The armageddon that erupted in downtown Veoline did not stay confined to the imdiate area.
Uranus was too big, too tall and too powerful for its attacks to stay limited.
In fact, it suffered from the sa problem that plagued every ch and bioch.
Normal chs were much bigger and taller than infantryn. Compared to tanks, their combination of destructive power, resistance against damage and ability to traverse a diverse set of terrains resulted in war machines that could easily lay waste to entire cities if left unrestrained.
Of course, no ch pilot was ever crazy enough to go out of control like that. Other ch pilots did not take kindly to such indiscriminate behavior. The consequences of deliberately killing a huge amount of civilians with chs were so dire that every ch pilot learned how to exercise so restraint.
However, chs couldn't shackle themselves too heavily. They were designed and equipped to wield massive, powerful weapons in order to fight against other chs that were ard with similar weapons.
If one side went too far with restricting the use of its weapons, then the other side would most certainly gain the upper hand as long as it didn't follow suit!
Therefore, in order to allow chs to retain their usefulness, ch pilots learned to fight according to a specific set of rules that explained how much force they were able to bring to bear in many different scenarios.
The rules of engagent differed from state to state, star sector to star sector and so on. Yet they were almost identical in most areas because those were the standards that the MTA heavily encouraged everyone to adopt.
Those that diverged from the Association's recomndations rarely found their actions to be worth it. Since the MTA was one of the only sources of life-prolonging treatnt serum, rulers rarely wanted to get on the bad side of this powerful organization.
Through the constant efforts of the chers, the widespread adoption of chs in the current age was a grand success. Humanity still waged war among itself, but the level of destruction they exhibited was but a fraction from what happened before.
While the smaller and more limited destructive potential of chs limited how much damage they could inflict onto an environnt, the restraint exhibited by ch pilots also deserved a lot of credit.
Yet what if a new war machine ca along that broke these conventions that allowed humanity to flourish again during the Age of chs?
Uranus was far bigger than a typical ch. Its ability to inflict collateral damage was so high that no amount of restraint could prevent it from ruining large parts of a city.
What was worse was that its controlling consciousness did not even bother to spare the innocent from its devastating area attacks.
This ant that Uranus effectively beca a walking apocalypse. The imdiate area around this titanic monster was already ruined beyond recognition. The areas further ahead might have a higher chance of making it out unscathed, but the monster's energy beams were so far-reaching that no area in view was safe!
"Aramaggedon has co!"
"Forget about everything. Just run! Our hos are already dood!"
"If even expert pilots can't defeat it, nothing can!"
The losses suffered by the military was horrendous. The expert pilots that had bravely attempted to confront Uranus directly had all flad out along with their expert chs without even getting the chance to show their full might.
The difference in scale led to an insurmountable difference in power. Even though Uranus did not exhibit the qualities of an expert ch, it was nonetheless able to defeat these powerful machines with ease due to the abundance of power conveyed by its prodigious size.
The expert pilots had all died unjustly due to this simple reason!
That wasn't all. Now that Uranus recognized the threat from the skies, it turned its massive eyes upwards and began to scan every attack source that were floating in orbit thousands of kiloters away.
Then, the biotitan lifted its infamous arm cannon once again.
This ti, it did sothing differently. Instead of firing a single overpowering energy beam, it unleashed dozens of smaller beams that slightly angled away from each other.
Though half of them missed their targets, plenty more managed to slam into spaceborn chs that were never suspected to be attacked from the surface of a planet in such a fashion!
Though the firepower of the smaller beams was diluted, the attacks still possessed plenty of power to burn through the fras of every ch and bioch, particularly when they lacked adequate defenses!
As for the spaceborn chs that happened to dodge or move away fast enough to stay safe, they did not last much longer as the individual energy beams raced across the skies and tracked the biochs that the juggernaut had initially missed!
Uranus roared again and again as it continually unleashed bright beams of energy through the clouds and beyond the atmosphere of Prosperous Hill VI. The lack of cover in space beca a deadly disadvantage as the biojuggernaut's sensor, targeting and firing systems were so good that no ch in orbit was able to escape destruction!
Those that tried to hide beyond space stations, starships and artificial satellites only provoked more destruction from Uranus. With the destruction of these massive orbital biovessels and bioconstructs, the skies soon began to light up as nurous chunks of massive debris was about to descend all across the surface of the suffering planet.
"Fly faster! Dump all excess cargo and overload the engines if you have to! Just get out of here as fast as you can!"
Though the Larkinson airfleet was already a fair distance away from downtown Veoline, Ves and his subordinates did not tarry.
Their airfleet consisted of an eclectic collection of aerial biochs and flight-capable biovessels of different shapes and classes.
So were relatively modest bioshuttles that could only carry up to twenty passengers if they all squeezed tight against each other.
Other vessels were larger transports with enough internal volu to carry five or so biochs in their cargo bays.
Yet because the entire airfleet was composed of a random collection of vehicles brought by refugees or salvaged from the imdiate environnt, their properties diverged enormously.
Speed was never the greatest priority of the airfleet, but now Ves was growing increasingly more frustrated at their lack of progress.
