Chapter 176: Technological Disparity
Badlands. The ruins of a long-abandoned highway.
Li Wei and his special ops squad were conducting a tactical resistance, utilizing the corroded wreckage of several trucks half-buried in the sand.
This six-man squad was well-equipped, armed with Kang Tao's latest smart weapons.
Micro-sensors mounted on the firearms synced perfectly with the squad members' enhanced neural links, granting them shooting precision far beyond conventional standards.
At this moment, several smart bullets were carving tiny arcs through the air, precisely maneuvering around the edges of cover, tracking and locking onto enemies attempting to flank them.
However, facing suppression fire from the front and flanking maneuvers on the sides from over fifteen experienced, heavily armed mercenaries, even such advanced equipment struggled to completely reverse the absolute numerical disadvantage.
"Captain! Hostiles flanking on the right!" a team member shouted. Smart rounds from his muzzle kicked up a precise line of dust on the sand, forcing two approaching enemies to retreat hastily.
"Xiao Zhang, suppressive fire on the right! Old Wang, prep smoke grenades. We're moving to the scree slope behind us!" Li Wei's voice remained calm as ever.
As his words fell, a smart bullet fired from his rifle carved a subtle arc in the air, precisely hitting a distant mercenary who had just shouldered a grenade launcher.
A streak of blood from a stone shard marred his forehead, but his gaze remained sharp as a knife.
He knew perfectly well that if this stalemate continued, even if they weren't wiped out, casualties were inevitable, leading to total mission failure.
The interception orchestrated by the NC Branch was despicable, yet exceptionally effective.
Just as he took a deep breath, ready to order the smoke grenades for a high-risk forced breakout, the battlefield situation changed abruptly.
A blurred figure cut into the flank of the battlefield—the area with the densest mercenary fire—at a speed barely perceivable by human vision.
The figure was fast beyond reason, like a phantom tearing through reality, so much so that most mercenaries didn't even notice her arrival.
Until—
"Argh!"
"What the—?!"
"My arm!"
Shrill screams and startled cries erupted almost simultaneously. Before anyone could react, three mercenaries on the flank had their gun-wielding arms severed at the shoulder.
The cuts were unbelievably smooth. Before blood could even spray, the figure had already swept past.
They only had time to feel a breeze pass by, followed immediately by heart-rending agony.
"Enemy attack! High-speed cyberware!" The mercenary leader finally realized what was happening, roaring hoarsely as he frantically turned his gun.
But it was all too late.
Mower's figure flickered amidst the crowd. Her Sandevistan system wasn't even running at full power, merely maintained at a level sufficient to completely suppress the reaction speeds of these mercenaries.
The low-frequency hum of her sonic blade unsheathing was almost inaudible, yet carried lethal precision.
Every one of her movements was calculated for optimization: sometimes precisely severing the ammo feeds of enemy weapons, sometimes destroying key joints of exoskeletons, sometimes knocking targets unconscious with just the right amount of force.
No superfluous movements, no wasted energy. Every strike ensured the target lost combat capability instantly.
This wasn't a battle; it was a precise demolition operation.
"It's... it's her! The one from Arasaka Tower..." A member of the Kang Tao CN squad recognized the iconic fighting style, his voice unable to hide his shock.
Li Wei made an immediate decision: "Cease fire! Everyone stay alert, avoid friendly fire!"
The battlefield situation reversed completely within ten seconds.
The mercenaries, who originally held absolute superiority, lost over half their numbers in the blink of an eye.
The survivors were thoroughly cowed by this inhuman combat style. They huddled behind cover, losing even the courage to peek out.
Mower stopped in the center of the battlefield. Her crimson optical lenses scanned the area calmly, confirming all remaining threats were neutralized.
She turned toward Li Wei's squad, her synthesized voice steady and flat: "By order of my Master, I am to escort you to the manufactorum. Please follow me."
Without any explanation or extra movement, she turned and walked toward the Badlands manufactorum, as if what just happened was merely routine cleaning work.
Li Wei took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil in his heart, and quickly signaled tactical hand signs: "Everyone form up, follow her!"
The squad members immediately tightened formation and followed closely.
Passing by the mercenaries wailing on the ground, everyone involuntarily held their breath—was this the power capable of destroying Arasaka Tower? A single person dissolving a seemingly certain-death situation in an instant?
The smell of blood and gunpowder permeating the air contrasted sharply with the calm, almost cold back in front of them, etching an indelible mark in their minds.
At the perimeter security zone of the abandoned town, members of the Barghest advance team witnessed the brief yet heart-palpitating battle in its entirety through high-powered binoculars and motion sensors.
The comms channel fell into an eerie silence, broken only by the slight static of running equipment.
"God... that speed..." A young soldier muttered unconsciously, his fingers tightening on his observation gear.
"Maintain comms discipline!" The squad leader scolded in a low voice immediately, though his own Adam's apple bobbed uncontrollably.
He quickly connected to the encrypted line with Dogtown Command.
"Colonel Hansen, this is Advance Team One. We just witnessed a... demonstration." The leader chose his words carefully, his voice carrying tremors not yet calmed. "A high-speed combat unit appeared in the target area and dismantled a fifteen-man mercenary squad within ten seconds."
He took a deep breath and continued reporting, his tone becoming more serious. "According to our observations, the unit's speed performance completely exceeds known parameters. It's at least 30% faster than Militech's most advanced Sandevistan systems. The key is—"
The leader paused, as if confirming the conclusion he was about to state. "The key is its sustained operation time. From breach to clear, the system maintained peak output without showing any signs of overload typical of conventional Sandevistan systems. It looked... like there was absolutely no burden."
Silence reigned on the other end of the channel for a moment before Hansen's voice sounded again, clearly grave. "Confirm observation results?"
"Confirmed, Colonel. Sensor logs have been uploaded synchronously. This isn't the performance of any cyberware we know." The leader's gaze involuntarily drifted back to the now-still figure in the distance. "I fully understand now why the NUSA chose to cooperate with them."
Ending the call, the leader looked around at his squad members.
Everyone was still immersed in the shock of what they had just seen.
They finally intuitively recognized just what kind of existence they were about to cooperate with—or rather, provide perimeter security services for.
That wasn't a simple technological advantage; it was a fundamental generational gap.
(End of Chapter)