129: Chapter 129 New Weapons Deployed, Zerg Suffer Setback

After a brief calm, there was new movement on the battlefield.

The aftershocks of the rumbling still echoed through the rock layers, and gravel fell with a rustle from the cracks overhead.

The mech's tracks crushed the charred insect corpses, leaving behind deep, smoking grooves.

Chen Tiezhu stared intensely at the control screen, his right hand pressed onto the main control stick until his knuckles turned white.

He could hear his heart hammering against his ribs like an old forging hammer striking cold iron.

"Steady… stay steady!" he growled, slamming his left hand onto the balance compensation button—

The previous resonance wave had nearly tipped over the po shan, the gun mount had shifted by three degrees, and the new weapon's charging had been interrupted for half a second.

Outside the cockpit, the swarm was twitching as it woke from its brief paralysis.

A Heavy-Armored Soldier Ant shook its head, its six legs scraping against the ground with a harsh, grating sound;

On the high rock wall, a Venom-Stinger's tail needle bulged until it shone, and the moment the mucus dripped down, it began to corrode the rock;

Three Flying Bees climbed crookedly, their compound eyes refocusing to lock onto the largest mech unit below.

"Damn it!" Chen Tiezhu slammed a fist onto the console. "Not done yet, huh? Well, I'm not letting you catch your breath!"

He opened the communication channel, his voice booming so loudly it made everyone's ears ring:

"All units, attention! Lock onto the fan-shaped area three hundred meters ahead. The target isn't the bugs; it's the ground! Hit the resonance zone right under their feet! New weapon charging complete—fire!!"

The moment the order was given, the shoulder armor of the six heavy mechs popped open with a "click," and six silver-blue oscillation generators rose in unison, their tips condensing rings of visible ripples.

Beams of light shot out.

There was no explosion, no flash of fire. The six beams of light converged in the air, weaving a translucent energy net that descended gently onto the scorched earth.

The next instant, the earth rippled like the surface of water.

The frequency cut precisely into the Zerg's neural sensitive zones, perfectly overlapping with the previous resonance cannon blast.

All the Zerg stopped in their tracks instantly.

Their compound eyes dimmed, their limbs stiffened, and even the Venom-Stingers in the middle of spraying mucus froze in place; their tail needles burst, and green fluid flooded back into their own bodies, exploding into a cloud of foul-smelling blood mist.

Flying Bees fell in droves, like dead birds swatted down by an invisible hand;

The Heavy-Armored Soldier Ants fell to their knees, their shells emitting faint cracking sounds;

The massive body of the Worker Ant King crashed to the ground, its antennae twitched twice, and then it stopped moving completely.

The entire battlefield went silent for a second.

Then, someone in the communication channel cursed: "What the… holy shit? It actually stopped?!"

"It's not a hallucination!" another person roared. "Look at that bee! It's still fucking twitching!"

"Hahaha! Hahaha! They can't move! Those bastards can't move!" A pilot slapped the console and laughed, tears streaming down his face.

Chen Tiezhu didn't laugh. He stared at the screen, his pupils constricted to pinpricks, his fingers flying across the data stream.

Neural conduction blocking rate was 92.3%, residual signals were chaotic and disordered, and the collective consciousness network was completely severed.

Several bugs even began colliding with each other, as if they had lost the ability to distinguish friend from foe.

"Don't just stand there!" He snapped his head up, his roar cutting through the channel. "Fire team, get ready! Finish them off! Leave no one alive!"

The order was given, and all six mechs simultaneously activated their secondary weapon Systems.

The talisman gun arrays rotated and charged, the micro-missile bay doors opened, and the laser cutting arms extended into position.

The first round of strafing began.

Talisman gun bullets tore through the air, plowing six charred trenches through the dense swarm;

Missiles whistled out, exploding into clusters of blue flames amidst the insect pile;

Laser beams fired with precise accuracy, cutting those attempting to crawl up into two pieces.

A Worker Ant struggled to lift its forelimbs, and just as it raised half its body, a laser beam split it from head to tail, splattering its internal organs across the ground.

"Awesome!" a young pilot shouted while firing. "This new toy is ten times more ruthless than the resonance cannon!"

"Shut up and keep firing!" Chen Tiezhu scolded, though he couldn't help but grin.

He knew this battle wasn't won yet.

The Zerg matriarch was still deep inside; this level of strike would at most cause the front line to collapse, but the true main force might not be seriously injured.

But he also knew—at this moment, they had stood up.

It was no longer about filling the defensive line with human lives, no longer about desperate counterattacks after running out of ammunition.

It was a counterattack they had launched themselves.

It was the sound of technology smashing into flesh and blood.

"Weapon cooling progress?" he asked.

"Sixty percent, estimated to be ready to recharge in forty seconds," the co-pilot replied.

"That's enough." Chen Tiezhu grabbed the communicator. "All units, orders: maintain the suppression rhythm, advance in turns, and clear the front channel. Don't get greedy, don't push too deep, wait for reinforcements."

He leaned back in his seat, his right hand suddenly twitching.

Just now, when he forcefully took over the main control System, the neural interface overloaded, and his entire arm was numb. He shook his hand and ignored it.

Outside the cockpit, the battlefield had become purgatory.

Zerg corpses lay scattered across the scorched earth, some still smoking; the ground in the areas swept by the talisman guns was scorched red; the wrecks of several Flying Bees hung on the rock walls, their wings twisted into grotesque shapes.

But no one retreated.

The mech pilots, eyes bloodshot, poured ammunition into every target that was still moving.

Auxiliary operators hunched over the observation instruments, loudly reporting the coordinates of remaining units.

Fire support teams carried spare energy boxes, weaving between bunkers to cool down the overheated mechs.

A boy with a face covered in dust, clutching maintenance tools, rushed to the side of the po shan's tracks and shouted into the loudspeaker:

"Elder Chen! The radiator on the number three mech on the right flank is clogged! I can fix it!"

Chen Tiezhu looked down at him and recognized him as an apprentice taken in by the Artifact Refining Workshop last year, only sixteen years old, named Little Stone.

"Get up there! Fix it within ten minutes, and I'll credit you with the top contribution!" he roared.

The boy grinned and scrambled up onto the back of the mech.

Chen Tiezhu withdrew his gaze and took a deep breath. The air was full of the stench of burning, mixed with the pungent scent of overheated metal.

He licked his dry, cracked lips and tasted a hint of blood.

In the distance, the last few remaining Heavy-Armored Soldier Ants began to retreat. It wasn't an orderly withdrawal, but a rout driven by instinct.

They knocked over the corpses of their companions, trampled on the severed limbs of their kind, and stumbled back into the depths of the nest tunnel.

The Zerg army was repelled.

But at the end of the tunnel, the darkness remained thick. No one knew what else was hidden inside.

Chen Tiezhu pressed the internal communication: "Medical team, prepare to receive casualties. Engineering team, clear the tunnel entrance immediately and lay out the lighting arrays. Don't give them a chance to catch their breath."

He paused and added: "Tell the Dispatch Yard that the new weapon was successful in combat, but the cooling cycle is too long. Tell them… to optimize it as soon as possible."

Before he finished speaking, the cockpit alarm suddenly sounded.

"Deep-level vibration detected!" the co-pilot stared at the screen. "The frequency is abnormal, not like a natural fluctuation!"

Chen Tiezhu sat up abruptly.

On the screen, a new string of signals was coming from deep underground, faint but highly rhythmic.

It was like some kind of response.

He stared at the waveform, his eyes sinking little by little.

His fingers moved unconsciously on the console—a habitual action when he was thinking.