The rebels began concentrating their fire on Grey. Heavy Stubbers, Laser Rifles, solid-projectile weapons... whatever they had, they threw it all at him. Yet none of those weapons could hit Grey. Solid rounds were stopped, while energy weapons were deflected after striking the Energy Plating on the surface of his Power Armor.
"For the Emperor!" Qin Mo raised his scepter and Chainsword high, charging toward the nearby Aberrants.
"Battle! For the Emperor!" An officer of the Planetary Defense Force leaped out of the trench and roared at his men.
The melee that had been interrupted by Qin Mo's sudden arrival now resumed.
The fighting across the position was extremely chaotic, which was absolutely advantageous for Qin Mo, Grey, and those wearing Power Armor.
They did not even need to follow tactics. They only had to activate their Gravity Shields, advance steadily across the battlefield, and spray wildly with the multi-barreled energy guns integrated into their left and right hands.
Even when Rebel soldiers rushed at them carrying bombs or brandishing bayonets, it did not matter. They would all be stopped by the Gravity Shields.
Even energy weapons, the deadliest threat to a Gravity Shield, could not damage Power Armor. Shield generators specifically designed to counter laser weapons were integrated outside every joint of the armor. With only a tiny amount of energy, they could generate Energy Plating over the Power Armor's surface and deflect laser fire.
Power Armor had only one flaw: its energy consumption was far too high. With every piece of equipment activated in combat mode, it could only sustain an hour of fighting.
But the rebels did not know about this weakness. Even if they did, it would be useless. When the difference in numbers between the two sides was not enormous, few people could survive for an hour.
"Shut down the Energy Plating on the Power Armor and divert the energy to the weapon systems! Full firepower!" Grey quickly ran up to Qin Mo, who was steadily advancing while specifically targeting Aberrants. As he covered Qin Mo's advance, he issued commands to the Power Armor.
Once the words "Plating Disabled" appeared on the Power Armor integrity display beneath the HUD, the weapon systems received the maximum possible energy supply.
In the Power Armor Qin Mo had designed, energy could be diverted at will.
For example, fully supplying the Gravity Shield could expand its effective range, or fully supplying the weapon systems could make the weapons integrated into both hands more powerful and increase their rate of fire.
Grey's Gravity Shield overlapped with Qin Mo's. This was already the closest two people equipped with Gravity Shields could stand to each other.
Grey did his best to help Qin Mo kill the infantrymen who did not require Qin Mo's personal attention, while Qin Mo focused entirely on using his extraordinary power to pick off the Aberrants.
"For the Emperor! For the Emperor!" Grey kept his gaze fixed directly ahead. The intelligent system integrated into his Power Armor marked every enemy within his field of vision. Grey swept the Multi-lasers on his hands across them until their markers completely vanished, then aimed at the next group.
The two of them were, unsurprisingly, subjected to concentrated fire.
But solid-projectile weapons were easily intercepted by the Gravity Shields. Occasionally, a few lasers struck the Power Armor and left scorch marks. Whenever that happened, Grey swung his guns toward the source of the laser fire and suppressed it with a barrage.
Even when the rebels dragged over Heavy Stubbers and even anti-armor artillery to fire at them, it was useless. The moment they dared open fire, they would inevitably receive Grey's special attention.
"I am the Emperor's champion! Heretic scum, taste my wrath!" Grey shouted excitedly. He felt invincible, impervious to blades and bullets. The rebels before him, helpless against the Gravity Shield, seemed like mere ants.
"..." After electrocuting an Aberrant, Qin Mo turned to look at Grey. He could not see what Grey looked like inside the Power Armor, but he could roughly guess.
The others slaughtering rebels in Power Armor throughout the position were much the same.
Soldiers who had once needed to dodge and hide in battle, praying to the Emperor that the next bullet would not strike them, now wore Power Armor and swept unhindered across the battlefield. It was hard not to develop the illusion that they had become invincible.
Grey and the others needed time to adapt.
Yet Qin Mo, the man who had created this Power Armor, felt no stir in his heart. He always felt that it was still not thrilling enough, not efficient enough.
Qin Mo had always wanted to create a masterpiece he could be proud of. That masterpiece was neither a technology nor a weapon, but a goal.
That goal was to let soldiers, once deployed onto the battlefield, kill and wound the greatest number of enemies in the shortest amount of time with the fewest people.
Qin Mo thus split his attention in two, devoting most of it to thinking and the rest to dealing with the enemy.
Only when the last Aberrant had been reduced to charred remains by lightning did the remaining Rebel soldiers' morale collapse, sending them fleeing desperately.
"Emperor above! We won!" Grey raised both arms and cheered. The Multi-lasers in the hand sections of his Power Armor had been running at such high speed that they were constantly spraying sparks.
"Yes. We won." Qin Mo turned away indifferently and looked at the allied soldiers who had fought beside him earlier.
Two Regimental Commander-level officers stepped forward. When they saw the Aquila Scepter in Qin Mo's hand and the Power Armor on his body, they decided he was either a noble or an elite among elites. In any case, his rank was higher than theirs.
"Salutations, sir." The two officers performed the Aquila salute, and the rest of the soldiers followed suit.
"The Emperor guided me here to support you." Qin Mo calmly accepted everyone's respect, while also using that respect to say things that could raise their morale.
Sometimes, lies were more important than the truth.
For these soldiers struggling in the dangerous lower hive, believing that the Emperor was watching over them was the best possible boost to morale.
And they had no way to disprove it.
After all, who could explain why, at their most desperate moment, six people had descended from the sky and slaughtered the rebels as easily as cutting through vegetables, breaking their morale?
"Emperor above..."
"Praise the Emperor, praise the Lord of Humanity!"
The soldiers looked up overhead, as though several hundred meters above them was not a dim space filled with enormous pipes, but a sky where the stars could be clearly seen.
Watching them celebrate, Grey raised a hand and scratched his helmet twice, then turned to look at Qin Mo.
Sensing his gaze, Qin Mo turned to look at Grey as well and shrugged. "Special circumstances... I... you understand."
Grey nodded silently.
"Ahem!" Qin Mo cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention. Then he took a communications device from the Jump Pack on his back. "This is a communications device integrated with a Psy-Suppressor. You can use it to contact each other. If you encounter a Psyker, find a way to throw this thing in front of her."
"Thank you for your generous gift." The officer reached out and accepted the communicator. "What should we do next?"
"Hold the line." Qin Mo spoke two words.
"With all due respect, sir, if we stay here and the rebels launch another attack while you go save someone else, we'll be dead for certain."
"Hold the line," Qin Mo emphasized.
"Yes, sir." The officer nodded.
"I will not have you standing around like fools, defending this ruined position until you are blasted apart." Qin Mo walked forward, selected a patch of ground that was still relatively intact, and used the skill he was best at.
Before everyone's astonished eyes, a fortress was rapidly constructed.
His mastery over the C'tan's power had become even more refined. While building this fortress, the area to which Qin Mo could apply physical distortion had expanded fourfold, naturally multiplying the construction speed.
"Hold it. If the situation becomes critical, use the communications device to contact me. I will arrive within a day. If I cannot make it in time, keep holding out. In any case, this place must not fall," Qin Mo instructed.
"You will only hear from others that this position has fallen." The officer's gaze was resolute as his right hand gripped the Chainsword at his waist. "Because by then, every officer and soldier of the 87th and 31st Regiments will have returned their souls to the Golden Throne."
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