A and Red, Green continued to engage in combat even while they were in the control room. Despite the endless waves of robot troops, Angelique, Luche, Yellow, and Blue did not let up their attack.
“Battery!”
“None left!”
The rifle’s battery was exposed as empty after firing continuously without a moment’s rest, and there were no remaining batteries.
“We can’t hold on any longer like this!”
Although the robots could be subdued with just bare hands, the narrow passage made it impossible to fight freely. Upon Luche’s cry, everyone judged that maintaining the situation at the intersection was difficult, and Yellow and Blue simultaneously threw debris from destroyed robots toward the robot horde.
Seizing the opportunity when the target shifted, they ran at full speed toward the passage where robots weren’t coming.
“What should we do?”
“First, let’s find a place for reassembly.”
Yellow asked as he ran ahead of Angelique, who fixed her gaze on the long corridor, replying that they needed to find somewhere to catch their breath.
The robot horde chasing the four people started shooting again, and Yellow, who was running, grabbed and smashed any door to block the path of the robots as much as possible.
When rounding a corner in the hallway, he encountered his colleagues head-on. Siera and Pink discovered the four people rushing towards them, followed by the robots chasing them.
“Battery!”
At the mention of “battery,” both threw their batteries to the approaching team, and Blue and Angelique removed the depleted batteries and inserted new ones into their rifles.
Joining forces to become six, they immediately turned around and fired at the pursuing robots.
The light piercing through the corridor struck the robots again.
“There’s nothing chasing us from that side?”
“It’s fine here. There’s a big door ahead. Let’s retreat in that direction for now.”
Angelique confirmed the safety of the route Pink and Siera had passed through, and the two, running down the corridor to join Teams 2 and 3, talked about the large door they saw on their way.
Expecting the internal space to be spacious due to the significantly larger door compared to other rooms, everyone agreed with Pink’s suggestion that fighting in such an environment would be better than in a narrow corridor. They fired at the robots before running again.
Without looking back, they ran until they reached the large door Pink mentioned. Thanks to their intermittent fire at the robots, they had created some distance and managed to hack the security system of the door safely.
“Is this some kind of warehouse?”
“It’s huge.”
Everyone checked if there were any dangers in the high-ceilinged wide space. Although the inside was dark, the night vision function of their helmets ensured clear visibility.
“What is that?”
Everyone stopped abruptly upon seeing a large object placed in front of them. Under the extremely high ceiling, something about 10 meters in size was present.
[Intruder confirmed. GT 003. Mobile.]
A mechanical sound came from the large object, and the arrival of a new robot at the destination made everyone sigh.
“Think it will chase us?”
“Yeah.”
Given that a large object of this size was made underground, it implied that measures were taken to allow escape, but it didn’t seem possible to evade such a large robot.
“Still, it’s much better than the corridor.”
Satisfied with the improved conditions compared to the cramped space, Yellow shook his limbs and prepared to move.
The giant robot seemed to have power as lights came on, and it had a human-like upper body on a wheeled lower body with six heavy arms.
“This side has six of us. That side has six arms. Perfect match.”
Unfolding his limbs, Yellow ran towards what he presumed to be the robot’s head. He clenched his fist tightly, ready to strike, and the robot blocked him with a large arm.
“Charge in with your upper body on!”
Luche’s rifle hit the robot’s arm, but the thick armor on the robot’s arm prevented any damage.
“Did they hide something like this?”
Tongue-clicking, Siera and Angelique rushed out from behind Luche and blocked the large hand extending towards them.
Caught by the robot’s arm, Yellow grabbed the arm in mid-air and climbed onto the large body.
But the robot seemed intent on preventing Yellow’s approach, firing bullets from various parts of its body towards her.
“Damn.”
Swearing, Yellow kicked the robot and backed away. In the air where movement was restricted, she twisted her body to avoid incoming bullets and landed on the ground, but the robot’s attack did not stop.
The barrels were not covered by thick armor, and Blue and Pink used their rifles to hit the barrels protruding from the robot’s body.
However, the robot had many weapons due to its massive size, and the front of the wheeled lower body opened, launching a grabber connected by wires, which caught the team.
“It has a lot of weapons. What is this!”
Quickly moving to avoid the grabber, Yellow was caught by numerous grabbers and dragged towards the robot.
“Yellow!”
Siera shouted, throwing her own sword towards Yellow. Catching the flying sword, she cut the wire connecting the grabber, freeing herself.
“You little—”
Using the momentum of being dragged, Yellow plunged into the robot’s lower body and stabbed with the sword. However, she couldn’t continue the attack due to the subsequent barrage of bullets and retreated from the robot again.
“There aren’t enough weapons.”
Engaging in battle itself wasn’t a burden, but there were no adequate weapons to use against such a large robot. They hadn’t brought any weapons that could reveal their identities, so they only had personal weapons suitable for fighting humans.
The swords and rifles were kept as backup weapons in case of a confrontation with humans. No one anticipated encountering numerous robot troops and a large robot.
There was no time to complain about the lack of weapons. The large robot had much thicker armor and more weapons than the robots they faced in the corridor.
“They were making something like this in a hidden corner. This must be it.”
“It won’t change anything by getting upset now.”
Siera and Luche held the robot’s arm to prevent it from moving, recalling that the Earth Defense Union had been manufacturing lethal robots.
“Everyone, be careful!”
Following Angelique’s shout, everyone’s attention turned to another free-moving arm of the robot. The palm opened, revealing a large barrel, and fired a high-output electron cannon.
The electron beam collided with another one coming from behind and created a tearing sound and a powerful shock wave in the void.
Everyone’s eyes turned to where the electron beam came from. Esmeralda, standing at the entrance of the room, raised her large mechanical arm and aimed her palm at the robot.
