บท 88: Chapter 88 - Battle of Sadogashima V

(100 Power Stone bonus chapter.)

While battle raged on at all fronts, the long awaited Plan B is finally in motion. XG-70b Susanoo II is finally in position and ready to fire.

<Whew! Thanks to the Type-00A unit doing most of the heavy lifting, we somehow managed to weather through the BETA assault.> Those in the A-01 unit or the Valkyrie units sighed in relief after clearing the BETA horde into nonexistent.

<Guys, don't be relaxed yet. There are still few detachments of BETAs incoming from the south and north.> Captain Isumi warned her subordinates after seeing how relaxed they were without knowing that the BETA threat still isn't cleared yet.

As the Captain, Isumi Michiru were informed about the BETA advancing toward their direction from underground and also Adam's plan to halt the advance directly in the subterranean tunnels.

They can only afford this laxness at the sacrifice of others that is still relentlessly fighting.

<Charged Particle Cannon is fully charged. Ready to fire!> Unit 00 answered.

Dr Kouzuki immediately grinned and replied.

'Fire!'

A straight white beam suddenly shoot out from the chest of Susano-O II, directly on to the hive before the cannon reached its critical output and expand the initial beam by ten fold in power and size, blasting a significant chunk of the hive away and bathing the battlefield with blinding white light seen even to HQ which was located over 50 km away from the shore of Sadogashima.

When the beam subsided, it's clear the would Susano-O II, humanity's weapon dealt to the hive. The plummeted morale of the troops immediately skyrocketed to the moon as they mounted even fiercer attacks knowing the operation succeeded. Humanity finally grasped the weapon that can deal damage to the BETA which previously remained invincible. They fought fearlessly even in the face of death, they keep pushing knowing that their death isn't in vain.

———

Meanwhile on the base around the hive, the BETA no longer hold back after the Superior concluded their defeat is inevitable. Had it been just the pesky Susanoo II unit, it would have still been manageable.

It was the outsider that dealt the most damage. More than 70% of its troops were killed by their group. Even the reserve had been pulled dry. Yet it failed to deal any substantial damage to the outsider and the human. Almost half a million BETA exchanges only for the life of a meager several thousand. This has to be the most shameful defeat it ever experienced if it can even feel emotions.

So, in order to achieve something from this already lost cause of a battle. The Superior decided that killing Adam is imperative to deprive the human of any fighting chance against the other hives after it calculated that Adam pose a significantly higher threat than Susano-O II.

———

After the second firing of Susano-O II, Shirogane Takeru caught glimpse of a vision from his previous loops which put Unit 00 or Sumika into an unresponsive state after an emotional outburst exceeding the limit of what her body can handle, forcing her body to shut down which also translate over to Susano-O II when it's 'computer' become unconscious and unresponsive.

While this event occurred. Another one took place at the same time where all BETAs abandoned their area and rushed into one location, the hole that Adam drilled into the subterranean tunnels. The BETA quickly dug a path down around the hole and descended on his position which didn't go unnoticed by the HQ as they desperately contacted him but he was too deep down for any signal to reach him.

"We can't reach him." Lieutenant Irina Pyatkh said in a sad tone.

"Then let him be. In the end, he is nothing more than a mercenary. We cannot possibly justify sending all our forces for just one person." The Admiral said

However, Dr Kouzuki had a different opinion. She of course is very tempted with what Adam had to offer to her and humanity of this world. Especially the thing he did to not only repair the TSF unit on the spot from a wreckage. But also the enhanced combat performance outclassed even the Type-00R unit or the literal best TSF model the world have to offer.

"We will think about that later. For now we focus on evacuating Unit 00 and getting Susano-O II back to base. The BETA being distracted is the best case scenario for us." Dr Kouzuki said and looked at the Admiral. "As for the Whiskey and Echo team, order them to pursue the BETA. We never know if this might be a diversion to secretly approach Susano-O II and it's best if we are prepared."

Admiral Ozawa nodded and agreed before relaying his order to all units under his command.

———

Back on Susano-O II.

<Do you understand?> Captain Isumi briefed her subordinates about their change of objectives.

<Roger!> x20

Unlike in the original story, they could afford a lighter escort for Unit 00 because not only is the retreat path for Flight B is secured by Whiskey team by the shore, the presence of BETA are also significantly reduced along the path as their interest is not on Unit 00 and instead on Adam who is pulling all the aggro.

<Yes, Ma'am!> Flight B and C team replied before speeding off towards their retreat path.

Captain Isumi who is inside Susano-O II unit tried her absolute best to activate the autopilot function but failed no matter how many attempts she tried. But suddenly someone appeared behind her.

Captain Isumi rolled behind a cover and unholster her pistol aiming at the unknown person that suddenly appeared inside the cockpit of Susano-O II.

"Maid?" She becomes confused rather than tensed when seeing who the intruder was.

