Ghost-in-the-Machine!
BZZZ!
Ren Nora moved like a phantom.
To the normal Federation soldier, it looked like the silver-haired nace was everywhere at the sa ti.
Most of his victims didn’t even see the face of the D Rank Infoseer, all they saw was a blur of green that filled them with a chilly sensation as he seed to be in a dozen places at the sa ti.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Ard with a dagger on one hand and a Particle Beam Pistol on his other hand, he was a nace as he moved with by far the highest mobility on the aerial battlefield, hunting down soldiers, war transports, and even warships.
With Ghost-in-the-Machine, he beca one with the overlapped psionic reality that was made possible by Purgatory.
And through it, Ren Nora was everywhere.
One mont, he was at the periphery of Iron Reef hunting the distant Federation transports at the rear and the next mont, he was at the very center of the battle helping a squad of rebel NetRunners assault the invaders.
The very next mont, he was off hunting powerful individual Ascended of the Federation Army and every single one of his target beca a casualty in his wake except the D Rank Ascended of the Federation Army.
The D Rank Ascended powerhouses of the Federation Army were forced to defend for their lives as Ren Nora embodied and flexed the penultimate form of a cyber-assassin at D Rank.
He was omnipresent, blinking everywhere as his dagger and Particle Beam pistol harvested lives like sickle harvesting rice in a farm.
His particle beam pistol was a result of another deal with the Synth Order. The pistol was designed to fire streams of neutral particles at near-light speeds, designed to punch holes through armor and disrupt internal systems.
With the pistol, Ren Nora’s attack range encompassed all of Iron Reef, and it had the power to punch a hole through the hull of a warship!
Ren Nora could be on one end of Iron Reef, aim at the other end of the city and still manage to assassinate a troubleso enemy while blinking towards another position all in the sa mont.
He was multi-tasking, draining ADE like a water tap as he moved like a bug in the system of this battle.
Ren Nora didn’t just attack with his dagger and pistol though. As a D Rank Infoseer NetRunner of the Code Phantom Specialization, he had other skills.
Lithium Overload!
Everywhere he went, amid bright eruptions of neon green ADE, warship systems and batteries were overloaded, triggering violent chemical reactions as the war vessels experienced internal heating, gas buildup, and violent swelling.
At tis, the internal heating alone caused by Lithium Overload was enough to roast entire battalions of soldiers.
Other tis, the gas buildup inside the warships poisoned soldiers stuck inside. At so tis, it was a mix of both gas buildup and internal heating, poisoning and cooking enemy soldiers at the sa ti.
As for those that survived the initial wrath of the rampaging NetRunner, the violent explosion that follows after the electrolyte breakdown completes the job as warships rained from the sky in his wake, leaving burning trails.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Ren Nora moved like a natural disaster.
Quantum Dictator!
Unlike the first two specialized abilities, Quantum Dictator enables a D Rank Code Phantom Infoseer to instantly hack and directly control sensors.
With this ability, Ren Nora fried the sensors of enemy transports and warships anyti he was in the vicinity, turning them blind and deaf to his presence.
The scrambled sensors couldn’t see him nor could they accurately pick up his ADE signature.
Pairing this with Ghost-in-the-Machine inside the active Purgatory, Ren Nora moved like a Glitch in this battlefield, causing wide-scale destruction.
The greatest validation of Ren Nora’s performance in this battle was that individually, he caused more death than the enemy Commander who was a bonafide C Rank NetRunner inside Purgatory.
He was called a genius NetRunner for a reason.
Such an aggressive fighting style ant Ren Nora was burning ADE far more than what he could naturally sustain, but he was prepared as he entered this battle with vast reserves of ADE crystals to replenish his ADE.
...
In another part of the battlefield, the 2 other D Rank NetRunners of the rebel army combined their powers as they went on a rampage.
Psionic Assault!
Mind Distortion!
Neural Burn!
Neural Hack!
They both moved and spread across the battlefield like a virus with the mobility brought as a result of Purgatory, infiltrating warships as their powerful mind attacks left mindless dead zombies in their wake.
