Chapter 168: Single-Person Flying Boat

The Joker Super helped Beast block a disaster. This also seemed like some kind of signal, as the Diberyans attacking the train all jumped off.

The three fighting on the carriage roof still didn't understand the situation, and neither did the people inside the carriage. Only Magneto, a man who had experienced the battlefield, knew what this was a prelude to. He shouted, "Artillery incoming! Huddle around me!"

Selene immediately relayed Magneto's message to all the mutants and the soldiers still alive nearby.

Even Cyclops and Storm, who had just shown their prowess on the carriage roof, jumped back inside, because their abilities offered no good defensive means. Red Lotus needed no mention; he was the first to run.

Magneto gathered all the rifles, both empty and full, stacking them densely to form a wall of gun shields. He then continuously tore nearby iron sheets to increase the thickness of this shield.

In the next instant, dense plasma cannons roared in from one side of the train!

The Diberyans' single-person assault boats finally leveraged their technological superiority over Earth, bombarding the rear section of the train from the air!

To transport prisoners and prevent mutants from hijacking them, the special train's protective armor had been reinforced. Yet under the Diberyan assault boats' artillery fire, it still couldn't hold up.

Even the shield Magneto barely managed to hold up couldn't withstand the plasma cannon attacks for long. He had to continuously thicken the shield to make up for the blasted parts and maintain the defensive effect.

The Joker Super, used by Beast as a meat shield, looked helplessly at Magneto and said, "Hmm, should I remind you? These are high-temperature plasma cannons gathering massive electrical energy; they have no physical form and can theoretically be deflected by a magnetic field."

Magneto understood immediately. He instantly changed his defense method, no longer controlling metal into a shield, but instead raising an invisible, powerful magnetic field.

Once the plasma cannons touched the edge of Magneto's magnetic field, they would instantly accelerate but deflect in direction, shooting elsewhere.

Doing this undoubtedly saved much effort and removed the worry about insufficient materials.

One could say that if the weapons used by the Diberyans were any other form of high-tech product, they wouldn't be countered so easily. But plasma cannons happened to fall within Magneto's domain.

With Magneto as the strongest shield, plus the carriage iron sheets both sides had dismantled together in the previous fight, now aside from the train platform remaining roughly intact, their field of view was very open.

Cyclops and Storm seized the opportunity and resumed their long-range sniping assault. However, facing alien aircraft at night, their accuracy and effectiveness were not very good.

Meanwhile, the Joker Super, also hiding behind the magnetic shield, pulled out a lollipop from who-knows-where, shoved it directly into his mouth, and sucked on it. He also mumbled something ambiguously, like low blood sugar, dizziness, or poor spirits.

Nightcrawler shouted in fear and anxiety, "Didn't those aliens notice their attacks aren't working? Why haven't they retreated yet?"

Although Beast had shed his human form, his brilliant brain hadn't gone offline. He looked at the situation, understood the enemy's intent, and said, "We are suppressed. The plasma cannons are still effective against other parts of the train.

"They are just confirming that Jean isn't in the rear section of the train, so they are using the aircraft's firepower to bombard. Whether they blow us over or sever us from the front section of the train, it would count as a tactical success.

"So Erik, we cannot stay here. We must move forward to the carriage where Jean is and defend it. If we get severed, it will be almost impossible to catch up with the train again."

Magneto acted decisively, saying only one word: "Go!" The group began to move, including those surviving American soldiers.

Even the passage doors between carriages saw no one bother to open the switches. They simply let Cyclops blast the doors open, then filed in one by one.

Every time they abandoned a carriage, that carriage would be destroyed by dense artillery fire. It wasn't that the aliens were so cooperative; rather, a carriage losing Magneto's magnetic shield protection simply couldn't withstand concentrated artillery fire.

The US soldiers gathered along the way were the most panicked group. They were either supporting unconscious comrades or holding completely useless rifles, just seeking some peace of mind.

Whether the enemy was mutants or aliens had lost all meaning to discuss at this moment. If they still couldn't see it, they had wasted their eyes and brains.

When the group entered a relatively intact carriage, the aliens' attacks seemed to stop at the previous carriage.

Because it was dark and they were on a speeding train, most people couldn't see the traces of the alien aircraft that had ceased fire, thinking they had left.

But the Joker Super saw clearly: more than a dozen fully enclosed, spindle-shaped aircraft were flying alongside the train. Their design was completely different from the flying motorcycles used by the invading Chitauri during the New York Battle in the future.

Precisely because their volume was quite small, the types of weapons they could choose were probably limited, so they used plasma cannons for the entire attack from start to finish.

The reason they stopped attacking was also simple: of course, everyone had retreated to the carriage near Jean Grey. The aliens perhaps couldn't guarantee their accuracy could be as precise as a surgical knife, not hurting Jean while blasting everyone else away.

Of course, the alien aircraft stopping their attack didn't mean their actions had ceased. It only meant another wave of attacks was brewing.

Everyone understood this point and made preparations accordingly.

A soldier opened the passage door; the next carriage indeed held Jean Grey. Except for Professor X, only a few soldiers remained to assist in defense. At the moment the door opened, they were startled, almost firing a burst of bullets.

And the carriage they were in was specifically for transporting weapons. All firearms loaded with live rounds were neatly arranged on gun cabinets on both sides, numbering nearly a hundred.

The mutants and soldiers, not skilled in close combat, all switched to firearm equipment. Unfortunately, the weapons on the train were mainly designed to target mutants, so they weren't powerful enough against aliens, but there was no better choice.

There were two heavy machine guns, with ammo belt boxes hanging nearby. But these weren't for single-soldier use; without being mounted on a stand, few people could wield and fire them skillfully. So the only two effective weapons remained on the weapon rack.

Seeing everyone was nearly ready, Magneto instructed, "You all go to the next carriage to help defend. Let Charles speed up and wake Jean. Then figure out a way to escape."

Everyone followed his lead, entering the final defensive carriage. However, Magneto grabbed the collar of the Joker Super, who was hiding in the crowd and preparing to slip into another carriage, and said to him, "You stay here with me."

(End of Chapter)