#999 - Alien Alliance, the embodiment of extinction (two in one)

“Holy sh*t.”

Even Hansen, who had participated in the Unification War, also known as the Metal War, had never seen such a scene!

The sky above was completely covered with combat robots, the artillery fire dominating the entire firmament, and burning metal rain constantly fell from the sky.

And the sky, the high temperature, black smoke, and rising air currents left by that huge explosion in the sky still loomed!

“Is this still Earth?!”

Bang!

An Ultron machine soldier blew Hansen's head off with a single shot, and the fear of being infinitely close to death was completely presented in Hansen's mind!

“Hah—”

Hansen's synthetic lungs violently inhaled as if taking the last breath of his life, and it was only when his body realized that he was not dead that it slowly turned into heavy panting.

The HUD showed that his physiological state had just been close to complete overload, almost causing him to die suddenly in the cockpit, and upon closer inspection, he was not the only one experiencing the same thing, or rather, more than half of the people in the entire training camp were in this state, and some had even gone into a state of suspended animation, forcing the training pod to initiate emergency CPR, and the medical team hurriedly carried them away.

It was too terrifying!

Before delivering these devices, Riel had warned him that the degree of realism of this thing was top-notch, but he didn't take it seriously:

Whether it's military technology or Arasaka, the training facilities used for mass training of soldiers focus on muscle simulation, using brain-machine interfaces and hormone controllers to mildly simulate some emotions.

The value of realism is difficult to quantify, but according to the generally accepted calculation method, the lowest-level soldiers use training chips to train directly in the brain, and are limited by prosthetic bodies and hardware conditions, usually the realism does not exceed 30%.

Usually, Black Dreams can provide a realism between 30% and 50%, but Black Dreams will bypass the hardware safety lock to perform direct electrical stimulation to replace things that cannot be simulated, making the mortality rate and stimulation difficult to compare with military equipment.

And mass-produced training pods are already high-level equipment, and the realism will not exceed 60%. Going further up is the equipment used by pilots and astronauts.

But just now...

Hansen felt that it was real!

He didn't know why, but he was a little angry, with a hint of confusion in his anger:

“Even attacking Military Technology's main forces wouldn't have this many enemies. Training with this, is Burger King crazy?!”

After the confusion, there was only a burst of anger left: Did they think they could scare him by creating a perverted battlefield? Who are they looking down on?!

Thinking of this, Hansen looked at V's dedicated room, and sure enough, there was no movement inside. Then, he resolutely re-entered the pod—

[V: Holy crap, this is too awesome!!!]

Boom!

Just the impact alone could blast a hole in a fortress-like wall, and the force generated at the moment of impact made V feel invincible!

That's right, V is now controlling Riel's body!

To be honest, Ultron's judgment was not wrong at all. Riel was indeed not good at combat. In recorded battles, his performance was not strong at all. Stopping the Lizardmen actually relied on Spider-Man, stopping the Vulture mainly relied on equipment, and breaking through the aircraft carrier relied even more on hacking technology and equipment flexibility!

However, being an AI has its advantages: humans would never voluntarily hand over control of their bodies, neither technically nor emotionally, but Riel could—

At this moment, V was completely his driver!

V's "Spider" Sandevistan and Little Octopus could 100% convert movement signals and almost feel everything, while the enhanced nerve response and adaptability almost instantly allowed her to adapt to this super body that could be called a humanoid tank!

As for Riel, all of his computing power could be put on the fire control system and data knife. In this way, his limited computing power could completely unleash combat capabilities that exceeded Ultron's estimates—

There wasn't just one person in this body, but two people. Of course, Ultron would miscalculate!

Inside an armored personnel carrier rushing into the mechanical nest, Hansen, who had just connected to the mechanical soldiers, saw Riel directly smash through the wall in front of him—

Of course, he didn't know it was Riel, but his intuition told him it was V!

The mechanical body jumped directly out of the speeding armored vehicle. Hansen quickly found cover in three steps and began shooting, while cursing:

“You call this training for her?! We get this crap, and she gets that thing?!”

Just as Hansen finished a magazine and hid to reload, he was immediately taken care of by the Ultron machine soldiers due to the loss of firepower.

