In the deep, murky reaches of space, an umbrella-shaped spacecraft was drifting slowly from distant orbit toward the azure planet. Seen from afar, it resembled a dandelion seed falling from the heavens.
Compared to the vast blue globe, that dandelion-like craft was as minuscule as a speck of dust.
Up close, however, it presented a radically different spectacle.
Its structural steel umbrella ribs radiated outward, spanning an area of several square kilometers.
Innumerable rings, each a meter in diameter, were set into the long ribs, aimed from afar at the tip of the downward-pointing central shaft like suction cups on an octopus's tentacle.
Months ago, when the Alliance activated the gravity well to clear orbital debris drifting through outer space, this space-based weapon had been relocated beyond geosynchronous orbit.
Now, with all the low-Earth orbit debris having plunged into the Southern Sea, this lethal engine had been moved back.
Directional calibration concluded swiftly. One ring after another began radiating an eerie blue light, like lanterns slowly kindling through a long night.
And that light would shine for an entire day...
***
Meanwhile, in the Dawn City Ground Command Center, a cadre of officers led by Vannus stood with grave expressions, watching the pale blue holographic display directly ahead.
A military operation codenamed "Heaven's Punishment" had officially commenced.
Multiple Alliance corps, led by the Skeleton Corps and Death Corps, were setting out from Pioneer City and the Lavinka Industrial Zone respectively, advancing from both north and south toward Shelter 13 in the heart of the Great Desert!
Yet even as the ground forces surged toward the Enlightenment Society's stronghold, the strategic weapon dubbed "Sky Thunder" had already arrived at the battlefield yesterday ahead of them, entering the final stages of preparation for a strategic strike.
Watching the aerial feed from the orbital weapon on the holographic screen, a senior officer could not help but remark with feeling, "Frankly, using a weapon like this against them makes me feel like we're using a sledgehammer to swat a fly."
"Sky Thunder" was a single-use weapon. Once fired, it was essentially scrapped, much like a missile.
While extraordinarily lethal against organic life, against synthetics it was less useful than a single electromagnetic pulse.
Long ago, with the Celestials' aid, the Enlightenment Society had deployed large numbers of synthetic soldiers and smart weapons. By now, the society had practically been assimilated by the Celestials.
Even if a neutron plume could erase their peripheral personnel from the surface with the push of a button, the Alliance's ground forces would still have to clash with those synthetics in brutal, direct combat.
Vannus knew full well what his subordinate was thinking.
Tactically speaking, using "Sky Thunder" against the Enlightenment Society was indeed not the most efficient approach, but from a strategic standpoint, it was another matter entirely.
"Right now is precisely when we need that sledgehammer."
Resting his index finger against the brim of his officer's cap, Vannus continued with a grim expression, "One could even say this weapon was forged for this very moment."
Even during the fiercest phase of the war with the Southern Legion, the Alliance had never played this trump card.
Because at the end of the day, their opponents were still human, not yet reduced entirely to beasts or transformed into some other existence.
The Enlightenment Society was different.
As were the Celestials they clung to.
They had committed unforgivable crimes in deed, and they threatened the right to survive of every survivor on the wasteland.
No one was more deserving of "Heaven's Punishment" than they were.
The light descending from the heavens would bring not merely annihilation.
It would also bring deterrence!
As the two conversed, a cold electronic voice echoed through the spacious command room:
"'SOG' system deployment complete. Phase-Neutron Annihilation Strategic Orbital Cannon entering third charging phase."
"Countdown: 0 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds."
***
The sword hanging overhead gleamed with an increasingly dazzling, icy chill, its final countdown ticking away in silence.
Out upon the sand-swept ruins, mutant roamers clad in battle-damaged exoskeletons scoured the remnants of orbital debris for anything of value, keeping an eye out for any human scavengers lurking among the rubble.
Long ago, the Enlightenment Society had posted a massive bounty for them.
If they could locate an unrecorded shelter that had already been opened, they would be rewarded with at least a hundred fertile slaves.
As for strange metal parts, those could be traded at resource exchange posts for functional exoskeletons and assault rifles tailored to their bulky frames.
In truth, aside from the survivors cowering in their shells and the Enlightenment Society members who had retreated into Shelter 13, the area around the space elevator ruins in the Great Desert had long ceased to harbor any living humans on the surface.
