Chapter 307: with translation of chapter title

Inside the Rift Space.

The bridge of the Courage Anthem.

Next to the main control console.

Chairman. The Red Empress standing to Sui Bian's left reported to him: "OriginalBody Angelong requests to deploy his Honor Guard to launch a surprise attack against the machine side."

Approved. Sui Bian immediately agreed and added: "Red Empress, help me convey to Angelong, tell him that before we reach Kogeler, representing me, representing Umbrella, go negotiate with the Eden side, and military operations shall be carried out according to his judgment."

Yes.

After finishing his briefing with the Red Empress, Sui Bian continued to focus on the holographic screen displayed above the main control console, reviewing information about the humans and machines of another Earth.

According to the information Angelong obtained by asking Victor, it indicates that the side of the Space Gate differs somewhat from that of 'The Matrix'.

Especially the Eden military, which attempts to paralyze machines using a virus.

However, how to liberate humanity imprisoned in the virtual realm is indeed a 'century'-level problem for the means and technology possessed by Eden.

He pondered.

Sui Bian involuntarily shifted slightly sideways, glancing at the Red Empress out of the corner of his eye.

Dealing with machines using guns and artillery is truly inefficient, so he refers to the frontline of military operations as the 'secondary' battlefield.

To completely eradicate machines, the Eden military's proposal to implant a virus is an option, but it cannot safeguard the imprisoned humans.

So when they arrive at Kogeler, the White Empress will temporarily take over all affairs managed by the Red Empress, while the Red Empress will be responsible for the virtual realm, this 'primary' battlefield.

———————

…

Boom! Rumble~!

The scorched sky flashed with lightning and thunder.

The land beneath this sky was utterly devastated, completely reduced to ruins of an urban landscape.

As far as the eye could see, everything was tilted, collapsed massive structures.

Between the streets, the most numerous were skeletons.

Some had long since fallen apart, with heads and limbs separated, while others remained relatively intact.

In a small alley, there were two skeletons maintaining an embrace, lying askew in the corner of the wall.

Based on features such as the pelvic bones, they could be judged as a mother and daughter, or possibly other elder-younger relations, but regardless, it is not hard to guess how desperate they were back then.

Leaving the alley.

Looking down over the entire city, even now one can still feel humanity's 'wail'.

At that moment, twenty-four 'human' figures, in teams of six, formed four squads that employed low-altitude flight, swiftly weaving through the city's ruins.

Each of them had a head, torso, and limbs, but their body proportions were more slender than those of ordinary humans.

Furthermore, the greatest difference from ordinary humans lies in height, with an average height of about 10 meters, clearly exceeding the normal range.

Aside from height, each wore a black composite nanosuit and modular armor similar to Thor's hammer, with an overall color scheme of the white and gray-blue emblematic of the Sweeper Legion.

Their ability to float in the air and fly swiftly lies in the nuclear fusion reactor power pack on their backs; looking closely around them, one can faintly see positions emitting a faint light.

Although the Covenant Empire was quickly repulsed and defeated by humans, it must be said that their various technologies are indeed impressive, especially this anti-gravity levitation technology usable only within the atmosphere.

As for the true identity of these twenty-four giants, they are the Sweeper Legion's Honor Guard, piloting a special kind of 'exoskeleton' known as the Gladiator Guard.

Submitted by Alekxia to Sui Bian, the project responsible for leading research is titled 'Biological Exoskeleton Imitating the Olympian Gods and Lilith', produced by the Luna Base, and it belongs to heavy biological exoskeletons.

Essentially, this biological exoskeleton is a highly simplified version of the DivineBody exclusively used by the OriginalBodies.

Therefore, it requires the use of Astate as drivers; naturally, only Astate genes qualify for 'customization', making mass production extremely difficult. Those Astate qualified for customization and use are elites of the Honor Guard, or Sui Bian's personal guards.

Given the formal name of the biological exoskeleton is overly cumbersome, Sui Bian calls it the 'Centurion Mech'.

At this moment.

The Gladiators piloted the Centurion Mechs, speeding past the city's ruins to the outskirts of the open area, continuing low-altitude flight eastward.

The standard weapon of the Centurion Mech, manufactured at Raccoon City Arsenal, resembles an enlarged, extended pulse rifle in appearance, but its caliber is an 80mm pulse cannon capable of firing various types of caseless pulse ammunition.

Among these four squads, two Centurion Mechs have missile launchers mounted on their backs.