Boom!

It is impossible for an individual to survive in that environment for long, but since this is a full-immersion environment, he must find the work he is good at:

What he has to do is battlefield commander!

Although it is very difficult to command those lunatics in Night City, maybe those "NPCs" in the training space can be communicated with?

This idea is actually quite crazy. No matter what company, the virtual characters they construct have action logic, the only difference is complexity and simplicity. Complex ones consume computing resources, and simple ones have no training effect.

But he just felt that he could do it.

Besides, no matter how difficult it is to command the lunatics in Night City, he has to try it.

In the mechanical nest, a driver carrying a full load of combat robots concentrated his mind and drove through the hail of bullets with a burst of energy:

He saw the robots in the car jump out to fight on their own!

Although he didn't know what this technology was, his meager basic knowledge, which was temporarily instilled through skill chips and learning chips, was also difficult to explain, but he didn't need to understand those—

He only knew that his mission was to transport the soldiers to the mechanical nest, and then fight with the Iron Riders and the King to blow up this entire hell!

Bang!

The car suddenly turned the steering wheel, almost falling into a pit, but fortunately he reacted quickly—

“Hey! Soldier, drive there.”

The Latvian soldier concentrated his mind.

Bang, bang!

“I said drive there, godd*mn it.”

Screech—

The concentrated soldier suddenly turned the steering wheel, and the accelerator and brake also cooperated to play a super Z-shaped jitter, almost throwing Hansen out!

The bang-bang sound just now was him patting the car door. He recognized at a glance that this soldier was too damn nervous, looking like a recruit on the battlefield for the first time.

Although he is a recruit, he has strong execution. If it were those stupid gangs in Night City, people would have run away long ago!

The Latvian soldier only then noticed that there was a robot hanging on the car outside, patting the car door!

Hansen shouted inside: “We must advance in an orderly manner, understand?! You have no cover, no support, the car will be blown up!

If the car is blown up, the battle line will not be able to advance, and everyone can only wait for death!”

Moreover, if the car is blown up, this "refresh point" may not be usable, but that is game thinking, and Hansen has already entered the state.

Hansen pointed to the cars that were also running wildly not far away, and some combat robots with strange whereabouts:

Those combat robots don't find cover and advance in an orderly manner like ordinary soldiers, but they are very agile, and they make very strong use of the tactical equipment on their bodies, quickly changing positions between buildings and then making extreme shots—

From time to time, they would make strange noises, such as strange sounds like "Wuhu", "Awesome", "Cool", and then when they ran out of ammunition or lost their mobility, they would crash into Ultron machine soldiers and mechanical nest facilities like self-destructing infantry.

In the eyes of the Latvian soldiers, these robots with strange movements look very much like elite Iron Riders!

Of course, if he looked closely, he would find that the combat efficiency of these robots is actually not high, but they are more flexible and diverse.

Hansen shouted: “Drive over there! Those idiots will give us cover!”

“Okay.”

Bang!

A whole team of Ultron machine soldiers rushed out of the factory next to them quickly with the help of a bipedal pulley system. Compared with those humanoid machine soldiers, they were obviously larger and had more firepower—

A series of Night City lunatics were instantly annihilated by the terrifying firepower, and the pressure on the road suddenly increased. Hansen took a breath of cold air:

That's great, he's going to die again.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—

Just as Hansen was about to welcome "death", a heavy machine gun sounded behind him, and every shell accurately hit the heavy machine soldier!

And when Hansen found that he was not dead when he opened his eyes, he saw a huge robot walking quickly in front of the car—

Or rather, running over! The weight of the steps even made the armored personnel carrier jump!

The Titan's smooth shooting caused the heavy machine soldiers to instantly lose their firepower. During the reloading period, he even used the gun in his hand as a melee weapon, and seamlessly destroyed the remaining enemies with clean and neat fighting skills!

A whole team of Ultron machine soldiers was wiped out. After the bullets were loaded, the Titan rushed to the factory door without looking back, shot again with the help of cover, and then moved forward again.

Hansen was completely dumbfounded. There was only one thought in his head:

Is Burger King developing a shooting game here? Are there large combat robots with such strong combat capabilities in reality?!

