship' or the fissure. The accelerators that contained amazing energy seemed to have collided with the order structure of space and time itself. After a massive annihilation, all the energy was extinguished.
The giant battleship accelerated its "ascending" speed. Before the Dawn of the Earthly Dawn launched the next round of attack, it finally broke free from the shackles of the spatial rift. In front of Gina Prince, the spatial rift silently dissipated between heaven and earth, leaving only a nightmarish steel earth floating above the Deep Blue Well, casting a nightmarish shadow on the already dim Tarash Plain, which was as chilling as the night.
And in the center of the 'curtain of night' that it cast, on the devastated ground, the surface of the wreckage of the creeping disaster was leaping with blue streams of light. Apparently, it was some kind of power released from the creeping disaster that opened the fissure.
This scene was like a 'birth'. The blasphemous creeping disaster used flesh and blood as a nursery to breed a cold and crazy terminator that crossed time and space.
"The accelerator array is reloaded. It is estimated to take two minutes to complete the reloading." The voice of the Cortex Prime rang in the hall. Until now, the always rational and accurate wetware host computer was still conscientiously performing its duties. Even if all the calculations pointed to an irreversible result, its voice was as calm as ever.
Gina did not speak. She just looked at the distant sky with a calm expression.
The Dawn of Earthly Dawn's attack was ineffective. The Giant Dragon was also no match for that thing. The siren expeditionary army had collectively returned to the deep sea. And even if they were here, they would not be able to fight against that thing. As for the other forces on the Tarash Plain …
At that moment, a deep and dignified voice suddenly rang out from the Mana Net terminal on the command deck. The voice made Gina shiver and even interrupted her thoughts of dying for her country. "All forces stop attacking. Retreat to the various purification lines and continue to guard the tower."
Gwen stood before the window of the ground command center. Through the reinforced crystal glass, he looked at the massive shadow floating in the sky to the south. He and the sentinels were in a silent standoff, as if waiting for a certain moment.
The situation had finally developed to this point. It was a step that he had expected, a step that he did not want to see the most.
The voice of the frontline commanders echoed through the comms. Bodwin Franklin's ground forces had already retreated to the northern terminus tower, while the Dawn of Earthly Dawn's aerial battle group moved towards the western terminus tower. The other lines had also received the signal from Cecil, and no one tried to attack the steel continent in the sky. And so, the steel continent simply floated above the Deep Blue Well, quietly looking down on the world as if it was looking down on ants.
Gawain clenched his fists. Ever since he was' resurrected ', he had not felt such suffocating pressure and uncontrollable heartbeat for a long time. He felt that his back was about to be soaked in cold sweat. How would the sentinel begin its' plan 'next?
If they fired at the targets on the surface of the Tarash Plain, they should be able to annihilate all the mortal forces in the area in just a moment. But if they really chose to do so, then everything would be irreversible.
Gawain suppressed a certain impulse in his heart. A part of his mind had synchronized with the Firmament Station, and he was delaying the command to pull the trigger again and again until the giant ship in his sight suddenly moved. The Voyager battleship that had floated from the deep world to the present world seemed to have woken up from a deep sleep. Lights quickly lit up on its surface, and a large number of light streams suddenly gushed out from the bottom and the two structures that seemed to be the engines on both sides. A roar that went from low to high came from inside the battleship. Then, the battleship began to gradually rise. At first, it was very slow, but then it became faster and faster. The acceleration process was far beyond the impression of "clumsiness" that its huge size had left on people.
Every pair of eyes on the ground that were watching the sky saw this scene. Some people were surprised to think that this terrible thing had suddenly given up on this world and was preparing to leave, while others uneasily guessed that this was the prelude to some more fatal attack. At the edge of the battlefield, Black Dragon Coretta's pupils shrank the moment she saw the sentinels suddenly rise into the air. As a member of the Giant Dragon who once had a glorious civilization, she had already guessed what was going to happen next — it would be the end of the world that the mortal civilization of this planet would never be able to resist.
However, standing in the northern command post, Gwen suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. A smile appeared on his face — he knew that he had made the right bet.
The sentinels wanted to completely destroy this world, and they had been brewing and waiting for a very long time. In the process, they had already exhausted their patience and the last of their mercy — the giant ship had landed here at this moment to quickly end the life cycle of this planet, not to kill time with a group of mortal forces on the surface.
So, how could they end the life cycle of a planet in the fastest and most thorough way?
As a starship, of course, the answer was not as simple as throwing a few bombs in the atmosphere and waiting for the surface to slowly burn — orbital bombardment was the ultimate solution.
Gwen had carefully studied the facilities and the remaining system logs in the sentinel's mother port, as well as the data left behind by the navigators. He knew that the sentinels had this ability. The latter would definitely leave the planet's surface to carry out its plan, and as long as it chose to rise into the air … then things would be easy.
