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"Can this lead into New York's sewer system?" Ursa Major stepped forward and knocked on the wall as he asked.
Green Arrow Duck replied, "All the entrances on the surface that are large enough for mechs are guarded by police checkpoints. We don't want to blow a hole through some random street, so this is the best place to enter the sewers."
The leopard form stepped forward.
A multi-purpose ammunition pack mounted on its back launched an explosive charge, which stuck to the brick wall.
There wasn't even time for a countdown.
The charge detonated immediately, blasting a mech-sized hole through the brickwork.
But the leopard's job wasn't finished.
It fired several modified ultraviolet grenades around the opening, along with a sensor.
Whenever someone passed through the opening, one of the grenades would detonate, effectively sealing the route and preventing the Reapers from escaping through this entrance.
Once the trap was in place, the five mechs passed through the wall and officially entered New York's sewer system.
Green Arrow Duck, Bullhead, and Bonnie gathered around Ursa Major.
"What now?"
Although the five mechs appeared to be talking among themselves, no sound escaped into the surrounding tunnels.
They had activated silent mode and were communicating entirely through their internal network.
A projector mounted on Ursa Major's chest displayed a three-dimensional map of the sewer system based on their earlier reconnaissance.
The map contained previously recorded markers, including enemy positions, access points connecting the sewers to the surface, and other important locations.
Three groups of colored markers stood out.
Their positions were constantly changing.
These represented the real-time reconnaissance data being transmitted by the three Sparrow drones that had been deployed ahead of them, including Alexei's own drone.
The main purpose of this latest reconnaissance was to determine the Continental's attack routes.
Henry could find out the date of the Continental's operation, but as long as he wasn't actually participating in it, there was no reason for them to give him the details of their plan.
So they had to observe the operation on-site.
Alexei raised Ursa Major's paw and pointed at the three-dimensional map.
"The Continental's operation hasn't deviated much from our previous predictions.
"They're entering from four directions on Manhattan Island, plus Inwood, for a total of five attack routes. Once inside, whenever they encounter a junction, they'll split their forces.
"The purpose is similar to hunting with hounds. You release the dogs to drive the prey into a concentrated area, making it easier to finish them off and preventing anything from slipping through the net.
"The problem is that their plan doesn't account for how complicated New York's sewer system is.
"If you go deeper underground, there are passages that lead outside their encirclement.
"I don't know whether these new vampires understand how to use those passages, but we can descend directly into the deeper levels through the nearest shaft and block those routes.
"That's something people relying on stairs or ladders can't accomplish without climbing equipment.
"We can become part of the encirclement while simultaneously driving the Reapers toward their nest."
As he explained, Alexei highlighted several routes.
The original thick line descended through a vertical passage with several slight bends before reaching the lowest level of the sewer system, where it split into four routes.
From there, the four teams would drive the Reapers inward from different directions.
It was obvious that most of them would be operating independently, coordinating their attacks from different directions.
Only the duck and leopard forms of the Duck-Leopard Armor would operate together.
Thena and Gilgamesh naturally had no objections.
Vampires—even evolved vampires—were nothing more than food to them. They genuinely didn't think much of such creatures.
They were wearing their "toys" today simply to stretch their muscles.
Since they wouldn't be fighting together, there was also no need to worry about competing over kills.
That was rather convenient.
Alexei was even less concerned about operating alone.
Ever since escaping from Siberia, he'd spent the past several years working alone.
Besides, he had Little Duck assisting him, and was already accustomed to operating as a two-person team with the drone.
As long as Ursa Major didn't malfunction halfway through the operation—say, suffer an engine failure, blow a cylinder, or throw a track...
Hmm.
Mechs didn't have engines or tracks.
In any case, as long as the mech stayed operational, Alexei had nothing to worry about.
Green Arrow Duck's objective was even simpler.
He was here to exterminate the Reapers.
Whether or not these vampires escaped the sewers and went on to prey on others, the underground world had already been devastated.