As everyone knows, large combat robots are limited by material strength, energy power, and other factors, resulting in slow movement and sluggish reactions. Their only advantage over modern weapons is the ability to carry more explosives. So, if a weapon is large, it's likely just used to launch bombs.

But the Titans are different—

The precision of the Titan's shooting stance, the coherence of its combat movements, and the agility of its actions make it seem like a giant super-soldier!

The Titan's dash just now reached a maximum speed of nearly 20m/s, and the dexterity it displayed in close-quarters combat was almost indistinguishable from that of a human.

This means that an ordinary person would be unable to avoid being crushed at close range. One would need cybernetic enhancements at least at the squad leader or elite level to have a chance of dancing on the edge of a blade.

If a military technology soldier could perfectly utilize top-tier Sandevistan technology, they might be able to dodge attacks a little easier at close range, but the truly terrifying thing about these things is their firepower!

Not to mention that humans experience great strain in Sandevistan mode, while the Titan is just moving normally. If a human actually got close, the Titan could simply use a simple anti-infantry smoke or electromagnetic interference, then quickly move away, and the firepower in its hands would be more than enough to cover the Sandevistan human's range of movement in an instant—

Perhaps the accuracy is lacking, but the weapon caliber and destructive power are immense!

"Hold on tight, we need to—"

"Wait! Follow that thing!"

Hansen quickly stopped the driver from following those Night City lunatics who were constantly dying violently, and instead pointed in the direction the Titan had disappeared, then shouted:

"That thing's ammunition has to be limited, right?"

The Latvian soldiers quickly responded, pointing to the armored transport vehicle that had crashed into the metal factory wall not far away—

The Titan's energy and ammunition are not infinite, so it needs to keep up with logistics. This battle has gambled everything, and communication methods have been disabled from the start, everything has become chaotic, and logistics have to rush forward desperately to ensure that the Titan can get ammunition.

Hansen saw that vehicle, and in his heart, he had already forgotten about the scattered Night City rabble. His mind was filled with the Titan's combat figure:

He is a commander, and commanding a group of soldiers with explosive professional skills to win a battle is a kind of enjoyment.

"Go over there!"

The Latvian soldiers also did not hesitate at all, and the car started and drove towards the factory that the Titan had rushed into—

Just when Hansen thought that this was the second core of this war besides V, or that the thing was a heavy-duty unit designed for Jackie, not far away, a lightweight Northstar Titan flew directly into the air!

Hansen's eyes widened—actually, the robot's visual sensors were flashing wildly:

That thing can actually fly!

The Northstar hovered in the air, and a barrage of missiles directly flattened the mechs on the entire metal street, and the plasma sniper rifle in its hand directly pierced the factory!

Hansen was even more shocked, and at the same time, the suspicion in his heart deepened:

Why make so many Titans? Night City can't produce them. What's the point of making these things?!

But he also knew what to do at this moment: cooperating with the Titan's mission seemed even more important!

Bang—

A combat robot stood up in the troop carrier, obviously another Night City person had joined the battlefield. Before this person could figure out the situation, Hansen's big hand directly pressed this person back into the chair:

"Don't fucking rush around, go drive, listen to the command!"

"Who the hell are you?"

Hansen's face darkened: bad luck, he obviously caught the Night City NCPD's outsourcing team.

"Who am I? I'm your commander! If you don't listen to orders, I'll find someone to unplug your connecting cables right now!"

This threat was actually very effective: Riel had very high expectations for this training. The training's central control system would record combat performance, and through a set of reward systems, give some material rewards to those who performed well.

Compared to the soldiers' wages, it must be lower, but for the people of Night City, this job is like playing a game, and it's still the kind of game with a stimulation comparable to black braindance.

With the rapid devaluation of the Euro and the turmoil in the financial system now, getting something to eat directly from the city government is really much more.

So this eager brother decisively gave up the idea of running around like a cyberpsycho, and honestly waited to drive—

But on the way, they quickly saw other things:

Although the command system showed that most people were still coming in and out, and were quickly taken to the infirmary because their scores were too bad or they couldn't withstand the pressure of being blown up, there were still some fierce people.