Ordinary soldiers and even E Rank Ascended simply didn’t have what it took to withstand the assault of a D Rank Mindbreaker.
While the NetRunners went on a rampage, moving like ghosts through the overlapped psionic reality, the 3 other D Rank Ascended of the rebel army also contributed in their own ways.
The 2 D Rank Cyber Gladiators and the D Rank Gene Augur opted to move together, sweeping through enemy warships with unstoppable montum.
Individually, they could cause a lot more damage but they dared not separate simply due to the existence of General Sylvari Charr.
They strictly followed Ren Nora’s battle strategy.
Afterall, unlike the NetRunners as low as E Rank NetRunners, they didn’t gain enhanced mobility through Purgatory.
While just like the thousands of NetRunners in this battlefield enjoyed the boost granted by Purgatory, the Commander of the Federation Army also enjoyed this boost, aning he could hop through the overlapped psionic reality just as they did.
The 3 D Rank Ascended stayed together and were on guard as they expected the General to target them simply because they didn’t expect him to forgive. Afterall, Ren Nora spilled first blood by killing his D Rank Ascended subordinate.
They were right.
About 6 minutes into the battle as it raged, the General hopped towards them for the first ti through Neural Projection but the mont the General moved, Ren Nora noticed and also moved to intercept.
Ghost-in-the-Machine!
The 2 other NetRunners of the rebel army also moved to intercept the General as it instantly beca a 6v1.
1v1 against a C Rank Ascended was suicide, but in the right circumstances like now with Purgatory, 6 D Rank Ascended could at least resist the overwhelming power of a C Rank Ascended.
Together, they thwarted the Commander’s plan to at least take a D Rank Ascended life from the rebel army even as the battle escalated even more.
By now, they already lost track of ti as they lost themselves in the chaos.
...
On top a roof...
Aiming at the sky with his Terra Nova 71, Leon stayed content with doing the bare minimum. This was not the ti to play hero, instead he stayed pragmatic.
He decided not to run faster than his shadow as from the roof, he aid at the sky and contributed to the battle in his own way.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Others may have lost track of ti due to the intensity of the battle, but Leon never lost track of ti as he did more of observation than fighting in this battle.
This was how he knew that 15 minutes already passed since the battle started. Also, through Davis, Leon kept track of the casualty list.
During this ti, General Sylvari Charr already led his army to harvest more than 3000 rebel lives but even this figure was minuscule compared to what the stubborn rebel army already did to the Federation Army in return.
Davis calculated that at least 18000 Federation soldiers were dead in just 15 minutes of battle!
This figure was ridiculous and it was about 6 tis the casualty rate of the rebel army, and this was despite the enemy Commander being a C Rank Ascended.
With Purgatory, the rebel army in Iron Reef managed to do the impossible.
They managed to do what Leviathan Quay couldn’t do without the help of a C Rank Ascended, they managed to dominate the battle against the Federation Army in a shockingly one-sided battle.
Leon observed it all happen and he was amazed.
And this was when with his few surviving C-5 drones that were hidden in the sky, Leon noticed sothing strange. ’There are caras hidden in this battlefield!’
He was surprised. ’What’s going on?’
His brain whirred as he tried to decipher the rationality behind this.
During the past 12 minutes, even as the battle raged, he’d been observing every single one of Ren Nora’s movents, trying to understand his actions and the reasons for his actions.
He already learned a lot about the rebel leader during this ti and now, Leon had a hunch that he understood Ren Nora’s intentions.
His eyes widened. ’Is he broadcasting this battle live?’
"Davis, confirm, is this battle being broadcasted live?"
DING!
Despite all the network interference due to the ongoing battle, Leon’s A.I managed to connect to the psionic network without the aid of NetRunner powers and Davis confird his speculation.
At this mont, while the battle raged, there was a live video in Iron Reef and this video was being broadcasted to the whole world!
[LIVE VIDEO=]
The title of the video was...
["The Battle of the Free Folk."]
...
[Special Appreciation to Yatekudastop and ctan63 for the Golden Tickets, thanks for the support!]
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