Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 1505: Chapter 9-27: Blitz (10)

The sky has become clear and bright.

Fatty pushed the black control lever, and with a ”skree-whirr,” the Logic drive system beneath him activated. The reverse-jointed mechanical legs of the Mecha strode over a smoking crater, merging into the rolling iron tide. Thousands upon thousands of Mechas surged along the dilapidated roads, flooding into Billy Town.

The earth trembled under the rumbling footsteps of the Mechas. The ruins and rubble by the roadside quaked, shedding dust. Shattered windows emitted crashing sounds, occasionally dropping a pane that shattered into bits.

Raising his gaze, the entire city had already become a pile of ruins.

This town, located one hundred and twenty-five kilometers northwest of Frenso Town, didn’t have many high-rise buildings. The low structures, repeatedly battered by cannon fire, had collapsed even further. Sitting atop a Mecha in a combat stanced towering six meters, the surroundings looked almost like a dumping ground for broken bricks and debris.

The troops marched forward in a deathly silence.

Beside the road, a Chuckna Mecha vigorously moved aside the concrete pillars of a collapsed yellow building. Among the broken furniture below the pillars, two filthy children swiftly crawled out, followed by a disheveled middle-aged man.

Amidst the cries of the children, several medics carried a stretcher and quickly dragged a bloody woman out from the rubble, rushing her to a nearby field medical station.

Across the street, over a dozen ragged citizens emerged timidly from the ruins, mostly women and elderly. Their hair was filthy and tangled, and their clothes resembled tatters, stained with blood and dirt. Each stood at the roadside, eyes empty.

As the contingent moved forward, more people crawled out from the corners of the city.

No one knew how these people survived the flying war fire. After nearly two years of war and repeated captures by Suss Jiepeng, anyone who survived until now was a miracle.

Compared to the countless bodies in the city ruins, they were, in their misfortune, incredibly fortunate.

Numerous warriors were busy treating the civilians.

Medics carrying medical kits rushed to respond to back and forth calls, busy to the point their feet didn’t touch the ground. Beside them were soldiers sweating profusely while carrying stretchers. Nurses wrapped bandages around the wounded and administered medication. Field medical Mechas unfolded in open spaces like blooming flowers.

Meanwhile, busy cook soldiers from mess squads were cooking food, distributing it to the civilians waiting quietly on the sidelines.

Fatty’s gaze went beyond all this, to the distance where black smoke still rose in the city reduced to ruins. Far away, countless Fei Alliance Mechas surged into the city from all directions.

The tallest structure in view was just the looks-complete clock tower of the church at the town’s center. But after passing the garden square under the church, Fatty realized he had only seen one intact side of the tower.

The other side had already disappeared. The tower looked as though it had been vertically cleaved by a knife, exposing the charred metal framework behind, standing oddly amid the hell-like city.

Clothes, furniture, paper, books, bottles, pots, crockeries... In the middle of the streets and alleys lay all sorts of litter, a picture of desolation.

Roadside street lamps and bus stop signs had been warped or snapped into charred metal tendrils under the heat of the fire. All kinds of flying cars parked beside had been abandoned for who knows how long, each leaning askew, covered in dust, long rotten beyond recognition.

Some that were hit by gunfire were already charred black, leaving only bare frames that gave off the foul stench of burning rubber.

The scene before him was so similar to Leray.

Thinking about Leray, which had been tormented for four years in war, many bandit soldiers felt something fierce scratch at their hearts, leaving them in excruciating pain.

Newton Star System, Galileo Star System, Leray Central Star System, Bermuda Star System...

The planets riddled with scars, the cities turned to ashes, all flashed before the warriors’ eyes like scenes from a movie. Unknowingly, veins erupted in the hands gripping the control levers.

This war, if it lasts even one more day, numerous tragedies like the ones before them would occur.

Under the transparent cockpit of a Mecha, a young woman carrying a two or three-year-old child stumbled past. Fatty stopped, his eyes locking onto the frail silhouette of the young mother.

The silhouette was quickly obscured by other refugees, only occasionally glimpsed through gaps formed by groups of refugees and soldier contingents, gradually disappearing.

Fatty felt heartache. He saw that the child in the mother’s arms had its legs blown off.

”Fatty?” Bonnie stood at the command Mecha’s porthole, looking through gaps in the file of marching armored units at the roadside Mecha in a daze.

”Bonnie,” Fatty said blankly. ”How long do you think this war will continue?”

”I don’t know.” Bonnie’s alabaster fingers gently brushed the microphone near her lips, her long eyelashes drooping as she softly comforted, ”This is a journey; eventually, we will see its end.”

”End?” Fatty’s gaze swept across the hell-like city, ”Ten years, twenty years?”

”Perhaps not that long,” Bonnie’s hand stroked the cold porthole, staring past the flowing iron tide towards the street opposite, at the dazed, broken Mecha. ”When this journey ends depends on how fast we can walk it!”