Chapter 25 - Huntly Mine (part 14)

The intense patrolling of the drones continues until the early morning, which leaves us with no way to use any electrical devices, so we decide to just sleep. And it seems like other residents in the area had soon fallen asleep before the midnight came, so effectively, nobody, except us, are aware of the situation.

It is currently five, and immediately after the drones seem to disappear from our window view, we gear up to attack the underground facility as early as possible. This time, we cannot resort to ordinary travelling, because it is literally digging our own wave to enter an unprotected car.

I send a message to Issac, who is currently dead asleepin his comfortable bedroom to let him know that we would be heading out first. Then, we get out of the house.

Mirai takes out the familiar plane that we have been constantly using for missions from the archive. Right at the moment the plane is taken out, I withdraw my photon magnum pistol from my pocket...

... and shoot down two approaching drones carrying explosives. Getting hit in the explosive powder chamber, they explode midair like fireworks.

- Mirai, quick, jump on the plane! I will provide cover fire! - I shove Mirai onto the driver seat.

- I know, I know! You don't need to be so rushed!

Mirai switches on the engine, and after a few seconds, the turbines are spinning at full speed, propelling the plane upwards and forward at the same time.

The journey is only ten minutes, because planes are much faster than cars. However, holding ground for ten minutes is another story. I wear a special suit that helps me withstand high altitudes and take out a photon assault rifle and a few grenades.

Soon after we are on the sky, the colour quickly changes from the typical deep blue into dull, densely metallic colours of drones and other flying weapons. I open the upper window of the plane and take a look. Some of those grey dots on the sky quickly charges towards me. I shoot them down with my assault rifle. After that, I throw an EMP grenade towards the drone clouds. It explodes as soon as it contacts with the flying drones, decimating their numbers to the point that we can keep them in check.

Several other heavy units of theirs manage to withstand the electromagnetic pulse attack, but they are all fend off with our fleet of Suicide Drones and heavy support from other autonomous aerial units. Their population dwindles significantly, but it looks like they can just discard and restock drones whenever their drones die. But, our firepower is not unlimited.

After ten minutes, the plane is directly on top of the Huntly Mine. Mirai throws me a parachute backpack.

- Wear this. The moment I put this plane back into the archive in the air, it will disappear, sending us free-falling. It is risky, but we cannot land in this case.

- Roger that! - I creep back into the plane and close the window.

After I have secured all of the connections on the parachute to make sure it firmly attaches to my body, I make a gesture to tell that I am ready. As soon as I do so, the plane evaporates from our sight, sending us flying forward at its current speed before disappearance. From three thousand metres above the sky, we dive towards the building with the elevator which is pinned with a yellow light in my spectacles, dodging any bullet from the drones chasing us behind.

- Yuusha, remember that only open the parachute at three hundred metres above the ground. Otherwise, you will be nothing different from a fixed gun-fodder for the drones. Once reaching a stable terminal velocity, cut the parachute immediately and land. - A long instruction line sent from Mirai runs through my spectacles, telling me what to do.

The altitude quickly drops and a clear view of the mine has emerged in front of my eyes. At exactly three hundred metres, Mirai and I deploy our parachutes. The large parachutes quickly catch up the air and slow us down. The drones are still chasing us from above, making a rain of projectiles upon our position. I use my strength to rotate myself upwards and throw my last EMP grenade onto the sky. The detonation pulse immediately jams the closest units to us, and the momentum pushes me towards the ground.

The building is within a fifty-meter radius. We dive down for another few seconds, and cut our parachute connections, nicely landing on the ground. The cryogenic engines attached to the parachutes are activated, freezing the parachutes within a blink to form two deformable shields that continue blocking the incoming bullets from airborne units.

- Yuusha, we will barge into the elevator building. In the worst case scenario, hold the ground for thirty seconds before the elevator comes.

- Roger!

Mirai turns on the agility module to significantly boost her speed, and I click a button to summon a pair of propelled rollerblades that immediately wears. Mirai shoots a beam of infrared rays towards the entrance sensor, and the door automatically opens for us, matching our speeds.

As we enter the building, Mirai parks next to the scanning booth and scan her identification card, calling the elevator. Luckily, it is already at the first floor, waiting for us to enter. We enter the elevator chamber, and the door closes, right before a troop of Intruder forces themselves into the building.