For example, Brick from the Maelstrom gang who was driving the super-firepower robot, and his little brother Josda who was carrying the black coffin on his back—in this world, he was carrying a mech group as well.

There was also the Animals gang boss, Warchief, whose whole body was made of top-level bionic structures and artificial muscles, leading a group of equally huge younger brothers who liked to use big hammers to attract the most firepower and eat the most bullets on the street;

Maekawa, the boss of the Tyger Claws gang, who used sharp knives and medium-sized weapons, led a group of younger brothers on integrated motorcycles, running wildly;

Susan, the boss of the Mox gang, who used light robots with quick movements, and her gang members were entangled with the mechs inside the complex terrain of the factory;

Sergeant, the boss of the 6th Street gang, who could cooperate in combat to a certain extent, had already gathered a large group of soldiers, orderly occupying strongholds to provide fire support;

The Valentinos gang took the initiative to drive cars that no one was driving, using heavy machine guns and rocket launchers to kill a bloody path...

The scene was very chaotic. In the chaos, Hansen could feel that his fellow villagers had begun to adapt to this battlefield:

Although this is a mechanical hell, they can win.

Thinking of this, Hansen suddenly laughed: looking down on Night City villagers is looking down on them, but this kind of combat with different styles but actually cooperating with each other is not much different from the division of labor of different troops in the army?

And his task is to command these professional soldiers to support the Titan robots that really determine the victory—

Boom!

The factory that the Titan had just rushed into exploded violently. Under his instructions, the ammunition vehicle completely arrived at the position where the Titan rushed out. The pilot was slightly surprised but his movements did not hesitate at all. He jumped out of the Titan and grabbed the battery from the car, and the Titan also reached into the car and grabbed the ammunition!

The ammunition and energy replenishment was completed in an instant, and before the mechs could organize an interception, they were subjected to a fierce attack by the Titan!

"That's right!"

Hansen clenched his fist fiercely, and his mind had already begun to imagine: if they crushed the endless mechs here, wouldn't it be easy to take down a company at that time?!

Thinking of this, he immediately walked to another robot in the car that was about to start, and roared at the constantly awakening soldiers like a newbie tutorial NPC:

"Your mission is to regain control of the car in front, follow the convoy and push forward, understand, recruit!"

"Don't stand there dumbfounded, go do the mission now, take this gun to the front, the person next to you will be responsible for transporting the supplies from the damaged car—"

"Get up! We're at war, soldier!"

All the robots in the car were all put into battle, and Hansen decisively roared at the Latvian soldiers in the driver's seat: "We should change cars—"

Bang!

The car stopped suddenly, and Hansen was thrown violently by the inertia. He raised his head and wanted to reprimand the soldier, but found that the soldier was raising his head, with a hint of despair in his eyes.

So Hansen also raised his head and looked at the sky:

What he saw was truly overwhelming mechs passing through the blood-red sky.

Dense, overwhelming, metal formed a curtain advancing in the sky, constantly dropping bombs and land combat mechs—

It was as if "Extinction" had really been materialized. These mechs were not war machines, but the entity of extinction.

How can there be so many? Where did they come from?

Ordinary soldiers find it difficult to become Titan pilots, precisely because their mentality will still be uncontrollably shaken in extreme situations, and the shaking of one person will cause devastating consequences in the army, especially on this battlefield where signals are lost.

"There... there are too many..."

Unless there are really fearless people encouraging them, ordering them, suppressing their fear.

Bang!

Hansen kicked the soldier out with a big kick—

Boom!

The soldier was blown away by the shock wave, and when he climbed up again, he found that the car had been blown into scrap metal. He was saved by a robot.

Strange feeling: to be honest, the Latvian people's idea of "human and machine are different" is not deeply rooted. They have seen many AIs, and many people even regard AIs as people.

Bang—

Before the soldier could figure it out, the door of the troop carrier that had crashed on the side of the street was kicked open—

Hansen changed his body, and was also angered, roaring at the soldier: "What are you dazing for! I told you to change cars! Come over and repair the car! I'll cover you!"

"Complete your mission at all costs!"