"How many bastions are still holding out?" In the depths of the palace, Galahad watched the rapidly deteriorating situation.
Bastions in Camelot were the most powerful fortified areas, which housed weapons capable of attacking even ships in orbit. They also had additional void shields, like all strategic objects. Therefore, when the shield covering the entire city and nearby fiefdoms went to recharge, then mostly only civilian objects were under threat. The military survived the first volleys and were already moving to positions through a network of underground tunnels.
The Rangda Empire was strong and powerful, it included countless planets and species. Rangda subjugated some and made them slaves, while others were taken into an alliance. However, the latter happened much less often, because the Rangdans were always famous for their belligerence. Therefore, even within the alliance, Rangda harshly dominated its allies. Although the worst of all was, of course, the slaves, who were used as expendable material both in production and in such assaults.
Also, unlike Alba, Rangda was actively developing and was on the cutting edge of progress. Apparently, it also found some way to fight the eternal enemies and other powerful species of the galaxy. The Rangdans were not afraid of the warp creatures either and were even able to lead their fleet through the storm, starting to break the ridges of the demons. They went forward and it seemed that no one in the galaxy could stop them.
- Commander-in-Chief, the sensors have picked up powerful signals in the warp! It seems that reinforcements have arrived for the Rangdans! At least another third, maybe even half!
— There will be another one and a half times more of them⁈ Let it all burn in blue flames… activate the first stage of the "Ark" protocol. The enemy will not take us alive.
*
"No, don't do that!" the bird cried, but I had already rushed out of the palace, scattering the ruins of residential buildings in all directions.
Hide in the palace to save my life? Frankly, that was the last thing I wanted. Besides, I was partly driven by Mordred's will, as well as the "Curse of Morgana". They didn't want to hide, they wanted to do everything to protect their city and die in a glorious battle against an unequal enemy. For them, it was a deserved end, and for me... maybe too. Although even if not, who am I to ruin their future?
Or will I not break anything? It seemed like this time I was thrown into the past. I was already almost completely sure that it would not be possible to change it, and therefore everything was predetermined? If so, then why did Tzeentch let thousands of souls pass through this moment? There were many questions, but in any case, my Knight had already established eye contact with the first enemy.
The tank, surrounded by infantry, moved steadily along the street, while the landing party cleared the roofs and buildings. And at the most unexpected moment for them, a metal giant appeared on the way. My Knight menacingly towered over them and easily took all the shots on the ion shields, after which the laser cannon with a roar created a beam that easily melted the tank and ignited a platoon of slaves around it.
The ammunition also detonated, tearing apart several soldiers hiding behind the armor. I continued moving, crushing the enemies and using my chainsword to demolish an entire floor of the building in which the enemy landing force was already entrenched. This power intoxicated me, it seemed to me that I was omnipotent. And because of this excessive self-confidence, I made a mistake.
The enemy had already occupied the other end of the street, where their heavy weapons were also located. Of course, I had routed many of the opponents with my attack, but I had exposed myself to direct gunfire. In addition, aircraft were already diving at me, dropping bombs or raining down a metallic barrage from large-caliber machine guns. The Knight was a formidable weapon, but he needed the help of many other types of troops, from air defense and missile defense to regular infantry.
I was alone, I didn't understand anything about war or how to operate such a machine, I didn't know either its strengths or weaknesses, except for the most obvious ones.
"It's getting hot…" the Machine's voice rang out, and the plasma core began to heat up to give even more energy to the ion shields.
I panicked a little and because of that, at the moment of retreat, I turned too early, hitting the corner of the house. And then a projectile, launched from a magnetic weapon, flew straight from orbit. It pierced the neighboring house through and through, passed through the roof, all the floors and stopped only in the basement, among the people hiding there. And then there was a monstrously powerful explosion, after which the building began to collapse on me with a roar.
The building itself was slightly taller than me and its fall could not knock down such a heavy car. However, my reflex kicked in and I tried to jump to the side. The car could not do that, but it performed an extremely strange maneuver due to which the balance was disturbed even more and another building was demolished by me.
- What are you doing? Be careful! - the bird decided that I had apparently decided to ram the house on purpose.
"Damn it!" I exclaimed, jerking the chainsword away and destroying the buildings even more.
— Be careful!
- Yes, I'm trying!
Meanwhile the battle continued and my retreat was rightly taken for weakness. They saw the giant machine leave and the commanders gave the slaves one simple order - destroy it at any cost or the collars would turn their last moments into the most terrible of agonies, and the families remaining on other colonies would be subjected to long and demonstrative torture, to intimidate any other slave who dared to disobey the master's orders.
