Assault on the Core Communications Room (Please Keep Reading! Please Add to Your Library!)

In space, the Star Dragon Empire's Eighth Expeditionary Strike Group launched its attack with overwhelming force.

At Yasin Base, Amber and the others had reached the vicinity of the Core Communications Room.

Amber glanced at the time on his HUD. It was already 3:44 p.m.

According to the "script," the Imperial fleet should have launched its attack by now.

News of the Defensive Fleet coming under attack would reach the ground before long.

Amber could clearly see the anxiety on Margaret's face and on that of the other Imperial spy who had come to meet them.

If they waited until the Federation Military on the ground reacted, launching a surprise attack would be much harder.

The Core Communications Room stood at the very center of the Communications Center.

To reach the Core Communications Room, they had to cross a thirty-meter corridor with no cover whatsoever.

Two Mobile Infantry soldiers guarded the door at the far end.

Amber did not dare peek out to see how they were equipped.

He was sure the soldiers guarding this place were far more alert than the ones outside.

Even without a clear look, Amber could make a good guess: two heavy Exoskeletons stood guard at the door.

Or perhaps he should call them power armor.

In this world, both Exoskeletons and power armor were built around adjustable frames.

Fit Silicon Carbide Armor Plates over the vital areas and mount Gauss Rifles, Automatic Shotguns, or grenade launchers on the rails beneath the arms.

That gave you a standard medium Exoskeleton.

But start with the same frame and add a high-powered gas turbine and a battery pack.

Then add fully enclosed armor, shoulder-mounted weapon racks, and a jetpack.

That gave you heavy power armor.

Amber had always thought the process was a bit like computer hobbyists assembling PCs.

A budget build had its uses; a high-end build had the performance.

And from all his experience dealing with the Federation Military in Starry Sky,

the two guards outside the Core Communications Room were probably wearing defense-configured power armor.

Besides the heavy, fully enclosed armor, gas turbines, and battery packs,

they were probably connected to an external power supply by cables at their backs.

That would keep their observation equipment and cooling systems running continuously.

Their arm-mounted weapons were probably a combination of Automatic Shotguns and Chain Guns.

They might even have a small electromagnetic cannon on a rack behind each shoulder.

That setup covered combat at long, medium, and close range, with firepower to spare.

A Railgun firing alloy penetrator rods could teach even other power armor units trying to storm the room what a new-age "can opener" looked like.

A frontal assault was out of the question.

Amber and the others needed a cleverer way to deal with those two tin cans.

Amber soon came up with one.

The other Imperial spy who had joined Amber and Margaret was undercover at the base as a Technical Sergeant.

The position did not let him get his hands on anti-armor equipment.

But he had managed to stockpile a few tactical gadgets during his time undercover.

And as the only one of the three capable of mounting a frontal assault,

Amber naturally took temporary command.

At his direction, the Technical Sergeant took a circuit jammer he had put together and headed for a nearby power distribution room.

In a moment, he would trigger a destructive circuit overload.

It would shut off the lights throughout the building and disable the circuit protection system.

It would also force the two suits of power armor to disconnect from the external supply and switch to their own gas turbines and battery packs.

Perhaps worried about delaying the Empire's military operation, the spy disguised as a Technical Sergeant moved quickly.

Amber, already prepared, did not have to wait long for his chance to attack.

A click rang out as the overloaded circuit tripped.

The entire building went dark in an instant.

The backup circuit kicked in a second later, but it lasted less than two seconds before overloading too.

The two suits of power armor at the end of the corridor came out of standby almost immediately.

The soldier inside one suit promptly told his teammate to disconnect the external cables at their backs.

"Internal power connected."

A gentle female voice sounded in the soldier's ear. He immediately felt the vibration of the gas turbine behind him running at full power.

Meanwhile, as darkness swallowed the corridor,

the power armor's optical sensors automatically switched to low-light night vision, following his preset settings.

The software-enhanced image that appeared before his eyes looked slightly distorted.

At the same time, a [Projectile Warning] flashed across his HUD.

A black cylinder was flying toward him along the trajectory calculated by the system.

"Fuck, how did they throw that thing thirty meters down a straight corridor?!"

The thought had barely crossed his mind when he realized it might be a Flashbang.

Unfortunately, they had almost no time to react.

Before he could respond, the Flashbang modified by the Technical Sergeant exploded.

Its brightness far exceeded that of an ordinary Flashbang, and the screen inside his power armor's faceplate went black.

The system had detected light intense enough to cause irreversible damage to its photosensitive components.

It had shut down the low-light night-vision system on its own.

[Warning! Light level exceeded limit. Low-light night vision temporarily disabled.]

[Restarting. Please wait.]

Two more messages flashed across his HUD.

But the soldier had no time to worry about them.

The vibration sensors had also raised an alarm: a ground target was approaching fast.

Based on the vibration data, the system identified it as an infantry unit wearing a Light Exoskeleton.

Light infantry? Charging power armor head-on?

The absurd image flashed through the soldier's mind. In that split second, he made his decision.

He had no time to alert his companion or switch the sensors to standard or thermal imaging mode.

The soldier simply raised his arm and aimed roughly toward the footsteps detected by the vibration sensors.

Then he pulled the trigger of his 12-gauge automatic shotgun.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Driven by expanding gases, countless steel pellets swept across the area directly in front of the power armor like a metal storm.

By the time the Automatic Shotgun had fired its five-round burst, the power armor's low-light night vision had restarted.

But the restored view showed only pellet holes scattered across the walls and floor. There was no body riddled with shot, as the soldier had expected.

At the same time, the vibration sensors sounded another alarm.

This time, though, the warning came

from behind them.