Due to the total absence of order and the Enlightenment Society's deliberate indulgence, this zone had long become a paradise for mutants.
Today began no differently than usual. The torn-eared "Sharp Fang" was snorting and grunting, head buried in the rubble as it dug.
Unlike ordinary days, however, its keen nose caught a faint scent carried on the roaring wind and sand.
It was not the ubiquitous smell of rust—
That scent smelled like death itself!
Alerted, it raised its head and craned its neck, peering around like a groundhog poking out of its burrow.
In that very instant, however, those savage, bloodshot eyes widened with shock and terror.
Through the billowing dust, over a dozen massive silver aircraft were flying low across the terrain.
A deafening roar rolled from far to near, flickering plasma plumes trailing behind them like molten lava erupting from a volcano!
Those appeared to be the Alliance's "Overlord" transport planes!
Flanking the low-skimming transports, flocks of "Cloud Dragonfly" ornithopters glided in formation, wings beating the air!
"Roar—!"
Having never witnessed such an earth-shaking spectacle, the mutant standing amid the garbage heap panicked completely. It chambered a round in its weapon and began howling to rally its comrades.
Thousands of mutants swarmed out from the ruins.
Some wore exoskeletons and hoisted heavy-caliber rifles; others wore nothing at all, merely strapping a few scraps of sheet metal to their chests and shouting at the top of their lungs to bolster their courage.
The surging silver torrent clearly took notice of them. Two Overlord transports dropped lower, their bellies almost scraping the dirt, decelerating to their minimum airspeed!
Right then, the cargo ramps dropped open in an instant, and over a dozen Chimera armored vehicles poured out in single file, rolling backward down the inclined ramps!
"Prepare for battle—!"
A player thrust his upper body out of an armored vehicle's turret, gripping the heavy machine gun and opening up with a ferocious burst at the ruins ahead!
The turret's 37mm cannon was not to be outdone, spitting high-explosive shells in rapid succession, pounding the distant barricades like rolling thunder!
Under the crossfire of .50-caliber machine guns and 37mm cannons, the mutant roamers crawling along the edge of the ruins were instantly suppressed, unable to lift their heads!
At the very moment the mutants were pinned down by fire, a Thunderbolt fighter screamed through the airspace overhead, emptying its munitions bay in a mere two seconds!
*Brrrrt—!*
A roaring storm of shells cracked like thunder behind blazing muzzle flashes, tearing a trench several meters long and over half a meter deep through the ruins in a heartbeat!
Dozens of mutants carrying anti-tank rocket launchers were killed instantly, ripping a gaping breach in their previously solid defensive line!
Cloud Dragonfly ornithopters swarmed in, their mounted machine guns riddling the ground below with relentless bursts.
In just a few breaths, the barrage had wiped out over half of the nearly three thousand mutants. The survivors were battered senseless, fleeing in sheer desperation.
Naturally, there was nowhere to run.
Even if they slipped past the strafing of the Chimera armored vehicles and Cloud Dragonflies, they could never escape the Heaven's Punishment due to descend in an hour!
Small Alliance detachments cruising outside the nuclear strike zone acted like pairs of shears, lopping off the Enlightenment Society's scattered mutant forces around the space elevator's pedestal ruins while herding them straight into the impact zone.
Only the permanent bunkers of a shelter could withstand the neutron plume raining from the sky.
Nothing awaited them but death.
Leaning halfway out of the turret, Brother Mole squinted at the fleeing mutant roamers.
Far too weak.
Compared to adversaries he had fought in the past, these guys could only be described as paper-thin.
Then again—
Perhaps their opponents weren't weak; perhaps they themselves had grown so strong that no one left on this planet could truly stand against them.
This might very well be the final battle.
If another expansion dropped, they would probably have to go to another planet to find a decent fight.
Touching the communicator beside his ear with an index finger, Brother Mole shouted a charge into the channel.
"Brothers—!"
"Our brothers undercover in Shelter 13 have already risen up! It's time to send these rats to hell!"
"Forward—!"
His thunderous roar pierced the roar of the engines, met by an equally ecstatic chorus of cries:
"Kill—!"
***
*Bang—!*
Shelter 13.