The transport he was on shook a bit after a hefty chunk of debris from a ruined space station descended from the sky in flaming fury and collided onto a nearby city district with the force of a tactical nuclear weapon!
The shockwaves unleashed by this destructive collision not only ruined the entire rural district, but also buffeted the airfleet with a powerful gust. So biovessels even collided against each other!
"Goddammit!" Ves cursed as he slamd his armored fist against the surface of the central command table. "Abandon every vessel that is lagging behind!"
"Pardon, sir?!"
"Just do what I say! Evacuate every vehicle that is dragging down the pace of our flight. Don't fuss about the cargo we are leaving behind. Those materials are worth nothing compared to our lives and the continued existence of the rest of our airfleet! I bet that after this incident passes, the LRA won't be able to justify its blockade anymore, so we will definitely be rescued soon. However, all of that assus we are able to survive this imdiate disaster, so get to work!"
The airfleet had lost most of its aning now that Uranus had upended the ga on this planet. Ves was even willing to abandon all of the biochs he managed to gather if that would help his airfleet move faster.
"What is our destination, sir?"
"I don't care! Just take us as far from this giant thing as you can! Don't stop flying until we have reached the antipode of the rogue juggernaut's coordinates!"
No place on this hellish planet was truly safe now that Uranus started shooting down space stations and space platforms from orbit, but that didn't an it was pointless to flee.
As long as they remained within a direct line of fire to the tall humanoid's energy cannons, the airfleet would always be at risk of getting wiped out from existence at any ti!
The safest place on this planet was the exact opposite side of the globe they were on. In fact, as long as they traveled far away enough for Uranus to be unable to maintain a line of sight to the airfleet, then the Larkinsons would already escape the imdiate danger zone.
After Ves issued his ergency orders, the desperate clansn did not delay too much. Many of them used to be Lifers who recently escaped other disasters, so they knew quite well how important it was to let go of everything that slowed them down.
The Larkinsons ruthlessly abandoned hundreds of different biovessels. They also dumped a lot of cargo from the vessels they deed fast enough to keep. This not only lightened their mass and increased their speed, but also freed enough room to house the crew and passengers of the abandoned vessels.
Though this entire process had to take place in midair in order for the airfleet to keep running away, the Larkinsons exhibited plenty of competence this ti. No disasters took place and no clansn fell overboard during the chaotic transfer process.
"Sir! The juggernaut is flying!"
"What?!"
Ves turned back to a projection that showed a direct feed of Uranus in action. The jamming across the planet had subsided so ti after the juggernaut erged. This not only restored so communication networks, but also allowed most people on the planet to patch into the many feeds that broadcast the ongoing disaster.
Despite its imnse size and mass, the biojuggernaut was no longer content to remain on land for so reason. After firing a lot of energy beams and supplenting its consumption by digging up large biomachines from the surroundings, the monstrous titan evidently decided that the planet no longer had anything to offer.
After activating a specific command, Uranus began to grow a massive bony flight system from its back!
Like a dented angel growing wings, the god-like bioconstruct showed that it maker integrated yet another ability to its imnse fra.
"Is it…?"
Through a combination of internal antigrav modules and upwards thrust from its massive flight system, the biojuggernaut did sothing that many people thought was impossible for a construct of its size.
It slowly ascended into the air!
Though the amount of energy and thrust power required to lift a skyscraper-sized ch was mind-boggling, the Supre Sage did not incorporate so much high technology and expensive resources into its growth for nothing.
Uranus flew higher and higher!
First, its oversized feet reached fifty ters above the ground.
Then, the biotitan reached 100 ters above the ground.
When it started to reach a kiloter into the air, its ascent slowly accelerated as the biojuggernaut's powerful flight system slowly gained power even as the force of gravity acting upon its half-kiloter long body started to grow a little less severe.
The beginning of the liftoff was always the hardest for any vessel that wished to escape the gravity well of a planet.
The fact that Uranus had already succeeded up until now showed that it was very viable for it to reach open space!
"Is it… escaping from this planet?"
"Don't tell it has an FTL drive! Damn, I bet it has! Unlike an ordinary ch that needs phasewater in order to gain FTL capability, this biojuggernaut is so imnse that it could easily fit a cruiser-grade FTL drive inside its stomach!"
"Hahahahaha! Behold, you fools! This is the power of science! No one can surpass the greatest invention that our state has ever created! Embrace its might and worship its perfection, for you are witnessing the ascension of our new god!"
What would happen if Uranus entered deep space and fled from this star system?
Nothing good, probably! A rogue god-like biotitan that was driven by a primal, violent consciousness had the potential to be an enormously powerful space marauder!
"We have to stop it before it can get away!"
"How?! Much of our military assets are gone. Even if reinforcents make it back in ti, they stand no chance against this terror!"
Will the LRA be able to stop Uranus from getting away? No one knew for sure, but everyone began to fear the worst. As long as this rogue biojuggernaut escaped the star system, the chances of catching it and defeating it would surely go down!
User Comments
0 comments from readers