"Indeed, my name is Agent and I am on your side. As long as my Master wished for, that is. Regardless, my Master tasked me with assisting the retrieval of the Susano-O II unit and I am here to help." Agent introduced herself and stated her reason for being here.

Captain Isumi can't make the decision and promptly contacted Dr Kouzuki for instruction which led to Dr Kouzuki talking with Agent.

"Fine, you can help." Dr Kouzuki said retrieving Susano-O II intact outweighs the risk of leaking confidential information to someone that isn't even from this world.

Agent nod wordlessly and move over to the Control Unit and plug her Digitized Consciousness through a cable cord like most T-Dolls are capable of and initiate her infiltration into the XG-70 unit's system.

In the outside world, she simply shut her eyes after connecting the cable which sort of revealed her inhuman origin that greatly shocked others to see an Android that looks so human that they simply wouldn't know until she reveals it herself.

However inside the XG-70 unit's system, she breached the firewall then took over the entire system, temporarily overriding Unit 00 unique imprint which granted her the same authority as Unit 00 that allowed her to remove safety mode and return to operational state. But that's just the easy part.

The hard part now is to bear the processor calculation load in place of Unit 00. She barely manages to bear the calculation load after linking all five of her body and turning them essentially into ram processors for this fortress shaped computer that can shoot devastating beams.

Against all odds, she pulled through everything and managed to turn on remote autopilot. But the bad news is she cannot leave this unit because it requires her to be its processor to carry out its basic and normal functions.

"You have my deepest gratitude for helping me out and making sure Susano-O II returned intact." Captain Isumi thanked Agent for her help.

Agent only gave a wordless nod in reply because most of her 'mind' is being used by Susano-O II which limits what she can do. If not for that, she would already tell Captain Isumi to thank Adam instead because she didn't really care about battle. She did it only because her Master ordered her to help.

After Captain Isumi returns to her TSF unit, Agent begins the Autopilot and sets the course for Susano-O II back to Yokohama base. Of course, she is tempted to steal the unit but Adam said this unit is important for the following battle during Operation Ouka where humanity will attack the original hive. So, she had to abandon that thought. For now, that is.

———

Deep inside the subterranean tunnels, Adam find himself under siege by the BETA horde that is acting very aggressive like they were in a berserk state, charging at him relentlessly and tried to pile up on him to immobilized his unit.

At first, it was still manageable when he still had his Mechs army and tbe enemy is only coming from one direction. But right now, they are even raining down from above and his enhanced sense and intuition were overwhelmed when enemies are charging in from all side.

"Damnit." Adam look at his Forcefield durability slowly whittle down to the last 20% and his Aura Barrier too is barely holding on at 30%.

He continues to slash, slash and slash. Each slash kill a dozen but three dozen more rushed at him. He didn't even realize that the Mechs army had been torn apart by the BETA.

The scene is like a nest of ants swarming out to fight the intruder. Adam is surrounded with ocean of BETAs horde while he is up against a wall, desperately slash with the blade that thankfully were reinforced by his Aura and Armament Haki or else it would had long snapped due wear.

Adam had his reason to continue fighting despite in such state. He is in a precarious situation, yes. However, this is also opportunity.

He had been killing BETAs from the surface to all the way down here for almost two hours now and in that span of two hours, his levels had increased at least 50 times. Adam realized BETA is a goddamn gold mine of EXP even if the EXP they give is actually lower than a Mutated Grimm. They make it up with sheer number.

Besides farming EXP, Adam also is pushing his own limit with his abilities, especially the Hakis. He can feel obvious improvement of his mastery on Observation and Armament Haki. Especially so with Armament Haki since he already somewhat grasped the emission technique to create range attack with melee weapon.

"Come on fuckers! Daddy not done yet!" Adam roared when one of his unit's leg was caught and snapped off.

Standing on one leg and his back against a wall, Adam is armed with only two blades against hundred of thousand of BETA hordes descending down upon him.

He simply grinned at the hordes of enemies and used both [NanoMachine Bomb] and [Necro Bomb] to make the hordes more manageable before he activates [Adrenaline Shot], [Hold The Line] and [Juggernaut]. Then he start killing those BETAs, slaughtering them while buying time for his unit's missing limb to regenerate. As he is mowing down the horde, he also triggered [Killing Spree] that further increases his damage and critical chance.

With the combination of all his abilities, he created a death zone two meters around him where anything that enters it will guarantee to be chopped up into pieces.

"Come on! Is that all you got? This isn't enough! This is barely enough! Fight me properly, cowards!" Adam howled while being drunked in bloodlust when his natual adrenaline and the administered adrenaline is messing up his head and aggression level.

With his level-headedness gone and him fallen into a frenzy, all the plan he made vanished like hot air. With his unit's partially regenerated, Adam shamble forward shakily and almost fell if he didn't stop moving to stabilize his body.

