Chapter 326: See those two towers? Blow them up again!
Under the "sacrifice" of the Silver Gates Escort Team, Cheng Tian and his group successfully retreated.
This task was originally supposed to be given to the regular soldiers of the intercepting squad.
After deep mechanical modification, these former Leia Kingdom soldiers, who had already lost their fear, were clearly willing to sacrifice themselves for some ideal.
However, with Cheng Tian present, their sacrifice was averted.
Relying on his high magic power limit and the very short summoning interval of the prince's sword, Cheng Tian would release a batch of squishy Silver Gates Escort Team every five minutes to cover their retreat.
Although it was already clear that the Silver Gates squad consisted of squishy ducks that could be easily defeated by charging in and unleashing a rampage, their skills before being defeated were no different from conventional mechs. The footprints they left, the mechanical collision sounds during their movement, and the radar signals detected were all indistinguishable from real mechs.
This led to the Blood Armor squad, who originally only wanted to charge forward, involuntarily slowing their pace, fearing that some real mechs might be mixed in.
As for the Chosen Squad, one had his mech stolen by Cheng Tian on the spot, losing even his energy armor, and could currently only fight against the harsh weather with a spare helmet, rendering him useless.
One was fully committed to slacking off, putting in effort but not power.
Of the remaining two, one had pulled too far away and couldn't catch up in a short time, while the other had charged too far ahead, ending up with the same fate as the Brodia.
In short, when the Blood Armor and Chosen Squads, by relying on stalling tactics, managed to avoid entanglement with the Silver Gates Escort Team three times in a row, ultimately delaying their entry into the dilapidated city center of Gaul City by more than 15 minutes, Cheng Tian and his group had already successfully passed through the long tunnel according to the evacuation instructions.
And when the Blood Armor entered the former garrison area of the Reform Army, they blew up the tunnel, cutting off the pursuit.
The place where the Blood Armor and Chosen entered was where Cheng Tian and his group had previously selected their mechs. At this moment, there were no traces of the Reform Army left, only some useless items that were difficult to move.
Interestingly, for the Chosen Squads of both factions, the first phase of this main quest was considered a success!
Cheng Tian and his group's first phase mission was to block the Earth reinforcements, delay time, and then retreat.
And Eileen's first phase mission was to liberate Gaul City with the Blood Armor squad.
The Reform Army retreated, Gaul City was liberated, and after their initial encounter, both sides achieved their initial goals.
Of course, players from different factions did not know the true mission status of the other side, so most of them were in a state of comparative joy, seeing their own main quest steadily progressing and believing that the other side must have failed their mission.
Only Cheng Mouren, who knew the inside story, and Eileen, who suspected that things were not that simple, were not swept up by this atmosphere.
Soon, the high-ranking officials of the Leia Kingdom government, hiding in a secret underground facility somewhere in Gaul, only chose to actively meet with the Blood Armor squad, who were temporarily stationed in Gaul, after confirming that the Reform Army had completely withdrawn.
In fact, the Blood Armor squad could have tried to pursue the Reform Army by combining the last observed traces with the space shuttle, but under the strong demand of the cowardly government — "What if those rebels attack again? You must stay here!" — as official reinforcements, they could only be forced to remain in Gaul, which had become synonymous with "godforsaken," conducting basic training while awaiting further orders.
Incidentally, Xiaolan, who had lost a Metroid, also acquired a new ride with the somewhat reluctant help of the local government, though it was just a regular standard Gates.
On the surface, there was no punishment, but in reality, her combat effectiveness was significantly reduced. After all, the overall stats of the Gates were only half of her third-generation mech that had been NTR'd, and the old first-generation model without transformation capabilities was very poorly suited to her abilities. This almost implicitly meant she was kicked out of the first combat sequence.
In a sense, Cheng Tian's judgment was not wrong.
Of course, Chosen players had much more freedom than the Blood Armor squad. During their forced stay, although they were also "ordered" not to stray far from Gaul City, they still did as much as they could within the limited range.
Some were trying to get closer to a certain member of the Blood Armor squad. For example, Eileen, by virtue of being a girl and having half-elf blood, successfully established a superficially good conversational relationship with Sarah White, a half-Earthling, half-Leian girl, and tried to obtain more world-building background information from her.
Only a mixed-blood truly understands the delicate situation of being mixed-blood, especially when it involves two planetary races with a blood feud that has lasted fifty years.
So, Sarah, who appeared very sunny and cheerful and was incredibly kind to people, also inevitably carried a considerable amount of worries that she couldn't confide in pure-bloods... and Eileen successfully exploited this vulnerability.
Regarding Cheng Tian, Eileen, besides not understanding his growth trajectory in strength, could still discern his humanity. That is to say, Cheng Tian would definitely not be the kind of person who would be assigned to a so-called villainous faction because of his red name.
Combined with the current background of the planetary war and the hints given by the dungeon entry, the labels of good or evil obviously couldn't be arbitrarily placed on the Earth Federation or the rebels. There must be something fishy going on.
However, as common soldiers, even special forces, the Blood Armor squad currently didn't have much information. And the Leia Kingdom high-ranking officials they could contact always maintained a lukewarm, business-like attitude, leaving the players with nowhere to exert their energy, until the urgent notice from the Earth Federation arrived.
"What!? New York has been breached by those rebels who flew over from Leia! The entire East Coast is in chaos? What the hell are the defense forces doing!?"
Jeff, who was quick to speak his mind, cursed as soon as he received the information.
Hearing Jeff, whose muscles moved faster than his brain, curse on the spot, Lei, a Leian with an Earthling wife and two mixed-blood sons, paused slightly, then said with some disbelief while recalling, "If I remember correctly, the Leia Kingdom army also launched several large-scale offensives and paid an extremely heavy price before successfully entering the ground combat phase... New York City is a core city of the Earth Federation, and its garrison should be among the top cities on the entire planet. How could it be so easily invaded by a small group of rebels?"
It was Lei's words that suddenly made Eileen think of a possibility... Earth, above New York.
"Orange, do you see that?"
"I see it."
"Good~ Your mission is to blow it up again!"
Azrael, on the shuttle, pointed to the twin towers in the distance, which showed obvious signs of reconstruction, and issued the second phase of the main quest to Cheng Tian.