Two others are equipped with a five-barrel rotary Gauss cannon that fires 25mm spike rounds, and their backs also carry large ammunition boxes.

The Gladiators are following Angelong's orders to take the offensive, heading to deal with the excavation operation preparing to invade the Eden machine army.

Upon reaching an area still five to six kilometers from the target position, pitch-black sentinels surged out from underground channels, or came from the direction of the target position and gathered, like a 'wave' rushing toward the Gladiators.

It appears that after flying for a while in the open area, the Centurion Mechs finally allowed the machine side to detect their traces, preparing to dispatch sentinels to intercept.

Seeing this.

The four squads of Gladiators had no intention of slowing down to engage; they even adjusted into a triangular formation and increased speed, hoping to break straight through the sentinel interception.

The two sides continually approached…

Approaching…

In an instant, the Gladiator at the forefront of the formation first collided with the oncoming wave of sentinels.

However, the violent entanglement and dismemberment tactics relied upon by the sentinels, effective against humanity's electromagnetic warships in this world, proved 'dim' when applied to the Centurion Mechs of the main universe.

Clang~! Clang~!

Only seen, before the Centurion Mech made substantive contact with the wave, it instantly generated a special shield emitting golden light, composed of ◇ diamond-shaped blocks, which deflected and flung the sentinels away.

Thereafter, all Centurion Mechs raised the diamond-shaped shields.

Because the physical impact caused minimal damage, and the sentinels had no time to deploy high-energy beams, they could not effectively shatter the diamond shields, allowing the Gladiators maintaining formation to charge straight through the wave.

The two sides crossed paths.

At the same time, neither side suffered any loss, but the Gladiators had already broken out of the interception circle, using their speed advantage to fling the sentinels behind.

Having flown not far, they saw ahead an endless expanse where the machine army had almost turned the barren land into a black ocean.

The sentinels overwhelmingly numbered, with various appearances and sizes, mostly insect-like, and in utter chaos, fundamentally lacking any models equipped with advanced weapons.

Based solely on first impression, it feels like this is a ragtag army hastily assembled by the machine side, with some machine models judged by the gladiators' experience; rather than calling it a combat unit, it's more like a specially assigned 'mechanical worker' for engineering.

A ragtag army?

The gladiators kept this speculation in mind, planning to report it after completing the mission and returning to the frontline base.

At this point, the machine army had already reacted, still mustering and dispatching sentinels like cannon fodder.

The gladiators then piloted the Centurions upward, reaching an altitude of about five hundred meters before slowing down, stabilizing their hover stance, and 'standing' in midair with both hands gripping their guns.

Immediately afterward, the two Centurions deployed their missile launchers…

Whoosh~! Whoosh~!

Twenty small missiles shot out of their bays, drawing white trails as they climbed faster, then adjusted course and dispersed outward.

Seeing this,

The sentinels that had been forming a new wave suddenly halted, locking their mechanical eyes onto the missiles, as if they no longer regarded the gladiators piloting the Centurion mechs as their primary target.

In just a moment, the twenty missiles had reached their respective target positions and then detonated in sequence according to procedure…

Ri~! Boom——!

The blast strength was not great—it could be said to have almost no lethal force—but the detonation of those twenty missiles released an extremely violent 'electromagnetic storm'.

Witnessing this scene, the sentinels resembled forest animals sensing an all-consuming threat, like a wildfire's electromagnetic storm about to engulf them…

They turned and fled.

Alas, their flight speed could not match the storm's impact.

Ultimately, lacking any defense against the electromagnetic pulse attack, they were completely paralyzed, falling in freefall from the air one after another, crashing to the ground and piling up into heaps.

By contrast, the Centurion mechs that likewise suffered the storm's impact remained completely intact, still 'standing' in midair.

Discarding the power pack, even without installing electromagnetic pulse shielding, the Centurion mech would not paralyze, for 'they' are living beings woven from the Luna Base cultivation pools, possessing flesh and blood but lacking a soul.

The 'electromagnetic storm' was fleeting.

After the light faded, the gladiators, as the souls of the Centurions, conducted scans and observed that the sentinels had been utterly wiped out, with none surviving.

Electromagnetic pulse bombs of this type are not commonly used by Umbrella; indeed, they are hard to come by. Even in the main universe, pirate forces as seemingly savage and ignorant as the Ghostface Beasts equip their ships with electromagnetic pulse defenses.

