Chapter 480: Bombardment
Ryo stood before the window of his temporary residence. His optical lenses locked onto the massive starship bow wreckage, its outline stark against the night sky above Junktown.
Deep within his processing cores, an invisible countdown was ticking toward its end.
The final contact with Elias had been concluded hours ago. All preconditions were met.
The Legio Cybernetica automata forces lying in ambush outside the town maintained strict radio silence, like metal embedded within rock, awaiting the activation command.
He did not hesitate for a microsecond.
A highly encrypted, structurally streamlined binary execution code was transmitted directionally toward the Eternal Seeker in orbit via the powerful broadcast unit within his body.
The signal content was merely an identifier confirming the commencement of the operational phase.
Once the transmission was complete, Ryo's mechanical body remained motionless. Only the plasma reactor on his back emitted an almost imperceptible change in its hum due to the momentary adjustment in energy output.
His sensor arrays were elevated to maximum sensitivity, comprehensively receiving all data streams from the external environment, preparing to record the imminent destruction he had personally initiated.
In the geosynchronous orbit of Necromunda, the cruiser Eternal Seeker was like a metallic leviathan lying dormant in the void. Its five-kilometer-long hull reflected a cold, hard luster under the light of the distant star.
Inside the bridge, the primary cogitator arrays completed decoding and verification almost the instant the ground signal was received.
"Execution signal confirmed. Authorization verified. Combat protocols initiated." Ignis's synthesized voice rang out in the solemn bridge, devoid of any emotional fluctuation, as if stating an established fact.
Within the massive warship, the pre-loaded target parameters were instantly activated.
The bridge crew executed final orbital micro-adjustments, ensuring the ship's broadside was angled optimally for a strike above Junktown.
Deep within the weapon decks, energy conduits emitted the low hum of charging. Driven by hydraulic mechanisms, the breeches of the macro-cannons closed heavily, locking the loaded, gargantuan armor-piercing shells in place.
"Main weapon arrays fully charged. Target coordinates locked. Shield-penetration algorithms loaded," the Master of Ordnance reported, his fingers dancing across the control panel, completing the final sequence confirmation prior to firing.
"Execute orbital strike," Ignis issued the ultimate command.
In an instant, the massive lance battery arrays atop the Eternal Seeker's prow were the first to erupt with devastating light.
Several beams of searing white energy tinged with destructive ghostly blue, like spears of lightning hurled by gods, tore through the thin atmosphere. They shot toward the surface of Necromunda with absolute precision and near-absolute speed.
Immediately following, the multiple macro-cannons on the broadsides let out a muffled roar. Colossal muzzle flashes briefly bloomed in the vacuum. The heavy shells were imparted with terrifying muzzle velocity, plummeting along their pre-calculated trajectories toward the marked zone below.
On the outskirts of Junktown, inside a lascannon turret retrofitted onto a thick starship engine bulkhead, two guards on duty were conducting routine sweeps of the wasteland through heavily shielded augur scopes.
Suddenly, an anomalous string of status indicator lights on the console caught one of their attention—the readings for energy node K-7 in the mid-level zone were fluctuating violently.
Before he could sound a warning, a far more piercing orbital strike alarm shattered the tranquility.
The needle on the energy detector instantly slammed past the redline, emitting a rapid, urgent buzz.
"Extreme energy spike! Orbital origin!" one guard roared, lunging toward the console.
According to emergency protocols, he should have activated the sector's void shield generators immediately. But at this moment, the control interface displayed an unexpected delay—the system's response to the command was a fatal two seconds slower.
During this brief delay, the first wave of the strike arrived.
Several searing white lances tore through the atmosphere, precisely slamming into several critical nodes on Junktown's perimeter.
Only as the attack was about to impact did the ghostly blue energy barrier above the town hastily flicker to life—the emergency activation of the starship's surviving void shield system.
The lance energy collided violently with the shields, erupting in blinding light.
Because it was activated a moment too late, the shield had failed to fully form its optimal defensive configuration. It fluctuated violently under the impact, its color rapidly shifting from ghostly blue to an unstable, bright purple.
"The shields are holding! But the status is unstable!" the guard inside the turret yelled, simultaneously attempting to initiate automated counter-battery protocols.
However, the control system returned confusing feedback: multiple defensive units on the eastern and northern flanks possessed insufficient power.
This was the direct consequence of energy node K-7 failing.
The surviving defensive systems began a sporadic and chaotic counterattack.
The covers on a few missile silos that had not been affected by the initial strike and possessed normal power slid open, launching several anti-orbital missiles into the sky.
Several large lascannon batteries also adjusted their firing angles, shooting energy beams toward orbit. However, these counterattacks appeared sparse and uncoordinated.
Simultaneously, at Central Control Sub-station B-12, the miniature jammer Elias had planted was quietly doing its work.
When the controllers attempted to coordinate the various defensive units for a concentrated counterattack, data transmissions experienced inexplicable lag and packet loss.
Command relay was a precious three to five seconds slower than usual, resulting in the counter-battery fire failing to form an effective density.
In geosynchronous orbit, the Eternal Seeker's weapon arrays acutely captured the chaos in the defensive systems.
The shipboard cogitators rapidly adjusted the strike strategy. Subsequent lance volleys concentrated on a few weak points in the shield's energy field.
Following their precisely calculated trajectories, the macro-cannon shells fell like heavy hammers, repeatedly smashing into the same sector of the shield.
The ghostly blue light of the shield became extremely glaring, its fluctuation frequency reaching its absolute limit.
Due to uneven internal energy distribution and the subtle lag in the coordination systems, the shield system's self-regulation capability was severely compromised.
Warnings that the energy relay nodes maintaining the shields were overloading flashed frantically in the control center, but the emergency balancing protocols failed to initiate in time.
Finally, under another concentrated bombardment from lances and macro-cannons, the shield let out a groan of breaking under the immense strain.
Accompanied by a violent flash of energy, the entire shield system collapsed completely.
The dissipating energy transformed into an electromagnetic storm sweeping across nearly half the town, causing countless electronic devices to short-circuit and burn out amidst a cacophony of crackling sparks.
Stripped of the shield's protection, destruction followed swiftly.
Subsequent lances accurately struck those missile silos and lascannon batteries still attempting to counterattack.
The silos were reduced to massive fireballs in chain-reaction explosions. Macro-cannon shells fell like sledgehammers, tearing and twisting the outer defensive fortifications built upon the starship wreckage one by one, ultimately turning them into a deadly storm of shrapnel dancing in the sky.
Violent explosions continued unabated. The perimeter of Junktown was completely engulfed in fire and thick smoke.
Shockwaves transmitted through the starship's metallic skeleton, causing continuous tremors throughout the entire settlement.
Although Elias's covert sabotage had not directly destroyed any facilities, it was akin to severing the defensive system's nervous system at a critical moment. This caused Junktown's external defensive framework, built upon the starship's legacy, to crumble under the Eternal Seeker's orbital firepower at a speed far exceeding expectations.
Ryo calmly recorded all of this.
His sensors captured the collective attenuation and disappearance of the energy signatures from the defensive nodes. This signaled that Junktown's external defensive system, relying on the starship wreckage, had completely collapsed and fallen into total paralysis in an extremely short amount of time under the Eternal Seeker's initial, precise orbital strike.
The path leading into the heart of the town had been forcibly torn open amidst smoke and ruins.
(End of Chapter)