There were hardly any humans left alive down here.
Once the "food" in the sewers was exhausted, would the Reapers simply sit around and starve to death?
As the saying went, if you couldn't solve the problem, solve the people causing the problem.
Green Arrow Duck had absolutely no sympathy for creatures like vampires.
As for why Alexei hadn't provided more detailed tactical instructions, there simply wasn't any need.
If you brought modern tanks into the seventeenth century and had them crush a formation of line infantry, all you needed to tell the crews was which direction to drive.
What else was there to teach?
And it wasn't as though Henry had gone to great lengths to bring the tactical master Red Guardian back from Europe only for him to contribute a few sentences that anyone could have come up with.
In reality, Alexei had spent the past several days developing contingency plans and running tactical simulations.
What he was presenting now was simply one of those plans, modified slightly to fit the actual conditions on-site.
Alexei's greatest contribution over those days had actually been improving the mechs' control interfaces and operating systems, making them much more intuitive for combat.
This was particularly true of the tactical computer's decision-support system.
Without the Red Guardian personally refining it, Henry—a shut-in who had only ever played video games—would never have managed to create something that actually matched combat instincts.
In short, all those engineer-designed interfaces that were completely unintuitive to human beings had been systematically deleted and improved by Alexei.
With the routes Alexei had planned, the four people and one tiger immediately set out.
They first raced together toward the vertical shaft.
Unexpectedly, this shaft connecting the upper and lower levels of the sewer had metal grates separating the different levels.
They appeared to be intended to prevent debris flowing down from the upper levels, rather than to stop people from passing through.
Then again, ordinary people wouldn't exactly use a vertical shaft as a passageway.
The five mechs descended in free fall without activating their braking systems.
Green Arrow Duck used his ten-finger railguns to shoot out the bolts securing the metal grates to the walls.
The now-unstable grating couldn't withstand the weight of five mechs and fell toward the level below.
There were three more obstacles like this.
Green Arrow Duck simply shot out their bolts each time.
Later, however, the accumulated weight of the grates that had fallen from above was enough to crush the unstable barriers below, eliminating the need for the mechs to stand on them.
Once they reached the lowest level, everyone immediately headed along their assigned routes.
There was a sense of barely restrained anticipation in their movements.
Some wanted to test their new mechs' capabilities.
Others simply wanted a good fight.
Ironically, Green Arrow Duck—the one actually focused on exterminating the Reapers—was a step slower than the other three.
Only after everyone else had left did Green Arrow Duck work with the leopard form of the Duck-Leopard Armor to set up another ultraviolet grenade trap around the shaft.
It was identical to the trap they'd placed at the brick wall blocking the abandoned subway connection.
Without tools, ordinary people couldn't escape through this shaft.
But Green Arrow Duck wasn't willing to bet on whether the Reapers could claw their way up the walls.
Whether they intended to flee or circle around and attack the humans from behind, the shaft had to be sealed.
A trap might not completely prevent them from using the crude tactic of sending a few Reapers through first to deliberately trigger the explosives, sacrificing a handful so that the rest could pass safely.
But something was better than nothing.
Besides, triggering the sensor would also serve as an early warning for the mechs.
Once everything was in place, Green Arrow Duck finally gave Katie her command.
"Let's go. Time to raise some hell!"
"Roar!"
Raise some hell!
Every time Katie wore the leopard form of the Duck-Leopard Armor and returned afterward, she received extra food and treats.
It had already become a conditioned response for her.
And she was an apex predator, after all.
She shouldn't be mistaken for a pig whose only interests were eating and sleeping.
The opportunity to cut loose and move freely excited Katie more than anyone else.
She even shot ahead of Green Arrow Duck, racing toward the direction indicated in her field of vision.
The hunting skills she'd developed during the Alaskan winters had merely awakened instincts that had already been encoded in her DNA, teaching her how to use her body effectively.
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