Athanasia: My Hacker System

Chapter 290: Laying Down a Second Layer of Defence

"Their numbers are terrifying already! If we try to push sideways, we’ll just get flanked and swallowed. Let’s take a step back and lay down a second layer of defences dozens of kilometres behind our current position. We’ll use the fog there as cover. We’ll kill them from the shadows while we lay down the new fortifications."

Ricky kept talking about the vision he had in mind. He knew he was overstretching their luck, overpushing their abilities, but they had to do it this way or else the worst would befall them later.

"Then leave the killing to me," Elena said firmly, her eyes tracking the mechanical swarm with ferocity. "And you handle the defences. Don’t slow down for a second."

"Granted!" Ricky shouted back.

The two began a fast sprint through the chaotic battlefield. Elena moved unstoppably as she reached into her storage device while using her ability frequently.

She began pulling out scores of activated Wrather cores, hurling them to her left and right without a single moment of hesitation, as if she were tossing out roses at a grim gala.

Massive purple pillars of fire erupted across the plains, engulfing entire squads of machine units. The fog screamed as metal was pulverised into scorched scarps within seconds. As she focused on carving a path through the initial surge, Ricky didn’t stand idle.

He moved in her wake, throwing yellow grenades into the gaps she left behind. He was creating a secondary layer of death traps, ensuring that any stray machine units attempting to bypass their position would be incinerated regardless of their type or numbers.

The main problem, however, wasn’t the ground units; Elena’s purple fire dealt with those effectively, but the flying drones. While they were doing a spectacular job thinning the ranks of the ground walkers, the sky above remained a dense, buzzing ceiling of mechanical bodies and lasers.

They had no dedicated anti-air weapons to use in such a frantic run, and wasting the precious purple grenades on small clusters of fliers felt like a strategic sin.

"That’s enough!" Ricky shouted as the density of the ground units finally began to taper off. They had reached deep enough for the second layer of defence. "Let’s construct a fortress here! Keep throwing the grenades to maintain the clearing, and I’ll start laying down the structures."

"I’ll keep them busy," Elena replied, casting a wary glance at the thousands of flying drones circling overhead. Luckily, the drones didn’t spot their presence, even if they followed the sounds of explosions and rained down a few shots from time to time blindly.

"But start with the towers before you even think about the walls. Those flying drones are already making me nervous."

The moment the first massive Mobile Fortress was laid by Ricky, the tide of the local skirmish began to turn. With the base established, their march became easier and more organised. Starting from that central point, the two began to expand their reach both east and west.

They moved with desperate speed, laying down ten additional fortresses in a very long line before they finally exhausted the bulk of the defensive items they had, even the ones John had provided them.

"This is the best we can do for now," Elena panted. She stood atop the ramparts of the final fortress, wiping grease from her forehead. She looked out over the growing massacre below, where a dozen mobile fortresses were now roaming freely around the base of the walls, hunting down anything that moved.

"These babies can roam for a long distance around the fortress. They can perfectly hold back those machines."

"For now," Ricky sighed, his shoulders sagging as the adrenaline began to recede. He leaned heavily against a tower. "We are safe for now, but we’re still hitting the same damn wall. Without John here to destroy the cores or provide a massive number of defences, we are functionally powerless to stop the migration once the next wave erupts."

It felt as if he were blaming his own limitations more than he was expressing anger at John’s absence. Elena, sensing the heavy weight of his self-reproach, decided it was wise to remain silent. She simply watched the horizon, where the glow of the various defences firing was slowly being replaced by the white light of the fog.

As Ricky had predicted, the secondary line handled the initial stragglers smoothly. Because the machines were spreading over a massive geographic area, it was mathematically impossible for two people to stop the entire million-unit wave.

However, the two used lots of yellow grenades to create more kill zones in the areas where they couldn’t build outposts. As the night finally passed, the relentless intensity of the machine attacks began to show a visible decline.

But the peace was short-lived. The next wave erupted exactly four hours into the new day.

Over two million different machine units manifested in succession, like endless tidal tsunami waves. But this time, the behaviour of the machine army had fundamentally shifted from previous tides. They didn’t linger inside the territory to roam and look for any target to attack.

It felt as if an invisible hand had flipped a switch, turning them into a pack of mad dogs. Every single unit, from the heavy D-1000s to the swiftest flying drones, ignored the territory, ignored the Bulltors, ignored the two humans, and charged in a single, unwavering direction: North. Toward John.

The two were already physically and mentally exhausted, yet the cruelty of the situation granted them no respite. They had managed to steal a couple of hours of shallow, fitful sleep at the dawn of the new day, but they were violently shaken awake by the screaming roar of the fortress defences as the two-million-strong tide hit their walls.

Even the heavy Mobile Fortresses struggled under the sheer weight of the numbers. The machines weren’t even fighting back effectively; they were simply trying to run through the defences.

In the end, Ricky and Elena were forced to dip into their reserves of grenades. Even with the massive explosions clearing hundreds of meters at a time, it felt like they were trying to hold back the ocean with a sieve.