The final test results for Ayla have been released.
The data columns scrolled across the projection one by one.
[Bone strength: Insufficient; Muscle output: Inefficient; Nerve conduction velocity: Far below mechanical standards; Organ redundancy: Poor; Prone to injury, fatigue, aging, pain, and fear—all defects.]
After the test, the core member started asking questions on his own, as if he were finishing a debate that hadn't been completed years ago:
Are mechanical prosthetics superior to flesh and blood in certain aspects?
Ayla: "Yes."
"More durable?"
"If the maintenance conditions are sufficient, then yes."
Can it be replaced if damaged?
"Yes."
"Then why only install it after the flesh is damaged? Mechanical prostheses far outperform flesh and blood!"
Ayla was speechless. She wanted to find reasons, to argue, but in the face of pure engineering logic, all reasons seemed weak.
In the end, all she could say was, "There's no need."
"Definition is necessary."
Ayla: "..."
"Healthy tissues always have a chance of future damage; replacing them in advance can reduce this risk."
Ayla couldn't find any data to refute her, and she lost the first round.
"I don't know," she finally said.
After thinking for a moment, she spoke again, "Machines break down too. Bearings wear out, energy runs out, structures break. Every system has a probability of failure."
The core answer was given quickly, as if the question had been analyzed countless times before.
"A comprehensive maintenance system can be established, backup structures can be set up, and rapid modular replacement is possible, so the overall reliability is still higher than that of flesh and blood."
Ayla was speechless.
It even accepted her rebuttal and incorporated it into its own logic, providing a better solution.
This isn't some idiot who just shouts slogans; it has a complete logical chain, is self-consistent, and rigorous.
The core analysis continues.
"The biggest destabilizing factor is not the physical body, but emotions." Fear leads to defeat.
Grief impairs judgment, attachment leads to wrong sacrifices, and affection creates weaknesses.
"Removing unnecessary emotional interference can increase combat efficiency by 37% to 42%."
They've truly inherited the doctrines of the Iron Hands perfectly...
Ayla internally complained, while a series of images flashed through her mind.
Mei's bloodshot eyes, the boy's corpse lying on the ground, the disjointed singing of dozens of people at the funeral.
She suddenly asked, "If you remove a lot of flesh and blood tissue, is a person... still a person?"
This definition is unrelated to combat performance.
Ayla stood in the red light, a strange fire rising within her.
But she couldn't prove, couldn't prove, what strategic value a "complete person" actually has.
Finally, the core member asked her a question.
"Today you believe flesh and blood are worth preserving because you haven't lost enough of them yet."
"When someone you cherish dies of old age, of illness, of fear of failure, or of physical exhaustion."
"But machinery could have stopped it."
Will you still stick to today's judgment?
The hall was quiet, with only the low hum of the core operating system.
Ayla pondered for a long time, and finally, very softly but clearly, she said, "I don't know."
This time, she lost completely.
When she stepped out of the underground facility, the atmosphere outside was clearly off.
The lookout rushed over, saying that a reconnaissance plane from Black Iron City had appeared on the distant horizon and circled the dock twice.
They saw lights, and they saw the equipment at Seventh Dock being started.
For Black Iron City, this was not a simple scavenging activity; it was a blatant provocation, a challenge to Black Iron City's authority!
"A large convoy appeared on the horizon, consisting of approximately 500 to 600 people, armed personnel, at least 15 modified trucks and armored vehicles, equipped with heavy machine guns, mortars, and improvised rocket launchers."
Gunshi's voice came through the communicator, with his usual rough tone.
"At the very back are a few heavy infantry units converted from mining exoskeletons. I've seen these before in Black Iron City; only regular troops are equipped with them."
Ayla stood up from the front of the core.
How much longer until we arrive?
"Depending on the speed, it will take forty minutes, at most an hour."
She quickly descended the stairs back to the ground. Seventh Dock was in complete chaos.
The scavengers ran around, some crawling deeper into the hangar, some trying to start the vehicles that were still working, and some simply sitting on the ground with their heads in their hands.
Panic spread through the crowd like the wind.
Ayla didn't speak immediately; her gaze passed over the ruins and wreckage of the dock and landed on the distant horizon.
Yellow dust is rising, like a slowly approaching brownish-yellow venomous snake.
She was looking at the road.
Seventh Dock is located by the sea, with a cliff behind it and industrial zones built on reclaimed land in earlier years on both sides, making it impossible for heavy vehicles to pass.
There are only three roads leading to the dock: two are old cargo channels, and the other is a narrower maintenance channel.
All three roads converge between the blast-proof gates at the entrance to the dock.
" Gunshi," she said.