The moment gunshots rang out in the conference room, another report cracked across the shelter's transit hub.
Shelter residents in exoskeletons, armed with assault rifles and wearing pale blue identification bands on their arms, launched a surprise assault on the security forces stationed at the transportation hub, aided by undercover insiders.
Just as Zhuang Lan had said, she was never fighting alone. She had always fought alongside like-minded comrades.
Among them were not only residents of Shelter 404, but also dwellers from other shelters, as well as victims who had been deceived by the Enlightenment Society and had finally come to their senses.
They formed an organization known as the "Watchers."
While the Enlightenment Society had been busy infiltrating survivor factions across the wasteland, the Watchers had long been plotting to infiltrate the Enlightenment Society, gradually extending their reach into Shelter 13 with Malik's assistance!
Though the Enlightenment Society was notoriously adept at deceit and covert operations, its ranks had long been assimilated by the Celestials into something neither human nor ghost. Absorbed in power games, they had grown negligent in their old trade.
Because of this, as they awaited the arrival of Heaven's Punishment, they had failed entirely to detect the Watchers' infiltration and were caught completely off guard by the sudden gunfire.
Detonating electromagnetic pulse grenades instantly neutralized the security drones buzzing through the air, and an unexpected volley of automatic fire caught the heavily armored synthetic guards unprepared!
Nearly a hundred Watchers swept toward the transit platform of the rail hub, opening fire on the security robots rushing up the stairwells to reinforce the area.
Nearly thirty robots were blown apart on the spot!
They burst into dazzling arcs of electrical sparks amidst acrid smoke before sympathetically detonating with deafening explosions!
The scene descended into chaos. Gunfire and explosions rang out incessantly, turning the hub into a living inferno.
Though no one fired on civilians, stray rounds still caused over a dozen non-combatant casualties.
Screams rose and fell as sirens blared through the dense smoke, people scrambling frantically toward the emergency exits.
Evidently—
Those who chose to turn a blind eye could not truly escape chaos and death, even if they had chosen to sell their souls to stand beside the devil.
Silence was never free of cost; the bill had merely arrived a little late.
Even if they were, in truth, worthy of sympathy.
The battle raged on.
A dozen Watchers in exoskeletons quickly secured the transit hub's server room. After injecting a virus to shut down the operating transit mains, they broadcast an announcement declaring the shelter under their control, directing residents to evacuate toward designated safe zones.
Back in the conference room, Tianqi—still confronting Zhuang Lan—remained utterly expressionless, though his scarlet electronic eyes radiated a bone-chilling cold.
The situation was steadily deteriorating for the Enlightenment Society. Perhaps he should have reconsidered the timing of his betrayal.
Yet it was too late to turn back.
The other side had clearly calculated this, choosing this exact critical juncture to strike against both the Enlightenment Society and the Celestials.
"Handle this place,"
Tianqi tossed the order to Tianlei beside him, turned on his heel without hesitation, and led two synthetic attendees out of the conference room, heading toward the shelter's main server facility.
Simultaneously, a squad of security robots swarmed into the conference room, their pitch-black assault rifles primed to riddle everyone inside with holes the very next second.
"Die."
Looking at the organic beings in exoskeletons before him, Tianlei grinned savagely, raising his right hand to signal the security forces to open fire.
At that razor-thin moment, the ceiling overhead suddenly detonated.
*Boom—!*
Explosive debris plunged like a waterfall amidst billowing smoke, blanketing the corridor outside the conference room and catching the security robots completely unprepared.
Someone had planted explosives in the ventilation ducts!
More than that—
Right as broken rebar crashed down from above, raucous laughter dropped directly onto the security robots' heads!
"Gwahaha! Finally my turn to look cool!"
Clad in a light exoskeleton and wielding an assault rifle, Medical Miracle dropped through the ceiling, spraying wild bursts of fire at the synthetics gathered at the doorway!
Tianlei's eyes flashed crimson. His arms snapped forward like lightning, large barrels emerging from his palms to return fire, only for his head to fly into the air with a loud *clang*.
Her curved blade blurred like a phantom. Seeing the headless synthetic turn and attempt to parry, Zhuang Lan swung her blade once more, cutting straight through spraying sparks into the machine's chest cavity!
