The pursuit lasted for over an hour.
Even the dullest person realized something was wrong.
Stephanie gritted her teeth. "He's toying with us."
Francis was on the verge of exploding.
The werewolf howled in the command hall, waving his claws in the air, making a whistling sound as he did so. Then he shouted, "System take over, activate all cannons, fire, fire!"
The humiliation of being played with had made the werewolf forget about sparing the enemy's lives; he wanted to tear Reno apart.
The gun barrels on the gunship began to light up one after another, aiming at the transport ship.
"Wow, they finally caught on," Reno said, watching the changes in the distance.
"This is trouble; it seems they've concentrated all their energy on the gun turrets!" Modi's expression turned grim.
"That's not surprising; they can't calculate the trajectory, so all they can do is bombard in clusters," Wang Yile smirked.
"The enemy has activated all gun turrets, targeting without blind spots," Virus suddenly exclaimed loudly.
"Huh?" Reno let out a light exclamation and carefully looked at the warning screen, then laughed, "They actually used system takeover."
It must be admitted that when one's abilities are insufficient, system takeover is a good choice. While the intelligence of the AI may not match that of humans, it's still superior to these unprofessional guys. If facing an ordinary opponent, a gunship taken over by the AI would be enough to cause significant trouble for a transport ship.
Unfortunately, the situation wasn't like that.
After seeing the flashes of the gun turrets in the distance, Reno asked, "Ike, how far are we from the target?"
"Still ten minutes away."
Reno calculated for a moment, then decisively said, "Reduce speed, fly directly above the base, turn on all polarization lights, run the tail energy compartment at full load, and decrease the other energy compartments horizontally by units."
Upon hearing this, Virus shouted excitedly, "Understood, are we finally going to show them some high-tech stuff? Watch me!"
He began operating quickly on the light brain.
With Virus's operation, the transport ship turned towards the other side of Heaven Four, with its body lit up with a large number of lights, resembling fireflies in the dark. The traces of presence on the light-sensitive screen soared several levels at once.
They had been flying on the dark side of Heaven Four to avoid detection by the research base, as there were ground anti-aircraft forces there. Now they were flying directly towards the research facility overhead.
As the transport ship changed direction, the base below immediately noticed something, and alarm bells rang out. Anti-aircraft guns began to aim at the sky.
At the same time, the gun turrets from the gunship also began firing.
Flying under interception with pursuers behind, energy beams whistled past from both sides. Just as they were about to hit the transport ship, it suddenly changed direction, rushing to one side. At the same time, all the energy shields on the ship disappeared except for the rear one, which not only didn't decrease but increased sharply to its limit.
Seeing the barrage of fire grazing past the transport ship and directly bombarding the base below, it seemed like a meticulously rehearsed exercise, which looked good but had no effect.
This was the flaw of the system.
Although the system could accurately predict trajectories, lock onto targets, and defend against attacks, its mechanical and rigid requirements also made it vulnerable. Creating dead angles when there were none, Reno used the simplest method to resist the system's full firepower barrage.
If it were a person in command, they would definitely modify the orders to make targeted changes. However, the system wouldn't; as long as the target was within its firing range, the system wouldn't easily change its attack method. Its calculation rule was simple: as long as it hit the target, even if it didn't sink, it would consume a lot of the target's energy, which wasn't considered a waste.
This was the logic of the system, calculated according to the principle of maximizing benefits.
In this process, no additional factors were taken into account, such as the target being close to Heaven Four.
This was the limitation of the system. Once its weaknesses were understood, it was easy to find a countermeasure, and even use it against the opponent.
The transport ship emerged unscathed from this round of attacks and quickly returned to full energy shield flight status. However, the other gunfire hit the defense base of the research institute above.
In the era of space exploration, the power of annihilating stars already existed. Although such weapons were not easily used, the power of conventional weapons had long surpassed imagination.
The wild gunfire struck above the research institute, and the immense energy shock almost instantly tore open the defense shield above the research base, with scattered energy madly shooting out, killing all the soldiers outside the base in an instant, including some scientists. Only those hiding in the heavy metal fortress could survive by chance.
The ground anti-aircraft forces were silent for a moment, but the next moment, the system began to automatically take over the anti-air firepower, and one heavy cannon after another re-aimed at the sky, beginning to fire at the gunship.
Just like the system on the gunship, the base defense system also has its own flaws. In its eyes, the transport ship poses no threat; the only threat is the gunship—it allocates all firepower to the bio-humans.
"This time, at least, there were no more mistakes." Watching the scene before him, Reno's face revealed a smug smile. "Ike, send a message to the folks behind us, just say... thanks for the send-off."
"Understood!" Virus replied, and everyone burst into laughter.
The transport ship hovered in the air and descended towards the ground, passing through layers of gunfire, finally landing twenty kilometers away from the base.
"Tychus, Nora, Claire, Yile, and I will put on mechs and prepare to attack. The rest of you are responsible for staying behind!"
Carmela, Modi, Virus, and Nava were not mech pilots, and Marsha was just a child, so they were not suitable for this operation and could only stay on the ship.
After the instructions were given, Reno headed towards the mech chamber first.
Just as he took a few steps, he heard Virus call out, "Burn is calling!"
"Burn? Which Burn?" Reno was puzzled.
"Who else could it be?" Virus shrugged. "That bodyguard we left at Heaven Two, did you forget?"
"Oh." Reno suddenly realized and connected the channel to his terminal. "Hello, Mr. Burn, I remember there wasn't any external communication device in your room. How did you contact us?"
Burn's calm voice came from the other side. "You underestimate me, Mr. Reno. As a bodyguard, sometimes I need to know more than just protecting the employer; it also includes taking initiative, escaping, finding targets, and so on. Opening a lock of an alloy door may not be easy, but with enough patience, I can still do it. As for contacting you, it's simpler. I just need to contact the Heaven Base and ask about the ship you seized and its communication code. Don't forget, I'm still the executive bodyguard of the Golden Shield Group in this region."
"Your cleverness exceeds my imagination. I was thinking of letting you out and having a good chat with you when I got back," Reno said as he walked.
"We can talk now."
"Huh?" Reno was taken aback, feeling an unusual meaning in Burn's tone. "You have something to say, Mr. Burn."
"Raoul is dead," Burn replied.
This answer stunned Reno. "How is that possible? He was fine when we left."
"I killed him," Burn's tone was heavy.
"You?" Reno could hardly believe his ears.
Burn hesitated before saying, "You shouldn't have locked Elizabeth and her father together. I tried to rescue them when I escaped, but when I opened the door, I saw Raoul with his daughter. He believed everything was her fault, that she had betrayed him... I just wanted to stop him, I pushed him, and he hit the wall, just like that..."
Burn's voice trailed off, filled with despair.
Reno finally understood.
A bodyguard had killed his employer. Regardless of his reasons, even if it was accidental, he was finished in this line of work.
Not only that, he would face lawsuits for this.
He became a criminal.
It was only in this situation that he finally thought of himself.
Taking a deep breath, Reno said, "If you have nowhere else to go, Mr. Burn, you're welcome to join the Heart of Freedom."
"Yes, I'm willing. I don't think I have a better choice," Burn replied. "But I have a request."
"What is it?"
After a slight hesitation, Burn said, "I hope to take Elizabeth with me."