Chapter 646
Complete Victory
Chapter 646 Complete Victory
A doll?
Old Joe stared in astonishment at the dark mass on the floor, initially thinking he was seeing things—it was a doll that looked only a few dozen centimeters tall, shaped like a child holding a doll, but incredibly exquisite, with a lifelike face, even... like a "living person" scaled down many times.
The doll was dressed in a gorgeous black dress and looked very beautiful, but she was filthy all over, as if she had just crawled out of some dusty place. She lay on the floor not far away, lying on her side without moving, and of course there were no signs of life such as breathing or heartbeat.
But she has a body temperature—sensors detected a temperature close to that of a human.
A red light flashed in Old Joe's eyes, and he immediately raised his arm without hesitation. The triple-barreled hand cannon hidden in his forearm popped out instantly, and three scorching balls of light hit the puppet.
There's no way such a childish thing could exist in the base, especially now that it's been invaded. Any strange thing appearing in the corridor is a danger signal. No matter where it comes from, just open fire—cautious as he is, he wouldn't be foolish enough to go near it at a time like this.
The moment Old Joe opened fire, the other soldiers followed suit. The air around the doll seemed to distort for a moment, but before anyone could see what was happening, the explosion engulfed the open space where she stood.
However, almost at the same moment, a sense of alarm rose sharply, and the terrible intuition that something was targeting them gave Old Joe and the genetically modified clone soldiers around him a sudden shock!
The next second, a scorching flash appeared at the edge of Old Joe's field of vision. The high-energy beam pierced through the ventilation duct partition on the corridor roof and struck the nearest clone soldier directly.
The soldiers' shields blocked the first beam, but this was just the beginning—a torrential downpour of heat rays instantly tore apart the entire roof along the ventilation ducts, countless flashes filled everyone's vision, beams hissed and tore through the air, scorched the shields, and melted the steel!
The clone soldiers reacted extremely quickly, raising their guns to fire the instant the first beam struck. However, the torrential downpour of beams from the sky was clearly beyond their ability to defend themselves. Amidst continuous screams, a third of the people around Old Joe were instantly wiped out. Then, the riddled roof collapsed one after another, and countless small, black figures fell into the corridor through the ventilation ducts.
Those were small dolls—a legion of dolls with black hair, black dresses, exquisite features, and identical appearances.
"Fire! Fire!" Old Joe shouted frantically. The fact that he had been ambushed in his own home filled him with shock and anger. The sight of a series of holes in the ceiling and mannequins falling down gave him an indescribable... chilling feeling. He led the soldiers around him to retreat quickly to the relatively safe corner of the corridor while continuously aiming and firing. At the same time, a huge shock rose in his mind—why hadn't the base's intrusion detection system reacted? How did these mannequins manage to sneak into the ventilation ducts without anyone noticing?!
Gunfire echoed through the corridor, flashes of gunfire mingling with the constant barrage of bullets. Dolls continued to fall from the ceiling, and even the ventilation fan openings on the walls began to reveal their forms. These exquisitely beautiful little monsters had empty eyes, were fearless of pain, and were so agile that they were difficult to aim at. The beams of light shot from their fingertips could easily slice through steel, and no matter how many fell, new dolls would always emerge from unexpected places, quickly filling the gaps.
This scene was chaotic and bizarre.
A clone soldier shouted nearby, and Old Joe hurriedly turned around to see more dolls emerging from the ventilation holes in the nearby corner of the wall—some of them were riddled with bullets as soon as they appeared, but the remaining few had already nimbly slipped through the hail of bullets, while frantically climbing on the soldiers as they fired beams of light at the surrounding area!
One soldier reacted a beat too slow and the eerie doll climbed onto his lap. In his panic, he drew his beam dagger, trying to get the terrifying little monster off him, but he only managed to cut off half of the doll's lower leg in the process of swinging it. The next second, the doll climbed onto his shoulder and then its tiny hands suddenly grabbed his head.
"save--"
The soldier only had time to let out a short, terrified scream before a scorching flash erupted from between the doll's hands. The heat ray at extremely close range easily pierced the power armor's helmet, scorching the head inside.
Although the puppet was smashed to pieces by other nearby soldiers in the next second, the number of soldiers still standing around Old Joe was less than half.
At the same time, in another connecting passage several hundred meters away from this corridor, another "Old Joe" was leading his soldiers rapidly toward the core area.
"Shit! Bastard! It all started when that bitch returned to the Dark Stream Starfield..." The steel giant cursed under his breath, his eyes flashing red, and anger rising and burning in his mind module.
