Chapter 600: Med-Bay Technology
Falco's narration brought everyone directly into the heart of that thrilling assault operation.
"The smuggling process itself was not smooth," his tone was steady, but the narrative was fraught with tension. "Elysium's security system was far tighter than anticipated. Despite having inside help and forged identity authentications, our ship was still flagged for anomalies at the final checkpoint. Alarms instantly blared across the entire airspace."
The holographic image switched, displaying the view outside the ship's porthole—countless red dots, like a disturbed swarm of bees, launched from all over the Elysium space station. Those were the AR-series robot guards responsible for internal station security. Sleek in design and armed with energy weapons, they closed in at extreme speed.
"A firefight broke out immediately," Dorio picked up the story, her eyes sharpening as if she had returned to that battlefield. "Our ship's firepower was severely lacking. We could only rely on the point-defense system Pilar had hastily installed and Falco's piloting skills to barely hold them off. Valerie and Jack's Iron Guards couldn't deploy inside the cramped confines of the ship, so we had to hold our ground. The situation was critical."
"Luckily, the area we landed in was near the edge of the station, a relatively remote cargo dock," Pilar added, his tone carrying a hint of a tech nerd's excitement. "I jammed the local communications and surveillance in that sector, buying us a few precious minutes."
"And then?" Asuka asked impatiently. She was completely immersed in the story, having entirely forgotten about the beer in her hand.
"And then," Maine's deep voice resonated, carrying an unquestionable power, "we charged out."
Breaking Through
The video footage—non-sensitive clips sourced from Maine's squad's combat recorders—began to play: The cargo ship's hatch was forced open under the glaring light of explosions and laser beams.
The first to charge out was Maine's massive, heavily armored figure. The heavy bolter on his shoulder instantly opened fire, blasting the front row of robot guards into flying shrapnel.
Dorio followed closely behind. Her movements were agile and deadly, coordinating seamlessly with Maine to clear out the approaching enemies.
Rebecca took a high vantage point. With every deafening roar of her shoulder-mounted, large-caliber weapon, she obliterated squads of robots attempting to focus fire from afar, destroying their cover right along with them. Her firepower was fiercely disproportionate to her petite frame.
"Sasha, Kiwi, and I were responsible for protecting the data access point and finding a path to the core servers," Falco explained. "The internal structure of the space station is complex, like a maze, and new robots kept swarming in from all directions."
In the footage, Maine's squad acted like a red-hot knife, carving a path straight through the cold metal and glaring lights of Elysium's interior.
Robot wreckage piled up behind them. The beams of energy weapons and the flames of explosions continuously flashed across pristine corridors and grand halls, looking entirely out of place in an environment built to represent luxury and peace.
Occasionally, panicked Elysium residents dressed in haute couture could be seen screaming and dodging. Disbelief and terror were written all over their faces; they had clearly never experienced such a violent intrusion.
"Aside from their sheer numbers, their defensive forces weren't actually that strong," Dorio evaluated. "The robots' tactics were rigid, lacking any experience in dealing with high-intensity assaults. The real difficulty was finding and controlling the core."
"We eventually located the core servers—deep within a highly secure area inside the station's central fortress," Falco continued. "The defenses there were much tighter, including reinforced robots and physical isolation barriers."
"It was Jack and Valerie who solved the biggest headache," Rebecca chimed in excitedly. "In one of the main corridors, we were pinned down by several heavy guard robots and automated turrets. The suppressing fire kept our heads down. Then, the two Iron Guards simply used their heavy assault cannons and melta guns to blast open the side walls and forcefully demolish their way through! Haha, those metal lumps were completely dumbfounded!"
Shinji imagined the scene of those two massive Iron Guard prototypes rampaging through the space station, tearing down walls and smashing barriers. He couldn't help but feel a flutter of anxiety, mixed with an inexplicable sense of awe.
Rei Ayanami tilted her head slightly, seemingly pondering the tactical applications of the Iron Guards.
Rewriting the Rules
"After breaking through the final line of defense, Sasha, Kiwi, and I all jacked into Elysium's core system together." Pilar's tone carried the distinct satisfaction of completing a daunting task. "The firewalls and encryption protocols there were extremely complex, but there were some things in the architecture... that you could call 'backdoors' or design flaws. Maybe they were left in for maintenance convenience, or maybe the builders were just overconfident. The three of us worked in tandem, took a bit of time, but ultimately bypassed all the defenses and gained root admin privileges."
"And after you got the privileges?" Asuka pressed. "Did you... lock up all those rich people?"
Maine shook his head. "No. Our primary target wasn't those people. After taking control of the system, we did one thing—we rewrote Elysium's core protocol."
Falco pulled up the log of their final operation: "We deleted the access privileges based on wealth and status, redefining Elysium as the 'common heritage of humanity'. The most crucial step: we opened all Med-Bay platform access rights to Earth and instructed the automated systems to begin receiving and treating all humans on Earth requiring medical assistance, prioritized by the severity of their injuries and illnesses."
The projection switched, displaying a breathtaking view of Earth from space.
Countless tiny specks of light, like shooting stars in reverse, began to rise from every corner of the globe, flying towards the Elysium space station. Those were emergency ships carrying critically ill patients, traveling unobstructed to the once-unreachable paradise under their newly granted safe passage protocols.
"We also revoked the Carlyle Corporation's privileges, disbanded their armed forces, and transferred the management of the station's manufacturing facilities and agricultural modules to an interim management committee composed of representatives from various factions on Earth," Dorio added. "The subsequent rebuilding of order and resource distribution is up to them. Our mission was complete."
The room fell completely silent.
Asuka, Shinji, and Rei Ayanami all quietly digested this information.
Maine's squad hadn't chosen to kill or imprison the elite; instead, they had fundamentally changed the rules and broken down the segregation itself. This was a method of solving a conflict that the pilots had never even considered.
"So... what you brought back from that world is that miraculous medical technology?" Asuka finally returned to her initial point of curiosity.
"Yes," Maine nodded. "The technical blueprints and some core component samples of the 'Med-Bay'. Even Magos Ryo himself has expressed interest in this technology."