And with wild cries the slaves rushed into the attack again. They fought their way through the streets, surprising the soldiers who had taken up defensive positions there. The machine guns of the defenders of Camelot were firing at full speed, but in horror the shooters suddenly began to realize that their ammunition was running out, bringing the moment of reloading closer, but the enemies were not. Stepping over their fellow slaves, the slaves simply ran forward, some of them ran up to a distance sufficient to throw a grenade, others, taking advantage of the reload, flew into positions and entered into close combat.
The slaves were of all sorts, including those of far greater physical strength. Some had skin like stone, others were slimy and vile, but they darted under the bayonets. A fierce close combat began, and I still had no idea what to do or where to go. So the enemy presented me with a fait accompli again.
An armored vehicle drove out at full speed onto the crossroads, which could not injure me in any way and only sadly began to spit at me from an automatic grenade launcher. I heated up the laser gun again and melted it, but the next moment it was rammed by a tank, which turned its muzzle towards me. The cumulative projectile smashed against the shields and the stream of fire only slightly licked the armor.
"Oh, damn it all three times," I sighed, feeling how the cabin became even hotter due to the overheating core.
And then I rushed into the attack, which was already the first correct decision. Although the enemy was strong, he did not have weapons similar to the Knights. I did not even need to use my guns, because I simply easily crushed the tank and again went out to the main street, where a column had already arrived to finish me off.
The shells thundered again and the ion shields finally went out. But there was still strong armor, reinforced with adamantium in the frontal part. The rare and extremely strong metal was usually not included in the armor of every model, but each new pilot tried to make the machine better.
One after another, I crushed or simply knocked over the enemy's equipment, shooting chaotically from my cannon along the way. The enemies, although they continued to fire at me, clearly did not expect the Knight to be so durable. I realized that I really had an extremely formidable force in my hands and that on the battlefield, the enemies should be afraid of me, and not the other way around.
So I reached the next crossroads, and along with my movement, the counterattack of the defenders of Camelot began. However, there I encountered a new problem. One of the ships hovering among the clouds aimed its weapon at me and a thin but extremely accurate beam pierced just above the Knight's eye. The metal melted and my cabin was engulfed in flames.
"Direct hit. The pilot is dead," the xenos reported contentedly, whose task was the pinpoint destruction of both machine gun emplacements and Knights frozen in place with discharged ion shields.
However, the next moment his soul was seized by fear, because on the screen he saw how the hole began to grow over with crystal. I really almost died and only the bird saved me, having erected an additional protective cocoon around the Throne of Mechanicum. This was done so that I would not be killed through the through hole left after the duel with the Red Knight. However, the protection came in handy much earlier.
"Die," I muttered through my teeth, firing back from my gun.
And my shot was joined by the defense batteries. Explosions were heard one after another, the enemy machine guns under the control of AI tried to shoot down the flying shells and missiles with their machine guns, but one after another the ship's guns were knocked out, forcing the captain to retreat. However, when the ship's missile defense system fell silent, a nuclear missile was launched and another flash illuminated Camelot, after which the debris of the enemy ship fell to the ground.
Camelot still had hundreds of such missiles. They were not capable of destroying spaceships in orbit, but they easily dealt with those ships that entered the atmosphere, they also hit barges and, of course, enemy equipment and places where infantry was concentrated. The power varied from one kiloton, and the limit was not yet known. But something told me that Camelot's storage facilities probably also contained something with a megaton capacity, capable of wiping a city off the face of the earth. Although try to deliver such a missile through the ABM barrier to the enemy fleet...
"You have two autocannons above your head, use them," this time the bird's advice was actually useful.
However, it took some time to figure out how to shoot them. If the control of the Machine's legs and arms was extremely clear, then individual parts still needed to be "felt". To understand which part of my nervous system is responsible for this part and only then will it be possible to control it. However, by alternately straining all my body parts, I figured everything out by trial and error and now it will be much easier to deal with small targets.
Meanwhile, I continued to move along the streets, giving the plasma core time to cool down and reload the ion shields. In addition, having learned from mistakes, I now looked not only around, but also at the sky, moving as carefully as possible and trying to stay in the cover of tall buildings, dashing from one skyscraper to another. Yes, although it was extremely dangerous to learn in a real fight, the experience was gained in abundance and much faster than with any training.
