Chapter 187: Energy Shield
At the perimeter defense line of the Abandoned Town, the soldiers who had just finished fighting had not yet had time to fully relax when the ear-piercing air raid sirens tore through the brief tranquility.
"Air threat! Radar detects a large group of high-speed targets approaching! It's Arasaka carrier-based aircraft!" The urgent warning from the Barghest air defense unit came through the comms channel.
All personnel immediately went into air defense mode, seeking cover or operating the limited number of portable anti-air missiles while looking nervously at the sky.
The Lazarus mercenaries' power armors also lowered their stances, bracing for the potential bombardment.
The Militech special envoy and members of the Kang Tao CN squad also took cover, looking up to watch the black spots appearing on the distant horizon.
Soon, the roar of engines grew from far to near, like a concerto of death.
The silhouettes of the Arasaka air wing rapidly enlarged in their field of vision as they entered their attack runs with a well-trained posture.
"Missiles away! Evasive maneuvers!" The observer's voice almost cracked.
Dozens of fighters lit up with the flash of ignition almost simultaneously. Air-to-ground missiles, dragging striking smoke trails, dived toward the Abandoned Town and its perimeter defense lines like a swarm of bees.
At this moment, time seemed to slow down. A look of despair appeared on the faces of many soldiers on the ground—under a saturation strike of this scale, the existing point-defense systems were practically useless.
However, just the instant before the first wave of missiles plunged into the range of the Abandoned Town, a sudden anomaly occurred.
A faint, nearly transparent blue halo originated from a point in the center of the town and expanded outward instantly. Like an inverted bowl, it shrouded the entire Abandoned Town and its surrounding key defensive areas.
After expanding to its limit, the halo stabilized, forming a visible, azure energy barrier rippling like water.
In the next second, the missile swarm launched by Arasaka slammed violently into this barrier.
There were no deafening explosions, only a series of dull thud-thud sounds, like a heavy hammer striking tough leather.
The moment the missiles hit the barrier, their warheads failed to detonate as expected.
Instead, it was as if they had crashed into a layer of extremely viscous and tough invisible force field. Their kinetic energy was rapidly absorbed and dispersed, eventually only stirring up circles of violently spreading energy ripples on the surface of the barrier, along with brief, blinding bursts of electrical sparks.
Immediately afterward, the missile bodies twisted and deformed under the erosion of energy, finally turning into a shower of invalid fireworks mixed with metal debris and unexploded fuel, falling with a rustle.
The subsequent missiles, as well as the cannon shells from the fighters' strafing runs, met the same fate.
No matter how the Arasaka pilots adjusted their attack angles or how they poured out their ammunition, that azure barrier remained immovable. Like an absolute wall from mythology separating the mortal world, it blocked every attack from the sky.
The bombardment lasted for several minutes, yet inside the Abandoned Town, not even a single vibration was felt. It was as if what was playing out overhead was merely a holographic light show unrelated to them.
After exhausting their ground-attack munitions, the Arasaka air wing could only circle futilely outside the barrier. Finally, under the unwilling order of the flight leader, they turned around and returned resentfully.
When the engine sound of the last enemy plane disappeared into the distance, silence was restored over the Abandoned Town. Only that azure energy shield continued to emit a steady shimmer, silently declaring its existence.
Dead silence reigned over the defense line.
Then, a tide of uncontrollable gasps and discussions surged up.
Barghest soldiers poked their heads out from behind cover, touching the seemingly thin yet indestructible energy barrier in disbelief. Their faces were filled with the dazed shock of survivors.
They were used to bullets and explosions, but they had never imagined war could be defended against in this form.
"God... what the hell is this thing?" A Lazarus mercenary exclaimed through the external speakers of his power armor. His steel body seemed much smaller under the barrier.
The miniaturized kinetic shields recently rush-produced by Militech and equipped on them were like fireflies compared to the bright moon of this giant shield shrouding the heavens and earth.
The Militech special envoy was currently staring fixedly at the shield energy readings on his personal terminal. Although he didn't have access to most key data, the basic fluctuation index was enough to be heart-stopping.
He knew well how many resources the corporate technical department had invested in research and reverse-engineering after obtaining the shield technology provided by the "Sage."
However, the results were frustrating. At most, they could only copy it strictly according to the blueprints. Any attempt to optimize, miniaturize, or expand the coverage range encountered insurmountable technical barriers.
Either the energy consumption skyrocketed in a geometric progression, causing the system to overload instantly, or the shield field itself became extremely unstable, causing the defensive effect to plummet.
Scaling up an energy shield was by no means a simple matter of stacking energy and paralleling equipment.
How to constrain such a massive energy field to remain stable, how to balance defense intensity with energy consumption, how to handle energy dissipation and interference that might appear in different regions...
For these extremely complex systemic problems, Militech's engineers hadn't even fully established the theoretical models yet.
And this shield system before them, which effortlessly blocked a full-force strike from a standard Arasaka air wing, possessed a technical content that exceeded their current scope of understanding.
This wasn't just "having it"; this was "crushing superiority."
The envoy felt his mouth go dry. He had to report this situation to headquarters immediately. The importance of this report even surpassed the movements of Arasaka's power armor troops.
The members of the Kang Tao CN squad, who had also stayed in the Abandoned Town for follow-up contact, stood at the entrance of their temporary quarters, looking up at the dreamlike blue curtain of light in the sky.
Although Captain Li Wei remained calm on the surface, his slightly contracting pupils revealed the violent fluctuations in his heart.
Kang Tao also had deep accumulation in energy weapons and defense technology, but he could be certain that the corporation could absolutely not manufacture a regional shield of such scale and stable performance.
This was no longer "advanced"; it was bordering on "Black Technology."
He recalled the headquarters' directive to "establish friendly relations." At this moment, he felt that behind this directive might lie a profound meaning far exceeding his initial imagination.
The technological foundation mastered by this "Sage" was unfathomable.
Inside the central manufactorum of the Abandoned Town, Joric's crimson optical lenses gazed calmly at the real-time footage returned by external surveillance. The various parameters of the shield generator flowed steadily in his processing core; everything was within the expected range.
What was an incomprehensible technological miracle to the factions of this world was, to him, merely a standardized regional defense deployment realized based on tens of thousands of years of technological accumulation from another universe.
He didn't care what shock this shield brought to the outside world. He only cared about the data, and what follow-up measures Arasaka would take after their first air strike was thwarted.
The war had only just entered the main topic.
And this blue barrier spanning heaven and earth undoubtedly added a massive variable to this impending total conflict, one that made the offensive side feel powerless.
Yorinobu Arasaka stood on the bridge of the White Whale, watching the footage of the completely ineffective attack. There was no expression on his face, but deep in his heart, a ripple outside of his plan quietly rose.
This shield not only blocked Arasaka's missiles but might also, to some extent, alter his original script.
(End of Chapter)