"Leah! Their fire control has a weakness! Find it!" I stared fixedly at the twisting road ahead, sweat and rain dripping down my forehead, blurring my vision. Every time an energy beam passed by, the car body trembled violently and emitted a heart-pounding heat.
Leah's face was terrifyingly pale, the bandage on her shoulder soaked with blood. Every violent jolt of the armored vehicle caused her to groan in pain. But her bloodshot eyes were fixed on the frantically refreshing data stream on the tactical terminal screen, her fingers moving so fast across the virtual keyboard that afterimages appeared. "They're coordinating! There's a fixed interval in the attack rhythm! The warp cooldown period is 0.8 seconds after the main gun recharges! The energy shield has a 0.05-second phase instability at the moment of warp!"
Her voice was distorted by pain and concentration, but as precise as a scalpel!
"0.8 seconds... 0.05 seconds..." Hook repeated in a low voice, his eyes instantly sharp as a hawk's. He took a sharp breath and held it, his body steady as a rock in the violently shaking carriage. The muzzle of his energy rifle no longer blindly chased, but instead closely predicted the warp trajectory of one of the "Razor" aircraft, which had just completed its bombardment and whose scarlet muzzle light had just dimmed!
Now is the time!
Hook's finger calmly pulled the trigger! A concentrated blue beam of light tore through the rain curtain!
puff!
The beam precisely hit the predicted position in front of the starting point of the Razor drone's warp trajectory! The timing was impeccable! At the 0.05-second moment when the drone's warp was activated and the shield phase slightly fluctuated!
There was no violent explosion. The Razor froze, its fuselage frozen in its high-speed flight, as if pierced through its core by an invisible giant needle. Then, spinning uncontrollably, it plummeted into the ruins of a massive factory building strewn with rusted pipes on the roadside. With a resounding boom, flames and metal fragments shot up into the sky!
"Well done! Hook!" Wrench roared in ecstasy, as if he had hit the target too.
"Next!" Hook's voice was as cold as ice, and the muzzle turned without pause towards another "Razor" that had completed the bombardment.
Armed with the crucial data Leah had painstakingly acquired, Hook transformed into the voice of the Grim Reaper. Each impeccably calculated shot was like the precision of a surgical operation! Puff! Puff! Two deadly blue beams flashed in quick succession, and two more Razors were blasted apart mid-air at the moment of warping, transforming into two dazzling yet short-lived fireballs!
The last Razor seemed stunned by this precise counterattack, its attack rhythm noticeably disrupted. It stopped diving and bombarded, but instead suddenly rose, its underbelly missile nest instantly opening!
"Missile! Avoid!" Leia's warning came with a broken voice!
I swerved the steering wheel, sending the armored vehicle careening wildly out of control and careening into a massive, half-collapsed warehouse on the side of the road! Almost instantly, several miniature missiles roared down upon the spot where I had been, completely reducing that stretch of road and the surrounding debris to a sea of fire! The shockwave from the explosion chased the rear of the vehicle, slamming it into the warehouse!
Boom!
A large section of the warehouse's rotten roof collapsed, sending broken steel beams and concrete slabs crashing down like hailstones! The armored vehicle, bearing down on the tumbling debris, careened through the warehouse, which was piled high with abandoned containers and the wreckage of machinery. The piercing sound of metal rubbing against metal was terrifying! Finally, with a resounding thud, it crashed hard into a massive, rusted metal container, barely coming to a stop. The hood twisted and warped, billowing white smoke and a pungent, burning smell filled the air.
"Cough... cough... cough..." Violent coughing sounds rang out in the thick smoke and dust.
"The engine... the engine's dead! Overheat protection forced it to shut down!" Spark, the team member in charge of the power system, poked his head out of the back of the car, his face greasy and hopeless. "Forcing it to start might just destroy it!"
"Get out of the car! Quick! Find cover! Their ground forces must be closing in!" I acted decisively, kicking open the car door, warped by the impact. Icy rain, mixed with sewage leaking from the warehouse roof, poured down on me.
Everyone supported each other and quickly got out of the car, using the huge abandoned containers and collapsed walls to build a makeshift defense. Leah was practically half-carried out of the car by a wrench. Her breathing was rapid and weak. The wound on her shoulder seemed to have stopped bleeding in the cold and bumpy ride, but that was a sign of something more dangerous: hypothermia caused by excessive blood loss.
"Leah! Hold on!" I tore open a first aid kit and stuffed the last two battlefield stimulants and the powerful coagulant gel into Wrench, "Give them to her! Stay awake!" Wrench nodded heavily and hurriedly treated Leah's wound. His movements were rough but full of anxiety.
I leaned against the cold, slippery shipping container, my chest heaving violently as icy rain streamed down my cheeks. Outside, a torrential downpour lashed the ruins. The roar of engines approached from afar, mingling with the thud of heavy footsteps and the clink of weapons—the ground pursuers had indeed closed in! They had sealed off all the exits to the warehouse, like a tightening noose.
Desperate situation. Ammunition and food are exhausted, vehicles are damaged, wounded are in critical condition, and the enemy is surrounding them.
Just then, my fingers stumbled upon the hard object on my chest—the package I carried close to my body, wrapped in a waterproof sheet. Ethan's belongings. The coldness of my touch penetrated the soaked fabric.
A thought flashed through the darkness like lightning! A notebook! Ethan's paper notebook! What had he written in it? Before breaking out of the Hive core, had he left behind... a few words?
I practically trembled as I tore open the soaked tarp. Under the puzzled gazes of Wrench and the others, I flipped open the notebook, also soaked by rain and curled at the edges. The paper was soft and the ink smudged, but I didn't care. With an almost reverent eagerness, my fingertips quickly flipped through the pages. Past the familiar handwriting that recorded daily banter, food rants, and speculation about my "Data Heart"... I turned to the last few pages!
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