"Keep it up, I wasn't wrong about you," Tzeentch's voice rang out again, but for some reason this time it seemed to me that he was speaking not to me, but to Mordred, or at least to the Machine or the bird.
His tone, the pauses between words, the speed of his pronunciation—everything seemed extremely different.
"Damn it…" I muttered again, after which I abruptly took a step back, hiding behind a skyscraper.
And just in time, because that giant spider was already aiming at me. Its beam passed ahead, but due to its diameter, my shields still discharged, and the entire street caught fire and began to melt.
"Damn..." I exhaled, realizing that the next shot would destroy the skyscraper and force me to change position and most likely die.
However, at that moment, a battle horn sounded and a Percival with a yellow crest ran straight towards the spider. This machine was significantly different from all the others and was one of the variations of the Cerastus model. The main feature of these models were the extremely developed limbs, on which melee weapons and a shield were attached. Controlling such a Knight was the most difficult, as production and maintenance were extremely expensive due to complex and large parts.
However, in duels, Cerastus was invincible, and having achieved perfection, the pilot could reveal the extraordinary potential of a rather versatile machine, which could both break through, and support the flanks, and simply crush other Knights or similar enemy equipment. In this case, the target of "Percival" and his retinue of squires was a huge spider, whose legs were already being chopped off.
In combat, Percival showed what every pilot should strive for. The sword in the Knight's hand was like a sword in his hand, and the machine itself moved so easily and quickly that sometimes even the asphalt remained mostly intact. He felt his mass perfectly and it seemed that the Knight was simply alive, and there was no pilot.
And there was a clanking sound as the remaining limbs broke under the weight of the giant spider. Its last shot went into the sky, after which it fell with all its mass on the ruins of the city. The squires immediately went to finish off the spider's crew, and "Percival" was already contacting other units to transmit orders, because on the battlefield Percival was not only a formidable force, but also an experienced commander. In this case, more of a tactician, while Galahad was a strategist.
And Percival was very zealous about the code, and noticing me and my machine marked with sorcery... he had already started to point his guns at me. And only at the last moment Bedivere's son appeared between us, in the machine of the same name, covering me.
- MORDRED, YOU SON OF A BITCH!!! - came from the speaker, and the voice belonged to Bedivere himself. - WHY THE HELL ARE YOU STILL ON THE TRAINING FREQUENCY⁈ SWITCH TO THE MILITARY FREQUENCY OR YOU WILL BE DESTROYED NOW!!!
Then they dictated the frequency to me, after which I heard a new cry from Bedivere, who was commanding the defense of this area.
— MORDRED, MOVE TO THE EASTERN GATE!!! THE LANDING IN THE CITY IS JUST A DISTRACTION, RIGHT NOW THE ENEMY IS TRYING TO CUT OFF THE TRANSPORT ARTERIES AND ISOLATE US FROM OTHER CITIES!!! THIS CANNOT BE ALLOWED!!!
Bedivere, not sparing his throat, screamed as if it were the last time in his life, but even the most stubborn peasant who had just been mobilized was paying attention to every word. In the army, as a rule, they always communicate in raised tones, loudly, clearly and confidently. Bedivere had to not only scream to the most stubborn, but also to shout down the sounds of the bombardment, artillery and the noise of the engines. So he screamed like crazy.
I obeyed immediately and ran for the eastern gate to avoid being shot by Percival or anyone else who hated me. And many hated me, and it was only thanks to a handful of radicals like Bedivere that I was allowed to fight here in Morgana's Curse, its hull slowly becoming covered in shifting patterns of frost and crystal. Chaos was creeping deeper into the Throne Mechanicum, taking advantage of the gap in the sorcerer-pilot and the damage to the engine.
But one way or another, I had already reached the eastern gate, behind which a fierce battle was going on between three sides. The Dark Prince's demons were penetrating the world, the xenos were conducting a full-scale landing in order to then go on the assault with the heaviest equipment, and the defenders were trying to bite both of them.
"The Dark Prince truly thinks himself our equal," Tzeentch laughed, and Mordred laughed with him. "If you can kill his chosen one, you will greatly help both your allies and me. And of course I will help. Agreed?"
And although I wanted to refuse, Mordred again gave his consent for me. Although, I must admit, I did not resist much, because in this case, Tzeentch's interests coincided with mine.
"I hope you don't forget who you're getting help from?" the bird asked excitedly, drawing its own patterns from my blood inside the cabin.
— I don't forget and I will never forget.
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