“This is rare to see.”
Angelique, seeing her friend’s familiar weapon, felt relieved knowing they had a reliable ally.
“Everyone, get your weapons out!”
Rushing in with a loud shout, Esmeralda jumped into the air and fired another electron cannon at the robot. The large beam from her palm hit the robot, and the thick armor, previously impervious to rifle fire, crumpled.
“Is it okay?”
“All CCTV systems are disabled. Just adjust the output properly.”
Esmeralda, aiming to create the best combat environment for her teammates, had destroyed all the CCTV cameras on the way. Although there were CCTV cameras in the large space, it was manageable.
“I’m A. I’ve shut off the power to all CCTV systems in the control room.”
Watching Esmeralda destroy the CCTV cameras, A turned off the remaining CCTV systems in the control room.
“So that’s how it is.”
As Siera and Luche released their grip on the robot’s arm and stepped back, particles flickered over their hands, and light flashed, giving each of them their respective weapons.
Luche held a large scythe, and Siera held a single sword.
Facing the armed team, the robot swung its large arm. Just as they were about to counterattack, something red flew past their eyes.
“Inhale!”
Red took a deep breath to gather strength and blocked the large swinging arm. Despite the strong wind and impact, she remained steady, holding the robot’s arm.
“Hold it!”
At this command, Blue, Yellow, and Pink, who had been watching the armed subordinates, moved into action.
Three people, including Red, climbed aboard the robot’s arm and quickly ran towards the robot’s body. The gun barrels turned towards them, but a large sword pierced through the barrels, slicing the robot’s body.
“Leave this to me.”
With a sword larger than her body, Angelique redirected the gun barrels to aim at the robot, allowing the three to advance.
As soon as they climbed up, the robot’s arm was released, and they jumped down.
The robot, having its four arms restrained, couldn’t withstand the forward force and tilted forward. It supported itself with the remaining two arms to prevent falling.
With no movable arms and the body tilting forward, the holes for firing the grabbers were also blocked.
“Everyone, judge the situation yourself!”
Following Esmeralda’s instructions, Angelique, Luche, and Siera also armed themselves and charged at the robot. The blades of their weapons glowed blue, and the robot’s thick armor, previously invulnerable to the swords they brought, was sliced like paper.
“Hold tight! If you let go, you’ll die!”
Observing the situation from the control room, Red positioned herself and rushed at full speed. Thanks to Esmeralda’s relentless use of the electron cannon to clear the corridor of robots, she could move without obstruction.
Thinking about what they could do with their current resources, Red assumed the other team leaders would also be able to retrieve their weapons after seeing Esmeralda arm herself.
Conversely, the HunterKiller team members, including Red, couldn’t use their usual weapons immediately due to safety concerns.
Excluding Green, who stayed in the control room for A’s safety, only four people were currently capable of fighting. With only their strength as their weapon, Red’s strategy was to maximize the suppression of the robot to allow the team leaders to unleash their full power.
Upon Red’s shout and the sight of the team leaders arming themselves, the HunterKiller members realized that the immediate action was not to engage in frontal combat but to create an escape route.
By grabbing the robot’s arm and tilting its center forward, the armed team leaders could attack the robot without hindrance.
Swiftly wielding two swords in both hands, Siera rapidly slashed the robot’s body. Angelique used the power of the large sword to destroy the robot’s joints.
Esmeralda’s large mechanical arm served not only as a weapon firing electron cannons but also as a shield protecting her allies.
Despite its enormous size, the robot, unable to respond effectively, was quickly destroyed.
“Cut it!”
With Luche’s scythe completely destroying the joint of the arm Red was holding, Red braced herself with her waist and planted her legs firmly on the ground.
“Ahahahaha!”
She then lifted the large arm and slammed it down on the robot’s head.
Under the relentless assault from the team leaders, the robot, already crumbling under the impact of Red’s blow, finally shattered. However, it hadn’t fully ceased operation, and the attacks continued unabated.
!”
The robot, whose head had been shattered, raised its grinding head. Light erupted from its face, and it fired an electron cannon at Red.
Unable to pull out her feet still embedded in the ground, Red couldn’t dodge the electron cannon. Esmeralda, using her mechanical arm, intercepted the incoming electron cannon with ease.
“Take this.”
Then, she threw a sword to Red. Having seized one of the two swords Siera had been vigorously using, she handed it to Red, understanding that Red intended to use it as her primary weapon.
“Why are you standing around!”
As the robot’s electron cannon discharge ended, Red kicked off the ground and thrust the sword Esmeralda had given her into the robot’s face.
“Ahhh!”
With a yell, she gripped the sword firmly and sliced through the robot’s body. Already heavily damaged and immobile, the robot exploded in several places, and the power supply withdrew, stopping the attack.
Created to eliminate intruders, the robot struggled to move but eventually halted its operations after a series of small explosions.
“Phew…”
A sigh of relief escaped as Red handed the sword back to Siera and surveyed everyone. Everyone was breathing heavily, but there were no visible injuries.
Her gaze then turned to the fallen robot.
Regardless of the purpose to eliminate intruders, it was incomprehensible who would make such a robot and for what reason.
“Let’s go back. Your older brother is waiting.”
Just as they were heading towards the control room where A was, A and Green appeared at the entrance.
“Are you all okay?”
“Yeah. We’ve taken care of it here.”
“What about hacking the control room?”
The most critical part of this mission was not destroying the robots but hacking the information stored in the control room computers. Responding to Esmeralda’s inquiry about the progress, A showed the hard drive containing the hacked data.
“The mission was successful.”
“Great. Let’s get out of here before the stakeholders arrive. Hang in there a little longer, everyone.”
Quickly catching their breath, everyone started running to leave the warehouse.