The BETA see this as opportunity and quickly surround Adam in their desperate attempt to stop him and kill him here.

"Tch! You pesky insects! Do you think this kind of tactic will work on me?" He grinned as his Forcefield overload and a portal opened up above him before shells rained down on his position and pulverized those BETA that piled on top of him.

With his unit's limb finally fully regenerated, Adam fly up and saw the herd of Fort-Class BETA trying to squeeze into this smaller tunnel and struggled, he flew over and kindly help it fit into the tunnel. In pieces, that is.

He continues to fly around and kill the Fort-Class BETA. Those other BETAs couldn't reach him as he jump from one Fort-Class to another to carve them up nicely. But then his intuition flared up.

"There you are! Hahaha!" Adam immediately abandoned the Fort-Class BETA since the fish had fallen for the bait.

He dived low and push his thruster to max as he let his blades glide over the BETA hordes which automatically cut them down until he reach the BETAs with a pair of shining eyes.

The Laser-Class tried to shoot Adam but his quick reaction allow him to instantly turn to the side and dodge the beams that would have otherwise turn him into slag because his Aura Barrier is hanging on its final 10% because him spamming his ability drained his Aura and slowed the Barrier's regeneration.

Then Adam moved behind those Laser-Class BETA and stood behind them menacingly as they quickly turn around to shoot him again after they finish cool down. But Adam would never would allow them to do it.

"Die." He told them before he moved his blades to cut them down.

*CRASH!*

Adam heard something hit his Forcefield which immediately shattered when it's durability hit rock bottom.

"Damnit…" Adam can feel the fatigue sinking in on him that in his lapse of mental exhaustion, his intuition failed to warn him or perhaps he did but couldn't respond in time. But a Fort-Class BETA shot its stinger at him and broke his Forcefield which left him only with Aura Barrier that is more effective at blocking energy attack than physical attack because of his Semblance's effect.

Adam finally sobered up and he didn't hesitate at all to immediately fly back toward the hole and exit the subterranean tunnel. He already did enough of his part and reaped a lot of rewards from the battle in the form of EXP.

But when he almost reached the hole, he realized a problem. The BETA knew he is trying to flee and they are now forcing him to stay. There are numerous Laser-Class and a few Heavy Laser-Class BETA along with horde as big as 30k under the hole waiting for him and not to mention numerous more that is descending down from above.

"Agent, do you hear me?" Adam tried to contact Agent while evade attack form the BETAs.

"Agent?" Adam called again but no response came in which made him curse his luck because she is probably busy with the task he ask her to do.

'Onii-san?'

'Master!' x5

"Tina? Alice?" Adam felt glad someone responded.

'Yes.'

'Yes, Master!' Alice copy Tina as she replied tk Adam which he found cute but this is not the time.

"Tina, I need your help." Adam quickly said with a tone that emphasize the urgency.

'Just say it, nii-san. What do you need me to do?'

'What dk you need us to do!' Alices copy again.

"I need you to aim and fire the main cannon at the same place Agent previously shoot. Alice can activate the firing sequence. You just need to aim it." Adam explained.

'Alright, Nii-san!'

'Alright, Master!' x5

Adam sighed worriedly in the TSF unit's cockpit, wondering if they could properly do the task he asked. But he trusts Tina and also Alice to some extent.

Adam quickly steered his unit away from the hole and into the tunnel area waiting for the beam to clear up the path.

'We did it, Nii-san! Firing in 30 seconds!' Tina said.

'We did it, Master!' Alices cheered too.

"Alright, thanks for the help. I'm going to reward you all later when I get back so think of what you want."

'We want headpats!' Alices immediately made their choice without hesitation and excitedly.

"Haha. You never do change, Alice. Sure, I will give you all plenty of headpats later, Alices." Adam chuckled and cut off the transmission when the beam shot through the hole and incinerated the BETAs. The beam also dug a deeper hole while it's at it.

"Crap, I forgot to ask them to lower the firing output!" Adam panicked when magma shot out the hole that the beam dug.

Japan being in the Ring of Fire means there is possibly a pocket of magma underneath it and Adam hit the unfortunate jackpot it seems because his beam dug through exactly that and magma poured out very explosively.

When the beam ended, Adam tried to fly up but the geyser of magma blocked the only way up and he was once again unfortunately trapped underground.

"I really fucked myself over with this one." Adam admitted before quickly working his brain to find a solution.

"No, there is still another way out!" He mutters.

The BETA in the subterranean tunnels comes from the hive which means the tunnel is connected to the hive. He just needs to go through there and conveniently be able to fulfill his other objectives which is to destroy the core that he needs to breach the hive anyway. So, it's two birds with one stone.

Adam didn't even hesitate as magma started to fill the tunnel. He turns the truster to max and speed into the tunnel where the BETA came from and escapes the magma surge behind him that is trying to flood and fill all the tunnel.

—————