Now, using cannon fodder to deal with the machines is quite handy; there's no need to toss them into storage to 'eat dust' anymore.

However, at this moment on the ground, those large machines were also unaffected, continuing to perform drilling work in a stiff manner according to superior orders.

Thus the gladiators operated the Centurions, aimed, locked on, and pulled the trigger.

Bang! Bang!

For a moment, artillery fire rang out in unison.

The 80mm caseless pulse cannon, upon striking a target's metallic body, inflicts impact damage while also triggering a secondary explosion, thereby physically paralyzing those large machines.

The 25mm magnetic nail round, meanwhile, is like an oversized steel nail that pierces and rends the target at extreme speed, causing devastating destruction.

The gladiators began, in squads, to fly slowly over the ground littered with machine corpses, conducting mop‑up operations against the 'survivors' of the electromagnetic storm.

Pity?

How could that be.

While flying, they observed skeletons lying in the urban ruins; given their education and training, they could never feel pity for machines that slaughter and herd humans—only loathing and rage.

Within half an hour.

With the final large machine's thunderous explosion, it became clear that this immeasurable horde of ragtag forces had been completely hunted down by the gladiators.

They circled in flight, confirming all was clear.

The gladiators maneuvered their Centurions back to low‑level flight, heading toward the sector where the frontline base lay to return.

———————

…

Soon after.

The Centurion formation swept past the earlier pasture, but this time no sentinels came out to 'greet' them, nor did any sentinels appear during the return flight to impede them.

After all, the vast majority of sentinels wandering nearby were either assaulting the frontline base or gathering at the excavation site beyond the hundred li.

Their outcome was invariably destruction.

Thus, before the machine side could react and launch a major counteroffensive, this area temporarily remained a green zone.

Soon, the gladiators swept over the pasture and flew toward the region riddled with channel breaches.

Relying on memory and screen guidance, the gladiators passed through one of those breaches, entered the underground ducts of the Old World City, and discovered the Krieg, Auxiliary Army, and Astate forces garrisoned at the T‑junction position.

Reduced speed.

Arrived above the T‑junction position.

Turned left.

Coming into view was a frontline base already taking shape.

Subsequently, the Centurion formation landed in turn beneath the Space Gate, proceeded to a facility resembling a large hangar, and then moved to the exclusive docking berth equipped with an elevated metal walkway, mechanical arms, and other support gear.

Take your positions.

Next, a group of logistics personnel from the Clearance Legion stepped forward to help the gladiators exit the Centurion mechs' cockpits.

Among the logistics were more than ten special members…

They were specimens of the Longneck Jellyfish—half‑mechanical, half‑biological Huragok engineers with very gentle dispositions.

They were also divided into twenty‑four teams, each surrounding one of the twenty‑four Centurion mechs, cooperating to operate the mechanical arms and, following procedure, unload the power packs and outer armor, revealing bodies covered only by nanosuits.

Splash!

Accompanied by the sound of flowing liquid, a slit about two meters long and half a meter wide opened on the right side of the Centurion mech's spine at the rear.

A large volume of colorless fluid gushed out through the slit.

At the same time, the nanosuit‑clad gladiators used that slit to crawl out of the Centurion mechs' internal cockpits, proceeded to the elevated metal walkway, and underwent on‑site inspection by the logistics staff and the Huragok to confirm that their physiological condition was entirely normal.

Meanwhile.

Inside the command center of the frontline base.

Watching various screen displays, listening to various reports from the civilian auxiliary troops, Angelong, standing at the central position, fell into contemplation.

Without needing a gladiator's reminder, just from the real-time footage captured by the centurion mecha, this Original Body had already guessed that the machine army was essentially a 'rabble'.

Do they not regard humans at all?

Or do the machines also become arrogant and overconfident?

Angelong, not sure why, then spoke and ordered: 'Upload our destruction of the machine army and the gathered intelligence, then notify the Chairman; I will lead the guard unit ahead to Eden to negotiate with the upper echelons of humanity in this universe.'

'Yes, sir!' the auxiliary troops replied in unison.

After issuing the order, Angelong turned and left, accompanied by several gladiators wearing dedicated Terminator gear, arriving outside the command center, and smiling at Victor, Mark, and the others waiting there, he said:

'Sorry to keep you waiting.'

Everyone, I have something to do tomorrow and need to go out, so I can't update; please take a day off temporarily.

Also, thank you for your support, thank you for the votes and recommendation tickets, as well as subscriptions and rewards~!

(End of chapter)