His several bodies each led their respective teams to reinforce the core area from different directions. At this moment, three units had already been attacked in the corridors and hangars. The attackers were those bizarre living dolls. When picked up individually, these small dolls, only a few dozen centimeters tall, seemed harmless, even somewhat cute and comical. However, when they emerged densely from various ventilation ducts and air vents, frantically climbing on the soldiers while firing scorching beams of light, even dismantling their power armor with their bare hands and roasting them through the armor... then they were anything but cute.
But even more unsettling than the puppets that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere was the situation in the base's core area—
The alert system suddenly stopped responding just now, followed by one sensor after another reporting errors. The monitoring system was going offline continuously from the core area outwards, as if an invisible black hole was slowly expanding outwards from the center of the base.
At that moment, Old Joe suddenly felt a pang of regret. He regretted that he had placed all the living defense forces outside the core area for the sake of "security"—but then again, who could have imagined that the intruders would sneak directly into the core area's main hall? Who could have imagined that the base's own defense system would be the first to "betray" it?
Anxiety and anger grew stronger in his heart, and at the same time, Old Joe had to be distracted by his surroundings. He adjusted the body's detection function to the maximum, keeping a close watch on the surrounding ventilation pipes and the maintenance passage exits left for the autonomous robots.
The base's security system is no longer reliable; he can only rely on himself now.
The dolls had no breathing or heartbeat, and conventional life detection radar was ineffective against them. However, they had body temperatures similar to living people, and they made faint sounds when moving in groups, all of which could be detected. Strangely, despite the attacks on other areas, this connecting passage was eerily quiet, and not a single doll could be detected.
Sensing something was wrong, Old Joe subconsciously slowed down and looked around.
This should be a great place for an ambush; the terrain is narrow and there's only one exit... Did those puppets fail to find this place?
The thought had barely crossed Old Joe's mind when he noticed one of the clone soldiers in front of him suddenly sway, then silently fall to the side.
"What are you doing..."
He had barely uttered a few words when he noticed a small crack on the soldier's power armor—running from his head to halfway down his body, as if it had been sliced open in an instant by something extremely sharp.
A soldier on the side of the column seemed to sense something and hastily raised his gun to fire. The muzzle flash illuminated the dimly lit connecting passage, and in the instant of the flash, a faint black shadow darted past nearby.
The soldier who fired the shot and two of his comrades nearby immediately fell to the ground.
But they did manage to slow down the attacker slightly—in the moment when he was on high alert, Old Joe finally caught sight of a shadow rushing toward him.
The mechanical joints overloaded instantly, the extra shield activated, and the armor charged. Old Joe's steel body suddenly burst out with speed and power far beyond imagination. In the blink of an eye, he managed to withstand more than a dozen fierce slashes and thrusts. In the terrifying impact that almost broke his arm, he staggered back more than a dozen steps. He then almost entirely relied on luck to use his wrist joint to block a sharp blade pointing at his chest. Only then did he finally see the opponent's appearance clearly in shock.
A pale, smiling face appeared before him. The elegant cyborg tilted her head slightly, flashed, drew her sword and retreated, then pounced again—in the process, she also cut down two clone soldiers who tried to rush up to protect their master.
Old Joe was utterly horrified and finally couldn't help but curse out, "...It's a fucking artificial saintess?!"
The Hermitage attacked me? Why?!
……
In the last connecting hall leading to the central area, the steel giant who was leading a heavy weapons squad suddenly stopped in his tracks.
She had lost a physical body—the attacker was an artificial saint.
First, there were the numerous bizarre dolls that had infiltrated the base; then there were the artificial saintesses ambushing in the connecting passages; and then there were the sensors that kept losing contact, and the "perception black hole" that was slowly expanding in the center of the base.
The impulse born of his anger quickly cooled down. The logic chip's crisis perception and assessment program sent a cold warning, and Old Joe suddenly calmed down, realizing that the situation seemed to be out of control.
Something was wrong. Ever since that "little animal" appeared on the Grey Dwarf Star, nothing had gone as he expected—it seemed that some inexplicable "interference" had been affecting his judgment. Now, he finally vaguely sensed the noose around his neck that was slowly tightening.
The clone soldiers looked at each other, awaiting their master's orders.
Old Joe gritted his teeth, but just as he was about to say something, a strange... "thing" suddenly floated out from a side door in the corner of the hall, interrupting what he was about to say.
It was a big, fluffy tail...
"What is this..."
"boom!!"
(End of this chapter)