Gunshi squeezed through the crowd, his face covered in sweat.
"Take your men and bring out all the tractor-trailers and cranes that are still operational."
What are you doing?
"Road blocked."
She turned and walked towards the underground entrance, but stopped after a few steps and glanced back at the panicked faces.
"Run if you want, I won't stop you, but once you've run away, never come back."
It was a very simple threat, but it was effective.
Fear is one thing, giving up is another.
The people at Seventh Dock lived their entire lives here; the scrap metal, the wreckage, the broken copper and scrap iron in the hangars—that was all they had.
Running away is just another way to wait for death.
Ayla didn't wait for them to make a decision and went straight down into the underground.
"The core," she said, standing in front of the massive data projection, getting straight to the point.
"Is there anything here that can fight? Something that can directly confront mechanized forces."
The red figure named Gorgon paused for a moment, as if searching.
"Current deployable combat units: zero."
Ayla remained expressionless.
"But," the core continued.
"The lower maintenance area preserves a test chassis for Dreadnought walking structure that was abandoned 10,000 years ago."
Without a driver's coffin, without a complete power system, with the left arm missing and only the interface frame remaining on the right arm, it is essentially a scrapped engineering project.
"Can you walk?"
"Cannot."
Can it be repaired?
"It does not meet any existing design standards, and its structural stability cannot be verified; abandonment is recommended."
Ayla had already turned and walked down to the lower level.
"Take me to see it."
That was the first time she had ever seen that thing.
The seven- or eight-meter-long steel frame leaned against the maintenance frame, the original power leg was reduced to rusted joints, the left side was empty, and a bunch of broken cables hung at the interface of the right arm.
The whole thing looks like a steel skeleton that has been abandoned for ten thousand years.
But its main structure is still intact.
The load-bearing frame of that torso was a proper military design from ten thousand years ago—robust, thick, and without any corner-cutting.
However, those rusted joints maintained extremely high machining precision.
Ayla walked around it once.
The process of dismantling and reassembling has already begun in my mind.
When she returned to the ground, the Black Iron City convoy had already stopped and was gathering in the distance.
They have clearly discovered the blocked road and are mobilizing engineering vehicles.
"I need people." Ayla stood at the front of the crowd, her voice not loud, but clear.
"Dozens of people were involved in hauling equipment, disassembling parts, connecting wiring, and welding."
No one responded immediately.
Someone whispered, "Why? That thing can hold off a regular army of several hundred men?"
Ayla turned and glanced at him.
"It can't be stopped."
The man was stunned.
"We can't stop them all, but we can hold them off for a while." She pointed to the convoy that was clearing obstacles in the distance.
"If you run now, you'll be sitting ducks. But I can hold the line later, and then you can run. Your chances of survival will be much higher then."
While the local scavengers at Seventh Dock were pondering, Gunshi stood up, cursing, and headed down to the ground.
Immediately afterwards, those who understood hydraulics, knew welding, had driven tractors, and could lift heavy objects followed one after another.
They were willing to try, hoping for a better chance of survival.
Two hours.
Ayla hardly said anything superfluous.
The first thing to do was to pull the test chassis off the maintenance rack.
The original power legs had long been rusted shut, so she had them removed and replaced with heavy-duty mechanical legs from the airport's heavy-duty loading and unloading platform.
The interfaces are incompatible; the connectors were re-welded on-site.
The auxiliary reactor output parameters were incorrect, so she reworked the power supply circuit.
On the first start-up, a set of fuses burned out, and sparks splashed all over her face.
The core message is a cold, impersonal message: "Design failed."
Ayla wiped her face.
"First test."
The right arm is equipped with an old-fashioned anti-aircraft machine gun, with the ammunition belt directly exposed on the outside of the armor.
Lacking military weapons for her left arm, she combined an industrial melt cutter with heavy hydraulic shears to create a brutal melee melt cutter.
He had four missile launchers salvaged from the remaining defenses of the airport hanging on his shoulder.
If the armor wasn't enough, they welded the armor plates from abandoned military vehicles and parts of the hangar's blast doors directly to their chests.
There wasn't enough time to complete the full neural connection for the driving system, so she created a control system that only she could operate, based on her own body structure.
Two hours later, the thing actually stood up from the hangar.
It is eight or nine meters high, completely asymmetrical, with exposed cables hanging outside like blood vessels, and the auxiliary reactor behind it looks like a temporary iron coffin, with many welds still red-hot.
It looks like it has absolutely nothing to do with Dreadnought; it's practically a moving piece of junk.
" Titan God-Machine..."
But for the natives who have lived in Vedtal their entire lives, an eight-meter-tall mech is something only the legendary Titan God-Machine could achieve.