Chapter 85: Chapter 84: Power Armor and Rockets
Deng Yu’s gaze was as sharp as a blade, fixed on Xisuo. He seemed to be searching for any hint of hesitation or deceit in the man’s eyes.
Xisuo met Deng Yu’s gaze calmly, his own eyes unwavering.
"Sir Deng Yu, I’ve made my point perfectly clear."
Xisuo said in a low voice, "The Black Wind Raiding Group has noticed us. It’s very likely they’re already planning an attack.
We need to take countermeasures immediately. Otherwise, when they do attack, we’ll be caught completely off guard."
"There are over thirty of them, and they might be carrying heavy weapons."
Deng Yu was silent for a moment. He knew Xisuo had no reason to lie at a time like this.
Besides, Xisuo and his brother, Simon, had always conducted themselves well within the group, never showing any suspicious behavior.
"Where did you get this information?" Deng Yu asked.
Xisuo shook his head, his expression firm as he spoke.
"I have my sources. You don’t need to know them."
"What’s important is that the information is genuine, and what we’re going to do about it."
’Until the situation was clear, he wasn’t about to reveal anything about Ye Yun’s shelter...’
Deng Yu only needed a moment of thought to make his decision.
Whether the information was true or false, he had to proceed with caution.
’If it’s false, all the better. But if it’s true...’
Suddenly, his heart skipped a beat.
With Qiaodun having gone into the shelter to provide support, Amas was the only one left outside. The temporary camp’s defenses would be at their absolute lowest.
’If there really is a raiding group of over thirty people with heavy firepower nearby, and if I were their leader, I would never let such a perfect opportunity to attack slip by.’
’All they have to do is take out Amas, and they could camp the shelter’s emergency exit, trapping everyone inside.’
At this thought, a cold sweat broke out on his back. He immediately roared into the communicator:
"Amas, I’ve received intel that a raiding group near this shelter is planning to attack us. Be on high alert."
...
「Outside the shelter.」
Hearing Deng Yu’s warning, Amas didn’t hesitate for a second. He immediately entered a state of combat readiness.
They had known each other for over ten years; he knew Deng Yu wouldn’t play such a sick joke at a time like this.
Amas cranked the power to all the detection equipment inside his power armor to maximum, simultaneously pushing the cold fusion engine to peak output to prepare for an attack that could come at any moment.
The moment he completed these actions...
...from not far away, six Fox Hunting Rocket Shells were launched simultaneously from six different directions, streaking toward Amas’s position with long trails of fire.
The rockets’ fiery trails were exceptionally dazzling, like six meteors streaking across the sky.
Inside the power armor, alarms instantly blared to life.
"WARNING. WARNING. THERMAL SIGNATURES RAPIDLY APPROACHING. ROCKET PROJECTILES SUSPECTED."
"WARNING. WARNING..."
"DEPLOY COUNTERMEASURES FOR PREMATURE DETONATION?"
Amas’s pupils constricted. He hadn’t expected the enemy’s attack to be so sudden and ferocious.
Watching the six rockets rapidly approaching on his display, Amas unleashed the power armor’s entire payload of countermeasures.
Hundreds of countermeasures erupted from the launch ports on its back, fanning out like a cloud of shrapnel to intercept the incoming rockets.
As he launched the countermeasures, he immediately threw the power armor into an evasive maneuver.
The thrusters at the base of the suit instantly blasted out powerful jets of air. At the same time, several maneuvering thrusters in the armor’s joints flared with blue light. The three-meter-tall suit of armor, like an agile beast, rolled to the side to evade.
The power armor’s countermeasures came in two types: thermal and physical. This allowed it to counter both fire-control-guided missiles and physically aimed projectiles.
The hundreds of countermeasures formed a dense screen in mid-air.
A series of deafening ROARS echoed as the six rockets detonated in succession about thirty meters from Amas. Massive fireballs and shockwaves tore through the night sky.
The rockets were powerful, but their effective range was limited. For instance, the Fox Hunting Rocket Shells used by the Black Wind Raiding Group had a blast diameter of only twenty meters.
This meant that beyond that twenty-meter range, the rocket’s lethality would drop off dramatically.
An ordinary person standing thirty meters away might have been injured by the flying shrapnel and the shockwave.
But Amas was wearing power armor. The scattered shrapnel merely scratched some paint off the suit’s surface.
The massive explosions kicked up powerful shockwaves and clouds of dust nearby.
Amas’s back was soaked in a cold sweat.
’That was close!’ Amas thought with a surge of relief.
A wave of fear washed over him. He knew that if it hadn’t been for Deng Yu’s warning, prompting him to max out the power armor’s systems and sensor sensitivity, he would have never detected those rockets in time.
His power armor may have been cutting-edge technology from before the Cataclysm, but it was still just single-person equipment.
Even with its aerospace-grade titanium alloy plating, it likely wouldn’t have been able to completely withstand a direct hit from six rockets.
Even if the outer armor had withstood the blast and shrapnel, he, inside the suit, would have likely been knocked unconscious by the intense shockwave.
The power armor had an AI system, but it was just a weak AI, capable only of providing combat support.
Without an operator, the power armor would become nothing more than a metal coffin.
If its power supply were cut, he’d be a sitting duck.
The sound of such a massive explosion naturally reached the shelter. Deng Yu’s anxious voice immediately crackled in Amas’s headset.
"Amas, are you okay?"
Amas let out a shaky breath and quickly replied:
"I’m okay, thanks to your warning."
"I’m alright for now. Get out here and support me, quick."
"There are a lot of enemies. I’m out of countermeasures. If they launch another volley, I’m in big trouble."
Hearing Amas’s words, the brief sense of relief Deng Yu felt vanished, and his heart leaped back into his throat.
"Understood. Li Wei and I are on our way out. We should be there in about a minute. Be careful."
Amas:
"Understood!"
Just as their conversation ended, Hawkins’s voice also came over the headset.
"Amas, just focus on the fight! I’m already near the shelter entrance. If there’s trouble, I’ll duck inside. You don’t need to worry about my safety!"
Amas breathed a sigh of relief. Facing a large number of enemies was no easy task.
If he also had to protect Hawkins, the difficulty would have increased by several orders of magnitude.
But now that he didn’t have to worry about protecting Hawkins, his job was much simpler.
"Understood!"