The elevator descends into the underground, but despite the high speed, every second feels like an endless time warp. Maybe it is because we know what is lying ahead for us.

The elevator door opens after the seemingly endless wait, leading us back to the hallway. However, this will become our fortress, a formidable and impregnable one. We dash through the long hallway, reaching the first train station.

As soon as we reach the station, at the other end, the familiar shadows, giving out an aura we cannot get more than used to, holding weapons, already descend into the underground level via the elevator.

- Yuusha, hold them off. This time, we will go big or go home! - Mirai shouts and point her fingers at the hallway.

- Yes, ma'am! - I follow her high spirit.

The shadows accelerates along the hallway towards us, slowly showing higher resolution. About twenty Intruders of overall rating forty. To make sure that the Intruders are kept away from Mirai as far as possible, I summon a photon shotgun with full attachments and charge forward, head-on with the Intruders.

I fling two unpinned smoke grenades in front, quickly building thick walls of smoke that interrupts their vision. As soon as the Intruders are in range, I fire my first pellet shots.

The fully charged shots from my calibrated shotgun burn in the air, making impacting sounds that are definitely due to Intruders getting hit. Under the thick veils of smoke and chaos, I fire the rest of my cartridge at the mass of Intruders, knocking them down one by one like bowling pins. Soon, I find myself among the angry Intruders, looking at me with the glare of bullets.

I flip a switch under my trigger, and a shining laser bayonet emerges from udner my barrel, thirty centimetres long but adding no weight to my already light shotgun.

The Intruders start firing, and some charge at me with their weapons. Like a dancer, I dance myself through the rain of projectiles, stabbing the Intruders that stand on the front with the bayonet. Under the intolerable heat of laser penetrating right through their critical areas, one by one collapses onto the ground. The remaining of their forces charge in to outnumber me, but I am always a step faster. Before their blades can even touch my skin, their cores have been roasted by my bayonet.

Utilising the few milliseconds that the Intruders are losing focus due to my unpredictable movements, I reload my shotgun with another batch of powerful pellet shots, and for the next few milliseconds, their cores receive full damage of photon energy.

In the station, Mirai is doing some modifications to a train currently stopped on the rail. She saws off the upper roof of the carriage and enhance the lower floor part with some weapons. As I keep the Intruders busy, the train carriage is slowly transformed into something resembling a mine cart, but for battle purposes.

- Done! Yuusha, quickly retreat! We will directly attack the factory with trains. - Mirai shouts at the end of the hallway, signalling to me that the preparations are done.

It is time to stop toying with the seemingly never dwindling numbers of Intruders. I step on the piling Intruder corpses and make a leap in the air. I flip the switch under my trigger again, changing the bayonet into a photon grenade launcher. With the propeller rollerblades on, I press my secondary trigger, launching an orb packed with electromagnetic energy at the remaining Intruders.

The orb explodes, and its momentum, aiding the propellers, pushes me towards Mirai, while completely blowing up a few layers of Intruders and leaving the Intruders at the back unable to move due to the piling corpses blocking their way.

- Seriously, that performance is nothing but completely flamboyant and unnecessary. You can easily hold those ranks off with basic equipments in the Codex... - Mirai complaints, as we jump onto the cart.

- Come on, there is not many experiences that I can make such highlights. Just this time, I swear.

- Sigh... Fine, but I will not go pick up your corpse when you kill yourself with such confidence. Now, wear a protective suit. We will be leaving in ten seconds.

- Is that a bit too fast?

Mirai stops replying and scans her card, which has previously stored Albert's driver data. With the modifications, the cart slowly lifts itself up from the rail, like a magnetic levitation train. She pushes a lever forward, to the last node. The multiple engine thrusters at the side start working, and from the sounds they make, they are working at full power. The cart, at an amazing velocity, pushes itself out of the first station like typical modern rockets, bringing us out of the station, leaving the Intruders back, unable to chase us.

The cart is literally flying on the rail. I need to grab very tightly during its first seconds of acceleration to keep my body not flinging away. After the maximum velocity is reached, I regain my ground.

- Now, your second main mission starts, Yuusha. - Mirai points upward, while her concentration is still on driving.

I look upward. The flying units are already flying like swarms of locusts on our head. Not only that, if I look closely, somewhere in between the factories, there are lurking images of the Intruders, attempting to ambush us.

The second last fun thing that leads directly to our own grave officially begins.