"Commander, are you planning to arm everyone with axes and send us charging into battle like berserkers?" MDR approached Renault, watching the chaos unfold below. She abandoned her cover and expressed her concern with a serious tone.
As she spoke, she reached for the breaching axe on her powered exoskeleton's waist. It dawned on her why the commander equipped all the exoskeletons with these axes.
Was he intending to send them into close combat from the start?
"What's the issue with that? Weapons that can't penetrate enemy armor are as good as useless. With an axe, at least you can rely on brute force to crush their skulls," Renault explained, aware of the resilience of these protective suits.
Normal firearms were ineffective against them, even for firearm-equipped dolls like MDR. These suits could even resist radiation in polluted areas and withstand Sangvis particle weapons to some extent. So, wearing such a suit meant having a considerable advantage, unless facing heavy weaponry.
Renault had encountered enemies wearing these suits twice since arriving in this world.
The ones from Statesec didn't count; their suits were less formidable. If all the Statesec agents had worn these suits, their operation at Sangvis Ferri Manufacturing would have been much easier.
Seeing these mercenaries wearing suits that even Statesec couldn't afford, Renault guessed there was an unseen force behind them. Whether they intended to kill him or obtain something from him was uncertain.
They had been lurking from afar for a while now, watching as the mercenaries took the lead. Perhaps they were waiting for the mercenaries to exhaust their ammunition before making a move.
In a building two kilometers away, those observers lay flat against the windowsill, watching the scene.
Unfortunately, no one on Renault's side, except himself, had noticed them. Even M1 Garand and Simonov, standing on the rooftop, were unaware.
This wasn't a battle. Who would pay attention to a half-collapsed building two kilometers away?
"Ha!"
MP40 exclaimed, slamming a piece of steel beam onto a fleeing mercenary's knee.
"Ah!?"
The mercenary screamed in agony as his legs were instantly shattered by the blow, causing compound fractures inside the protective suit!
Meanwhile, not far from MP40, P90 thrust a steel bar into the back of a mercenary's head. These mercenaries, protected by suits that could withstand bullets, were now defenseless against the 'melee weapons' in their hands.
They either died on the spot or suffered broken bones and fractures.
With a force of forty mercenaries, except for Perez, who had cunningly climbed over the wall into the factory area, the rest of the mercenaries, even the lightest ones, were at death's door.
Combined with the damage to their protective suits, their fate was sealed.
As for Perez, who had just escaped into the factory area, he now faced a rather terrifying opponent—a T-Doll wearing a protective suit.
But that wasn't important.
What mattered was the object in the doll's hand—a pitchfork.
"Ah—!"
Upon hearing a mercenary's agonizing scream before his demise, M200, who had run down from the top of the factory building with her imprinted weapon, breathed a sigh of relief. If she had changed positions in time, that guy wouldn't have succeeded in sneaking into the factory area.
Fortunately, CF05 stayed at home. Before M200 could say anything, Renault beckoned to Vector.
"Come, grab some Molotov cocktails for M200. NZ75, you stay here and clean up the battlefield. Gather up the intact protective suits, and the rest of you come with me."
Upon hearing Renault's call, MG3 and the others immediately followed Renault's footsteps, circling around to the other side of the factory area.
They turned into the adjacent ruins and rushed toward the northeast direction.
"Commander, are there more enemies?"
MDR, now serious, asked Renault calmly as they navigated through the ruins.
"Well, unless something unexpected happens, they should be the people behind those mercenaries. They've been watching from the broken building northeast from the start, but they're probably afraid of being discovered by you guys, so they've only been observing with binoculars."
Renault explained that if the enemy had used electronic devices, MDR would have detected them. Obviously, the enemy was very cautious.
They even provided a group of mercenaries with special protective equipment, just to deplete Renault's fighting power and test the their strength at the same time.
Of course, Renault had no intention of playing any remote combat tricks with them. Since they had been spotted, they might as well stay put!
"I didn't expect there would be people plotting against us when we're in a place like this." M1 Garand frowned.
"It's precisely because we're in such a remote place that people are plotting against us. If we were still in the previous city, those guys wouldn't dare to act so blatantly. Now that there's no one watching, they feel free to do whatever they want," Simonov chimed in.
Simonov's insightful comment caught the attention of Nagant revolver and M1911, as if seeing her in a new light. They hadn't expected Simonov to be so astute.
"Alright, we're almost there. If those guys aren't deaf, they probably already heard our footsteps. When we get there, just charge at full speed. No need to hold back. Wipe out all the opposition."
"Understood."
...
"These mercenaries are utterly useless. They can't even defeat those doll-like figures carrying guns, even with protective suits!"
The convoy parked on the outskirts of the factory area was now engulfed in flames. Coupled with the mercenaries who had just scattered in retreat, it was evident that the mercenaries they had hired for a 'hefty sum' were probably all wiped out.
"How did those T-Doll manage to take out the mercenaries? The ordinary doll figures' imprinted weapons shouldn't penetrate these protective suits, right?"
"Who knows? It can't be that they were bludgeoned to death with stones by those doll figures, right?"
"Haha! Maybe it's because of the powered armor that Renault has. It's hard to make out anything from this distance."
The dim sky, the dust floating in the air, and the obstructed view caused by the chaotic ruins... this collapsed building, only a dozen meters high, was not an ideal observation point.
Unfortunately, it was the tallest point around.