*Clang—!*
A deafening metallic crash echoed through the corridor, followed by a violent explosion.
Seeing the boss get instakilled, Medical Miracle was dumbstruck, blurting out, "Holy crap!"
"Damn it! My boss!"
*Motherfucker!*
He had played dumb and acted crazy for months just waiting for this moment, and his boss had been stolen right from under him!
Having no idea what he was babbling about, Zhuang Lan flicked the blade in her hand and said tersely, "You're late."
"Got held up on the way..." Medical Miracle said with deep heartache.
Seeing his pained expression, Zhuang Lan teased, "Don't worry, I'm fine... though a few minutes later, I might not have been. Thanks."
"You're welcome."
*I wasn't worried about you.*
Swallowing his grief, Medical Miracle stepped into the conference room and glanced around. He hoisted Director Feng from the floor, shoved him into a chair, and produced a canister of hemostatic spray to douse the man's profusely bleeding leg.
A round had severed an artery.
For this guy to still be alive, he either had cybernetics installed or was exceptionally lucky.
Looking at that pale face, Medical Miracle cleared his throat twice, composed a solemn expression, and extended the VM on his wrist.
"You have two choices. Either hand over administrator privileges, or die."
Shelter 13 had no Administrator; instead, a director elected by the survivors held proxy administrative authority.
If the director died, authority passed down the line of succession to the deputy director. If the deputy died as well, an election would be held anew.
This was the rule laid down by the first Administrator before his passing, maintained for over a century.
Thus, Medical Miracle was not in the least worried that the man would refuse to yield authority. At most, it would cost a bullet.
And just as he anticipated, Director Feng relinquished control almost without hesitation, transferring it to the wrist-mounted terminal shoved in his face.
"Take it! Just take it! Damn it all, I never should have waded into these muddy waters! A bunch of worthless, ungrateful rabble..."
He shrieked tremulously, cold sweat pouring down his pale forehead, yet a strange sense of relief washed over him.
The power he had once savored so greedily was now cast aside like a worn-out shoe, as though it were something filthy.
Rising from his crouch, Medical Miracle frowned at the outburst.
"You're terrible at your job... what does that have to do with the people living here?"
Director Feng eyed him fearfully, shrinking back slightly, though he still muttered obstinately, "So you think it's all my fault too? Heh... the victor writes the rules; think whatever you like. But I'll say this: I only gave voice to what they felt in their deepest hearts, and then I acted on it... yet in the end, I'm the one who has to shoulder the blame."
"Shouldn't you?" Medical Miracle shrugged. "At least you got to enjoy the perks. Those 'ungrateful rabble' probably never did."
Paying no further mind to the ashen-faced failure, he tapped his index finger against the VM screen, checking off the areas marked by his Watcher comrades one by one.
Those sectors lay directly along the security robots' path to the rail transit hub.
So long as the blast doors between sectors were sealed, the robots would lose any chance of retaking the transit platform, left with nothing to do but glare impotently at the Watchers holding it.
Meanwhile, the Watchers' broadcast was guiding the shelter residents toward the main entrance.
Once Heaven's Punishment struck, they would evacuate all residents willing to leave in successive batches, then entomb the Enlightenment Society members who chose to remain and the Celestials who had descended here forever within the shelter.
Take over the entire shelter?
That thankless task was something the Alliance had never considered from the start.
The Celestials' virus had already corrupted most of the facility's servers.
This shelter was broken beyond repair; even administrator privileges were useless now.
Before long, the authority to operate the blast doors would likely be seized by the Celestials as well...
Just as Medical Miracle reconnected the circuitry to the shelter's main gate, the holographic monitor in the corner of the conference room suddenly lit up. A contorted face materialized in the pale blue glow.
It was Tianqi.
After retreating from the conference room, he had apparently uploaded his consciousness entirely into the shelter's mainframe.
This was likely his final resort, his hysterical roar reeking of desperate madness.
"You will never succeed—!"
"This shelter's terminal server is already in my hands! Before long, I will pry open the doors, and then I will tear you to shreds with every security machine in this complex!"
Listening to that impotent, furious howling, Medical Miracle gave a scoff.
"Who's trying to take your server?"
"You can cuddle that rusted server and spend the rest of your life together for all we care."
Chapter 1045