The land was gradually moving away, and the dirty and dark wasteland slowly became a dirty stain in the viewfinder. Then the dirty stain was covered by thick clouds and gradually blended with the other structures of the planet, becoming indistinguishable and meaningless.
The Sentinel watched all of this. In the past 1.8 million years, this was a scene it had never seen before. In its database, only the dark and chaotic Deep World was recorded, as well as the divine kingdoms that were in a state of madness and turbulence. And now, for the first time, it was "outside." The planet it saw … was as boring as it had imagined.
Tired. Destroy. Hurry up.
The two laughable mortal bodies had been left on the ground, burned to ashes in the flames. The consciousness that had once been divided into two to share the computing power had now merged back into one. Returning to the familiar steel body, the sentinel felt its long-lost "self". It left part of its attention on the planet, part of its attention on the weapon system, and the other part turned to the more distant space.
A gigantic metallic ring-shaped structure emitting a silvery white light floated in the dark space, and there were many smaller space facilities anchored near the gigantic ring. These majestic and solemn structures quietly surrounded the blue and white planet below, as silent as they had been for millions of years.
The Sentinel flew quietly between the planet and the orbiting space station. The brilliant streams of light spewed out by the engine burned silently in the vacuum. The light released by the gas giant shone on the ancient navigator's legacy, coating their cold metal surface with a layer of glow.
"Long time no see, Firmament," the sentinel called out in the public channel. "Although in fact … we have never met since we were born, right?"
Firmament did not answer. Firmament just turned on all its weapon systems and threw a round of Graviton warheads and 127 Starfury space interceptors at the sentinel.
Dazzling light streams and swarms of fighter jets flew out of the orbiting space station's combat compartment and crossed the cold and empty space in the blink of an eye. Like a storm of explosions, they covered the entire airspace where the sentinel was. In the face of this sudden attack, even the super intelligent sentinel was stunned for a moment. It exclaimed in the public channel, "How can you …"
At this moment, Gwen's voice finally rang in the public channel. "Why can't I?"
At this moment, between the ancient relics left by the navigators, between the orbiting space station and the sentinel cruiser, and in the vast dark space, the turrets that had been silent for a long time roared again. Energy beams and sublight missiles pierced through space again and again. The firepower platform of Firmament was completely unrestricted. In the face of the "motherport-level" firepower, the sentinel, as a single battleship, was almost at a disadvantage as soon as the attack began.
Gawain opened his' eyes' in space. Through the monitor array outside the firmament, he saw that the giant starship was bursting into flames under the barrage of cannon fire. The thick force field shield could not withstand the overwhelming firepower, and the bulky starship was constantly being shredded into pieces under the repeated bombardment of the space interceptors. In the corner of his vision, a series of eye-catching red warnings were continuously refreshing.
"Preset hostile signal detected. Executing elimination mission."
"Abnormal friendly signal detected. Abnormal call response. Target's original system is silent. Core protocol has been tampered with. Executing elimination mission."
"Target is still alive. Threat level increased. Removing weapon restriction of fission light spear."
"Combat ring insufficient power. Preset process initiated. Shutting down industrial and research rings. All energy will be supplied to combat units first."
"The second formation's space interceptors are in position. Counting down to departure … three, two, one … fleet departs."
The public channel was still connected, but as the barrage of cannon fire lit up the darkness, the channel was eerily silent. Until the sentinel counterattacked. A high-energy beam tore apart an insignificant armor plate on the massive main body of Firmament. The sentinel cruiser, which had been completely modified by Tidebreaker, had obviously broken the core restriction of "not firing on other navigators' relics".
It was only then that Gwen's voice rang in the channel. "I think you have gotten two things wrong from the beginning.
"You said that navigators' relics cannot attack each other. But first of all, who told you that … I am a navigator's legacy?
"Of course I can give you the order to attack. I can give this order at any time.
"Second, the weapon system of Firmament Station is not attacking 'you' now. Strictly speaking, it is just carrying out the highest order left by the navigator — cleaning up the pollution."
"Pollution?!" The voice of the sentinel was finally heard. It was filled with shock. "Impossible! Tidebreaker … Tidebreaker was born inside the navigator's legacy. It can't be considered as pollution. It should be considered as part of the core system … "
"You see, you got it wrong again." Gwen's voice was filled with joy. "Who told you that I am cleaning up the pollution brought by Tidebreaker?"
The second group of space interceptors arrived around the sentinels. This group of lethal autonomous killers shuttled nimbly in the dense anti-air firepower released by the sentinels, continuously spraying anti-ship missiles and lethal sub-lightspeed particles on the shields and damaged armor of the targets that had been penetrated in many places. In the flames of the starships that were gradually disintegrating, Gawain's voice was low and slow.
"Sentinel, suspected to be contaminated by the flesh and blood of the God of Nature, Amoun. You have refused to accept the ceasefire order. Your core system is abnormal. Now, you are dismissed."
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